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The Forum > Article Comments > The handshake that ends the human race > Comments

The handshake that ends the human race : Comments

By Graham Cooke, published 29/12/2009

The next pandemic could begin with a handshake - and it might be the one which kills off the human race.

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Those in public health are usually the ones who tell us what will happen if we do not take actions. Feachem was someone who I followed years ago when I was working in wastewater disposal bacteriology. His message hasn't changed fundamentally in 30 years and his points are still valid.

We have developed a way of life in the "developed" world that pays no heed to the power of the microbe. We assume that we can control microbes. Better think again.
Posted by renew, Tuesday, 29 December 2009 11:17:06 AM
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It is not the handshake that is the problem, it is the lack of soap and water after performing bodily functions, before preparing food and eating and so on. Soap and water is the simple and effective way to dramatically reduce the spread of infections.

Of course there is already a most successful UN program doing just that in developing countries.

Might I respectfully suggest that the message that Sir Richard Feachem should have been delivering at the Canberra symposium is that it is the lack of communication and co-ordination of programs and the wasteful competition and protection of turf by health and other helping professionals that needlessly detract from both local and global efforts to improve health, nutrition and wellbeing.

In view of its success in getting indigenous people on side and achieving results you'd think that (say) the Australian government would leap at the chance to take on the UN sanitation initiatives which would save the lives of hundreds of our indigenous people every year. After all we do know about the UN's 2008 Year of Sanitation, yes? But no, we have to reinvent the wheel with reviews and fractured policies to protect the turf of indigenous advocates, helping professionals and sundry others who make their daily bread out of the indigenous (victim) industry.

The way ahead? Courageous statesmen are needed to challenge the politics of the vested interests that prevent co-operation and the extension of the simple, cost-effective means that have already demonstrated results in the field.
Posted by Cornflower, Tuesday, 29 December 2009 2:01:24 PM
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Unfortunately this scenario is entirely possible.

The book Pandemonium by Andrew Nikiforuk discusses this issue, and much more too.
Posted by Ho Hum, Tuesday, 29 December 2009 2:02:11 PM
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Exaggeration won't convince anyone. No pandemic in history has been had 100% mortality rate (not even Ebola virus comes close). Mind you, this poor planet is way overpopulated so something needs to thin out the huge mass of humans sucking the planet dry.
Posted by viking13, Tuesday, 29 December 2009 3:38:10 PM
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Well Said Viking13,

I just love the way nature decides who or what is above the power of evolution. Lets see the religious nutters come up with an answer, besides isolation of infected humans, for this one if it happens.
Posted by Atheistno1, Tuesday, 29 December 2009 5:20:23 PM
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The idea of a short bow to greet people sounds good.

I am still surprised by how many people do not use soap and water before preparing food and after using the bathroom. A male friend of mine once told me never to eat the nuts on a bar because most of the double dippers probably left the remnants of the lovely E.Coli behind ('scuse the pun).

I doubt that we will be wiped out totally and nature seems to find a way of not only coming up with these devastating viruses but in providing the clues to a vaccine or cure.

Perhaps nature has a way of balancing out the population expansion - too many people = more germs and greater spread. Or if you are a religious person - perhaps you might read it as God's will.
Posted by pelican, Tuesday, 29 December 2009 6:24:23 PM
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More alarmists.Don't trust any of them.Have a look at who employs Graham Cooke and what their motivations are.It is all about control.The global warming alarmists failed at climategate and now they have to find a new tack.

It is the genetic diversty of any species than ensures survival.This is why the Royal family needed Dianna Spencer.They were starting to breed idiots.

We had global cooling,global warming,Y2k bug,bird flu,swine flu,perhaps we need some logic flu,and then sweep these alarmist charlatans into black hole of their lust for power.
Posted by Arjay, Tuesday, 29 December 2009 6:25:16 PM
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it is the lack of soap and water after performing bodily functions, before preparing food and eating and so on. Soap and water is the simple and effective way to dramatically reduce the spread of infections.
Cornflower,
I won't say your statement is incorrect because I don't have the kind of proof that is needed to convince today's sterile society. I work with water & I witness how easily the city slickers get sick at the slightest impurity of any food & exposure. Country folk have more immunity when it comes to a little grime. You're correct that soap dramatically reduces the spread of infection in an environment which has been rather sterile for decades but it also reduces resilience by killing natural immune systems. Far too much damage is being done to the environment by medical & cleaning materials & consequent waste.
Posted by individual, Tuesday, 29 December 2009 6:33:57 PM
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individual

For info:

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=32556&Cr=diarrhoea&Cr1
Posted by Cornflower, Tuesday, 29 December 2009 8:54:05 PM
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Some sound health advice would go down better than another doomsday scenario. The UN should attack overpopulation, corrupt regimes, lack of sanitation, lack of democracy, poor education and health issues in developing nations and forget about carbon emissions. We then might not have to worry about viruses and bacteria arising out of these places.
Posted by Atman, Tuesday, 29 December 2009 9:59:34 PM
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The fantastic fiasco at Copenhagen has caused this poor old geriatric a major insecurity problem ; he's hit the Big Red Button , like Rudd a week before Copenhagen the only solution for their fiscal future is the same as all the Fakes that came before them in History "Panic the Population"
Posted by ShazBaz001, Wednesday, 30 December 2009 9:55:05 AM
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For crying out loud Cornflower, nothing personal but you sure picked the worst examples of competence & integrity by listening to the UN & some idealistic academic.
You are of course right that cleanliness is the best way to combat decease but think of it this way. None of these deceases are borne of handshakes or any other basic interaction. Decease comes from all sorts of sources & invariably finds its way to humans. I'm no authority on these things but I do believe that the more we combat decease the more decease gets the upper hand. I have worked in a hospital & I was totally dismayed at the effort & resources that was expended for the same mutts coming in for treatment of injury from fighting, football, promis cuity, living so sterile that their immune system literally was outdone by a simple cold etc.Yes, medical research has produced great results & we constantly hear of how many millions of lives will be saved. Great ! Who's going to provide food, shelter & jobs for all these "saved" people ? If science can find a way to expand the planet at the same rate as the population well, no probs ! Maybe science will create a mass exodus to some far away planet ? Hmmh ! That would help. Can I come ? Just as the industrial revolution has provided machinery to put people on welfare, medicine will put people on the streets. Many more people will live longer & depend on those who work, hooray !
Posted by individual, Wednesday, 30 December 2009 7:22:46 PM
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