Infectious Diseases Get Stronger

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Infectious Diseases Get Stronger

April 27, 2000

The Associated Press

Four reported outbreaks of unusual infections around the world have

illustrated the surprising potential of new microbes to emerge and old ones

to return with a vengeance.

" On a good day, we hold them at bay. On a bad day, they're winning, " said

Dr. Osterholm of ican Inc. of Eden Prairie, Minn., an Internet

information company focusing on infectious diseases.

Osterholm, who was Minnesota's state epidemiologist for 24 years, wrote an

editorial on emerging infections in Thursday's New England Journal of

Medicine, which carried reports on the four outbreaks.

The cases include a Nebraska farm boy who caught drug-resistant salmonella

from infected cows that had been given antibiotics; Malaysian pig farmers

killed by microbes caught from their animals; and hundreds of Italian

schoolchildren sickened by bacteria-contaminated cold corn salad. Finally, a

diabetic Atlanta boy needed bowel surgery twice for a severe bacterial

infection after eating a holiday chitterlings feast.

" The microbes are challenging us in ways we wouldn't have imagined 10 years

ago and for which we're not prepared, " said Dr. , director of

the National Center for Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention.

Bacteria and viruses multiply quickly, and can therefore evolve rapidly into

more aggressive strains.

While Osterholm said it is impossible to predict what will be " the next

HIV, " another deadly microbe is inevitable. Likewise, said it is only

a matter of time until another deadly flu epidemic hits the world.

Infectious diseases are the world's No. 1 killer, claiming 13 million lives

annually.

The deadly microbes appearing in the last quarter-century include:

Legionnaires' disease, toxic shock syndrome, AIDS, rodent-borne

hantaviruses, the airborne Ebola virus, Lyme disease, a fatal brain disease

in England caught from eating " mad cows, " West Nile encephalitis in the New

York City area and new, drug-resistant tuberculosis strains in many cities.

The experts cite numerous factors for the emergence - and re-emergence - of

deadly germs, including:

-increased international travel and shipment of food. -unprecedented

population growth cramming people together in unsanitary conditions.

-changes in how food is grown and handled. -decaying public health

infrastructure in many areas. -more people living with immune systems

suppressed by AIDS, cancer, diabetes and organ transplants.

-increased use of antibiotics in people and livestock, which contributes to

germs' growing resistance to antibiotics. Potentially deadly staph

infections are becoming resistant to even the antibiotic of last choice.

" Imagine trying to deal with all those at one time, " Osterholm said. " It's

like a city fire department trying to put out 30 fires at one time with one

truck. "

A 1992 Institute of Medicine report spelled out those threats and the

international implications, spurring the CDC and the World Health

Organization to tackle some of the problems.

said food safety has been improved, a computerized CDC network can

quickly spot emerging disease outbreaks, and the agency has a comprehensive

plan to address the other threats, but Congress has only funded half of it.

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.