NEW YORK – Health officials are celebrating some important victories in 2014, and Time magazine named Ebola fighters the persons of the year. Nevertheless, this was a black-eye year for public health.
Some vital vaccines did not work well. Federal laboratories were careless with dangerous pathogens. And international health officials failed to stop a West African outbreak from exploding into the worst Ebola epidemic ever.
Such failings occurred during one of the busiest 12 months of contagions in at least a decade. In the United States, infectious disease menaces seemingly whizzed at us from every direction, from Ebola and enterovirus to measles and MERS. Mumps plagued Ohio. California saw its worst whooping cough outbreak in 70 years. And a mosquito-borne disease called chikungunya burned through the Caribbean and took root in the United States.
The last time U.S. health officials were this frantic was 2009, when a flu pandemic swept the globe. “But that was one disease,” while 2014 had more fires to put out, said Dr. Marci Layton of New York City’s health department.
Experts say this year’s tumult was caused by a combination of things. Many cite international travel, which can bring an exotic disease from the jungles of Africa or the deserts of the Mideast to a U.S. airport in hours.
“If anyone still needed convincing, 2014 really showed that a disease threat anywhere is a disease threat everywhere,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But experts note shortcomings and errors at the CDC and in other public health organizations.
The leading example was the Ebola epidemic. Previous outbreaks numbered in the hundreds. As of mid-December, health officials were reporting this year’s epidemic had sickened more than 18,600 people, the vast majority in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Of those, more than 6,900 died.
Those three nations were not prepared when Ebola visited them for the first time. Health systems were very weak after more than a decade of war in the region. Doctors were scarce in many areas. Ebola was sometimes mistaken for malaria, especially in the early stages, and care and infection control were poor.
Some other lowlights from 2014:
• In January, a CDC lab scientist in Atlanta accidentally mixed a deadly strain of bird flu with a tamer strain, and the mix was later sent to unaware workers at two other labs. In June, another CDC lab failed to kill anthrax samples before sending them to two labs with fewer safeguards for containing dangerous germs. No one got sick from either incident, fortunately.
• Another startling lab failing was discovered at the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Md. A scientist cleaning out an old storage room discovered forgotten, 60-year-old vials of smallpox virus, one of the most lethal infectious agents in human history. No one got sick from that incident, either. But government lab practices became something of a joke.
• Researchers have come to believe the vaccine that’s been used since the 1990s against whooping cough does a poor job of preventing spread of the disease. In California, 10,000 cases were reported through November.
• This was the worst year for measles since 1994. About 600 U.S. cases were reported through the first week of December — more than the combined total from the previous five years. The measles vaccine seemed to work fine; most were unvaccinated people who fell sick.
• Enterovirus 68 became a national health concern as some pediatric hospitals were flooded with wheezing children. By early December, more than 1,100 infected people in 48 states had respiratory illness, including 12 who died.
Infectious diseases are a continuing threat, and no one should think of 2014 as an aberration, said Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota infectious disease expert.
“I think what we really hit is a new normal,” he said.
Indeed, it could get worse. Osterholm noted that Ebola and MERS barely touched the U.S. this year, and worrisome forms of influenza in Asia and elsewhere may be on the horizon. Arrivals of people and germs from overseas are forecast to keep growing. And once-treatable germs are becoming resistant to antibiotics.
Some vital vaccines did not work well. Federal laboratories were careless with dangerous pathogens. And international health officials failed to stop a West African outbreak from exploding into the worst Ebola epidemic ever.
Such failings occurred during one of the busiest 12 months of contagions in at least a decade. In the United States, infectious disease menaces seemingly whizzed at us from every direction, from Ebola and enterovirus to measles and MERS. Mumps plagued Ohio. California saw its worst whooping cough outbreak in 70 years. And a mosquito-borne disease called chikungunya burned through the Caribbean and took root in the United States.
The last time U.S. health officials were this frantic was 2009, when a flu pandemic swept the globe. “But that was one disease,” while 2014 had more fires to put out, said Dr. Marci Layton of New York City’s health department.
Experts say this year’s tumult was caused by a combination of things. Many cite international travel, which can bring an exotic disease from the jungles of Africa or the deserts of the Mideast to a U.S. airport in hours.
“If anyone still needed convincing, 2014 really showed that a disease threat anywhere is a disease threat everywhere,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But experts note shortcomings and errors at the CDC and in other public health organizations.
The leading example was the Ebola epidemic. Previous outbreaks numbered in the hundreds. As of mid-December, health officials were reporting this year’s epidemic had sickened more than 18,600 people, the vast majority in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Of those, more than 6,900 died.
Those three nations were not prepared when Ebola visited them for the first time. Health systems were very weak after more than a decade of war in the region. Doctors were scarce in many areas. Ebola was sometimes mistaken for malaria, especially in the early stages, and care and infection control were poor.
Some other lowlights from 2014:
• In January, a CDC lab scientist in Atlanta accidentally mixed a deadly strain of bird flu with a tamer strain, and the mix was later sent to unaware workers at two other labs. In June, another CDC lab failed to kill anthrax samples before sending them to two labs with fewer safeguards for containing dangerous germs. No one got sick from either incident, fortunately.
• Another startling lab failing was discovered at the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Md. A scientist cleaning out an old storage room discovered forgotten, 60-year-old vials of smallpox virus, one of the most lethal infectious agents in human history. No one got sick from that incident, either. But government lab practices became something of a joke.
• Researchers have come to believe the vaccine that’s been used since the 1990s against whooping cough does a poor job of preventing spread of the disease. In California, 10,000 cases were reported through November.
• This was the worst year for measles since 1994. About 600 U.S. cases were reported through the first week of December — more than the combined total from the previous five years. The measles vaccine seemed to work fine; most were unvaccinated people who fell sick.
• Enterovirus 68 became a national health concern as some pediatric hospitals were flooded with wheezing children. By early December, more than 1,100 infected people in 48 states had respiratory illness, including 12 who died.
Infectious diseases are a continuing threat, and no one should think of 2014 as an aberration, said Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota infectious disease expert.
“I think what we really hit is a new normal,” he said.
Indeed, it could get worse. Osterholm noted that Ebola and MERS barely touched the U.S. this year, and worrisome forms of influenza in Asia and elsewhere may be on the horizon. Arrivals of people and germs from overseas are forecast to keep growing. And once-treatable germs are becoming resistant to antibiotics.
via Smart Health Shop Forum http://forum.smarthealthshop.com/health-wellness/165992-tough-year-disease-control-around-globe-minneapolis-star-tribune.html
No comments:
Post a Comment