Could we have prevented Zika?

Could we have prevented Zika? Seems like there’s a new scary disease every year—two years ago Ebola’s hemorrhagic fever and this year Zika’s misshapen baby heads. Zoonotic diseases like these have cost the world billions of dollars and millions of lives.  Earlier this month, the CDC issued its first travel warning in the continental U.S for mosquito-born Zika in Miami Florida.

While Congress continues to argue about how to fund the fight against the it, those very same mosquitoes are infecting more and more people. Dr. Peter Daszak is a disease ecologist who has spent the last 20 years looking at these types of pathogens. He’s also the President of the global nonprofit, EcoHealth Alliance which has some interesting ideas about how to stop outbreaks before they start. We talked with Dr. Daszk about why these diseases are emerging and how we can get ahead of them.

To listen to Dr. Daszak’s interview about why diseases like Zika are emerging and how we can get ahead of them, click here