Brazil burning! What is the potential impact of the Amazon wildfires on vector-borne and zoonotic emerging diseases? – A statement from an international experts meeting

According to recent scientific evidence, Brazil's wildfires are linked to deforestation. Significant alterations in political regimes, conflict with accompanying breakdown of public health and surveillance infrastructure, voluntary or involuntary immigration also impact the situation. Besides that, border controls, and hierarchy issues impacting decision-making, and scientific advances that allow easier detection of zoonotic infections and evolution of novel susceptible immunocompromised populations also play key roles [8]. Pathogen-related factors include alterations in ecosystems and biodiversity that determine the selection of local fauna, favoring the expansion of hosts or disease vectors, pressure for virulence/resistance selection and genomic variability [8], which can result in a jump in the species barrier as a determinant of the emergency/reemergence of human diseases especially zoonotic infections. Additionally, the loss of biodiversity constitutes a barrier to develop new drugs against communicable or zoonotic diseases. Since these bioactive principles are found in the flora of the Amazon.