The hidden menace
18/11/18 16:19![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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talkpoliticsHe arrived with his army as the new king of England. A few days earlier, tens of thousands of men fought for their lives in Bosworth's swampy fields, Leicestershire. There, in the summer of 1485, the bitter rivalry between Henry Tudor and Richard III was finally resolved. Richard died on the battlefield.
The winner announced himself as Henry VII and led his troops to London. In the capital, however, his soldiers were met by a deadly menace that nobody had expected. The first sign was a strange weakness. Then came the fever and the headache. The victims were sweating constantly and abundantly until they got totally dehydrated. They went thirsty and succumbed into delirium. The end came with an irresistible desire to fall asleep. Anyone who submitted never woke up again. The mortality rate reached 50%.
The strange, unprecedented illness killed 15,000 people in just six weeks. In Europe, it became known as the "English sweat". It returned 4 times within a century. The next king, Henry VIII, tried to escape from the disease by sleeping in a different bed every night. To no avail. The virus seemed to appear out of nowhere and could kill a person for hours. It was particularly horrific, because unlike many other deadly pandemics in the Middle Ages, this one seemed to have an affinity for the noble class.
Nowadays it is supposed that this was a sort of hantavirus. One thing is clear - modern humankind has never encountered this disease. Hantaviruses are usually transported by rodents.
But the cause of the next pandemic may have a completely different source. Overcrowded modern cities, where thousands and millions of people live side by side, look like the perfect environment for viruses. Bill Gates, whose foundation has been struggling to improve health care around the world in recent years, warned that the next pandemic could be something we have never seen before.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation is so convinced of the inevitability of such a disease that there is literally a "Disease X" in its list of potential pathogens - a mysterious micro-organism for which we still do not know anything.
Of millions of viruses on the planet, very few have caused pandemics. In the meantime, viruses are the most common type of organisms on the planet. They are literally everywhere. Each square meter has an average of 800 million of them. And while mankind has armed itself with antibiotics against the bacteria, viruses have no real counteraction other than the human immune system itself. To date, one of the deadliest of them is that of the Spanish flu that caused the death of 50-100 million people in the 1918 pandemic. In comparison, World War I claimed less than 20 million lives.
Not so long ago, smallpox used to be a deadly danger too. It almost exterminated the indigenous peoples of both Americas and Australia. For the entire 20th century, it has probably led to the deaths of between 300 and 500 million people. Recent cases of smallpox were registered in 1977, and in 1980 the WHO announced the complete destruction of the virus in nature. Still, there are worries that the disease may be hidden somewhere in the 7-billion human population.
Nowadays, smallpox strains are stored in laboratories in Atlanta, Georgia, and in Koltsovo, Central Russia. In the 1970s, most people were vaccinated against the virus. But today, most of the state vaccination programs have been suspended, thus endangering the future generations.
A less surprising finding is that the next pandemic will probably come from bats. Nobody knows why, but these mammals are associated with a number of deadly viruses, including the causes of SARS and Ebola. Also, the newest known pandemic candidate - the virus Nipah spreading in Asia for which there is no vaccine. Nipah is characterised by a mortality rate of between 50% and 75%. Apart from bats, it is also transported by pigs, and there already are cases of human-to-human infection.
Enteroviruses are another danger. Against them, besides polio, no vaccines have been discovered. One such virus is Enterovirus 68. A strange disease that periodically explodes in the United States. It was first identified in 1962 when it killed four children. Last time it returned in 2014.
Bill Gates has warned, "With nuclear weapons you would think you would probably stop after the 100 millionth killing. Smallpox will not stop there. Because the population is naive and has no real training. This one, if it shows up and spreads, will be much deadlier".
The winner announced himself as Henry VII and led his troops to London. In the capital, however, his soldiers were met by a deadly menace that nobody had expected. The first sign was a strange weakness. Then came the fever and the headache. The victims were sweating constantly and abundantly until they got totally dehydrated. They went thirsty and succumbed into delirium. The end came with an irresistible desire to fall asleep. Anyone who submitted never woke up again. The mortality rate reached 50%.
The strange, unprecedented illness killed 15,000 people in just six weeks. In Europe, it became known as the "English sweat". It returned 4 times within a century. The next king, Henry VIII, tried to escape from the disease by sleeping in a different bed every night. To no avail. The virus seemed to appear out of nowhere and could kill a person for hours. It was particularly horrific, because unlike many other deadly pandemics in the Middle Ages, this one seemed to have an affinity for the noble class.
Nowadays it is supposed that this was a sort of hantavirus. One thing is clear - modern humankind has never encountered this disease. Hantaviruses are usually transported by rodents.
But the cause of the next pandemic may have a completely different source. Overcrowded modern cities, where thousands and millions of people live side by side, look like the perfect environment for viruses. Bill Gates, whose foundation has been struggling to improve health care around the world in recent years, warned that the next pandemic could be something we have never seen before.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation is so convinced of the inevitability of such a disease that there is literally a "Disease X" in its list of potential pathogens - a mysterious micro-organism for which we still do not know anything.
Of millions of viruses on the planet, very few have caused pandemics. In the meantime, viruses are the most common type of organisms on the planet. They are literally everywhere. Each square meter has an average of 800 million of them. And while mankind has armed itself with antibiotics against the bacteria, viruses have no real counteraction other than the human immune system itself. To date, one of the deadliest of them is that of the Spanish flu that caused the death of 50-100 million people in the 1918 pandemic. In comparison, World War I claimed less than 20 million lives.
Not so long ago, smallpox used to be a deadly danger too. It almost exterminated the indigenous peoples of both Americas and Australia. For the entire 20th century, it has probably led to the deaths of between 300 and 500 million people. Recent cases of smallpox were registered in 1977, and in 1980 the WHO announced the complete destruction of the virus in nature. Still, there are worries that the disease may be hidden somewhere in the 7-billion human population.
Nowadays, smallpox strains are stored in laboratories in Atlanta, Georgia, and in Koltsovo, Central Russia. In the 1970s, most people were vaccinated against the virus. But today, most of the state vaccination programs have been suspended, thus endangering the future generations.
A less surprising finding is that the next pandemic will probably come from bats. Nobody knows why, but these mammals are associated with a number of deadly viruses, including the causes of SARS and Ebola. Also, the newest known pandemic candidate - the virus Nipah spreading in Asia for which there is no vaccine. Nipah is characterised by a mortality rate of between 50% and 75%. Apart from bats, it is also transported by pigs, and there already are cases of human-to-human infection.
Enteroviruses are another danger. Against them, besides polio, no vaccines have been discovered. One such virus is Enterovirus 68. A strange disease that periodically explodes in the United States. It was first identified in 1962 when it killed four children. Last time it returned in 2014.
Bill Gates has warned, "With nuclear weapons you would think you would probably stop after the 100 millionth killing. Smallpox will not stop there. Because the population is naive and has no real training. This one, if it shows up and spreads, will be much deadlier".
(no subject)
Date: 18/11/18 22:01 (UTC)