Bird flu has reached new areas of the world and has become a year-round problem, animal and disease experts warn.

More than 20 experts and farmers on four continents spoke to a news agency about the problem. They suggested that record outbreaks will not stop soon on poultry (家禽) farms. They also warned that farmers must view the disease as a serious risk all year, instead of doing prevention efforts during spring movement seasons for wild birds. The outbreaks of the virus (病毒) have continued through the summer heat and winter cold in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Egg prices set records after the disease killed tens of millions of chickens last year. These record prices, at a time of worldwide economic problems, are especially damaging to people who use eggs as a main source of protein.

Wild birds are mainly responsible for spreading the virus, experts say. Waterfowl like ducks can carry the disease without dying and pass it to poultry through waste, saliva (唾液) and other ways. Farmers’ best efforts to protect their birds are not enough.

“In the US, Rose Acre Farms, the country’s second-largest egg producer, lost about 1. 5 million chickens at a Guthrie County, Iowa, production farm last year. These losses occurred even though anyone who entered barns was required to shower first to remove any sign of the virus,” Chief Executive Marcus Rust said.

The US, Britain, France and Japan are among the countries that have suffered record losses of poultry over the past year, leaving some farmers feeling helpless.

“Avian flu is occurring even in a new poultry farm with modern equipment and no windows, so we don’t know what to do to avoid an outbreak,” said Shigeo Inaba, who raises chickens for meat in Ibaraki, near Tokyo.

Even though vaccination (接种疫苗) is a powerful defense against disease, some voices are against it. In a recent letter, the American Medical Association (AMA) urged big social media including Amazon, Facebook and Google to take action to defend medical science on their platforms.

It said that vaccine -preventable diseases that do harm to the public health like measles (麻疹) are on the rise. Measles cases worldwide jumped more than 30% in 2017 compared to 2016, with the largest increases seen among nations in the Americas, Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. Vaccine-preventable diseases are increasing largely because many people are unwilling to get vaccinated. And some of these people even encourage others to refuse vaccination. So this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the anti-vaccination movement a top 10-health threat.

“Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective ways of avoiding disease—it currently prevents 2-3 million deaths a year, and a further 1.5 million could be avoided if global coverage of vaccinations improved,” WHO said.

A research article published in 1998 in a medical journal suggested a link between a vaccine and the development of autism (孤独症) in young children. Although the research has been suspected and many other studies have proved that vaccinations do not cause autism, the article is still impressing people strongly today. Another reason for the growth in the anti-vaccination movement is widespread misinformation on social media, which can turn people against vaccination.” If a concerned parent consistently sees information in their Newsfeed that casts doubt on the safety of vaccines, it could cause them to disregard the advice of their children’s physicians and public health experts and refuse to follow the recommended vaccination schedule. So access to true information about vaccine safety is badly needed.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 50 million people around the world have dementia. Alzheimer’s disease might be the cause of 60 to 70 percent of dementia cases. Alzheimer’s slowly attacks areas of the brain needed for memory, reasoning, communication and basic, daily tasks. There is no known cure for the disease. And long-standing treatments on the market just manage symptoms.

Last year, Drugmaker Biogen’s aduhelm became the first new Alzheimer’s drug introduced in the past 20 years. Given weak evidence of its effectiveness and the high prices, doctors and insurers have not given the treatment to patients. The beta-amyloid protein is involved in the development of Alzheimer’s. This year, Biogen and Eisai developed lecanemab. Both lecanemab and aduhelmaim to remove the protein from the brain. But lecanemab tries to clear the protein before it could form a hard cover on the brain. The companies said early results of the study of lecanemab showed that the treatment reduced thinking loss by 27 percent when compared to a placebo, an inactive substance. The one year-long study involved l,800 subjects. All had been identified with early-stage Alzheimer’s. The patients were measured for mental decline and their ability to do daily activities like putting on clothes and feeding themselves.

Dr. Jeff Cummings is the director of the Chambers-Grundy Center for Transformative Neuroscience at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. The expert told Reuters, “If you can slow a disease by almost 30 percent, that’s fantastic.”

Eisai said they would discuss the full results from the study in late November. They also plan to publish findings in a medical publication. And the company said it was seeking quick approval for the drug in the United States, Japan and Europe by early next year.

The race to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s comes as the number of Americans living with the disease is expected to double to 13 million by 2050, the Alzheimer’s Association said.