Old Diseases May Surface And We Have To Deal With Them

Old Diseases May Surface And We Have To Deal With Them

By Cheryl Freier, author of The Grayling Hidden Truth Poems, and other historical fiction novels, and one storybook:  The Shepherd Boy And The Sheep Alphabet

            There was an article on Yahoo posted this week which expressed serious concerns about the discovery in California of a mosquito which carries the dengue and yellow fever viruses.  Even though this small size mosquito with white stripes across its legs is the pervasive carrier of deadly diseases, health officials are not pressing the alarm button yet.  They are working on ways to control the mosquito pest and also to eradicate it.

            It is possible that scientists can eradicate the deadly mosquito, which is not endemic to the United States and comes from South American countries.  The idea of using scientific advances in DNA to eradicate a mosquito that brings deadly diseases is comforting to me. 

            I can remember as a young child reading about the people who went out west to get rich; they traveled in Conestoga wagons; they were very brave.  One of the hardships which they faced was the “yellow fever”.  Most people died from the disease.  Almost everyone who traveled had the fear of this disease on their minds.  Scientists and doctors were, however, through the practice of monitoring the chemical composition of drinking water and other preventable health practices, able to subdue the disease. 

            We live in a time in history when many of the well-known diseases such as small pox, which in the past centuries had killed off populations of people, can be prevented through vaccination.  During WWII, most people who were escaping the Nazis and caught a communicable disease usually died.  Polio was a threat at this time to young children and to adults.  Read my novels on the family from Micholovce, Czechoslovakia, who escaped from the war; read how they did their best to cope with diseases at the war time.  You may access my books under my name, Cheryl Freier  at Author House, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble.