Please donate to help cover the costs of operating Greater Democracy. Note that Greater Democracy is not a formal organization, and your donation is not tax deductible. Greater Democracy is not affiliated with any other business, organization, or party.
March 22, 2005Six Emerging Global Pandemics[This post is from a friend with contacts in the national health care arena.] Bird Flu is only one of the six emerging global pandemics. They are: Super-TB, H5N1 (Bird Flu), Super-Staph, SARS, Super-Malaria and the major threat is still HIV. H5N1 is going to be very bad, but (at worst) it will cull out 10% of the healthy human population. That would be over 600 million deaths from H5N1. If it focusses on the weak, just what disease is supposed to do, it may be a very perverse partial solution to the tensions caused by exploding global population and the carrying capacity of the earths natural systems. The most terrifying pandemic tidal wave is the one no-one is wants to address - (Except maybe China). HIV, using 20+ million Human Petri-Dishes kept alive with long term "maintain" drugs, is evolving at a rate of 3 generations an hour/host into an indestructible, casual-contact, species-buster. HIV has gone from 2 to 400 strains in 20 years. All of them with separate traits, target proteins, infection rates and preferred transmission membranes. It's only a matter of time until one this exponentially growing number of variations cracks the protein to penetrate saliva and sinus membranes. Three strains have already cracked 3 of the 4 classes of drugs that used to slow it down. Some within Health and Human Services [HHS] also are increasingly alarmed about folding protein forms of virus, that are 99% benign, but seem to be increasingly interested in taking up residence in odd places in the human body. Once there, they may decide to make friends with HIV and teach some strains how to fold to disguise itself. In this we see the tragic unintended consequences of our best intentions opportunistically turned against us by the power of evolution. Gaia will choose who survives these 6, unstoppable, pandemic tsunamis. Who will lead us to safer ground? Safety will not be found if we keep our heads in the sands of entertainment, consumption and celebrity. Don't be a Vector. Be a leader. Posted by Jock Gill at March 22, 2005 1:32 PM | TrackBackComments
And yet, the Bush administration has shifted new NIH and other infectious disease funding toward obscure diseases with supposed potential bioterrorism uses, ignoring these actual more pressing diseases. All these new bioterror facilities like the one in Galveston are set up to study the wrong things. It's truly an example of the military industrial complex's needs usurping real, pressing public health priorities - a disgrace. Good to meet you at SXSW, Jock. Thought I'd stop in and say 'howdy.' Posted by: Scott Henson at March 26, 2005 5:24 PMThere's a really fascinating and well-researched page of articles on the horrific effects of the 1918 flu (the 'Spanish Flu'), together with experts' reports on the likelihood of another global pandemic, over at http://www.survivalistskills.com/1918FLU.HTM. It makes for truly terrifying reading! Posted by: Cathy Johnson at April 12, 2005 12:42 PMPost a comment
|