Short cuts and There Distastrous Affects

[William]

Let me bring you up to date. Currently I am working on a paper that connects the dots as to how I have come to believe "fetal brain research" and the expectation of what that research could offer in respect to curing disease was the primary prime mover that set the stage for legalized abortions. This morning I came across a piece of information that blew me away.
http://cseserv.engr.scu.edu/StudentWebPages/WBahng/for.htm

I just read the first paragraph in the left column and that’s all I needed. For most of you who are familiar with any of the posts I have offered will know I am not a fan of the economic structure that controls this planet. Now the above site does not elaborate and I have to take it at face value for what it does say. What blew me away is that fetal brain tissue was instrumental in coming up with the polio vaccine that eradicated polio from the Global landscape. For those of you who are not familiar with polio this link will bring you up to date:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polio

Now for those of you who do not avail yourself of that link, I will tell you what I did not know that I gained from it:

Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute
infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route

Here I am a 60 year old codger and not until now did I know what caused polio. Now you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand what the above link is saying. It means a disease that is the result of extreme unsanitary conditions that allow fecal bacteria to be ingested.

Now back to my fondness of our current economic condition and how if it had not been the prevailing way the world operated, we would have been able to "clean the world up" in light of the tremendous horrendous effect of the disease. No, science created a short cut and came up with a vaccine that seemed to do the trick. The problem with that is the world is still as filthy as ever, but we don’t get polio any more. Hmmm? We can eat all the crap we want and not have to worry about it. Getting polio anyway. Hmmm?

Now had we, after the vaccine, initiated an all out effort on a global scale to "clean up the world" which would have been the humane and right thing to do, perhaps we would not be faced with the diseases we are faced with today. But of course considering the financial viability of such a process, we couldn’t possibly do that. After all we had the vaccine and we really didn’t have to. Now let’s see, how many "short cuts" do we have in place that are nothing more than band-aids that allow us to ignore the real problems we face because we just don’t have the money it takes to do what is right. God damn it. Polio is still around, it just has a new name. It’s call aids. How much longer do you think we can continue to screw with nature for our convenience?

Sorry for the expletive’s, I am not in the best of moods right now.
William

[Doobah47]

I'm not in a good mood either.

I went to Glasgow, ate bad food that came recommended, was left to drink with known criminals by an old "friend", and dealt a carton full of sickening cigarettes by an ex-con. All whilst attempting to be the most respectable citizen of a "democracy" I could be.

I think the disease of human self-interest and laziness reaches further than the medical profession, it's relevant corruption and the pharmaceutical industry. I am pointing the finger at hypnosis, child prostitution, slavery and the drugs industry when I say that I will never ever say "do not touch me ever again" again.

Is that understood?

for the attention of the English Government, there is a known child abuser and corrupt teacher in a house in Hackney, and she's not me.

[Aedes]

I am professionally very much part of this area of research, and I have been for a long time.

Just for startes, here's a brief list of some (hardly all) major fecal-oral pathogens/diseases, along with which ones have vaccines.

Polio (great vaccine)
Hepatitis A (great vaccine)
Shigellosis (bacillary dysentery)
Salmonellosis
Typhoid fever (a specific kind of salmonellosis) (fairly good vaccine)
Amebiasis, including amoebic dysentery
Cholera (ineffective vaccine)
E. coli infections incl. enterotoxigenic, enterohemorrhagic, and enteropathogenic
Rotavirus (new vaccine, seems great)
Norwalk virus
Enteroviruses (of which polio is one)
Ascariasis
Whipworm

And there are other diseases caused by fecal contamination, such as schistosomiasis and hookworm, but the infection is transcutaneous and not oral.

Why do I bring all this up? Because many good people, many organizations, many billions of dollars, many international health initiatives, have been unable to control ANY of these diseases to a reasonable degree in poor countries. The only exception is polio, and the reason is simple -- it's the only one that is part of a long vaccine campaign. Fortunately, polio is one of the worst of these illnesses.

I trained in infectious diseases at Harvard, and there is a major cholera research institute there (based at Massachussets General Hospital). Some of them work on cholera vaccines. I asked once why they need a vaccine as opposed to just using public health measures like hygiene and sanitation, and the answer is in the results -- it just hasn't worked. In Bangladesh there are frequent floods that disrupt their considerable efforts at sanitation, and cholera epidemics are frequent. In Zimbabwe the country's infrastructure has collapsed in the last decade and now they're facing cholera again. Vaccines may be the best intervention to interrupt transmission.

The same is true for rotavirus, which kills more children than any other single infectious agent. The new rotavirus vaccine, introduced in the US(!) within the last few years, has cut down rotavirus admissions by around 70-80% -- and we have good hygiene here. Imagine how hard it is in developing countries.

That's not to say that vaccines are the only answer, and EVERYONE in tropical medicine and global health knows that a tremendous amount of good could be done with simple things like hygiene, sanitation, nutrition, prenatal care, and ALSO childhood vaccines. But honestly effective hygiene and sanitation are a lot more difficult than it sounds, and it requires a tremendous amount of financial investment in otherwise unstable, impoverished places.

[William]

Originally Posted by Aedes

That's not to say that vaccines are the only answer, and EVERYONE in tropical medicine and global health knows that a tremendous amount of good could be done with simple things like hygiene, sanitation, nutrition, prenatal care, and ALSO childhood vaccines. But honestly effective hygiene and sanitation are a lot more difficult than it sounds, and it requires a tremendous amount of financial investment in otherwise unstable, impoverished places.

Thank you Aedes for you valued input. I understand all to well how the current system works and the limitations that we have in place that have now and have always deterred us from doing what we "could do" if not for those limitations. There is no innate blue print in the universe that dictates and justifies the economic structure that this planet has been striving to survive with since the Earth was flat. Ha. None. By and large, by far the biggest deterrent that impedes our attempt to become "civilized" is the assumption that there is no other way. That is a crock, IMO.

We have the technology, resources, skills and knowledge to change that so very flawed structure. Even the greatest minds are stifled as they are forced to think hindered by those "financial" parameters that dictate whether we do or whether we don’t. The reality we have created that suffers from this so very sick economic sturcture, limits us from doing what is right. It must be profitable, economically feasible, or out the window it goes as we again build a cheap band-aid to get us through tomorrow. Greed, wealth, status and power are our road blocks. Honest leadership, trust, communication and global cooperation is the answer. Let’s face it, this reality is in big trouble. So, let’s change it. We can do that. And if we do it right, no one will suffer from it either. As a matter of a fact , IMO,by far the majority of those who call this planet home will benefit from it. It will be a group effort, no strings attached.
Thanks again for your response.
William