Tag Archive for epidemic

Big Killer on the Highway

August 9, 2017 Comments Off on Big Killer on the Highway

It’s an epidemic throughout the country.  There has been an increase in deadly incidents from 70 in 2006 to 422 in 2015, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  The disease is known as “Road Rage.”

Look at one state–Texas.  Highway road-rage crashes leading  to death have risen 502.9% (yes–the number 502.9 % is correct) in the last ten years.

Add in another factor–guns.  According to the Gun Violence Archive, incidents on U.S. highways involving guns have increased from 248 in 2014 to 627 in 2016.  View more figures on the Archive’s site.epidemic

Oddly enough, this is a disease with a cure.  But the cure depends on each of us individually.  Before getting behind the wheel we must inoculate ourselves–with patience, forgiveness, and the knowledge that our families want us to come home to them alive.

 

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Polio & War

October 30, 2013 Comments Off on Polio & War

Despite what the WHO said years back, polio has NOT been eradicated. In fact, unrest in the world is helping the previously fewer cases to grow toward an epidemic in some areas. In 2012, Nigeria reported 122 cases, Pakistan 58, and Afghanistan 37.  Today’s news tells us that at least 10 cases have been reported recently in Syria. What do these countries have in common? War.  Violence and fear among people drives them into lifestyles that allow them simply to survive.  People get spread out into less accessible (and, they hope, safer) areas, and the last thing on their minds is to get immunized against polio. Under these circumstances, even countries with mandatory immunization–and Syria is one of them–find that avoiding gunfire and bombs trumps compulsory programs that no one is enforcing.

Maybe it’s because I contracted polio during the time when America was recovering from WWII. Or that I see so many preventable diseases (malaria, pneumonia, antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, etc.) spreading during and right after  a war. Or that the most common victim of such diseases is someone living in poverty and the ravages of war. But it seems clear to me that a major preventative of polio and other communicable diseases is peace.

 

 

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