Word: outbreaks
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...bring about quicker, more effective swine-flu treatment. Yes, H1N1 cases are on the rise - 46 of the 50 states are experiencing widespread influenza activity, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - but it's hardly a horrific doomsday scenario and nothing like the movie Outbreak. And yet it's still an emergency. (See pictures of soccer in the time of swine...
...people were killed in flooding and landslides after Ketsana and typhoon Parma tore into Luzon, the country's largest island, in late September and early October. Four weeks later, sections of the city and some surrounding provinces are still underwater, and state-run hospitals have been overwhelmed by an outbreak of leptospirosis, a bacterial disease spread from the urine of infected rats and other animals. (In Sri Lanka, where there was a large outbreak in 2008, leptospirosis is known as "rat fever.") The bacterium is transmitted by the standing floodwater through cuts in the skin and by people swallowing contaminated...
...National health authorities have been trying to contain the unusually virulent outbreak of the common disease since the first cases appeared around a week after the storm. They are distributing antibiotics to some 1.3 million people living in still-flooded areas in the capital and two nearby provinces. But last week, the country's top epidemologist sent out an "SOS" to the global health authorities. A medical mission from the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network was set to arrive in Manila today and Tuesday. WHO officials in Manila said the four-person team will...
...Part of its task will be to evaluate the government's response in tackling the disease, and draw up recommendations for future large-scale leptospirosis outbreaks, said Eric Tayag, head of the Department of Health's National Epidemiology Center. "They will also be looking at why there have been such high mortality rates" in the current outbreak, he said. Between 5 and 10% of the cases in this outbreak have been resulted in death - the highest level of mortality for leptospirosis by WHO's measures. (Read "The Manila Floods: Why Wasn't the City Prepared...
...worst of the outbreak, it appears, is over. Since its peak around mid-October, the number of confirmed cases has steadily declined, a likely reflection of its incubation period and the receding floodwater. But with some areas expected to remain underwater for months due to still flood-swollen rivers and waterways, "the potential for more outbreaks is still there," warns Tayag. Last week the Philippine health authorities began distributing the antibiotic doxycycline in flooded communities, a procedure recommended by the WHO. Plans are now being readied for a large-scale spraying of saltwater into still-flooded areas to kill...