WORLD / America |
WHO ties rising population, new diseases(AP)
Updated: 2007-08-24 06:57 GENEVA - A ballooning world population, intensive farming practices and changes in sexual behavior have provided a breeding ground for an unprecedented number of emerging diseases, the UN health agency said Thursday. New diseases are emerging at the unprecedented rate of one per year, the World Health Organization said. There are 39 new pathogens that were unknown a generation ago, including HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. And with an estimated 2.1 billion airline passengers roaming the planet last year alone, infectious diseases are spreading faster than ever before. Though advances in science could account for the discovery of existing pathogens that were previously unidentified, WHO epidemics expert Dr. Mike Ryan said changes in human behavior and practices have produced more new diseases. "We've seen a shift in trend that reflects a transition of human civilization," Ryan said. "The relationship to the animal kingdom, our travel, our social, sexual and other behaviors have changed the nature of our relationship with the microbial world and the result of that is the emergence of new pathogens and the spread of those pathogens around the world." He noted that in the late 19th century, scientists discovered a range of agents causing ancient scourges such as anthrax, staphylococcus, tuberculosis and tetanus. In the 1970s and 80s it wasn't pathogens experts were discovering but new syndromes: children getting sick with rashes and fever in the suburban areas of the Americas, people suffering from liver and renal disease after consuming undercooked meat. "We've urbanized a world. We have moved people and food around that world at ever increasing speed," Ryan said. "We're not saying that's a bad thing. What we're saying is that we must recognize the risk we create in the process and invest to manage those risks." WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said one of the changes affecting human health was increasingly intensive poultry farming, which may account for the global spread of bird flu. "It should not come as a surprise that we are seeing more and more disease outbreaks coming from the animal sector," Chan said. She said the majority of the 39 new diseases came from animals, including Ebola, SARS, or bird flu. Today, high volumes of people can quickly travel worldwide, meaning an outbreak or epidemic in any part of the planet is only a few hours away from becoming an imminent threat somewhere else, the report said. Over the past five years, WHO has confirmed more than 1,100 outbreaks worldwide of diseases such as cholera, polio and bird flu. Much of WHO's annual report on the state of the world's health was designed to convince governments to adhere to new, tighter International Health Regulations, providing the basis for the world to cooperate in combating frightening diseases. The revised health regulations came into effect in June. They govern how countries should report potentially dangerous health emergencies to WHO. While they are meant to improve disease reporting worldwide, it is uncertain how much influence they actually have. For example, earlier this year, American officials anxiously tracked the European whereabouts of a U.S. lawyer believed to have a highly dangerous form of tuberculosis. International officials eventually identified the roughly 127 people thought to have been exposed to his illness during two trans-Atlantic flights. But it was only after the lawyer had left Europe that US officials informed WHO and other countries of the event -- and they were powerless to act. The lawyer later turned out to have a less serious form of the disease. WHO's annual report also urges countries to share viruses to help develop vaccines and to tighten domestic efforts to combat disease outbreaks. But an ongoing battle with Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by the H5N1 bird flu, has yet to be resolved. Indonesia has been reluctant to share its samples with WHO, repeatedly demanding assurances that any pandemic vaccines developed would be affordable for developing nations. In an effort to lure back tourists, Jakarta recently sent samples to WHO, but it is unclear whether it will continue to share. |
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