Authored By :
Bill Kochman
Published On :
August 18, 1999
Last Updated :
March 20, 2011
NOTE: This article or series has not been updated recently. As such, it may possibly contain some outdated information, and/or ideas and beliefs which I no longer embrace, or which have changed to some degree.
AIDS, Drug-Resistant Super-Strains, Same Wars With Old Germs
So exactly what are these precursors of which I speak? For one thing, they are the many diseases which have afflicted our modern society. Undoubtedly, the one which has affected our lives the most, is the AIDS virus, or Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome. If you have already become alarmed by the fact that between between 36,265,000 and 175,456,000 people have lost their lives due to war during this past century, and that some two and a quarter million people or more have died from earthquakes during this same period, consider the fact that in less than two decades, the AIDS virus has claimed over 11,000,000 lives in Africa alone, and over 300,000 more victims in the United States of America! Since the late 1980's, this angel of death has silently swept the entire world, leaving dozens of millions more infected with its life-robbing cells.
Despite man's modern science and technology, not only has he not been able to find a cure for this dreaded disease, but he hasn't even been able to slow it down in its deadly path. Because of this fact, and because the treatment prescribed to merely suppress the disease is so expensive, costing some $15,000 US annually, the vast majority of those people who are currently infected with HIV, or who may become infected in the near future, will never be treated, and will thus die. Consider the following reports which appeared in the world press during the months of August through November 1999 which confirm these facts. They are shocking!:
----- Begin Quotes -----
AIDS Spreading Rapidly In Africa Despite Measures
LUSAKA, Zambia (Reuters) -- The AIDS epidemic is expanding rapidly in sub-Saharan Africa despite all initiatives to halt it, researchers Monday told a conference in Lusaka on the spread of the disease. They said a lack of awareness about the virus did not appear to be behind the failure of health campaigns, because many people knew the basic facts about AIDS: that it is spread mainly by sexual intercourse and it could be fatal. At least 11 million people have died of AIDS in Africa, and 22 million more have been infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. By 2005, AIDS costs will represent more than half of Kenya's and two-thirds of Zimbabwe's government health spending, according to the U.N. AIDS agency.
. . .
UNICEF Reveals 'World's Worst Undeclared War'
. . . Carol Bellamy, head of the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, described AIDS and the HIV infection as the world's worst undeclared war which had turned sub-Saharan Africa into a 'virtual killing field'. She said the threat had reached 'monstrous proportions' and warned that time was running out. Miss Bellamy said that while an estimated 200,000 people had been killed in conflicts in Africa last year, more than two million had died during the same time from Aids. And whereas the United States currently spends more than $800m a year fighting HIV infection, the annual figure in Africa - where at least two thirds of the world's HIV infected people live - the figure is only $160m . . . 'By any measure the HIV Aids pandemic is the most terrible undeclared war in the world, with the whole of sub-Saharan Africa virtually a killing field. The hour is late; time is running out,' Miss Bellamy said. 'The monstrous proportions of the HIV/Aids pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa show that far from [being] simply another new problem among other development problems, the disease is rapidly becoming a significant and growing threat to peace and stability throughout the entire world . . .'
. . .
HIV On Rise In Vietnam, 600 New Cases A Month
CNN -- Vietnam has recorded 16,175 people with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and around 600 new cases are being reported each month, the official Vietnam News Agency (VNA) said Thursday.
. . .
USA Today -- AIDS experts called Sunday for Asia to act urgently to control the epidemic's rapid spread on the continent, saying it threatens millions of lives and a reversal of the region's economic growth. An estimated 7 million people are living with HIV or AIDS in the Asia-Pacific. Experts urged the region to learn a lesson from Africa, which has 21 million cases that account for two-thirds of the world's infections. To control the spread of AIDS, speakers Sunday suggested the need for sex education - which is not allowed in many Asian schools.
. . . Associated Press -- About 1 million people in the Western Pacific are now infected with HIV and the rate of infection is rising rapidly in many countries in the region, the World Health Organization said today. Last year, WHO officials estimated there were about 700,000 HIV infections in the region and 40,000 actual cases of AIDS. If left unchecked, they said, the number of HIV infections in the region will exceed 1.5 million in 2000 . . .
. . .
HIV Conference Opens With Warning Against Complacency
ATLANTA -- More than 2,000 scientists, doctors, researchers and advocates have gathered in Atlanta for the National HIV Prevention Conference, organized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and 17 other sponsoring organizations.
In the nearly two decades since the first cases of AIDS were reported, the deadly virus has claimed more than 300,000 lives. The good news is that the number of new HIV infections has dropped from about 100,000 a year to 40,000.
But at the same time, the epidemic is taking a greater toll on women and minorities, especially blacks who are becoming infected with AIDS at record rates, federal health officials said.
. . .
CDC: Decline In AIDS Deaths Slows Dramatically
The sharp decline in AIDS deaths that began two years ago with the development of powerful new drugs has suddenly been cut in half, raising questions about whether the medications are already losing their punch, health officials said Monday. AIDS killed 17,047 people in the United States last year -- a decline of 20 percent from 1997. From 1996 to 1997, the drop in deaths was a much more dramatic 42 percent, which health officials attributed to the effectiveness of new drugs . . . In 1995, 49,351 people died from AIDS in the United States. By 1996, that dropped to 36,792, and the number was down to 21,222 in 1997 . . . Most people who know they have HIV are already being treated Drug resistance among some AIDS patients causes the treatment to fail, and other patients fail to keep up with the complicated juggling of pills they have to take for the drugs to be effective. 'Our worst fears have become a tragic reality,' said Steven Fisher of the advocacy group AIDS Action. 'AIDS drugs don't work for everyone and aren't a cure for anyone.' New HIV infections in 1998 were estimated at roughly 40,000 -- a number that's held steady for the past decade . . .
. . .
Study: HIV Cannot Be Eradicated From Body
BALTIMORE (CNN) -- HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, cannot be eradicated from a patient's body even when it is undetectable in the blood, according to a study released Saturday by the National Institutes of Health.
Researchers had hoped that after taking anti-HIV drugs for more than a year, patients with HIV could stop treatment and the virus would not return. The study results appear to indicate that patients may need to continue drug therapy for the long term.
"It's going to be very difficult to take somebody off therapy and feel that the virus is not going to bounce back," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, who headed the research team. The study results were made public at a virology conference in Baltimore on Saturday.
Fauci and colleagues followed 18 HIV-positive patients who had been on the drugs for more than a year and in whom HIV had been reduced to undetectable levels. The researchers then took the patients off the drugs to see if the virus came back: It did, in all 18 patients, within three weeks.
Scientists had calculated that the HIV virus was capable of hiding in body reservoirs unreachable by drugs for as long as 60 years.
They had hoped to be able to flush the HIV from the reservoirs, either with the help of a drug called Interleukin-2 or with the passage of time. The scientists then thought the drugs would kill the virus as it emerged from the reservoirs.
"It does tell us that, given the currently available regimens that we have of antiviral drugs, we are not going to eliminate or eradicate the virus from individuals," Fauci said.
. . .
First Half Of 1999 In Russia Sees 5,000 New HIV Cases Reported
Some 5,000 new cases of HIV infection were reported in Russia in the first six months of 1999, raising fears that 20,000 people could be afflicted by the end of the year, Interfax reported Sunday. The latest figures signal an upsurge from 1998 when a total of 3,500 cases of infection from HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, were reported for the entire year, the news agency said quoting the Federal AIDS Center. The center warned that the number of infections could reach one million by 2002 . . . The report did not give a figure for the total number of HIV cases in Russia . . .
. . .
70% Or More Rise In Russian HIV Cases
The number of HIV-positive cases registered in Russia jumped by 70 percent in the first eight months of 1999 as the disease spread rapidly among drug addicts, the Interfax news agency reported Saturday . . . 'Residents of Moscow and the Moscow region account for the unprecedented growth in HIV infection,' he said. 'HIV hit the circle of the capital's drug users and the infection skyrocketed.' Although he said cases were up 70 percent, Shevchenko did not give any figures for how many people in Russia have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS . . . Russian officials warn that the actual number of HIV cases may be up to 10 times higher than reported. The country has been slow to implement comprehensive diagnostic and treatment programs and is focusing on more immediate economic problems.
----- End Of Quotes -----
While the AIDS epidemic may top world headlines insofar as disease control and prevention are concerned, it is by no means the only plague which the Lord is currently using in order to chastise the world for its sins. As the following reports clearly reveal, there is a wide variety of other dangerous and sometimes-fatal diseases which are currently on the rise. These reports include cholera, tuberculosis, bubonic plague, viral meningitis, anthrax, staphylococcus aureus. hepatitis C., E. coli bacteria, and several unknown pathogens as well. The reports I will be sharing with you below, appeared in major news services around the world such as UPI, The London Times, the BBC, the Associated Press, the Washington Post, CNN, the Nando Times, etc.
Similar to the false impression we may receive by reading only one earthquake report in the newspaper, to hear of one outbreak of disease likewise does not seem very significant; however, when we consider a wide range of reports, then the picture begins to become rather alarming. Take, for example, the following reports which deal with various drug-resistant diseases, once thought to have been conquered, which are now plaguing both the eastern and western hemispheres. These reports were published during the months of August and September of 1999:
----- Begin Quotes -----
Russian Drug-Resistant TB Alarms The Western Nations
A disease that once cut a swath through Europe's brightest and best is again laying waste to Russia. Tuberculosis, virtually eliminated a generation ago, has now infected at least half a million people, and threatens to spread from villages, prisons and ramshackle hospitals to the rest of the country. What is terrifying Western health officials is that a new form of the disease, resistant to modern drugs, is increasingly taking hold in Russia. Inadequate and primitive attempts to deal with the near-epidemic have merely boosted the prevalence of multi-drug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis, especially in the fetid and overcrowded prisons. Within a decade, medical experts say, Russia could have two million almost incurable TB patients. The disease, principally incubated among the huge prison population of more than a million, is rapidly being spread by the release of 300,000 prisoners a year. Of these, about 10,000 are carrying MDR TB and each person passes on the disease to at least 20 others, health officials estimate. Sooner or later, Western health officials believe, TB will cross Russia's borders, putting all of Western Europe at risk . . .
. . .
Drug-Resistant Staph Infections Hit The General Public
Federal health officials are warning doctors about a drug-resistant bacteria that has killed four people and sickened scores of others in the Midwest and until recently had been confined to hospitals and nursing homes. The deaths of four previously healthy children in Minnesota and North Dakota from the bacteria, staphylococcus aureus, have prompted an investigation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is no cause for panic, said Dr. Timothy Naimi, a CDC epidemiologist with the Minnesota Department of Health. 'This is not in any way a widespread epidemic,' Naimi said Friday. 'The risk to any individual of getting an infection from staph aureus is very low.' But doctors need to be aware of the bacteria when making decisions on how to test for infections and how to treat them. A colleague of Naimi's, Michael Osterholm, calling the infections 'a real wake-up call to clinicians.' One-quarter of all humans carry staph bacteria, but drug-resistant infections were largely thought to be contracted only in hospitals and nursing homes. The deaths of the children, from diverse ethnic backgrounds and environments, indicate healthy people could be susceptible to the strain . . .
. . .
Super Bacteria Appear In Britain
British public health officials report a potentially lethal bacterium currently resistant to every known antibiotic has shown up for the first time in a British hospital. The British newspaper The Guardian today published an article saying the discovery has provoked fears that medicine faces a return to the dark, pre-penicillin days when all surgery risked infection and death. According to the news report, there were two cases at Glasgow Royal Infirmary which this summer prompted alarm in the medical community about a so-called superbug resistant to every antibiotic. The newspaper says a hunt was quickly begun for all persons who came into contact with one of the infected patients after he left the hospital carrying the dangerous bacterium . . . An outbreak in New York took four years and $10m to bring under control . . .
----- End Of Quotes -----
In addition to these new super-strains of viruses and bacteria which resist annihilation by all current technologies known to man, the war of antibiotics also continues to be waged against other destructive pathogens which have long plagued our human society; as is clearly revealed by the following series of reports:
Cholera Kills 29 Iraqis In Recent Weeks, Paper Says
Twenty-nine Iraqis have died from cholera that has been spreading through Iraq in recent weeks, a newspaper run by President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday said on Tuesday. Nabdh al-Shabab weekly quoted Health Ministry Director-General Abdul-Jabbar Abdul-Abbas as saying 705 cases of cholera had been registered in Iraq recently.
. . .
Severe Outbreak Of Meningitis In Romania
More than 3,000 cases of viral meningitis have been identified in the European nation of Romania since early July, the health ministry said Monday. According to a ministry report, several hundred cases of the potentially fatal disease broke out over a four-day period, but doctors have not seen serious cases and were able to treat those infected. The ministry said 17 regions had been affected, notably in the north around Iasi where 687 cases were reported, and around nearby Botosani, where 346 people have been stricken. Doctors said poor sanitation in parts of this impoverished country - where running water is sometimes cut off due to unpaid bills - is responsible for the epidemic, adding that it has not been stopped. On Aug. 19, health authorities had recorded more than 2,400 cases of the disease. The ministry advised people to respect normal standards of hygiene and to protect themselves against mosquitoes, which spread the disease . . .
. . .
One Third Of Global Population Now Infected With TB
Nearly a third of the world's population is infected with the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, according to a new report, with 7.96 million new cases of the disease reported in 1997. The study, by the World Health Organization (WHO), blamed poor control strategies for the situation, adding that more than half of the new cases reported in 1997 occurred in five Southeast Asian countries. Control failures also were cited for high rates in sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe, along with high rates of HIV infection in some African countries, where the disease has hit people whose immune systems have been weakened. The study, published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association, estimated that in the 212 countries monitored by WHO, 1.86 billion people, or 32 percent of the global population, carry the bacterium that causes the disease . . .
. . .
Health Crisis In Russia Deteriorates
Almost six million Russian men are missing from the nation's expected statistical profile - killed by drink, accidents, suicide, poor healthcare and high male infant mortality. This alarming figure has been released in a United Nations report that gives grim support to the growing concern over Russia's falling birthrate, low life expectancy and unusually high male mortality rate. It comes amid reports of the reappearance on Russia's borders of diseases such as anthrax and bubonic plague, once considered conquered but now causing deaths in Siberia and southern Russia Russia's population has fallen by two million in the past decade already, from 148 million to 146 million. A particular worry is the high death rate of men, maintaining Russia's unenviable position of having one of the biggest gender imbalances in the world - a position it held 50 years ago after the very high casualties of the Second World War. The UN report estimates that there are 5.9 million fewer men in Russia than there would be in a country where the sex ratio was the normal 96 men per 100 women. In Ukraine, it says, there are a further 2.6 million men missing. Similar gaps are found in Belarus and Moldova. The total number of men missing from throughout the former Soviet Union is nine million . . .
. . .
Many Americans Carry Hepatitis C Virus
At least 2.7 million Americans carry the hepatitis C virus, making it the most common blood-borne infection in the United States, a study found. The study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is the first look at the prevalence of hepatitis C in the United States. The estimate was published in today's New England Journal of Medicine. 'This is what we consider a conservative estimate,' said Harold S. Margolis of CDC. 'This is everyday Mr. and Mrs. American who live in a household. This doesn't include the homeless and the prison population. The number could be higher.' . . . Scientists discovered the virus in 1989. People who inject illegal drugs or engage in unprotected sex account for most people who carry hepatitis C, but people who had blood transfusions before mid-1992 also are at risk. The disease and alcohol abuse rank as the leading causes of liver disease. The infection can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer and results in about 1,000 liver transplants annually in the United States . . .
. . .
Japan Food Poisoning Epidemic Shows No Sign Of Slowing
SAKAI, Japan (CNN) -- Japan's worst food poisoning case in 50 years is showing no signs of easing. Since Friday, more than 5,000 schoolchildren in the Japanese city of Sakai, near Osaka, have been sickened. More than 400 remained hospitalized Tuesday, and 17 were in serious condition.
Health officials believe that school lunches contaminated with the potentially fatal O-157 E. coli bacteria caused the outbreak. Each school prepares its own lunches, but all get their food from the same suppliers. Officials suspect a lunch distributed on July 5 was responsible. Sea eel sushi and a clear soup were on the menu that day.
The bacteria, which is highly infectious, can take four to five days to manifest its symptoms, which include diarrhea, nausea and a high fever. Hospitals in and around Sakai have been flooded with food poisoning victims since last week.
Earlier this year, E. coli outbreaks in other parts of Japan, including Tokyo and Hiroshima, killed three children and an elderly woman.
Food poisoning associated with the O-157 strain is fairly common in the United States, where about 20,000 cases are reported annually, experts say.
. . .
More Than 140 Down With E. Coli Poisoning In Illinois
More than 140 people were sickened with a potentially deadly strain of E. coli after partying in a cow pasture last weekend, and state health officials were scrambling to reach more than 1,800 others who were there. It is the second major E. coli outbreak in two weeks. In New York state, two people have died and more than 600 others who attended a county fair have E. coli symptoms. New York health officials estimate as many as 1,000 people may have been infected, which would make it the worst E. coli outbreak in U.S. history. The worst outbreak was in 1993 when 700 patrons of Jack in the Box restaurants in Washington state were sickened by E. coil bacteria linked to undercooked hamburger and four died . . .
. . .
Major E. Coli Outbreak In New York Leaves 290 Sick
The largest E. coli outbreak in state history - and possibly one of the worst nationally - has sickened nearly 300 people who believe they were infected after attending a county fair. The outbreak at the Washington County Fair about 35 miles north of Albany has led to one fatality, 3-year old Rachel Aldrich of Clifton Park . . . Health officials were still investigating the outbreak's cause, but suspected the fair's water supply may have been contaminated when rainwater runoff washed cow feces from a nearby farm into an underground aquifer.
. . .
Anthrax Outbreak Worries Republic Of Georgia
Forty-two people in Georgia's capital Tbilisi have been hospitalized after being infected with the anthrax bacteria over the last month, the Health Ministry in the former Soviet republic said Wednesday. The government doesn't have enough vaccine to fully protect the population, and the potentially deadly disease could spread further, Health Ministry spokesman Dzhoni Dzhanashiya said. Many people have stopped buying beef in Tbilisi markets because the disease was detected among cattle in several Georgian regions, Dzhanashiya said.
. . .
Texas Experiences First Dengue Outbreak In Almost 20 Years
The biggest outbreak of "dengue fever" to hit south Texas in almost 20 years has sickened more than a dozen people in the border town of Laredo. Epidemiologists there have confirmed 14 cases of the viral illness, which is spread by mosquitoes and nicknamed "breakbone fever." Over 100 cases have been identified just across the Mexican border and many more are suspected.
Dengue Fever Outbreak In Mexico Spreads North
AP -- "Scores of new cases of dengue fever in northern Mexico indicate the disease is spreading, but health officials in the United States say there's little danger of the outbreak moving north into Texas. At least 5,500 people have been diagnosed with the painful, mosquito-borne disease this month alone in Mexico's Nuevo Leon state. Of those, about 150 had the sometimes-fatal form known as hemorrhagic dengue. Another 500 cases have been reported in the neighboring state of Tamaulipas, which runs along the border from Nuevo Laredo to the Gulf of Mexico. Five people have died in Nuevo Leon and two in Tamaulipas. On Friday, the government news agency Notimex quoted health officials in northern Coahuila state as saying they had confirmed 77 cases there, including one case of hemorrhagic dengue. Coahuila's assistant director of health services, Marco Antonio Ruiz, was quoted as saying that another 461 cases are being analyzed. Dengue is characterized by headaches, rashes, cramps and severe muscle and bone pains. It usually last about two weeks after infection, and treatment is mostly to relieve symptoms. The hemorrhagic variety is accompanied by internal bleeding and can be fatal. Texas has recorded 22 dengue cases since July 1 . . ."
----- End Of Quotes -----
As we continue our series in part ten, we will look at some newly-discovered pathogens, the threat of bio-terrorism, that which a man sows, a worldwide low sperm count and a possible solution, and my time in Mexico City and air and water pollution. We will conclude part ten by turning our attention to yet another form of pollution; a hideous, internal form of pollution which kills about four million people worldwide every single year. This will include an expose on the power and deceitful tactics of the tobacco industry. I trust that you will join me.
⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .