But they may never consider the real threat of a deadly imported viruses that could affect life in the Midwest. U.S. Army Colonels Nancy and Jerry Jaax recently addressed these issues during a Global Health Conference at the University of Wisconsin River Falls. The idea that the world has become smaller through technological advances has long been a reality. Now, people have easy access to remote areas never before visited by humans. Emerging infectious diseases from exotic locations now have the potential of traveling just as easily and quickly as the people or animals who become infected with them.
Viruses have no regard for political, social, economic or geographic boundaries.
This is one of the reasons viruses such as an Ebola-Reston outbreak among monkeys in Reston, Va., are still hot topics. We need to look at what significant shortcomings we have in our public health systems. Local, state and national response is under review to improve our handling of potential outbreaks. Potential diseases may come from Mexico into Texas through transmission by mosquitoes. On the East Coast the transmission of West Nile fever is being watched in migratory birds, and is a possible threat to humans.