Toward the end of January, the World Health Organization published their top 10 health threats. These threats included vaccine hesitancy, which was among health problems such as Ebola and climate change.

The WHO publishes this list every year to create strategic plans which address the top issues.

According to the WHO, vaccine hesitancy is “the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines.”

Currently, vaccinations are able to prevent 2-3 million deaths each year. This number could rise by 1.5 million if vaccinations were accessible and used throughout the world.

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We’re all familiar with the sense of dread that comes when you realize you’re getting a case of the winter sniffles – often cold or flu. Although, it’s thought that over two million Americans actually deal with walking pneumonia each year, and many may not even realize it.

What is Walking Pneumonia?

If you’ve never heard of walking pneumonia, you’re not alone. The disease goes unheard of for many, despite affecting 2 million people in the United States every year.

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Do you know what the active ingredient is in many insect repellants? If you said, “DEET” you’re correct.

DEET is a chemical ingredient that has been used since the 1940s as the active ingredient in over 500 brands of insect repellants. Although, in recent years consumers have become educated about chemicals used in household and personal products. Many have expressed concerns about applying these chemicals to children’s sensitive skin.

As a result, people are looking for an alternative, especially a plant-based option. One other increasing factor is that DEET is becoming less effective in deterring mosquitoes. These pesky insects are now developing a resistance to the synthetic ingredient.

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Despite the many mosquito-borne outbreaks worldwide, researchers aren’t guessing with these diseases.

Scientists are able to take data and create roadmaps for predicted mosquito-borne diseases. They can find which diseases pose a risk in different regions of the world. The key for this data is local wildlife species and which ones are most likely to host flaviviruses.

What Are These Roadmaps?

The CDC describes flaviviradae as a group of connected, RNA viruses with a single strand. They add that, “members of this family that belong to a single genus, Flavivirus, cause widespread morbidity and mortality throughout the world.” Some of these mosquito-transmitted viruses include yellow fever, dengue fever, West Nile, and the Zika virus.

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Back in the 1800s some of the main epidemics that swept through the United States, as well as the rest of the world, were diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis.

Diphtheria is a highly contagious illness that is caused by bacteria. It attacks the mucous membranes in the nasal passages and produces a thick whitish-grey substance in the back of your throat. A breakthrough for diphtheria came in 1926 in the form of a vaccine.

Tetanus, also known as “lockjaw,” is a bacterial infection that affects the central nervous system. The disease causes your muscles to tense up and become stiff, thus rendering you immobile. Muscle stiffness usually affected the neck and jaw area, leading to the widely-used nickname. In the 1890s, Emil von Behring developed the first antitoxin for tetanus. Von Behring’s medication paved the way for the inoculation discovered about 35 years later.

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