Preventing the next pandemic - Zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission. Coronavirus: world treating symptoms, not cause of pandemics, says UN. The world is treating the health and economic symptoms of the coronavirus pandemic but not the environmental cause, according to the authors of a UN report.
Flu virus with 'pandemic potential' found in China. Image copyright Getty Images A new strain of flu that has the potential to become a pandemic has been identified in China by scientists.
Communicable vs. Infectious Diseases. While the words "infectious" and "contagious" are often used interchangeably to describe illnesses, they actually mean two very different things.
Infectious Disease Put simply, an infectious disease is an infection. That is, when a microorganism comes into your body, and makes itself comfortable. For bacteria or fungi, this means dividing and growing new cells at an exponential rate. Choose words carefully when writing about Ebola. Global resources World Health Organization WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system.
What's the Difference Between 'Contagious' and 'Infectious'? Flu season descends annually, and we wonder whether our coworkers who come down with it are going to pass it along to us.
If they do, is it because they're contagious? Or because they're infectious? What exactly is the difference? The crux of the distinction is this: contagious diseases are spread by contact, while infectious diseases are spread by infectious agents. Powerful antibiotic discovered using machine learning for first time. A powerful antibiotic that kills some of the most dangerous drug-resistant bacteria in the world has been discovered using artificial intelligence.
The drug works in a different way to existing antibacterials and is the first of its kind to be found by setting AI loose on vast digital libraries of pharmaceutical compounds. The case for mandatory vaccination. In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the United Kingdom had eradicated the infectious viral disease rubella.
Civilian deaths and atrocities escalate as chaos builds in Sahel. Armed militias and Islamist extremists in Mali killed at least 500 civilians and wounded many more last year in an intensifying wave of violence that threatens to undermine efforts to stabilise the poor west African state, a new report has found.
The 90-page survey by global campaigners Human Rights Watch describes how a multitude of different armed groups in Mali burned villagers alive, killed others with bombs, and pulled men off buses to execute them by the roadside, in scores of attacks on civilians. Islamist extremists were responsible for some of the worst attacks, deliberately targeting small children, and killing 17 people at a funeral by hiding a bomb on the remains of a disabled man killed in an earlier attack. The story of one frustrated scientist’s mission to beat flu. ‘After four decades working on influenza, this vaccines expert decided to embrace a new way to tell the flu vaccine story ’ ‘It’s so frustrating to see people suffering and dying from an infection which is avoidable and preventable.’
Dr Bram Palache is a mild-manner person but his pulse quickens when someone mentions flu. ‘What drives me crazy is that the influenza story, in principle, is extremely simple. We know there is a serious disease, it occurs every year, and we have safe and effective vaccines.’ After 40 years in the field of influenza vaccinology, Dr Palache has seen seasonal flu vaccine campaigns come and go. Depriving poor nations of drugs is a dangerous false economy. “We have reached a tipping point where large and prominent drug-makers have retreated from the antibiotics field.”
So says Jayasree K Iyer, the executive director of the charity Access to Medicine Foundation. The organisation’s latest report shows that, despite growing need, fewer pharmaceutical companies are engaged in antibiotic research and development, as there is little money to be made. Global demand for antibiotics climbed by 65% between 2000 and 2015. But most of that demand was from poor countries – four of the six countries with the highest antibiotic consumption rates were low- or middle-income nations, so-called “access countries”.
The story of one frustrated scientist’s mission to beat flu. HPV infections nearly eliminated in England under vaccine scheme. Very few sexually active young women are now getting infected with the virus that causes most cervical cancers following the introduction of a mass HPV vaccination programme in schools, Public Health England has said. In 2008, the year vaccination began, 15% of young women were infected with HPV (human papilloma virus), which circulates among sexually active people. Two types, HPV16 and 18, cause the vast majority of cervical cancers. Data from PHE shows the infection rate dropped to 2% in 16- to 18-year-old women between 2014 and 2018. Video: Sue Welburn - one world, one health - from rhetoric towards reality. Social Inequalities and Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The grim prospect (Economist briefing on antibiotic resistance - 21 May 2016) Theconversation. World Bank Group Launches Groundbreaking Financing Facility to Protect Poorest Countries against Pandemics. First-ever insurance and pandemic bonds will save lives and protect economies SENDAI, Japan, May 21, 2016—The World Bank Group today launched the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF), an innovative, fast-disbursing global financing mechanism designed to protect the world against deadly pandemics, which will create the first-ever insurance market for pandemic risk. Theconversation. Once travelled by famous historical figures such as Marco Polo and Genghis Khan, the Silk Road was a hugely important network of transport routes connecting eastern China with Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
It came to prominence during the Chinese Han Dynasty (202 BC to AD 220) and remained a key transport route for the following 2,000 years. Given that the Silk Road was a melting pot of people, it is no wonder that researchers have suggested that it might have been responsible for the spread of diseases such as bubonic plague, anthrax and leprosy between China and Europe. However, no one one has yet found any evidence to show how diseases in eastern China reached Europe. Travellers might have spread these diseases taking a southerly route via India and the Middle East, or a northerly route via Mongolia and Russia. Leading world experts call on UN to mobilize a comprehensive global action plan to widen access to effective antibiotics. This is only the third time in its history that the UN General Assembly will use its High-Level Heads of State meeting to deliberate on a health issue that threatens the health of populations worldwide. This is also the first time that a One Health issue, a concept which involves the health of humans, animals and the environment, is being discussed at this high-level forum.
Emerging zoonotic diseases. Real Life Zombies: Can Consciousness Be Controlled by Parasites? The year of your birth could decide whether you live or die in the next big flu pandemic. The year of your birth could determine whether you live or die in a major flu pandemic, such as the 1918 outbreak that killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, according to new research. Tackling drug-resistant infections a priority. This Op-Ed originally appeared in the China Daily, USA.
While the last half century has seen major advances in global health, new challenges are now threatening these hard-won health gains. Mobile. Almost untreatable superbug CPE poses serious threat to patients, doctors warn. Uk.businessinsider. Virus genomes reveal factors that spread and sustained the Ebola epidemic : Nature. Field Epidemiology Training Program: About Us.
What We Do: Expand the Global Public Health Workforce. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, WHO and partners rapidly and effectively coordinate the response to Ebola. Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) The world is running out of antibiotics, WHO report confirms. ‘Antibiotic apocalypse’: doctors sound alarm over drug resistance. Scientists attending a recent meeting of the American Society for Microbiology reported they had uncovered a highly disturbing trend. Ahead of Print -Global Disease Detection—Achievements in Applied Public Health Research, Capacity Building, and Public Health Diplomacy, 2001–2016 - Volume 23, Number 13—December 2017. Author affiliations: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (C.Y. Rao, G.W. Goryoka, O.L. Henao, K.R. Marburg virus outbreak in Uganda – what you need to know. Unlocking Potential: How Water and Sanitation Can Address Childhood Stunting. A small number of farms are responsible for the majority of antibiotic use.
Tanzania’s Disease Detectives Crack a Complicated Case. Richard Smith: A cholera epidemic - The BMJ. Tapping the Benefits of Clean Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene to Achieve the Sustainable Development GoalsUnited Nations Foundation. Scientists hail malaria breakthrough as bed nets prove deadly to mosquitoes.
Winning the Infectious Disease Marathon. Wider use of rotavirus vaccine urged after 'potent' success of Malawi trial. Surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in Europe 2017. UK meets UN target in drive to end HIV epidemic. Stigma means Russia risks HIV epidemic as cases rise. Italy's M5S sacks entire board of health experts, sparking political interference concerns. Ebola responders face deadly attacks. We must step up security in DRC.
Springer Nature sur Twitter : "Special Offer ends on Dec 17 - Springer Nature supports #WorldToiletDay by presenting a collection of research tackling the global sanitation crisis and help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Read and share the cont. Ebola virus disease contact tracing activities, lessons learned and best practices during the Duport Road outbreak in Monrovia, Liberia, November 2015. Focus: Infectious Diseases: From Skin Infections to Ebola: Practice, Policy, and Beyond. Measles is often spread by adults - Never too old. No link between autism and MMR, affirms major study. Hand dryers v paper towels: the surprisingly dirty fight for the right to dry your hands. Anti-vaxxers are taking populism to a new, deadly level. UK should consider 'no jab, no school' policy, Italian study says. Lyme disease: is a solution on the way?
UK Lyme disease cases may be three times higher than estimated. China mystery illness: travellers checked as officials fear lunar new year could spread bug. Sepsis deaths around world 'twice as high as previously thought' Measles vaccination begins in Ebola-hit Congo amid fears of 'massive loss of life' Briton dies from rabies after trip to Morocco. Climate Change Pushing Tropical Diseases Toward Arctic. World Health Organization (WHO) sur Twitter : "#Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection, widespread throughout the tropics, with risk increased by: □rainfall □temperature □unplanned rapid urbanization. □ 'We were burying 10 children a year': how toilets are saving lives in Madagascar.
The Guardian view on Ebola in the DRC: help needed – and dialogue too. 'Most complex health crisis in history': Congo struggles to contain Ebola. Killings of police and polio workers halt vaccine drive in Pakistan. Nearly 170m under-10s unvaccinated against measles worldwide. As Ebola kills in Africa, in the west lies over vaccines beguile the complacent. Disease Detectives: The role of a field logistician in international disease outbreaks. People, not statistics: Health Heroes in a Ugandan Fishing Village. The Guardian view on vaccination: a duty of public health. Revealed: Facebook enables ads to target users interested in 'vaccine controversies' How Facebook and YouTube help spread anti-vaxxer propaganda. The endless hunt for the perfect flu vaccine. Anti-vaxxers spread misinformation on social media – report. ‘We’re Out of Options’: Doctors Battle Drug-Resistant Typhoid Outbreak. Fight against Zika, dengue get boost from reliable spread of bacteria.
Scientists divided over new research method to combat malaria. Theconversation. The Virus Hunters: The Daunting Search for the Next Deadly Pathogen. From Panic and Neglect to Investing in Health Security: Financing Pandemic Preparedness at a National Level. Theconversation. Preventing Local Outbreaks from Becoming Global Pandemics: FETP Enhances Capabilities to Track Diseases and Stop Them at the Source. One health economics for healthy people, agriculture and environment. World Health Organization hails major progress on tackling tropical diseases. Pandemic response a cycle of 'panic and neglect,' says World Bank president. WASH 1,000 and Community Led Total Sanitation in Ghana. One Health. WHO names 12 bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health. One Health: let’s not have pandemics get in the way. Trachoma. The world’s dirty little secret. This article will make you want to wash your hands.
World Bank Group Launches Groundbreaking Financing Facility to Protect Poorest Countries against Pandemics. Global Health - Global Health Security - Why It Matters. Successful Ebola responses in Nigeria, Senegal and Mali. Zika And Ebola Are Both Global Health Emergencies, But The Responses Will Look Very Different.