by Pat Lunsford

Created on: October 16, 2009

Another potential pandemic pestilence called the pneumonic plague has hit China where it has taken at least two lives. The World Health Organization said the town where the plague broke out was somewhat remote and that the local authorities seem to be handling it very well.

Nevertheless, this is disturbing news. There are some who believe that during the cold war, scientists may have engineered a facsimile of what was known in the middle ages as bubonic plague or the Black Death; which is a highly contagious and lethal disease. However, as deadly as the bubonic plague is, the pneumonic plague is far more lethal.

The bubonic plague, which killed nearly thirty million people in Europe, was spread by fleas which fed off diseased rodents. The infection causes severe hemorrhaging, leaving black blotches beneath the skin; which is how it came to be known as the Black Death.

Pneumonic plague, on the other hand, is airborne with flu-like symptoms, which makes it much more contagious. Today's antibiotics are very limited in fighting such a genetically altered superbug; which is why scientists are working to break the genetic codes in hopes of strengthening the human immune system.

Nearly three thousand people each year are infected with bubonic plague but with the help of modern antibiotics, it has been successfully treated. Be that as it may, antibiotics have very little, if any affect on these new antibiotic-resistant strains; and according to the World Health Organization, a person infected with pneumonic plague can die within twenty-four hours of infection.

Pestilence was one of the signs Jesus Christ mentioned in his warnings about what to expect prior to his return.

"You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains." (Matt. 24:6)

Diseases for which there is no cure have been surfacing for a number of years now. First it was the HIV virus then the West Nile virus followed by SARS, which quickly gave way to the bird flu or avian flu then H1N1 or swine flu.

Pneumonic plague is not a new disease but the facts surrounding the virus have authorities considering it a bioterrorist threat.

What can we do to protect ourselves from something like this? The best thing anyone can do is find out what Jesus said about the things

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>