Word: lyme
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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That same year, however, saw the first of the diseases to come--with the outbreak of Lyme disease. Legionnaire's disease emerged in 1978, toxic-shock syndrome in 1978, AIDS in 1983, and chronic-fatigue syndrome in 1985, to name a few. Malaria re-emerged. Today, dengue and yellow are spreading. Instead of improving, the virulence of disease seems only to have entered a new stage...
Disease seem always to spring from disruption in the accustomed order. Lyme disease, for example, was caused by the overpopulation of deer which followed a change in the habitat...
...many parts of the U.S., especially the Northeast, people are already leery of strolling in wooded areas for fear of encountering ticks carrying Lyme disease, a potentially chronic, arthritis-like condition. Now the Journal of the American Medical Association has reported on another tick-borne disease, which struck 25 people in Wisconsin and Minnesota, killing two. It is caused by a new variety of the Ehrlichia bacterium, which was first detected in humans in 1954. Doctors are concerned because life-threatening Ehrlichia infections may be misdiagnosed as Lyme disease or even a bad cold...
...generation ago, no one had ever heard of Lyme or Legionnaires' disease, much less AIDS. Back in the 1970s, medical researchers were even boasting that humanity's victory against infectious disease was just a matter of time. The polio virus had been tamed by the Salk and Sabin vaccines; the smallpox virus was virtually gone; the parasite that causes malaria was in retreat; once deadly illnesses, including diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus, seemed like quaint reminders of a bygone era, like Model T Fords or silent movies...
Sometimes environmental changes help microbes move from animals to humans. Lyme disease, a bacterial infection, was largely confined to deer and wild mice until people began converting farmland into wooded suburbs -- which provided equally good habitats for the animals and the bacteria-infested ticks they carry and also brought them into contact with large numbers of people. The mice that transmit the hantavirus often take refuge in farmers' fields, barns and even homes. Air-conditioning ducts create a perfect breeding ground for Legionnaires' disease bacteria. Irrigation ditches and piles of discarded tires are ideal nesting spots for the Aedes aegypti...