The Beasts Of The Earth

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced that German measles, commonly known as rubella, has been eradicated in the United States. The battle against killer diseases continues around the world, however. While some threats like smallpox have been destroyed or confined to test tubes, other diseases have emerged in their place.

Rubella
Sixty thousand cases of rubella were reported in the US in 1969, the year that a vaccine was developed by Dr. Maurice Hilleman director of the Merck Institute for Vaccinology. By 2000, the number of reported cases had dropped to only 176. While not a particularly dangerous disease, rubella can cause severe birth defects or miscarriages if pregnant women become infected. Over 100,000 cases of rubella are reported around the world every year, and the disease continues to be a problem in Mexico. Since it could easily be brought back into the United States, doctors recommend that American children continue to receive the rubella vaccine.

Measles
An estimated 589 people - mostly children under age 5 - have died so far this year from measles (not rubella) in northern Nigeria. Fearful that immunizations are part of an American plot to kill or sterilize their children, Muslims in northern Nigeria have shied away from vaccination programs. Muslim leaders campaigned against the polio vaccination program last year, and now are rejecting a measles immunization program. "I heard on the radio that the vaccine was contaminated. I still don't trust any vaccine," said Ramatou Mohammed, a 28-year-old mother of four. Measles has been brought under control in the southern part of the country, where the population is largely Christian, and where the health care system is better. However, in the north, nearly 21,000 cases have been reported this year.

Marburg Disease
At least 122 people have now died from an Ebola-like disease in northern Angola. The virus causes internal bleeding and victims generally bleed to death. There is no known cure or effective means of treating the disease, but at least it does not spread casually through the general public. Those most likely to contract the virus are medical personnel treating patients who have been exposed to the disease. The virus is thought to have originally spread to humans from apes.  In 1967, laboratory workers in Marburg, Germany, contracted the virus after exposure to apes imported from Uganda.

Bird Flu
Secretive North Korea has admitted to an outbreak of bird flu in at least two chicken farms in its capital Pyongyang. North Korea has not asked for help in containing the disease yet, but South Korea is already setting up to quarantine the disease in order to keep it from spreading to the south. Even if it does not spread to humans, a disease like this could be devastating to the people of North Korea, who already suffer from massive food shortages as the poultry will have to be culled.

Mad Cow Disease
The destructive disease bovine spongiform encephalopathy, the bane of the British beef industry in the last decade, has made its way to Japan. A 9-year-old Holstein cow on the northern island of Hokkaido tested positive for BSE, making it the 16th case found in Japan since September 2001. Japan screens all cows that are slaughtered before their beef is sold for food, but the United States has banned all Japanese beef imports.

Revelation 6:8 describes a rider on a pale horse that is given power to kill one-fourth of the earth's population with the sword, with hunger, and with "the beasts of the earth". Some commentators believe these can refer to even the smallest of beasts - deadly viruses.

For those who know their Bible and have a personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, rather than creating an atmosphere of fear, these tragic incidences should draw us closer to the Creator Himself. Disease is inevitable in a fallen world. However, we know the God that Heals. May we be prepared to minister to a suffering and dying world in the love of the One whose punishment brought our salvation.

"Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases" - Psalm 103:2-3