Tuesday, October 7, 2008

12 Deadly Diseases for the Apocalypse

Keeping in step with the great Apocalypse theme running over at The Geek Emporium I have discovered that there is a very real potential cause of the Apocalypse looming overhead. According to a Reuters article I found on Yahoo there are 12 diseases that could wipe us out due to climate change. If you want to read it the original article is here and I have listed the 12 diseases below. The article stated that these diseases are "likely to spread more because of climate change", but this is not a definitive list just an example.

  1. avian flu
  2. tick-borne babesia
  3. cholera
  4. ebola
  5. parasites
  6. plague
  7. lyme disease
  8. red tides of algal blooms
  9. Rift Valley fever
  10. sleeping sickness
  11. tuberculosis
  12. yellow fever
I didn't know that parasites were considered a disease... learn something new every day.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

And, those are just the diseases we already know about. That doesn't even touch on diseases that could pop up unexpectedly like SARS did a few years back.

As for Avian Flu though, it doesn't actually need climate change to kill us all. Once it goes human to human, we're screwed ;)

Geek Gazette said...

The article just said that climate change would potentially cause them to spread rapidly. Which in the case of avian flu would mean that because of warmer weather birds would stay in the same area, multiply more often(? that is possible because squirrels have changed their mating habits due to warmer weather)and thus create and over population. Diseases would spread more rabidly and give the disease more likelihood of mutating.These are the most likely candidates from what I read, but you are right, new ones would probably pop us as well.

Anonymous said...

I was actually going to high school in Hong Kong at the height of the SARS crisis. The streets were empty, and everyone that was outside was wearing a face mask. These threats are definitely real, but at the same time i feel that pharmaceutical companies (that often have exclusive patents on 'cures' that may not even work) make huge amounts of money off of these situations and would be in their interest to have these kind of situations get blown out of proportion.

For geek gazette:
Sorry if this is off topic, but i couldn't find your email. I’m writing on behalf of Kahriptic Knights Publishing and Lordi (finnish fantasy/monster-rock band), who have been collaborating on a table-top RPG, entitled ‘Deliverence’. We would be interested in sending you a beta copy to get your thoughts and possibly write a review for your site. Please get back to me at teamomega@theendrecords.com for more details on this.

thanks
The End Records (Lordi’s record label)

Geek Gazette said...

@ the end records

You should be getting an email from me soon.

I haven't heard much about SARS lately. Did they cure it or has the media just decided it isn't interesting anymore and replaced it with a new fear inducing disease. Mad Cow and avian influenza didn't spread fast enough or kill enough people for them. Plus there are the problems with the economy and the elections to keep everyone scared... we don't really need a disease right now.
Thanks for posting.

Anonymous said...

*yoink*

Exactly what ive been looking for to finish off the setting for my campaign