Monitor The Strategic Trends

Introduction:

The threat of germ warfare has brought to the forefront long-forgotten diseases like plague, anthrax, and smallpox.  Recent television news programs have highlighted secret projects in the former Soviet Union to develop antibiotic-resistant strains of genetically engineered viruses and bacteria.  The U.S. launched a military attack against a drug manufacturing plant in the Sudan, accusing it of acting as a cover for the production of biological weapons.  The potential for a biological attack against the United States was actually increased with this action, rather than decreased because those involved in terrorism see it as a matter of honor to avenge their losses.

AIDS continues to decimate huge segments of the population in Africa, spreading from central into southern Africa.  Some doctors in the region claim that AIDS will kill from 20 to 30 percent of the populations, leaving nearly 8.2 million orphaned children in the wake.  Thailand also reports that the AIDS epidemic is far worse there than initially reported, nearly three times the original estimate.

A new resilient form of tuberculosis has struck in Russia, spreading especially rapidly through the unsanitary prison systems.  It has proven a serious health threat to many Russians, because of the closed environments during winter months which cause the disease to spread.  In addition, many doctors in Russia favor the old method of rest in a sanitarium, rather than using western drug treatments.  It remains to be seen which method will prove more successful.

South Africa has also suffered an epidemic outbreak of TB. Millions of poor, mainly black South Africans are infected with TB.  The epidemic is worse in the rural areas where sanitation is lacking.  It is feared that although the strain of TB in South Africa does respond to drug treatment, many patients stop taking their medication when they begin to feel better and risk incubating a new resistant disease.

NEW! Getting Fuel From Bacteria January 24, 2012

The Newest Beasts Of The Earth January 03, 2012

Genetic Engineering: Toward The Super Human? November 22, 2011

No Patenting Human Embyros September 20, 2011

The DNA Mixing of Mice and Men... and Goats August 02, 2011

More Alternatives To Embryonic Stem Cells July 26, 2011

Thirty Years Of HIV Not To Mention Superbugs June 21, 2011

Cyborgs of 2011 May 31, 2011

Nanotechnology Fights Cancer Too? April 12, 2011

Plastic Nanoparticles Fight MRSA April 05, 2011

Superbugs Abounding March 29, 2011

NEW! The Hybrid Age by Dr. Thomas R. Horn

Transhumanism and the Enhancement of Man More Than Human by Dr. Martin Erdmann

(Un)Natural: The Ethics Of Transgenics by Steve Elwart, Senior Analyst Koinonia Institute

Nanotech Vs. Superbugs by Amy Joy Hess, Research Analyst, Koinonia Institute

Biotechnology: Escaping the Laws of Sin and Death? by Patrick Wood, Research Associate/IDB and Editor of The August Review

Biotech Update: The Sorcerers New Apprentice? by Chuck Missler

The World's First Phony Stem Cells: Another Cloning ''Breakthrough'' by Wesley J. Smith

Biotech or Bioterror? Of Mice and Men by Chuck Missler

Behold a Pale Horse Avian Flu by Chuck Missler

Biblical Implications: Cloning Part 2 by Chuck Missler

Behold A Pale Horse: Emergent and Deliberate Diseases by Chuck Missler

An Unnecessary Epidemic? AIDS: The Untold Story by Dr. Stanley Monteith, M.D.

Global Pestilence: Outbreak! by Chuck Missler

News Sources

Sugar-Free Diets Don't Stop Cancer - A study by a team of researchers at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere shows that lymph gland cancer cells called B cells can use glutamine in the absence of glucose for cell replication and survival, particularly under low-oxygen conditions, which are common in tumors. When the investigators used a glutaminase (a glutamine enzyme) inhibitor, cancerous growth of B cells was stopped in petri dishes.

Scientists Keep New Bird Flu Strain Under Wraps - The U.S. government paid scientists to figure out how the deadly bird flu virus might mutate to become a bigger threat to people, and two labs succeeded in creating new strains that spread easier. On Tuesday, federal officials took the unprecedented step of asking those scientists not to publicize all the details of how they did it. The worry: That this research with lots of potential to help the public might also be hijacked by would-be bioterrorists. The labs found that it appears easier than scientists had thought for the so-called H5N1 bird flu to evolve in a way that lets it spread easily among at least some mammals.

Geron Stops Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research - Geron, the first company ever permitted to test human embryonic stem cells on people, announced Monday it is halting the studies to focus on developing two cancer drugs. Researchers have long held out hope that embryonic stem cells would be the key to treating a variety of ailments because they can turn into any type of tissue in the body and be reproduced in vast quantities in laboratories. But studies to develop treatments from them have been subject to delays in part because of ethical concerns surrounding the cells, which are harvested from discarded 3-to-5-day-old embryos. Monday's decision throws into question the future of the most-advanced study so far and puts a cloud over the commercial viability of stem cell treatments.

Using Measles To Fight Cancer - The discovery of how measles spreads could lead to promising new approaches in treating cancer, according to a new study published in Nature. An international team of researchers recently discovered the measles virus leaves its host through a receptor called nectin-4, which is located in the trachea. Scientists say the trachea is a part of the human body that is ideally suited to airborne infection. Scientists say nectin-4 is a biomarker for certain types of cancer such as breast, ovarian and lung cancers. Since measles actively targets nectin-4, scientists are working on ways to use a modified version of the measles virus to attack cancer cells.

Nearly Half a Million Cholera Cases Reported in Haiti In 12 Months - Almost 470,000 cases of cholera, including 6,595 deaths, have been reported in Haiti since an epidemic of the disease erupted in the Caribbean country one year ago, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) reported Monday. There are currently 37 cholera treatment centres in Haiti, 269 cholera treatment units and 766 oral rehydration posts.

Artificial Muscles Shoot Nanobots Through Bloodstream - Although nanobots have been in the news for cancer fighting, drug delivery and parasite removal, a major hurdle in their development hinged on propelling them in the bloodstream, which requires appropriate muscles. An international team led by University of Wollongong's Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI), has developed a new twisting artificial muscle that could be used for propelling nanobots, the journal Science reports.

Blood Supply At Risk to Tick-Borned Parasite - A tick-borne infection known as Babesiosis, which can cause severe disease and even death, is becoming a growing threat to the U.S. blood supply. There are currently no diagnostic tests approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that can detect the infection before people donate blood. Babesia infections are marked by anemia, fever, chills and fatigue, but they can also cause organ failure and death. The still rare disease is known to occur in seven U.S. states in the Northeast and Upper Midwest in the spring and summer.

Extinct Black Death Bacteria Identified - The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30 to 50 million Europeans or about a third of Europe’s population between 1347 to 1351, after spreading there from China and the Middle East, making it one of the worst pandemics in human history. Based on a DNA analysis study, scientists have concluded the pandemic was caused by a now-extinct strain of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes bubonic plague. There are still 2,000 cases of bubonic plague worldwide each year, but it spreads slowly via flea bites. The quick spread of the Black Death suggested that disease was airborne. To settle the question, the researchers analyzed DNA from 109 human skeletons at the East Smithfield mass grave site in London, England, where Black Death victims were known to be buried.

Track Deadly Diseases On The Web - A century ago - before jet planes - it took new diseases months to travel around the world, and many pathogens probably never made it out of their isolated rural stomping grounds. But now no place is truly isolated, no matter how remote. We live in a world that's more connected than ever before, one where humans - and the viruses hitchhiking inside us - can circle the planet in a day. As a result, we're at greater risk from new infectious diseases than ever before. But there's an upside to our interconnectedness as well. Thanks to the Internet and cell phones, we can know what's happening in nearly every corner of the globe almost instantaneously - and that's a boon for epidemiology.

Mongolia Hit With Equine Influenza - The Mongolian government has confirmed equine influenza, a disease that mainly affects horses, broke out in 14 provinces. The government's news office announced the confirmation Tuesday after suspected cases were recently discovered in 18 provinces of the country, where horses still play a key role.

Spanish Surgeon Performs First Double-Leg Transplant - Spanish surgeons have performed the world's first double-leg transplant on a man whose legs were amputated above the knee after an accident, officials said. Surgeons operated through the night on the man, who had faced life in a wheelchair because prosthetic limbs were unsuitable. Cavadas is known in Spain for having made several groundbreaking organ transplants. In October 2008, he carried out the first double arm transplant in Spain and the second in the world, and in August 2009 he performed Spain's first face transplant.

AIDS Turns 30 - The United Nations estimates that more then sixty million people have been infected with AIDS in the past thirty years. The disease has killed at least twenty five million. Last week, leaders and UN officials met for an AIDS conference in New York City. Visitors to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History can see two exhibits dealing with the early years of the AIDS crisis.

Over 2400 People Hit With German E Coli Outbreak - Germany's national disease control center says a further 94 people have been sickened by the deadliest E.coli outbreak in modern history. The Robert Koch Institute said the number of registered infections in Germany rose to 2,325 Tuesday, with those in other European countries still standing at about 100.

Man With Leukemia 'Cured' Of AIDS - Four years after Timothy Ray Brown received bone-marrow transplants to fight leukemia, the most sophisticated labs in the world cannot find any trace in his body of the HIV that had infected him for 12 years. Brown is the only living human, a growing consensus contends, to be cured. Brown's treatment clearly does not offer a road map for many others. After all, the expensive, complex, and risky transplant only made sense because Brown was dying from leukemia.

NIH Announces New Rapid Detection Test for Prion Diseases - Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), report that they have developed a method - 10,000 times more sensitive than other methods - to detect variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (vCJD) in blood plasma. vCJD is a type of prion disease in humans that leads to brain damage and death. The NIAID researchers also used the test to rapidly detect scrapie, a prion disease of sheep, in infected hamsters, some pre-symptomatic. Because animals and people can be infected for years before symptoms of disease appear, scientists have tried to develop a rapid and sensitive screening tool to detect prion diseases in blood, which would assist in efforts to prevent the spread of prion diseases among and between species, via the blood supply or otherwise.

Chernobyl Today: Wildlife Sanctuary Or Den of Decay? - The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone now encompasses more than 1,600 square miles of northern Ukraine and southern Belarus, a ragged swatch of forests, marshes, lakes, and rivers. Armed with permits to enter the zone, radiation dosimeters, and nearly invisible mesh "mist” nets commonly used by ornithologists, Møller and Mousseau caught birds nesting within the same habitat in areas with both high and low levels of contamination and assessed them for evidence of mutations. They found a strong correlation between highly contaminated areas and physical changes that ranged from partial albinism (white patches in feathers) to malformed tails. In uncontaminated areas, they noted, these physical changes occur much less frequently. They have gathered a rising mountain of data and published dozens of papers, all suggesting that the chronic low-level radioactivity of the zone and the hot particles that find their way into the soil and food in the area cause long-term damage to the organisms that live there.

US Takes On Bogus STD Cures - Federal health officials are cracking down on bogus pills and supplements that their makers claim will cure or prevent sexually transmitted diseases like HIV, herpes and genital warts. The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that it has sent warning letters to a dozen companies selling non-prescription products with names like Medavir, Herpaflor and C-Cure. The agency said none of the products have been proven to treat any disease.

Adult Stem Cells Used To Grow Human Heart - If experiments going on at the University of Minnesota's heart lab succeed, there could be a way to 'grow your own heart' in due course of time, a development that will find a way around heart transplants that force lifetime use of anti-immunity drugs. The human heart, which is 'growing' in the laboratory could start beating within weeks, Britain's Daily Mail reported on Monday, quoting a scientist involved in the project. The report says the breakthrough technology could also pave the way for making other organs like liver, lungs and kidneys in labs

42 Disease Clusters Plague 13 States - There are 42 so-called disease clusters in 13 U.S. states, showing incidence of numerous types of cancer, birth defects and other chronic illnesses, the Natural Resources Defense Council reported on Monday. A study by NRDC and the National Disease Clusters Alliance, drawn from research by federal, state and local officials and peer-reviewed academic studies, urges federal coordination and support to help confirm these clusters and determine their causes.

South African Women At High Risk To HPV-Related Cancer - A recent survey conducted by the University of the Witwatersrand has revealed that more than two-thirds of South African women are at risk developing cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is the second most frequent cancer among women in South Africa, and the second most frequent cancer among women between the age of 15 and 44.

BioTech: The Sorcerer's New Apprentice - Audio CD - Chuck Missler Updated April 2006! Chuck Missler surveys some of the most promising prospects and reviews the types of ventures emerging. He also reveals some of the concerns emerging among the informed, and includes some of the provocative Biblical implications. Click for more information - Audio CD with MP3

BioTech: The Sorcerer's New Apprentice - Audio CD - Chuck Missler Updated April 2006! Chuck Missler surveys some of the most promising prospects and reviews the types of ventures emerging. He also reveals some of the concerns emerging among the informed, and includes some of the provocative Biblical implications. Click for more information - Audio CD with MP3