"Bush Meat "has been a staple in the diet of the tribes of Africa for centuries and only in the twentieth century did the Ebola virus make the leap to infect humans. Now we have an epidemic that may kill thousands and work is enhanced on developing a vaccine. Polio used to be the scourge of western society but now it has been nearly eradicated - with a few remaining hot spots where religious taboos are resulting in the murder of vaccine nurses.
Unfortunately Mother Nature seems to have her own laboratory developing new diseases to kill the human race. The US Centres for Disease Control has encountered several cases of what it terms "Enterovirus 68 "which has appeared in a few children in the United States and Canada.
The symptoms mimic those of the common cold - coughing - fever - runny nose and can be misdiagnosed as hand,foot and mouth disease, viral Meningitis or Encephalitis. When it runs it's course it often leaves limb weaknesses - and sometimes paralysis. In extreme cases, it infects the heart and this results in the need for a heart transplant.
It seems that there is a direct connection between the growth of new diseases - and the ever expanding world population that is encroaching human activity into both the plant and animal world. The teeming cities of Asia saw the development of what was called "Bird flu " and this was linked to the practice of Asian families following subsistence farming methods - and keeping hens and ducks in or adjacent to their living quarters.
The world waits with trepidation for one of these new diseases to make the break from it's present form of infection - to a form that would be unstoppable ! So far Ebola can only infect others who come into contact with an infected persons body fluids. Medical personnel can be protected by strict hygiene and the wearing of protective clothing, but if it morphed to air contact it could quickly become a world pandemic.
The last great Pandemic was "Spanish Flu "which scourged the world just after the end of the first world war. This was unfortunately timed because war's end saw hundreds of thousands of troops concentrated together on troop ships returning them to their home countries. Today, the development of air travel poses an even greater danger for wide distribution to occur.
Apart from new diseases being battled by medical science we also face danger from our evolving physical world. In recent times we have seen the rapid advance of communications. The humble telephone went mobile when electronic obstacles were overcome and initially the unit was about the size of a house brick. It rapidly shrunk, and now we have the Smartphone at a size that can fit into the palm of our hand - and bring us the whole range of personal communications that include the Internet. This - and a host of other developments - are powered by tiny Lithium batteries what are often no bigger than the fingernail on our forefinger.
What a great attraction that shiny little battery must appear to a small child - and what a huge danger it poses if swallowed. Emergency surgery to remove such items is a daily occurrence within the western hospital system and as human ingenuity finds more ways to sell it's products to the public this danger can only grow. Batteries are now a component of many toys - and even make an appearance in singing greeting cards. They are diabolically easy to dislodge.
It seems that the march of progress is assembling an army of potential killers in waiting. To avoid an early death in this twenty-first century we need two things - luck - and the ability to take reasonable precautions to see the new dangers that surround us !
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