China’s Beichuan town has been sealed off to prevent any possible epidemics from happening. The town lost half of its 12,000 residents during the May 12 earthquake that killed 69,186 and left 18,457 people missing.

India is in the midst of a catastrophic epidemic of smoking deaths, which is expected to cause about one million (10 lakh) deaths a year during the 2010s – including one in five of all male deaths and one in 20 of all female deaths at ages 30-69. On average, male bidi smokers lose about six years of life, female bidi smokers lose about eight years and male cigarette smokers lose about ten years.

UN agencies have confirmed a cholera epidemic in northern Iraq and placed the whole country on high alert in response to the outbreak.

A lethal fish virus in the Great Lakes and neighboring waterways is approaching epidemic proportions, according to Paul Bowser, Cornell professor of aquatic animal medicine in the College of Veterinary Medicine. The viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV), which causes anemia and hemorrhaging in fish, has now been identified in 19 species and poses a potential threat to New York's $1.2 billion sport-fishing industry.