International Bulletin - April 2000
Update on World Health Issues
Common diseases once thought supressed, controlled or eliminated are now suddenly recurring in a drug-resistant state with greater virulence. New and unknown diseases, about which little is known, are emerging from our environment, many of them neither treatable nor preventable with present knowledge. For example, Measles is the leading killer of children, up to 1,000,000 deaths per year. There are estimates that 90% of the developing world is infected with Tuberculosis. This disease is listed as the cause of death in 1/3 of all AIDS cases. A child in the world dies every 12 minutes of Malaria, a disease once thought to be controlled. Imagine these headlines: "Diphtheria in Russia", "Ebola virus in Virginia" or Plague in Paris". Diseases once thought to be isolated in a remote corner of the globe are now easily spread anywhere, facilitated by international travel, urbanization, deforestation, immigration, world trade, overpopulation and an apparent serious lack of concern by government officials and the public in general. How will you safeguard your people?
Last Modified: November 29, 2002