SKYWATCH BREAKING NEWS: VIRAL ALERTFeb 21, 2006
NEW DISEASES
Photo Left: HIV is thought to have started as a monkey or ape virus in Africa
AT least one new disease is jumping the species barrier from animals to human beings every year, exposing people to emerging germs at a rate that may be unprecedented.
The first work to catalogue the range of germs capable of infecting people has disclosed that 38 new human pathogens have emerged in the past 25 years. Three quarters of these, including Aids, avian flu, Sars and new variant CJD, originated as animal diseases.
The survey, led by Mark Woolhouse, of the University of Edinburgh, has identified more than 1,400 pathogens that can cause disease in human beings, at least 800 of which crossed the species barrier from animals.
RELATED STORY: Germany fears bird flu is getting out of control
Feb 21, 2006
Germany today reported 22 new cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, as politicians gave warning that the virus was getting out of control.
Till Backhaus, a German agriculture minister, said that he believed that there was now a growing risk of H5N1 spreading to the country’s poultry farms.
The disease - previously confined to the Baltic island of Ruegen - has now been confirmed on the German mainland. A state of emergency was declared in two districts of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, to allow the army to be deployed for disease control measures.
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