Ebola Crisis Deepens

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has claimed 729 lives in four countries thus far, making it the deadliest and widest ranging such outbreak the world has ever seen. Dozens of healthcare workers have fallen victim, complicating efforts to combat it. Though the disease is outpacing current efforts to contain its spread, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) still believes that the “unprecedented” outbreak could be stopped if proper steps are taken at both the national and international levels. To this end, a new, $100 million (75 million euro) Ebola response plan is being launched to combat the disease. More… Discuss

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MULTINATIONAL DISEASE PREVENTION AND CONTAINMENT INITIATIVE

In our increasingly globalized world, the threat ofepidemics and pandemics looms larger with each passing day. We have seen several outbreaks of dangerous, potentially fatal, contagious illnesses in recent years, some of which spread across borders and even oceans. In an effort to prevent avoidable epidemics, twenty-seven countries jointly launched the Global Health Security Agenda, a multinational initiative to improve the prevention, detection, response to, and containment of infectious disease outbreaks.More… Discuss

 

One of the First Major Outbreaks of St. John’s Dance (1374)

Germany was the site of one of the first outbreaks of dancing mania, a phenomenon seen primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. During such outbreaks, groups of up to thousands of people would dance uncontrollably, screaming, shouting, and claiming to have visions until they collapsed from exhaustion. Initially considered a curse sent by a saint, usually St. John the Baptist, it was called “St. John’s Dance.” To what do researchers now attribute the strange behavior? More… Discuss

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• Dancing mania (frontierpsychiatrist.co.uk)