Zoonotic diseases represent a critical interface between human, animal, and environmental health, demanding an integrated approach to mitigate their global impact. These diseases, capable of crossing species barriers, pose significant challenges to public health, veterinary care, and socio-economic stability, particularly in regions with close human-animal interactions such as rural India. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the transmission, diagnosis, and control of key zoonotic diseases including Brucellosis, Anthrax, Leptospirosis, Plague, Tularemia, Endemic Typhus, and Glanders Disease. It highlights the complexity of their transmission dynamics, which range from direct contact and vector-borne to environmental pathways, and underscores the necessity for robust surveillance, advanced diagnostic methods, effective treatment regimens, and comprehensive preventive strategies. Emphasizing a One Health approach, the review advocates for interdisciplinary and cross-border collaborations to address the multifaceted challenges posed by zoonotic diseases. Through a synthesis of current scientific understanding and practical insights, this review aims to guide future research, policy-making, and implementation strategies in the ongoing fight against zoonotic diseases, contributing to the enhancement of global health security.

As defined by the World Health Organization, emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) are serious global public health threats. An emerging infectious disease is one that either has appeared and affected a population for the first time or has existed previously but is rapidly spreading, either in terms of the number of people getting infected or to new geographical areas. Many EIDs are zoonotic in origin, which means that the disease has emerged from an animal and crossed the species barrier to infect humans. Nipah virus, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and avian influenza A (H5N1) are examples of diseases that have recently emerged. By contrast, re-emerging infectious diseases (REIDs) are diseases that once were major health problems globally or in a particular country, and then declined dramatically, but are again becoming health problems for a significant proportion of the population (malaria and tuberculosis are examples).

Scrub typhus is an acute febrile illness in the “tsutsugamushi triangle”, caused by the parasite Orientia tsutsugamushi and is transmitted to humans by the bite of certain kinds of trombiculid mites, or chiggers. Scrub typhus is manifested clinically by high fever, intense generalized headache, diffuse myalgias, and, in many patients, rash and an eschar at the site of the chigger bite. Laboratory testing, including molecular and serological assays, is needed for confirming the diagnosis, especially in the absence of the pathognomonic eschar. In this review, factors that play a role in disease occurrence, clinical features, investigations, treatment, differential diagnosis, Preventive measures, prognosis etc are also enumerated and described.