Bats and brain worms: how humanity’s environmental impact is giving rise to new infections

The virus that causes Covid-19 is believed to have emerged from bats – a likely consequence of increasing human contact with other species. Photograph: Abir Sultan/EPA

As the world’s first case of a parasitic roundworm infecting a human’s brain made headlines this week, infectious diseases experts warned the threat of novel infections is rising.

In a case report written about the Australian patient in the journal Emerging Infectious Disease, doctors who pulled the Ophidascaris robertsi larvae from her brain warned the case highlights the danger of diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, parasites and fungi passing from wildlife to humans, known as zoonotic infections.