TSL014

FUNDAMENTALS OF ACADEMIC READING

ARTICLE ANALYSIS

Deforestation is leading to more infectious diseases in humans

Name & Student ID 1. Edzzhar Edham bin Edlee

(2022623394)
2. Aida Kamila Filza Binti Abdul Manaf
(2022625376)
3. Nur Aina Muthirah binti Mohd Poazi
(2022624722)
4. Hawa binti Che Ahmad Yusri
(2022644836)

Group PI020T09

Lecturer’s Name HAYATI SYAFINA AMARUDDIN

Date of Submission 2/12/2022

Marks (for lecturer’s use)

Deforestation is leading to more infectious diseases in humans

(1) In 1997, clouds of smoke hung over the rainforests of Indonesia as an area roughly the size
of Pennsylvania was burned to make way for agriculture, the fires exacerbated by drought.
Smothered in haze, the trees couldn’t produce fruit, leaving resident fruit bats with no other
option than to fly elsewhere in search of food, carrying with them a deadly disease. Not long
after the bats settled on trees in Malaysian orchards, pigs around them started to fall
sick—presumably after eating fallen fruit the bats had nibbled on—as did local pig farmers. By
1999, 265 people had developed a severe brain inflammation, and 105 had died. It was the first
known emergence of Nipah virus in people, which has since caused a string of recurrent
outbreaks across Southeast Asia.

(2) It’s one of many infectious diseases usually confined to wildlife that have spilled over to
people in areas undergoing rapid forest clearing. Over the past two decades, a growing body of
scientific evidence suggests that deforestation, by triggering a complex cascade of events,
creates the conditions for a range of deadly pathogens—such as Nipah and Lassa viruses, and
the parasites that cause malaria and Lyme disease—to spread to people.

(3) As widespread burning continues today in tropical forests in the Amazon, and some parts of
Africa and Southeast Asia, experts have expressed concern about the health of people living at
the frontiers of deforestation. They’re also afraid that the next serious pandemic could emerge
from our world’s forests.

(4) “It’s pretty well established that deforestation can be a strong driver of infectious disease
transmission,” says Andy MacDonald, a disease ecologist at the Earth Research Institute of the
University of California, Santa Barbara. “It’s a numbers game: The more we degrade and clear
forest habitats, the more likely it is that we’re going to find ourselves in these situations where
epidemics of infectious diseases occur.”

(5) Malaria—which kills over a million annually due to infection by Plasmodium parasites
transmitted by mosquitoes—has long been suspected of going hand in hand with deforestation.
In Brazil, while control efforts have dramatically reduced malaria transmission in the
past—bringing 6 million cases a year in the 1940s down to just 50,000 by the 1960s—cases
have since been steadily rising again in parallel with rapid forest clearing and expansion of
agriculture. At the turn of the century, there were over 600,000 cases a year in the Amazon
basin. Work in the late 1990s by Amy Vittor, an epidemiologist at the University of Florida’s
Emerging Pathogens Institute, and others, suggested a reason why. Clearing patches of forest
appears to create ideal habitat along forest edges for the mosquito Anopheles darlingi—the
most important transmitter of malaria in the Amazon—to breed. Through careful surveys in the
Peruvian Amazon, she found higher numbers of larvae in warm, partially shaded pools, the kind
that form beside roads cut into forests and puddles behind debris where water is no longer
taken up by trees.
“Those were the [places] that Anopheles darlingi really enjoyed being,” Vittor recalls.

(6) In a complex analysis of satellite and health data published recently in the journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, MacDonald and Stanford University’s Erin
Mordecai reported a significant impact of deforestation across the Amazon basin on malaria
transmission, in line with some previous research.

(7) Between 2003 and 2015, on average, they estimated that a 10 percent yearly increase in
forest loss led to a 3 percent rise in malaria cases. For example, in one year of the study, an
additional 618-square-mile (1,600-square-kilometer) patch of cleared forest—the equivalent of
nearly 300,000 football fields—was linked to an additional 10,000 cases of malaria. This effect
was most pronounced in the interior of the forest, where some patches of forest are still intact,
providing the moist edge habitat that the mosquitoes like.

(8) With the ongoing burning of the Amazon, these results don’t bode well; The latest data,
issued this week, reveals an area 12 times the size of New York City has been destroyed so far
this year.

(9) It’s hard to generalize about mosquito ecology, which varies depending on species and
region, Vittor stresses. In Africa, studies have found little association between malaria and
deforestation—perhaps because the mosquito species there like to breed in sunlit bodies of
water and favor open farmland over shady forest areas. But in Sabah, a part of Malaysian
Borneo, malaria outbreaks also occur in tandem with bursts of forest clearing for palm oil and
other plantations.

Fever from the jungle

(10) Mosquitoes aren’t the only animals that can transmit deadly scourges to people. In fact, 60
percent of new infectious diseases that emerge in people—including HIV, Ebola, and Nipah, all
of which originated in forest-dwelling animals—are transmitted by a range of other animals, the
vast majority of them wildlife.

(11) In a 2015 study, researchers at Ecohealth Alliance, a New York-based non-profit that tracks
infectious diseases globally, and others found that “nearly one in three outbreaks of new and
emerging disease[s] are linked to land-use change like deforestation,” the organization’s
president Peter Daszak tweeted earlier this year.Many viruses exist harmlessly with their host
animals in forests, because the animals have co-evolved with them. But humans can become
unwitting hosts for pathogens when they venture into or change forest habitat.

(12) “We are completely changing the structure of the forest,” notes Carlos Zambrana-Torrelio, a
disease ecologist at Ecohealth Alliance.
Deadly attraction

(13) Diseases can also occur when new habitats draw disease-carrying species out of the
forest. For instance, in Liberia forest clearings for palm oil plantations attract hordes of typically
forest-dwelling mice, lured there by the abundance of palm fruit around plantations and
settlements. Humans can contract Lassa virus when they come into contact with food or objects
contaminated with feces or urine of virus-carrying rodents or bodily fluids of infected people. In
humans, the virus causes hemorrhagic fever—the same kind of illness triggered by Ebola
virus—and in Liberia killed 36 percent of infected people.

(14) Virus-carrying rodents have also been spotted in deforested areas in Panama, Bolivia, and
in Brazil. Alfonso Rodriguez-Morales, a medical researcher and tropical disease expert at
Colombia’s Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, fears that their ranges will increase following
the resurgence of fires in the Amazon this year.

(15) Such processes aren’t limited to tropical diseases. Some of MacDonald’s research has
revealed a curious association between deforestation and Lyme disease in the Northeastern
United States.

(16) Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease—is transmitted by ticks that
rely on forest-dwelling deer to breed and obtain enough blood to survive. However, the
bacterium is also found in the white-footed mouse, which happens to thrive in forests
fragmented by human settlements, MacDonald says.

(17) Spillovers of infectious diseases to people is more likely to occur in the tropics because
overall wildlife and pathogen diversity is higher, he adds. There, a number of diseases
transmitted by a wide range of animals—from blood-sucking bugs to snails—have been linked
to deforestation. On top of known diseases, scientists fear that a number of yet-unknown deadly
diseases are lurking in forests that could be exposed as people encroach further.

(18) Zambrana-Torrelio notes that the likelihood of spillovers to people may increase as the
climate warms, pushing animals, along with the viruses they carry, into regions where they’ve
never existed before, he says.

(19) Whether such diseases stay confined to forest fringes or if they gain their own foothold in
people, unleashing a potential pandemic, depends on their transmission, Vittor says. Some
viruses, like Ebola or Nipah, can be transmitted directly between people, theoretically allowing
them to travel around the world as long as there are humans.

(20) Zika virus, which was discovered in Ugandan forests in the 20th century, could only cruise
the world and infect millions because it found a host in Aedes aegpti, a mosquito that thrives in
urban areas. “I’d hate to think that another or several other pathogens could do such a thing, but
it’d be foolish not to think of that as a possibility to prepare for,” says Vittor.
A new service

(21) Ecohealth Alliance researchers have proposed that containing diseases could be
considered a new ecosystem service, that is, a benefit that humans freely gain from natural
ecosystems, just like carbon storage and pollination.To make that case, their team has been
working in Malaysian Borneo to itemize the exact cost of malaria, down to each hospital bed,
and syringe that doctors use. On average, they found that the Malaysian government spends
around $5,000 to treat each new malaria patient in the region—in some areas much more than
they spend on malaria control, Zambrana-Torrelio says. Over time, that adds up, outweighing
the profits that could be gained by cutting forests down and making a compelling financial
argument to leave some forests standing, Daszak says. He and his colleagues are beginning
work with the Malaysian government to incorporate this into land use planning, and are
undertaking a similar project with Liberian officials to calculate the cost of Lassa fever outbreaks
there.

(22) MacDonald sees value in this idea: “If we can conserve the environment, then perhaps we
can also protect health,” he says. “That I think is the silver lining that we should keep in mind.”
 TSL014 – Fundamentals of Academic Reading
Article Analysis
Answer Template

PART A: Identifying Information

Instructions: Fill in the template below by identifying the items listed. Your answers can be
provided in bullet form but in complete sentences.

Criteria / Information
Guiding Questions

1. Authority Katarina Zimmer

• Who is/are the author(s)?
(Name of Individual(s) /
Organisation)

2. Date/Year of 22 November 2019

publication

• When was it published?

3. Source
• Where did you find the
information: website, blog,
book, journal, etc.?
• URL (for online sources)
It was published on the National Geographic news
portal.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/rticle/def
orestation-leading-to-more-infectious-diseases-in-hum
ans

BODY PARAGRAPH 1

4. Topic of paragraph Nipah virus

• What is the topic of the

paragraph?
 5. Main idea (stated/implied)
• What is the author’s main
idea? (If it’s not stated, the
implied main idea must be
formulated).
6. Supporting details
● What are the author’s
supporting details?
(Include citations, if
available)
● What type(s) of
supporting details does
the author use for this
body paragraph?
BODY PARAGRAPH 2
7. Topic of paragraph
● What is the topic of the
paragraph?
8. Main idea (stated/implied)
● What is the author’s
main idea? (If it’s not
stated, the implied main
idea must be
formulated)
9. Supporting details
• What are the author’s
supporting details? (Include
citations, if available)
•What type(s) of supporting
details does the author use for
this body paragraph?
- IMPLIED MAIN IDEA : Deforestation causes
the emergence of nipah virus.
- The implied main idea is formulated using
formula 3 which is the general statement that
sums up the whole paragraph.
- SUPPORTING DETAIL 1: Smothered in haze,
the trees couldn’t produce fruit, leaving
resident fruit bats with no other option than to
fly elsewhere in search of food, carrying with
them a deadly disease.(observation)
- SUPPORTING DETAIL 2: By 1999, 265
people had developed a severe brain
inflammation, and 105 had died.(statistics)
.
Malaria
STATED MAIN IDEA : Malaria-which kills over
a million annually due to infection by
Plasmodium parasites transmitted by
mosquitoes has long been suspected of going
hand in hand with deforestation.
- SUPPORTING DETAIL 1: In Brazil, while
control efforts have dramatically reduced
malaria transmission in the past bringing 6
million cases a year in the 1940s down to just
50,000 by the 1960s- cases have since been
steadily rising again in parallel with rapid forest
clearing and expansion of
agriculture.(statistics)
 - SUPPORTING DETAIL 2: Clearing patches of
forest appears to create ideal habitat along
forest edges for the mosquito
Anophelesdarlingi, the most important
transmitter of malaria in the Amazon to
breed.(explanation)

BODY PARAGRAPH 3

10. Topic of paragraph Lassa virus

• What is the topic of the

paragraph?

11. Main idea (stated/implied)

- IMPLIED MAIN IDEA : Lassa virus is one of
• What is the author’s main the diseases that can also occur when new
habitats draw disease-carrying species out of
idea? (If it’s not stated, the
the forest.
implied main idea must be
- The implied main idea is formulated using
formulated).
formula 3 which is adding the topic to the first
sentence of paragraph to complete the main
idea.

12. Supporting details - SUPPORTING DETAIL 1: For instance, in

● What are two of the Liberia forest clearings for palm oil plantations
attract hordes of typically forest-dwelling mice,
author’s supporting lured there by the abundance of palm fruit
details? (Include around plantations and settlements.(example)
citations, if
- SUPPORTING DETAIL 2: Humans can
available)
contract Lassa virus when they come into
● What type(s) of contact with food or objects contaminated with
supporting details does feces or urine of virus-carrying rodents or
the author use for this bodily fluids of infected people. (observation)
body paragraph?
PART B: Analysing Information
Instructions: Based on the information extracted in Part A, fill in the template below in one
(1) short paragraph for each criterion. Explain your answers.
Criteria /
Guiding Questions
1. Comprehensiveness
of information
• Are the main ideas well
supported?
• Can they be further
elaborated?
2. Organisation of information
• Does the author use
discourse markers to link
ideas?
• Is there a logical
sequence to the points
provided in the text?
Information
● Based on the paragraphs that were chosen,
the author includes details that firmly support
the main ideas using a few types of supporting
details. For example, in the second paragraph
selected, the author adds explanation and
statistics as supporting details.
● As a whole, the second and third paragraphs
are well-elaborated. Nevertheless, the first
paragraph can be further elaborated as the
author quite sparingly introduced Nipah virus
without further explanation. Thus, the author
can add more information about Nipah virus
such as the effects of Nipah virus on humans
or even the definition of it to make it more
understandable.
● Yes, the author does occasionally apply
discourse markers in the article. From the
article, the only discourse marker used was
‘because’ in paragraph 9,11 and 18
● In general, the order of the thoughts were
logical but not all paragraphs have discourse
markers so it caused a bit of difficulty to
understand the points because the transition
was not clear.
 3. Use of Language
• Is the language used
easy, moderate, or difficult to
understand?
•Are there many unfamiliar
words used in the article?
Did you have to use any
of the following skills to
understand the meaning
of a word:
o Dictionary skills
o Word structural
analysis
o Contextual
analysis
● The author used formal and moderately
challenging language. Because of the
numerous complicated words and explanation
language structures, the material was a little
challenging to read and understand. Even
though it took some time to understand, some
of the paragraphs clearly stated the points and
the details.
● There were indeed a few unfamiliar words
used in the article. For instance, the word
foothold (paragraph 19, sentence 1) is a bit
unusual. The meaning can be guessed by
using contextual clues. It can be inferred by
looking at the whole paragraph which states
that diseases can spread among people if it
has its own transmitter.
PART C: Evaluating Information
Instructions: In your opinion, as a reader, what are the article’s strengths and
weaknesses based on the following criteria?

a. Comprehensiveness of information
b. Organisation of information
c. Use of language

Elaborate your answer in 150-200 words.

Based on the analysis in Part B, from our point of view, the author’s strength is
demonstrated mainly through the well-stead main points presented in the article. The
variation of supporting details utilised by the author aids in reinforcing the main points
made. Other than that, the vocabulary used is formal and some readers may find it
challenging though it helps in explaining the subject better . Some of the complex ideas
stated are explained thoroughly through simple explanations that help in easing the
comprehension of readers that are unknown to the deforestation and infectious disease
matters which consequently allows them to understand such matters properly and
thoroughly.

However, due to the lack of usage of discourse markers, the readers may find the points
a bit confusing as the transitions from one point to another are unclear and it can cost
the readers a bit of time to fully catch the points that the author intended to convey.
Furthermore, another distinguishing weakness the article possesses is that not all
paragraphs are elaborated efficiently as some of the paragraphs are rather explained
briefly as to paint the general idea to be visualised by the readers.

All in all, despite the weaknesses that stick out, the articles are very informative in
creating awareness to the society and organisations related to conserving nature and
preventing deforestation from occurring as it can help protect the wellbeing of mankind.