SWITZERLAND: UN says infectious diseases spreading faster than ever

Infectious diseases are emerging at an unprecedented speed around the globe, spreading faster and becoming increasingly difficult to treat, according to the World Heath Organisation (WHO). "As this world is volatile, constant mutation and adaptation are the survival mechanisms of the microbial world. These organisms are well equipped to take advantage of every opportunity we give them to evolve, invade or evade. As a result, new diseases are now emerging at the historically unprecedented average rate of one per year. This trend is certain to continue. In a second trend, our highly mobile economically interdependent and electronically interconnected society has made these diseases a much larger menace," WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in a briefing. In its annual World Health Report, the United Nations agency warns there is a good possibility that another major scourge like AIDS, SARS or Ebola fever with the potential of killing millions would appear in the coming years. "Now since the last pandemic, which was in 1968, the world has grown in terms of population, in terms of the challenges of the 21st century like globalisation, the movement of people. Every day we have three million passengers travels, so these are the new kind of conditions that create an unprecedented challenge for managing the next pandemic," Chan said. Since the 1970's, new threats have been identified at an unprecedented rate of one or more every year, more precisely nearly 40 diseases have emerged in the past 30 years. Over the last five years alone, WHO experts had verified more than 1,100 epidemics of different diseases. With more than two billion people travelling by air every year, WHO warns that an outbreak or epidemic in one part of the world is only a few hours away from becoming an imminent threat somewhere else. Global efforts to control infectious diseases have already been "seriously jeopardised" by widespread drug resistance, a consequence of poor medical treatment and misuse of antibiotics. This is a particular problem in tuberculosis, where extensively drug-resistant strains of the contagious respiratory ailment have emerged worldwide. All countries should share essential health data, such as virus samples and reports of outbreaks, as required under international health rules to mitigate such risks, the report said.

ITN Source | August 24, 2007

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