Flu season can often be a time of year that varies. We expect the season to start around fall and end during the start of summer, but that timeline can change.

That’s because the virus is highly contagious and spreads different strains every year.

Some strains of the virus might spread late in the season, with flu cases popping up late into summer. Others will slow down early and end before children get out of school.

According to CDC calculations, they estimate approximately 13 to 15 million people will have the flu this year. They also suggest that 6 to 7 million people went to the doctor for experiencing flu symptoms and between 10,000 and 15,000 individuals have perished from the disease. These figures are based on information gathered in mid-February this year.

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In many of the world’s developing countries, we still can’t get a hold of cholera.

An ongoing outbreak in Yemen has already shattered records with no signs of stopping. Haiti’s decade-long outbreak cost over a million lives after one devastating earthquake.

If a country’s water supply becomes tainted, chances of a cholera outbreak skyrocket. Not only will the drinking water pose a risk for the Vibrio cholerae bacterium, but food will too. Any food or water that comes in contact with the contaminated water could be the cause of cholera’s symptoms that could prove deadly.

On March 11th Cyclone Idai made landfall along Africa’s southeast shoreline. They disaster struck the nation of Mozambique, as well as parts of Zimbabwe and Malawi. The port city of Beira, with over half a million people, was among the region that endured the most of the cyclone’s devastation left in its wake.

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Years ago we learned that women can still contract HPV without sexual intercourse. The good news is that the HPV vaccine has caused a significant drop in cervical cancer cases for women.

But, this discovery showed a further danger for a sexually transmitted infection that can even increase heart problems for women.

If women can get the virus without sexual intercourse, what about men?

While a man with HPV cannot get cervical cancer, the virus still poses a great risk for men. While rare, the virus can still cause some dangerous symptoms. Worse, they can spread the disease to another person without even knowing of their own infection.
Studies in recent years show men who abstain from sexual activity can still be infected with the HPV.

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Recommended for most travelers, the typhoid vaccination has helped save countless lives and provided protection against a troubling illness. We recently learned the vaccine may even protect against many diseases besides typhoid.

But, who originally created the typhoid vaccine?

Credit for the vaccination is granted to not one man, but two: Sir Almroth Wright and Richard Pfeiffer.

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The spread of measles around the world has been relentless over the past year. Over half the states in the U.S. reported increased measles cases in 2018. Airplane passengers also seem to be an unaware source of many new measles cases.

The most recent measles emergency comes from a California hospital that recently had to tell 200 patients they were exposed to the disease due to one infected child.

Earlier this month Sacramento, California hospital UC Davis Health announced that they sent several hundred letters notifying of possible measles exposure to patients who went to the emergency department on March 17th.

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The chikungunya virus can be traced back to an outbreak in Africa, more specifically a border area. The Makonde Plateau between Mozambique and Tanzania appears to be the source of this mosquito-borne disease.

Likely originating in the Eastern and Central areas of Africa, the virus was first discovered in 1952. The word “Chikungunya” is said to have come from the Makonde language where it means “that which bends up.”

That may seem like an odd way to describe a virus, but the name comes from a symptom. When infected with chikungunya, the illness can cause severe joint pain. That pain can cause a more stooped posture from the arthritic symptoms of the disease.

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They may be deadly in some cases, but vaccines have changed the way we handle many mosquito-borne diseases. Immunizations for yellow fever and Japanese encephalitis have helped much of the world avoid those diseases.

But, we’re still unable to fight many similar illnesses.

Scientists still search for vaccines to prevent West Nile and Zika virus. Many have even resorted to giving mosquitoes diet pills to reduce those diseases. The Chikungunya virus is in six of the seven continents and Dengue fever infects more than 390 million individuals every year. And let’s not forget Malaria, which affects over 214 million people annually.

These illnesses are deadly, and millions of people can lose their lives due to the effects.

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For many people, the idea of travel is enticing except for one important part: airplanes. Like traveling alone, fears of air travel can keep a person from boarding a plane and with little or no options to visit a new destination.

In 2017 a record 4 billion people worldwide used air travel to reach a new destination. Even in the United States, over 2.5 million people travel every single day.

Out of the people who fly in the U.S. alone, between 2.5 and 6.5%, about 10-20 million people, are afraid of flying.

What makes people scared of flying? Further, how can they overcome this phobia to get through a flight?

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Around the world every year, there are an estimated 2.9 million reported cases of cholera.

That staggering statistic happens despite constant work to reduce cholera cases. Officials continue to try and improve drinking water and sanitation in developing countries. But, the disease still causes over 100,000 deaths every year, according to Eureka Alert.

As another step in the fight against cholera, the WHO created a Global Task Force for Cholera Control. The organization then set a goal to eliminate cholera as a public health threat by 2030.

One crucial part of this plan is better information on active cholera cases. We need to be able to keep track of cases as accurately as possible.

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Today, epidemiology is a valuable field of study which plays a role in eradicating diseases. It helps us prevent outbreaks, craft preventative measures and treat illnesses.

But, it wasn’t so long ago that the world didn’t have this practice and suffered much more drastic consequences from each case of sickness.

Stories of the most rudimentary vaccines stretch back a few hundred years, but epidemiology is a bit younger.

Described by Merriam Webster as, “medical science that deals with the incidence, distribution, and control of disease in a population,” epidemiology’s origins are largely credited to legendary Victorian doctor John Snow. His claim to fame in discovering that cholera is spread by a parasite through contaminated water or food. Snow’s work even earned the nickname “the father of epidemiology.”

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