The Australian Bio Security Co-Op Research centre for emerging infectious diseases has released a chilling report on probable coming events.
A warming world and a rapidly increasing population in nations to our north make the emergence of new infectious diseases - and the reactivation of some old diseases - to be inevitable.
The warnings are there to be seen. It is only a matter of months since SARS broke out in some hot spots - and deaths from bird flu are ongoing in some of our northern neighbouring countries.
Decades ago the world was shocked when a totally new disease - AIDS - ravaged the gay communities of the world, and today that disease is still killing thousands of heterosexuals in many parts of the world.
The problem is that a warming world in combination with increasing numbers of people living in close proximity to each other - and to animals - generates the opportunity for new viruses to emerge.
There is always the chance of a disease of unprecedented power sweeping the scythe of death across nations - and in most cases new diseases are immune from conventional remedies and it takes years for science to devise an answer.
At the same time, old diseases are capable of mutation and taking on new defences and some that could scour population centres are Blue Tongue, Rabies and Foot and Mouth disease.
Customs and immigration are our first line of defence, but in this era of air transport a perfect defence is impossible. The best we can hope is that science is on the ball and working to anticipate what can appear suddenly out of left field - and that luck is on our side !
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