Public Health: Disease, Epidemic & Pandemic Threat (merged thread)

**AdamG** · 10-23-2018

The picture we have of the 1918 flu pandemic is vastly more detailed today than it was 20 years ago, let alone 50 or 100 years ago. But it’s nowhere near complete. Pathologist Jeffery Taubenberger of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases – the man who in 2005, with his colleague Ann Reid, published the genetic sequence of the virus responsible for the pandemic – said at a recent conference there were still many unanswered outstanding questions.

Researchers all over the world are working hard to answer them. But what they have already uncovered might surprise you.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/2018...e-20th-century

**AdamG** · 10-27-2018

Cases of measles in Europe have hit a record high, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). More than 41,000 people have been infected in the first six months of 2018, leading to 37 deaths. Last year there were 23,927 cases and the year before 5,273. Experts blame this surge in infections on a drop in the number of people being vaccinated.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-45246049

**AdamG** · 10-31-2018

Health officials reported 17 new cases and 10 deaths in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, making this the nation's third largest outbreak of the virus, according to an update from University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease and Research and Policy in Minneapolis.

Eleven of the new Ebola cases occurred in the city of Beni. The remaining six occurred in the nearby city of Butembo. As of Oct. 28, the World Health Organization confirmed 274 total Ebola cases and 174 deaths linked to the outbreak.

The Congo has experienced ten Ebola outbreaks, including the current one. This outbreak has now surpassed the 2007 Ebola outbreak in the Congo's Luebo region, which caused265 cases and 187 deaths.

On Oct. 28, health workers conducted Ebola response training with 8,000 young people in Butembo and Benito "increase the awareness actions for young people who are often at the root of resistance because of a lack of knowledge of the disease and its danger," Congo officials said, according to CIDRAP.

As of Oct. 29, 24,142 Congolese people have received an Ebola vaccine, including 12,464 people in Beni and 1,295 people in Butembo.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.co...270-cases.html