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Five Things Clinicians Need to Know About Zoonotic Viral Spillover and Spillback
Gregory C Gray1, Laura A Pulscher2, Hisham O Alsharif3
1Robert E. Shope, MD, Professor in Infectious Disease Epidemiology in the Departments of Internal Medicine (Infectious Diseases), Microbiology and Immunology, and Global Health and Emerging Diseases at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
Abstract:
Since the 1990s, multiple infectious diseases have "spilled over" from nonhuman animals to infect humans and cause significant global morbidity and mortality. Despite efforts to detect and respond to such threats, surveillance and mitigation efforts have been criticized as ineffective. This article describes what "spillover" and "spillback" events are and canvasses 5 ways in which clinicians can improve emerging microbial pathogen, especially viral, detection and containment responses.
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