Article is from WeChat public account: Earth Knowledge Agency (ID: diqiuzhishiju) , author: yoghurt not foam, title figure from: Wikipedia / CDC Global

At present, worldwide, the most noticeable epidemic is the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic originating from China. Although its fatality rate is relatively low, the “large number of infections, rapid transmission, and unprecedented levels” have been enough to attract global attention.

At this time, some domestic media have compared it with “the most serious flu in the United States in 40 years” and believe that the latter is more serious than the death toll. However, in fact, in a longitudinal comparison, the flu in the United States has occurred every year, and this year is not more serious than the previous two years. In addition, because the method of counting the number of flu deaths in the United States is different from that in the country, the two are not comparable.

But this is indeed a novel perspective, reminding us Follow this medically bright world, there are still uncontrollable diseases that are spreading.

H1N1 and Cholera

In 2019, nearly 6,600 people in Yemen were infected with the H1N1 virus. At least 270 people in the country have died of the virus caused by the virus in the past two months. In Taiwan, China, 56 Humans died of the H1N1 virus.

H1N1 influenza virus particles (picture from Wikipedia / NIAID)

H1N1 virus is a type of influenza A virus and one of the most commonly infected influenza viruses in humans. Patients with influenza A H1N1 influenza may develop symptoms such as fever, headache, systemic muscle soreness, joint pain, and a few patients have diarrhea and vomiting. The genetic composition of the virus has not yet been determined. Many scientists believe that it is composed of genetic material from human, swine and avian influenza, and WHO believes that it mainly consists of swine influenza genes.

Animal viruses and other microorganisms can be transmitted from animals to humans across species (picture from Wikipedia / Scott Bauer, USDA)

From March to April 2009, H1N1 influenza outbreaks occurred in the United States and Mexico. In just two months, more than a thousand people were infected in the southwestern United States and Mexico, killing 106 people. Subsequently, the epidemic spread to the whole world, and WHO also raised the warning level of the global influenza pandemic to the highest level of level 6 in June 2009.

Wearing a mask in a subway in Mexico is a basic measure to prevent infectionShi (picture from Wikipedia / Eneas De Troya)

In the year after the outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the number of deaths due to the H1N1 virus worldwide is 151,700 557,400.

Although the number of cases of H1N1 infection has declined, it has become a seasonal flu in the United States and other places. From 2009 to 2018, there were approximately 75,000 deaths related to H1N1 flu in the United States. To date, in addition to the United States, Yemen, Canada, Myanmar and other places have found cases of influenza A deaths.

President is also vaccinated! Viral infection regardless of position (2009 picture from Wikipedia / White House)

And in a war-torn country like Yemen, it is not just a disease that causes headaches, and the shadow of cholera is also there.

In 2017 and 2018, a severe cholera epidemic broke out in Yemen, and more than 7 million people were threatened. In December 2019, the Ministry of Public Health and Population of Yemen reported a total of 43,950 suspected cases of cholera, with 9 deaths and a relatively low mortality rate of 0.02%; however, the risk of cholera recurrence cannot be ruled out so far.

From May 2017 to February 2018, the epidemic in the western populated areas of the Yemen cholera outbreak became more serious (picture from: wikipedia @ Guacamolebio) < / p>

Cholera is an acute diarrheal infectious disease caused by food or water contaminated with Vibrio cholerae. Risk factors for cholera infection include poor sanitation, unclean drinking water, and poverty. It is relatively rare in developed countries. But once cholera appears, the fatality rate is very high. In severe cases, it can lead to diarrhea and dehydration within a few hours.

Vibrio cholerae (picture from: Wikipedia)

Apart from Yemen, African countries such as Sudan and Somalia are still places where cholera often occurs. Haiti was also a major victim of cholera. Following the large cholera that affected more than 820,000 people and killed 9792 people a decade ago, the latest confirmed cholera case in Haiti was in the last week of January 2019. He was a boy less than 5 years old, but fortunately he recovered soon.

The treatment of fecal sludge or sewage is a hotbed for cholera (picture from Wikipedia / SuSanA Secretariat)

At present, The methods for preventing influenza A H1N1 flu and cholera are nothing more than paying attention to personal hygiene, not drinking unclean food, and improving immunity. The two diseases that have accompanied humans for many years have also had their own vaccines and reliable and effective treatments, which are no longer the focus of most people on this planet.

Vaccination can radically reduce the chance of large-scale infectious diseases, but only viruses that have been discovered can be used to develop vaccines based on them but new viruses Appears one after another, catching humans by surprise (picture from wikipedia / shutterstock.com)

Ebola and Measles

Poor Africa is often the epidemic of various epidemics, and Ebola virus has been one of the most influential viruses in recent years.

Ebola virus (green) (picture from Wikipedia / NIAID)

The virus is a zoonotic virus, and fruit bats are the proto-hosts of the virus. They are mainly transmitted by human body fluids, such as blood, sweat, urine, saliva, etc. .

Ebola hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone, West Africa According to local protective measures, it is easy for one person to get sick, all of them are recruited (picture from Wikipedia / Leasmhar)

After infection with Ebola virus, patients often have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and sore throat, and they have a higher risk of death in the later stages. The mortality rate of previous epidemics ranged from 25% to 90%. The mortality rate is about 50%.

The Ebola outbreak occurred in West Africa from 2014 to 2016, becoming the largest and most complex Ebola outbreak since the Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976. At that time, the epidemic first appeared in Guinea and then spread across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia.

2014 Ebola outbreak areas

Now that the epidemic in West Africa has passed, Congo still faces the threat of Ebola: the virus broke out in the country in August 2018, making it the second largest Ebola outbreak in history.

According to the Congolese Ministry of Health, as of February 11, 2020, there were 3,342 cases in the country (3309 cases have been confirmed, 123 suspected) patients confirmed infection, of which 2249 died, the mortality rate was about 65%, and the remaining patients were still receiving treatment.

High mortality rate (screenshot from: WHO)

Ebola is also classified as a biological hazard level 4 virus due to its lethality and no vaccine has been proven to be effective. However, areas outside the epidemic need not be overly concerned. All that needs to be done is to avoid contact with or consumption of wild animals such as fruit bats, apes, and direct contact with the body fluids of infected persons.

But eating wild animals is the habit of many African people (jungle meat) (picture from: “Virus Hunter”)

During the shadow of the Ebola virus, Congo has been suffering from measles and has caused more deaths.

Measles is an infectious disease that frequently occurs in children, and adults have a certain chance of infection. Acute measles in children is caused by the measles virus, which is highly contagious, and can be transmitted by droplets when coughing or sneezing. After suffering from measles, patients often develop symptoms including continuous fever for several days, cough, rhinitis, and symptoms similar to conjunctivitis, and they may become full of rashes.

Improper treatment will leave scars (picture from shutterstoc @ fotofotohay)

Since 2019, measles has claimed the lives of more than 5,000 people in the Congo, of which more than 90% are children, making it the worst measles epidemic in the world.

In fact, measles prevention is not difficult. Measles vaccine is an effective method.

Measles is rarely vaccinated alone and is usually mixed with rubella, mumps or chicken pox vaccine (picture from Wikipedia / Dctrzl)

Before the introduction of the measles vaccine in 1963, a large measles epidemic occurred approximately every two to three years, killing about 2.6 million people each year. After the vaccination, the mortality rate has dropped significantly: from 2000 to 2013, about 85% of children worldwide were vaccinated, and the number of deaths has dropped sharply by 75%.

Undeveloped countries have lower vaccination rates. These less serious epidemics can kill many children (pictures from Flickr / UK Department for International Development)

In 2019, WHO, the Global Vaccine Alliance and other aid agencies, under the leadership of the Congolese Ministry of Health, vaccinated more than 18 million children under the age of 5 in the country. But that’s not enough. Hundreds of thousands of children remain unprotected in regions of the country and Africa, where violence is frequent, unsanitary, and medical resources are scarce.

Mouth, Foot, and Hand Disease and Dengue Fever

In Southeast Asia, hand-foot-mouth disease, a susceptible disease in children, still has soil for transmission.

Hand, foot and mouth disease is rash vesicular stomatitis, which is a viral disease caused by viruses such as the Quexavirus A16 or 71 enterovirus. The disease mostly occurs in children under 5 years of age. Patients will develop herpes on the hands, feet, mouth and other parts, and a few cases will have complications such as myocarditis and pulmonary edema. At the same time, infected people will experience general discomfort and weakness.

3D version of the Kshachi virus (picture from shutterstock / Kateryna Kon)

In fact, hand, foot and mouth disease is not particularly serious. After the onset of the disease, the local rash usually disappears within a week. After the wound is crusted, most people can heal themselves. A very small number of severe cases develop too quickly to cause death.

Clinical manifestations of hand, foot and mouth disease (picture from Wikipedia / MidgleyDJ)

Vietnam is a place where there are many cases of hand-foot-mouth disease in recent years. The epidemic period is about spring and autumn of each year. In 2016, Vietnam reported about 50,000 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease; the number of cases in 2018 is still nearly 50,000, and in 2019 is about 30,000. The decrease in cases may be due to improved health and personal protection awareness. Enhancements. In addition, there have been occasional cases in Japan, Singapore and China, and Singaporean singer Lin Junjie has been infected with hand, foot and mouth disease recently.

Vietnamese hands, feet and mouth are fierce

But disease knows no borders. Recently, many Canadian parents were infected with hand, foot and mouth disease at a well-known resort hotel near Punta Cana while taking their children on vacation in the Dominican Republic. However, the hotel side was unwilling to accuse it, saying that its hotel was in good health and that there were no other hand, foot and mouth disease outbreaks.

Fortunately, the disease is not very serious.

In addition to hand, foot and mouth disease, dengue fever is also an “old friend” of Southeast Asian people.

Dengue is an acute vector-borne disease caused by dengue virus transmitted through mosquito vectors. Because it is transmitted by Aedes mosquito,The epidemic of the disease has a certain seasonality, generally in the spring solstice and autumn of each year, the peak is in summer, and the hot and humid tropical areas are more likely to occur.

A Aedes mosquito eating (picture from shutterstoc@Witsawat.S)

In general, people in high-incidence areas can have high fever, pain in the whole body, obvious weakness, rash on the first fever or second fever, and lymphadenopathy. It is considered to be dengue fever; and, Dengue fever patients are infectious from 1 day before to 5 days after the onset of disease.

Red rash caused by dengue fever (picture from shutterstock / wk1003mike)

After the decline in the number of dengue cases from 2017 to 2018, the number of cases of the disease has increased dramatically in 2019. Cases of increased dengue fever have been reported in Australia, some countries in Africa, and in some countries in the Americas, especially in Southeast Asia, which have almost become dengue-hit areas.

This is because since the northern summer of 2019, many countries in Southeast Asia have experienced abundant rainfall and mosquitoes have multiplied rapidly. Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos, Malaysia and other countries have experienced dengue fever outbreaks. The lack of infrastructure, medical facilities and overburdened health departments have exacerbated the spread of the epidemic.

Philippines reported 403,000 cases of dengue in 2019, a 98% increase from 2018 and causing more than 1,000 deaths; 320,702 were infected in Vietnam, a 2.5-fold increase over the 126682 reported in the same period in 2018; Thailand, 106,000 people were infected, killing more than 110 people; throughout Southeast Asia, more than one million cases of dengue fever have been recorded.

In order to combat the disease, Southeast Asian countries have strengthened research and control of the disease. For example, Malaysia launched the Wolbachia injection program to allow this benign bacteria to control the ability of Aedes mosquitoes to reproduce and spread the virus. Singapore has strengthened To strengthen the cleanliness of public areas, Thailand has carried out the “National Anti-mosquito Campaign” and so on.

Mosquito control is an effective means to prevent large-scale dengue fever (Thailand, picture from Cbenjasuwan / Shutterstock.com)

However, strict control measures cannot guarantee that dengue fever will not erupt in the summer of 2020. An article in The Lancet found that due to climate change, the number of dengue cases has nearly doubled every 10 years since 1990; a study published in the British journal Nature and Microbiology found that urbanization Advances and large-scale population movements have contributed to the spread of dengue fever.

So speaking of the crow’s mouth, the situation in Southeast Asia this year may not be optimistic. After the impact of the new crown virus, mosquitoes may have to come back with dengue fever again.

References:

https://www.who.int/csr/don/en/

https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/dengue-monthly

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/cholera-situation-yemen-december-2019

https://www.who.int/csr/don/30-january-2020-ebola-drc/en/

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/dec/30/asias-hardest-year-for-dengue-fever-in-pictures

* The content of this article is provided by the author and does not represent the position of the Bureau of Earth Knowledge

Article is from WeChat public account: Earth Knowledge Agency (ID: diqiuzhishiju) , author: yogurt did not foam