Viruses and the role of human behavior

In intact ecosystems, like healthy forests, viruses and their wild hosts interact in a delicate balance. But when humans interfere, they can expose themselves to unknown viruses.

When humans modify landscapes, it encourages interactions between people and wildlife and can affect infectious disease emergence. Forest degradation has been associated with outbreaks of viruses that originated in wildlife, such as Nipah, Hendra, and the Ebola virus.