In 2014, we were lucky. There were only four diagnosed cases of Ebola virus in the United States. But in Africa, there were over 25,000 diagnosed cases of Ebola virus and more than 11,000 deaths, amounting to a public health tragedy.
The response to Ebola was helter-skelter. Doctors Without Borders was the first to warn about the rapidly expanding epidemic in Africa, but local governments and international organizations were slow to respond. The World Health Organization provided neither the leadership nor the operational coordination necessary to fight Ebola.
Whenever I am outside, I carry two EpiPens. If a bee stings me, the pens could save my life. I was recently stung, but not by a bee. The sting came from Mylan pharmaceuticals when it raised the retail price of a two pack of EpiPens from about $100 to more than $600 dollars over nine years. According to Money magazine, each EpiPen costs about $30 to produce.
We are not taking care of our children's teeth, and it is hurting them in school and later in life.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, tooth decay is among the most common chronic conditions of childhood. One in 5 children, aged five to 11, and 1 in 7 children, aged 12 to 19, have at least one untreated cavity.
Earlier this year, the World Health Organization declared that Ebola is no longer a public health emergency. While there are still outbreaks of patients infected with Ebola in Africa, local health officials are able to quickly identify and treat patients, keeping the virus from spreading. All that is good. But we can't put our guard down just because Ebola is not making headlines. We must be prepared for the next epidemic.
Too often we read a story that breaks our hearts: a story about the death of a promising student or the burden one person will carry for a lifetime because of causing a traffic accident due to being distracted. Sometimes survivors like Jacy Wood share their burden in the hope of stopping more tragedy. Jacy's parents were killed in a crash caused by a distracted driver, a senseless loss that could have been avoided.
For the first time since 1993, life expectancy for a newborn baby in the U.S. declined in 2015. It is a small decline, but if this trend continues, our children and grandchildren will, on average, live shorter lives than us.
Gun violence is a public health crisis. According to the American Public Health Association, last year gun violence took the lives of almost 33,000 Americans. Another 85,000 Americans sustained injuries from guns, many of them life-shattering. The price tag for gun violence was $229 billion last year for health care, law enforcement, insurance, employment and other costs.
Dietary supplements are big business. Last year, the U.S. market for dietary supplements was $27.6 billion, almost $10 billion more than we spend on athletic foot ware.
Can you hear me now? For too many Americans with hearing loss, the answer to this question is, "what did you say?" Hearing aids can help most Americans with hearing loss, but a shocking number do not use them. For many, the high cost of hearing aids is a major obstacle. There are steps we can take to make hearing devices more affordable for more Americans.
The opioid crisis is getting worse, and rapidly. In 2015, 33,000 Americans died from opioids. According to the Centers for Disease Control, almost half of those deaths were from prescription opioids. The New York Times reports that in 2016, overdoses from all drugs was the leading cause of death of people under the age of 50.