August 1, 2014

Efforts to control the Ebola outbreak in West Africa are not keeping up with the speed with which the deadly virus is spreading, World Health Organization (WHO) General-Director Margaret Chan declared today. Speaking at a summit of regional leaders, Dr. Chan warned that failure to contain the deadly disease could be “catastrophic in terms of lost lives but also severe socioeconomic disruption and a high risk of spread to other countries. . . . Cases are occurring in rural areas which are difficult to access, but also in densely populated capital cities.” However, Chan does believe that the current outbreak can be stopped, and she announced that WHO is launching a $100-million Ebola response plan in the worst affected countries–Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

Yesterday, Tom Frieden, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),   announced that the agency is sending 50 additional personnel over the next 30 days to help the 12 staff members already on the ground in West Africa. “The bottom line is that Ebola is worsening in West Africa,” he said. The announcement came after the CDC raised its travel health alert to Level 3, the highest level, for Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The CDC warned people to avoid nonessential travel to those countries.

According to the World Health Organization, the latest outbreak of Ebola has left 729 people dead, including top physicians in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The outbreak has also sickened two Americans–a doctor and a medical aid–who are being flown to CDC medical facilities in Atlanta. There is no vaccine to prevent the illness, and no specific treatment for it beyond attempting to nurse people through the worst of the fevers, bleeding, and other symptoms. The only way to stop an outbreak is to isolate each infected patient and trace all of his or her contacts and isolate them in turn.

The current outbreak of Ebola fever began in southern Guinea and quickly spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.)

Lansana Gberie, a prominent scholar from Sierra Leone, has condemned his government’s response to the outbreak: “The whole thing has been very incompetently handled. If the government had quarantined this area [in remote northwestern Sierra Leone] they could have contained it. Instead they opened a treatment center in Kenema, a major population center.”

Two of the three affected countries have begun to respond to the crisis. Sierra Leone has declared a public health emergency, and the president, Ernest Bai Koroma, has ordered security forces deployed to support health professionals. “All epicenters of the disease will be quarantined,” said Koroma, along with “localities and homes where the disease is identified and searched for infected people.” Public meetings are restricted, and he ordered top officials to cancel all but essential overseas travel.

In Liberia, the government has closed most border crossings and ordered the deployment of security forces to combat the outbreak. Public gatherings have been banned and schools closed. Nonessential government workers have been put on compulsory leave for 30 days.

Additional World Book articles:

• Africa 1995 (a Back in Time article)
• Africa 1996 (a Back in Time article)
• Uganda 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• The Origin of New Diseases (a special report)

September 19, 2013

Infections caused by superbugs could kill hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Americans, if medical and public health professionals as well as ordinary citizens do not combat the threat posed by these antibiotic-resistant bacteria. That is the conclusion of the authors of a new report, Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2013, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. In an effort to call attention to the problem, CDC officials have established a new rating system that provides “a snapshot of the burdens and threats posed by antibiotic-resistant germs having the most impact on human health.” CDC officials said urgent steps are needed to prevent some infections from becoming essentially untreatable. “Without urgent action now, more patients will be thrust back to a time before we had effective drugs,” said CDC Director Thomas Frieden.

So-called superbugs are bacteria with the ability to overcome medications and other substances that might kill them or interfere with their growth. Each year, more than 2 million Americans develop antibiotic-resistant infections; some 23,000 of these people die, according to the CDC. The main reason for the rise of the superbugs is the widespread use of antibiotics. Up to 50 percent of all antibiotics prescribed for Americans are unnecessary or inappropriate. For example, people often request and doctors prescribe antibiotics to treat the common cold or flu. However, these infections are caused by viruses, which cannot be controlled by antibiotics. Even more worrisome is the amount of antibiotics used to promote growth and prevent and treat infections in livestock–up to 80 percent of all antibiotics used in the United States. Human ingest these antibiotics by eating meat. The more an antibiotic is used, the more quickly it can develop resistance, the CDC emphasized.

Bacteria, such as these Streptococcus cells, cause many diseases, including ear infections, strep throat, and pneumonia. ((c) Oliver Meckes/Science Source from Photo Researchers)

The CDC rating system includes three threat levels–concerning, serious, and urgent–based on seven factors. These include how common a bacterium is, how easily it spreads, the number of people it infects or kills, and the availablity of antibiotics to combat it. Three superbugs made the “urgent” list in the new report: CRE bacteria, Clostridium difficile (C-Diff), and Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

The CRE family of bacteria includes E. coli, which can cause serious illness or even death. E. coli is often found on improperly washed vegetables. Some CRE bacteria are already resistant to antibiotics.

C-Diff kills up to 14,000 people and causes 250,000 hospitalizations each year. It is often acquired in hospitals in which the staff has failed to maintain sanitary standards. These bacteria are also resistant to many antibiotics. 

Neisseria gonorrhoeae is the drug-resistant form of the bacterium that causes gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease and the second most commonly reported infection in the United States, according to the CDC.

The CDC report listed four major steps to fight antibiotic resistance:

• Preventing infections (through immunizations, safe food handling, and handwashing);
• Tracking bacterial infections (to determine factors that contribute to their spread);
• Improving the use of antibiotics (using them only when necessary and appropriate);
• Developing new antibiotics and diagnostic tests (to track the spread of resistance and quickly distinguish between illnesses caused by bacteria and viruses).

Additional World Book articles:

• Sanitation
• Handwashing: The First Line of Defense Against Disease (a special report)
• The War on Superbugs (a special report)

August 23, 2012

The current outbreak of West Nile virus is one of the largest on record in the United States, with four times the usual number of cases for this time of year, announced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on August 22. According to the CDC, never before have so many illnesses been reported this early. “We’re in the midst of one of the largest West Nile outbreaks ever seen in the United States,” CDC official Lyle Petersen told The Washington Post. So far this year, 1,118 illnesses have been confirmed, with 41 deaths. In an average year, fewer than 300 cases are reported by mid-August. Approximately half of the 1,118 cases have been in Texas.

Epidemiologists suggest that the combination of a mild winter, early spring, and unusually hot summer has resulted in a-larger-than-normal number of mosquitoes. Mosquitoes acquire the virus from birds they bite and carry it to human beings. The first known case of West Nile in the United States was reported in New York City in 1999.

A worker in Louisiana sprays chemicals on timber to control the mosquito population and halt the spread of the West Nile virus. The virus is transmitted through the bites of mosquitoes. Public health officials use pesticides to eliminate mosquitoes. (Dan Currier, The News Star)

To avoid West Nile, the CDC recommends:

• Using an insect repellent containing an EPA-registered ingredient.
• Maintaining screens on windows and doors.
• Emptying standing water from flower pots, buckets and barrels, and children’s wading pools and changing the water in pet dishes and bird baths.

Additional World Book articles:

• Disease Detectives (a special report)
• New York City 1999 (a Back in Time article)
• New York City 2000 (a Back in Time article)
• Public health 2002 (a Back in Time article)
• Public health 2003 (a Back in Time article)
• Public health 2004 (a Back in Time article)