{"id":39410,"date":"2018-10-20T07:11:11","date_gmt":"2018-10-20T12:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=39410"},"modified":"2018-10-20T07:11:11","modified_gmt":"2018-10-20T12:11:11","slug":"the-next-flu-explosion-rise-in-obesity-and-diabetes-will-exacerbate-future-pandemics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=39410","title":{"rendered":"The Next Flu Explosion: Rise In Obesity And Diabetes Will Exacerbate Future Pandemics"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Next Flu Explosion: Rise In Obesity And Diabetes Will Exacerbate Future Pandemics<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Scientists involved\u00a0in a new study published this month in the research\u00a0journal,\u00a0Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology<\/em><\/a>, have\u00a0sounded the alarm over their ability to contain future flu pandemics in relation to\u00a0the rise of obesity<\/strong> especially in the West today.<\/p>\n

The study finds that growth rates in obesity and diabetes, along with populations which are increasingly resistant to antibiotics, could turn even a mild flu outbreak into an explosive global pandemic<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Image source: Getty via ABC News<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the authors of the study,\u00a0Dr Kirsty Short, virologist at the University of Queensland, told\u00a0The Telegraph\u00a0<\/em>of the link between obesity and spread of dangerous diseases: \u201cThere\u2019s been an incredible rate of increase of diabetes and obesity even in my lifetime.\u201d <\/strong>She explained<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cThis has significant implications on infectious diseases and the spread of infectious disease.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Short continued, “But because chronic diseases have risen in frequency in such\u00a0a short period of time, we\u2019re only starting to appreciate all of the consequences.”<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the now century old Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918, which infected a third of the global population and is estimated to have killed between 50 and 100 million people, she said of the next big outbreak,<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cwe know that there will be one\u201d<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

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The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic occurred as WWI was winding down. Historical photo via AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAs our population is ageing and chronic diseases are becoming so prevalent, that could turn even a mild pandemic into a chronic one<\/strong>,\u201d Dr. Short concluded.<\/p>\n

Though modern medicine and vaccines are better prepared to mitigate the impact of a major outbreak than in 1918, issues like obesity and diabetes more broadly present in society will likely provide a significant hindrance to prevention and treatment, scientists fear, as these conditions could alter the body’s immune response, leading to greater rates of hospitalization and even death.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Next Flu Explosion: Rise In Obesity And Diabetes Will Exacerbate Future Pandemics Scientists involved\u00a0in a new study published this month in the research\u00a0journal,\u00a0Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, have\u00a0sounded the alarm over their ability to contain future flu pandemics in relation to\u00a0the rise of obesity especially in the West today. The study finds that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11343,22445,1697,17708,11955,11344,607,7066],"class_list":["post-39410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-diabetes","tag-dr-kirsty-short","tag-flu","tag-flu-pandemic","tag-influenza","tag-obesity","tag-pandemic","tag-the-telegraph"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39411,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39410\/revisions\/39411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}