Timely and Inspiring Prophetic Analysis so you can Prepare.

First Ebola then Zika; two diseases that have been known about for decades; both “official World Health Organization (WHO) Public Health Emergencies of International Concern within as many years.”

World health officials were caught off guard for each of them in quick succession. Is this a taste of things to come?

While there are not many similarities between the two diseases, there is yet something about the way the viruses spread, or how they affected people that made the outbreaks more of a threat. A sudden change in the way a disease agent works, or is transmitted can make public heath threats a pandemic problem, and makes them difficult to predict. “Even more worrying is the fact that with changing trends in human and animal migration, increasing urbanization, the density of mega cities, the rise in antimicrobial resistance and climate change, such threats could become increasingly more common.”

Ebola became a global health concern because it changed its ability to spread. For many years the disease mainly kept itself in isolated rural areas, but when it reached large urban areas, it quickly spread exponentially.

Because Zika, on the other hand, was considered to be a relatively mild disease, there was less concern about it spreading. Once researchers documented its connection to microcephaly it became a major concern. In seven decades since Zika was first discovered, such horrific complication have never before been seen, so it is unclear why there is a connection in Brazil.

Part of the reason why there is such a sluggish response to global epidemics is because there is no profit in prevention, which suggests that if we want to avoid epidemics we cannot expect industry to provide solutions. At least the WHO is developing a list of the worst eight diseases needing urgent attention. None on the list are particularly surprising, including Ebola and other hemorrhagic fevers like Marburg and Lassa fever, and a subset that includes Zika.

Pathogens are not likely to act the same way in the future as in the past. Perhaps other pathogens will morph into global pandemics with deadly consequences as humanity tries to react to them once they are already tracking rapidly around the globe like Zika.

“And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.” Matthew 24:7

“If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.” Exodus 15:26

Source Reference

• Zika and Ebola: A taste of things to come?