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Zaheer Siddiqui DDC DISEASE DA

UQ Disease is present in transportation systems but not causing any overwhelming problems AT et al 06(Tatem AJ, Rogers DJ, Hay SI; these authors are all writers for a government website concerning health and safety of the
commonwealth. The text here is taken from their abstract on a report written on transportation and its correlation to disease spread, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16647974, TALA Research Group, Tinbergen Building, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK.)

Air, sea and land transport networks continue to expand in reach, speed of travel and volume of passengers and goods carried. Pathogens and their vectors can now move further, faster and in greater numbers than ever before. Three important consequences of global transport network expansion are infectious disease pandemics, vector invasion events and vector-borne pathogen importation. This review briefly examines some of the important historical examples of these disease and vector movements, such as the global influenza pandemics, the devastating Anopheles gambiae invasion of Brazil and the recent increases in imported Plasmodium falciparum malaria cases. We then outline potential approaches for future studies of disease movement, focussing on vector invasion and vector-borne disease importation. Such approaches allow us to explore the potential implications of international air travel, shipping routes and other methods of transport on global pathogen and vector traffic.

LINK Train systems cause huge amounts of disease to be spread, leading to an epidemic DeNoon 7( Daniel; Daniel J. DeNoon is senior medical writer for WebMD, researching and reporting daily news stories and health features.
Before joining WebMD in 1999, he was senior editor for CW Henderson publications and a freelance medical writer, editor, and communications consultant. He is the recipient of several professional awards, including a commendation from the Centers for Disease Control for his work during the 2001-2 bioterror attacks. Mr. DeNoon earned a bachelor of arts degree in psychology and religion from Emory University. http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=57095, November 5)

Maybe, after thinking about airplanes and ships, you've decided to postpone your vacation and go back to work. And maybe you'll be taking the subway. That's how occupational health and safety specialist Robyn Gershon, DrPh, gets to work at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in New York City. Gershon didn't start out looking at germs. She got interested in subways when she heard reports of hearing loss among transit workers. While studying the issue, she decided to look at other subway health issues. What she found was ... not much. It turns out there's very little scientific information on infectious disease in the subways. "Subway systems are big public-use spaces," Gershon tells WebMD. "There are 14 big U.S. subway systems and millions and millions of riders. For any number of reasons, there are health hazards. But there is this huge volume of people, and we are not studying it." When Gershon turned her attention to infectious disease spread on subway systems, she found "not one scientific paper at all." "You can imagine because of all the surfaces, all kinds of organisms can be transmitted from the hand rails, the head rests, the seats," she says. "It is almost inevitable disease transmission has happened, but it is hard to prove." Meanwhile, Gershon is taking precautions. "After riding the subway, I never put anything in my mouth without washing my hands," she says. "I don't touch a thing in my office without going to the sink. The rails and everything are loaded with pathogens. Hand washing is a simple thing, and it is the only thing you can do. I have seen a couple of people wearing face masks, but I wouldn't go that far. Clearly data are needed."

Deadly viruses rampant in trains BBC News 11(Respected and famous news network, operating all over the world, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13593399,
May 30)

ScotRail confirmed it had detected the bacteria - linked to the deadly form of pneumonia Legionnaires' disease after an inspection of 15 tanks. Train operators across the UK analysed 150 systems for the bug, with one in three

Zaheer Siddiqui DDC DISEASE DA


testing positive for legionella. Health Protection Agency (HPA) said the risk to the general population was considered extremely low. A spokesman added: "The HPA is not aware of any studies linking legionella in railway vehicles to cases or outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease. "The HPA is not aware of any cases of Legionnaires' disease associated with rail travel." In recent weeks there have been three deaths known to have been caused by Legionnaires' disease in Scotland, however there are no known cases of the illness being contracted on a train.

IMPACT Unanticipated epidemics results in extinction. Powell 2k Corey S. Powell, Senior Editor, Discover Magazine; Adjunct Professor, Science Journalism, NYU; Author: God in the Equation: How Einstein
Transformed Religion, October 1, 2000, 20 Ways the World Could End,

Global epidemics If Earth doesn't do us in, our fellow organisms might be up to the task. Germs and people have always coexisted, but occasionally the balance gets out of whack. The Black Plague killed one European in four during the 14th century; influenza took at least 20 million lives between 1918 and 1919; the AIDS epidemic has produced a similar death toll and is still going strong. From 1980 to 1992, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mortality from infectious disease in the United States rose 58 percent. Old diseases such as cholera and measles have developed new resistance to antibiotics. Intensive agriculture and land development is bringing humans closer to animal pathogens. International travel means diseases can spread faster than ever. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert who recently left the Minnesota Department of Health, described the situation as "like trying to swim against the current of a raging river." The grimmest possibility would be the emergence of a strain that spreads so fast we are caught off guard or that resists all chemical means of control, perhaps as a result of our stirring of the ecological pot. About 12,000 years ago, a sudden wave of mammal extinctions swept through the Americas. Ross MacPhee of the American Museum of Natural History argues the culprit was extremely virulent disease, which humans helped transport as they migrated into the New World. When faced with a situation crisis and a increased speed of disease of that caliber, we are faced with some serious problems and eventually extinction.

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