Risky Business Risky Blood

                            Risky Business, Risky Blood

    What would you do if you were told that a world-wide pandemic was ravaging humanity? Some would run in fear, others would laugh and disregard the possibility; some may never even hear about it. That is very sad, seeing as it affects all of us. We need to unite simply for our overall safety. The truth of the matter is that we are at great risk for a world wide pandemic by many things, and we need to do something about it.
      There are many ways that we are at risk. One of our most prominent causes, seems to be that we kill the ‘good’ germs in our bodies. Melissa Hantman explains that “…a sterile, antiseptic world might do more harm than good, and the onslaught of antibiotics might undermine their very purpose”. These good germs help our immune systems and the balance of white blood cells in our blood stream. Probiotics (the ’good’ germs) can also help regulate the intestinal flora, and they might help increase the mucosal barrier to more pathogenic bacteria -- giving a boost to the intestinal immune system. (Hantman)
Without this Bacteria, we are open to all kinds of nasty afflictions. That is not our only risk though.
     Overpopulation is also a problem. With so many people, disease will obviously spread faster. When you have contact with thousands of people everyday, as many people do in the city, there is a huge risk of catching whatever they have. Overpopulation makes it too easy to spread disease. Along with overpopulation, we have our animals to blame as well. Michael Rosenwald describes how nearly 1.5 Million chickens were killed in Hong Kong, when it was discovered that the Avian flu (H5N1) was rampant among them. It is unimaginable that that many chickens could be in one city. Hong Kong is not the only place where people live among their animals. Here in America, farmers live very close to their stock and cattle, in India, people live with their goats. Influenza viruses normally seen in one species sometimes can cross over and cause illness in another species (Transmission of Influenza). Pigs are also carriers; much like ducks they don’t show many of the symptoms of H5N1. Some people just don’t seem to care either. If people do not care about the risks we are facing, we are more apt to be killed by them. It makes me wonder if they have forgotten how to care. Utter disregard for reality is much the same as disbelief, and they are a problem in our society. If you do not believe or regard that a threat is there, you will be one of the first to be ‘eaten’. Just because you don’t believe that the tiger is there, does not mean it isn’t.
      The question may now be: what are we at such a risk for? We are at risk for a great many things. Some are worse than others, but they can still change. AIDS is a enormous problem in modern society. Like many diseases, there are many strains of AIDS and these strains are also in Animals. In the Story, A Chimp called Amandine: HIV/AIDS, Mark Walters explains the theory that AIDS came from monkeys in Africa; Chimps in specific. AIDS is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, which is the most advanced stages of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV is a virus that damages the body's immune system (AIDS).
    AIDS is a serious threat, but not so much as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). “Kissing, touching, sharing utensils for eating and drinking, or talking with an infected person can also put you at risk.” (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)
          SARS was first reported in Asia in February 2003. Over the next few months, the illness spread to more than two dozen countries in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia before the SARS global outbreak of 2003 was contained. (Basic Information about SARS) SARS poses a enormous risk to us in that it is a very contagious illness, though it is not so severe. “According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a total of 8,098 people worldwide became sick with SARS during the 2003 outbreak. Of these, 774 died.”(Basic Information about SARS) SARS is not our biggest threat unfortunately. The Avian Flu is one of our greatest risks.
      H5N1 is a nasty virus to tangle with. H5N1 His a very high severity level, and you are very likely to die from it, Dr. Peter Moore expresses on a graph in his book, The Little Book of Pandemics. The first symptoms of H5N1 are like those of any other flu bug: headache, fever, aching muscles, itching eyes and, a sore throat. This would be followed by pneumonia, because the virus damages the lining of the lungs, preventing oxygen and carbon dioxide from moving in and out of the body(Moore 12). H5N1first emerged in Asia, and moved progressively across Eastern Asia, through Russia and even down into Africa, within 2 years.(Moore 13) Like many of our most risky viruses, H5N1 is also spread by animals. “It turns out that animals are a frequent source of what ails us. University of Edinburgh researchers recently compiled a rather frightening list of 1,415 Microbes that cause diseases in Humans.”(Preston 175) If you have cats or dogs, chickens, pigs or cows, you are at risk. It is a terrible reality, but it is reality nonetheless. The worst part is the possibility that such things could mutate, and create a super virus. For a virus to live, it must evolve, or mutate faster than it‘s hosts cells, because it’s host will become immune to it. A virus must also always have a host to reproduce, which is why they are becoming good at ’crossing over to other species. If The host becomes extinct, then so does the virus.(Viruses, vaccines and evolution) Such mutations are very scary, and are the reason things like AIDS and H5N1 are going to be able to run rampant through our systems. They are evolving faster than we are, and are thus more powerful than our immune systems. That is why we shouldn’t kill the ‘good germs. Those germs are here to help our cells evolve just as quickly as the viruses, so that we do not go extinct. But that isn’t always going to work? What can we do to better our chances of survival?
     One of our few options in the case that we are struck by a world-wide pandemic, is to find a cure, or develop a vaccine. The government has developed many vaccines for many viruses that have afflicted us in the past. This has helped to kill off many viruses that killed many many people. Some it has not. In 1918, what they thought was the Spanish flu, that killed a great many people, was actually H5N1. On top of the fact that not all vaccines are going to work, There is the question of how we would get all the money to care for such a large population. The CDC Predicts that a medium-level epidemic would kill “207,000 Americans, hospitalize 734,000, sicken about a third of the U.S. population”, and the direct medical costs would be around $166 billion, not including vaccination. (qtd. from the CDC director in Hearing, 7) That is alarming. That is not our only option though.
    You could always seclude yourself from the rest of the world. Why not pack only your necessaries and take off into the woods where no one can find you. Dig yourself a hole in the ground and wait there for ten years, before you return to society. It sounds like it may work, but then again, there isn’t much hope with that plan either. By the time you returned to society, there would be more viruses, that your immune system wouldn’t be prepared for. You also have to worry about the animals around you in the forest. What if they managed to contract the evolved version of the rampant virus? The possibilities are endless. So it begs the question: can you really avoid such a pandemic?
    Probably Not. It would be nearly impossible to avoid deaths due to any strong viruses, such as the ones I mentioned in the previous pages. If the virus evolves faster than we are evolving, then there really is no chance for us to stop it, even with a vaccine. It seems like a bleak future on those terms, but we still don’t know when it will happen. It could take a hundred years. We all should be aware of the possibility though, and start preparing for the worst.
   As it is, we are at risk for many things. War, nuclear fall-out, viruses, diseases, and even devolution are all threats to humanity. We must be prepared for any of these things. Mostly we should be prepared for viruses and diseases. They are to be respected and studied. We are at a great risk from them, so why not make sure we can at least protect ourselves a little bit. We are, again, at risk for a world-wide pandemic, and the Avian Flu is our greatest threat, next to a mutation. It is up to us to figure out how to avoid such a catastrophe, for both us, and the world.

                                           By Crystal Brown



                                                    Works Cited

"AIDS." MedlinePlus: AIDS. 1 May 2008. 6 May 2008 <www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ai…>.

"Basic Information About SARS." Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). 3 May 2005. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 6 May 2008 www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/factsh….

Hantman, Melissa. "How 'good' bacteria could counter overuse of antibiotics." Cornell University News Service. 18 Aug. 2005. 6 May 2008<www.news.cornell.edu/stories/A…>.

Moore, Dr. Peter. The Little Book of Pandemics. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007.

Preston, Richard, ed. The Flu Hunter. By Michael Rosenwald. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007.

"Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome." MedlinePlus: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. 15 Apr. 2008. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 6 May 2008 <www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/se…>.

"Transmission of Influenza A Viruses Between Animals and People." CDC - Avian Influenza (Flu). 17 Oct. 2005. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Google.com. 26 Apr. 2008 <www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/gen-info…>.

"Viruses, Vaccines, and Evolution of Influenza." Viral Evolution. UCLA. Google.com. 24 Apr. 2008 <www.college.ucla.edu/webprojec…>.

Walters, Mark J. Six Modern Plagues and How We Are Causing Them. Washington: Island Press, n.d.