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Posted: 10/30/2007
Deadlier Than AIDS?
Health experts warn that a drug-resistant "superbug" has the potential to kill more Americans that AIDS. Each year more than 90,000 Americans are infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. The potentially deadly staph infection is believed to be responsible for the death of a 17-year-old high school student in Virginia which prompted officials to shut down 21 schools.
MRSA is the subject of a new report published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Staph infections, including MRSA, occur most frequently in hospitals and healthcare facilities. However staph infections are becoming more and more common outside of the hospital setting. What's more, not only are Staph infections more widespread, they are also more resistant to antibiotics. According to the study, which was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, "infections with significant antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, the types formerly seen only in hospitals, now have onset in the community - old diseases have learned new tricks."
Schools across the country are reporting an increase in outbreaks of staph infections, particularly among athletes. MRSA bacteria can live on common surfaces such as tables or doorknobs for days or weeks and can be transmitted when someone touches an infected surface. Health officials believe many of the infections are being spread in gyms and locker rooms. In Maryland, more than two dozen staph infections have been reported by four high schools over the past three weeks. Health officials in other parts of the country (including North Carolina, Ohio, New York, New Hampshire, and Florida) have also noted an increase in staph infections.
Old Diseases Learn New Tricks
The World Health Organization recently released its annual report, which states that infectious diseases are spreading faster than ever before. According to the WHO, new diseases are emerging at the "historically unprecedented" rate of one per year. Since the 1970s, 39 new diseases have developed, such as SARS, Ebola, and the Marburg virus. Furthermore, in the last five years alone, the WHO has identified more than 1,100 epidemics including cholera, polio and bird flu. The WHO anticipates that more new diseases will emerge in the near future, the report states that "It would be extremely naive and complacent to assume that there will not be another disease like AIDS, another Ebola, or another SARS."
Thomson Prentice, editor of the WHO report, says that modern airline travel has exacerbated the spread of infectious diseases: "With something like two billion passengers traveling last year, that works out at something like three million people every day flying from one city or one country or one continent to another. The potential, I think, is obvious for someone with an infectious disease unwittingly perhaps carrying it from one part of the world to another."
With the advent of antibiotics more than 50 years ago, scientists predicted the end of death and suffering from infectious diseases. During the past 30 years, however, we have witnessed the reemergence and geographical spread of well-known diseases, including tuberculosis, malaria, and cholera, often in more virulent and drug-resistant forms. Infectious diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide, and the third leading cause of death in the United States. Diseases thought to be obsolete have once again become a global threat, and in recent years new pathogens have emerged, some of which carry antibiotic-resistant genes or mutations enabling them to move across different species.
Distributed by www.ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com
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Re: Deadlier Than AIDS?
| Posted On: 10/31/07 04:53:49 PM |
Age 28, TX |
Frankly, smallpox is more dangerous than AIDS. AIDS is almost exclusively a behavior-based disease; while it's possible to be infected innocently, that doesn't -usually- happen. I'm not saying anything about AIDS, its sufferers, or the importance of fighting it; I'm just saying that it often seems like so much puffin' about nothin', when you know the facts.--Mrs. Pilgrim
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Re: Deadlier Than AIDS?
| Posted On: 10/30/07 08:28:56 AM |
Age 64, OH |
The prophecy in Daniel told this was going to happen. A time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. It was told it would happen when travel and knowledge increased greatly. That day is now here. When the power of the Holy people has finally been broken. Lou
Daniel 12
The End Times
1 "At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. 2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise [a] will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. 4 But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge."
5 Then I, Daniel, looked, and there before me stood two others, one on this bank of the river and one on the opposite bank. 6 One of them said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, "How long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled?"
7 The man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, lifted his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by him who lives forever, saying, "It will be for a time, times and half a time. [b] When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed."
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- Re: Re: Deadlier Than AIDS?
| Posted On: 10/31/07 08:27:07 AM | | Age 49, NE |
As hard as it is to see the things that are to come.... But it is as He said it would be. I so look forward to see our Jesus face to face! What a glorious day that will be....for all who love the Lord. We must continue to pray for the eyes of the unbelievers to be opened so they too can spend eternity with Jesus.....
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- Re: Re: Re: Deadlier Than AIDS?
| Posted On: 10/31/07 03:52:10 PM | | Age 19, FRANCE |
"The prophecy in Daniel told this was going to happen. A time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. It was told it would happen when travel and knowledge increased greatly."
Since the beginning of measured time, these things, travel and knowledge have continued increasing greatly. Throughout the ages, people have interpreted the same passage in the same way, as if it applied specifically to them--and it never has. Chances are (based on experience) it doesn't apply to you either. This is kind of a bet-hedging device of false prophets (all of them): be sufficiently vague. Every time that a prediction about the endtimes has given a date or a method or a name or a place, it has always been wrong, because, you know, check it out. It's great outside! Yay!
Go play with your dog. Dog loves you.
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- WHEN DID KNOWLEDGE AND TRAVEL INCREASE GREATLY
| Posted On: 11/01/07 10:52:29 PM | | Age 64, OH |
Dear friend;down trough the ages of man travel has not changed much until modern times. As late as the late 1800's man was still traveling by horse. There was progress but it was very slow and over thousands of years travel did not change greatly. In the last few years travel has changed greatly. Millions fly from continent to continent every day. Travel has changed GREATLY. Someone can argue that knowledge has changed all of the history of man. But men still thought the earth was the center of the solar system only a few hundred years ago. For the history of man that is a very short time ago. One can argue that the invention of the computer was the time of the great increase in knowledge. But something still had to take place and that was for the computer to be made available to almost every person on this earth. It is now that knowledge has increased GREATLY. I have NOT put a date on the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. But his children will know when the time is near. Lou
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