Infectious diseases

Immunity against infectious diseases was the focus of The Good Life issue #2, 1995. Aids was the big news during the 1990s, as the epidemic was just about exploding back then. At the same time, the 1990s saw the rise of other serious infectious diseases like drug resistant tuberculosis, the ebola virus and even "flesh eating bacteria".

These are still major concerns today, except that society has become somewhat "immune" to such threats – and terrorism is more headline grabbing than superbugs.

The message that I put out at that time remains relevant today...

Be not afraid...

Of Aids, Ebola, the plague, “flesh eating bacteria”, drug resistant tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. But be concerned.

Aids was not a major concern for most people when the disease was identified in the early 1980s. At that time, Aids affected mainly homosexuals and drugs abusers who shared needles. Those who were in neither category were not too bothered.

I was working in a business newspaper then and I remember my editor initially refusing to publish any articles about this disease. He felt it was not of interest to “respectable businessmen”.

In the 1990s, Aids began to reach epidemic proportions. But even today, many people remain only remotely concerned. After all, Aids spreads mainly through sexual contact. So those who are not sexually promiscuous and those whose practice so called “safe sex” may not consider themselves at risk.

It is good not to be too scared of Aids. We should not be scared to the point where do not dare to touch and care for Aids patients. Aids is not all that dangerous.

Aids is not the only problem, however. It is just one of many infectious diseases that are emerging as threats to the human race.

In the mid-1990s, there was an outbreak of an infectious disease in Zaire caused by the Ebola virus. Victims died within days. They died a painful, horrible death when their internal organs burst open and fall apart.

This virus is extremely contagious. Several doctors and nurses caught the diseases from their patients and died together with them.

Since the Ebola outbreak did not spread beyond a remote village in Zaire, most of us don’t think much about it. But what if it did spread?

The plague that hit India in 1994 did not spread very far either. But for a while, it looks as if it might.

It is not just the lesser developed countries that face such outbreaks of infectious diseases.

In recent years, there have been reports of a “flesh eating bacteria” attacking people in Britain, the United States, Canada. This is not a rare bacteria. It is Streptococcus, a very common bacteria that normally causes sore throats and other minor infections. Something is wrong.

In 2007 there was a high profile case in Singapore of an elderly man who caught the flesh-eating bacteria from being bitten by a crab! Meanwhile, dengue fever has become the an annual worry in Singapore, after the 2003 outbreak of Sars – which crippled East Asian economies – had subsided.

Meanwhile, tuberculosis has made a fierce comeback. Doctors thought they had tuberculosis under control with antibiotics. But it has become once again the number one causes of death in the world, with more than three million deaths annually (during the mid-1990s),

There are now new forms of tuberculosis that are multiple drugs resistant. The bacteria can no longer be destroyed by different types of drugs, not even by a combination of many powerful drugs.

Multiple drug resistant strains of malaria, cholera and other killer infectious iseases are emerging all the time.

“Aids is just the beginning of a new cycle of epidemics,“ writes macrobiotic teacher Michio Kushi in Aids and Beyond. “A wave of infectious diseases has emerged and is now circling the globe. Given that these epidemics are largely air, water or insect borne and do not require sexual contact or blood-to-blood transmission, their potential for disaster is much greater than that of Aids.”

With sexually transmitted diseases like Aids, we can take a number of precautions. Diseases that are spread through air, water, food or insect bites are much harder to avoid.

It is not practical to totally avoid or destroy bacteria. Neither is it wise thing to do. Bacteria and viruses are actually crucial to life. Moreover, it is because we tried to destroy bacteria and viruses that we have created stronger, drug-resistant strains.

it is time we learn to live with them. Let them be. Just don’t let them destroy us.

How? By building up the body’s self defense system. As you will discover in this issue of The Good Life, even most deadly bacteria and viruses – the most deadly infectious diseases – cannot beat a strong immune system.

If you have a strong immune system, therefore, you need not worry. You need not worry about Aids, Ebola, eating bacteria, etc. Ultimately, you are stronger. You need not be afraid.