health and illness: February 2005 Archives

Anne had very bad news from her doctors.

(From the Washington Post)
Health Officials Suspect Disease in 61 Deaths, Hundreds of Illnesses
Thanks to Bene Diction for picking up on this one.

I have to admit to having an unholy fascination with epidemic diseases, especially the ones that have over history developed into world-changing pandemics. The classic book on the topic remains Rats, Mice, and History, first published in 1934 and still in print.
Laurie Garret's The Coming Plague, while a tad polemical, is another must read about the pickle into which we have put ourselves.
The global AIDS pandemic will probably (if humanity lives long enough) be held up as the textbook example of how not to manage an emerging deadly disease. Political correctness and economic expediency posed significant barriers to proper epidemiological research and containment strategies.
Meanwhile, please pray for all those affected by this and other scourges.