WHO warns of global epidemic risk

In a report, A Safer Future, the WHO says new diseases are emerging at the "historically unprecedented" rate of one per year.

Since the 1970s, 39 new diseases have developed, and in the last five years alone, the WHO has identified more than 1,100 epidemics including cholera, polio and bird flu.

"It would be extremely naive and complacent to assume that there will not be another disease like Aids, another Ebola, or another Sars, sooner or later," the report says.

Infectious diseases emerging at a rate of one or more a year since the 1970s :-
These include bird flu, Sars, also Ebola, Marburg and Nipah viruses
Flu pandemic could affect more than 1.5 billion people or 25% of world population
Comeback by cholera, yellow fever and epidemic meningococcal disease in the last quarter of the 20th Century
685 verified events of international public health concern from September 2003 to September 2006
Growth of anti-microbial resistance, notably drug-resistant TB