Page 13 - Pandemic: How Climate, the Environment, and Superbugs Increase the Risk

BUGS IN TIRES

In the world’s global economy, manufactured goods are always on the
move. They can be a source of dangerous infections too. Starting in the
1960s, millions of used tires made their way each year into the United
States. Often the tires came from Japan, which for decades was the world’s
largest exporter of used tires. The tires arrived in giant containers on
giant cargo ships. And inside tiny puddles of water in these used tires
were millions of mosquitoes, their eggs, and their larvae. When workers
unloaded the tires, they also unknowingly unloaded new mosquito species
never before found in the United States.
The United States imports far fewer used tires than it once did. But
the damage is done—the mosquitoes are here. Aedes aegypti and Aedes
albopictus are two species that probably hitchhiked to the United States
in tires. Epidemiologists aren’t certain if these mosquitoes were carrying
diseases when they arrived. But these two species of mosquitoes inhabit
a wide area of the United States, and they transmit a variety of dangerous
viruses. (Not every species of mosquito carries and spreads disease.) So
if—or when—a virus normally transmitted by these two species reaches
the United States, Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus are already on the ground
and able to spread it.

outbreak, the CDC quickly banned the import of all African rodents.
As Khan said, “In the age of air travel, a disease anywhere can very
quickly become a disease everywhere.”

COULD THIS BE THE NEXT PANDEMIC?
Could SARS cause the next pandemic? Possibly. If SARS moves to
humans from bats or other animals, the disease could spread rapidly
again. Several organizations are working on a vaccine to prevent SARS
in case the virus returns. Such a vaccine could be tested for safety, but
scientists can’t know if a vaccine actually prevents SARS in people
unless the virus returns.

Bugs on a Plane 33