World Zoonoses Day has been observed on July 6 since 1885 to honour the success of French biologist Louis Pasteur, who administered the first vaccination against zoonotic disease on this day. The word zoonosis was introduced by Rudolf Virchow in 1880 to include collectively the diseases shared in nature by man and animals. Later WHO in 1959 defined that zoonoses are “those diseases and infections which are naturally transmitted between vertebrate animals and man”. Zoonoses include only those infections where there is either a proof or strong circumstantial evidence for transmission between animals and man. Historically, zoonotic diseases had a tremendous impact on the evolution of man, especially those cultures and societies that domesticated and bred animals for food and clothing. Zoonoses are among the most frequent and dreaded risk to which mankind is exposed. Zoonoses occur throughout the world transcending the natural boundaries. Their important effect on global economy and health is well known, extending from the international movement of animals and importation of diseases to bans on importation of all animal products and restrictions on other international trade practices. So, zoonoses no longer are solely a national problem. For effective control of zoonoses global surveillance is necessary. With recognition of inter-relationships between countries, the internationalization of control efforts has become more relevant to technical, economic and social fields. The control of zoonoses retains its prominent place among the actions of international agencies according to the health and economic problems specific to each region. Over the last two decades, there has been considerable change in the importance of certain zoonotic diseases in many parts of the world, resulting from ecological changes such as urbanization, industrialisation and diminishing proportion of persons working in the so-called primary sector. We do not know with what challenge nature will confront us in the world constant inferences with ecology. Most of the infections of man that have been discovered in the last twenty years are shared with lower animals and a number of other diseases previously thought to be limited to man have now been found to be zoonoses. Reference may be made to various types of encephalitis, eosinophilic meningitis, capillaries, anisakiasis, Lyme disease, monkeypox diseases in humans, Lassa fever, Marburg disease and Ebola for all of which an animal link has been established. Among those zoonoses recognised today as particularly important are anthrax, plague, brucellosis, Bovine tuberculosis, leptospirosis, salmonellosis, spotted fever caused by Rickettsia, rabies, several common arthropods borne viral infections, certain parasitic diseases, especially cysticercosis, hydatid diseases, trypanosomiasis and toxoplasmosis. Kerala Institute of Pharmacy always considers health of the population to be a vital importance. Our institution never forgets to spread awareness about the deadly viral disease and also how to prevent them in a proper and effective way.
