Top 5 health threats in 2014

The disease detectives at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named the top five global health threats they expect to tackle in 2014: 1. The emergence and spread of new microbes While it’s rare, CDC scientists do come across new diseases each year. In 2013, the new Heartland virus carried by ticks was confirmed in northwest Missouri. Federal health investigators collected samples in the state after two farmers from St. Joseph were sickened by the virus that carried a novel genetic profile. Also last year, CDC helped public health officials in the Republic of Georgia identify a new virus related to smallpox that infected shepherds there. Only one in five countries worldwide has the technology to detect and fight emerging infections, said the CDC’s director, Dr. Tom Frieden. The CDC is making disease detection a major priority in 2014, in the U.S. and abroad. New technologies and software have enabled faster DNA...