Emerging Diseases Since 1950
Overview
Emerging diseases, which come in a variety of forms, began to appear just when medical science was confident that scourges like smallpox and polio had been conquered. Emerging diseases include the Marburg virus, which was first recognized in 1967, and its close cousin, the Ebola virus. Both are deadly hemorrhagic diseases for which there is no cure. Equally lethal, the AIDS pandemic and infections from bacteria such as E. coli have sickened and killed many. Moreover, a number of diseases thought to have been under control, such as malaria and cholera, have suddenly increased in their rate of incidence. At the same time, because of increasing resistance to drugs, old conditions are re-emerging. For example, tuberculosis, thought to be under such control that tuberculosis hospitals were phased out, has re-emerged, killing more that two million people each year.
Background
Diseases and plagues have changed the course of history. Historians have theorized that malaria was more responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire than the barbarians. The Black Death, or bubonic plague, ended the institution of feudalism and caused such a general paralysis in the 1300s that countries such as England and France stopped their fighting and called a truce.
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