A recent online dispatch in The New York Times provides a critique of how a novel health hazard can be spun into a news report designed to catch the reader’s eye rather than inform. A reporter visiting Liberia filed a story filled with vivid lines about a mysterious “contagious skin disease taking over the city of Robertsport” where he had personally encountered 75 victims and learned that the Ministry of Health had ordered citizens to cease all movement. The report and disease were subsequently debunked by the epidemic alert service ProMed, used worldwide by public health professionals, as the result of an infestation of Nairobi flies, whose bodies emit a dermatitis-causing toxin when they are crushed against the skin with a well-aimed smack. The solution to the hazard is to brush or blow the fly away instead.
It may be a minor instance of infectious disease hysteria, but this story does remind us of the potential for today’s overactive media outlets to cast any emerging disease as the next plague. Though real and admittedly scary, avian flu and H1N1 have received this kind of media treatment, which many doctors believe has conditioned us to underestimate future threats. While we do not pretend to compete with CNN, Fox News or MSNBC, HTB promises to strive to present our readers facts rather than speculation and sensational sound bites. Keep an eye on the mysterious killer disease that has sprung up in Uganda and watch how news reports play out in this case. Let us know of any reports you’ve seen that cross the line and need debunking.
Photo by AlamosaCountyPublicHealth.
Experienced travelers know that taking to the local roadways can be one of the most dangerous passages on an international itinerary. Whether in a taxi or a bus, or as a cyclist or a pedestrian, travelers roll the dice with their health and safety. Now the World Health Organization (WHO) has released a 
