an autodidact meets a dilettante…

Outbreaks and epidemics, by Meera Senthilingam, journalist, editor and public health researcher, specialising in global health and infectious disease.

• content hints – Dr Liu Jianlun, index case, ancient viruses, smallpox, ancient Egypt, eradication v elimination, hookworm, yaws, polio types 1,2 and 3, malaria, measles, Guinea worm, Edward Jenner, cowpox, eradication programme 1967, WHO, Donald Henderson, SARS, Zika and microcephaly, Ebola, mosquitoes, MERS-CoV, Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic fever, Rift Valley fever, Yellow fever, more mosquitoes, breeding grounds, Aedes aegypti, Lassa fever, tuberculosis, syphilis, gonorrhoea, chlamydia, MSF, International Red Cross, dengue fever, staphylococcus aureus, bacterial meningitis, rabies, zoonoses, vectors, vaccine hesitancy, seasonal influenza, types A (H1N1), B, C and D, asymptomatic spread, antibiotic resistance, failed infrastructure, effects on poverty, affected by poverty, Dr Jan Semenza, effects of globalisation, investment, learning, co-operation…