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The Mobile Faces New Threats of Infection

Before the advent of modern medicine loss of life from disease was, unfortunately, all too common. Until antibiotics became widely available, it was generally thought that those members of society that lived long lives were both lucky and blessed with strong immune systems. Because scientists did not understand the nature of most pathogens 1 , the only defense against disease was good personal hygiene and isolation of the sick from the rest of the community. These principles, plus the fact that individuals were generally isolated from persons outside their social group and community helped to ensure healthy lives for the majority. This helps to explain why “country folk” viewed cities with sea ports (wherein foreigners and live produce arrived) as disease-ridden places.

Life in today's modern cities and towns is entirely different. It is no longer “survival of the fittest” where those with weakened immune systems will not survive. We have effectively enhanced the survival rates of everyone through the use of modern medicines, that have until now effectively killed pathogens 1 .

Unfortunately two events are concurrently taking place that are potentially increasing the rates of illness and premature death to all of us living in large open societies. • Bacteria and viruses are continually evolving that are ever more immune to our current medicines, and they are outpacing our ability to develop new effective medicines. We are continually at risk to cross contamination from those around us, particularly when we come in direct or indirect contact with those that have recently returned from places generally considered to be at risk and who may carry pathogens that we have not had the opportunity to develop immunities to.

1 pathogen : An agent that causes disease, a living microorganism 2 such as a bacterium or fungus, or a virus 3 2 bacterium : A microscopic vegetable organism, belonging to the class Alg[ae], usually in the form of a jointed rodlike filament, and found in putrefying organic infusions. Bacteria are destitute of chlorophyll, and are the smallest of microscopic organisms. They are very widely diffused in nature, and multiply with marvelous rapidity, both by fission and by spores. Certain species are active agents in fermentation, while others appear to be the cause of certain infectious diseases. bacillus : Any of various rod-shaped, spore-forming, aerobic bacteria of the genus Bacillus that often occur in chains and include B. anthracis , the causative agent of anthrax . 3 virus: Any of various simple submicroscopic parasites of plants, animals, and bacteria that often cause disease and that consist essentially of a core of RNA or DNA surrounded by a protein coat. Unable to replicate without a host cell, viruses are typically not considered living organisms. The specific virus of diseases is now regarded as a microscopic living vegetable organism which multiplies within the body, and, either by its own action or by the associated development of a chemical poison, causes the phenomena of the special disease.