Disease detectives: keeping track of new and emerging infectious diseases
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By Jennifer Lloyd, PHE epidemiologist
Ebola! Marburg! Zika virus! Black Death!
These are words you may have heard quite a lot these past few years. Almost every day, somewhere in the world, there are stories in the media about diseases which can kill us or rumours of a new ‘eye-bleeding disease’. While these might be entertaining to read, they are very frustrating for us as Emerging Infections scientists, because they spread a lot of misinformation and fear.
While this is all very interesting, at this point you may be thinking to yourself, but why should I care? The media stories are just rumours. There has been nothing in the news lately about Ebola or Zika virus outbreaks. Those diseases are gone, aren’t they?
Well, no. Most of these emerging infections are present in the animal or insect population for years before (and after) an outbreak occurs. They may even cause human cases that aren’t detected. Because of this, in the past some outbreaks haven’t been recognised until they we...
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