Humans can also infect chimps and gorillas.
Since we can get a lot of viruses and bacteria from animals, it’s only fair that we can infect them as well, which we actually do. Just like viruses can spread from animals to humans, it also works the other way around.
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According to Fabian Leendertz, a wildlife epidemiologist at the Robert Koch-Institute and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, some chimps at the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania have contracted polio, and it’s believed they got it from humans.
At the same time, a lot of primates, such as chimps and gorillas in West Africa have been killed by certain viruses found in humans, including from an outbreak of anthrax. Anthrax is caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, a bacteria that researchers believe was transmitted from humans to cattle.
A similar situation happened in 2009 when there was another outbreak among chimps at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, where they all suffered from the respiratory disease human metapneumovirus infection, who it’s suspected they’ve gotten from humans as well.
As the Chicago Tribune wrote at that time, a 9-year-old chimp died from the infection with the virus.
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