The disease detectives at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named the top five global health threats they expect to tackle in 2014:
1. The emergence and spread of new microbes
While it's rare, CDC scientists do come across new diseases each year. In 2013, the new Heartland virus carried by ticks was confirmed in northwest Missouri. Federal health investigators collected samples in the state after two farmers from St. Joseph were sickened by the virus that carried a novel genetic profile.