Two years into the war the Army issued its first meager supplies of penicillin, instructing physicians to use the precious drug sparingly, in doses of about 5,000 units (less than a third of what would be considered a minimal penicillin dose for minor infections in 1993). In those early days before bacteria became resistant to antibiotics, such doses were capable of performing miracles, and the Army doctors were so impressed with the powers of penicillin that they collected the urine of patients who were on the drug and crystallized excreted penicillin for reuse on other GIs. (4)
University of Chicago historian William McNeill outlined the reasons Homosapiens had been vulnerable to microbial assaults over the millennia. He saw each catastrophic epidemic event in human history as the ironic result of humanity’s steps forward. As humans improve their lots, McNeill warned,they actually increase their vulnerability to disease.
“It is, I think, worthwhile being conscious of the limits upon our powers,” McNeill said. “It is worth keeping in mind that the more we win, the more we drive infections to the margins of human experience, the more we clear a path for possible catastrophic infection. We’ll never escape the limits of the ecosystem. We are caught in the food chain, whether we like it or not, eating and being eaten.” (6)
Rain forests were being destroyed, forcing disease-carrying animals and insects into areas of human habitation and raising the very real possibility that lethal, mysterious microbes would, for the first time, infect humanity on a large scale and imperil the survival of the human race. (6)
As we approach the millennium, few young scientists or doctors anywhere in the world can quickly recognize a tiger mosquito, Peromyscus maniculatusmouse, pertussis cough, or dipththerial throat infection.
The skills needed to describe and recognize perturbations in the Homosapiensmicroecology are disappearing with the passing of the generations, leaving humanity, lulled into a complacency born of proud discoveries and medical triumphs, unprepared for the coming plague. (11-12)
hexafu 