We may be living in what turns out to be a unique period in the history of public health. Most epidemic and pandemic diseases, like polio and smallpox, have been all but wiped out. We have antibiotics effective against almost all infectious bacteria and even effective vaccines and treatments for virii. Medicine is currently is enjoying the zenith of its unprecedented success in the war on disease.

But evolution is on the side of the bugs, since they can potentially change far more rapidly than medical science can come up with new drugs to treat them. We are only seeing the tip of this looming iceburg with the new superbugs like MRSA and polyresistant turbuculosis. We may be entering an age akin that our great-grandparents knew, where a small cut could take your life, parents had good reason to fear whether or not their children would survive to adulthood without being stricken down with some dreaded disease, and infectious diseases are a leading cause of death.

Jeff

Jeff