Pandemic !

Once again the World Health Organization ( WHO ) is warning of a possible pandemic. An animal disease has crossed over and combined with a human disease and this combination is something against which we have no natural immunity.

Bird flu was the last scare, and this time it is swine flu that presents a threat to the human race.

The last great pandemic was in 1918, just when the troops were returning from the first world war - and consequently the disease spread rapidly and killed millions. Since then, we have been lucky.

Pandemics are an act of nature. It is nature's way of dealing with overcrowding in the animal world - and we humans are just higher animals.

From time to time various species over produce and reach plague proportions. Sometimes this is because food is too plentiful and sometimes some cog of nature slips and bountiful conditions lead to a surplus of offspring.

When this happens, nature seems to intervene and produce a means of culling that reduces numbers to manageable proportions.

It is a chilling thought that when the past century started there was barely two billion people on this planet. Now we are fast approaching seven billion - and there is a doubt as to whether we have the capacity to feed that number.

The present recession will not help. When money is short and times are hard people slam their wallets shut - and one of the early casualties are the international welfare organizations which provide food, medicine and shelter to the world's poor.

We are already seeing food riots because of rising food prices - and scientists tell us that global warming will make water an item in short supply in many parts of the world.

Just like the animal kingdom, we humans may have over bred our numbers. Perhaps a pandemic is nature's way of culling the tribe to manageable proportions.

At least it would be more humane than a war !