Recent health viruses 2012

In , 49 cases in multiple states were linked to consuming Kroger Beef and in raw cookie dough was the culprit. However, the most infamous outbreak occurred in where a total of 58 cases were reported in 14 states. In , tomatoes were linked to Salmonella for a total of cases in 21 states. The list of foods linked to salmonella ranged from cantaloupe, peanut butter, raw chicken to even pet food. In , cases of Salmonella linked to small turtles led to a total of cases in 43 states but no deaths reported.

The most recent outbreaks have been reported from consumption of a specific brand of tahini in Common symptoms include diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps. In April of , 20 cases of swine flu were reported in the U.

The swine flu was transmitted by pigs as a respiratory disease, usually through contact with farm raisers or participation in fairs. Also known as pertussis, this respiratory disease surmounted to 48, cases in the U. Coughing fits last up to 10 weeks or more and can be life-threatening for infants.

Worldwide, the estimation of whooping cough cases is Middle East Respiratory Syndrome was first found in the Arabian Peninsula in and was also associated with the coronavirus once the illness became viral. Only two cases were found in the U. Up until , 2, cases have been reported, including deaths. Ebola reached the U. The most recent outbreaks of Ebola occured in the Democratic Republic of Congo in The most at threat potential victims for this mosquito-transmitted disease are pregnant women, whom if bitten, their pregnancy could result in stillbirth, preterm birth or fetal loss.

In November of , 84 countries were reported to have Zika virus cases in the Americas, with the first cases reported in Brazil, then spreading in high numbers to New York, Florida and Texas. On Jan. First, humans are constantly exposed to a huge diversity of viruses, though those of others mammals and perhaps birds are of greatest importance. Moreover, these viruses are very genetically diverse and new genotypes, strains and species evolve rapidly over periods of years or decades.

A fraction of these viruses both existing and newly evolved are capable of infecting humans. The distinction is potentially important as it implies different determinants of the rate of emergence of viruses with epidemic or pandemic potential: for off-the-shelf pathogens this rate is largely driven by the rate of human contact with a diversity of virus genotypes possibly rare genotypes within the non-human reservoir i.

Whichever of these two models is correct perhaps both , there is a clear implication that the emergence of new human viruses is a long-standing and ongoing biological process. Whether this process will eventually slow down or stop if the bulk of new virus species constitute extant diversity or whether it will continue indefinitely if a significant proportion of newly discovered virus species are newly evolved remains unclear, although this makes little difference to immediate expectations.

If anthropogenic drivers of this process are important then it is possible that we are in the midst of a period of particularly rapid virus emergence and, in any case, with the advent of new virus detection technologies, we are very likely to be entering a period of accelerated virus discovery.

By no means all of these will pose a serious risk to public health but, if the recent past is a reliable guide to the immediate future, it is very likely that some will. The first line of defence against emerging viruses is effective surveillance. This topic has been widely discussed in recent years [ 10 , 41 ], but we will re-iterate a few key points here.

Firstly, emerging viruses are everyone's problem: the ease with which viruses can disperse, potentially worldwide within days, coupled with the very wide geographical distribution of emergence events [ 9 ], means that a coordinated, global surveillance network is essential if we are to ensure rapid detection of novel viruses.

This immediately highlights the enormous national and regional differences in detection capacity, with the vast majority of suitable facilities located in Europe or North America. Secondly, reporting of unusual disease events is patchy, even once detected, reflecting both governance issues and lack of incentives [ 10 ]. Thirdly, we need to consider extending the surveillance effort to other mammal populations as well as humans, because these are the most likely source of new human viruses.

Improving the situation will require both political will and considerable investment in infrastructure, human capacity and new tools [ 10 , 41 ]. However, the benefits are potentially enormous. It is possible to forestall an emerging disease event, as experience with SARS has shown. However, our ability to achieve this is closely linked to our ability to detect such an event, and deliver effective interventions, as rapidly as possible. A better understanding of the emergence of new human viruses as a biological and ecological process will allow us to refine our currently very crude notions of the kinds of pathogens, or the kinds of circumstances, we should be most concerned about, and so direct our efforts at detection and prevention more efficiently.

We are grateful to colleagues in Edinburgh's Epidemiology Research Group and elsewhere for stimulating discussions and to two anonymous referees for thoughtful comments on the manuscript.

National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract There are virus species that are known to be able to infect humans. Keywords: discovery curves, emerging infectious diseases, public health, risk factors, surveillance. Virus diversity and discovery a Survey of human viruses As a starting point for our survey, we used a previously published database see [ 5 ] obtained by systematically searching the primary scientific literature up to and including for reports of human infection with recognized virus species, using species as defined by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses ICTV [ 6 ].

Open in a separate window. Figure 1. Table 1. Figure 2. Table 2. Emergence as a biological process a Non-human reservoirs More than two-thirds of human virus species are zoonotic, i. Figure 3. Figure 4. Conclusions The lines of evidence described earlier combine to suggest the following tentative model of the emergence process for novel human viruses. References 1. Levine A. History of virology. In Fields virology eds Fields B.

Woolhouse M. Ecological origins of novel human pathogens. Population biology of emerging and re-emerging pathogens: preface. B , — Parrish C. Molecular epidemiology of parvoviruses. Temporal trends in the discovery of human viruses. International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. Bebber D. Predicting unknown species numbers using discovery curves. Storch G. Diagnostic virology. Jones K. Global trends in emerging infectious diseases.

Nature , — Keusch G. Sustaining global surveillance and response to emerging zoonotic diseases. Allander T. Cloning of a human parvovirus by molecular screening of respiratory tract samples. Natl Acad. Greninger A. The complete genome of klassevirus—a novel picornavirus in pediatric stool. Identification of a third human polyomavirus. Chua K. A previously unknown reovirus of bat origin is associated with an acute respiratory disease in humans. USA , 11 —11 Gaynor A. Identification of a novel polyomavirus from patients with acute respiratory tract infections.

PLoS Pathog. Finkbeiner S. Complete genome sequence of a highly divergent astrovirus isolated from a child with acute diarrhea. Towner J. Newly discovered Ebola virus associated with hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Uganda. Kapoor A. A newly identified bocavirus species in human stool. A highly prevalent and genetically diversified Picornaviridae genus in South Asian children. USA , 20 —20 Holtz L. Identification of a novel picornavirus related to cosaviruses in a child with acute diarrhea.

According to the World Health Organization WHO , the Marburg virus was first identified by scientists in , when small outbreaks occurred among lab workers in Germany who were exposed to infected monkeys imported from Uganda. Marburg virus symptoms are similar to Ebola in that both viruses can cause hemorrhagic fever, meaning that infected people develop high fevers, and bleeding throughout the body that can lead to shock, organ failure and death, according to Mayo Clinic.

The first known Marburg virus outbreak in West Africa was confirmed in August The case was a male from south-western Guinea, who developed a fever, headache, fatigue, abdominal pain and gingival hemorrhage.

This outbreak lasted for six weeks and, while there were high-risk contacts, only one case was confirmed, according to Reuters. In , the first known Ebola outbreaks in humans struck simultaneously in the Republic of the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ebola is spread through contact with blood or other body fluids, or tissue from infected people or animals. The known strains vary dramatically in their deadliness, Elke Muhlberger, an Ebola virus expert and associate professor of microbiology at Boston University, told Live Science.

The outbreak underway in West Africa began in early , and is the largest and most complex outbreak of the disease to date, according to the WHO. In December , the Ervebo vaccine was approved by the U. Food and Drug Administration. This vaccine helps to defend against the Zaire ebola virus and a global stockpile became available from January Although rabies vaccines for pets, which were introduced in the s, helped to make the disease extremely rare in the developed world, this condition remains a serious problem in India and parts of Africa.

Infection from this virus develops after a bite or scratch from an infected animal. This can result in damage to the brain and nerves. In the modern world, the deadliest virus of all may be HIV. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and spokesman for the Infectious Disease Society of America. An estimated 32 million people have died from HIV since the disease was first recognized in the early s. Powerful antiviral drugs have made it possible for people to live for years with HIV.

In , there were , HIV-related deaths worldwide. In , the World Health Assembly declared the world free of smallpox. But before that, humans battled smallpox for thousands of years, and the disease killed about 1 in 3 of those it infected, according to the BBC. It left survivors with deep, permanent scars and, often, blindness. In populations outside of Europe, where people had little contact with the virus before visitors brought it to their regions, mortality rates were much higher.

In the 20th century alone, smallpox killed million people, the BBC reported. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome HPS first gained wide attention in the U.

A few months later, health authorities isolated hantavirus from a deer mouse living in the home of one of the infected people. More than people in the U. The virus is not transmitted from one person to another, rather, people contract the disease from exposure to the droppings of infected mice.