New Orleans: A Disaster Waiting to Happen?

A Disaster Waiting to Happen

Suppose we organise a golf tournament in which 100 people play a round. Is the score of the tournament winner a reasonable estimate of his future scores? If the field consists of players of similar abilities, then the winner is likely to be one of the better players, but he will also have to be lucky on the day. The winner's score is likely to be above his personal average, for if he had not be...

Waiting for Determinism to Happen

Avian influenza--a pandemic waiting to happen?

Cross-species transmission of a highly pathogenic subtype of influenza A virus directly from birds to humans has raised many concerns. The radical methods of immune evasion and the possibility of human-to-human transmission as a result of gene reassortment between the human and avian viral subtypes pose an imminent threat of a global pandemic. The growing reservoir of circulating influenza amon...

Cardiovascular disease in sub-Saharan Africa: a disaster waiting to happen.

The looming threat posed by the emergence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in sub-Saharan Africa (sSA) is underestimated and often denied. The health services and societies struggle to cope with the direct effects of poverty, war, fragile social and economic structures and AIDS. The threat of CVD seems less direct and few reliable data are available. This has resulted in neglecting serious warni...

Femoral taperosis: an accident waiting to happen?

A modular femoral head-neck junction has practical advantages in total hip replacement. Taper fretting and corrosion have so far been an infrequent cause of revision. The role of design and manufacturing variables continues to be debated. Over the past decade several changes in technology and clinical practice might result in an increase in clinically significant taper fretting and corrosion. T...