The world faced many public health challenges this year, including dangerous heat waves and outbreaks of the infectious diseases dengue and mpox. In the United States, after years of increases, there are early but promising signs of a downward trend in drug overdose deaths.
Dengue, mpox and bird flu raised alarms
Dengue exploded in the Americas, where countries have reported more than 12.6 million cases as of early December, according to the Pan American Health Organization. In 2023, there were about 4.6 million cases. Mpox became a public health emergency again, with close to 60,000 confirmed and suspected cases in Africa by early December, according to the World Health Organization. And bird flu spread at U.S. diary farms (SN: 12/12/24). There have been 60 confirmed cases of bird flu in people in the United States as of December 13, mostly in workers exposed at dairy and poultry farms.
Extreme heat put health at risk
Heat endangered health around the world in 2024, from India to Europe to Northern Africa. A heat dome brought sweltering temperatures to the United States earlier than usual this summer (SN: 6/21/24). People in Australia and Brazil experienced scorching heat during their winter (SN: 9/2/24). The extreme heat is due in part to climate change (SN: 12/5/24).
In the United States, a new online resource called HeatRisk, which uses data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made its debut this spring. People can enter a zip code to learn about the current risk that heat in their area poses to health and what the air quality is (SN: 6/1/24, p. 4).
Clean water is inaccessible to billions of people
More than half the world’s population lack access to safe drinking water (SN: 9/7/24 & 9/21/24, p. 7). Clean drinking…
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