Time (July 27)
“Reflecting the escalating urgency” of the current Ebola outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “has raised its response to the highest level.” By early July, the outbreak which was only declared in May had already become “the second largest on record.” While viruses like Ebola can’t be eliminated, “it is possible to contain them quickly, and global health experts are alarmed by the world’s worsening ability to do that. Our systems for responding to and confronting viruses are increasingly fractured and weakened, making everyone more vulnerable.”
Tags: Alarmed, CDC, Contain, Ebola outbreak, Eliminated, Escalating, Fractured, Global, Health experts, Record, Urgency, Viruses, Vulnerable, Weakened
Tampa Bay Times (April 5)
“Physical distancing and masks are being credited for a decline in common viruses.” Pediatric hospitalizations for respiratory illness are down 62% while only a single child has died of the flu, an illness that usually claims the lives of 100 – 200 children per season in the U.S. Beyond masks and physical distancing, other pandemic factors also play a role. “It’s become a serious societal faux pas to go anywhere with a fever – so parents don’t send their ailing kids to school.”
Tags: Ailing, Credited, Distancing, Faux pas, Fever, Flu, Hospitalizations, Illness, Masks, Pandemic, Pediatric, Respiratory, School, U.S., Viruses
New York Times (October 14)
Malaria “kills some 600,000 people a year, mostly children under the age of 5” and there is now “hope for a malaria vaccine” based on trials sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. “If the results hold up after further follow-up, the vaccine will be the first ever shown to be effective on a large scale against a disease-causing parasite, an organism that is much harder to neutralize than viruses or bacteria.”
Tags: Bacteria, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, GlaxoSmithKline, Malaria, Parasite, Vaccine, Viruses
