Disease Scares

It seems like the media is intent on getting us worked up about certain diseases. A good example is the SARS bug that was terrorizing Asia in 2003. In total, 8436 cases were reported and 812 people died giving us a mortality rate of just under 10%. Most of those who died were elderly or children. Again with Avian Flu, which has killed about 51 people, we are told it is a serious health threat. According to Fox News up to 70% of the birds in Vietnam are infected, meaning that we can't contain it even if we wanted to.

Why is this not a big deal? If you read all about SARS and the Avian flu, at the end of every story the reason they give for it being so dangerous is that it could mutate into something more deadly. What they don't tell you is that the common influenza virus could do the same. In fact, in 2001 753 people died of influenza in the US alone. This probably goes into the tens of thousands globally. We should be more focused on the Marburg virus that is ravaging (not terrorizing which includes a lot more hype and less deaths) Angola with a 85-90% mortality rate and has already killed almost 250 people. This disease is not pretty. Think of the movie Outbreak. Yet, I didn't even hear about this disease until I stumbled upon a story when reading lots of news. If you didn't hear about SARS though, you must have been in an isolation chamber.

SARS, Avian Flu and Influenza I'm not worried about. Marburg scares me to death if it comes anywhere close to me. How about we try not to hype up these illnesses when they don't deserve it.