I think only 1, 1980s HIV. Which, with proper treatment can become a lifelong noninfectious chronic illness instead of a 'plague'. The cure for HIV is in HAART, if only there was a way to deliver consistently to everyone for life.
So winning? 100 years ago the number one killer was infectious disease, now it is heart disease.
You could very well be right, and you are certainly right about the incredible reduction of deaths by infectious diseases during the last 100 years. I'm not sure that is the public perception, however. They think of Mad Cow Disease, SARS, Bird Flu, Swine Flu. Contributing to that misperception, l feel, is what I will call the 'TV news syndrome' (related to what James has referred to as 'we worry about the wrong things').
3 comments:
Are we wining or losing? In the same amount of time, how many new plagues have appeared?
I think only 1, 1980s HIV. Which, with proper treatment can become a lifelong noninfectious chronic illness instead of a 'plague'. The cure for HIV is in HAART, if only there was a way to deliver consistently to everyone for life.
So winning? 100 years ago the number one killer was infectious disease, now it is heart disease.
You could very well be right, and you are certainly right about the incredible reduction of deaths by infectious diseases during the last 100 years. I'm not sure that is the public perception, however. They think of Mad Cow Disease, SARS, Bird Flu, Swine Flu. Contributing to that misperception, l feel, is what I will call the 'TV news syndrome' (related to what James has referred to as 'we worry about the wrong things').
Here is an incredibly well done interactive graph that dramatically demonstrates what we worry about compared to what is dangerous. You can see the actual deaths in parentheses.
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