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The Amazon is the largest area of rainforest on earth. Bursting with life, it provides us with a wealth of resources. But for each of its potential riches a potential threat is lurking beneath the canopy. Increasing deforestation allows what is hidden within to find a way out, and with it the possibility for wildlife to spread deadly pathogens.

With the world still reverberating from the shock of Covid-19 environmental journalist, Lucy Jordan who lives in Brazil with her young family, wants to understand our impact on diverse, wildlife-rich ecosystems and how that may trigger future spillover diseases, those like Nipah, Swine Flu and Ebola, which have their origins in animal hosts.

Flying over the forest during her four-hour journey from Sao Paulo to Manaus she highlights the stark contrast between pristine forest and deforested areas where an increasing number of roads encroach ever further into the jungle.

Manaus lies in the heart of the Amazon rainforest thus it offers an almost unique opportunity to examine what happens when humans and wild animals interact. Lucy meets Dr Alessandra Nava, a scientist and veterinarian at Fiocruz Amazonia, who is trying to understand the patterns and triggers in the environment, which might lead to another zoonotic disease outbreak.

(Photo: Aerial view showing smoke rising from an illegal fire at the Amazonia rainforest in Labrea, Amazonas state, Brazil. Credit:Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images)