| December 3, 2008 | -
Zimbabwe, with unemployment at 90 percent and inflation at 23 million percent, said it would issue new $200 million notes. Police in Harare clashed with marching doctors and nurses who were protesting the 10,000 cases of cholera in the country; the Limpopo River was declared infected. “Defecating everywhere,” said one victim.
| Source 1:
CNN
Source 2:
BBC News
|
| February 15, 2008 | - The Centers for Disease Control reported that fewer children died while playing the “choking game” last year than in the two years prior.
| Source:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
|
| September 29, 2007 | - A 14-year-old boy was reported to be the sixth American to die this year after contracting a brain-eating amoeba that thrives in warm-water lakes.
| Source:
AP via azfamily.com
|
| June 20, 2007 | - Benign forms of E. coli had learned to reproduce in sand, indicating higher overall microbe content for American beaches; scientists advised beachgoers to bathe after their outings, and researchers warned that children digging holes at beaches, at construction sites, and in sandboxes often die when their holes collapse.
| Source 1:
Live Science
Source 2:
Washington Post
|
| March 30, 2007 | - U.S. government health officials warned of the risk of salmonella from live Easter chicks.
| Source:
AP via local6.com
|
| March 2, 2007 | - Social scientists found that Americans born after 1982 have succumbed to an epidemic of pathological narcissism.
| Source:
Christian Science Monitor
|
| November 13, 2006 | - There was a fistula epidemic in Congo; doctors said this was because after gang-raping women, men were shoving sticks, pipes, or gun barrels into their victims' vaginas.
| Source:
MSNBC
|
| August 1, 2006 | - An epidemic of bird flu among geese in northern China was driving up the price of badminton shuttlecocks.
| Source:
CNN
|
| August 1, 2006 | -
Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control failed in their attempts to create a more virulent strain of bird flu.
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| July 17, 2006 | - Advisers at federally funded “pregnancy resource centers” were telling women that abortions increase the risk of cancer, infertility, and mental illness.
| Source:
Reuters via Yahoo News
|
| June 6, 2006 | -
Bird flu was discovered in Prince Edward Island.
| Source:
GlobeAndMail.com
|
| May 16, 2006 | -
Plague was found at a campground in Utah.
| Source:
Findlaw
|
| May 14, 2006 | - Bird flu appeared to have been eradicated in Thailand and Vietnam.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| May 12, 2006 | - In south Texas 100 people had been diagnosed with Morgellons disease. "These people," said a nurse practitioner, "will have like beads of sweat but it's black, black and tarry." "It looked," said the mother of a Morgellons patient, "like a piece of spaghetti was sticking out about a quarter to an eighth of an inch long, and it was sticking out of his chest."
| Source:
MYSA.com
|
| May 4, 2006 | - There was a marked increase in cases of fish
lice.
| Source:
Practical Fishkeeping
|
| April 19, 2006 | - A woman in Los Angeles was hospitalized for bubonic plague.
| Source:
Times Online
|
| March 26, 2006 | - The world health community was close to eradicating Guinea worm.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| March 21, 2006 | - The World Health Organization reported that 103 humans had died from bird flu since late 2003, mostly in Vietnam and Indonesia.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| March 7, 2006 | -
Britain planned to kill one third of its wild badger population--about 100,000 badgers--in order to slow the spread of bovine
tuberculosis; critics of the plan argued that slaughtering badgers will speed the spread of bovine tuberculosis.
| Source:
The Guardian
|
| February 28, 2006 | - A cat died of bird flu in Germany.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| February 20, 2006 | -
Scientists found that new infectious diseases were emerging at a faster rate than they had in the past. "These are good times," said a scientist, "for pathogens to be invading the human population."
| Source:
BBC News
|
| January 30, 2006 | - A teenage girl in northern Iraq was reported to have died of bird flu.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| January 29, 2006 | -
Marine James Blake Miller, whose face became emblematic of the Iraq war after he was photographed smoking a cigarette during the November 2004 attack on Fallujah, was at home in Kentucky, where he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and had cut back to a pack and a half a day.
| Source:
SFGate.com
|
| January 16, 2006 | - Western Australian Premier Geoff Gallop resigned due to depression. “I now need the space required,” he said, “to start the process of full recovery.”
| Source:
ABC News Online
|
| December 1, 2005 | - In Gabon and Congo, scientists traced the origin of the Ebola virus to three different species of fruit bat; by stopping people from eating the bats, a scientist suggested, the spread of the virus could be slowed.
| Source:
LA Times
|
| November 11, 2005 | -
Bird flu arrived in Kuwait.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| November 7, 2005 | -
Polio was eradicated in Sierra Leone.
| Source:
AllAfrica.com
|
| November 2, 2005 | - Twenty-three people had died in Brazil from rabies transmitted by vampire bats.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| November 1, 2005 | -
President Bush asked Congress for $7.1 billion to fight bird flu.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| October 27, 2005 | - A woman in Texas came down with dengue fever.
| Source:
Austin-American Statesman
|
| October 24, 2005 | - In the UK a quarantined parrot died from the H5N1 strain of avian flu. Croatian swans were dying of flu, and pigeons in Australia were under close observation.
| Source 1:
BBC News
Source 2:
CNN.com
Source 3:
ABC News
|
| October 15, 2005 | - Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned that a pandemic was on its way. “It's not a matter of when or if,” he said.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| October 13, 2005 | -
Avian flu arrived in Romania and Turkey. In response, Bulgaria refused entry to a flock of 20 circus doves that had been performing in Turkey.
| Source 1:
BBC News
Source 2:
Reuters
|
| October 5, 2005 | -
President Bush expressed concern over bird flu and asked Congress to consider legislation that would allow the U.S. Army to enforce quarantines in case of a pandemic.
| Source:
IndyStar.com
|
| September 15, 2005 | - Two plague-infected mice were missing in New Jersey.
| Source:
MSNBC
|
| September 6, 2005 | -
Encephalitis had killed at least 600 people in India.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| August 12, 2005 | - A Florida man was cited for painting “die you miserable bitch” on the side of his house; the words were directed at his seventy-three-year-old neighbor, who has cancer.
| Source:
The St. Petersburg Times
|
| August 4, 2005 | - Prairie dogs in Colorado were found to have the plague.
| Source:
9News.com
|
| July 26, 2005 | -
New Mexico announced its first case of bubonic plague in two years. “Plague,” said a New Mexico man who contracted the illness in 2002, “changes your life forever.”
| Source:
TheNewMexicoChannel.com
|
| July 9, 2005 | - Cats were suffering from plague in Wyoming.
| Source:
USA Today
|
| June 6, 2005 | - A vaccine against the Ebola and Marburg viruses was found to work on monkeys.
| Source:
News24.com
|
| May 25, 2005 | - A hamster-borne
virus, transmitted through donated human organs, was linked to the deaths of six people since 2003.
| Source:
MSNBC
|
| May 16, 2005 | - The polio outbreak in Yemen was getting worse.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| May 12, 2005 | -
Mali sentenced eleven men to jail for refusing to let their children be vaccinated for polio; in Nigeria, several states have banned the vaccine because they believe it will make their daughters sterile.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| May 6, 2005 | - An outbreak of meningitis in India killed fifteen.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| May 6, 2005 | - A seventeen-year-old woman was thrown out of her village in India after her stomach swelled up; villagers believed she was carrying the “devil's child,” but the swelling turned out to be a 33-pound tumor the size of five fetuses.
| Source:
News24.com
|
| May 6, 2005 | - In San Francisco, twelve penguins died of chlamydia.
| Source:
AP
|
| May 4, 2005 | - A second case of polio was reported in Indonesia.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| April 29, 2005 | - There was an outbreak of polio in Yemen.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| April 18, 2005 | - Samples of the deadly Asian
flu were accidentally mailed out to 3,700 labs worldwide. Several samples were missing.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| April 8, 2005 | - In Florida, investigators traced an outbreak of E. coli to a petting zoo.
| Source:
KansasCity.com
|
| April 5, 2005 | - The Marburg virus was still killing people in Angola.
| Source:
Medical News Today
|
| March 16, 2005 | - The Department of Homeland Security was preparing for: the detonation of a ten-kiloton nuclear device; a biological attack with aerosolized anthrax; an outbreak of pneumonic plague; a flu pandemic starting in south China; the spraying of a chemical blister agent over a football stadium; an attack on an oil refinery; the explosion of a tank of chlorine; a 7.2-magnitude earthquake; a major hurricane in a metropolitan area; three Cesium-137 dirty bombs going off in three different cities, each contaminating thirty-six city blocks; the detonation of improvised bombs in sports stadiums and emergency rooms; liquid anthrax in ground beef; a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak; and a cyber attack on the nation's financial infrastructure.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| March 12, 2005 | - A study showed that thousands might die of the avian flu in New Zealand.
| Source:
Canada.com
|
| March 10, 2005 | - It was likely that half a billion people had malaria.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| February 20, 2005 | - Scientists were waiting for H5N1, an avian flu virus that has killed forty-one people in Thailand and Vietnam, to mutate into a form that can spread more rapidly among humans. If that happens, the flu is expected to kill tens of millions worldwide. Thailand rejected a plan to slow the spread of the flu because the plan's execution—which called for the destruction of millions of possibly infected ducks and chickens and the distribution of face masks—would alarm the public.
| Source:
The Independent
|
| January 11, 2005 | -
Herpes struck the horses of Michigan.
| Source:
San Jose Mercury News
|
| December 30, 2004 | - The World Health Organization warned that outbreaks of cholera and dysentery resulting from a lack of clean drinking water could easily double the number of people killed by the Indian Ocean tsunami.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| December 21, 2004 | - A study found that the terminally ill do not, as is commonly believed, hold on to life until major events, like birthdays or holidays, transpire. Rather, they simply die.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| November 17, 2004 | -
Cholera killed 42 in Nigeria.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| October 30, 2004 | - The World Health Organization announced that avian flu probably has not mutated into a form that can pass from human to human.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| October 25, 2004 | - A 14-year-old Thai girl died of avian flu.
| Source:
Agence France-Presse
|
| October 20, 2004 | - Twenty-three tigers died in a Thai zoo after they were fed infected
chickens.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| October 18, 2004 | - Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson said that the flu vaccine debacle is "not a health crisis,"
| Source:
CNN
|
| October 15, 2004 | - A study found that Gulf War Syndrome was caused by toxic chemicals.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| October 15, 2004 | - An Australian doctor claimed that one of his patients had a sleep disorder that caused her to sneak out of her house at night and have sex with strangers.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| October 15, 2004 | - Scientists announced a relatively successful trial of a new malaria vaccine.
| Source:
Forbes
|
| October 7, 2004 | - Public health experts have long warned that it is insane for the United States to depend on two companies for the country's flu vaccine.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| October 6, 2004 | -
Britain suspended the license of the factory in Liverpool that was supposed to manufacture almost half the American supply of this year's flu vaccine.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| October 2, 2004 | - Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, began notifying more than 500 patients that they might have been exposed to sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease because of inadequate sterilization procedures.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| October 1, 2004 | - Cases of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) were on the rise.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| October 1, 2004 | - A new study suggested that vitamin supplements could increase the risk of dying from cancer.
| Source:
Guardian
|
| September 30, 2004 | -
Thai health officials confirmed that avian flu has probably begun to spread from person to person. Influenza experts were begging drug companies to begin manufacturing enough vaccine to prevent a pandemic but the companies were complaining that production is too expensive and that they will lose money if a pandemic does not occur. Patent issues were also cited.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| September 14, 2004 | - Efforts to control the global spread of tuberculosis were failing.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| September 14, 2004 | - A new study found that Legionella bacteria, the cause of Legionnaire's disease, lurks in a quarter of all hot tubs.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| September 8, 2004 | - British psychologists warned that people who keep diaries are more likely to suffer from headaches, insomnia, digestive complaints, and social problems.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| September 6, 2004 | -
Malaysia announced another outbreak of bird flu.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| September 3, 2004 | -
New Jersey man died of Lassa fever.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| August 31, 2004 | - It was discovered that full-body CT scans expose patients to the same level of radiation that people a few miles from Hiroshima received in World War II, and that the scans increase one's risk of developing cancer.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| August 27, 2004 | - The World Health Organization said that hepatitis E cases have tripled in the last month in Darfur.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| August 26, 2004 | - The United States for the first time issued an outline for a plan for possible actions that might be taken to prepare to respond to an influenza pandemic.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| August 25, 2004 | - A study found that women who drink more than one soft drink per day are more likely to develop diabetes.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| August 25, 2004 | -
Polio continued to spread in Africa.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| August 15, 2004 | - A new report concluded that deaths from brain diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and motor neurone disease have tripled in the last 20 years.
| Source:
Guardian
|
| August 14, 2004 | - A Texas dentist died after contracting a flesh-eating bacteria called
vibrio vulnificus
,
| Source:
Health Talk
|
| August 13, 2004 | - a crow in Oregon tested positive for West Nile virus,
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| August 13, 2004 | - People born in January and February, a study found, are at greatest risk of getting brain cancer, while those born in July and August are least likely to develop it.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| August 12, 2004 | - and three Vietnamese died of bird flu.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| July 23, 2004 | -
West Nile encephalitis killed a man in California, and
| Source:
Reuters
|
| July 17, 2004 | - The United Nations continued to issue warnings about the ongoing genocide in Sudan, where Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, have been slaughtering and raping black farmers in Darfur; more than one million people have fled their homes and hundreds of thousands of refugees could soon die of cholera and other diseases.
| Source:
Reuters, Associated Press
|
| July 9, 2004 | - Four organ-transplant recipients died from rabies; all four received tissue from the same infected donor.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| July 7, 2004 | - Avian flu reappeared in Thailand and China and Vietnam.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| June 25, 2004 | - Experts warned that witches' broom disease and frosty pod disease could devastate chocolate supplies in coming years, and
| Source:
News.scotsman.com
|
| June 23, 2004 | - Health experts warned of a possible polio epidemic in western and central Africa.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| June 18, 2004 | - New strains of Vancomycin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus
bacteria were found in eight countries; Vancomycin is considered the antibiotic of last resort.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| June 1, 2004 | - An Israeli study found that 48 percent of doctors' neckties carry at least one infectious disease.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| May 29, 2004 | - Authorities in Texas killed 24,000 chickens after avian flu was found on a farm near Sulphur Springs.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| May 29, 2004 | - Thirteen million pounds of raw almonds were recalled because of salmonella contamination.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| May 28, 2004 | - The first U.S. case of West Nile virus in 2004 was reported in New Mexico.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| May 27, 2004 | - A researcher at the University of Michigan found evidence that the large increase in asthma and allergies over the last twenty years has been caused by antibiotics.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| May 25, 2004 | - A Russian scientist died of Ebola fever.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 16, 2004 | -
Researchers at Harvard University found that drinking alcohol can double a man's chances of getting gout.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| April 8, 2004 | -
British researchers discovered a previously unknown prion disease among sheep.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| April 8, 2004 | - Aventis Pasteur recalled its Imovax rabies vaccine because a live strain of the virus was found in one batch.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| April 6, 2004 | -
Canada ordered the slaughter of 19 million chickens, turkeys, and ducks to stop the spread of bird flu.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 6, 2004 | - Scientists discovered that regular consumption of pig whipworm eggs can cure inflammatory bowel disease.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| March 30, 2004 | - It was reported that the U.S. government's main laboratory for mad-cow testing, which is located in an Iowa strip mall, is not secure enough to store dangerous pathogens.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| March 25, 2004 | - Researchers announced that circumcised men are six to eight times less likely to contract the HIV virus.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| March 18, 2004 | -
Ape
hunters in Africa have contracted simian foamy virus, a study found.
| Source:
MSNBC
|
| March 13, 2004 | - Hundreds of elk in Wyoming were dying of a strange disease.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| March 10, 2004 | - A study found that teenagers who vow to remain virgins were almost as likely to catch a venereal disease as normal teens.
| Source:
Guardian
|
| March 8, 2004 | -
Avian flu was found on two more U.S. farms.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| February 26, 2004 | -
Ivory Coast confirmed a new case of polio; tests confirmed that the polio originated in Nigeria, which has resisted vaccination programs for religious reasons.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| February 25, 2004 | - The European Union banned live poultry and eggs from the United States because of the bird-flu outbreak, and the United States banned all French meat and poultry.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| February 25, 2004 | - French researchers concluded that oral sex can lead to oral cancer.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| February 17, 2004 | -
Italian scientists discovered a new form of mad cow disease that could be the cause of some cases of "sporadic" Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| February 16, 2004 | -
Bird flu continued to spread in Asia; some Thai fighting cocks were found to be infected, and a clouded leopard died of the disease in a zoo near Bangkok.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| February 16, 2004 | - Several farms in Delaware and Maryland were under quarantine because of a bird-flu outbreak.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| February 16, 2004 | - A different strain of the bird fluvirus showed up in Pennsylvania.
| Source:
Forbes
|
| February 11, 2004 | - The British Medical Association reported that smoking increases the risk of impotence, infertility, cervical cancer, miscarriage, stillbirth, sudden infant death syndrome, low birth weight, placental complications, and cleft palate.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| February 7, 2004 | -
Bird flu jumped the species barrier to pigs.
| Source:
Independent
|
| February 2, 2004 | - The World Health Organization reported a possible case of human-to-human transmission of the avian flu that has killed millions of birds across Asia and at least 12 people.
| Source:
BBC
|
| February 1, 2004 | -
China reported a new SARS case after the patient had already recovered.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| January 28, 2004 | -
Dutch
researchers found that some migraines are caused by brain disease.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| January 28, 2004 | - A polio case was confirmed in the Central African Republic, which had been free of the disease since 2000.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| January 28, 2004 | - Scientists discovered a new neurodegenerative disease that affects older men called fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome.
| Source:
Globe and Mail
|
| January 26, 2004 | - Avian influenza was spreading across Asia; the World Health Organization said it was the largest outbreak in history.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| January 26, 2004 | -
Indonesia said that millions of chickens had died of the flu in recent weeks, and workers in Thailand were bagging live chickens and burying them in pits.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| January 19, 2004 | -
Polio was spreading from Nigeria to other countries in Africa.
| Source:
AllAfrica.com
|
| January 18, 2004 | - The United States placed an import embargo on civet cats, which apparently carry SARS.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| January 16, 2004 | - Scientists found that the Ebola virus can spread from dead animals such as gorillas to human beings, and genetic analysis suggested that the five recent outbreaks of the disease were caused by five distinct strains of the virus, which is among the most contagious known, rather than one strain that had mutated. "If Ebola is popping up randomly," said one scientist, "then things are pretty hopeless."
| Source:
Nature.com
|
| January 14, 2004 | - Disease experts warned that the bird flu infecting humans in Vietnam could combine with the human influenza virus and start a global pandemic.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| January 8, 2004 | - A second case of SARS was reported in China, in a waitress who works in a restaurant that serves civet; the first SARS patient, who has apparently recovered, has had no known contact with civets, but there were reports that he had recently thrown a mouse out his window using chopsticks.
| Source:
New Scientist, New York Times
|
| January 7, 2004 | -
Chinese authorities were drowning civet cats in chemicals, electrocuting them, and burning them in hopes of preventing further SARS cases; rats, raccoon dogs, and hog badgers are also being exterminated.
| Source:
New York Times, Associated Press
|
| January 4, 2004 | - One government expert pointed out that Americans are much more likely to die of E. coli, listeria, or salmonella than from mad cow disease; in fact, since the mad Holstein was discovered in Washington, more than 1 million Americans were poisoned by their food, 6,000 were hospitalized, and 100 died.
| Source:
Seattle Times
|
| December 27, 2003 | -
China reported a new SARS case.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| December 17, 2003 | -
Taiwan reported a new SARS case, but said that the patient was a researcher who was exposed in a lab.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| December 16, 2003 | -
Scientists were planning to use giant pouched rats to sniff out tuberculosis.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| November 28, 2003 | - Infectious-disease experts suggested that Alexander the Great died of West Nile fever.
| Source:
Nature.com
|
| November 17, 2003 | - Researchers at MIT and Harvard found that cancer tumors follow a universal law of growth,
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| November 14, 2003 | - People were still dying of Ebola fever in the Congo.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| November 10, 2003 | - One in seven American
schoolchildren was found to be at risk of heart disease.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| November 7, 2003 | -
Ebola fever was killing people in the Congo.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| October 29, 2003 | - American scientists deliberately engineered a new extra-deadly form of mousepox; much the same thing has been done with cowpox and rabbitpox.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| October 25, 2003 | - Facial tumors were killing off Tasmanian devils,
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| September 18, 2003 | - British authorities were worried about the recent popularity of "dogging," or meeting strangers in public for unprotected sex, and they said that sexually transmitted diseases were on the rise.
| Source:
BBC
|
| July 31, 2003 | - To dispel fears of SARS, the Canadian government sponsored a rock concert, popularly known as "SARSstock," for 430,000 attendees.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| July 29, 2003 | - The number of AIDS cases in the U.S. was shown to be rising for the first time in ten years.
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| July 29, 2003 | - China reportedly had developed an android "robo-nurse" to care for patients during future SARS outbreaks.
| Source:
Ananova
|
| July 21, 2003 | -
Scientists in Rome concluded that pizza prevents cancer.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| July 20, 2003 | - The Bush Administration was lobbying to amend a provision of the Kyoto Protocol that would phase out methyl bromide, the single most ozone-destructive chemical still used in industrialized nations.
Scientists estimate that the ban would prevent 2 million cases of cancer in the United States and Europe alone; the administration's proposed amendment would increase the chemical's use threefold.
| Source:
Independent
|
| July 13, 2003 | - Legionnaires' disease was on the rise.
| |
