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Here is a mental illness that is caused be stress and anxiety.

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Opinion | Is the Drive for Success Making Our Children Sick? (Published 2016)

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Across the country, children are experiencing depression, anxiety and even physical strain because of the pressures of school.

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Ask Smithsonian: Whats the Difference Between Bacteria and Viruses?

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A bunch of kids who have mental illnesses aren't getting the help they need.

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A bunch of kids who have mental illnesses aren't getting the help they need.

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Part One in an NPR Ed series on mental health in schools.
You might call it a silent epidemic.

Up to one in five kids living in the U.S. shows signs or symptoms of a mental health disorder in a given year.

So in a school classroom of 25 students, five of them may be struggling with the same issues many adults deal with: depression, anxiety, substance abuse.

And yet most children - nearly 80 percent - who need mental health services won't get them.

Whether treated or not, the children do go to school. And the problems they face can tie into major problems found in schools: chronic absence, low achievement, disruptive behavior and dropping out.

Experts say schools could play a role in identifying students with problems and helping them succeed. Yet it's a role many schools are not prepared for.

Educators face the simple fact that, often because of a lack of resources, there just aren't enough people to tackle the job. And the ones who are working on it are often drowning in huge caseloads. Kids in need can fall through the cracks.
"No one ever asked me"
Katie is one of those kids.

She's 18 now. Back when she was 8, she had to transfer to a different school in Prince George's County, Md., in the middle of the year.

"At recess, I didn't have friends to play with," she recalls. "I would make an excuse to stay inside with the teachers and finish extra work or do extra credit."

We're not using Katie's last name to protect her privacy. She's been diagnosed with bulimia and depression.

She says that in the span of a few months, she went from honor roll to failing. She put on weight; other kids called her "fat." She began cutting herself with a razor every day. And she missed a ton of school.

"I felt like every single day was a bad day," she says. "I felt like nobody wanted to help me."

Katie says teachers acted like she didn't care about her schoolwork. "I was so invisible to them."

Every year of high school, she says, was "horrible." She told her therapist she wanted to die and was admitted into the hospital.

During all this time, she says, not a single principal or teacher or counselor ever asked her one simple question: "What's wrong?"

If someone had asked, she says, she would have told them.
Who should have asked?
We talked to educators, advocates, teachers and parents across the country. Here's what they say a comprehensive approach to mental health and education would look like.
The family
The role: The first place to spot trouble is in the home, whether that trouble is substance abuse, slipping grades or a child who sleeps too much. Adults at home - parents, siblings, other relatives - are often the first to notice something going on.

The reality: Many families do not know what to look for. Sometimes a serious problem can be overlooked as "just a phase." But it's those sudden changes - angry outbursts, declining grades, changes in sleeping or eating - that can signal problems. When something unusual crops up, families can keep in close touch with the school.
The teacher
The role: During the week, many students see their teachers even more than their own families. Teachers are in a prime spot to notice changes in behavior. They read essays, see how students relate with other kids and notice when they aren't paying attention.

The reality: Teachers already have a ton on their plates. They're pressured to get test scores up, on top of preparing lessons and grading assignments. Plus, many teachers receive minimal training in mental health issues. But when they do see something concerning, they can raise a flag.
The social worker
The role: Social workers act like a bridge. If teachers come to them with a concern - maybe a child is acting withdrawn - one of the first things they'll do is call home. They see each child through the lens of their family, school and community. They might learn that a family is going through a divorce or homelessness.

The reality: There aren't enough of them. According to one model, every school should have one social worker for every 250 students. The reality is that in some schools, social workers are responsible for many more.
The counselor
The role: In some schools, counselors focus solely on academics: helping students pick classes and apply to college. But in others, they also act a lot like social workers, serving as a link to families and working with students who need support.

The reality: Like school social workers, there just aren't enough counselors. On average nationwide, each counselor is responsible for nearly 500 students. The American School Counselor Association recommends a caseload nearly half that size.
The special education teacher
The Role: Special education teachers may start working with students when a mental health problem affects the ability to do school work. They are primarily responsible for working on academic skills.

The reality: Again, there aren't enough of them. Nearly every state has reported a shortage of special education teachers. Half of all school districts say they have trouble recruiting highly qualified candidates.
The school psychologist
The Role: Here's one job that, on paper, is truly dedicated to student mental health. School psychologists are key players when it comes to crisis intervention and can refer students to outside help, such as a psychiatrist.

The reality: If you sense a pattern here, you're right. In the U.S., there is just one school psychologist for every 1,400 students, according to the most recent data available from the National Association of School Psychologists.
The school nurse
The role: Most any school nurse will tell you, physical and mental health are tough to separate. That puts nurses in a prime spot to catch problems early. For example: A kid who comes into the nurse's office a lot, complaining of headaches or stomach problems? That could be a sign of anxiety, a strategy to avoid a bully, or a sign of troubles at home.

The reality: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends at least one nurse for every 750 students, but the actual ratio across the country can be much higher.
The principal
The role: As the top dogs in schools, principals make the big decisions about priorities. They can bring in social-emotional, anti-bullying and suicide-prevention programs.

The reality: Principals also have a lot on their plates: the day-to-day management of student behavior, school culture and teacher support.
Getting help, and "excited for life"
Katie says things started to turn around for her when she met a nurse at the Children's National Health System in Washington, D.C., who finally showed interest in what was wrong.

Now, she's begun college and wants to be a pediatric nurse.

"I'm doing a lot better now" she says. " Obviously, I mean, I'm a lot happier. I'm excited for school. I'm excited to graduate. I'm excited for life."

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Mental Health In Schools: A Hidden Crisis Affecting Millions Of Students

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An estimated 20 percent of children show signs or symptoms of a mental health problem. It's a destructive force in schools, but most educators don't have the training or resources to help.

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Here are some good facts that show the symptoms of the Plague.

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Plague is best known as the killer disease that wiped out nearly half of Europe during the 1300s. But the germ infected people up to 3,000 years earlier than that, DNA from ancient teeth now show.

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Newsela | Two studies prove Ebola virus infects humans more easily, is deadlier

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Scientists reveal Ebola virus was worse due to a mutation.

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The main way illnesses are spread are by hands.  So always wash your hands! (sorry the website is blocked)

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rats.....

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Scientists and medical researchers have for years have differed over the exact definition of a pandemic ( is it a pandemic, or an epidemic), but one thing everyone agrees on is that the word describes the widespread occurrence of disease, in excess of what might normally be expected in a geographical region.

Cholera, bubonic plague, smallpox, and influenza are some of the most brutal killers in human history. And outbreaks of these diseases across international borders, are properly defined as pandemic, especially smallpox, which throughout history, has killed between 300-500 million people in its 12,000 year existence.

What About Covid-19 (the Novel Coronavirus)?

Beginning in December 2019, in the region of Wuhan, China, a new ("novel") coronavirus began appearing in human beings. It has been named Covid-19, a shortened form of "coronavirus disease of 2019." This new virus spreads incredibly quickly between people, due to its newness - no one on earth has an immunity to Covid-19, because no one had Covid-19 until 2019. While it was initially seen to be an epidemic in China, the virus spread worldwide within months. The WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic in March, and by the end of that month, the world saw more than a half-million people infected and nearly 30,000 deaths. The infection rate in the US and other nations was still spiking.

With the coronavirus pandemic, people all over the world have become more aware of the best practices during a pandemic, from careful hand-washing to social distancing. Countries across the world declared mandatory staty-at-home measures, closing schools, businesses, and public places. Dozens of companies and many more independent researchers began working on tests, treatments, and vaccines. The push for the human race to survive the pandemic became the primary concern in the world.

The outcome of the Covid-19 pandemic is impossible to predict, at the time of this writing. But we can learn from pandemics in history to determine our best courses. These are our teachers - the Spanish flu, the AIDS pandemic, and more.

HIV/AIDS Pandemic (at its peak, 2005-2012)

Death Toll: 36 million
Cause: HIV/AIDS
First identified in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976, HIV/AIDS has truly proven itself as a global pandemic, killing more than 36 million people since 1981. Currently there are between 31 and 35 million people living with HIV, the vast majority of those are in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 5% of the population is infected, roughly 21 million people. As awareness has grown, new treatments have been developed that make HIV far more manageable, and many of those infected go on to lead productive lives. Between 2005 and 2012 the annual global deaths from HIV/AIDS dropped from 2.2 million to 1.6 million.

Flu Pandemic (1968)

Death Toll: 1 million
Cause: Influenza
A category 2 Flu pandemic sometimes referred to as "the Hong Kong Flu," the 1968 flu pandemic was caused by the H3N2 strain of the Influenza A virus, a genetic offshoot of the H2N2 subtype. From the first reported case on July 13, 1968 in Hong Kong, it took only 17 days before outbreaks of the virus were reported in Singapore and Vietnam, and within three months had spread to The Philippines, India, Australia, Europe, and the United States. While the 1968 pandemic had a comparatively low mortality rate (.5%) it still resulted in the deaths of more than a million people, including 500,000 residents of Hong Kong, approximately 15% of its population at the time.

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Asian Flu (1956-1958)

Death Toll: 2 million
Cause: Influenza
Asian Flu was a pandemic outbreak of Influenza A of the H2N2 subtype, that originated in China in 1956 and lasted until 1958. In its two-year spree, Asian Flu traveled from the Chinese province of Guizhou to Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United States. Estimates for the death toll of the Asian Flu vary depending on the source, but the World Health Organization places the final tally at approximately 2 million deaths, 69,800 of those in the US alone.

Flu Pandemic (1918)

Death Toll: 20 -50 million
Cause: Influenza
Between 1918 and 1920 a disturbingly deadly outbreak of influenza tore across the globe, infecting over a third of the world's population and ending the lives of 20 - 50 million people. Of the 500 million people infected in the 1918 pandemic, the mortality rate was estimated at 10% to 20%, with up to 25 million deaths in the first 25 weeks alone. What separated the 1918 flu pandemic from other influenza outbreaks was the victims; where influenza had always previously only killed juveniles and the elderly or already weakened patients, it had begun striking down hardy and completely healthy young adults, while leaving children and those with weaker immune systems still alive.

Sixth Cholera Pandemic (1910-1911)

Death Toll: 800,000+
Cause: Cholera
Like its five previous incarnations, the Sixth Cholera Pandemic originated in India where it killed over 800,000, before spreading to the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia. The Sixth Cholera Pandemic was also the source of the last American outbreak of Cholera (1910-1911). American health authorities, having learned from the past, quickly sought to isolate the infected, and in the end only 11 deaths occurred in the U.S. By 1923 Cholera cases had been cut down dramatically, although it was still a constant in India.

Flu Pandemic (1889-1890)

Death Toll: 1 million
Cause: Influenza
Originally the "Asiatic Flu" or "Russian Flu" as it was called, this strain was thought to be an outbreak of the Influenza A virus subtype H2N2, though recent discoveries have instead found the cause to be the Influenza A virus subtype H3N8. The first cases were observed in May 1889 in three separate and distant locations, Bukhara in Central Asia (Turkestan), Athabasca in northwestern Canada, and Greenland. Rapid population growth of the 19th century, specifically in urban areas, only helped the flu spread, and before long the outbreak had spread across the globe. Though it was the first true epidemic in the era of bacteriology and much was learned from it. In the end, the 1889-1890 Flu Pandemic claimed the lives of over a million individuals.

Third Cholera Pandemic (1852-1860)

Death Toll: 1 million
Cause: Cholera
Generally considered the most deadly of the seven cholera pandemics, the third major outbreak of Cholera in the 19th century lasted from 1852 to 1860. Like the first and second pandemics, the Third Cholera Pandemic originated in India, spreading from the Ganges River Delta before tearing through Asia, Europe, North America and Africa and ending the lives of over a million people. British physician John Snow, while working in a poor area of London, tracked cases of cholera and eventually succeeded in identifying contaminated water as the means of transmission for the disease. Unfortunately the same year as his discovery (1854) went down as the worst year of the pandemic, in which 23,000 people died in Great Britain.

The Black Death (1346-1353)

Death Toll: 75 - 200 million
Cause: Bubonic Plague
From 1346 to 1353 an outbreak of the Plague ravaged Europe, Africa, and Asia, with an estimated death toll between 75 and 200 million people. Thought to have originated in Asia, the Plague most likely jumped continents via the fleas living on the rats that so frequently lived aboard merchant ships. Ports being major urban centers at the time, were the perfect breeding ground for the rats and fleas, and thus the insidious bacterium flourished, devastating three continents in its wake.

Plague of Justinian (541-542)

Death Toll: 25 million
Cause: Bubonic Plague
Thought to have killed perhaps half the population of Europe, the Plague of Justinian was an outbreak of the bubonic plague that afflicted the Byzantine Empire and Mediterranean port cities, killing up to 25 million people in its year long reign of terror. Generally regarded as the first recorded incident of the Bubonic Plague, the Plague of Justinian left its mark on the world, killing up to a quarter of the population of the Eastern Mediterranean and devastating the city of Constantinople, where at its height it was killing an estimated 5,000 people per day and eventually resulting in the deaths of 40% of the city's population.

Antonine Plague (165 AD)

Death Toll: 5 million
Cause: Unknown
Also known as the Plague of Galen, the Antonine Plague was an ancient pandemic that affected Asia Minor, Egypt, Greece, and Italy and is thought to have been either Smallpox or Measles, though the true cause is still unknown. This unknown disease was brought back to Rome by soldiers returning from Mesopotamia around 165AD; unknowingly, they had spread a disease which would end up killing over 5 million people and decimating the Roman army.

*New Coronavirus & Public Health Articles*

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Outbreak: 10 of the Worst Pandemics in History - MPH Online

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Scientists and medical researchers have for years have differed over the exact definition of a pandemic (is it a pandemic, or an epidemic), but one thing everyone agrees on is that the word describes the widespread occurrence of disease, in excess of what might normally be expected in a geographical region.

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It's not like anybody believes their shopping carts are clean. Most supermarkets place a dispenser of sanitizing wipes nearby, as if to hint at the exact opposite.

But in case you were on the fence, yes, they're gross.

A study of 85 random shopping carts conducted by Dr. Charles P. Gerba found that 50 percent carried E. coli, while 72 percent contained coliform bacteria. "The exceptionally high level of coliform bacteria suggests that fecal material may be involved in cart contamination," the report further stated.

In other words, your cart most likely harbors bathroom germs.

According to Donna Duberg, an assistant professor of clinical laboratory science at Saint Louis University, these pathogens find their way into our carriages through a number of avenues. "Certainly children can be a source of the germs," she explains, as toddlers often ride in carts when accompanying their parents, but Duberg doesn't downplay the role of the consumers either. "We may bring in germs with our hands," she adds.

Depending on our immune systems, many of these pathogens have the potential to make us sick, too. "Especially the fecal coliforms," notes Elizabeth Scott, an assistant professor of biology at Simmons University in Boston. "The concern is that we can pick up pathogens from the cart that can be transmitted directly to our mouths or to other foodstuffs."

Is this really that big of a concern, though? Germs are everywhere, from to They're always going to be present, so how bad could a shopping cart be?

Duberg cites Gerba's findings for the answer: "[There are] 138,00 total bacteria per square inch of a shopping cart - an amount which exceeds the number of bacteria in the average public restroom," she says. "These are fecal bacteria capable of causing illness."

Unfortunately, fecal germs aren't the only bacteria to be wary of. "There are bacteria capable of causing food-borne illnesses such as Salmonella, Shigella, Listeria, and, of course, E. coli O157H7 that may be hiding in the food we are purchasing, especially the fruits and vegetables and raw meats," says Duberg. "You can tell by doing a quick scan of food recalls," such as these online safety alerts posted by the FDA, she adds.

Taking both fecal and food-borne pathogens into account, it's no wonder there are disinfecting wipes in almost every supermarket. But as it turns out, they may not be as effective as we think.

"In theory, it's a good idea, but rather hard to achieve," explains Scott. "Where do you apply the disinfectant? How effective is the disinfectant? It's much better to practice careful hand hygiene and use alcohol hand sanitizer and hand washing."

Duberg adds that most of the wipes are utilizing benzalkonium chloride - and not bleach or alcohol - a disinfecting agent. This means that in order to sanitize, shoppers should be thoroughly wetting the surface areas (handles, grates, coffee cup holders) with the wipes. But if a shopper wanted to disinfect, Duberg says most brands of benzalkonium chloride recommend you leave the surfaces wet for up to four minutes.

The good news, she adds, is that if you thoroughly wet the surfaces with a benzalkonium chloride wipe, "you're going to get way over 99 percent" of the germs.

Or, if you'd rather skip that step, you can just grab a hand-held basket instead. Baskets might contain the same pathogenic bacteria as a cart, but as Scott says, "If it's baskets vs. carts, at least baskets aren't used to carry kids."

But just to be safe, you should probably make time to wipe down the basket, too.

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Maybe a bit grosser than you initially thought.

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Schools do not help when kids are sick.  

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Schools do not help when kids are sick.  

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SPARTANBURG, S.C. - On a hot summer day last month, Sydney, 15, and Laney, 8, were enjoying their last two weeks of freedom before school started. The sisters tried to do flips over a high bar at a local playground.

"You've got to pull your hips into the bar, like you've got to kick up like that," explained their mother, Selena.

"I tried to kick! I did this - you told me not to stick out," said Laney indignantly.

Both girls have been diagnosed with mental illnesses - Sydney with bipolar disorder and Laney with a similar illness called disruptive mood dysregulation disorder. The family asked that their last name not be used to protect the girls' privacy.

School has been a real challenge for them. That's not unusual for the 1 in 5 children with a mental illness. They often suffer anxiety, difficulty focusing and social challenges. Half of them drop out of high school, in part because many schools don't manage to meet their needs.

Selena has spent the past eight years trying to get the girls the resources to help them succeed. Like a lot of parents of kids with mental health issues, she's had to be her children's biggest advocate.

"It's definitely a journey. It wasn't easy," she said, even though she's a school guidance counselor herself.

"I used to cry the night before, because I didn't want to go to school."

Sydney describes class as "boring, distracting. It's hard to pay attention. It's overwhelming." She struggles to focus or process information, which makes her so anxious and depressed that she often has to leave school in the middle of the day.

She wants to be a rock star like Courtney Love. Every so often she pretends to take drag from a bubble gum cigarette. But she's an extremely sensitive kid, and school has been a painful experience.

"I used to cry the night before, because I didn't want to go to school," she said.

Laney on the other hand is a ball of chaotic energy. At school, she often gets frustrated and acts out. Sometimes, she is sent home.

Schools do not all screen students for mental health issues, and the practice varies widely across states. Even if students are successfully identified, many areas lack the community-based mental health treatment options that would be needed to help them. Just 38 percent of youth with a mood disorder such as depression or bipolar disorder receive treatment services. In 2014, the federal government announced $48 million in new grants to support teachers, schools and communities in recognizing and responding to mental health issues. Still, many students' mental health problems continue to go unidentified and untreated.

When Selena first noticed the girls were having problems, she took them to the doctor. Sydney started taking medication at the age of 7 and Laney at just 4, but it wasn't a quick fix.

"The brain is complex," said Selena. "It's not like you just take a medicine and it fixes it." It took years to get the girls' diagnoses and prescriptions right.

Selena said she needed to educate teachers about her daughters' illnesses. "I really tried to do my homework. I did a lot of research. Obviously I talked to parents online in a support group," she said.

Schools are starting to better recognize that mental health is key to academic and social success, said Darcy Gruttadaro, director of advocacy at the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a grassroots organization headquartered outside Washington, D.C.

"Kids spend six hours a day in school, and mental health is essential to learning.

"Kids spend six hours a day in school, and mental health is essential to learning. So schools that are very data-driven understand that in order for some kids to succeed, their mental health needs must be met," she said.

Nonetheless, schools vary greatly in the degree to which they are willing and able to accommodate mental health issues. "Some are doing a lot and training teachers on how to recognize warning signs and talk to families. And others are doing very little to understand the needs of students and how to work with families," said Gruttadaro.

Sydney's and Laney's public schools were willing to make accommodations - but the girls' struggles continued. So, Selena transferred both to a smaller charter school called High Point Academy.

Principal John Hurley said he's seen a growing number of students coming in with mental health diagnoses. The school wants to help - but teachers are not well prepared to handle these issues.

"My training in mental health was one chapter in a book that we covered in one day," recalled Hurley. Many teachers have experience with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, he said, but they don't have the tools to draw on when dealing with mood disorders.

"Because we're left in the dark, we have to fumble around to figure out what works best."

"Because we're left in the dark, we have to fumble around to figure out what works best," explained Hurley. "Sometimes you can be wildly successful, and sometimes you can fail miserably and you could have done the exact same thing for two different students."

That's a pretty good description of what happened with Laney and Sydney.

Laney started High Point in the second grade and, by October, had already begun acting out.

"A lot of the times she didn't like to write, so ... she'd get frustrated and she might tear up her paper just depending on how she was feeling," said her second grade teacher, Erica Smith. Occasionally, Laney would also tear up other students' assignments.

Selena was thrilled when Smith reached out and asked for advice. They started communicating almost daily, sharing tips about how best to reach Laney. They developed an individualized education plan, and Smith had a "safe spot" in the classroom where Laney could go to cool down until she could rejoin the class.

At the same time, Laney's doctor adjusted her medications to help balance her mood. The solutions worked - pretty soon Laney was thriving. But Selena knew from experience that what works with one kid doesn't always work with the other.

Selena helped get Sydney an individualized education plan that gave her extra time on tests, fewer assignments and two periods a day with special education teacher Pam Smith, who has a background in mental health.

"I really feel we had everything we could have had that was available to us to meet her needs," said Pam Smith. "I really feel that we went over and above sometimes."

"I started realizing it just wasn't working. I can't send my child somewhere every day and ignore the fact that it's having a negative impact on her mental health."

But nothing seemed to work. Sydney had trouble making friends and often shut down in class. She kept falling further behind.

"I started realizing it just wasn't working. I can't send my child somewhere every day and ignore the fact that it's having a negative impact on her mental health," said Selena.

So in March, she pulled Sydney out of High Point and home-schooled her for the rest of the year.

She looked for a therapeutic school for Sydney to attend this year, but she couldn't find one in her area. So this year, Sydney is attending an online school from home, while Selena works and Laney goes to the third grade at High Point. It's not an ideal solution. Selena wanted Sydney to be in a brick and mortar school with other kids, but she said she's had to learn to be flexible.

"You think as a parent you're supposed to just say, 'Get up and go back to school' the next day. And so you really have to sometimes stop and take stock of what's going on and maybe change the path," she said.

As for Sydney, she said she was looking forward to studying from home. For the first time in years, she said she hadn't been crying ahead of the first day of school.

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One out of five children have mental illness, and schools often don't help

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School has been a real challenge for them. That's not unusual for the 1 in 5 children with a mental illness. They often suffer anxiety, difficulty focusing and social challenges.

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Germs: Understand and protect against bacteria, viruses and infection

Germs - Learn how germs work and what you can do to protect yourself.
By Mayo Clinic Staff
Germs live everywhere. You can find germs (microbes) in the air; on food, plants and animals; in soil and water - and on just about every other surface, including your body.

Most germs won't harm you. Your immune system protects you against infectious agents. However, some germs are difficult enemies because they're constantly mutating to breach your immune system's defenses. Knowing how germs work can increase your chances of avoiding infection.

Infectious agents: From bacteria to worms

Infectious agents come in many shapes and sizes. Categories include:

Bacteria

Bacteria are one-celled organisms that can be seen only with a microscope. They're so small that if you lined up a thousand of them end to end, they could fit across the end of a pencil eraser.

Not all bacteria are harmful, and some bacteria that live in your body are helpful. For instance, Lactobacillus acidophilus - a harmless bacterium that resides in your intestines - helps you digest food, destroys some disease-causing organisms and provides nutrients.

Many disease-causing bacteria produce toxins - powerful chemicals that damage cells and make you ill. Other bacteria can directly invade and damage tissues. Some infections caused by bacteria include:

Strep throat

Tuberculosis

Urinary tract infections

Viruses

Viruses are much smaller than cells. In fact, viruses are basically just capsules that contain genetic material. To reproduce, viruses invade cells in your body, hijacking the machinery that makes cells work. Host cells are often eventually destroyed during this process.

Viruses are responsible for causing many diseases, including:

Antibiotics designed for bacteria have no effect on viruses.

Fungi

There are many varieties of fungi, and we eat several of them. Mushrooms are fungi, as are the molds that form the blue or green veins in some types of cheese. And yeast, another type of fungus, is a necessary ingredient in most types of bread.

Other fungi can cause illness. One example is candida - a yeast that can cause infection. Candida can cause thrush - an infection of the mouth and throat - in infants and in people taking antibiotics or who have an impaired immune system. Fungi are also responsible for skin conditions such as athlete's foot and ringworm.

Protozoans

Protozoans are single-celled organisms that behave like tiny animals - hunting and gathering other microbes for food. Many protozoans call your intestinal tract home and are harmless. Others cause diseases, such as:

Protozoans often spend part of their life cycles outside of humans or other hosts, living in food, soil, water or insects. Some protozoans invade your body through the food you eat or the water you drink. Others, such as malaria, are spread by mosquitoes.

Helminths

Helminths are among the larger parasites. The word "helminth" comes from the Greek word for worm. If these parasites - or their eggs - enter your body, they take up residence in your intestinal tract, lungs, liver, skin or brain, where they live off your body's nutrients. Helminths include tapeworms and roundworms.

Understanding infection vs. disease

There's a difference between infection and disease. Infection, often the first step, occurs when bacteria, viruses or other microbes that cause disease enter your body and begin to multiply. Disease occurs when the cells in your body are damaged - as a result of the infection - and signs and symptoms of an illness appear.

In response to infection, your immune system springs into action. An army of white blood cells, antibodies and other mechanisms goes to work to rid your body of whatever is causing the infection. For instance, in fighting off the common cold, your body might react with fever, coughing and sneezing.

Warding off germs and infection

What's the best way to stay disease-free? Prevent infections. You can prevent infections through simple tactics, such as washing your hands regularly, avoiding close contact with people who are sick, cleaning surfaces that are touched often, avoiding contaminated food and water, getting vaccinations, and taking appropriate medications.

Hand-washing. Often overlooked, hand-washing is one of the easiest and most effective ways to protect yourself from germs and most infections. Wash your hands thoroughly before preparing or eating food, after coughing or sneezing, after changing a diaper, and after using the toilet. When soap and water aren't available, alcohol-based hand-sanitizing gels can offer protection.

Vaccines. Vaccination is your best line of defense for certain diseases. As researchers understand more about what causes disease, the number of diseases that can be prevented by vaccines continues to grow. Many vaccines are given in childhood. But adults still need routine vaccinations to prevent some illnesses, such as tetanus and influenza.

Medicines. Some medicines offer short-term protection from certain germs. For example, taking an anti-parasitic medication might keep you from becoming infected with malaria if you travel to or live in a high-risk area.

When to seek medical care

Seek medical care if you suspect that you have an infection and you have experienced:

An animal or a human bite

Difficulty breathing

A cough lasting longer than a week

Periods of rapid heartbeat

A rash, especially if it's accompanied by a fever

Swelling

Blurred vision or other difficulty seeing

Persistent vomiting

An unusual or severe headache

Your doctor can perform diagnostic tests to find out if you're infected, the seriousness of the infection and how best to treat that infection.

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Germs: Protect against bacteria, viruses and infection

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Germs - Learn how germs work and what you can do to protect yourself. By Mayo Clinic Staff Germs live everywhere. You can find germs (microbes) in the air; on food, plants and animals; in soil and water - and on just about every other surface, including your body.

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Germs: Understand and protect against bacteria, viruses and infection

Germs - Learn how germs work and what you can do to protect yourself.
By Mayo Clinic Staff
Germs live everywhere. You can find germs (microbes) in the air; on food, plants and animals; in soil and water - and on just about every other surface, including your body.

Most germs won't harm you. Your immune system protects you against infectious agents. However, some germs are difficult enemies because they're constantly mutating to breach your immune system's defenses. Knowing how germs work can increase your chances of avoiding infection.

Infectious agents: From bacteria to worms

Infectious agents come in many shapes and sizes. Categories include:

Bacteria

Bacteria are one-celled organisms that can be seen only with a microscope. They're so small that if you lined up a thousand of them end to end, they could fit across the end of a pencil eraser.

Not all bacteria are harmful, and some bacteria that live in your body are helpful. For instance, Lactobacillus acidophilus - a harmless bacterium that resides in your intestines - helps you digest food, destroys some disease-causing organisms and provides nutrients.

Many disease-causing bacteria produce toxins - powerful chemicals that damage cells and make you ill. Other bacteria can directly invade and damage tissues. Some infections caused by bacteria include:

Strep throat

Tuberculosis

Urinary tract infections

Viruses

Viruses are much smaller than cells. In fact, viruses are basically just capsules that contain genetic material. To reproduce, viruses invade cells in your body, hijacking the machinery that makes cells work. Host cells are often eventually destroyed during this process.

Viruses are responsible for causing many diseases, including:

Antibiotics designed for bacteria have no effect on viruses.

Fungi

There are many varieties of fungi, and we eat several of them. Mushrooms are fungi, as are the molds that form the blue or green veins in some types of cheese. And yeast, another type of fungus, is a necessary ingredient in most types of bread.

Other fungi can cause illness. One example is candida - a yeast that can cause infection. Candida can cause thrush - an infection of the mouth and throat - in infants and in people taking antibiotics or who have an impaired immune system. Fungi are also responsible for skin conditions such as athlete's foot and ringworm.

Protozoans

Protozoans are single-celled organisms that behave like tiny animals - hunting and gathering other microbes for food. Many protozoans call your intestinal tract home and are harmless. Others cause diseases, such as:

Protozoans often spend part of their life cycles outside of humans or other hosts, living in food, soil, water or insects. Some protozoans invade your body through the food you eat or the water you drink. Others, such as malaria, are spread by mosquitoes.

Helminths

Helminths are among the larger parasites. The word "helminth" comes from the Greek word for worm. If these parasites - or their eggs - enter your body, they take up residence in your intestinal tract, lungs, liver, skin or brain, where they live off your body's nutrients. Helminths include tapeworms and roundworms.

Understanding infection vs. disease

There's a difference between infection and disease. Infection, often the first step, occurs when bacteria, viruses or other microbes that cause disease enter your body and begin to multiply. Disease occurs when the cells in your body are damaged - as a result of the infection - and signs and symptoms of an illness appear.

In response to infection, your immune system springs into action. An army of white blood cells, antibodies and other mechanisms goes to work to rid your body of whatever is causing the infection. For instance, in fighting off the common cold, your body might react with fever, coughing and sneezing.

Warding off germs and infection

What's the best way to stay disease-free? Prevent infections. You can prevent infections through simple tactics, such as washing your hands regularly, avoiding close contact with people who are sick, cleaning surfaces that are touched often, avoiding contaminated food and water, getting vaccinations, and taking appropriate medications.

Hand-washing. Often overlooked, hand-washing is one of the easiest and most effective ways to protect yourself from germs and most infections. Wash your hands thoroughly before preparing or eating food, after coughing or sneezing, after changing a diaper, and after using the toilet. When soap and water aren't available, alcohol-based hand-sanitizing gels can offer protection.

Vaccines. Vaccination is your best line of defense for certain diseases. As researchers understand more about what causes disease, the number of diseases that can be prevented by vaccines continues to grow. Many vaccines are given in childhood. But adults still need routine vaccinations to prevent some illnesses, such as tetanus and influenza.

Medicines. Some medicines offer short-term protection from certain germs. For example, taking an anti-parasitic medication might keep you from becoming infected with malaria if you travel to or live in a high-risk area.

When to seek medical care

Seek medical care if you suspect that you have an infection and you have experienced:

An animal or a human bite

Difficulty breathing

A cough lasting longer than a week

Periods of rapid heartbeat

A rash, especially if it's accompanied by a fever

Swelling

Blurred vision or other difficulty seeing

Persistent vomiting

An unusual or severe headache

Your doctor can perform diagnostic tests to find out if you're infected, the seriousness of the infection and how best to treat that infection.

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Germs: Protect against bacteria, viruses and infection

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Germs - Learn how germs work and what you can do to protect yourself. By Mayo Clinic Staff Germs live everywhere. You can find germs (microbes) in the air; on food, plants and animals; in soil and water - and on just about every other surface, including your body.

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Sandboxes are REALLY gross, it makes kids really sick.Cats, dogs and raccoons use sandboxes as a "litter box". so that means that the sandbox is now full of germs and even parasitic worms that can live in kids digestive systems. READ THIS ARTICLE!! it's really interesting!

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So there I was at a kid's birthday party, my 13-month-old daughter playing merrily with her brother in the sandbox, when she suddenly decided that she was hungry. Into her mouth it went-all of the sand-and though I was up with a leap and a "No," I was too late. I laughed nervously while furiously fishing sand out of her mouth (it's surprisingly hard to do, by the way) as other parents looked on with a mixture of unease and relief- Gross, but thank God it wasn't mine. My friend, the host who owned the sandbox, appeared. "Did I ever tell you," she said, "that I think my cat poops in there?"

Kids love sandboxes. Parents do not, and for good reason. When public health-testing organization NSF International sampled 26 different items in public places-toys at doctors' offices, children's library books, playground sandboxes-for a 2008 study on germs, they found that sandboxes were far and away the germiest of all, harboring nearly 2,000 times more bacteria, yeast, and mold per square inch than the door handles of public restrooms.

Of course, bacteria, yeast, and mold aren't all bad. Many are actually quite good for us. Not so for the other microbial gifts that sandboxes sometimes leave for kids: parasitic worms. Like giant litter boxes, uncovered sandboxes invite animals-raccoons, dogs, cats-to use them as bathrooms, which essentially turns them into giant parasite Petri dishes. And that's bad, because even if your kids don't eat handfuls of sand like mine do, they probably do put their fingers in their mouths an awful lot-and parasites are transmitted by what is not-so-euphemistically called the fecal-oral route, meaning they go from one animal (or kid's) butt straight to the next kid's mouth. Bon appétit!

OK, I know you're rolling your eyes, thinking: But most kids who play in sandboxes don't get sick. Fair enough. But it's also possible that kids are getting sick and we just don't know it. Doctors are not required to notify the government when they diagnose these infections-so no one is closely monitoring them or their epidemiology-and many kids who get parasites probably either never get diagnosed with them, as symptoms can be mild and spontaneously resolve, or their diagnoses are kept quiet. (Are you really going to tell your friends that your kid just got dewormed?) And when little Annie does get parasites, her parents also aren't going to tie it back to that time three weeks ago when she played in a sandbox. The fact is that a large proportion of Americans-many of them kids-are infected by parasites, and sandboxes are a known hot spot. "There is a real threat," says Laila Woc-Colburn, an infectious disease specialist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Consider what happened when researchers at McGill University tested the surface sand from sandboxes at 10 local day care centers in 1991. Two of the sandboxes, they discovered, were contaminated with eggs of a parasite called . Once a child eats them, the eggs hatch in his or her body into larvae, which can burrow into the liver, lungs, central nervous system, or eyes. Sometimes the infection is asymptomatic, but when it's not and is not properly diagnosed and treated, it can cause liver damage, lung damage, or blindness. (An earlier 1979 study found that a whopping 39 percent of residential sandboxes in Kansas contained Toxocara eggs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, research suggests that 1 out of every 7 Americans over the age of 6 has been infected with this parasite.)

The McGill study also reported that one of the sandboxes with Toxocara eggs was co-contaminated with the eggs of , a parasitic worm that can, occasionally, cause intestinal blockage and stunted growth. Another parasite kids can get from sandboxes is Toxoplasma gondii, which is spread by cats and believed to chronically infect more than 1 out of every 6 Americans. In one study, researchers in Japan spied on three urban sandboxes at night using camcorders and found that over the course of five months, cats pooped in the boxes 961 times, and dogs pooped in them 11 times. They calculated that one of the sandboxes contained more than 1.5 million viable Toxoplasma eggs per square foot of sand, yet children need only ingest a single egg to get sick.

Although Toxoplasma infections are typically mild-some people get flu-like symptoms, while others feel fine, though most will harbor the parasite for the rest of their lives-individuals with compromised immune systems can fall very ill, and when women become infected during pregnancy, their babies can develop brain or vision damage or become sick later in life. (Some research also suggests that the parasite can affect behavior and personality. So the next time an aggressive driver cuts you off, calm yourself with the thought that he might be infested.)

Let's also not forget pinworms, the tiny little worms that live in your intestines, scurry down to your anus while you sleep, and lay their eggs there every night. Nearly half of all American kids are believed to have pinworms at any given time (and when they do, their parents usually have them too), but they're tough to diagnose: You basically have to set an alarm for a few hours after you go to sleep and then inspect your anus for crawling worms. (No, I'm not kidding.) As Austin, Texas-based pediatrician Ari Brown wrote in her best-selling book Toddler 411, sandboxes are an excellent place for kids to catch pinworms, because pinworms cause kids' butts to itch; then they scratch their butts, getting pinworm eggs on their fingers; then they build sandcastles studded with worm eggs.

I've left my favorite (as in: most absolutely terrifying) sandbox parasite for last. It's called Baylisascaris procyonis, and it is a roundworm that typically infects raccoons.

As many as 4 out of 5 raccoons carry this parasite, and infected coons typically poop out thousands, if not millions, of eggs a day-perhaps right on your lawn. In a 2009 study, researchers found raccoon poop in more than half of the suburban Chicago backyards they sampled. Once there, the parasite's eggs are virtually indestructible, except with exposure to very high heat. One scientist who has studied them recommends using an acetylene torch to incinerate the bastards.

Human infections with Baylisascaris seem to be very, very rare, although no one really knows why, considering everything I wrote above. But thank goodness, because the parasites are extremely dangerous. "If eggs are accidentally ingested by a human," a recent clinical report explained, "larval infection can lead to devastating neurological disease and death." One-third of cases are fatal. In 2009, two kids from Brooklyn caught it; one developed permanent brain damage, and the other went blind in one eye. Another child fell ill with it in Canada in 2009, presumably after-you guessed it!-playing in a sandbox. He was lucky because he was diagnosed and treated quickly, but the infection nevertheless robbed him of the ability to speak, gave him a seizure disorder, and damaged his eyesight.

So, yes, sandboxes are gross and can be dangerous. This is not to say that you should never let your kids play in them, because the danger is remote-they only rarely cause serious illness (my daughter's sandy snack seems to have done her no harm, although I haven't had her tested). If you own your own sandbox, though, consider covering it at night to keep out animals. If you have dogs or cats, make sure they are regularly checked for worms, and keep them out of the sandbox so they never wonder whether it might work well as a toilet. If you suspect that raccoons are pooping on your lawn, check out this Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guide to cleaning up their hazardous excrement.

As for public sandboxes: It kind of goes without saying, but if they smell bad, stay away. Also, (try to) keep your kids from putting their hands (or all the sand) in their mouths when they play, and make them wash their hands afterward. (Hand sanitizer won't kill worm eggs, Woc-Colburn says, so best to do it the old-fashioned way.) Would it be crazy to steer your kids away from public, always-uncovered sandboxes just in case? No, particularly if your kids have other sources for creative hands-on play. Brown, for one, has advised parents against them. And if your sandbox-frequenting kid does get really sick-symptoms of parasitic infections vary but can include fever, coughs, stomach pain, eye pain, or seizures-of course, take him to the pediatrician, and mention his sandbox use and any other relevant info, such as that you suspect your cat poops in it. Chances are high that your kid is never going to get really sick from sand play, but it's good to know about the risk just in case, even though it means-and for this I apologize-that you will never be able to look at a sandbox the same way again.
Read more of Slate's parenting coverage, including:

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Sandboxes Are Disgusting! Are You Sure You Want Your Kids Playing in Them?

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So there I was at a kid's birthday party, my 13-month-old daughter playing merrily with her brother in the sandbox, when she suddenly decided that she...

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this explains the difference between the 2 and how not all bacteria are harmful.

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Bacteria are single-celled, prokaryotic microorganisms that exist in abundance in both living hosts and in all areas of the planet (e.g., soil, water). By their nature, they can be either "good" (beneficial) or "bad" (harmful) for the health of plants, humans, and other animals that come into contact with them. A virus is acellular (has no cell structure) and requires a living host to survive; it causes illness in its host, which causes an immune response. Bacteria are alive, while scientists are not yet sure if viruses are living or nonliving; in general, they are considered to be nonliving.

Infections caused by harmful bacteria can almost always be cured with antibiotics. While some viruses can be vaccinated against, most, such as HIV and the viruses which cause the common cold, are incurable, even if their symptoms can be treated, meaning the living host must have a strong enough immune system to survive the infection.

Comparison chart

Structures

DNA and RNA floating freely in cytoplasm. Has cell wall and cell membrane.

DNA or RNA enclosed inside a coat of protein.

Reproduction

Fission- a form of asexual reproduction

Invades a host cell and takes over the cell causing it to make copies of the viral DNA/RNA. Destroys the host cell releasing new viruses.

Treatment
Antibiotics
Vaccines prevent the spread and antiviral medications help to slow reproduction but can not stop it completely.

Contents: Bacteria vs Virus

Virus - Bacteria Differences

Viruses are the smallest and simplest life form known. They are 10 to 100 times smaller than bacteria.

The biggest difference between viruses and bacteria is that viruses must have a living host - like a plant or animal - to multiply, while most bacteria can grow on non-living surfaces.

Bacteria are intercellular organisms (i.e. they live in-between cells); whereas viruses are intracellular organisms (they infiltrate the host cell and live inside the cell). They change the host cell's genetic material from its normal function to producing the virus itself.

There are some useful bacteria but all viruses are harmful.

Antibiotics cannot kill viruses, but can kill most bacteria, with the exception of most Gram-negative bacteria.

An example of a disease caused by bacteria is strep throat and an example of an affliction caused by a virus is the flu.

Video Explaining the Differences

This video explains the overall differences between bacteria and viruses.

Differences in Reproduction

Bacteria carry all the "machinery" (cell organelles) needed for their growth and multiplication. Bacteria usually reproduce asexually. In case of sexual reproduction, certain plasmids genetic material can be passed between bacteria. On the other hand, viruses mainly carry information - for example, DNA or RNA, packaged in a protein and/or membranous coat. Viruses harness the host cell's machinery to reproduce. Their legs attach onto the surface of the cell, then the genetic material contained inside the head of the virus is injected into the cell. This genetic material can either use the cell's machinery to produce its own proteins and/or virus bits, or it can be integrated into the cell's DNA/RNA and then translated later. When enough "baby" viruses are produced the cell bursts, releasing the new viral particles. In a sense, viruses are not truly "living", but are essentially information ( DNA or RNA) that float around until they encounter a suitable living host.

Abundance

Viruses are ten times as abundant as prokaryotes like bacteria. Hundreds of millions of viruses can be found in one square meter; the same space holds tens of millions of bacteria. In her book Viruses: A Very Short Introduction, Dorothy Crawford writes:

There are around 1 million different viral species in a kilogram of marine sediment where they infect and kill co-resident bacteria. Overall, marine viruses kill an estimated 20-40% of all marine bacteria every day, and as the major killer of marine microbes, they profoundly affect the carbon cycle by the so-called 'viral shunt'.

An article in Nature also confirms that viruses outnumber prokaryotes by ten to one and kill half of the world's bacteria every two days.

Given that bacteria are able to grow and reproduce at an exponential rate - only constrained by nutrients in the environment - viruses contribute to maintaining a healthy balance in the ecosystem.

Living vs. Nonliving

Bacteria are living organisms but opinions vary on whether viruses are. A virus is an organic structures that interacts with living organisms.

It does show characteristics of life such as having genes, evolving by natural selection and reproducing by creating multiple copies of themselves through self-assembly. But viruses don't have a cellular structure or their own metabolism; they need a host cell to reproduce. Viruses inject their own DNA into the host; sometimes those new genes are useful to the host and become part of its genome. It is estimated that up to 8% of our genome actually consists of endogenous retrovirus DNA.

It should be noted that bacterial species such as rickettsia and chlamydia are considered living organisms despite the same limitation of not being able to reproduce without a host cell. See also Wikipedia's page on the life properties of viruses.

References

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"Bacteria vs Virus." Diffen.com. Diffen LLC, n.d. Web. 14 Sep 2018. < >

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What's the difference between Bacteria and Virus? Bacteria are single-celled, prokaryotic microorganisms that exist in abundance in both living hosts and in all areas of the planet (e.g., soil, water). By their nature, they can be either 'good' (beneficial) or 'bad' (harmful) for the health of plants, hum...

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When the virus comes into the cell, it tricks the cell and it comes in. That is what causes illnesses.

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Cell vs. virus: A battle for health - Shannon Stiles

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People think that this plant could help fight the Zika virus

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People think that this plant could help fight the Zika virus

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Aedes aegypti A species of mosquito that can transmit the viruses responsible for several tropical diseases, including dengue fever, yellow fever, chikungunya and West Nile disease.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC An agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC is charged with protecting public health and safety by working to control and prevent disease, injury and disabilities. It does this by investigating disease outbreaks, tracking exposures by Americans to infections and toxic chemicals, and regularly surveying diet and other habits among a representative cross-section of all Americans.

chikungunya A tropical disease that has been crippling large numbers of people in Africa and Asia. It's caused by a virus that is spread by mosquitoes. It recently has been spreading widely throughout warm nations. More than 3 million people have suffered through its initial flu-like symptoms. A large share may also go on to develop intense pain in their muscles and joints that can last months to years. There is no cure or vaccine.

dengue fever A potentially lethal infectious disease transmitted by mosquitoes. No vaccine yet exists to prevent infection with the virus responsible for the disease, which causes high fevers, severe headache, joint pain, pain behind the eyes, rash, bone pain and sometimes mild bleeding. A more severe form of the disease, known as dengue hemorrhagic fever can cause uncontrolled bleeding if not treated right away.

extract (v.) To separate one chemical (or component of something) from a complex mix. (noun) A substance, often in concentrated form, that has been removed from its natural source. Extracts are often taken from plants (such as spearmint or lavender), flowers and buds (such as roses and cloves), fruit (such as lemons and oranges) or seeds and nuts (such as almonds and pistachios). Such extracts, sometimes used in cooking, often have very strong scents or flavors.

larva (plural: larvae) An immature life stage of an insect, which often has a distinctly different form as an adult. (Sometimes used to describe such a stage in the development of fish, frogs and other animals.)

perennial (in botany) A plant that lives for many years. Some may die back in harsh weather (extreme heat or cold), but then come back months later when conditions improve.

Society for Science and the Public (or SSP) A nonprofit organization created in 1921 and based in Washington, D.C. Since its founding, SSP has been not only promoting public engagement in scientific research but also the public understanding of science. It created and continues to run three renowned science competitions: The Intel Science Talent Search (begun in 1942), the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (initially launched in 1950) and Broadcom MASTERS (created in 2010). SSP also publishes award-winning journalism: in Science News (launched in 1922) and Science News for Students (created in 2003). Those magazines also host a series of blogs (including Eureka! Lab).

toxic Poisonous or able to harm or kill cells, tissues or whole organisms. The measure of risk posed by such a poison is its toxicity.

tropics The region near Earth's equator. Temperatures here are generally warm to hot, year-round.

subtropics A geographic region that reaches to the beginning of the temperate climate zone (around 40° North and 40° South latitudes) from the edges of tropics, that band of hot climate spanning the outer belly of the planet. The tropics reach out to the Tropic of Cancer (around 23.5° north latitude) and Tropic of Capricorn (around 23.5° south latitude). The subtropics tend to be reliably warmer than temperate climates, but may experience brief periods of frost that would be unexpected in the true tropics.

temperate In geography, referring to areas that are cooler than the tropics but warmer than polar regions.

virus Tiny infectious particles consisting of RNA or DNA surrounded by protein. Viruses can reproduce only by injecting their genetic material into the cells of living creatures. Although scientists frequently refer to viruses as live or dead, in fact no virus is truly alive. It doesn't eat like animals do, or make its own food the way plants do. It must hijack the cellular machinery of a living cell in order to survive.

Zika virus A virus that can be transmitted to humans via mosquitoes. About 20 percent of infected people get sick. Symptoms include a slight fever, rash and pinkeye and usually fade quickly. A growing body of evidence suggests that the virus could also cause a devastating birth defect - microcephaly. Evidence suggests it may also cause neurological conditions such as Guillain-Barré syndrome.

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Common plant could help fight Zika virus

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A teen discovered that extracts from leaves of the San Francisco plant (Codiaeum variegatum) kill larvae of the mosquito that helps spread the Zika and dengue fever viruses.

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Doctors are using maggots and leeches as antibiotics. 

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Doctors are using maggots and leeches as antibiotics. 

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Lets say you have a really big cut in your leg, it is infected by gangrene, a doctor might put a maggot on the cut, the maggot will eat the dead tissue that is feeding the bacteria.

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UPDATED: November 2021
Pandemics have caused a great deal of human suffering in history, and COVID-19 is no different.

Compared to pandemics of the past, we now have more knowledge and real-time research to guide us on how best to respond to this pandemic. Foremost, we advise everyone to heed the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has pledged $50 million to help families and communities suffering the most from the effects of the pandemic. We have also committed to rapid-response research.

Here are emerging lessons for communities:
See our COVID-19 page for the latest.

Exploring the Deadliest Outbreaks

"Outbreak" is a relative word. A modern outbreak could be a virus that kills a couple hundred thousand (such as the swine flu), or simply an infected shipment of food that left dozens sick. However, a look back through history reveals outbreaks so expansive-so deadly-that they essentially changed the course of history. Below are the five deadliest outbreaks and pandemics in history.

Ask yourself-are we prepared as a nation for the next big outbreak?

1. The Black Death

A plague so devastating that simply saying "The Plague" will immediately pull it to the front of your mind, in the middle of the 14th century-from 1347 to 1351-the Black Death remade the landscape of Europe and the world. In a time when the global population was an estimated 450 million, at least 75 million are believed to have perished throughout the pandemic, with some estimates as high as 200 million. As much as half of Europe may have died in a span of only four years. The plague's name comes from the black skin spots on the sailors who travelled the Silk Road and docked in a Sicilian port, bringing with them from their Asian voyage the devastating disease, now known to be bubonic plague.

2. 1918 Spanish Flu

Approximately 90 years before the 2009 swine flu pandemic killed more than 200,000 people, reports of an especially dangerous form of influenza began to appear around the world. Kansas was the site of the first U.S. case, in March 1918. Appearing in multiple countries around the world, the disease spread quickly, ushered along even faster due to the close living quarters of troops fighting in World War I. This first instance of an H1N1 pandemic would be dubbed The Spanish Flu (despite the fact that it didn't actually come from Spain). It burned out quickly and suddenly, by 1919, with the explanation still unknown today. But it left the global population decimated-with a mortality rate as high as one in five and an estimated one-third of the world population afflicted, as many as 50 million people are believed to have died. Approximately 25 million of those deaths came in the first 25 weeks of the outbreak. The Spanish Flu yielded important lessons on social distancing. Chief among them: don't let up early.

3. HIV/AIDS

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is one we're still battling. And while medicine has made great strides, making HIV in many ways a chronic condition that can be managed in many countries, the end of the pandemic still seems to be a long way away. Originating in Cameroon and first recognized as a disease in 1981, the earliest documented case is believed to be in 1959 in the Congo. As of 2011 at least 60 million people had been infected by AIDS and 25 million had died. Today its impact varies widely across the world-while in 2008 an estimated 1.2 million Americans had HIV, Sub-Saharan Africa alone was home to 22.9 million cases, with one in five adults infected. About 38 million people were believed to have HIV in 2018.

4. The Plague of Justinian

In the year 541, rats on Egyptian grain boats brought a pestilence to the Eastern Roman Empire that would ultimately leave approximately 25 million people dead. The Plague of Justinian quickly tore through the empire. Even the emperor himself-Justinian I, for whom the plague was named-contracted the disease. While he lived, many didn't, with modern scholars estimating that at one point as many as 5,000 people died per day in Constantinople, the empire's capital. By its end, about 40 percent of the city's population was dead-so many and so quickly that bodies were left in piles-joined by about one-fourth of the eastern Mediterranean. Modern experts believe the outbreak to be the first recorded case of the bubonic plague.

5. The Antonine Plague

The Antonine Plague was named for Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who ruled during the outbreak along with co-regent Lucius Verus, the outbreak began in 165 and lasted until 180. An estimated five million people died from what is now thought to have been smallpox. It's believed to have begun in the Mesopotamian city of Seleucia (in modern-day Iraq) and spread to Rome by soldiers returning from the city's siege. At one point during the extended pandemic an estimated 2,000 Romans died each day. This isn't a plague that discriminated-both emperors mentioned above are believed to be among its victims.
Honorable mention:
Cholera

There's no one outbreak of cholera to point to that's on the level of any of the above five pandemics. However, since first spreading from Calcutta along the Ganges Delta in 1817, it has killed millions. The World Health Organization estimates that each year that passes sees between 3 and 5 million new cholera cases, killing as many as 120,000 people. Untreated, it can kill in a matter of hours.

Cholera is also notable for the role a specific outbreak played in the development of modern epidemiology. English physician John Snow published his "On the Mode of Communication of Cholera" in 1849, updating it in 1855 with lessons he'd learned the year before. During the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak in the Soho district of London, Snow had-based on his theory that cholera was transmitted by exposure to contaminated water-used extensive interviews and intricately plotted maps to trace the source of the outbreak to a single water pump. Disabling the pump ended the outbreak almost immediately, in a poignant example of an early, effective public health intervention.

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The Five Deadliest Outbreaks and Pandemics in History

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UPDATED: November 2021 Pandemics have caused a great deal of human suffering in history, and COVID-19 is no different. Compared to pandemics of the past, we now have more knowledge and real-time research to guide us on how best to respond to this pandemic.

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Worms are gross, but when it comes to a sickness, they come in handy!

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Worms are gross, but when it comes to a sickness, they come in handy!

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Newsela | Hay fever bothering you? Try worms! Scientists say gross idea may work

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Have some worms. Gross? Yes, but worm larvae sometimes help people with allergies and other diseases that stem from chronic inflammation. If they are sick enough, some folks will try it.

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Vultures actually help not to spread diseases.  

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Vultures actually help not to spread diseases.  

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*The Rüppell's griffon vulture is believed to be the world's highest-flying bird, with confirmed sightings at more than 35,000 feet (10,668 meters).

* Turkey vultures have such a good sense of smell that they've helped natural gas companies detect gas leaks. The gas contains the same chemical found in a dead animal, which attracts the vultures to the leak.

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Vultures may be gross, but they play an important role in the ecosystem.