Good Lifestyle

Although most of us have not heard of the coronavirus before this month, media coverage probably seemed familiar. This is the last fear of public health that captured the attention of the whole world, bringing questions, forecasts and anxiety - a bit like avian influenza and the crazy cow disease in front of it. We looked at the biggest frightening of health of all time. Some were devastating, some were beaten screeds or swivel hoaxes. Some just faded; Others have changed medicine and public health forever.

In addition to coronavirus, swine flu (H1N1) has been problematic in 2020, with 56 deaths reported in Taiwan from February 3rd. The disease, originating in pigs, provoked two pandemics: in 2009, while 575,000 people die of the disease around the world; And in 1919, the Spanish influenza pandemic, which claims life twice as much.

Avian influenza, also known as "bird flu", provoked a global alarm in 2003, when a virologist warned the world was "wavy on the edge of a pandemic that can kill a large fraction of the population ". The culprit: the H5N1 virus, which infects birds and can spread to humans. Since then, several small epidemics contained and several H5N1 vaccines have been developed (although researchers warn that they are limited because the virus tends to mutate).

One of the most deadly pandemics in history was the epidemic of Spanish influenza of 1918-1920, in which it is estimated that 500 million people were infected worldwide and 10 to 20% of the victims are dead. A quirk of this epidemic is that the youngest were the most difficult to success; The virus tended to make stronger immune systems entering the overdrive, producing potentially fatal breathing problems. Today, the elderly are the most vulnerable to the complications of the flu, in 1918, 99% of the deceased people of the influenza were less than 65 years old.

Also caused by a coronavirus, SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) caused a global panic when it broke out in China in China in 2002. The very contagious potentially fatal pneumonia form was caused by an animal virus that mutated and skipped to the man. It was fatal in about 10% of cases. Fortunately, two epidemics were contained fairly quickly and there were no cases of SARS reported since 2004.

By the end of the summer of 1976, the disease experts were flexible when dozens of people who had attended a US legion convention in a Philadelphia hotel reported serious respiratory problems and pneumonia; Some died heart attacks in a few days from the end of the convention. Scientists have identified the previously unknown bacterium Legionella pneumophila as guilty in 1977, during which 182 people had been ecorned and 29 deceased. The bacteria had contaminated water cooling tanks in the hotel air conditioning system and had become airborne. The disease may seem like a relic of the 70s, but the epidemics of legionaries continue to occur periodically. More recently, four people died in 2019 after being exposed to bacteria with a hot tub screen in a North Carolina Fair.

A week after the 7 September terrorist attacks, the envelopes were sent to several media organizations and two senators deemed contaminated by Bacillus Anthracis, A.K.A. Anthrax, a bacterium that may cause respiratory failure if it is inhaled or absorbed by the skin. Five people died and 11 others were unhappy. In 2010, the FBI survey concluded that a former expert from the Biododefense Army had sent contaminated envelopes; He had committed suicide two years later after being suspected.

Lead was once a common ingredient in the painting of the house that was used to increase the durability of the coating. Unfortunately, in the 1950s, researchers have discovered that exposure to paint-brushed paint, toys and paint of lead fuel could affect children's brains and cause developmental disabilities. States have begun to ban lead painting, but it is only in 1978 that a complete federal prohibition has been adopted. At that time, tens of millions of children had been affected: "The most sustainable child health epidemic in the history of the United States" concluded CityLab in 2016. Lead is still so omnipresent that experts feel that it would cost $ 1 billion to eliminate it in the United States.

The emergence of AIDS in 1981 provoked a fear of health, like no other: here is a disease that could cause a collapse of the total immune system, no known cause. At the moment when the HIV virus was isolated in 1983, 2,304 Americans died of HIV / AIDS complications and the Human Secretary of Health and Human Services provided for a vaccine within two years. It did not take place. In 1995, when the first universally effective HIV drug treatment was introduced, 20 million people were infected worldwide.

In the 1980s, widespread fear after current reports asserted that groups of cancer had been found in people living near power lines and that the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) lines could be carcinogenic. Today, some scientists remain convinced of the threat, but several studies have found no association. More noteworthy, in 1996, a Committee of the National Academy of Science stated that there was no convincing evidence that power lines increase the risk of cancer.

At the turn of the last century, the plastics had become a constant presence in the water bottles of American plastic life, cups and microwave containers touch the mouths of Americans, food or drink almost every hour . So the alarms rang when studies suggest that bisphenol A (BPA), a common additive to the plastic, could enter the body and act as an endocrine disruptive, causing health problems such as infertility, ADHD, Obesity, heart disease and cancer. Consumer fears have forced manufacturers to launch and all products without BPA, although science is not quite conclusive. In 2014, the FDA concluded that plastic products with BPA did not make people sick and are safe at the levels encountered by consumers.

Can cell phones cause brain tumors? This has been a common concern since cellular use has become widespread. Cell phones produce radiofrequency radiation to send and receive calls and texts, and some fear that ear telephones are risky. But all the rays are not identical: RF radiation is very low and, according to the American Cancer Society, several major studies have found no link between the use of cell phone and cancer.

Burgers, hot dogs, bacon, meat charcuterie - all staples of the American diet, all under a cloud of suspicion. In 2015, the World Health Organization ranked the meat transformed as a group 1 carcinogen (known to cause cancer). Transformed meat is the meat that is smoked or salted when prepared; Many contain nitrates, a curator that scientists believe to increase the risk of colon cancer or stomach. The news has frightened some people to a more plant-based food, but few: according to a 2019 study published in theJournal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Americans eat as much transformed meat as possible 18 years ago.

In 1998, a research team led by the British Scientist Andrew Wakefield published a study inThe lancetalleging that the red-rubelled anti-hougon vaccine could be linked to autism. This launched the modern anti-vaccination movement, which is going on social media today, even though several studies refuted the Lancet and Wakefield study was found to be scientific fraud, amending facts to support its hypothesis.

One of the first online conspiracy theories, an email broadcast in 1998 claimed that Aspartame (NutraSweet), a popular artificial sweetener, could cause medical conditions such as multiple sclerosis, lupus, convulsions, depression and memory loss. He has gained traction although there was no scientific evidence to support these claims. Several studies have found that aspartame is sure to consume.

The poliomyelitis crisis of the 1950s was one of the first health steep covered by mass media, including a new television. The result: "Less than sixty thousand new cases of poliomyelitis per year have created a quasi-panic among American parents and a national mobilization that led to vaccination campaigns that have virtually erased the disease within a decade", writes The authors ofHead wars. Polio was once one of the most fearful diseases in the country; Within 25 years of introducing a vaccine in 1955, it was eradicated in the United States.

Hormonal substitution treatment was once a standard treatment for menopausal women to relieve symptoms and improve the quality of life. Doctors thought health benefits until the beginning of the 1990s, studies have suggested HRT could increase the risk of cancer. Today, "well-conducted studies have led many doctors to conclude that the risks of MHT often outweigh the benefits," the American Cancer Society says.

In the fall of 1982, the nation panicked when seven people died after taking Tylenol Cyanure Capsules purchased at pharmacies in the Chicago area. Thirty-one million Tylenol products have been removed from the tablets, and media coverage has been so overwhelming that the experts predicted the brand will not survive. But Tylenol reintroduced its products with infalifiable packaging, including sheet seals; Other brands followed, and sales rebounded Tylenol in a year. In 1989, the FDA released guidelines to ensure that all over-the-counter drugs were inviolable. The person responsible for Tylenol Poisoning has never been found.

He had the stuff of a horror film had thought, in a way: bovine spongiform encephalopathy (AKA crazy cow disease), a neuro-degenerative disease in cattle which causes the deterioration of the brain, Devastated the British meat industry at the end of the 1980s and early 1990s when it was discovered that infected meat consumption could cause a variant of the disease in humans. United Kingdom Exports of meat have been banned, and the late 2010, the disease had been eradicated for the most part.

DDT was once an ingredient omnipresent in the insect repellents and pesticides, because it was exceptionally good to kill insects. It has also been extremely toxic to humans and animals. In the early 1960s, the research found it could disrupt human hormones, which causes premature birth and low birth weight. He led the white-headed eagle at the edge of the extinction, the poisoning of the fish, it feeds on and make its egg shells so thin they were invisible. A general outcry led to DDT being prohibited in the United States in 1972.

In the 1950s, the idea that prescription drugs could be bad for you basically did not exist. The introduction of each new drug has been hailed as a progress for human health. Up to thalidomide. From the end of the 1950s, the sedative was prescribed for pregnant women in Europe as a cure for morning nausea. The pharmaceutical companies have campaigned to bring Thalidomide to the United States until 1961, when it became clear that the drug was at the root of serious congenital malformations, and it was removed. Thalidomide has been kept out of American medicine firms by a critique for the FDA, Frances Kelsey, who repeatedly rejected the drug while questioning the studies that showed its apparent security. Kelsey received the presidential medal for civil service, and his vigilance led to more stringent procedures for the approval of new drugs.

And live your happiest and healthiest life, do not miss these100 ways your home can make you sick.