In Such An Hour As This
PESTILENCES
Deadly Plagues ~ Epidemics
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Today´s World
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Pestilence is mentioned in Matthew 24, as one of the signs of the end-times. We are in the period of time called the “Beginning of Sorrows,’ spoken of by Jesus. All one must do is open your eyes because the signs are all about us. But bear in mind that these signs are merely the beginning; a foreshadow of what lies ahead for this world.
But we as blood-bought Christians, do not rely on the signs of the times. Rather, we continue to labor in His service to reap the harvest of souls. We keep our eyes on Jesus, and await the day of His return, for no man knows the hour or the day of Christ´s coming.
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In the troubled days ahead of us, each one of us needs a firm and settled faith. It is the only way we will survive. God protects those who fully trust Him in time of crisis. Faith is more than just saying you trust God to see you through.. Faith requires action. That's why the Bible says, faith without works is dead. Faith is where the rubber meets the road at 200mph. It's easy to say that you have sufficient faith, but words are cheap. Faith in action requires committment; committment demands faith void of unbelief, fear and despair. Faith is a spirit thing not a fleshly thing. It's like a disease, we can't say we have it, if we have never been tested for it. Once we acquire faith, God will test us, to see if our actions measure up to our words. Strong enduring faith that can take us through the worst tragedies in our life, is not easily won. That type of faith only comes after we have endured many trials, tests, and failures. Learning to trust God for everything and in every circumstance is the key to faith.
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And we have the prophetic word made firmer still. You will do well to pay close attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dismal and dark place, until the day breaks through the gloom and the Morning Star rises and comes into being in your hearts.
(2 Peter 1:19)
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WASHINGTON, DC
The Earth may be on the brink of a worldwide epidemic from a bird flu virus that may mutate to become as deadly and infectious as viruses that killed millions during three influenza pandemics of the 20th century, a federal health official said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said scientists expect that a flu virus that has swept through chickens and other poultry in Asia will genetically change into a flu that can be transmitted from person to person. The genes of the avian flu change rapidly, she said, and experts believe it is highly likely that the virus will evolve into a pathogen deadly for humans.
Bird flu has infected millions of poultry livestock and other birds in Southeast Asia and has sickened 97 humans this year as of May 19, 2005 according to the World Health Organization. Fifty-three people have died of the disease.
HANOI, Vietnam
Vietnamese health officials said, the 61-year-old widow of a bird flu victim has also tested positive for the H5N1 virus, although at present she has showed no symptoms.
The World Health Organization is closely watching a suspected outbreak of bird flu in Vietnam. American health officials are on alert too...preparing in case the bird flu comes to the US. (June 2005)
SEOUL, South Korea
North Korea acknowledged an outbreak of bird flu for the first time, saying that hundreds of thousands of chickens were killed to prevent its spread, and so the disease would not be passed on to humans. The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has spread through poultry farms in Southeast Asia since December 2003, and killed at least 48 people. Health officials fear it could mutate into a form more easily transmittable between humans that might result in a global pandemic killing millions. (2005)
Cambodian Girl Dies of Bird Flu
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
An 8-year-old Cambodian girl has died of the bird flu, raising the country's death toll from the deadly disease to three. The director of the Health Ministry's Communicable Disease Control office, said the girl died at a Phnom Penh hospital. Tests showed she had the potent H5N1 virus, which has killed at least 51 people in the region. (2005)
JAKARTA, Indonesia
An Indonesian poultry worker has tested positive for bird flu, in the country's first human case of the disease that has so far killed 54 people in Southeast Asia, health officials said. This is the first case found," said Dr. Georg Petersen , WHO's representative in Indonesia. (2005)
JAKARTA, Indonesia
Indonesian researchers have found a strain of bird flu in pigs on the densely populated island of Java, raising fears the virus could more easily spread to humans in the country.
Midan, the scientist who made the discovery, identified the strain found in the pigs as H5N1, which has jumped from chickens to humans elsewhere in Southeast Asia, killing 36 in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand and four from Cambodia. Pigs, which are genetically similar to people, often carry the human influenza virus. Experts worry that pigs infected with both bird flu and its human equivalent could act as a "mixing bowl," resulting in a more dangerous, mutant virus that might spread to people more easily - and then from person to person. (2005)
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Because you have made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place, there shall no evil befall you, nor any plague or calamity come near your tent.
Psalm 1:9-10
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New York is Endemic
Leprosy, the contagious skin disease evoking thoughts of biblical and medieval times, is now making its § in the United States, and many believe the influx of illegal aliens is a main factor. Americans should be told that diseases long eradicated in this country – tuberculosis, leprosy, polio and other diseases is now back with a venegence. The number of cases of leprosy, now known as Hansen's disease, among immigrants to the U.S. has more than doubled since 2000. In the last 40 years, only 900 persons were afflicted by leprosy in the U.S.; in the past three years, more than 7,000 cases have been presented." "A lot of our cases are imported," said a Doctor who treats leprosy victims in Texas. "We see patients from everywhere – Africa, the Philippines, China, South America, and even Cuba." (2005)
Excerps from World Net Daily © 2005 Used by permission
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.
Unable to find the source of a hepatitis A outbreak in eastern Tennessee, health officials offered to inoculate as many as 5,000 people who ate at a restaurant where an infected food server worked. Seventeen cases of hepatitis A, a viral liver disease that can be spread through poor hygiene, have been confirmed. (2005)
July 24, 2004
A strain of Staphylococcus bacteria has appeared in a hospital that is resistant to vancomycin, the strongest drug available. (2004)
Source:Guardian, UK
TRENTON, N.J.
Dangerous drug-resistant staph infections are showing up at an alarming rate outside hospitals and nursing homes in the United States. New research found that in one part of the country, as many as one in five infections were picked up out in the community. Until recently, these hard-to-treat cases were seen only in hospitals and other health-care settings where they can spread to patients with open wounds or tubes and cause serious complications. Now doctors are seeing resistant strains among inmates, children and athletes. In a second study, researchers reported that drug-resistant staph has acquired "flesh-eating" capabilities and caused 14 cases of rare necrotizing fasciitis in the Los Angeles area. All needed surgery and 10 were in intensive care. " (2005)
ORLANDO, Fla.
Nine children were hospitalized, two in critical condition, with a life-threatening kidney ailment after visiting petting zoos in Florida. The total increased after two more children were diagnosed. There were fears the number of children suffering from the rare disease — hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS — would continue to grow. HUS, which generally affects children up to 10 years old, attacks and shuts down the liver and also disrupts blood circulation, which can lead to multiple organ failure. The afflicted children had all touched animals at fairs in Florida. Officials said the children may have been exposed to E. Coli bacteria after petting the animals and then putting their fingers in their mouths, or while eating, for example. The total increased to 12, after two more children and an adult were diagnosed. (2005)
PROVIDENCE, R.I.
Three transplant patients have died of a rodent virus after receiving contaminated organs from the same donor, the state Health Department said. Health officials said it is only the second documented case anywhere in the world that the viral infection LCMV has been transmitted through an organ transplant. Two people from Massachusetts and one from Rhode Island died in late April and early May of LCMV, which is associated with exposure to rodent waste. The patients received lung, kidney and liver tissue. The source of the infection was found to be an organ donor from Rhode Island, who died of unrelated causes. Officials said that at least one pet at that person's home-- a hamster -- tested positive for LCMV. (2005)
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For then He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilences; nor of the pestilences that stalks in darkness, nor of the destruction and sudden death that surprise and lay waste at noonday.
Psalm 91:3; 6
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West Nile Virus
Aug. 12, 2002
West Nile virus has been in the U.S. since 1999, but the rate of spread and the death rate have increased this year. It has been discovered in 35 states and Washington D.C.
West Nile virus is an "emerging, infectious disease epidemic" that could be spread all the way to the Pacific Coast by birds and mosquitoes, the director of the Centers for Disease Control said.
Source:Yahoo
Culex pipiens photo © Jack Jeffrey.
Used with permission.
June 2005
The West Nile virus (WNV) was first detected in the Western Hemisphere in 1999 and has since rapidly spread across the North American continent into all 48 continental states, seven Canadian provinces, and throughout Mexico. In addition, WNV activity has been detected in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guadeloupe and El Salvador.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 15,000 people in the U.S. have tested positive for WNV infection since 1999, including over 500 deaths. (2005)
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You first must understand this, that no prophecy of Scriptures is a matter of any personal or private special interpretation solving. For no prophecy ever originated because some man willed it to do so ~ it never came by human impulse, but men spoke from God who were borne along, moved and impelled by the Holy Spirt.
(2 Peter 1:20-21
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BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo
Authorities in the Republic of Congo have quarantined two northwestern districts hit by the deadly Ebola virus to ensure the highly contagious disease does not spread. The two districts -- Etoumbi, where eight deaths were recorded, and Mbomo, where a ninth person died-- were sealed off.
Ebola is a hemorraghic fever transmitted through direct contact with body fluids of infected persons or other primates. There is no cure, and between 50 to 90 percent of victims die. (2005)
Unchecked Ebola, identified in 1976, can cut through a population like a scythe, killing everyone in contact with it. There is no vaccination, no known cure, and it can kill in 48 hours, although incubation can take 14 days. The only effective action is to isolate the infected area and allow those with the disease to die. Only three out of every 10 will survive.
200 children killed by epidemic
In Kano, Nigeria, at least 200 children have died during the past two weeks in epidemics of cerebrospinal meningitis and measles. A source reported that more than 100 new cases were being reported each day. "The situation is so bad. We are battling to save these children's lives. This is the worst I've seen since I became a medical doctor." (2002)
Marburg Virus Kills 95 in Angola,
October 2004
An outbreak of hemorrhagic fever in northern Angola has killed 95 people, mainly children under 5. the U.N. The WHO confirmed that the illness was Marburg, a disease similar to Ebola. Analysis had identified 102 cases of the virus since October 2004, and 95 of which had proved fatal. Marburg virus disease has no vaccine or curative treatment and can be rapidly fatal," WHO said. "In the present outbreak, most deaths have occurred between three to seven days following the onset of symptoms." (2004)
Marburg 2005
An outbreak of a deadly bleeding disease in Angola has now claimed the lives of more than 250 residents of the southwest African nation. The Marburg virus has mystified the medical community for more than four decades. There is no vaccine for the disease which is spread through contact with bodily fluids.
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It is a fearful, formidable and terrible thing to incur the divine penalties and be cast into the hands of the living God.
(Hebrews 10: 31)
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HIV/AIDS
There are now more than 40 million people infected with the HIV/Aids virus, and 3.1 million have died with the disease this past year. Africa is still the area most affected, with one out of three adults being infected in some areas. Asia is beginning to follow the same trend. (2002)
Source: BBC
Cambodia's married women are suffering the sharpest rise in HIV infection in a nation that was once a success story in the fight against AIDS.
New reports of a rising death toll say the battle against HIV-infection in South Africa is being lost. (2005)
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
More than 80 million Africans may die from AIDS by 2025, the United Nations said in a report, and infections could soar to 90 million — or more than 10 percent of the continent's population — if more isn't done soon to fight the disease. More than 25 million African have been infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. UNAIDS estimated that nearly $200 billion is needed to save 16 million people from death and 43 million people from becoming infected, but donors have pledged nowhere near that amount. (2005)
Anthrax
Oct. 16, 2001, The child of a producer has been infected with Anthrax. A co-worker, of the Florida photographer who died of the disease, has contracted it also.
Source: Fox
Oct. 17, 2001, Many of Tom Daschle's aids and two policeman have tested positive the anthrax spores.
Source: Fox
Oct. 22, 2001, A Washington D.C. postal worker has become the third person to contract inhalation anthrax, the most deadly form of the disease.
Source: CNN
Oct. 23, 2001, Two postal employees of the Brentwood mail processing facility in Washington D.C. have died from inhalation anthrax.
Source: CNN
Oct. 31, 2001, The death of a woman by inhallation Anthrax in New York adds new mystery to the situation. The woman, a hospital worker, and a New Jersey woman are the first people to contract the disease during this outbreak without having some connection to a mail-handling facility. It raises the possibility that tainted letters are reaching people's homes.
Source: CNN
Nov. 22, 2001, A 94 year old Connecticut woman, became the fifth fatality of the Anthrax attack in america. How she contracted the disease is a mystery. She lives alone and seldom goes out. Spores have not been found in the mailbox she used.
Source: BBC
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But He said to me, My grace, My favor and loving-kindness and mercy is enough for you; sufficent against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully; for My strength and power are made perfect, fulfilled and completed and show themselves most effective in your weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weakness and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ the Messiah, may rest, yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell upon me!
(11Corth. 12:9)
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Smallpox Terror Alert
The World Health Organization has issued a warning to governments around the world to prepare against a terrorist smallpox attack which could kill millions of people.
The unthinkable is no longer unthinkable and we need to prepare for that,' said a spokesperson for the WHO, the United Nations' health agency. 'There has been a lot of concern about a smallpox outbreak. The numbers it would kill are scary.'
Most people under 40 have not been vaccinated against smallpox, which has a fatality rate of up to 90 per cent, can kill in 48 hours. The disease was considered eradicated in the 70's, but the existence of the disease in research facilities makes it possible that it could be used as a bioweapon. (2001)
Source:Guardian Unlimited Observer
One of the world´s leading authorities on biological weapons, the former head of Soviet biowarfare, warns that a smallpox release by Iraq or other Mid-Eastern nations could cause a worldwide calamity of biblical Proportions.
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There will be mighty and violent earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences, plagues, malignant and contagious, or infectious epidemic diseases which are deadly and devastating; and there will be sights of terror and great signs from heaven.
(Luke 21:11)
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WASHINGTON DC
The United States still has no licensed vaccine to prevent avian flu and has nowhere near enough drugs to treat the sick if there is an epidemic. Hospitals have too little capacity to deal with the huge numbers of people who would become sick and the U.S. Health and Human Services Department does not have a plan for dealing with an epidemic. "Although many levels of government are paying increased attention to the problem, the United States remains woefully unprepared for an influenza pandemic that could kill millions of Americans." "Clearly, we need a much larger supply of drugs and vaccine to control a flu pandemic. We have a lot of work to do, and that work needs to be a priority."
The H5N1 strain of avian flu has killed 37 people in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand and four in cambodia. It could sicken up to 20 percent of the world's population if it acquires the ability to pass easily among people. A pandemic could send 30 million people to the hospital and a quarter of them could die. Influenza causes epidemics annually and kills 36,000 Americans in a normal season. A brand-new strain, such as H5N1, could be devastating. "The U.S. population has no immunity and therefore no protection against this deadly virus." The current stockpile would treat less than 2 percent of the U.S. population.
Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
Used by permission 2005
New Plague Vaccine Agreement Signed
A joint, multi-nation project arrangement between the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of National Defence of Canada, and the Secretary of State for Defense of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was announced today for the cooperative development of a vaccine to protect against plague. Under this agreement, the three nations will work together to develop and produce a plague vaccine that will ultimately be licensed for human use.
The defense establishments of the United States and the U.K. have each maintained active plague vaccine research and development efforts since the 1990s. Relevant plague vaccine development information has been shared among the U.S., U.K., and Canada under provisions of a memorandum of understanding between the three nations since 2000.
The U.K. plague vaccine candidate is a purified subunit vaccine containing the F1 and V antigens purified separately from recombinant "Escherichia coli" and then mixed together, while the DoD vaccine candidate contains the F1 and V antigens linked together as a fusion protein. The F1V fusion protein candidate was pioneered by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. The DoD program is now managed by the Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program in the office of the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense.
Testing of the U.K. plague vaccine candidate in the United States under the joint project arrangement is expected to begin in late 2005 with a phase one clinical trial to be performed in accordance with regulations administered by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The DoD plague vaccine candidate began phase one clinical trials, at the University of Kentucky, in the first quarter of 2005. This joint effort will continue until late 2005, at which time the DoD will evaluate both vaccine candidates and select one for continued advanced development.
DOD © 2005
Used by permission