Knowtex

The Broad Street cholera epidemic of 1854 (London).

Despite a recent vaccination campaign (a safe an effective vaccine has been in use for 40 years) in high risk countries, measles remains one of the leading causes of death among young children globally. An estimated 164 000 people died from measles in 2008 – mostly children under the age of five.

Even for one of Europe’s most efficient countries, it is a tricky problem. At least 40,000 pregnant goats must be destroyed in the coming weeks to head off a new outbreak of Q-fever, a nasty disease that has killed six of the 2,300 people in the Netherlands who caught it last year.

It is possible to successfully fend off a zombie attack, according to Canadian mathematicians. The key is to “hit hard and hit often.” So we now know what to do in case of a zombie attack...