help! i'm looking for statistics relating to the number of known diseases there are as of today in comparison of the number of diseases known a century ago (more or less). i need to prove that the number of diseases in the world tripled (or more) in today's time than that of a century ago. links to actual sites/tables/statistics would be very much appreciated.
one more thing...
opinion: do you think that (one of) the reasons why the number of known diseases escalated from a century ago because more diseases have been discovered now (as to having technology, etc). do you think these diseases where existing before but no one was able to "discover" them but now that we do know, the numbers just pile up.
follow up: what is the leading factor as to why the the number of diseases have grown tremendously (my assumption--i still need stats to prove it) in the last few decades?
much thanks to all who respond!
2006-09-20 03:03:48 · 3 answers · asked by Lena 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Medicine
For current disease numbers and prevalence levels you should look in the CDC publication called MMWR. Go to the CDC.gov web page.
For a century ago the disease numbers and prevalence would be in the literature or text books and you should just search the web for those.
To answer your question about increase one would have to say it is both improved detection and increased number and types of disease causes. One issue is population growth and increased mixing of people from one place to another. Also use of anti microbials has upset natural selection processes and allowed new microbes to immerge as threats.
However, in spite of these increases the war against microbes wagged in the past 100 years has been mostly successful for humans primarily due to the increases in science primarily with pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics and vaccines and understanding of the germ theory and the use of detection methods. Also along with these advances have come much improved sanitation.
In summary there are more types of diseases known and present, but the incidence of most infectious diseases has dropped considerably due to increased knowledge, vaccines, antiboitics and other treatments, and sanitation. The one notable exception is HIV/AIDS.
2006-09-20 03:26:12 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
try WHO sites.
2006-09-20 10:30:33 · answer #2 · answered by dr s 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Please see the webpage for more details on Reporting disease cases.
2006-09-20 10:14:29 · answer #3 · answered by gangadharan nair 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋