FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — University of Arkansas Assistant Professor Kristian Forbes is joining an international team of scientists, The Consortium for Intercepting Emerging Diseases in Africa (CIEDA), to focus on the research behind detecting and intercepting diseases emerging from wildlife in Africa that could be infectious to humans.
“I've realized that due to COVID-19, diseases that spill over from animals to people is becoming more and more of an issue and we need a more comprehensive system to be out in place to be able to contain them before they become a global pandemic,” Forbes said.
Dr. Jason Kindrachuk, a researcher based out of Canada, says there are diseases in Africa with unknown origins, and advancing medical knowledge behind these unknown viruses could prevent another global pandemic.
“We have these cases of undescribed illnesses, this is likely due to a microbe, a new virus, or something that has previously emerged," Dr. Kindrachuk said. "Those illnesses are almost never described because there are no capabilities or capacity to do that within that region. Well over one million have been lost because of this virus and we didn’t have the ability to stem it from the source."
CIEDA is made up of researchers out of North America, Europe and Africa.
They are still in the preliminary stages of research, still working on developing their team of bright minds.