The latest outbreaks in several countries of the Influenza A (H1N1) virus, formerly known as swine flu, may just be the harbinger of an impending reality that disease is bound to be the century’s most daunting challenge. Malaria is also rampant in the world, as well as terrifying outbreaks of dengue fever that is said to be more currently devastating than the much-publicized cases of the Influenza A (H1N1) virus spread. 

Disease has become the attendant result of overcrowding, specifically urban congestion, and the subsequent lack of proper sanitary conditions in these places. According to Thomas Homer Dixon, a political science professor and author of ‘The Upside of Down,’ “One of the real challenges we may face in the future is a new disease that sweeps across the planet — because we’re all so tightly connected together.”

Dr. Ian Lipkin, professor of epidemiology and neurology at Columbia University, says, “People can be persistently infected with certain types of viruses and bacteria and show no signs of disease, but they can also be capable of transmitting infection with terrible consequences to people who’ve not seen it before.” 

Urban congestion or overcrowding in large cities, especially in developing countries, has brought about many manifestations of social malaise and degradation such as poor healthcare, poverty and all its attendant consequences, poor supply of clean water, and a general breakdown of hygiene and sanitation. All these result in poor health among the citizens, as well as breakdown in their immune system which lays down the fertile ground for virus and bacteria to spread easily, thus giving rise to infection rates. 

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Via abc News