WHO experts say no cause for concern ... what could possibly go wrong ... Bird flu: China sees first human case of rare H10N3 strain
So wasn't bird flu the thing we all were afraid of but nothin happened? Whereas covid19 was the thing we weren't afraid of that went viral (so to speak ). I think we are over bird flu.
Oh boy oh boy oh boy ... Ebola's more sneaky little cousin has reared it's head again. One case in Guinea and two in Germany The WHO's Africa director Dr Matshidiso Moeti said the virus had the potential to "spread far and wide". But she praised "the alertness and the quick investigative action by Guinea's health workers". Efforts are now under way to find people who may have been in contact with the man who died Marburg virus: Man who died in Guinea found to have disease
Pick your favourite. Any one will do. Take your time. Department of Health | Australian national notifiable diseases by disease type
There's constantly been new diseases coming out. Most tend to be fairly localised. What appears to have made COVID-19 different is that it's a little deadly, reasonably transmissible, but mostly that it transmits when people show no signs of infection. This has allowed it to spread undetected. Now imagine if you combine the trait of long infectious incubation periods, with the infective of Chickenpox and the mortality rate of SARS. Then we've really have a problem. This pandemic would only be a dress rehearsal.
Antimicrobial resistance is apparently the biggest threat to human health 'Superbugs' a far greater risk than Covid in Pacific, scientist warns
Actually, I take that back. Obesity is a pandemic. It’s affecting a large proportion of the world, having significant impact on the health of individuals (leading to many other complications) and health systems.
A bogan virus is always a threat and exists within the urban sprawl of all major cities of the world. Pretty easy to detect by their dress sense and with more mullets than a fish market. Although fairly easily contained there is the occasion where they may escape and enter the political arena with dire consequences.
Good definition from WikiPedia: A pandemic is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of people. A widespread endemic disease with a stable number of infected people is not a pandemic. Obesity, diabetes and heart disease are not pandemics - they are not infectious. They are endemic diseases. More specifically - endemic diseases are ones which affect a local, specific area and are not spread beyond that. Pandemic diseases are ones which spread beyond a local area (ie affect multiple countries). A disease needs to be infectious for it to become a pandemic because endemic diseases do not "spread". Just because obesity, diabetes and heart disease are found worldwide, does not make them a pandemic because they did not spread between countries - you can't catch them. They are simply diseases that are endemic to most countries. It's a subtle but important difference - the term "pandemic" is used in specific situations to describe a disease that has exponential growth and affects multiple countries or populations. The term epidemic refers to an unexpected increase in the number of disease cases in a specific geographic area - but they don't necessarily need to be contagious. For example, if a whole bunch of people suddenly developed cancer in one area - you could call that an epidemic. It is reasonable to use the term epidemic to describe obestity, diabetes and heart disease.