Wisconsin's Pioneering Public Health and Zoonotic Disease Research Position World for Coronavirus Pandemic

 Dr. Christopher Olsen chats about Wisconsin's public
health surveillance system, Zoonotic disease
research and interdisciplinary approach to addressing
pandemics developed at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, in a public address
in 2009.

Zoonotic, animal-to-human diseases like the Coronavirus disease 2019, and public health were focus of pioneering research at University Madison, Wisconsin labs

Madison, Wisconsin — Gov. Tony Evers declared a public health emergency in response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic this week.

As the world contends with this novel (new) Coronavirus, health surveillance programs alerting medical professionals and policymakers to disease threats are working as envisioned here 70 years ago, (Centers for Disease Control Control and Prevention, World Heath Organization, UW–Madison Current Zoonatic Disease Experts).

Wisconsin has the best statewide health surveillance, and it's no accident.

The state's public research and public health investments made over generations at UW-Madison laid the ground to establish a sophisticated public health system, notes Dr. Christopher Olsen, Department of Pathobiological Sciences, at a lecture in Madison in April 2009.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

As authorities are notified of health information and guidance today, the public can be confident scientists and public health professionals work in a high-minded, effective system built on the commitment to public research for the public that flowered here.

This state of affairs is an achievement of which Wisconsinites are proud.

UW-Madison Public Research

Scientists here also discovered that "genetic mixing" of viruses causes Zoonotic Diseases - "diseases caused by infectious agents that can be transmitted between (or are shared by) animals and humans," (Dr. Christopher Olsen) - a process in which animals act as intermediate host of viruses that can be transmitted to human beings.

These virus-mixing hosts provide a "phenomenally powerful way of generating genetic diversity," mutations that sometimes can lead to the creation of viruses that are destructive to human beings, said Dr. Olsen.

The emergence of new disease occurs as ecological, sociological  and environmental conditions change, notes Dr. Olsen, pointing to the insight and work of Robert Paul Hanson, an eminent UW-Madison research scientist, (1949-1987).

Write Thomas M Yuill and B. C. Easterday, cited by Olsen

Bob Hanson insisted that we should expect to see the emergence of new diseases as ecological and environmental conditions and host populations change. He operated on the basic premise that infectious agents must be viewed and attacked holistically because they are components of the ecosystems in which their hosts live. He recognized that no one person had all the expertise required to understand the natural history of diseases, and he was a champion of interdisciplinary team approaches. The problems on which he focused were always real ones that originated in nature, (Page 140, Robert Paul Hanson. National Academy of Sciences. 1996. Biographical Memoirs: V.70. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.)

Thanks to the work of UW-Madison and scientists like Dr. Hanson, Olsen and many other generous minds in Wisconsin history, the world is more prepared for the outbreak of emerging disease like Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) than at any point in human history.

Below is video of lecture at University Place by Dr. Chris Olsen held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus on April 17, 2009. Lecture is titled, "Influenza: A Disease at the Interface of Animals and Human Beings."