Take 5: Outbreaks

The E coli or Escherichia coli outbreak in Germany which began in early May,is among the deadliest of its kind recorded in modern history.

E coli

The E coli or Escherichia coli outbreak in Germany which began in early May,is among the deadliest of its kind recorded in modern history. It has infected more than 2,200 people in at least 12 countriesall of them had been travelling in Northern Germany. It has killed more than 20 people and many of the infected have developed a potentially deadly disease,haemolytic uraemic syndrome HUS that affects the kidneys. It has now emerged that the outbreak was probably caused by bean sprouts grown in Germany and not cucumbers from Spain as was previously believed.

Swine flu

HINI swine flu was derived from a strain which lived in pigs,and this gave rise to its common nameswine flu. The outbreak first appeared in Mexico in 2009 and was followed by a number of cases around the world,including UK. The World Health Organization WHO declared it a pandemic in June 2009. It spread from one person to another through the transmission of respiratory droplets and not by eating pork or pork products. It had caused 15,921 deaths worldwide by the end of February 2010. By summer 2010,the virus levels fell and WHO declared it to be over,according to the BBC.

SARS

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome SARS was identified in February 2003. It was seen as a new disease by the WHO physician Dr Carlo Urbani,who diagnosed it in a 48-year-old businessman who had travelled from China,through Hong Kong,to Hanoi,Vietnam and later died due to the illness. Urbani also died from SARS on March 29,2003. Meanwhile,it continued to spread and infected thousands of people across the world,in Asia,Europe,Africa and North and South America. WHO called it a global health threat and issued a travel advisory. However,by June 2003,it had subsided and travel advisories began to be lifted.

Avian influenza Bird flu

The H5N1 virus,an emerging avian influenza virus,has been posing a global concern as a potential pandemic. Often referred to as bird flu or avian influenza,it has killed millions of poultry in countries throughout Asia,Europe and Africa. Since the first H5N1 outbreak in 1987,there has been an increasing number of bird-to-human transmissions leading to severe human infections. On January 18,2009,a 27-year-old woman from eastern China died of bird flu. Chinese authorities said she was the second person to die from the deadly virus at that time. According to CNN Health,it has killed more than 200 people since 2003.

Marburg virus

An outbreak of Marburg virus broke out in October 2004 killing 227 people in Angola, making it the deadliest outbreak of the rare disease ever recorded. Marburg was named after the German town where it was first identified in 1967. Marburg is hemorrhagic fever which spreads through contact with bodily fluids and can kill rapidly. According to the National Geographic,the worst Marburg outbreak occurred between 1998 and 2000 in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo,where it killed 123 people. According to a joint statement by the Health Ministry and the WHO,the last case of the virus was recorded on July 27 2005.