DailyDirt: Deadly Diseases Besides Ebola
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Ebola is scary. Absolutely. It's concerning that Ebola vaccines and treatments have not been developed as quickly as other pharmaceuticals, but the current outbreak is certainly speeding up research efforts. However, the economics of developing treatments for various ailments isn't always rational, given the examples of the wild success of the ALS ice bucket challenge and the failures of its knockoffs. If you need a reminder of other deadly diseases that still plague the world, here are just a few links on the topic.- The US govt has stopped (temporarily?) funding for "gain-of-function (GOF)" experiments that could make viruses more pathogenic. This policy doesn't stop amateurs and other researchers (or Nature itself!) from creating more deadly mutations, but it could slow down the progress of developing ways to fight off certain diseases and understanding how some pathogens (eg influenza) might mutate. [url]
- A number of diseases pose far larger threats than Ebola does. There has been a re-emergence of measles, pertussis (or whooping cough) and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The flu still kills thousands of people every year. [url]
- The WHO warns that multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a global threat to human health. The US saw a bit under 10,000 cases of TB in 2013 and 1.4% of those were drug resistant. Worldwide, 9 million people caught TB last year, and about 3.5% of those were resistant to antibiotics. [url]
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: antibiotics, disease, ebola, flu, gof, health, influenza, mdr-tb, measles, medicine, mrsa, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, pathogens, tb, vaccines, virus, whooping cough
Reader Comments
The First Word
“Just a FYI to everyone...
Today is the day, 100 years ago, Jonas Stalk was born.In 1955, he discovered the cure to Polio, but chose to not patent it, allowing everyone easy access to the cure.
Had he patented it, he may have made over 7 billion dollars in his lifetime.
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
not to provoke a stampede to the exits...
but sneezes go about 20', so better stay at least 25' away from everyone...
oh, except some euro-boffins (as el reg is wont to headline) have determined approx 13% of those infected can be asymptomatic, yet still be carriers and infectious...
and did i mention they find the cold/drier conditions of winter allow it to survive about 50 days in the wild ? ? ?
but who needs a surgeon general...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Does anyone know anything more solid on this topic? I've heard the claim and it sounds like it makes sense, but that doesn't necessarily means it's correct.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
When did the Who find time to study medicine?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
biological weapons
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: biological weapons
Taking off tin foil hat -
Biological weapons development has been an ongoing field of study for many decades by many different groups (both governmental and commercial) and there has been many indicators in the biological papers area that there has been much success in the development of such weaponry.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Just a FYI to everyone...
In 1955, he discovered the cure to Polio, but chose to not patent it, allowing everyone easy access to the cure.
Had he patented it, he may have made over 7 billion dollars in his lifetime.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Just a FYI to everyone...
You mean polio vaccine. Even today, and as with most viral infections, there is no cure.
And due to the CIA's fake polio vaccination program, many people across the globe are refusing to vaccinate their children for anything any more.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Just a FYI to everyone...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Just a FYI to everyone...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Watch. bite the wax tadpole
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Thank you, anti-vaxxers
It's disingenuous to state this without stating the reason why: anti-vaccination propaganda has destroyed the herd immunity against these diseases in many locations.
We can trust our "mommy instincts"... to kill what? a few pro-mil of our children? (Compared with vaccination itself causing serious injury only in single digits per million, if that much).
Oh, that was "thank" with an "f"...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Thank you, anti-vaxxers
Or do people really believe that posing naked for Playboy makes one a medical expert?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ewbola
It's a horrifying disease, so it's going to generate more panic.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]