How the four biggest outbreaks since the start of this century shattered some long-standing myths An important wake-up call for countries to prepare better for disease outbreaks Shattered Myths. Ebola at 6 months The current epidemic of Ebola virus disease is an important wake-up call for all countries. The world urgently needs to improve its preparedness for outbreaks of emerging and epidemic-prone diseases. All experts agree: changes in the way humanity inhabits the planet make the emergence of more new diseases inevitable. Constant mutation and adaptation are the survival mechanisms of the microbial world. These microscopic agents, some of which copy themselves more than a million times a day – in sloppy ways, with no proofreading mechanism to correct mistakes – will always find a way to exploit any weaknesses in systems setup for protection or defense. Recent large outbreaks, just since the start of this century, have shattered a number of myths about the world’s vulnerability to threats arising from new pathogens and epidemic-prone diseases like Ebola. Not just diseases for poor people As the century began, most experts believed that the exotic pathogens that cause so much misery in Africa and densely-populated parts of South-East Asia would never become a problem in wealthy countries, with their high standards of living and well-developed health systems. Then came severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, a disease that took its heaviest toll on wealthy urban areas. SARS spread most efficiently in sophisticated hospital settings. That was one myth gone. The 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, the first of the 21st century, proved how very quickly a new virus can spread to every corner of the globe. It showed how, with all eyes focused on H5N1 in Asia, something bubbling up on the other side of the world can be the event that actually explodes. But the biggest surprise delivered by the H1N1 virus was a fortunate one: the pandemic was much milder than many had feared. All kinds of animals The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, broke yet another widely held assumption. Prior to that outbreak, the exotic jungles and forests of Africa, and the teeming cites of Asia, where people live crowded together with chickens, ducks and pigs, were considered the two most important geographical birthplaces for new human pathogens. Not after MERS. Camels in an arid desert setting can also breed surprises. Threat to global security And now the world is confronted by Ebola, in five West African countries and in an unrelated outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Prior to the current epidemic, Ebola was regarded as a distant and geographically confined threat, a remote disease of poor African countries. After all, several Ebola outbreaks have occurred in central Africa since the start of this century. The rest of the world barely noticed or felt a thing. Last week, an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution that affirmed the threat this outbreak poses to peace and security, shattering yet another myth. The resolution had 134 co-sponsors, by far the most for any resolution in the Security Council’s history. This was also the first time in the Security Council’s history that an emergency session was called to address a public health issue. GAR
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 06:01:27 +0000
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