A suffering world engulfed in sickness

We are referring to the reality we all know; someone who is suffering from a heart disease, high blood pressure, or battling cancer.

And now we have a case of a Boksburg woman who apparently died of swine flu (the jury is apparently out on this verdict).

This winter, it seems, all kinds of weird viruses and bacteria have crawled out of the woodwork, as if they have taken on a mutated life of their own.

The reality is that diseases have, indeed, spread across the world.

According to a medical report published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, July 2015, ischemic heart disease (IHD) was responsible for 8.1 million deaths in 2013.

Ischaemic (or ischemic) heart disease is characterised by a reduced blood supply to the heart.

It is regarded as the most common cause of death in most western countries and, thus, heart diseases remain one of the greatest threats to the health of mankind, especially among men.

In another medical report published in JAMA Oncology, May 2015, during which the general methodology of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study was used, it was found that two years ago there were 14.9 million incident cancer cases, 8.2 million deaths, and 196.3 million disability-adjusted life year cases (in other words those who were rendered with a disability due to cancer).

The conclusion of the study was that cancer poses a major threat to public health worldwide, and incidence rates have increased in most countries since 1990.

Then we will not even talk about the ever present threat of Ebola, which is virus which causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if untreated.

And, of course, we also have to deal with swine flu. The scary thing is that is this strain has mutated (from a disease affecting pigs) to become easily transmissible among humans.

In another global study, done a few years ago, it was found that people, globally, are living longer, but chronic diseases and conditions like high blood pressure are becoming more prevalent.

The publication of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 involved 486 authors in 50 countries, who aimed to offer a comprehensive update on diseases and injuries since the last such report, in 1990.

It found diseases such as diabetes, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were also becoming more prevalent.

Even scarier, is that the apparent increase in many infectious diseases, including some newly-circulating ones (HIV/Aids, hantavirus, hepatitis C, SARS) have been linked to climate change.

Such change is reflected in the combined impact of rapid demographic, environmental, social, technological and other changes in our ways of living.

Climate changes has also been accompanied by more flooding, which can potentially increase the transmission of water-borne diseases, such as typhoid fever, cholera, leptospirosis and hepatitis A, along with vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, dengue and dengue haemorrhagic fever, yellow fever and West Nile Fever.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which is the largest and most complex outbreak since the Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976, along with the threat posed by HIV/Aids, proves that mankind faces a daunting and unhealthy future.

Mankind is ultimately to be blamed for its own vulnerability, despite the best efforts in the medical field, since we are responsible for climate change, while our advancements in technology have allowed infections and diseases to spread and to mutate globally.

There are a lot of reasons why the world has become so physically impoverished, be it our diet, be it our stressful lifestyle, be it our manipulation of food resources, be it the ever growing global population, or be it that the world is simply becoming a village of constant interaction and contact.

Whatever the reason for our degeneration, the fact remains that things are not looking rosy, so we all have to become more vigilant, aware and alert when it comes to our health.

Maybe all the Hollywood movies about a planet left ravished by a plague or an outbreak of a mutated virus is not so far fetched.

Trust mankind to destroy itself. That is, sadly, just sick.