With a constant news stream of virus outbreaks and mutating diseases, the future of healthcare seems dreary and uneasy. Although, artificial intelligence may be a viable solution to help us fight diseases.
Most people may have an idea of artificial intelligence through sci-fi movies, but it is a real part of technology today.
Exposure to the chickenpox virus is nothing new. While there is a vaccine to prevent the common virus, many children catch the virus before they are vaccinated.
In most cases, the bout with chickenpox is manageable, but there is an important long-term effect that goes ignored: shingles. The same virus that causes chickenpox can also lead to shingles later in life. Luckily, like chickenpox, there’s an effective vaccine for shingles.
Shingrix, or the shingles vaccine, offers excellent protection against shingles for anyone over the age of 50. But, like many vaccines and medicines, there can be some side effects to the shingles vaccine.
When it comes to diseases like malaria, citizens and officials alike are still searching for answers.
The mosquito-borne disease remains one of the deadliest in the world. In 2017 alone, malaria caused over 219 million cases worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, those cases resulted in 435,000 deaths. Those numbers look to continue as we still lack treatment and globally-approved vaccines.
We’ve made some recent progress against the virus, including the recent plans to sterilize mosquitoes. In September of this year Kenya also became the third country to administer a licensed malaria vaccine.
Yet, we still have many reasons to fear the virus.
For many of the world’s most dangerous diseases, we struggle to find treatment. Whether it’s vaccines or antibiotics, researchers spend years looking for some way to fight the illness.
When it comes to typhoid fever, treatment and prevention methods aren’t the problem.
There have been a couple of vaccines and treatment plans for this disease for a while now. But, an increasing resistance to different types of antibiotics is making treatment more complicated. With almost 22 million reported cases of typhoid and 200,000 related deaths worldwide every year, it’s proving much harder to fight the disease.
If left alone, this issue can lead to drug resistant typhoid fever becoming even more common than it is now.
Researchers at Temple University recently discovered that an HIV drug may help to suppress the Zika virus, which could lead to treatment of the virus worldwide.
Up until now, there have been no known vaccines or cures for the Zika virus. Current outbreaks and case numbers may not reach the levels we saw in 2016, but any help against Zika could be a breakthrough.
In the 56 years since the measles vaccine was created, we’ve made significant strides in fighting the virus. Even in this century alone, deaths due to measles have dropped significantly.
According to the World Health Organization, measles caused 110,000 deaths worldwide in 2017. That may still be an alarming amount, but it’s 80% less than the 545,000 deaths in 2000.
But, as we’ve seen around the world this year, vaccine hesitancy has caused a resurgence in cases and outbreaks.
Even in the cases where measles isn’t deadly, those who survive the infection have an increased morbidity and mortality. Up until recently, the reasons behind the increased morbidity and mortality were poorly understood. A new study shows that there are dangerous effects even for those who catch and are cured of measles.
We’ve seen a variety of methods to keep mosquitoes who spread diseases at bay. Despite years of efforts, we still lack a vaccine for many of the most dangerous illnesses. For many people, the best method to stay safe is to simply avoid the insects altogether.
But, that doesn’t mean scientists have stopped trying to fight the diseases. A new technique could help slow down the spread of many mosquito-borne illnesses.
Scientists are currently working on a new method that will use radiation to sterilize male mosquitoes. The technique involves the World Health Organization and the UN, and is also environmentally friendly.
This August, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) declared their 10th Ebola outbreak. The DRC has had nine other Ebola virus outbreaks over the course of 40 years. From August to November of this year, there have been 2,194 deaths in the DRC due to Ebola.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said in October that cases are decreasing, but that doesn’t mean the outbreak is finished.
The situation is still an official emergency in the DRC because outbreaks continue to pop up in the northeast of the country. It’s this area that is still being affected the worst by Ebola. The outbreak has also put nearby countries at risk, spreading to Uganda in July.
Throughout August, there was anywhere between 75 and 100 new cases of Ebola each week in DRC, although, the numbers started dropping as the year continued. The region started to see just under 50 new cases a week in November.
Last week, two people were hospitalized in Beijing, China due to confirmed cases of the plague. One patient is in stable condition while the other remains in critical condition. A third person in the Mongolia province was diagnosed with a different form the virus over the weekend.
Since 2014, five people have died from the plague in China.
The two earlier cases in China were diagnosed as plague in the pneumonic form and not the bubonic (also known as the “Black Death”), or septicemic forms. The third patient was confirmed to have the bubonic plague after catching and eating wild rabbit.
In recent years, hepatitis A has become a much more common threat around the world. Even in the United States, the vaccine-preventable disease has proven to be a problem. While outbreaks in Kentucky and California stand out, the disease has made its way throughout the country.
As we approach the end of 2019, one more state is seeing a rise in the disease.
This year, reports of hepatitis A have risen dramatically in New Jersey, with over 500 cases being reported across the state. Along with these reported cases, six people have died.
Due to this, a public health alert has been issued for the state and there is a strong urging for individuals to receive the vaccine.
