Disease will continue to be with us in the 21st century. The outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) reminds us, once again, that unexpected transmissions or mutations of known viruses suddenly give rise to new deadly diseases that threaten communities worldwide. The rapid response of the World Health Organization and the global health community has so far prevented SARS from becoming an even greater global health threat, and there is some hope that it can be contained. This is perhaps the greatest lesson learned from our experience with another virus that first emerged some 22 years ago and now threatens virtually every community all over the world: the HIV virus (see our earlier E-Alert on HIV/AIDS). But "old" diseases persist, and in some cases have re-emerged or grown increasingly resistant to conventional treatment.

In this first of two UN Chronicle E-Alerts devoted to diseases and their threat to global health security, we present not only an article on SARS, which will feature in our upcoming issue (2, 2003) of our print edition, but also a selection of our past coverage on various diseases that pose a global health threat, such as ebola, malaria and tuberculosis. In our next E-Alert, we will focus on efforts to combat these global health threats.

PART 1 — EMERGING AND RE-EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Issue 2, 2003

• “SARS: A New Global Health Threat”
  by Erika Reinhardt, for the UN Chronicle

• “Halting and Beginning to Reverse the Incidence of Malaria...... and Other Major Diseases”
  by Erika Reinhardt, for the UN Chronicle
  
  
• “In Burkina Faso — Needed: A Meningitis Vaccine”  

• “Ebola Returns”
  by Erika Reinhardt, for the UN Chronicle

• “The Ebola Virus and the Challenges to Health Research in Africa”
  by Daniel Bausch, medical epidemiologist at the Special Pathogens Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.

• “Will It Reach On Time?
  Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases”
  by Yvonne Acosta, for the UN Chronicle
  
  
• “Tuberculosis: The Leading Infectious Killer of Adults...
  And the Single Biggest Killer of Young Women”  
  
  
• “Malaria, in Second Place, Sees Fewer Victims, But Greater Difficulty of Control”

PART 2 - COMBATING GLOBAL HEALTH THREATS

Web Articles

• "New WHO Head: Dr. Jong-Wook Lee elected
  Director-General”
  by Nuchhi R. Currier, for the UN Chronicle

• "Measles: Unnecessary Deaths and Disabilities”
  by Consuelo Remmert, for the UN Chronicle

Issue 1, 2003

• "Two Million New Cases Each Year:
  A Veterinarian's Fight Against Leishmaniasis”
  by Inayatullah H. Kathio, D.V.M., Pittston and Wilkes-Barre Animal Hospitals, Pennsylvania, United States.
  
  
• "In Afghanistan, Tackling Leishmaniasis and Narcotics”
  

• "Book Excerpt: We're Having a Heat Wave,
  a Tropical Heat Wave”
  by Robert S. Desowitz, Professor Emeritus of tropical medicine and medical microbiology, University of Hawaii.

Issue 2, 2002

• "Partnerships: Where a Child Dies Each Minute”
  by Phyllis A. Cuttino, Vice President, United Nations Foundation

Issue 2, 2001

• "Leprosy: Global Target Attained”

• "What Will Life Be Like in the Twenty-First Century?
  Who Cares? WHO Cares”
  by Yvonne Acosta, for the UN Chronicle

Issue 1, 1998

• River Blindness: Protection for 54 cents a year”
  by Frances Vieta, associated with the FAO Liaison Office in New York

These stories and more can be found at UN Chronicle Online at www.un.org/chronicle.

The UN Chronicle print edition is published by the United Nations Department of Public Information in English and French, and co-published in Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. It is not an official record; the views expressed in individual articles do not necessarily imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.

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Please pass this UN Chronicle E-Alert on to anyone whom you think it might interest.