Abstract
Currently, there has been an increasing socioeconomic impact of zoonotic pathogens transmitted from animals to humans worldwide. Recently, in the Arabian Peninsula, including in Saudi Arabia, epidemiological data indicated an actual increase in the number of emerging and/or reemerging cases of several viral zoonotic diseases. Data presented in this review are very relevant because Saudi Arabia is considered the largest country in the Peninsula. We believe that zoonotic pathogens in Saudi Arabia remain an important public health problem; however, more than 10 million Muslim pilgrims from around 184 Islamic countries arrive yearly at Makkah for the Hajj season and/or for the Umrah. Therefore, for health reasons, several countries recommend vaccinations for various zoonotic diseases among preventive protocols that should be complied with before traveling to Saudi Arabia. However, there is a shortage of epidemiological data focusing on the emerging and reemerging of zoonotic pathogens transmitted from animal to humans in different densely populated cities and/or localities in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, further efforts might be needed to control the increasing impacts of zoonotic viral disease. Also, there is a need for a high collaboration to enhance the detection and determination of the prevalence, diagnosis, control, and prevention as well as intervention and reduction in outbreaks of these diseases in Saudi Arabia, particularly those from other countries. Persons in the health field including physicians and veterinarians, pet owners, pet store owners, exporters, border guards, and people involved in businesses related to animal products have adopted various preventive strategies. Some of these measures might pave the way to highly successful prevention and control results on the different transmission routes of these viral zoonotic diseases from or to Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the prevention of these viral pathogens depends on socioeconomic impacts, available data, improved diagnosis, and highly effective therapeutics or prophylaxis.
Highlights
Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902), one of the foremost 19th century German leaders in medicine and pathology [1], noted a relationship between human diseases and animals and introduced the term “zoonosis” in 1880 [2]
Camels play an important role in public health issues regarding zoonosis and they have been involved in most of the zoonotic infections which occurred in Saudi Arabia in the last three decades
With Saudi Arabia, the focal point of the ongoing zoonotic pathogens outbreak could be due to the large number of religious pilgrims congregating annually in Makkah, Jeddah, and Al-Madinah, the main three cities for Hajj and Umrah, which drastically increased the potential for uncontrolled global spread of zoonotic infections [168]
Summary
Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902), one of the foremost 19th century German leaders in medicine and pathology [1], noted a relationship between human diseases and animals and introduced the term “zoonosis” (plural: zoonoses) in 1880 [2]. During the last three decades, rats have been increasingly implicated in several emerging and reemerging human outbreaks of zoonotic diseases and have accounted for ~75% of the new zoonotic diseases in nature according to several studies [10,11,12] This constitutes about 61% of all communicable diseases causing illnesses in man [7,12]. We identified the most important and prevalent emerging and reemerging viral zoonotic pathogens in Saudi Arabia, taking into account the current incidence and prevalence of zoonotic diseases, the health situations, the zoonotic sources of human infection, and the current available control strategies that could prevent such infectious zoonotic diseases. Data sharing and dissemination of significant findings could make a remarkable difference in the global control; it could provide useful information, to Muslims on pilgrimage, when they travel to Saudi Arabia during Umrah seasons and/or the annual Hajj pilgrimage
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