Influenza Report

Influenza Report 2006
by Bernd Sebastian Kamps, Christian Hoffmann, Wolfgang Preiser

Book Description:
Thirty years ago, infectious diseases were seemingly on the decline.
Tuberculosis was defeated, small pox was about to be eradicated, sexually
transmissible diseases could easily be treated, and other scourges of
mankind, such as malaria, were expected to disappear one day. Some
experts hilariously announced that we would soon be able to close the book
of infectious diseases once and for all. Of course, that was before the
beginning of the AIDS pandemic in 1981, and before the discovery of the
hepatitis C virus, as well as many other viruses capable of causing severe
disease in humans.
Human memory is permeable and porous. A quick look at medical history
would have sufficed to understand that infectious diseases have
accompanied humans ever since they opted for a sedentary lifestyle. While
we are today better prepared to prevent and fight off infectious diseases, we
are nonetheless condemned to coexist with them. In a world with an
increasing potential for the rapid spread of pathogens – overcrowded cities,
high mobility – the role of efficient infectious disease task forces can
therefore not be overestimated.
In the wake of HIV, hepatitis C, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and SARS,
another devastating influenza pandemic may be the next global health threat
that six and a half billion people will have to face. An avian influenza strain,
H5N1, has recently caused multiple outbreaks in poultry on three continents
and has infected nearly 200 persons, killing more than half of them. The
timing and the magnitude of the next pandemic is all but certain, but it is
wise to be prepared.

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