Old Diseases Become New Threats

from the September 12, 2006 eNews issue

With the advent of antibiotics 50 years ago, scientists predicted the end of death and suffering from infectious diseases. During the past 25 years, however, we have witnessed the reemergence and geographical spread of well-known diseases, including tuberculosis and malaria (often in more virulent and drug-resistant forms). Diseases thought to be obsolete have once again become a global threat.

"Virtually Untreatable" TB

The number of people infected with Tuberculosis (TB) has risen in recent years. There are currently more than 15 million people worldwide who are infected, primarily in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. New drug-resistant forms of TB have emerged in South Africa, primarily among AIDS patients, for whom tuberculosis is the leading cause of death.

A strain of multi-drug resistant Tuberculosis exists that is impervious to at least two of the main first-line TB drugs. Each year, half a million people are infected with this strain, mostly in the former Soviet Union, China and India. Treatment of the disease requires the use of drugs that are more toxic, more costly, and which take longer to work.

But now, according to researchers, an even more deadly form of the bacteria has emerged. According to the World Health Organization, a "virtually untreatable" from of the disease, called extreme-drug resistant TB has emerged. It has been seen worldwide, including in the US, Eastern Europe, and Africa. The disease's resistance to drugs was caused by the improper treatment of TB patients (through taking the wrong types of drugs for the incorrect duration).

In addition to TB, Sub-Saharan Africa has also born the brunt of the malaria epidemic. The continuing virulence of the disease, which kills more than a million people a year, has prompted the World Health Organization to launch an eradication campaign that promotes spraying the controversial chemical DDT, banned in the United States since 1972, in homes in developing nations.

DDT Could Save Lives

The use of DDT for mosquito and malaria control was extremely effective in saving human lives. In 1970 the National Academy of Sciences, in their book Life Sciences, stated that, "In little more than two decades DDT has prevented 500 million deaths due to malaria." Up until 1970 all reliable scientific data had consistently demonstrated that DDT was safe for both humans and animals. Indeed, DDT was the safest pesticide ever known to mankind. Furthermore, it was inexpensive and could be widely used in third-world countries to control the spread of insect-borne diseases.

Population control advocates set out to have DDT banned in the name of saving the environment. You probably remember the contrived stories declaring that DDT caused softening of eggshells, interfered with the balance of nature, and endangered humanity by entering the food chain. In truth, all of those stories were fabricated and part of a carefully coordinated program to block further use of the lifesaving pesticide. William Ruckelshaus was a longtime member of the Environmental Defense Fund and Director of the EPA. He outlawed further use of DDT in 1972 despite the recommendation of the EPA Chairman Investigating Committee, which had heard six months of testimony on use of the pesticide, and had determined that DDT was completely safe. When Ruckelshaus outlawed further use of DDT, he signed the death warrant for hundreds of millions of helpless human beings living in third world countries.

If the National Academy of Sciences was correct in its 1970 assessment, we have probably lost over 600 million human lives in the years since advocates of population control succeeded in outlawing DDT.

The book of Revelation describes a rider on a pale horse that is given power to kill one-fourth of the earth's population with the sword, with hunger, and with "the beasts of the earth." Some commentators believe this may refer to even the smallest of beasts - deadly viruses and bacteria. For more information on this subject, see our recently update briefing pack titled Biotech: The Sorcerer's New Apprentice?