The number of zoonotic spillover events and reported deaths have increased at an annual rate of nearly 5% and 9%, respectively, according to a study published in BMJ Global Health. Ben Oppenheim, PhD, and colleagues used an extensive epidemiologic database to analyze a subset of high-consequence zoonotic spillover events to assess the annual frequency and severity of outbreaks. The analysis included a subset of pathogens, including SARS-CoV-1, filoviruses, Machupo virus, and Nipah virus, but it excluded the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. From 1963 to 2019, 75 spillover events in 24 countries caused 17,232 deaths. The researchers observed a 4.98% annual increase in spillover events and an 8.7% annual increase in reported deaths estimated using fitted negative binomial models. “If the trend we observe in this study continues, we would expect to see these pathogens cause four times the number of spillover events and 12 times the number of deaths in 2050 compared with 2020,” Dr. Oppenheim and colleagues wrote.