Health Curriculum: Unit 1--Main text: Grades 7-11

Fighting Disease:
Health At The End Of The Millennium
Another Wired Curriculum from The United Nations CyberSchoolBus

	Introduction
	How They Work
	How They Spread
	Poverty and Disease
	Prevention
	Immunization

Unit 1
Infectious Diseases: A Concern for All

Fatal complacency

The successes in battling diseases certainly represent great achievements but it is too early to celebrate. It has quickly been realized that complacency can be fatal. Over the past several years, new diseases have emerged while some old ones have come back strong.

New Diseases

At least 30 new diseases have been scientifically identified around the world in the last 20 years. These are referred to as new infectious diseases.

	The existence of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was unknown fifteen years ago. Today more than 20 million adults are estimated to be infected.
	The deadly Ebola virus was unknown 20 years ago. The Ebola haemorrhagic fever outbreak in Zaire in 1995 was fatal in 80% of the cases.
	Hantaviruses were first recognized in the United States in 1993. They cause pulmonary problems and have a fatality rate of over 50%.
	Several new hepatitis viruses have been identified in recent years. Hepatitis B has infected 2 billion people of whom 350 million remain at risk of death from liver disease.

Re-emerging Diseases

Many known diseases that were once under greater control are re-emerging stronger and more resistant than before. These are referred to as re-emerging infectious diseases.

	Tuberculosis, once regarded as virtually under control, is making a deadly comeback. It kills about 3.1 million a year around the world and a drug-resistant strain is spreading in many countries.
	Cholera, absent in South America for decades, struck in Peru in 1991 and has since spread throughout the continent.
	Diphtheria epidemics began in the Russian Federation in 1990 and have been spreading from there causing 100,000 cases.
	Malaria strikes up to 500 million people a year, killing at least 2 million.Malaria has mutated into a drug-resistant strain and, in addition, malaria-carrying mosquitoes have become resistant to insecticides.

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