Reporting global health news
Thomas AbrahamJMSC 0042
3 important stories in the future
Bio terrorism Naturally occurring disease threats Newly emerging infectious disease
The 2001 anthrax attacks
Sept and October 2001- at least five letters with anthrax were mailed
3 to media organizations 2 to two US senators 22 people contracted anthrax 5 died
Robert Stevens, photo editor
“terrorists -- people who were either involved with, associated with, or are seeking to take advantage of the September 11 attacks -- are now poisoning our communities with anthrax.” John Ashcroft
US intelligence believes Iraq has the technology and supplies of anthrax suitable for terrorist use. 'They aren't making this stuff in caves in Afghanistan,' the CIA source said. 'This is prima facie evidence of the involvement of a state intelligence agency. Maybe Iran has the capability. But it doesn't look likely politically. That leaves Iraq.’
Bruce Ivens
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/anthrax-amerithrax/amerithrax-investigation
Smallpox as a weapon
While anthrax was dangerous, smallpox would be a lot more dangerous as a bio-weapon
Egyptian Pharoah Ramses V , 1157 BC (photo WHO)
Eradicated in 1979 after a global vaccination programme led by The WHO
Smallpox virus repositories
Official repositories: US CDC in Atlanta and a
Russian government lab, Koltsovo, Siberia
Through the Cold War period, both the United States and the Soviet Union developed bio-weapons. Other countries, including the UK, worked on bio weapons research
For more on this, go to an excellent PBS documentary “The Plague Wars
(www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/plague)
Soviet defector Kantjan Alibekov (Ken Alibek)
Soviet Union had weaponised and stored 20 tons of plague, 20 tons of smallpox, and “hundreds of tons of anthrax”
Dr Matthew Messelson,Harvard University
“we had developed tularemia as our standardized lethal weapon, Venezuelan equine encephalitis as our standardized non-lethal weapon. We had brucellosis weapons, we had anti-crop fungal weapons. We had a very impressive series of munitions, ready-to-go biological weapons”
Many developing countries want smallpox stocks destroyed If the virus is released, or used as a
weapon, poorer countries will have no access to vaccines
The United States, Russia and other countries say they need to keep these stocks for research into vaccines and drugs, in case terrorists or “rogue states” get hold of the smallpox virus
This year, there was no agreement at the WHO- will be considered again in three years time.
A story worth following…
Diseases as global political issues: the case of swine flu In April 2009, a new flu virus emerged
in Mexico and the United States, spreading rapidly.
Flu and public health experts were alarmed.
Where politics comes in
No country wants to be seen as harboring disease
No country wants to be seen as managing a disease outbreak badly
So they try and hide things..
Disputes on how the disease should be handled
China was criticised for putting Mexican tourists under quarantine in a hotel in Beijing
In China and elsewhere, people were critical of the US for not putting in health checks at airports to see that sick people did not travel and spread the disease
Disputes over vaccines and medicines
Flu vaccine manufacturers are concentrated in the richer countries (eg Glaxo Smith Kline in the UK, Sanofi Pasteur in France, Novartis in Switzerland, CSL in Australia).
Wealth countries had pre-booked vaccines, leaving little for other countries
WHO arranged for poorer countries to receive vaccines
Environmental change and disease
In 1997, giant forest fires broke out in Kalimantan and Borneo in Indonesia
1997 forest fires in Kalimantan and Borneo
Haze reaches Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand
1998. Perak, Malaysia
An unusual disease breaks out among people working in pig farms
High fever, muscle pain, convulsions and possible death
Pigs also affected, and transmitted the disease to humans
265 human cases, 105 deaths Eventually traced to a previously
unknown virus
Malaysia flying foxes
Emerging infectious diseases
Population growth has led humans to expand to new environments and come in contact with new pathogens
Social and cultural factors have contributed to the spread of new diseases
Globalization has led to the spread of new diseases
Most of them are zoonotic diseases= spreading from animals to humans
Disease is global
Viruses and bacteria do not recognise human borders
Disease fighting needs to be coordinated globally- which is what the WHO does
The International Health Regulations Tensions between what national and
international, between governments and the international community
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