The Modern Black Death?
As many near and dear to me know I have long held that the world is long overdue for a panendemic, something along the lines of the Black Death of the late 1340s and 50s. I have in fact spent much time studying the similarities between Europe at the time and the modern world; and find that there are many likenesses, over population, high unemployment, high instances of natural disasters including famine.
Now generally I have held the belief that while this "new Black Death" was inevitable it was probably still be a generation or two off and was more likely to affect our children or grandchildren than ourselves. But lately in my perusals of the newspaper I found several interesting facts. One many diseases that we believe we are immune to have mutated and we are no longer protected against, two examples measles and tuberculosis. Luckily your can go in and get an immunization for the new form of measles and anyone who got theirs before 1980 should seriously consider doing so. But the new strain of TB well you get it and well much like 100 years ago you will die. You would think that this would be front-page news but I found both stories buried in the middle of the paper, just tiny articles that seemed to mean nothing. Two other interesting things I have heard in the last week or two. One they have found a new strain of bird flu. Also there are three people in New York who have strains of HIV that are resisting all treatments.
I must admit I find it intriguing that these stories were only mentioned in passing and yet every time someone shoots another person in a foreign land it is headline news. What does this say of us as a culture? Do we ignore these diseases because we feel that we can cure them and so it is not really a problem? Are we, like the people of the Renaissance, ignoring the killer at the door? More and more I believe that the panendemic will strike in our life times. So then the question becomes how prepared are we for a swift moving, highly infectious disease?
Okay now that I have you all thinking. Here is a little something to lighten the mood. http://www.flixxy.com/medieval-tech-support.htm
Now generally I have held the belief that while this "new Black Death" was inevitable it was probably still be a generation or two off and was more likely to affect our children or grandchildren than ourselves. But lately in my perusals of the newspaper I found several interesting facts. One many diseases that we believe we are immune to have mutated and we are no longer protected against, two examples measles and tuberculosis. Luckily your can go in and get an immunization for the new form of measles and anyone who got theirs before 1980 should seriously consider doing so. But the new strain of TB well you get it and well much like 100 years ago you will die. You would think that this would be front-page news but I found both stories buried in the middle of the paper, just tiny articles that seemed to mean nothing. Two other interesting things I have heard in the last week or two. One they have found a new strain of bird flu. Also there are three people in New York who have strains of HIV that are resisting all treatments.
I must admit I find it intriguing that these stories were only mentioned in passing and yet every time someone shoots another person in a foreign land it is headline news. What does this say of us as a culture? Do we ignore these diseases because we feel that we can cure them and so it is not really a problem? Are we, like the people of the Renaissance, ignoring the killer at the door? More and more I believe that the panendemic will strike in our life times. So then the question becomes how prepared are we for a swift moving, highly infectious disease?
Okay now that I have you all thinking. Here is a little something to lighten the mood. http://www.flixxy.com/medieval-tech-support.htm