For an all time record in the history of humanity, there
has never been a time that mankind felt threatened by
diseases than in this our common era.
Humanity has been faced with one epidemic after another
with countless lives being placed at the mercy of death.
From the outbreak of THE BLACK DEATH plague which could be
traced to 1347, when a ship from Crimea berthed in
Messina,on the island of Sicily.Soon started the plague
that was to claim about 30 million lives within its four
years of existence in Europe alone. It was a disaster
without equal in human history. Somewhere between one-
quarter and one-half of the people in Europe, North-Africa,
and parts Asia perished, so said the book Man and Microbes.
Another scourge-Smallpox struck in 1518 on the island of
Hispania. Over the course of human history, Smallpox
claimed hundreds of millions of lives(between 300-500
million),far more than plagues...and all wars of the
twentieth Century combined ,notes the book Scourge -The
once and Future Threats of Smallpox.
Then came Tuberculosis, which before it was discovered by
Robert Koch in 1882 and some 60 years later before an
effective treatment was discovered had taken its own share
of human casualty(between 100-150 million).As at today two
million people, about 1 out of 3 people dies or are
infected with it annually.
Malaria-an age long disease had equally claimed 80-120
million lives, even as the death toll from it hovered at
about two million a year.
By year 1918 and 1919,close on the heels of the 1st world
war, between 20 -30 million or more lives were swept away
by the lethal epidemic Spanish Influenza-a record yet to be
beaten by AIDS. Equally accompanying it was Typhus which
killed about 20 million.
One would not forget the now rampaging AIDS which have so
far killed an estimated 20 million, with another 68 million
due by the year 2020.
We could hardly breath a sigh of relief at the end of Mad
cow disease and SARS when another epidemic now known and
called the Evian Influenza(H5N1 Strain) or the Bird Flu,
seemed ready to exterminate once again the fabric of the
already worn human society. It’s quite appalling to note
that most of these diseases according to Mr. Nelson
Mandela"...could have been, can be prevented..."
Although medical science have succeeded in rolling back the
tide of infections for a few decades, still new tides seems
to threaten us all. We have finally been forced to doubt
the age dreams of achieving a global health for all by the
year ....?
In effect proving that humans are merely fighting what
seems like a lost battle against diseases in spite of their
huge investments towards stopping this deadly scourge,
because they had forgotten that without an enabling
environment all efforts are but futile. Think of it when
the gap between the haves and have-not continue to widen
alarmingly with two-thirds of the worlds population
swelling in poverty, famine and wars-since these calamities
often work hand-in-hand with infectious microbes. How safe
would the other part be in the face of such anomalies.
Clearly, we need a superhuman solution to solve these
problems once and for all. The bible assures us that global
health is not an impossible dream and not farfetched. Our
creator promises to do just that! The prophet Isaiah
assures us that under God's Kingdom,"no resident would say,
I’ am sick". Furthermore, God will actually swallow up
death forever, and sovereign Lord Jehovah will certainly
wipe the tears from all faces!(Isai8,33;22,24).When that
dawns ,diseases will have been conquered for all time.