The world is on the brink of a global crisis in infectious diseases, from which no country is safe or can ignore, World Health Organization director general Hiroshi Nakajima writes in the 1996 World Health Report.
Infectious diseases are attacking on multiple fronts and are the world's leading cause of premature death, killing at least 17 million people in 1995. "The optimism of a relatively few years ago that many of these diseases could easily be brought under control has led to a fatal complacency among the international community," he says, and many countries and the international community have cut their investment in control of these diseases.
At least 30 new infectious diseases have emerged in the last 20 years, while cholera, malaria and tuberculosis are making a comeback, says the Report. Moreover, antibiotics and other life-saving drugs are rapidly losing their effectiveness. For example, some of the most useful and affordable antibiotics against the two principal bacteria which cause pneumonia are being lost, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria cause up to 60% of US hospital-acquired infections. A major cause of this crisis is uncontrolled and inappropriate use of antibiotics globally.
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