December 2019 – Page 2 – watercress words by Dr Aletha

Will measles become the next pandemic? a book review

Diseases that haven’t occurred much in the past 20 years are making a comeback all over the world. And they are largely preventable.

Influenza has arrived in the United States with some areas already experiencing epidemics. We pretty much expect this to happen in the winter despite wide availability of influenza vaccine.

But other diseases that haven’t been seen much in the past 20 years are making a comeback all over the world. The number of measles cases continues to climb, with 5 countries accounting for half of the world’s victims- Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Somalia and Ukraine.

In 2019 the United States almost lost its measles elimination status because of a nearly year-long measles outbreak in New York, with the greatest number of measles cases since 1992. The New York State Department of Health declared the outbreak over in October, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it would maintain the country’s elimination status.

And in a part of the world that conjures up images of a tropical island with sunny skies and pristine beaches, Samoan children are dying of measles due to increasingly low vaccination levels, currently only 31%. Over 5,100 measles cases have been reported since the outbreak, with 74 recorded in a recent 24-hour period alone, according to Samoa’s government.

The low vaccination rate this year was caused in part by distrust of vaccinations that spread last year after two infants died after a vaccine error- nurses incorrectly mixed vaccines with another medicine. The accident compounded the worldwide spread of misinformation about vaccines.

The anti-vaccination movement made the list of the World Health Organization’s top threats to global health in 2019.
CBS NEWS

I don’t know if anyone has suggested it , but it seems we may be entering a pandemic of measles. Here is a review of a book explaining what that means.

Pandemic by Sonia Shah

Sonia Shah , a science journalist, has built a career writing about medical science. She explains the “what” of her book in the subtitle-

Tracking contagions from cholera, to Ebola, and beyond

And she answers the “why” in the introduction-

“By telling the stories of new pathogens through the lens of a historical pandemic, I could show both how new pathogens emerge and spread, and how a pathogen that had used the same pathways had already caused a pandemic.”

Let me back up and define some terms.

Pathogen– any disease producing agent, but especially referring to a living microscopic organism, such as a virus, bacteria, or parasite; this includes the organisms that cause Lyme disease, Ebola, West Nile, HIV, bird flu, even the common cold

Epidemic– the rapid spread of infectious disease to a large number of people in a given population within a short period of time, usually two weeks or less.

Pandemic– a disease outbreak that spreads throughout a country, continent, or the world, as opposed to an epidemic, which is localized.

map of the world — In a pandemic, an infectious disease may spread all around the world.

Why infectious disease still matters

With healthcare focus on chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and dementia, even physicians can get lulled into thinking that infectious disease has been conquered and no long a serious medical threat. This book reminded me that is not the case.

Ms. Shah recounts the history of cholera, which has caused epidemics on every continent except Antarctica, focussing on the epidemics which devastated London, New York City, and more recently Haiti.

Cholera is rare in the United States now, but in the past it has been deadly here and throughout the world. Cholera, an infection due to a bacteria Vibrio cholerae causes severe uncontrollable diarrhea which quickly renders its victims helpless, dehydrated and critically ill. The bacteria lives in and is spread by contaminated water, but for many years physicians did not know this; and even when some doctors recognized this, others refused to believe it. Thus the opportunity to control it and prevent thousands of deaths was delayed .

bacteria under the microscope — photo of the Vibrio cholera bacteria under a microscope; used courtesy of CDC/ Dr. William A. Clark

how disease spreads

The author explains how cholera and other infectious diseases cause so much human suffering by detailing “How disease spreads” in these chapter titles.

Locomotion– Humans and pathogens travelling from place to place spreads disease.

Filth-Waste management and in some cases mis-management, leads to contamination of drinking water by human waste.

Crowds-People living in crowded slums creates perfect conditions to spread disease person to person.

Corruption– Public officials and business people who place profit and power above public health.

Blame No one willing to take responsibility for making hard choices, and too willing to blame someone else.

Ms. Shah uses examples from her personal life, like her annual family trips to India to visit relatives who lived in less than clean and sanitary neighborhoods. She also shares her and her sons’ battle with skin infections due to MRSA, a form of staph (staphylococcal) that is resistant to many antibiotics and can be difficult to eradicate.

Pandemic includes extensive footnotes and a glossary of terms used in the book.

If you like history, current events, medical science, or just want to be more knowledgeable about why we should be concerned about infections , antibiotic resistance and vaccine phobia, you should read this book.

Here are other resources about how infections spread and how they can be stopped

For a visual lesson on how pandemics occur, watch this video.Warning: it is rather graphic.

“How Pandemics Spread”

created by Mark Honigsbaum and animated by Patrick Blower

When Germs Travel: Six major epidemics that have invaded America since 1900 and the fears they have unleashed

by Howard Markel

“Medical historian and pediatrician Howard Markel, author of Quarantine! tells the story of six epidemics that broke out during the two great waves of immigration to the United States—from 1880 through 1924, and from 1965 to the present—and shows how federal legislation closed the gates to newcomers for almost forty-one years out of fear that these new people would alter the social, political, economic, and even genetic face of the nation.” (quote from Goodreads)

At this link read how Dr. Gretchen LaSalle

blows the whistle on anti-vax false claims

an excerpt-

“Vaccines are recommended for personal health and required for the greater good. To protect those who can’t be vaccinated and to preserve the health of our communities, many vaccines are required for school entry. If you choose to participate in the community (ie, attend school), you have a duty not to harm those you come into contact with. And if you can’t make that decision for yourself, sometimes the states have to step in and make that decision for you. But still, you always have the choice to keep your kids out of school. The consequence for you is that you are now in charge of educating your own children. The consequence for your child is that their health is at risk and they are deprived of socialization and interaction with their peers. But, hey. You always have a choice! “

For a review of vaccine preventable diseases read my previous post

Vaccination prevents disease

exploring the HEART of preventing disease through vaccination

Dr Aletha

Dr Jane Goodall’s Harvest for Hope- a review

Jane Goodall wants us to manage stress , not so much our own, but the stress of our planet, by producing, transporting, preparing, and eating our food in ways less harmful and wasteful to us and our planet.

updated July 26, 2020

For Beth- Follow your dreams-and help us to make the world a better place for human and non-human beings.
Dr. Jane

I found the book , In the Shadow of Man, at a used book sale benefiting a local charity. I cannot verfy the author of the above note and signature, but since I found it on the title page of a book by Jane Goodall, I suspect it is authentic.

I’ve wondered who Beth is. Did she need to discard possessions for a move, did she die, or did she just not realize what a treasure she was giving away? If she donated it for charity’s sake, offering it for auction or selling on eBay might have raised more support. I don’t think the two dollars I paid helped the charity much.

This was not my first almost-close encounter with Jane Goodall. When my son was in elementary school many years ago, she came to his school. She was in our city for a public event but this was arranged privately by one of the teachers. I believe she had some personal connection with the famous researcher such that Dr.Goodall agreed to a private visit, with no news media present.

In anticipation of her visit, the children were asked to write poems about Dr.Goodall. I don’t remember exactly how it came about, but my son’s poem was chosen to present to her as a gift. And he was chosen to go on stage and give it to her.

Dr. Jane Goodall with Dr. Aletha’s son at his elementary school.

This happened long before the days of cell phone cameras and social media; if it happened today, I and the rest of the world would have seen it minutes later. But thanks to a teacher with a camera, a few weeks later he came home with a photo of him shaking hands with the lady famous for hanging out with chimpanzies.

Dr. Goodall’s pandemic warning

Knowing of her concern for animals, humans, and the planet, I suspected Dr. Goodall has opinions about the COVID-19 pandemic. In this July 3, 2020 interview with CBS News she said this,

we brought this on ourselves… the scientists that have been studying these .. zoonotic diseases ( jump from an animal to a human) have been predicting …this . As we chop down at stake tropical rainforest, We’re driving deeper and deeper, making roads throughout the habitat, which … brings people and animals in contact with each other. People are hunting the animals and selling the meat, or trafficking the infants, and all of this is creating environments which are perfect for a virus or a bacteria to cross that species barrier and sometimes, like COVID-19, it becomes very contagious and we’re suffering from it.

In the Shadow of Man-and chimpanzees

In 1960,26 year old Jane Goodall went to Tanzania to study chimpanzees. No one had studied chimps before, so little was known about their behavior in the wild. Biologically and genetically, chimps are closer to humans than any other animal, so scientists believed understanding their behavior could shed light on some aspects of human behavior.

Jane roamed the forests of the Gombe Stream Chimpanze Reserve in Tanzania watching the chimps first with binoculars then with direct observation at close range, even occasionally close enough to touch them. She was accompanied by her mother Vanne, and later joined by a photographer Hugo van Lawick . AFter working together with nature and animals as their common interest, she and Hugo fell in love and married. Eventually she had a staff of research assistants and students involved in observation and reporting about the chimps and other animals.

Title page of the book I bought at a used book sale.

In this book, written 10 years later (and periodically updated; my copy was revised in 1988.) Dr. Goodall details her years of living among the chimps and her detailed observations and conclusions about their behavior. (For which she earned her doctorate degree.)

One of her observations was that “like humans, chimpanzees are omnivores, feeding on vegetables, insects, and meat.” Which brings me to a review of a more recent book by Dr. Goodall.

Harvest for Hope-A Guide to Mindful Eating

Jane Goodall is just as interested in people as she is chimpanzees. Despite the title, though, this book is not about dining while listening to soothing music by candlelight in order to relax and de-stress.

Jane Goodall wants us to manage stress , not so much our own, but the stress of our planet, by producing, transporting, preparing, and eating our food in ways less harmful and wasteful to us and our planet. She wants us to

Change one purchase, one meal, one bite at a time
Jane Goodall

Goodall reflected back on her life as a child in England , when her family’s food supply was limited by the shortages of a world war. Even in peacetime, they ate what was grown locally and seasonally, rather than food flown in from distant lands. Her nutrition ideas are not new or unique, but she helps us realize our food choices effect the environment as much as the environment effects our diet.

Dr. Goodall recommends buying locally grown, organic foods exclusively. She advocates a meat free diet. She urges us to waste less. She believes we need to “take back food productions from large corporations.” We will be healthier and so will our planet

Dr. Jane recommends humans avoid

GMO (genetically modified organism) foods
meat
imported food
bottled water
fast food
refined processed carbs
concentrated and synthetic sweeteners
commercial oils

Dr. Jane encourages us to

Take back food production from large corporations
Waste less.
Use a filter for drinking water
Eat organic locally grown food.
Eat fruits, vegetables, legumes
Use olive oil, herbs, seasonings

Follow this link to learn about Jane Goodall’s life and work today.

the Jane Goodall Institute

“Dr. Jane Goodall went into the forests of Tanzania to study wild chimpanzees and share their stories. She left the forests to become an activist – to protect those chimpanzees and work with people to improve lives while opening minds and hearts.

Now, she shares her message of hope and inspires people worldwide to take action on behalf of people, other animals, and the planet every single day…”

a final thought about pandemics

But we know if we don’t stop destroying the environment and disrespecting animals — we’re hunting them, killing them, eating them; killing and eating chimpanzees in Central Africa led to HIV/AIDS — there will be another one. It’s inevitable.
Dr. Jane Goodall

exploring the HEART of mindful eating

Dr Aletha

Before you go, read another post about healthy, plant based eating

Surprising health benefits of plant based eating

Like you, I want to know more about healthy eating, but find published nutrition information conflicting, confusing, and complicated. But almost all of it seems to agree on one thing-eating more whole plant based unprocessed foods is the best choice, with proven health benefits and little if any harm.

Keep reading

July 25, 2019October 2, 2019