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Sunday, April 26, 2009

How we might all die

Bubonic plague, ebola virus, typhus, malaria, cholera, dengue fever, anthrax, and (some people argue) AIDS - are all part of the wonderful world of diseases we can contract or that emerged from animals. Now we can add Mexican Swine Flu to the illustrious list.

Australia, incidentally, is far from immune from an outbreak of this nature - there are estimated to be more feral pigs in Australia than there are Australians.

Zoonotic diseases constitute more than 60 per cent of all new diseases and, as experience shows, a lot of people can die before we figure out how to control them.

By the way, some lesser known but cool sounding names of diseases we can contract from animals: Babesiosis, Sodoku, Visceral Larva Migrans. Why not try one of these next time you are calling into work sick?

(Via Daddy Dave.)

UPDATE: Woah.

3 comments:

Boy on a bike said...

Hmm, don't think anyone will want to shake hands with The O after that incident.

I visited Kakadu a few years ago. It was amazing how many areas had been torn up and ruined by feral pigs. They should issue every tourist with a rifle and not let them out of the park unless they can show at least one pair of pig's ears.

blogstrop said...

I knew a girl who must have had babesiosis - whatever she did, whatever she wore, she looked hot!
Sodoku is very contagious but just seems to make people slump quietly over their newspaper with a pen in their hand.

Margo's Maid said...

I have seen a lot of Sodoku around, now you mention it, 'strop. Many partakers seem to be close to death. Much better to have a girlfriend with Babesiosis than Visceral Larva Migrans, I tend to agree.