We begin with a look at sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). These affect by far the largest numbers of people and have been most persistent and resistant to control. The most recently emerging STD is HIV/AIDS — which is also one of the most deadly modern diseases not counting the Ebola virus which, thank heaven, has not touched our shores. The first panel is a broad look at STDs. The second focuses on AIDS. AIDS receives further coverage in Chapter 10, where we look more closely at sexuality.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) maintains a register of so-called "notifiable" diseases. These are the infectious diseases that can be passed from person to person and are therefore of great interest in preventing epidemics. STDs belong in this group. In the next three panels, we take a look at trends in these diseases under three headings: Diseases of Childhood, Old Diseases, and Emerging Diseases.
We are living in an era of transition. Many serious diseases have been brought under control by modern antibiotics and by vaccination and immunization. The panel on childhood diseases displays curves all headed downward. At the same time, the microbial world is also adapting to our medications. Our standard drugs are wearing out. And our methods of sanitation and control have, here and there, shown signs of neglect or breakdown. Surprisingly, as shown in the panel on old diseases, ancient diseases like the bubonic plague and cholera have made their reappearance in the United States. Leprosy is with us and malaria has been rising in recent years. We attempt to explain what is going on.
Nature produces new diseases to challenge our medical arts. The fifth panel in this chapter takes a look at the subject. We make a stab at explaining how new diseases are discovered and what gives them rise. Not surprisingly, in this area, curves are rising: it takes time to discover ways to handle new diseases.
Ours is also an age of mental distress. In the sixth panel we look at depression, in the seventh at attention deficit disorder and learning disability. We have means of dealing with these ailments (mitigating their effects, treating their symptoms), but we do not genuinely understand them yet.
Very much the same thing can be said of one of the more deadly diseases afflicting us — cancer. Our methods of approach to cancer resemble those we use against terrorism. We try to kill the cancer wherever we encounter it. A look at diseases that afflict the elderly — and will probably face the Baby Boom — completes our look at diseases. Last we look at Alzheimer's, one of the newer diseases of old age, although long recognized, simply, as dementia.
In trying to sum up this chapter, one thinks of "on the one hand, on the other." We see the consequences of past medical breakthroughs and the virtual disappearance of diseases. We see the emergence of new diseases from various causes, including our own technologies. We see bacteria and viruses fighting back and the plague reappearing — and diseases that have become prominent because, alas, we live so much longer than once we used to.
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