Protecting From Communicable Disease as Printed H2H.pdf It seems like a bad science fiction movie, or maybe if you like the stuff a “good science fiction movie” made real. You know the story, new virus, bacteria, nasty chemical, whatever contaminant emerges and there is not any way to stop it. Or so it seems, except for the heroic discovery of the scientist who is helped by the government agency security person that stops the evil perpetrator of the biological threat to all of humanity.
The truth is that we are fighting newly evolved viruses and bacteria. We live longer and survive with diseases and conditions that would have killed the last generation. The cost of that survival is often weakened immune systems.
To give a gift of continued life, we take organs out of one person and give them to save a recipient. Then we lower the immune system of the recipient so that their body does not attack the new organ.
The problem is that we have slowly been creating some of those superbugs in the course of the practice of modern medicine. Evolution is a part of the natural plan. We may kill most of the bacteria or virus that made someone ill, and a couple of the little bugs survive. These stronger biological nightmares reproduce. Repeat treatment, repeat strongest bug survive and bingo…. bango pretty soon penicillin no longer saves the day. New treatments evolve and at some point the bacteria or viruses get ahead of medicine.
Add to that the evolution of existing “bugs”, some of these afflictions such as HIV or Ebola that first prey upon our close genetic relatives like the monkey and then “come on over” to mankind. The Center for Disease Control’s latest infection health crisis is CRE, a Colistin resistant form, of E. coli. In some cases, this superbug kills up to 50 percent of the infected patients. This is one of many new infectious agents. This particular one started with pigs in China.
We live in a society where we travel across continents in a day in close quarters carrying each of our biological exposures along with us for the ride. CRE is now in the United States.
We learned from the news stories of the UPMC organ transplant program deaths that mold exposure can result in death of the organ recipient. We need to consider that If mold can be deadly in a hospital, it can be deadly in the home when a patient leaves the hospital.
The tricky thing is that the most likely to acquire a disease or infection are the same people who are the most difficult to cure. Many of us are exposed to serious health threats each day. As an example, the infection rate for Legionella exposure is less than 5%. More simply put, 95% of those in contact with Legionella do not get sick.
MRSA, C-diff, Hepatitis, Rotavirus, flu, Pneumonia, Meningitis and Strep Throat are some of the many diseases we face. Health issues from molds and other chemical contaminants get added to the lists of threat to public health.
Those most likely to get ill from a biological exposure
If you listen to the news, Americans care more than ever about what we put in our bodies. Fats, additives, cholesterol, too much sugar, and on and on have become big media and legislative issues. We are paying a lot of attention to what is eaten
On the other hand, we don’t spend much time thinking about the water we drink. Make no mistake about it, we are way ahead of previous generations and past civilizations in the safety of our water. History is full of whole armies, societies and populations that have been decimated or even ended by drinking water contaminants and diseases. We are a far cry from that state of affairs, but not completely safe.
If you think about it, the amazing and at the same time disgusting fact is that the water in your spigot may contain water treated by an upstream sewage plant, and yet we drink it.
America has one of the safest water systems in the world. On the other hand, we have seen serious brain damage and other health problems can occur in places like Flint Michigan. The scary part is that the damage to many lead poisoned children is now a health and developmental problem that will live with them and those around them all of their lives.
The rest of the story in Flint Michigan is that even if the water quality is corrected, the pipes themselves are now chemically damaged and will continue to leech lead into the drinking and cooking water of the residents. Digging up and replacing the underground main service line pipes, hot water tanks and damaged pipes in homes has been estimated to have a cost of between 20 and 200 million dollars in that city of 100,000 residents. Many of those residents can simply not afford to do the needed work in their individual homes. Cost of replacing the damaged underground municipal system is claimed to be 1.5 billion dollars.
If the water of Flint was properly treated, the poisoning and permanent physical damage to the people drinking the water would have never occurred. The big question to ask as you stare at your own glass of water from your tap should be: Is my water safe?
The EPA requires that each municipal water treatment system provide an annual “Consumer Confidence Report” (abbreviated CCR) and make that report available to the consumers of the water. It only took minutes for me to look up the report for the local water authority that supplies our home. The good news is that the water was pretty good……in this case. The bad news is that I had never checked that information on the water we drink before today. All of us need to take a look at the report for our homes. Click for download of full PDF article http://goo.gl/BM9Skv
Click for download of full PDF article http://goo.gl/BM9Skv