The Coming Plague (120 page)

Read The Coming Plague Online

Authors: Laurie Garrett

BOOK: The Coming Plague
8.83Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
39
Tabibzadeh, Rossi-Espagnet, and Maxwell (1989), op. cit.
40
“Pollution in Asia,” op. cit.
41
Aspen Institute, U.S.A., 1989.
42
United Nations, “The Prospect of World Urbanization,” op. cit.
43
D. B. Ottaway, “Cairo Is Plagued with Environmental Disasters,”
San Francisco Chronicle,
January 12, 1983: Fl.
44
D. J. Stanley, and A. G. Warne, “Nile Delta: Recent Geological Evolution and Human Impact,”
Science
260 (1993): 628–34.
45
A rich litany of such details of human urban existence in developing countries can be found in Harpham, Lusty, and Vaughan (1988), op. cit.
46
N. Coulibaly, “Place et Approches des Problèmes de la Tuberculose à Abijan,”
Médecine d‘Afrique Noire
28 (1981): 447–49.
47
A. Rossi-Espagnet, “Health and the Urban Poor,”
World Health
, July 1983; and P. Khanjanasthiti and J. D. Wray, “Early Protein-Calorie Malnutrition in Slum Areas of Bangkok Municipality, 1970–1971,”
Journal of the Medical Association of Thailand
57 (1974): 357–66.
48
A vivid account of those years appears in Agnes Brinkmann's
Unter Afrikanischem Zauber
(Hanover: Landbuch Verlag, 1992).
49
For a description of the disease and its treatment, see T. E. Nash and F. A. Neva, “Recent Advances in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Cerebral Cysticercosis,”
New England Journal of Medicine
311 (1984): 1492–96.
50
F. O. Richards, P. M. Schantz, E. Ruiz-Tuben, and F. J. Sorvillo, “Cysticercosis in Los Angeles County,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
254 (1985): 3444–48.
51
A. Benyoussef, “Sante, Migration et Urbanization: Une Etude Collective au Sénégal,”
Bulletin of the World Health Organization
49 (1973): 517–37.
52
M. E. Wilson,
A World Guide to Infectious Diseases, Distribution, Diagnosis
(Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press, 1991).
53
K. E. Mott, P. Desjeux, A. Moncayo, et al., “Parasitic Diseases and Urban Development,”
Bulletin of the World Health Organization
68 (1990): 691–98.
54
R. S. Desowitz,
The Malaria Capers: More Tales of Parasites and People, Research and Reality
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1991).
55
K. M. Rahman, and N. Islam, “Resurgence of Visceral Leishmaniasis in Bangladesh,”
Bulletin of the World Health Organization
61 (1983): 113; and R. D. Pearson, “Leishmaniasis: The Pathologic Spectrum,”
Hospital Practice,
May 1984: 100e–100x.
56
W. Hammow, A. Rudnick, and G. E. Sather, “Viruses Associated with Epidemic Hemorrhagic Fevers of the Philippines and Thailand,”
Science
131 (1960): 1102–3.
57
S. B. Halstead and C. Yamarat, “Recent Epidemics of Hemorrhagic Fever in Thailand: Observations Related to Pathogenesis of a ‘New' Dengue Disease,”
American Journal of Public Health
55 (1965): 1386–94.
58
D. M. Morens, “Dengue Fever and Dengue Shock Syndrome,”
Hospital Practice,
July
1982:
103–13; Halstead and Yamarat (1965), op. cit.; and S. B. Halstead, “Immunological Enhancement of Dengue Virus Infection in the Etiology of Dengue Shock Syndrome,” Third Asian Congress of Pediatrics, Bangkok, Thailand, 1974.
59
A. Morales, H. Groat, P. K. Russell, and J. M. McCown, “Recovery of Dengue-2 Virus from
Aedes aegypti in Colombia,” American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
22 (1973): 785–87.
60
G. P. Kouri, M. G. Guzmán, J. R. Bravo, and C. Triana, “Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever/ Dengue Shock Syndrome: Lessons from the Cuban Epidemic, 1981,”
Bulletin of the World Health Organization
67 (1989): 375–80.
61
Centers for Disease Control, “Suspected Dengue—Laredo, Texas,”
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
29 (1980): 503.
62
D. J. Gubler, “Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever: A Global Update,”
Virus Information Exchange Newsletter
8 (1991): 2–3.
63
According to the Centers for Disease Control,
A. albopictus
had, by mid-1987, taken hold in the states of Texas, Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, California, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
10. Distant Thunder
1
Detailed accounts of these and other events in the nascent years of the New York gay liberation movement can be found in two sources:
The Village Voice
chronicled events closely, particularly as followed by reporters Lucian Truscott and Howard Smith. See also D. Teal,
The Gay Militant
s (New York: Stein & Day, 1971); and M. Duberman,
Stonewall
(New York: Penguin, 1993).
2
Randy Shilts was the first openly gay reporter hired to work for a major American daily newspaper.
The San Francisco Chronicle
consciously put Shilts on staff to follow these historic developments. Out of that journalistic enterprise came two seminal books, each marking different extremes in recent U.S. gay history:
The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981); and
And the Band Played On
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987).
3
In reviewing the global sexually transmitted disease (STD) situation in developing countries, one group summarized the situation as follows:
Population shifts from rural to urban areas, where STD rates are higher, are proceeding rapidly in most parts of the world. Rural to urban migration generally results in an excess of men in urban areas and of women in rural areas. The sex ratio imbalances created in places of origin and places of destination may further increase STD risks. In addition, increasing educational opportunities in developing countries, particularly for women, may delay marriage, also increasing STD risks. Similar demographic changes have caused dramatic social changes contributing to high STD rates in the United States.
The differences between the values of youth and parents have been referred to as a generation gap. Many less developed countries are undergoing rapid social transition, with corresponding changes in values between generations … . Among the many new values adopted, altered sexual behaviors will place this population at greater risk for acquiring an STD. From S. T. Brown, F. R. K. Zacarias, and S. 0. Aral, “STD Control in Less Developed Countries: The Time Is Now,”
International Journal of Epidemiology
14 (1985): 505–9.
4
J. E. Sutherland. V. W. Persky, and J. A. Brody, “Proportionate Mortality Trends: 1950 Through 1986,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
264 (1990): 3178–84.
5
Center for Policy Studies, “The Federal Health Dollar, 1969–76,” Washington, D.C., 1977.
6
For an excellent history of the success—and failure—of America's attempts to control sexually transmitted diseases, see A. M. Brandt,
No Magic Bullet
:
A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States Since 1880
(Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press, 1987).
7
H. H. Handfield, “Sexually Transmitted Diseases,”
Hospital Practice
, January 1982: 99–116;
and Anonymous, “VD: Gonorrhea Incidence Put at 2 Million Annually in U.S.,”
Hospital Practice,
June 1971: 27–40.
According to the CDC, the reported numbers of sexually transmitted diseases between 1940 and 1982 were as follows:
8
S. A. Morse, A. A. Moreland, and S. E. Thompson, eds.,
Atlas of Sexually Transmitted Diseases
(Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1990).
9
A. E. Washington, P. S. Arno, and M. A. Brooks, “The Economic Cost of Pelvic lnflammatory Disease,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
255 (1986): 1735–38.
10
H. H. Handsfield, L. L. Jasman, P. L. Roberts, et al., “Criteria for Selective Screening for
Chlamydia trachomatis
Infection in Women Attending Family Planning Clinics,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
255 (1986): 1730–34.
11
Centers for Disease Control, “Penicillinase-Producing
Neisseria gonorrhoeae,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
25 (1976): 261.
12
I. Phillips, “Beta-Lactamase-Producing Penicillin-resistant Gonococcus,”
Lancet
II (1976): 656.
13
Centers for Disease Control, “Follow-up on Antibiotic Resistant
Neisseria gonorrhoeae
,”
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
26 (1977): 29–30.
14
P. F. Sparling, K. K. Holmes, P. J. Wiesner, and M. Puziss, “Summary of the Conference on the Problem of Penicillin-resistant Gonococci,”
Journal of Infectious Diseases
135 (1977): 865–67.
15
Centers for Disease Control, “Follow-up on Penicillinase-Producing
Neisseria gonorrhoeae
—Worldwide,”
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
26 (1977): 153–54.
16
Centers for Disease Control, “Tetracycline-resistant
Neisseria gonorrhoeae
—Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire,”
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
34 (1985): 569–70; and Centers for Disease Control, “Plasmid-mediated Tetracycline-resistant
Neisseria gonorrhoeae
—Georgia, Massachusetts, Oregon,”
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
35 (1986): 304–5.
17
Centers for Disease Control, “Penicillinase-producing
Neisseria gonorrhoeae
—United States, 1986,”
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
36 (1986): 107–8; and H. Faruki, R. N. Kohmeschler, P. McKinney, and P. F. Sparling, “A Community-based Outbreak of Resistant
Neisseria gonorrhoeae
Not Producing Penicillinase (Chromosomally Mediated Resistance),”
New England Journal of Medicine
313 (1985): 607–11.
18
L. Corey and P. G. Spear, “Infections with Herpes Simplex Viruses,”
New England Journal of Medicine
314 (1986): 685–90.
19
A. J. Nahmias and B. Roizman, “Infection with Herpes-Simplex Virus 1 and 2,”
New England Journal of Medicine
289 (1973): 667–74, 719–25, 781–89.
20
A. J. Nahmias, H. L. Keyserling, and G. M. Kerrick, “Herpes Simplex,” in J. S. Remington and J. O. Klein, eds.,
Infectious Diseases of the Fetus and Newborn Infant
(Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1983).
21
M. F. Goldsmith, “Possible Herpesvirus Role in Abortion Studied,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
251 (1984): 3067–70.
22
Using sophisticated genetic mapping techniques for the first time, University of Chicago scientists showed in 1979 that most neonatal herpes cases came not from infected mothers but from other babies. Bernard Roizman and Timothy Buchman compared the genetic sequences of herpes viruses found in babies co-housed in intensive-care wards at several major U.S. urban hospitals with the strains seen in their mothers. They discovered that many of the mothers were uninfected, and the babies on any given hospital ward all had exactly the same viral strain in their bodies. The conclusion was that most pediatric herpes simplex in the United States was nosocomial in origin; that is, it was spread from baby to baby by the hospital medical staff. Presumably nurses tending a primary case of maternally derived herpes failed to observe sterile hygiene practices as they moved from patient to patient in the neonatal intensive-care wards. See B. Roizman and T. Buchman, “The Molecular Epidemiology of Herpes Simplex Virus,”
Hospital Practice,
January 1979: 95–104.
23
M. F. Goldsmith. “Sexually Transmitted Diseases May Reverse the ‘Revolution,'”
Journal of the American Medical Association
255 (1986): 1665–72.
24
“There are many unanswered questions regarding sexually transmitted CMV infections,” noted H. Hunter Handsfield in 1982. “One of the most intriguing revolves around the markedly high prevalence of past or present CMV infection in homosexual men and the fact that these men probably have a higher than average risk of the rare malignancy, Kaposi's sarcoma.” See H. H. Handsfield, “Sexually Transmitted Diseases,”
Hospital Practice
, January 1982: 99–106.
25
Morse, Moreland, and Thompson (1990), op. cit.; and G. P. Schmid, “The Treatment of Chancroid,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
, 255 (1986): 1757–62.
26
Handsfield (1982), op. cit.
27
A. DeSchryver and A. Meheus, “Epidemiology of Sexually Transmitted Diseases: The Global Picture,”
Bulletin of the World Health Organization
68 (1990): 639–54.
28
R. K. St. John and S. T. Brown, eds., “International Symposium on Pelvic Inflammatory Disease,”
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
138 (1980): Supplement.
29
O. Frank, “Infertility in Sub-Saharan Africa: Estimates and Implications,”
Population and Development Review
9 (1983): 137–44.
30
S. K. Hira, “Sexually Transmitted Diseases: A Menace to Mothers and Children,”
World Health Forum
7 (1986): 243–47; S. K. Hira et al., “Congenital Syphilis in Lusaka, II. Incidence at Birth and Potential Risk Among Hospital Deliveries,”
East African Medical Journal
59 (1982): 306–10; and T. E. Watts et al., “A Case-Control Study of Stillbirths at a Teaching Hospital—Zambia 1979–1980: Serological Investigations for Selected Infectious Agents,”
Bulletin of the World Health Organization
62 (1984): 803–8.
31
M. Callen,
Surviving AIDS
(New York: HarperCollins, 1990).
32
For a detailed discussion of this new ecology and the implications for microbial transmission, see “Biological and Social Conditions,” Chapter 14 in M. D. Grmek,
History of AIDS: Emergence and Origin of a Modern Pandemic
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990).
33
Michael Callen summarized the mood beautifully in
Surviving
AIDS, op. cit.:
No one took heed of the warning signs that were all around us. No one asked what the cumulative consequences might be of continually wallowing in what was, to put it bluntly, an increasingly polluted microbiological sewer. Rumors that the [New York City] Health Department had been able to culture cholera and other exotic microbes from the greasy stair rails of the Mineshaft (a notorious Manhattan sex club) were dismissed as apocryphal.
We took each new disease in stride. I can even recall that the “invention” of a disease dubbed as “gay bowel syndrome” [
E. histolytica]
was, in some quarters, almost a matter of pride; now we even had our own
diseases
, just like we had our own plumbers and tax advisers. A whole new breed of physicians, affectionately known as “clap doctors,” grew rich treating our STDs. Many of these physicians could themselves be observed in the bathhouses and back rooms leading the same fast-lane life-style as their patients. Even if they had warned us, who would have listened?
34
T. J. John, G. T. Ninan, M. S. Rajagopalan, et al., “Epidemic Hepatitis B Caused by Commercial Human Immunoglobulin.” Lancet I, 8125 (1979): 1074.
35
S. C. Hadler, D. L. Sorley, K. H. Acree, et al., “An Outbreak of Hepatitis B in a Dental Practice,”
Annals of Internal Medicine
95 (1981): 133–38.
36
A. L. Reingold, M. A. Kane, B. L. Murphy, et al., “Transmission of Hepatitis B by an Oral Surgeon,”
Journal of Infectious Diseases
145 (1982): 262–68.

Other books

AWAKENING THE SHY MISS by SCOTT, BRONWYN
House of Bells by Chaz Brenchley
Mad Cow by J.A. Sutherland
The Passionate Enemies by Jean Plaidy
Mercury Falls by Kroese, Robert
The Assistant by Green, Vallen