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AIKEN-AUGUSTA’S MOST SALUBRIOUS NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED IN 2006
NOVEMBER 4, 2016
Where do new diseases come from? And why do they keep appearing? I A better question might be why aren’t more new diseases popping up?
f you read that headline and asked yourself, “What new diseases?” here’s a brief refresher course: the Ebola virus was unknown until 1976; SARS (Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome) popped up out of nowhere in 2002; West Nile Virus appeared for the fi rst time in 1999; MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) affected Patient #1 in the United States in 2014; AIDS was fi rst recognized by the CDC in 1981; the swine flu pandemic known as H1N1 dates only to 2009. The list could go on. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. In 1967, then U.S. Surgeon General William H. Stewart said, “It’s time to close the book on infectious diseases and pay more attention to chronic ailments such as cancer and heart disease. The war on infectious diseases has been won.” That pronouncement wasn’t just incorrect; it was wildly incorrect: More than twenty new viral diseases have appeared on the scene since 1967, including AIDS, “the worst pandemic humans have ever faced.” One source says infectious diseases now account for one-fourth of all deaths globally each year. Why are deadly new diseases popping up at a time of great medical advances? A better question might be why aren’t more new diseases popping up? Yes, we’re living in a time of great medical advancements, but we — the human race collectively — are making the task of
infectious disease control monumentally difficult. Consider travel as one aspect. In past centuries it was impossible to quickly travel across the globe. It could take months to travel between continents. Today, Europe and Asia are mere hours away from Augusta — or anywhere else on the planet. Sir Francis Drake, the second person to circumnavigate the globe, spent from 1577 to 1580 doing the deed; it took Steve Fossett just 67 hours to do it in 2005. The epidemiological impact is significant: because of the delay between exposure to a disease and the onset of symptoms — known as the incubation period — an infected person can literally travel around the globe, unknowingly leaving a trail of other infected individuals in his wake. SARS is a perfect, if ironic, example. The disease fi rst appeared in 2002 in China’s Guandong Province. From there it was carried to Hong Kong in February 2003, ironically enough, it was later discovered, by an infected but unsuspecting physician, who subsequently infected a number of Hong Kong residents and fellow travelers. In short order SARS spread to thirty countries, causing about 800 deaths before it was curtailed. Right this minute, an estimated 500,000 people around the world are on board a commercial aircraft speeding to a faraway destination. Any one of them could be the carrier of the next pandemic. Population growth is another key factor in the spread of disease. Alongside the greatest mobility in human history is the greatest population density in human history. We’re rubbing elbows with our fellow humans as never before, which greatly facilitates the spread of disease. And it isn’t just humans we’re elbow to elbow with. All those people have to live someplace, and they Please see NEW DISEASES page 3
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