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Sure,
I'm going to talk about terrifying nightmarish disease scenarios
in the 21st century but hey, it's going to be a great century,
honest it is. For example, we won't need transplant donors soon--organs
will be grown to order for you from your own DNA. If you've got
the right insurance or enough scratch, you'll be able to undergo
rejuvenation treatments involving telomerase and, probably, micro-machines
that re-set your body's cells.
Nevertheless
we'll have our share of problems in the 21st century. Sometimes
the roads to the finest places are fraught with potholes. Now and
then maybe a major sinkhole…
If you're
in the teeth-chattering Midwest or northeast USA now you might find
it hard to believe, but most scientists agree that there's some
kind of global warming trend. However, they disagree on how serious
it is and what causes it. Some argue that we're not really causing
it ourselves at all--that it was simply time for a global warm trend
due to long-term climactic cycles. These researchers argue that
we're coming out of a sort of mild “ice age”. Whatever the cause,
the consequences will have to be dealt with. Micronesia islanders
may well lose their homes--the fascinating island of Yap, for example,
is a likely early casualty, as melting ice caps raise the level
of the sea and engulf this little paradise. Democrats aren't currently
thinking of Florida as a paradise, but those with property there
are anxious about the fact that the entire peninsula is not far
above sea level--we could lose a great deal of it, unless we build
a dike so big that Holland's will seem like a sand castle.
Still,
most of the world's exposed land won't be badly compromised--the
real danger to humanity from global warming is something else entirely:
the danger of plague.
According
to Harvard Medical School's Dr. Paul R. Epstein, “Climate restricts
the range of vector-borne diseases (those with animal carriers)
while weather affects the timing and intensity of outbreaks. There
are strong indications that a disturbing change in disease patterns
has begun, and that the global warming trend identified by the more
than 2500 scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
is contributing to these changes…” One of the most significant changes
is the upping of “night-time minimum temperatures”--which means
that insects that are limited by winter and nighttime temperatures
are freer to migrate northward. Mosquitoes which carry malaria and
encephalitis and birds carrying disease organisms move from the
tropics to--as we've all heard--places like New York City, where
deadly outbreaks of encephalitis are already a grave concern. A
related problem is the increase of flooding, and a general 'subtropical'
wetness that will be coming to previously temperate zones--all the
extra standing or flood-intrusive water is a breeding place for
mosquitoes, and disease organisms like cholera.
Another
possible 21st century plague is the terrifying prospect of the wider
spread of “Mad Cow” or Creutzfelt-Jakob disease (not wanting to
spell that over and over, I'll hereafter call it CJD). Victims
of CJD develop vast numbers of tiny holes in their brain that induces
debilitation, fatal insomnia, dementia, and death. CJD is often
caused by 'cattle eating cattle'-- that is, cattle having been fed
ground up cattle brains and other parts as protein enhancers in
their feed. This disgusting practice infects healthy cattle with
prions--basically they're amyloid proteins in the brain that have
been transformed from healthy protein into an abnormal variety by
their contact with other abnormal proteins. A kind of 'bad apple
ruining the barrel' effect at the microbiological level. Prion diseases
include scrapie in sheep and goats, bovine spongiform encephalopathy,
feline spongiform encephalopathy in cats and CJD in humans. Although
the meat industry demurs, CJD appears to be spreading in Europe--and
physicians are increasingly worried about it in the USA. It's also
found in wild animals, such as elk and mink.
Speaking
of sick cats, there is increasing evidence that some cats may spread
a form of toxiplasma parasite, shed by their feces (picked up when
they eat mice or birds), which is transmittable to humans--and which
might be the actual cause of paranoid schizophrenia. The
evidence grows, at any rate, that schizophrenia may be at least
partially caused by brain lesions resulting from parasitic micro-organisms.
Other
brain-damaging micro-organisms are part of a spectrum of viruses
called 'stealth viruses'. A chilling term, isn't it? According to
the Center for Complex Infectious Diseases, “many mental illnesses
are the symptomatic manifestations of a non-inflammatory stealth
virus infection of the brain.” Stealth viruses capture and mutate
critical cellular genes, leading to disruption in normal brain activity.
The CCID also reports that there is an epidemic of atypical neurological
illness in the Mojave Valley region and all the patients involved
test positive in stealth viral cultures. “Stealth adapted” viruses
don't provoke an effective anti-viral response--they seem to fly
in under the body's defensive radar. Scientists are only just now
planning tests of anti-viral compounds to control the problem. Schizophrenia
is a terrible problem, afflicting millions--is it possible it could
be cured by antiviral medication?
Has
all this made you queasy? Feel slightly ill, reading this? Going
for your thermometer? Writing this has had that effect on me--but
I remember a time as a young man when I was bitten by a raccoon.
I made the mistake, then, of not going to the doctor but later looking
up the symptoms of rabies--I developed the early symptoms of rabies,
with low fever and sensitivity to light, and had those symptoms
till a doctor told me I didn't have the disease. Within minutes
of his telling me that, my fever went down and all symptoms disappeared,
in a dramatic illustration of the mind-body connection.
So if
this piece has made you feel slightly ill--it's just suggestion.
Honest.
Copyright
© 2001 John Shirley. All Rights Reserved.
John
Shirley is the award-winning writer of numerous novels and screenplays.
Check out his official website at: www.darkecho.com/johnshirley.
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