I recently remembered an article that states the risk of spreading of contagious diseases due to the increasingly inter-connected world. In the olden days, thanks to lesser advances in technology, diseases were "endemic" - rather contained within a particular region or country. Today, all it takes is a single flight and the spread of the disease becomes global.
Take the example of the SARS virus. The epidemic spread has been triangulated to a single doctor in China (or rather HK) who was in contact with the diseased persons. In spite of warnings and quarantine restrictions, he made a short trip to attend some function. That was all it required. He became a carrier of the virus and spread it to all the fellow passengers in the function as well as in the flight.
A disease, that could have been contained within a particular region has become a full - blown global epidemic. Having seen movies like '28 days later', '28 weeks later' and 'I am legend' - I am convinced this poses a larger threat to us than Osama.
1 comment:
I think globalisation of diseases is not a recent thing. Take the case of Spanish flu durng WW 1(due to mobilisation of troops) or the Black Death (due to rats in ships) which striked far & wide.
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