New and Reemerging Diseases

New and Reemerging Diseases

The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that outbreaks of diseases, including new ones, threaten the lives of millions of people. The most dramatic example is AIDS, a disease caused by a virus that was virtually unknown ten years ago. Another disease is hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, recently discovered in the southwestern United States. A completely new strain of cholera has emerged in Asia. Two types of hemorrhagic fevers have developed in South America, both fatal. Examples of outbreaks of well-known infectious diseases since 1993 include cholera in Latin America, yellow fever in Kenya, dengue in Costa Rica, and diphtheria in Russia. WHO is calling for a global network of centers to identify and combat new or reemerging diseases.

 

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