New Infectious Diseases On The Rise

(WebMD)  Infectious diseases have been discovered at a blistering pace in recent years, and global health experts worry that we're looking in the wrong places for them.

A new study shows that since 1940, scientists have identified 335 emerging infectious diseases in people.

Those diseases include severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Ebola, HIV (the virus that causes AIDS), West Nile virus, and methicillin-resistant staph (MRSA).

Many of the newfound diseases - 71% - started in wildlife and are becoming more common. Drug-resistant strains of infectious diseases are also on the rise, note the researchers, who included Kate Jones, PhD, of the Zoological Society of London.

Most of the infectious disease discoveries were made in Western countries, and those discoveries peaked in the 1980s.

But Jones and colleagues are particularly concerned about the unknown infectious diseases that are still out there, especially in countries without the resources for finding them.

The researchers recommend bolstering infectious disease surveillance in "hotspots" such as tropical Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

"The benefits would not just be felt locally: in an era of increasing globalization, emerging infectious diseases are everybody's problem," writes Professor Mark Woolhouse, PhD, of the Centre for Infectious Diseases at Scotland's University of Edinburgh, in an editorial published with the study in Nature.
By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang
© 2008 WebMD, Inc. All rights reserved

[hypnotoad72]

Well, bacteria-resistant strains often came about by improperly using anti-bacterial agents (e.g. soaps) and/or overusing, and incompletely, using antibacterial drugs -- net result is such an immunity after redcurrant infections, which is often documented.

Others such as HIV could have been prevented -- if people didn''t share needles or boink around with scores of other people indiscriminately. I know the stories, fidelity isn''t a natural trait, blah blah blah. Then don''t **** nor whine if you choose to bonk a bunch of people and get something fatal. People should be more considerate of each other in that respect! Other such diseases and how they were transmitted existed before HIV got a name, so it still makes sense that this problem was ballooned thanks to self-pleasing stupidity.

Mind you, the way our society is heading, maybe more people should advocate rubbing their jollies so they do get something fatal. :(