Watching the World
The Scourge of Infectious Diseases
One third of the 52 million deaths that occurred last year were due to infectious diseases, says the World Health Organization (WHO). Most of the estimated 17 million who died were young children. According to The World Health Report 1996, issued by WHO, at least 30 new infectious diseases have been identified in the last 20 years, including the Ebola virus and AIDS. Even though major diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera, and malaria can be prevented or treated at low cost, they are making a comeback and have become increasingly resistant to drugs. The reason, says the report, is “the uncontrolled and inappropriate use of antibiotic drugs,” coupled with other factors, such as international travel and population growth in mosquito-infested tropical areas.
Bookstore Confessionals
An Italian Catholic association has decided to install confessionals in its chain of religious bookstores, each complete with a confessor. The experiment began in Milan. Each Wednesday in a downtown bookstore, a priest was available for “all who want to see a priest—but not in a church—to ask for spiritual advice, or even to confess,” said the store manager. He added: “The first results were far better than even our most optimistic expectations.” Why the initiative? “To make up for the decline in the sacrament of penance,” explains the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
Nothing Wasted
After the 600 or so pounds [270 or so kg] of meat is taken, what happens to the rest of the cow? Some of the internal organs, such as the thyroid, pancreas, lungs, spleen, adrenal gland, ovaries, pituitary gland, and bile from the liver and gallbladder, are used to make medicines. Collagen is extracted from the bones, hooves, and hides, to be used in moisturizers and lotions. Gristle and fat end up in components such as butyl stearate, PEG-150 distearate, and glycol stearate used in many makeup and hair products. Most soaps are made from animal fats. And the bones and hooves are ground up to make the gelatin that is used in hundreds of food items, including ice cream, some candies, and many “fat free” products. Parts also end up in a long array of such products as crayons, matches, floor waxes, linoleum, antifreeze, cement, weed killers, cellophane, photographic paper, sporting goods, upholstery, and clothing. The highest price is paid for the gallstones—$600 (U.S.) an ounce! Merchants from the Far East buy them for use as an aphrodisiac.
Childbearing Tragedy
About 585,000 women die each year during pregnancy or while giving birth, says a new comprehensive survey by UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund). According to the report The Progress of Nations 1996, much of the childbearing tragedy is preventable. It states: “For the most part, these are the deaths not of the ill, or the very old, or the very young, but of healthy women in the prime of their lives.” Some 75,000 women die each year because of botched abortions; 40,000 as a result of obstructed labor; 100,000 from blood poisoning; 75,000 from brain and kidney damage of eclampsia (convulsions and high blood pressure late in pregnancy); and over 140,000 because of hemorrhaging. Shortage of obstetric care in many lands is said to be largely responsible. UNICEF officials say that the data indicates that 1 in 35 women in South Asia and 1 in 13 in sub-Saharan Africa dies of matters related to pregnancy and childbirth, as compared with 1 in 7,300 in Canada, 1 in 3,300 in the United States, and 1 in 3,200 in Europe. The figures are nearly 20 percent higher than the earlier estimate of about 500,000 deaths a year.
AIDS Cases Still Climbing
“The virus that causes AIDS continues to spread rapidly in large parts of the world, especially Asia and southern Africa, and the number of people sick with AIDS has also climbed steeply,” reports The New York Times. Data compiled by the United Nations Joint Program on H.I.V.-AIDS shows that in 1995 some 1.3 million people were ill with the symptoms of AIDS, a 25-percent increase over the previous year. It is now estimated that 21 million adults worldwide are infected with HIV, and about 42 percent of them are women. An additional 7,500 people become infected each day. Several million children are also said to be infected. It takes about ten years from the time of infection for serious illness to set in. The UN report estimates that 980,000 people died from AIDS-related diseases in 1995 and that this will jump to 1,120,000 in 1996. The virus has recently spread widely in southern Africa and India and is expected to do the same in China and Vietnam. The infection rate in some African nations is already as high as 16 to 18 percent. It is worrisome that the number of young women infected is rapidly growing worldwide. A third of the babies born to these women will also have the virus.
Watch That Speed!
Driving too fast kills 1,000 Britons yearly and causes 77,000 injuries, reports The Daily Telegraph of London. Even keeping to the speed limit may be unsafe under certain conditions. Over 10 percent of accidents on high-speed roads are caused by driving too close to the vehicle ahead. The British Highway Code recommends that you leave a two-second gap between you and the car in front, but this should be doubled when driving on wet or slick road surfaces or in poor visibility. Not only is following too close unsafe; it is also tiring and stressful. Drivers often complain that when they leave a safe gap, another car cuts in. However, the only safe response to this is to reduce speed and allow the gap to widen again. Sudden application of brakes can cause accidents, so look ahead for possible hazards. Having an antilock braking system does not reduce stopping distances. Says driving instructor Paul Ripley: “The safe speed for a given set of circumstances is usually much lower than most drivers realise.”
Surgeons, Watch What You Say
Researchers from Erasmus University in the Netherlands have found that patients undergoing surgery are able to “hear,” even though under general anesthesia. After surgery, 240 patients were given the first syllable of a word that had been spoken during surgery and were asked to complete it by saying the first word that came to mind. Even 24 hours afterward, most patients could recall words that had been mentioned only once. This suggests, say the researchers, that anesthetized patients can “listen in” during their operation and may be sensitive to negative or insulting remarks. Research Reports From the Netherlands, issued by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, concludes: “Medical staff will therefore need to be heedful of their conversations during operations.”
“Mad Cow Disease”
◼ Britain’s outbreak of “mad cow disease” has brought a long-standing fact of animal husbandry to the fore. Animals have been changed from natural herbivores to carnivores by being fed parts of other animals. Dried blood, crushed bone, and meat meal, or feed, that includes ground-up intestines, spinal cords, brains, and other internal organs, such as the pancreas, trachea, and kidneys, are routinely used in an effort to conserve resources, increase profitability, and accelerate animal growth. By the time the average calf reaches the age of six months, he has been fed about 26 pounds [12 kg] of food made from the remnants of other animals, says Dr. Harash Narang, one of the experts who first raised an alarm about the disease. “I was astonished,” he said, referring to his visit to a slaughterhouse. “We were actually recycling cattle to cattle. To me it’s cannibalism.”
◼ On the lighter side, one British dairy farmer has found a way to use the older cows that he cannot sell at a profit because of the scare of “mad cow disease.” As reported in Newsweek, he is using them as billboards. He mounts ads on his cattle that graze beside a busy highway and collects about $40 per cow per week. “We have to look for new areas of revenue,” the farmer said. “It seemed a good way for them to earn their keep.”