Ebola is still keeping health officials busy.
The WHO's most recent data shows that an estimated 6,841 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have died of the disease. And the CDC reports that at any given time it has 170 staffers in the field and more than 700 people working on Ebola. But while Ebola will go down as the major health news story of 2014, officials fought other threats as well. Here are five:
- Antibiotic resistance: We all know that antibiotics can shorten an illness. But many of them have been used for a long time, and every year “at least 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics,” according to the CDC. “At least 23,000 people die each year as a direct result of these infections.” The problem remains a threat.
- Enterovirus D-68: OK, so it doesn’t roll easily off the tongue. Even so, this virus, identified in 1962, has raised eyebrows in the medical world because it was once considered rare but has begun to cause severe illness. From mid-August through December, 1,149 people in 48 states and the District of Columbia were diagnosed with respiratory illness caused by the virus. (It can cause mild to severe respiratory illness. Children with asthma are particularly at risk.) The CDC has developed a rapid lab test that can detect the virus.
- Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS: This is a viral respiratory illness first reported in 2012 in Saudi Arabia. About a third of those with it have died. In May of this year, two imported cases – both involving separate travelers from Saudi Arabia – were reported, according to the CDC. The two were hospitalized but later discharged.
- Heart Disease: Even though we hear more about Ebola and MERS, the common threats are more problematic. The CDC points out that 800,000 Americans die each year from cardiovascular diseases.
- Smoke: Smoking is banned in restaurants and work places, but many Americans continue the practice. Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the U.S., killing more than 480,000 Americans each year, according to the CDC.
Related:
Ebola: History's latest plague upon our houses