Recent health scares include SARS, bird flu, and 'superbugs.' What health threat do you think looms in 2008?

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MRSA, and any organism that is developing antibiotic resistant strains. People haven't really paid much attention to the little bugs that live on us daily but can kill us. I am positive that the overuse of anti-bacterial soaps , cleansers, hand sanitizers, etc is actually encouraging the growth of the resistant strains, without really affecting the things people are really using them for: the common cold. (The cold is a virus and not touched by anti-bacterial anything.)

Compromised immunity secondary to stress related to media hype about 'superbugs.'

Right now where I live (Cincinnati) there seems to be a rising problem with MRSA - methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus. There have been a few deaths among children and it's sweeping the high school sports locker rooms. I think it's being hyped by the media for ratings - you know, "Locker Rooms of Death" type reports during November sweeps. We'll see.

We also are seeing a huge outbreak of bedbugs. Group homes for the disabled and apartment complexes are being closed. Predictably, those less tolerant are blaming illegal immigrants.

Pit Bulls with AIDS.

compromised immunity due to various reasons

who knows superbugs,flying dragons you know just the same ****.

I think the next epidemic is already starting. I think it will be E.Coli. and Salmonella. It is ridiculous how many food companies have been infected. They have recalled so many different foods from so many companies. It is really scary!! I mean, are they not cleaning the facilities the way that they should be??

Also, I believe all these toys that have had high levels of lead will cause a problem in the near future. I think we will start seeing a new epidemic in lead poisoning in children.

A combination of SARS and ebola.

Terminal Bush. It started in Iraq and will soon spread to Iran, all over the middle east, Korea........is there no cure?

MRSA is definitely on the top of the list for me.

i don't know

Manbearpig. Quite simply this will be the greatest threat to us in the coming years. With Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize, he hardly has time to inform us anymore about it's comming. Surely we will be taken by suprise by manbearpig. Half man, half bear, half pig. Enough said.

Scared yet? - You should be.

MANBEARPIG!!!!

Cancer's

The next outbreak will be the new improved Al-Quida virus. It will be a cross between Avian Flue and SARS. The billion dollar Saudies have scientists working hard to kill you.

I have recently read that scientists are taking extinct viruses and reviving them, I think there is the possibility that someday somewhere one of these extinct super-viruses might somehow be either "accidently released" into a unsuspecting captive population, probably some poor third world country or a minority neighborhood near a level three bio-hazard research type institution similar to what they are trying to put into some densely populated innercity neighborhoods in various cities in this country. The combination of a virulent strain of a virus combined with a population of poor, already not very healthy locals could combine to start an epidemic amongst those people who are deemed undesirables or expendable by the powers to be... that could end up wiping out more than just this population but a good chunk of the rest of the world and igniting a world war between the haves and the have nots with the islamicfascists lined up against the hypercapitalists. This sounds like the plot to a few sci-fi movies, but sometimes real life scenarios happen eerily just like the movies.

Superbugs are very sensational and make lots of headlines - but let's spend some more time and energy on a far more prevalent worldwide epidemic - Autism.
Read "Deadly Immunity" by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. - and maybe we can all stop the government from covering up the HUGE amounts of mercury injected into EVERYONE - and protecting the drug companies responsible ... all in the name campaign contributions!

The Readers Digest recently reported on the 鈥淪UPER BUG鈥?affecting many otherwise healthy people...some of whom are high school athletes. Dallas Morning News reports a NEW STRAND OF HARD TO TREAT STAPH INFECTION. I鈥檓 believing this to be the same thing. Several young men from age 12 to 20 have been sick with a mysterious infection, a 12 year old and 15 year old recently died from it. VERY SCARY! The local health department says the best prevention is VERY THOROUGH HAND WASHING. I WOULD ADD: Hand sanitizer, liquid vitamin-mineral supplement like Sea Silver 鈥?which was recommended during the terrorist attack scares 鈥?or the lower cost Marine Silver) and wiping door knobs, telephones, remote controls, etc. with Clorox or Lysol wipes. And for those who believe...THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD.

The health threat I see affecting Americans most in 2008 is the overwhelming fear that many will feel, thanks to media sensationalism. The greatest threat I see looming is a population that believes in such exaggeration. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go ready myself for SARS, bird flu and other superbugs, while I'm fighting the war on terror in my heart and going green. Thank God we don't have the Millennium/Y2K Bug to worry about anymore! I really wouldn't know what to do then.

I can't believe this question has even been asked. We are about to embark on a new year- a fresh start, and all some people can think about is death and sickness. We must raise our mind set and stop thinking so negatively.

I think that Hep-C will increase and that the real numbers will have to come out eventually. Also I believe the "Brain eating Amoeba" found in fresh water in the southern US among algae will become more of a health problem and finally I think that HPV is going to become much more of a problem among younger females unless they encourage vaccination among both sexual active males and females, they will probably find out that it can be more of a problem with males. I do not think that the vaccination should be mandatory but should be strongly encouraged.

Over-medication of the population.

I think we'll continue to see concern with antibiotic resistant skin infections in 2008.
When rain returns to the Southeast, in 2009 or 2010, we may be surprised with some nasty mosquito carried diseases in isolated areas - malaria or dengue fever.
The good news is that the flu pandemic will probably hold out until 2011, the peak of the next solar cycle, because there seems to be a relationship between them.

Okay is everyone serious. These diseases are caused for many reasons. But these new ones or uncommon ones, but now common are cause from forengiers coiming into our country. They can refuse certains shots that americans have to have they don;t need there foods FDA approved in our country, like our supermarkets we would be shut down but no not theres.

There requirements in coming into our country is not as strict as if they lived in the US from the gate.
These diseases are the goverments fault . AS well as the immagrants and definitly the illegal immagrants . It is all getting shipped over here. DId u ever go to a forigen store verses an american store. ? It is amazingly filthy. Have u seen how 50 of them all live in 1 house so they can barley breath. Have u seen new diseases that are only common in other countries but are now here? Think about it . It all comes from other countries coming inot ours. But see the goverment is killing americians so they can make more money ff these people.

The most insidious and epidemic health threat is the Vertebral Subluxation Complex (VSC). The simple explanation is that this is an interference to the body's organ of function the brain and nervous system. When the nervous system is interfered with the body is in a compromised state of dis-ease. Unfortunately, in our society we have been brought up to look at the body in a mechanistic way...as if the different parts are independent. That is why people think they have an immune problem, a respiratory problem, or a hormonal problem. The fact of the matter is that they have a lack of health, their body isn't functioning the way it should. We were born to express health, but unfortunately VSC interferes with our innate capacity to function at 100%. The evidence is all around us...kids are more sick today than ever. Newer drugs, vaccines and cures aren't the answer. We need to look to the cause and not the effects...

The only threat I see is too many people believing that health threats are "looming". Wash your hands, drink lots of fluids, keep your house clean, use a condom, take care of yourself and have some faith! The media is always scrambling for some form of sensationalism or other. Don't get caught up in it, enjoy your family and your life, put all of the energy you give to fear into faith or some other positive force and you wont have to worry about "looming health threats"!

Worldwide contamination of food and water supplies is very forseeable in the near future and the cause, Factory Farms.

Farm animals produce 130 times more EXCRETEMENT than the entire human population. 86,000 lbs per second is a
staggering reality that can't be ignored. This waste has contaminated 35,000 rivers in the US alone along with ground water from 17 states, a breeding ground for new forms of bacteria

Animal Factories

With animal factories raising food animals, current laws allow
the following:

INGREDIENTS of Legal Animal Feed Used By Factory Farms
Now keeping in mind what these animals are being fed we in turn feed off them.

Animal Protein Products:

consist of rendered intestines, blood, feathers, skin, hooves and hair. Also, carcasses of rendered horses, dogs, cats and or road kill.

Manure-Animal Waste:

Animal feed can contain chicken litter, pig waste and cow manure inclusive with ground dirt, sand, rocks and wood particles. All the while this filler contains digested meats from all these animals.

Slaughtered Meat-Diseased Animals:

Pigs, chickens and turkeys including the diseased that have been fed rendered cattle can be slaughtered, mixed with animal feed and fed back to farm animals including cows. These animals are later slaughtered once again, mixed with feed and fed back to the cow and farm animals.

Excessive Amounts of Grain:

Digestive systems in cattle are not tolerant to excessive amounts of corn and health related problems such as abscesses of the liver and acidic digestive tract create further ingredients into their diets, drugs.

Antibiotics-Chemicals:

To prevent disease in crowed animal farms or factories, antibiotics are used to combat this and the stressful lifespan of an animal in these unsanitary conditions. Also is used to enhance the rate of growth and are added to feed on a routine bases. This has caused concern for antibiotic-resistant bacteria which can spread to humans through meat and milk. To manage parasites in chickens certain antimicrobials are used which again enhance the rate of growth. However, they contain arsenic, a human carcinogen and runoff from farm factories can contaminate meat and ground water.

Genetically Engineered Feed Seed

Taking this one step further, genetically modifying their food supply by inserting DNA from plants, animals, bacteria, pesticides and insects into feed seed, cows; pigs; geese; elk; squirrels; mice and rats have been tested and by natural instinct they have refused to eat GM or GE food.

One can only begin to comprehend the probability of new
antibiotic-resistent bacteria forming, mutating, and spreading
through the poor quality of the meat we eat.

And it's already begun.

Article: Animals We Eat And Their Disgusting Diet
and video from UCS-Union of Concerned Scientists
on how factory farming is destroying, ground, water, rainforest
and contributes to disease, pollution and human starvation.

www.discovery-health.org
www.discovery-health.org/morevideos.ht...

Ignorance, indifference & instant gratification.

Patients who practice this triad cannot be educated.

We are already practicing "Fast Food" primary care medicine (minus the menu) in our dangerously over-filled Emergency Departments, and it is only going to get much, much worse...

This is related to your question, but in the Philippines.
Here, the television says "If you find a dead bird, or know of chickens that are sick or dying, report them to your local Health Department".
In Riverside,Consolacion, Cebu, a sickness wiped out almost all of the chickens in one neighborhood.
When we called it in (when they first started getting sick), we were told there was nothing they could do and just bury them as they died.
They claimed that they didn't have the resources to deal with problems concerning birds and the U.S. was at fault because they wouldn't send the needed money to monitor the problem.
I know for a fact, by monitoring the Grants received links on the internet, that the U.S. does indeed send many millions of dollars here and so does the World Health Organization, but it never reaches the people or projects that it is meant for.
When will the foriegners learn, they are just supporting an anti-democratic Dictatorship here?
The loyalties of our government are to which ever entity sends the most money at the time, and not to the people!

I think it's the recalls in our food and also the lead in our children's toys. Our food is not inspected properly, a better inspection needs to be done.

I want to restrict my answer to India and I think the biggest threat in 2008 could be an increase in the number of cases of Dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, periodical rise in Malaria (esp. Pf cases) and drug resistant TB. Gastro-enteritis due to bacterial contamination of drinking water is also predicted.

MRSA (Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) is sweeping through communities and hospitalizing many-even young healthy adults. It is spread by contact and usually causes skin infections. But now we've even seen cases of pneumonia, endocarditis (heart valve infection), osteomyelitis (bone infection) and septicemia (bacteria in the blood). People are dying from overwhelming infections from this bug. In our hospital, up to 30% of the patients are carriers of MRSA.