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. If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
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Filed Under: antibiotics, disease, ebola, flu, gof, health, influenza, mdr-tb, measles, medicine, mrsa, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, pathogens, tb, vaccines, virus, whooping cough


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  • icon
    art guerrilla (profile), 28 Oct 2014 @ 5:13pm

    not to provoke a stampede to the exits...

    but the CDC has conceded it can be spread with a cough-like aerosol in about a 3' range...
    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 ]

  • icon
    Mason Wheeler (profile), 28 Oct 2014 @ 5:20pm

    The "flu kills thousands every year" is questionable. I've heard (can't find the source at the moment) that the figure of "30,000 flu deaths per year" comes from counting anyone who exhibited flu symptoms up to a few months before death and then subsequently died of anything in any way resembling flu symptoms. The people counted in this way are disproportionately elderly, and this methodology ends up catching a lot of people who simply did what used to be referred to as "dying of old age."

    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 ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Oct 2014 @ 6:06pm

    "The WHO warns that multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a global threat to human health."


    When did the Who find time to study medicine?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      New Mexico Mark, 29 Oct 2014 @ 12:10pm

      Re:

      Are you kidding? The Who's medical research alone is amazing. For many, many years, they have personally tested a huge variety of pharmaceuticals and experimental drugs. None of this mamby pamby animal testing for those guys.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 28 Oct 2014 @ 6:18pm

    biological weapons

    It's not known how many deadly diseases have been created in United States (and former Soviet) biological weapons laboratories. The deadly (military-grade) anthrax mailings that quickly came and went over a decade ago may have been just the tip of the iceberg. There's no question that Ebola is being looked at very closely at as a potential addition to the Pentagon's ever-growing bological weapons stockpile.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 28 Oct 2014 @ 7:41pm

      Re: biological weapons

      Putting on the tin foil hat -
      There's no question that Ebola is being looked at very closely at as a potential addition to the Pentagon's ever-growing bological weapons stockpile.
      It already is a part of the biological weapons stockpile. The current situation is a test of the efficacy of using ebola as a weapon against various populations.

      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 ]

  • icon
    silverscarcat (profile), 28 Oct 2014 @ 6:22pm

    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.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 28 Oct 2014 @ 6:54pm

      Re: Just a FYI to everyone...

      "In 1955, he discovered the cure to Polio"

      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 ]

    • icon
      Scott Yates (profile), 3 Nov 2014 @ 12:19pm

      Re: Just a FYI to everyone...

      I think you may mean Jonas Salk

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2014 @ 10:04am

    Re: Watch. bite the wax tadpole

    Why do so many spam-bots have to use broken English? Don't the Chinese have any decent online translators?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    RonKaminsky (profile), 29 Oct 2014 @ 1:16pm

    Thank you, anti-vaxxers

    > There has been a re-emergence of measles, pertussis

    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 ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2014 @ 8:27pm

      Re: Thank you, anti-vaxxers

      This is what happens when people get their medical advice from watching the Oprah Winfrey show (and that includes that crackpot doctor in her employ).

      Or do people really believe that posing naked for Playboy makes one a medical expert?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Coyoty (profile), 29 Oct 2014 @ 8:56pm

    Ewbola

    But Ebola is way more icky and messy and gross than all those other more deadly diseases!

    It's a horrifying disease, so it's going to generate more panic.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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