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EMERGING THREATS From the bubonic plague to cholera – the 4 killer diseases making a comeback in 2024
Plus, scientists explain why these diseases we thought were long-gone have suddenly re-emerged
Isabel ShawPublished: 11:00, 9 Mar 2024
Isabel ShawPublished: Invalid Date
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JUST two months into 2024 and we’ve already seen outbreaks of several killer diseases – some of which we had already consigned to the history books.
Measles is staging a comeback around the world, with whooping cough not far behind – a retro bug many thought had been vaccinated out of existence a century ago.
4Infectious that were once common within society have come back with force
There is also a global shortage of the cholera jab and even a case of bubonic plague for one unlucky cat owner in the US.
“In the West we tend think of these diseases as having disappeared,” Professor Tom Solomon, director of The Pandemic Institute, tells The Sun.
“However, they have not gone at all, they are just being controlled by good public health measures,” he adds – life-saving measures that experts warn are waning.
Here, we look at each bug making a re-emergence, where cases are rising, and we ask infectious disease scientists if these outbreaks could become a bigger issue…
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1. Measles
Symptoms:
A high temperature
A runny or blocked nose
Sneezing
A cough
Red, sore, watery eyes
Small greyish-white spots on the inside of the cheeks
A red-brown blotchy rash
Cases of measles, one of the world’s most infectious diseases, have increased by over 3,000 per cent in Europe in the last year.
More than 30,000 infections were reported between January and October 2023, up significantly from the 941 in all of 2022, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
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The surge is being blamed on falling vaccination coverage in all 53 of the European member states since 2020. This includes the UK.
Powerful new video urges all parents to protect their children from surge of deadly Victorian disease as millions ‘at risk’At least 650 people in England and Wales have already caught measles since
