Markel on Public health

[Guest guest]

Dr. Markel

Professor of the History of Medicine & Professor of Pediatrics and

Communicable Diseases, University of Michigan

Our struggle against deadly microbes is endless. Scourges that have

plagued human beings since the ancients still threaten to unleash

themselves; new maladies are brewing that have yet to make their

appearance in the headlines; and lethal germs employed as weapons of

warfare and terrorism have again emerged as a worldwide menace.

Regardless of their mode of attack or co-habitation, microbes exist

solely to multiply, thrive, and find new hosts. The most egalitarian

of living organisms, they cross all national boundaries and every

social class, attacking without prejudice.

Across the 20th century, the relationship between human beings and

microbes changed with scientific advances in our understanding and

amelioration of infectious diseases. With the advent of miraculous

antibiotics and preventive vaccines, it looked to many as if the

ultimate victory against deadly germs was imminent. Accompanying such

delusions of victory has been an underestimation of the highly

unpredictable power of infection. As we see with each return of an

epidemic, be it naturally induced or man-made, germs still have the

power to incite panic and action — that is, until the crisis subsides

and they are all too soon forgotten. Underpinning these trends is a

failure to embrace the unsettling fact that in the 21st century, the

global village is host to a burgeoning community of dangerous and

contagious emerging and re-emerging infections. These pathogens demand

far more respect and action than mere attempts at isolation or

foolhardy efforts to build a wall around our nation.

Public health is a purchasable commodity but it is an investment that

works best when purchased in advance rather than paid out as each

crisis arises. We must accept that contagion cannot be confined to

national boundaries. It is a global problem that affects us all and

only the global community can make inroads in safeguarding our health.

But we must always remember: we never really conquer germs. At best,

all we can hope is to wrestle them to a draw.

Markel, M.D., Ph.D. is the E. Wantz Professor of the

History of Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable

Diseases at the University of Michigan, where he directs the Center

for the History of Medicine. He is the author of several books,

including the award-winning Quarantine! East European Jewish

Immigrants and the New York City Epidemics of 1892 [s Hopkins

University Press] and, most recently, the critically acclaimed When

Germs Travel: Six Major Epidemics and the Fears They Have Unleashed,

which first appeared in 2004 from Pantheon Books/Alfred A. Knopf and

was recently published in paperback by Vintage Books/Random House.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/rxforsurvival/series/experts/np_howard_markel.html