The Change Mariner

Animal-to-human infections on rise?

MSNBC:

It happens again and again. Strange and frightening new infections seem to appear out of nowhere, such as Lyme disease, Ebola and, of course, AIDS. With monkeypox coming on the heels of SARS, which emerged not long after West Nile, it's a phenomenon that seems to be happening at an accelerating rate.

...

"There are probably hundreds, if not thousands -- maybe even millions of viruses out there," said Robert G. Webster, a leading virologist at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. "We don't even know they're there until we disturb them. SARS is probably just a gentle breeze of what one of these big ones is going to do someday."

Frightening.

-Tim