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News Release 08-027

Scientists Say Tropics Are Next Emerging Disease Hotspot

Diseases that originate in animals are a primary concern

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illustration of bugs with map of tropics

This is the first time researchers are able to provide a scientific prediction of where the next major disease like HIV or SARS could emerge. During the last three decades, researchers have spent billions of research dollars to deal with the seemingly random emergency of dozens of pandemics.

Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation


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In a telephone news conference on Feb. 19, 2008, scientists from four well-known institutions discussed new research that predicts where the next pandemic, like HIV/AIDS or SARS, could occur.

The transcript of the news conference is available.

Credit: National Science Foundation