Word: ebola
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...1690s, episodes of hysteria in the 1890s. In our own time, one has only to reach back a couple of years to recall large-scale group fears induced by mention of the ozone layer, or by pandemics like toxic-shock syndrome, the Gulf War syndrome and the Ebola virus...
These brand-new plagues are scary enough. But, says Dr. Mitchell Cohen of the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases, "the reality is, we're facing problems greater than Ebola. We have untreatable infections in our hospitals here in the U.S. right now. Food-borne illness has become one of the fastest-growing community-health problems. We know another flu pandemic is coming. To me, these things are of much more concern than something terrible from the jungle...
...that really terrifies the experts is influenza--not the ordinary sort, which kills tens of thousands each year, but a new strain that could cause a worldwide pandemic and kill tens of millions. The virus itself is not all that deadly: unlike Ebola or hantavirus, it kills only a small percentage of those who get it. But unlike those two more horrific diseases, the flu is so contagious that nearly everyone gets it. That's what happened in 1918, when 20 million people died. Says Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC's influenza branch: "We can say with certainty that...
This is where the hantavirus was identified, where Ebola and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever and South American Junin virus are all studied for clues to how to stop them. And it is here at the CDC that a new, deadly flu virus would be sent so scientists could race against time to develop a vaccine...
Promising as it is, ProMED has a long way to go. The network does nothing to address the underlying causes of new and re-emerging infectious diseases. In order effectively to prevent the rapid spread of communicable diseases--whether familiar ones such as malaria, relatively new ones such as Ebola or mysteries like hantavirus--sanitation and sewerage systems have to be built, and the public has to be educated about hygiene...