39 new diseases discovered in the last generation, and counting

New diseases are popping up all the time, and although most remain somewhat obscure and unknown others spread rapidly and quickly become widely known -- AIDS for example is the most commonly known of 39 new diseases that have just popped up within the last generation.

The U.N. Health Agency puts the blame on ballooning populations in countries around the world, intensive farming practices, and changing sexual behaviors. The majority of new health threats have come from animals, such as SARS, the bird flu, and Ebola, and not surprisingly eyes have also recently turned over towards China with all the scares from their direction lately.

I think we'll always have new diseases, viral strains, and other health threats popping up, what we need to do is work on how we plan to deal with them when they do.