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Here's to Your Health:  The Black Death - not extinct  |
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twink
True Blue Farmgirl
131 Posts
Deb
Rapid City
SD
USA
131 Posts |
 Posted - Nov 11 2009 : 08:55:11 AM
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The Black Death - not extinct
** This article may be reprinted free of charge provided 1) that there is clear attribution to the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, and 2) that both the OMNS free subscription link http://orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html and also the OMNS archive link http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml are included. (I have done these two things merely by posting the entire article, plus the links).
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, October 27, 2009
Shots or Not? The Plague, the Flu, and You
(OMNS, October 27, 2009) Swine flu. Bird flu. The media has everyone worrying about epidemics and pandemics. Yet there is nothing said about one of the great communicable diseases of all time: the plague. The Black Death. No, it is not extinct. There are new cases of plague in the United States every year, totaling over 400 cases since 1950.
And yes, there is a vaccination for it. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00044836.htm
So have you had your plague shot?
You haven't?
Why isn't your doctor urging you to get one? Do you know anyone who has had a plague vaccination? Then why is there no plague epidemic? And why is vaccination supposedly the only way to stop a flu epidemic?
One proffered explanation is that the diseases are dissimilar, because influenza is viral, and plague is bacterial. But tetanus is bacterial, and we aggressively vaccinate against that. Indeed, the CDC http://www.cdc.gov/ncird/dbd.html specifies a considerable number of Vaccine Preventable Diseases http://www.cdc.gov/ncird/dbd.html#meningvpd which are bacterial. These include, among others: anthrax, bacterial meningitis, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae serotype b, and, of course, pertussis (whooping cough).
Plague is not even on the CDC's list. Wait a minute! The Black Death, the disease that killed at least a quarter of Europe, hasn't even made the list of Vaccine Preventable Diseases?
Worldwide, there are over 2,000 cases, and hundreds of deaths, every year from the plague. In the United States, human plague cases average about 10 to 15 per year. http://www.dhpe.org/infect/plague.html Most cases are in the Southwest. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/plague/plagwest.htm CDC states that "persons who have regular contact with wild rodents or their fleas" in areas in which plague has occurred should be vaccinated. That's right, it isn't just rats that carry the fleas that carry the plague. Squirrels, mice, rabbits, coyotes, woodchucks, cats and dogs all carry fleas. Fleas are found everywhere. Then why isn't plague everywhere?
One explanation is that plague is climate related. This map shows plague distribution in the US: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/plague/plagwest.htm If incidence were related merely to the heat of the day, we might expect a fair share of plague cases in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Alabama. But there aren't. If plague is temperature-dependent, it is a confusing illness to say the least: how come almost all USA cases are in the warm, dry Southwest and yet plague decimated Europe in the 1300s? Most of Europe is a lot cooler than the American southwest. Indeed, too warm a climate may actually stop the spread of plague. http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL24636220080902
Perhaps plague does not spread because disease-carrying insects don't migrate very much. You wish. Insects spread rather rapidly. The Japanese beetle is an example. First discovered in the US in 1916, and seemingly limited to a one-half square mile area, in less than five years it had spread to 213 square miles of New Jersey. http://www.mosquito.rutgers.edu/jb.htm. In far less than a human lifetime, these insects took over twenty states, from Maine to Montana to South Carolina. Insects are everywhere. That does not exclude fleas.
Unfortunately, rats have spread everywhere, too. No major city, town or farm is free of them.
What is striking about the plague is that it is still around and practically no one gets it. One must keep in mind that this disease killed 50 million people. Eventually, the great Black Death epidemics ended. Somehow. The epidemics were not stopped by killing every flea, every rodent or every house pet. The epidemics were not stopped by antibiotics, nor were the epidemics stopped by mass vaccination. Neither were available.
So if you, and the entire population of the USA, are not vaccinated against the plague, why doesn't it spread now in 2009 the way it spread in the past, killing at least one in four?
Generally, improved sanitation and improved nutrition are credited with such a victory.
If these work with plague, they might make a rather big impact on the flu.
Flu shots can have serious side effects. Perhaps even more importantly, they are largely ineffective. http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v04n17.shtml
There is a ready alternative: to build up our immune systems, we can utilize large, orthomolecular doses of nutrients. Vitamin D, niacin, thiamine (vitamin B1), and vitamin C reduce the duration and severity of influenza. http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v04n04.shtml Many physicians consider high doses of vitamin C to be so powerful an antiviral that it may be considered the "other" immunization for a variety influenza strains. http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v01n12.shtml
Flu shots are big news, and not a few would say that they are big business. But there has been no governmental push whatsoever for plague vaccination.
How come we supposedly need the one shot, and not the other?
Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine
Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org
The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.
Editorial Review Board:
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D.
Damien Downing, M.D.
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D.
Steve Hickey, Ph.D.
James A. Jackson, PhD
Bo H. Jonsson, MD, Ph.D
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D.
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D.
Erik Paterson, M.D.
Gert E. Shuitemaker, Ph.D.
Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D., Editor and contact person. Email: omns@orthomolecular.org
To Subscribe at no charge: http://www.orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html
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-Deb
http://healthtalk.6.forumer.com/index.php
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss you'll land amongst the stars. - Anonymous |
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LakeOntarioFarmgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
933 Posts
Brenda
North Rose
NY
USA
933 Posts |
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Bear5
True Blue Farmgirl
13055 Posts
Louisiana/Texas
USA
13055 Posts |
Posted - Nov 11 2009 : 5:15:21 PM
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Interesting reading, good information. I thought I just had to worry about that pig flu!!! Gee weez---- the Black Death. I did a report on the Plague in college. It was scarey just researching it.
Marly
"It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth- and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up- that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had." Elisabeth Kurler-Ross |
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4HMom
True Blue Farmgirl
720 Posts
Kelly
Montana
720 Posts |
Posted - Nov 11 2009 : 7:29:41 PM
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It's not uncommon for a case of bubonic plague to pop up. We usually have a case or two here in MT every few years...usually with people who've handled coyotes, foxes, or other critters that have fleas. Yeah...the Black Death took a tremendous toll on humans in the middle ages. It's caused by a bacteria, and that was LONG before antibiotics. Today, bubonic plague is easily treated and cured with antibiotics....IF it's diagnosed! Unfortunately, the reason there are som many deaths is because the possibility of it being the plague isn't considered until it's too late. I am still WAY more cautious about viral infections because right now, we can only treat the symptoms. For the most part, they have to run their course. In 1918-1919, over a course of 6 months, Influenza killed 22 million people. Influenza and other viral diseases don't respond to antibiotics, and they mutate so quickly. And, it's because of the ability to mutate so quickly, that I elect not to get the flu shot...Ok, I'm stepping off my soap box now.
"Be the change you want to see in the world" -Gandhi |
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Here's to Your Health: The Black Death - not extinct |
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The Black Death - not extinct
