<h2>No Vaccines, No School</h2>
A new law in Italy came into effect this week that makes it compulsory for every child in the country to receive a range of immunizations including measles, polio, chickenpox and mumps.
Parents had up until March 10 to ensure their children were vaccinated — and, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47536981">according to the BBC</a>, schools are sending kids home if they don&#8217;t have proof of vaccinations.
<h2>Under Six</h2>
Children under six won&#8217;t be able to go to nursery and kindergarten without proof of vaccinations. Children between six and 16 are technically allowed to go to school, but their parents will risk a fine of $560 if they remain unvaccinated.
The topic has been hugely contentious in Italy, where residents have been <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/16/health/anti-vaccine-movement-history-pushback-intl/index.html">voicing their discontent</a> with the new law for months as part of a <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/who-anti-vaxxers-greatest-threats">global anti-vaccination</a> push — despite the fact that vaccinations have <a href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019">been proven</a> to be one of the most cost-effective ways to avoid diseases in human history.
The World Health Organization <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/who-anti-vaxxers-greatest-threats">called the antivaccination movement</a> one of the greatest threats to world health in January.
<h2>Herd Immunity</h2>
In September, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/sep/11/italian-children-kept-off-school-due-to-confusion-over-vaccine-policy">around 1,000 Italian children</a> with impaired immune systems were forced to stay at home since they weren&#8217;t sure their classmates were vaccinated or not.
The news also comes after YouTube <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/youtube-ads-anti-vaccination-videos">pulled ad placements</a> on a number of anti-vaccination related channels last month.
Research suggests that Italy&#8217;s vaccination rates for measles dipped from the World Health Organization recommended 95 percent target down <a href="http://time.com/5360823/italy-anti-vaccine/">into the mid to low 80s</a> over the last two years. When vaccination rates go up above 95 percent, &#8220;herd immunity&#8221; kicks in — the spread of disease becomes so unlikely that it protects those who can&#8217;t be vaccinated for medical reasons.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47536981">Italy bans unvaccinated children from school</a> [BBC] 

More on anti-vaccination: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/who-anti-vaxxers-greatest-threats">Anti-Vaxxers Now One of the Greatest Threats to World Health</a>

The topic has been hugely contentious in the European nation.

Italy bans unvaccinated children from going to school

Anti-Vaxx

A new law making it compulsory for every child in the country to receive a range of immunizations including measles and polio came into effect this week.

Italy Bans Unvaccinated Children From Going to School

Schools are sending unvaccinated kids home — and parents risk a government fine.

<h2>The Biggest Killer</h2>
We already knew that air pollution had officially become the <a href="https://futurism.com/researchers-find-pollution-biggest-global-threat-human-health">world&#8217;s biggest killer</a>.
Now, an Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) <a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/reports/">analysis</a> by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago has found just that air pollution will cut the average global lifespan by 1.8 years. In countries where air pollution is particularly bad, like India and China, that figure is an astonishing six years.
<h2>Smoke and Mirrors</h2>
The analysis brings home the message that air pollution can affect anybody, and that it can have very real consequences on our health.
&#8220;The way this [health] risk is communicated is very often opaque and confusing,&#8221; director of the Energy Policy Institute Michael Greenstone <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/20/air-pollution-cuts-global-average-lifespan-by-nearly-two-years-study">told</a> The Guardian. &#8220;We developed the AQLI to address these shortcomings. It takes particulate air pollution concentrations and converts them into perhaps the most important metric that exists – life expectancy.&#8221;
<figure id="attachment_143608" style="width: 974px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-143608" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2018/11/avg-loss-life-expectancy.png" alt="" width="974" height="535" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image Credit: AQLI</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Canary in the Coal Mine</h2>
Smoking was a close second, taking 1.6 years years off the average lifespan. Conflict and terrorism amounted to only 22 days, while some of the deadliest infectious diseases, like tuberculosis, reduce lifespans by only four months on average.
A recent report by the WHO found that air pollution kills around <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-01/air-pollution-kills-7-million-people-a-year-who-reports">seven million people</a> a year, caused by pollutants irritating lungs, and hearts.,
The Energy Policy Institute&#8217;s <a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/AQLI-Report.111918-2.pdf">analysis</a> also concluded that energy production was the biggest cause of particulate pollution. Most concerning: diesel engines, coal-fired power plants, and the burning of coal indoors.
The numbers tell a grim story, particularly when they&#8217;re translated into life expectancy. But it&#8217;s a powerful call to action to improve the quality of air for our descendents.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/20/air-pollution-cuts-global-average-lifespan-by-nearly-two-years-study">Air pollution cuts two years off global average lifespan, says study</a> [The Guardian]
More on air pollution: <a href="https://futurism.com/researchers-find-pollution-biggest-global-threat-human-health">Researchers Find Pollution Is the Biggest Global Threat to Human Health</a>

According to the latest figures, 125 million Americans live in places with unsafe levels of air pollution.

Air pollution cuts two years off the average life expectancy

Biggest Killer

A new analysis has found that air pollution cuts 1.8 years off the global average life expectancy — worse than smoking and HIV/AIDS.

Air Pollution Cuts Two Years Off The Average World Life Expectancy

That's more than five times as much as HIV/AIDS or Malaria.

<h2>A Mysterious Global Pandemic?</h2>
As far as the World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned, there&#8217;s a looming threat of an as-yet-unknown international epidemic — one that could potentially be deadly. In the WHO&#8217;s latest R&amp;D Blueprint of priority diseases, the yet-to-be-identified culprit behind the next global pandemic is called simply &#8220;Disease X.&#8221; It might seem like little more than an empty guess, but Disease X represents much more than that.
At first, including an unidentified disease with the potential to wreak havoc on humanity feels kind of alarmist — but it isn&#8217;t meant to create panic. According to <a href="http://www.who.int/blueprint/priority-diseases/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a statement explaining the R&amp;D Blueprint</a>, &#8220;Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease.&#8221;
This placeholder of sorts is included in the WHO&#8217;s list of prioritized diseases (<a href="http://www.who.int/medicines/ebola-treatment/WHO-list-of-top-emerging-diseases/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first made public in December 2015</a> and later <a href="http://www.who.int/blueprint/what/research-development/2017-Prioritization-Long-Report.pdf?ua=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reviewed in January 2017</a>) in order to &#8220;enable cross-cutting R&amp;D preparedness that is also relevant for an unknown &#8216;Disease X&#8217; as far as possible.&#8221;
The list also includes several known diseases that have already reached epidemic levels in parts of the world; among them Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF), Ebola, Marburg, and <a href="https://futurism.com/new-research-shows-that-zika-virus-kills-brain-cancer-stem-cells/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zika</a> viruses.
<h2>Preparedness is Key</h2>
To be clear, we don&#8217;t yet know what Disease X is. It might not even exist yet. But the possibility of a life-threatening, global epidemic is not science fiction, and that&#8217;s why it&#8217;s important to be prepared.
&#8220;This is not some future nightmare scenario,&#8221;<a href="https://futurism.com/officially-path-global-pandemic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom</a> told audiences at the <a href="https://www.worldgovernmentsummit.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2018 World Government Summit</a> in Dubai back in February. &#8220;This is what happened exactly 100 years ago during the Spanish flu epidemic.&#8221;
The inclusion of Disease X in the agency&#8217;s R&amp;D Blueprint marks the first time the WHO has included an unknown pathogen. The decision is rooted in the belief that humanity has learned a thing or two from its past experiences with global pandemics, and that it&#8217;s crucial to anticipate what could be and prepare accordingly.
<iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UG8YbNbdaco?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
“History tells us that it is likely the next big outbreak will be something we have not seen before,&#8221; John-Arne Rottingen, <a href="https://www.forskningsradet.no/en/Home_page/1177315753906" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Research Council of Norway</a> CEO and WHO committee scientific adviser, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/09/world-health-organization-issues-alert-disease-x/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told </a><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/09/world-health-organization-issues-alert-disease-x/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Telegraph</a>. Of course, that doesn&#8217;t mean there&#8217;s less work to be done to combat existing diseases. If anything, the efforts go hand in hand.
“It may seem strange to be adding an ‘X’ but the point is to make sure we prepare and plan flexibly in terms of vaccines and diagnostic tests,&#8221; Rottingen explains. &#8220;We want to see ‘plug and play’ platforms developed which will work for any, or a wide number of diseases; systems that will allow us to create countermeasures at speed.&#8221;
So, how do we prepare for Disease X? To start, we&#8217;ll need research — and lots of it. Perhaps equally important will be addressing an issue that ails much of the world today: a lack of adequate health coverage. As he stood before audiences in Dubai earlier this year, WHO chief Tedros said that “Universal health coverage is the greatest threat to global health.&#8221;
Indeed, the lack of <a href="https://futurism.com/japan-pledges-billion-universal-health-care-developing-nations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">access to even the most basic health coverage</a> is among the factors that could allow Disease X to morph from a mysterious possibility into a dreadful — and deadly — reality. Coupled with the habits of a globalized world, lack of healthcare would also make it easier for diseases to spread.
In adding Disease X to its list, this is perhaps the most important point the WHO wants to highlight. The agency also aims to raise awareness about how humanity&#8217;s choices can potentially pose a great threat to our species.
Marion Koopmans, another WHO adviser, told The Telegraph that as the world develops, the intensity of human and animal contact is increasing, which &#8220;makes it more likely new diseases will emerge, but also modern travel and trade make it much more likely they will spread.”
To that point, Rottingen pointed out in Dubai last month that as the world&#8217;s ecosystems change and our habitats evolve, diseases in animals making the leap to humans is &#8220;probably the greatest risk.&#8221; In fact, as far as viruses are concerned, that evolution is very much a natural process — one that we need to be aware of and prepare for.

Disease X will cause the next epidemic. Thankfully, it hasn’t happened yet. In fact, we don’t even know what Disease X is.

The WHO is on the lookout for the disease that may be the next global pandemic

Health & Medicine

The World Health Organization is on the lookout for a new epidemic caused by Disease X. Thankfully, it hasn't happened yet. In fact, we don't even know what Disease X is. The threat, however, is real — and we need to start preparing now. 

The WHO Is on the Lookout for the Disease That May Be the Next Global Pandemic

"This is not some future nightmare scenario."

We have a problem. A serious one. At any moment, a life-threatening global pandemic could spring up and wipe out a significant amount of human life on this planet. The death toll would be catastrophic. One disease could see as many as 100 million dead.
It sounds like a horrifying dream. It sounds like something that can&#8217;t possibly be true. But it is. The information comes from Tedros Adhanom, <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2017/director-general-elect/en/">Director General of the World Health Organization</a>. He spoke today at the <a href="https://www.worldgovernmentsummit.org/">World Government Summit</a> in Dubai, and according to his assessment, things are not looking good.
&#8220;This is not some future nightmare scenario,&#8221; said Tedros (as he prefers to be called by Ethiopian tradition). &#8220;This is what happened exactly 100 years ago during the Spanish flu epidemic.&#8221; A hush fell across the audience as he noted that we could see such devastation again, perhaps as soon as today. Tedros was equal parts emphatic and grave as he spoke: &#8220;A devastating epidemic could start in any country at any time and kill millions of people because we are still not prepared. The world remains vulnerable.&#8221;
What is the cause of this great vulnerability? Is it our inability to stave off Ebola? Rising incidents of rabies in animal populations? An increased number of HIV and AIDS cases?
No. The threat of a global pandemic comes from our apathy, from our staunch refusal to act to save ourselves — a refusal that finds its heart in our indifference and our greed.
&#8220;Universal health coverage is the greatest threat to global health,&#8221; Tedros proclaimed. As the audience shifted in their seats uncomfortably, he noted that, despite the fact that universal health coverage is &#8220;within reach&#8221; for almost every nation in the world, 3.5 billion people still lack access to essential health services. Almost 100 million are pushed into extreme poverty because of the cost of paying for care out of their own pockets.
The result? People don’t go to the doctor. They don’t seek treatment. They get sicker. They die. And thus, as Tedros explained, &#8220;the earliest signals of an outbreak are missed.&#8221;
<figure id="attachment_122670" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/armymedicine/15594956578/"><img class="wp-image-122670 size-infographicListing" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2018/02/15594956578_d67fec6176_k-600x404.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="404" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A black fluorescent light shows where a simulated bodily fluid containing a mock Ebola virus landed on a care team&#8217;s personal protective equipment, during a training exercise at Madigan Army Medical Center&#8217;s Andersen Simulation Center.</figcaption></figure>
Surveillance is one of the most vital forms of protection the world&#8217;s public health agencies can offer, but these agencies rely on the money of the governments they serve. And in the United States, which is presently enduring a <a href="https://futurism.com/its-been-a-century-since-the-1918-flu-pandemic-were-still-not-rid-of-the-virus/">flu season of record-breaking severity</a>, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced they would be <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/02/01/cdc-to-cut-by-80-percent-efforts-to-prevent-global-disease-outbreak/">cutting their epidemic prevention programs back</a> by 80 percent. Programs for preventing infectious diseases, such as Ebola, are being scaled back in 39 of the 49 countries they&#8217;ve been employed in, according to The Washington Post.
The reason? Quite simply, governments are pulling money from these programs, and it&#8217;s not clear whether any more will ever be allocated — at least, not in the U.S. during the current administration.
It might seem a bit obtuse. But, as Tedros pointed out, too often we &#8220;see health as a cost to be contained and not an investment to be nurtured.&#8221;
Aside from the obvious — avoiding a global pandemic that ravages humanity — healthy societies are advantageous for reasons that are more economic than epidemiological. &#8220;The benefits of universal health coverage go far beyond health,&#8221; Tedros said. &#8220;Strong health systems are essential to strong economies.”
We know that the <a href="http://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/publications/WHO-MCA-PNC-2014-Briefer_A4.pdf">quality of pre- and post-natal care</a> a person receives when a child is born has a direct impact on how soon they&#8217;re able to return to work (if they choose to). If we want our <a href="http://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/child/en/">children to grow up healthy</a> enough to become functioning, contributing members of society, then the quality of care they receive from birth throughout childhood can&#8217;t be underestimated.
&#8220;We do not know where and when the next global pandemic will occur,&#8221; Tedros admitted, &#8220;but we know it will take a terrible toll both on human life and on the economy.&#8221;
While Tedros acknowledged there&#8217;s no guarantee we&#8217;ll one day create a completely pandemic-free world, what is within our reach — if we have the investment and support — is a world where humans, not pathogens, remain in control. We can do better. And if most of us are to survive in the long term, we must.

We're officially on the path to a global pandemic

At any moment, a life-threatening global pandemic could wipe out a significant amount of human life on this planet, according to the head of the WHO.

We're Officially On the Path to a Global Pandemic

One disease could see as many as 100 million dead.

We’re Officially On the Path to a Global Pandemic

<h2>Preventing Loss Of Life</h2>
In 2000, the United Nations assigned measles vaccinations as a progress indicator for its <a href="http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/" target="_blank">Millennium Development Goal</a> to reduce child mortality by two-thirds by the year 2015. Now, reports generated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) show that during the period between 2000 to 2015, coverage of MCV1 (the first dose of measles-containing vaccine) increased from 72 percent to 85 percent and measles incidence went down from 146 to 50 cases per 1 million people.
This has <a href="http://www.sciencealert.com/the-measles-vaccine-has-saved-more-than-20-million-lives-since-2000-new-report-finds" target="_blank">lead the WHO to estimate</a> that over <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6544a6.htm" target="_blank">20 million lives have been saved</a> thanks to the measles vaccine. Given that <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs286/en/"> 2.6 million people</a> were dying from measles every year as recently as the 1980s, that is a remarkable improvement, but the WHO&#8217;s report wasn&#8217;t all good news — it also revealed that 134,200 children were killed by measles in 2015.
<figure style="width: 785px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/11/m6544a6f.jpg" alt="Credit: Patel MK, Gacic-Dobo M, Strebel PM, et al." width="785" height="380" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Credit: Patel MK, Gacic-Dobo M, Strebel PM, et al.</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Pockets of Resistance</h2>
Vaccines are already effective when used on individuals, but they truly shine in communities. Members who are unable to get a vaccine (<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/should-not-vacc.htm#mmr" target="_blank">due to various reasons</a>) will still be protected because of the imunized people around them. This is know as <a href="http://www.vaccines.gov/basics/protection/" target="_blank">herd immunity</a>, and it has been so effective at suppressing the disease in some areas that people have forgotten how bad measles could get.
<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html" target="_blank">Recent outbreaks in the U.S.</a> point to a worrying trend of misinformation and complacency. Some of this stems from the fear that vaccines cause autism. While that theory <a href="http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2275444?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social_jn&amp;utm_term=415716130&amp;utm_content=content_engagement|article_engagement&amp;utm_campaign=article_alert&amp;linkid=22991061" target="_blank">has been debunked</a> for a long time now, some people refuse to accept <a href="https://futurism.com/watch-the-war-on-science/" target="_blank">that it&#8217;s simply unfounded</a>.
Ultimately, vaccines save lives, and removing them from modern society would have disastrous consequences. Smallpox was a deadly disease that claimed around 2 million in the course of a year as recently as 1967. Now, thanks to vaccines, it&#8217;s completely irradicated and confined to a lab. That same fate could await measles should the whole world become immunized.
<figure style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/11/measles3.png" alt="Symptoms of measles include rashes around a victim's body, and a high fever. Death comes in the form of complications due to a weakened immune system. Children are highly susceptible to this because of their underdeveloped immune system. Credit: CDC" width="640" height="380" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Symptoms of measles include rashes around a victim&#8217;s body, and a high fever. Death comes in the form of complications due to a weakened immune system. Children are highly susceptible to this because of their underdeveloped immune system. Credit: CDC</figcaption></figure>

Hard Science

From 2000 to 2015, coverage of the first dose of measles-containing vaccine increased from 72% to 85% and measles incidence went down from 146 to 50 cases per 1 million people.
A worrying trend of misinformation and complacency has prevented global immunization, which could have potentially prevented 134,200 children from dying of measles in 2015.

20 Million Lives Have Been Saved by the Measles Vaccine Since 2000

An increase in immunizations is decreasing the number of measles deaths.

<h2>The Home Stretch</h2>
The ultimate goal of medicine is not only to cure, but to eradicate. Announcements celebrating <a href="https://futurism.com/code-cracked-infections-major-group-viruses-including-common-cold-polio/">breakthroughs in modern medicine</a>, and stories that cite specific diseases disappearing from the face of the Earth are always a milestone and a cause for celebration.
Well, another milestone is near.
After decades of combating polio, the World Health Organization (WHO) is saying that only nine cases of the viral disease have been reported this year, and that the organization will completely eradicate the disease by early next year. This would make polio the second disease fully eradicated in humans, after the WHO declared smallpox gone in 1980.
The global push to eradicate polio started in 1988, when as many as 1,000 children were becoming paralyzed daily. After an investment of more than $11 billion and the support of more than 200 countries, more than 2.5 billion children have been immunized against the disease.
<figure id="attachment_32844" style="width: 308px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="wp-image-32844" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/04/BI-polio-4.jpg" alt="BI-polio-4" width="308" height="206" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A girl receives an oral polio vaccine. Credit: CDC Global/Flickr</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Making the Switch</h2>
Polio is a highly infectious disease that spreads through human contact, mostly through stool. This makes toddlers not yet toilet-trained and people living in very underdeveloped areas susceptible to the disease.
Rarely, and in poorly sanitized areas, the virus has the possibility of mutating and becoming stronger. Anybody with a cursory knowledge of vaccines know that a weakened version of the virus is used in the oral vaccinations. Since the polio vaccine is given orally, those immunized may spread the weakened version through &#8220;passive immunization.&#8221;
To prevent this phenomenon, a two-step synchronized event is planed. Earlier this week, oral vaccines carrying the bivalent version of the vaccine were used instead of the trivalent. This trivalent version has had no cases since 1999. After two weeks, the oral vaccine will be replaced with a version that is instead injected, to prevent vaccine-induced polio.
What&#8217;s the next target after polio? It seems that guinea worm is nearing the chopping block, with only 22 cases reported in 2015. Hopefully, both will soon join the list of eradicated diseases, resulting in a healthier world.

After decades of combating polio, the World Health Organization is saying that only nine cases of the virus have been reported this year, and that it will completely eradicate the disease by early next year.

/Who

Anti-Vaxx

Italy Bans Unvaccinated Children From Going to School

Biggest Killer

Air Pollution Cuts Two Years Off The Average World Life Expectancy

Health & Medicine

The WHO Is on the Lookout for the Disease That May Be the Next Global Pandemic

Health & Medicine

We’re Officially On the Path to a Global Pandemic

Hard Science

20 Million Lives Have Been Saved by the Measles Vaccine Since 2000

Hard Science

The World Health Organization Will Reportedly Eradicate Polio by Early 2017

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