26. Eradicated and Emerging Infectious Diseases

Full Scope Human Longevity

Lecture Summary
The goal of the medical community is the eradication of communicable infectious diseases. Vaccines have given us the tools necessary to create such a disease-free future. Following complete eradication, vaccinations actually become unnecessary, as with smallpox. However new human diseases are a constant threat. In fact, this threat has never been greater. More pandemics will come that may be more deadly than COVID-19. We need to be ready and be on the lookout constantly.

Key Points
- Smallpox virus (Variola major) formerly killed about 30% of people infected and is thought to have killed 500 million people in its last 100 years of existence, before eradication in 1977.
- Emerging infectious disease are broadly defined as diseases that have recently increased in prevalence or possibly could in the near future.
- Completely new, previously unknown disease are also considered emerging.
- Most new disease come from animal reservoirs
- Diseases that infect humans from animal reservoirs can be dangerous as humans often lack immunity. Our bodies are caught off guard and lack defenses.
- When pathogens obtain mutations, that allow them to spread from human to human, epidemics and even pandemics can occur. This is a dangerous cascade of mutations.
- The prevalence of humans on earth along with our constant encroachment into the natural world, make the possibility of new diseases more likely than ever.
- Feeding our large populations with meat has also led to increased animal production. Chickens, pigs, cattle, and other livestock can harbor disease, become infected with diseases from wild animal populations, that may then potentially spread to humans.
- Many of our most intelligent minds were aware of the danger of truly novel infectious diseases prior to the COVID19 pandemic.
- Many of these scientists had been sounding alarm bells for years.
- The new mRNA vaccines used to combat COVID19 were first conceptualized in the 1990s. Such vaccines were meant to speed up the novel vaccine production pipeline, in anticipation of future epidemics and pandemics.
- Scientists and public health officials are being attacked right now. These individuals will save us from much more devastating pandemics in the future. This attack on science needs to stop, or we will pay dearly in the future!

References
- Vourc'h, G., Bridges, V. E., Gibbens, J., De Groot, B. D., McIntyre, L., Poland, R....Barnouin, J. (2006). Detecting Emerging Diseases in Farm Animals through Clinical Observations. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 12(2), 204-210.
- USDA. National H5/H7 Avian Influenza Surveillance Plan. Available at: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/downloads/animal_diseases/ai/surveillance-plan.pdf
- CDC. Understanding and Explaining mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/hcp/mrna-vaccine-basics.html
- McArthur DB. Emerging Infectious Diseases. Nurs Clin North Am. 2019 Jun;54(2):297-311. doi: 10.1016/j.cnur.2019.02.006. Epub 2019
- Moore ZS, Seward JF, Lane JM. Smallpox. Lancet. 2006 Feb 4;367(9508):425-35.
- Wikipedia. Smallpox, Emerging Infectious Disease, Eradications of Infectious Diseases, Rinderpest, influenza.
- Wolfe ND, Dunavan CP, Diamond J. Origins of major human infectious diseases. Nature. 2007 May 17;447(7142):279-83.