Ethical Challenges with Decision-Making in Elder Care in Ethiopia

## **The Importance of Preventing Deforestation to Limit Future Emerging Infectious Disease Outbreaks**

**Shaila Nagpal** LSE, London, Canada

Rates of deforestation are escalating, reaching unprecedented levels, resulting in massive disruption and loss

of biodiversity, and increasing the ability for species carrying viruses to spread pathogens that cause infectious outbreaks. This type of disturbance to land results in the migration of animals and insects to new areas, where they can carry disease vectors that spread quickly to humans. The main objective of this presentation is to emphasize the importance of preventing deforestation and the crucial need for it to be a higher priority for governments to protect the health of the population. This study conducted a literature review by using various databases such as Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar, providing access to a multitude of scholarly articles focused on deforestation and the connection to new and old pathogens emerging. This study examined a case study on the Brazilian Amazon, including various studies conducted determining that dominant vectors of malaria, such as An.darlingi and Ny.darlingi, flourish in shallow pools of water that are left from deforested regions and eroded land (Walsh et al., 1993). Additionally, through this case study, this paper examined how the Brazilian government was able to cut down on deforestation rates by enforcing greater monitoring and law enforcement in highly deforested areas. Furthermore, investments made by the United National Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) program focused on diminishing climate change. Norway invested in the REDD+ program to provide compensation to Brazil if they met certain targets of reducing emissions and eradicating deforestation, greatly contributing to the reduction in deforestation. This study emphasizes the importance of using the REDD+ program to target developing tropical countries that do not hold as high of a capacity to reduce deforestation on their own. Pandemics and outbreaks can amount to thousands or millions of human lives lost, massive economic costs, and years to develop efficient and safe vaccines, as exhibited through the COVID-19 pandemic (Priyadarsini et al., 2020). Investing in reducing deforestation is crucial in the upcoming years to ensure the safety of the population's health and economic costs that arise from outbreaks.

Shaila Nagpal

LSE, London, Canada

#### Introduction

Rates of deforestation are reaching unprecedented levels, resulting in disruption and a loss of biodiversity. It is estimated that half of the emerging diseases that occurred after 1940 can be traced to disrupted biodiversity [1]. Diseases are more easily contractable in areas that have disturbed land, fragmented habitats, and wildlife markets. Deforestation is occurring in nine primary areas: the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado, the Bolivian Amazon, Paraguay, Madagascar, Sumatra, and Borneo in Indonesia and Malaysia.

In this study, I examined a specific case study in the Brazilian Amazon, linking deforestation to increasing rates of malaria transmission.

#### Results: Brazilian Case Study

• The study was conducted in Mâncio Lima County, examining the biting rates of mosquitoes and the prevalence of malaria cases in various health districts with differing deforestation rates.


### Methodology

Conducted a literature review following trends in deforestation and the correlation with increasing emerging infectious diseases and the transmission of diseases and pathogens.

Focused on a specific case study in the Brazilian Amazon linking deforestation to increasing rates of malaria.

#### Discussion and Policy Implications

