Epidemics

Several hundred years ago, scarlet fever epidemics killed thousands of people throughout the continent.

Journalist and author Beppe Severgnini wrote this week a column for The New York Times, noting that most young and middle-aged Italians have no firsthand experience of war or epidemics, unlike their elders, who suffered greatly during the Second World War and after.

The Italian government has turned to the use of quarantines, first used by Venice in the 14th century to protect itself from plague epidemics.

Professor Crisanti said epidemics must be fought on three fronts: with hospitalization and intensive care, with discipline at home limiting all social contacts and with active surveillance, that is, identifying all those who are unaware they can transmit a disease.

“American cities in the late 19th, early 20th century were incredibly unhealthy places,” says Richard White, professor emeritus of American history at Stanford University in California. “High child death rates, repeated epidemics, and much of that was waterborne disease that came from both ineffective sewage and impure water. And infrastructure projects changed that dramatically. Probably it's been the most effective public health effort ever in the history of the United States.”

Natural epidemics like the Ebola virus or SARS have the power to terrify, but even more chilling is the idea of disease used as a weapon.

The International Health Regulations were last revised in 2005 and grew out of the response to deadly epidemics that once overran Europe.