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Review
. 2024 Dec;14(4):1397-1412.
doi: 10.1007/s44197-024-00304-7. Epub 2024 Oct 8.

A Narrative Review on the Pandemic Zoonotic RNA Virus Infections Occurred During the Last 25 Years

Gobena Ameni  1   2 , Aboma Zewude  3 , Begna Tulu  4 , Milky Derara  5 , Berecha Bayissa  6 , Temesgen Mohammed  3 , Berhanu Adenew Degefa  3 , Mohamed Elfatih Hamad  3 , Markos Tibbo  7 , Robert Barigye  3
Affiliations
Review

A Narrative Review on the Pandemic Zoonotic RNA Virus Infections Occurred During the Last 25 Years

Gobena Ameni et al. J Epidemiol Glob Health. 2024 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Pandemic zoonotic RNA virus infections have continued to threaten humans and animals worldwide. The objective of this review was to highlight the epidemiology and socioeconomic impacts of pandemic zoonotic RNA virus infections that occurred between 1997 and 2021.

Methods: Literature search was done from Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus databases, cumulative case fatalities of individual viral infection calculated, and geographic coverage of the pandemics were shown by maps.

Results: Seven major pandemic zoonotic RNA virus infections occurred from 1997 to 2021 and were presented in three groups: The first group consists of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI-H5N1) and swine-origin influenza (H1N1) viruses with cumulative fatality rates of 53.5% and 0.5% in humans, respectively. Moreover, HPAI-H5N1 infection caused 90-100% death in poultry and economic losses of >$10 billion worldwide. Similarly, H1N1 caused a serious infection in swine and economic losses of 0.5-1.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the affected countries. The second group consists of severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus infection (SARS-CoV), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with case fatalities of 9.6%, 34.3% and 2.0%, respectively in humans; but this group only caused mild infections in animals. The third group consists of Ebola and Zika virus infections with case fatalities of 39.5% and 0.02%, respectively in humans but causing only mild infections in animals.

Conclusion: Similar infections are expected in the near future, and hence strict implementation of conventional biosecurity-based measures and development of efficacious vaccines would help minimize the impacts of the next pandemic infection.

Keywords: Pandemic infections; Public health impact; RNA virus; Socioeconomic impact; Zoonosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate: Not applicable. Consent for Publication: Not applicable. Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
PRISMA flow diagram of literature search and study selection. Literature included in the review were identified through searches in PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus databases. Accordingly, 93 documents identified based on the selection criteria while additional 6 references included by the recommendation of the reviewer
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Estimated case fatalities of seven emerging or re-emerging RNA infections that occurred during the last 25 years. The case fatalities were calculated from the reported numbers of cases and deaths for each infection
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Pandemic of COVID-19 until the end of 2021. Covid-19 has affected 222 countries and territories. The larger circles show the highly affected countries [25]
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Pandemics of H1N1 (red circles) and H5N1 (green circles). H1N1 emerged in Mexico in 2009 and spread to 214 countries while H5N1 emerged in Hong Kong in 2002 and spread to several Southeast Asian countries, European and Mediterranean countries [28]
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Pandemics of Zika (purple circles) and Ebola (golden circles). Zika virus infection outbreak occurred in New Caledonia in 2014 and then spread to South American countries and North America in 2015 [29]. Ebola virus disease re-emerged in 2013 in Guinea and affected several west and central African countries
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Pandemics of SARS-CoV (orange circles) and MERS-CoV (black circles). SARS-CoV emerged in China in 2002 and spread to 31 countries. MERS-Cov emerged in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and spread to 27 countries following its emergence [32]
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