"It seems we have a much greater enemy in malaria now than we did just a few years ago," Dr. Wen Kilama said. The director-general of Tanzania's National Institute for medical Research was frustrated and angry in 1986. He, and his predecessors, had meticulously followed all the malaria control advice meted out by experts who lived in wealthy, cold countries. But after decades of spending upward of 70 percent of its entire health budget annually on malaria control, Kilama had a worse problem on his hands in 1986 than his his predecessors in 1956...
Since the days when optimists had set out to defeat malaria, hoping to drive the parasites off the face of the earth, the global situation had worsened significantly. Indeed, far more people would die of malaria-associated ailments in 1990 than did in 1960...
In 1990 more than 80 percent of the world's malaria cases were African; 95 percent of all malarial deaths occurred on the African continent. Up to half a billion africans suffered at least one serious malarial episode each year, and typically an individual received some 200-300 infective mosquito bites annually. Up to one million African children died each year of the disease. And all over the continent the key drugs were failing.
ATLANTA--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--April 7, 1997--In conjunction with TBS Superstations airing of The Coming Plague, a four-hour documentary series (airing April 20 & 27) about the state of infectious diseases in our world, the network has commissioned a consumer survey conducted by Marketing & Research Resources, Inc. Five hundred fifteen individuals (249 women, 266 men aged 18 and up from across the country) were interviewed about their perceptions on the state of infectious disease. Below are some of the findings:
Sixty thousand deaths are caused each year in American hospitals from infectious developed in the hospital. Forty-eight percent of respondents estimated it was less than 10,000 deaths, while only seven percent estimated correctly at 60,000 deaths.
One-third of respondents indicated knowing someone who has contracted an infectious disease, while slightly more than one-quarter reported knowing someone who has contracted an infectious disease after entering the hospital.
Not finishing antibiotic prescriptions is one of the leading reasons for the development of drug-resistant diseases. However, only 60 percent of respondents indicated that they or their children always finish their antibiotics as prescribed.
Less than half of respondents are aware that not finishing antibiotic prescriptions is one of the leading reasons for the development of drug-resistant diseases.
While deaths from infectious disease in the U.S. actually outnumber deaths from automobile accidents (at least 60,000 deaths per year vs. 40,000), respondents viewed automobile accidents as the more prevalent cause of death.
Most people interviewed were aware of AIDS, polio, malaria, hepatitis C, Bubonic Plague, Diptheria, Cholera, Ebola. Only 46 percent had heard of dengue fever.
While respondents view AIDS as equally threatening both inside and outside the U.S., they view other infectious diseases (Hepatitis C, Ebola, Cholera, etc.) as more of a threat outside the U.S.
Twice as many respondents indicated that they are more frightened by AIDS than by Ebola.
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