A few years back, while living in the Washington DC area, I worked with a group of
people on developing themes in a campaign we called "TB Knows No Borders".
In order to secure congressional funding to assist in combating drug-resistant
tuberculosis, we pointed out three basic things:
1) That drug-resistant tuberculosis is on a rapid-increase in parts of Africa, Asia,
Russia (particularly in prisons) and other parts of the world
2) That air travel and transportation in general causes us to now measure distances
between all parts of the world in terms of hours instead of miles. That also means
that one person could carry a contagious and potentially deadly disease from any place in
the world to any place in the world within 24 hours.
3) That because of increased and ever-more resistant strains of diseases and viruses
that are occurring, we can no longer sit back and wait for them to occur and respond to
them. Instead, we must be pro-active in treating and preventing them, and
developing procedures to contain them before an emergency forces us to confront a
disaster.
An additional sub-theme was simply to point out that this is yet another example
of how we can no longer view ourselves as separate nations and people, because progress
has brought us to the point of being a true global community.
I'll add that, during this successful lobbying campaign, there were no reported cases
of drug-resistant tuberculosis in North America. 3 weeks after passage of the
legislation, the first case was discovered in a man in Toronto who had traveled from
Europe via Dulles Airport (the Washington DC area). Last month, drug-resistant
tuberculosis was reported to have tripled amongst homeless people in the streets of
Seattle (5 years later).
The lessons of SARS and the West Nile Virus are very similar. Prevention of their
spread is unlikely. No method of protection or prevention is fool-proof. And, I believe
medical experts have done an outstanding job responding to the outbreaks.
It's very much the same story of Lyme Disease, which I'll tell you about later.
SARS is different from West Nile because it is primarily spread from human to human via
close contact or coughing or similar ways. Health care workers, exposed over long periods
of time, seemed to be the most affected. However, it has been determined that the virus
has definitely mutated into 2 different strains, and that it can remain live and
contagious on table tops and other surfaces for days.
SARS should provide health officials an excellent working model on what can be expected
in the future. We should feel lucky that SARS does not actually seem to infect
others easily, otherwise, we might be facing a deadly pandemic at this very moment. SARS
was originally discovered in November of 2002 in what appeared to be an unusual form of
Bird Flu.
It wasn't until January of 2003 that a flurry of stories began appearing in Chinese and
Asian news reports that described an epidemic. It was then that the CDC and World
Health Organization decided to become involved.
As epidemics and pandemics go, SARS (thus far) has not been as problematic as it could
have been. Experts say it must be eliminated within 6 months in order to prevent it from
being a chronic problem (Sept. 2003).
Officials in Toronto have even discussed the pros and cons of the outbreak there.
Their primary options include dealing with harsh but pragmatic methods -
quarantines of individuals, buildings and areas, and the financial burdens that go with it
- or to accept that the disease will simply become an accepted illness, a part of life,
and thus would not cause disruptions in commerce.
That certainly is their choice, but particularly given their proximity to the United
States, it is not a risk I'm willing to leave to other people or nations to protect us
from. We must have a policy that could easily be folded into our bio-terrorism
response strategies in order to pre-empt the terror of bio-medical attacks, epidemics and
proliferation.
The West Nile Virus is different because it's well established in North America, and
will most assuredly affect all 48 contiguous states by fall of 2003. It is primarily
spread by mosquito bites, or, carried from region to region by birds who carry and eat
mosquitoes.
Less than 25% of people who are exposed/infected by mosquito bites actually show
symptoms of the West Nile Virus. However, it can be deadly, and is responsible for the
deaths of numerous birds, and horses. It can also infect your pets.
The most recent discoveries included the ability to spread the virus via blood
transfusions and organ transplants, as well as sexual contact. Those discoveries were
considered to be reliable (CDC) but not necessarily definitive.
West Nile is another example of how we've been lucky that it has been relatively slow
in developing. It's another dress rehearsal we can't afford to squander. But the truth is,
as these things go, West Nile Virus has spread rather quickly. It just seems to have
happened suddenly.
Crossing our fingers and hoping we'll always catch it before it becomes a problem is
not an acceptable solution. It's more than just a medical issue, it's an ecological issue
as well. That's what I'll talk about next.
Lyme Disease: A Quiet Cycle of Development & Despair
Lyme disease is another kind of "silent enemy" that is slowly gaining on us.
It, too, goes relatively unnoticed, but, since 1982 when the CDC began actively tracking
the disease, more than 100,000 people in the United States have been infected.
Lyme disease is spread by ticks. Like West Nile Virus being passed by mosquitoes, the
ticks primarily infect small mammals. But, of course, as the separation between wildlife
and people are reduced in our dwindling habitats, the pests increase as well, and we and
our pets become infected. It's very much a pyramid effect. One of those things you don't
think about happening to you.
The spread of Lyme disease is particularly exascerbated when the balance of nature is
altered. In this case, black-legged ticks, sometimes called deer ticks, are multiplying at
a great rate because the deer populations, particularly in the Northeast, Great Lakes
States, and the Northern California/Southern Oregon regions, have greatly increased while
their predators have decreased, and nature is out of balance.
Deer populations are estimated to have grown from 500,000 in 1900, to more than 30
million.
The effect of Lyme disease on people, let alone wild animals and pets, is an infection
that causes fatigue, joint and arthritic pain, many times months of suffering once it's
diagnosed, and when not diagnosed early, it can cause permanent damage and suffering.
Now, you might say, 100,000 people isn't that many in the grand scheme of things. Tell
that to the sufferers and their families.
Even more, consider it a perfect case example of how just one of many diseases passed
by ticks can effect so many people, but because it affects a low percentage of the
population, it goes relatively unnoticed. Precautions are not taken. Awareness is not
raised, and until a widescale disaster unfolds, little effort is expended to control it.
But, what if you had 500 diseases like this?
It adds up in terms of human and animal suffering. But it also adds when up when you
connect the dots and realize there is a greater pattern: that, through modern
transportation that can transport diseases globally in hours, and an environment out of
control, that until we truly begin to manage our environment - and this inevitably is
about managing the environment, including ourselves in the chains and cycles - we
are subject to this sort of natural biological attack.
Ticks spread 4 basic kinds of diseases; one is very much like malaria. And, the
diseases they spread appear to be mutating very quickly, making diagnosis and treatment
even more difficult.
One day, due to drug-resistance or slow, but sure growth of such a pest or disease,
many more people will be subjected to needless suffering because of a lack of clear,
consistent policy on the control and isolation of emerging diseases of many kinds. It's
not very exciting, politically, to talk about germs and bugs, and dealing with
over-populations of wild animals.
But, prevention and maintenance is the appropriate business of government. Doing
reasonable, responsible things that people don't want to think about, but doing them
anyway because it needs to be done.
It's the same reason we wash our hands before eating, or cooking meat thoroughly.
There's something we can, and should, do about it.
Footnotes
The
American Lyme Disease Foundation
Results Mixed for Post-Lyme Disease
Antibiotics When it comes to lingering Lyme disease symptoms,
intravenous antibiotics may not improve impaired thinking, two newly released studies
suggest. Besides developing a rash, a person bitten by an infected tick may develop
flu-like symptoms. The illness is treatable with antibiotics, but if left untreated,
people with the disease can develop serious complications, including arthritis and heart
problems. Some patients continue to have symptoms of Lyme disease after treatment with
antibiotics
Infections Now More Widespread Animals
Passing Them to Humans "There are probably hundreds, if not thousands
-- maybe even millions -- of viruses out there," said Robert G. Webster, a leading
virologist at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. "We don't even
know they're there until we disturb them. SARS is probably just a gentle breeze of what
one of these big ones is going to do someday." All the new diseases have one thing in
common: Animals passed them to people.
see also: AIDS,
Africa & Developing Nations: Sustainability
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