Fulfilled Prophecy : The Beginning Of Sorrows : Part 9

FULFILLED PROPHECY : THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS - 9

Copyright 1994 - 2008 Endtime Prophecy Net

Last Updated : July 23, 2006

AIDS, Drug-Resistant Super-Strains, Same Wars With Old Germs

So exactly what are these precursors of which I speak? For
one thing, they are the many diseases which have afflicted
our modern society. Undoubtedly, the one which has affected
our lives the most, is the AIDS virus, or Acquired Immuno-
Deficiency Syndrome. If you have already become alarmed by
the fact that between between 36,265,000 and 175,456,000
people have lost their lives due to war during this past
century, and that some two and a quarter million people or
more have died from earthquakes during this same period,
consider the fact that in less than two decades, the AIDS
virus has claimed over 11,000,000 lives in Africa alone, and
over 300,000 more victims in the United States of America!
Since the late 1980's, this angel of death has silently
swept the entire world, leaving dozens of millions more
infected with its life-robbing cells.

Despite man's modern science and technology, not only has he
not been able to find a cure for this dreaded disease, but
he hasn't even been able to slow it down in its deadly path.
Because of this fact, and because the treatment prescribed
to merely suppress the disease is so expensive, costing some
$15,000 US annually, the vast majority of those people who
are currently infected with HIV, or who may become infected
in the near future, will never be treated, and will thus
die. Consider the following reports which appeared in the
world press during the months of August through November
1999 which confirm these facts. They are shocking!:

----- Begin Quotes -----

AIDS Spreading Rapidly In Africa Despite Measures

LUSAKA, Zambia (Reuters) -- The AIDS epidemic is expanding
rapidly in sub-Saharan Africa despite all initiatives to
halt it, researchers Monday told a conference in Lusaka on
the spread of the disease. They said a lack of awareness
about the virus did not appear to be behind the failure of
health campaigns, because many people knew the basic facts
about AIDS: that it is spread mainly by sexual intercourse
and it could be fatal. At least 11 million people have died
of AIDS in Africa, and 22 million more have been infected
with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. By 2005, AIDS costs
will represent more than half of Kenya's and two-thirds of
Zimbabwe's government health spending, according to the U.N.
AIDS agency.

. . .

UNICEF Reveals 'World's Worst Undeclared War'

...Carol Bellamy, head of the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF,
described AIDS and the HIV infection as the world's worst
undeclared war which had turned sub-Saharan Africa into a
'virtual killing field'. She said the threat had reached
'monstrous proportions' and warned that time was running
out. Miss Bellamy said that while an estimated 200,000
people had been killed in conflicts in Africa last year,
more than two million had died during the same time from
Aids. And whereas the United States currently spends more
than $800m a year fighting HIV infection, the annual figure
in Africa - where at least two thirds of the world's HIV
infected people live - the figure is only $160m...'By any
measure the HIV Aids pandemic is the most terrible
undeclared war in the world, with the whole of sub-Saharan
Africa virtually a killing field. The hour is late; time is
running out,' Miss Bellamy said. 'The monstrous proportions
of the HIV/Aids pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa show that far
from [being] simply another new problem among other
development problems, the disease is rapidly becoming a
significant and growing threat to peace and stability
throughout the entire world.'. . .

. . .

HIV On Rise In Vietnam, 600 New Cases A Month

CNN -- Vietnam has recorded 16,175 people with the Human
Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and around 600 new cases are
being reported each month, the official Vietnam News Agency
(VNA) said Thursday.

. . .

USA Today -- AIDS experts called Sunday for Asia to act
urgently to control the epidemic's rapid spread on the
continent, saying it threatens millions of lives and a
reversal of the region's economic growth. An estimated 7
million people are living with HIV or AIDS in the
Asia-Pacific. Experts urged the region to learn a lesson
from Africa, which has 21 million cases that account for
two-thirds of the world's infections. To control the spread
of AIDS, speakers Sunday suggested the need for sex
education - which is not allowed in many Asian schools.

. . .

Associated Press -- About 1 million people in the Western
Pacific are now infected with HIV and the rate of infection
is rising rapidly in many countries in the region, the World
Health Organization said today. Last year, WHO officials
estimated there were about 700,000 HIV infections in the
region and 40,000 actual cases of AIDS. If left unchecked,
they said, the number of HIV infections in the region will
exceed 1.5 million in 2000. . .

. . .

HIV Conference Opens With Warning Against Complacency

ATLANTA -- More than 2,000 scientists, doctors, researchers
and advocates have gathered in Atlanta for the National HIV
Prevention Conference, organized by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and 17 other sponsoring
organizations.

In the nearly two decades since the first cases of AIDS were
reported, the deadly virus has claimed more than 300,000
lives. The good news is that the number of new HIV
infections has dropped from about 100,000 a year to 40,000.

But at the same time, the epidemic is taking a greater toll
on women and minorities, especially blacks who are becoming
infected with AIDS at record rates, federal health officials
said.

. . .

CDC: Decline In AIDS Deaths Slows Dramatically

The sharp decline in AIDS deaths that began two years ago
with the development of powerful new drugs has suddenly been
cut in half, raising questions about whether the medications
are already losing their punch, health officials said
Monday. AIDS killed 17,047 people in the United States last
year -- a decline of 20 percent from 1997. From 1996 to
1997, the drop in deaths was a much more dramatic 42
percent, which health officials attributed to the
effectiveness of new drugs...In 1995, 49,351 people died
from AIDS in the United States. By 1996, that dropped to
36,792, and the number was down to 21,222 in 1997...Most
people who know they have HIV are already being treated
Drug resistance among some AIDS patients causes the
treatment to fail, and other patients fail to keep up with
the complicated juggling of pills they have to take for the
drugs to be effective. 'Our worst fears have become a tragic
reality,' said Steven Fisher of the advocacy group AIDS
Action. 'AIDS drugs don't work for everyone and aren't a
cure for anyone.' New HIV infections in 1998 were estimated
at roughly 40,000 -- a number that's held steady for the
past decade. . .

. . .

Study: HIV Cannot Be Eradicated From Body

BALTIMORE (CNN) -- HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, cannot
be eradicated from a patient's body even when it is
undetectable in the blood, according to a study released
Saturday by the National Institutes of Health.

Researchers had hoped that after taking anti-HIV drugs for
more than a year, patients with HIV could stop treatment and
the virus would not return. The study results appear to
indicate that patients may need to continue drug therapy for
the long term.

"It's going to be very difficult to take somebody off
therapy and feel that the virus is not going to bounce
back," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, who headed the research team.
The study results were made public at a virology conference
in Baltimore on Saturday.

Fauci and colleagues followed 18 HIV-positive patients who
had been on the drugs for more than a year and in whom HIV
had been reduced to undetectable levels. The researchers
then took the patients off the drugs to see if the virus
came back: It did, in all 18 patients, within three weeks.

Scientists had calculated that the HIV virus was capable of
hiding in body reservoirs unreachable by drugs for as long
as 60 years.

They had hoped to be able to flush the HIV from the
reservoirs, either with the help of a drug called
Interleukin-2 or with the passage of time. The scientists
then thought the drugs would kill the virus as it emerged
from the reservoirs.

"It does tell us that, given the currently available
regimens that we have of antiviral drugs, we are not going
to eliminate or eradicate the virus from individuals," Fauci
said.

. . .

First Half Of 1999 In Russia Sees 5,000 New HIV Cases
Reported

Some 5,000 new cases of HIV infection were reported in
Russia in the first six months of 1999, raising fears that
20,000 people could be afflicted by the end of the year,
Interfax reported Sunday. The latest figures signal an
upsurge from 1998 when a total of 3,500 cases of infection
from HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, were reported for the
entire year, the news agency said quoting the Federal AIDS
Center. The center warned that the number of infections
could reach one million by 2002...The report did not give a
figure for the total number of HIV cases in Russia. . .

. . .

70% Or More Rise In Russian HIV Cases

The number of HIV-positive cases registered in Russia jumped
by 70 percent in the first eight months of 1999 as the
disease spread rapidly among drug addicts, the Interfax news
agency reported Saturday...'Residents of Moscow and the
Moscow region account for the unprecedented growth in HIV
infection,' he said. 'HIV hit the circle of the capital's
drug users and the infection skyrocketed.' Although he said
cases were up 70 percent, Shevchenko did not give any
figures for how many people in Russia have HIV, the virus
that causes AIDS...Russian officials warn that the actual
number of HIV cases may be up to 10 times higher than
reported. The country has been slow to implement
comprehensive diagnostic and treatment programs and is
focusing on more immediate economic problems.

----- End Of Quotes -----

While the AIDS epidemic may top world headlines insofar as
disease control and prevention are concerned, it is by no
means the only plague which the Lord is currently using in
order to chastise the world for its sins. As the following
reports clearly reveal, there is a wide variety of other
dangerous and sometimes-fatal diseases which are currently
on the rise. These reports include cholera, tuberculosis,
bubonic plague, viral meningitis, anthrax, staphylococcus
aureus. hepatitis C., E. coli bacteria, and several unknown
pathogens as well. The reports I will be sharing with you
below, appeared in major news services around the world such
as UPI, The London Times, the BBC, the Associated Press, the
Washington Post, CNN, the Nando Times, etc.

Similar to the false impression we may receive by reading
only one earthquake report in the newspaper, to hear of one
outbreak of disease likewise does not seem very significant;
however, when we consider a wide range of reports, then the
picture begins to become rather alarming. Take, for example,
the following reports which deal with various drug-resistant
diseases, once thought to have been conquered, which are now
plaguing both the eastern and western hemispheres. These
reports were published during the months of August and
September of 1999:

----- Begin Quotes -----

Russian Drug-Resistant TB Alarms The Western Nations

A disease that once cut a swath through Europe's brightest
and best is again laying waste to Russia. Tuberculosis,
virtually eliminated a generation ago, has now infected at
least half a million people, and threatens to spread from
villages, prisons and ramshackle hospitals to the rest of
the country. What is terrifying Western health officials is
that a new form of the disease, resistant to modern drugs,
is increasingly taking hold in Russia. Inadequate and
primitive attempts to deal with the near-epidemic have
merely boosted the prevalence of multi-drug-resistant (MDR)
tuberculosis, especially in the fetid and overcrowded
prisons. Within a decade, medical experts say, Russia could
have two million almost incurable TB patients. The disease,
principally incubated among the huge prison population of
more than a million, is rapidly being spread by the release
of 300,000 prisoners a year. Of these, about 10,000 are
carrying MDR TB and each person passes on the disease to at
least 20 others, health officials estimate. Sooner or later,
Western health officials believe, TB will cross Russia's
borders, putting all of Western Europe at risk. . .

. . .

Drug-Resistant Staph Infections Hit The General Public

Federal health officials are warning doctors about a
drug-resistant bacteria that has killed four people and
sickened scores of others in the Midwest and until recently
had been confined to hospitals and nursing homes. The deaths
of four previously healthy children in Minnesota and North
Dakota from the bacteria, staphylococcus aureus, have
prompted an investigation by the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. There is no cause for panic, said
Dr. Timothy Naimi, a CDC epidemiologist with the Minnesota
Department of Health. 'This is not in any way a widespread
epidemic,' Naimi said Friday. 'The risk to any individual of
getting an infection from staph aureus is very low.' But
doctors need to be aware of the bacteria when making
decisions on how to test for infections and how to treat
them. A colleague of Naimi's, Michael Osterholm, calling the
infections 'a real wake-up call to clinicians.' One-quarter
of all humans carry staph bacteria, but drug-resistant
infections were largely thought to be contracted only in
hospitals and nursing homes. The deaths of the children,
from diverse ethnic backgrounds and environments, indicate
healthy people could be susceptible to the strain. . .

. . .

Super Bacteria Appear In Britain

British public health officials report a potentially lethal
bacterium currently resistant to every known antibiotic has
shown up for the first time in a British hospital. The
British newspaper The Guardian today published an article
saying the discovery has provoked fears that medicine faces
a return to the dark, pre-penicillin days when all surgery
risked infection and death. According to the news report,
there were two cases at Glasgow Royal Infirmary which this
summer prompted alarm in the medical community about a
so-called superbug resistant to every antibiotic. The
newspaper says a hunt was quickly begun for all persons who
came into contact with one of the infected patients after he
left the hospital carrying the dangerous bacterium...An
outbreak in New York took four years and $10m to bring under
control. . .

----- End Of Quotes -----

In addition to these new super-strains of virii and bacteria
which resist annihilation by all current technologies known
to man, the war of antibiotics also continues to be waged
against other destructive pathogens which have long plagued
our human society; as is clearly revealed by the following
series of reports:

Cholera Kills 29 Iraqis In Recent Weeks, Paper Says

Twenty-nine Iraqis have died from cholera that has been
spreading through Iraq in recent weeks, a newspaper run by
President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday said on Tuesday.
Nabdh al-Shabab weekly quoted Health Ministry
Director-General Abdul-Jabbar Abdul-Abbas as saying 705
cases of cholera had been registered in Iraq recently.

. . .

Severe Outbreak Of Meningitis In Romania

More than 3,000 cases of viral meningitis have been
identified in the European nation of Romania since early
July, the health ministry said Monday. According to a
ministry report, several hundred cases of the potentially
fatal disease broke out over a four-day period, but doctors
have not seen serious cases and were able to treat those
infected. The ministry said 17 regions had been affected,
notably in the north around Iasi where 687 cases were
reported, and around nearby Botosani, where 346 people have
been stricken. Doctors said poor sanitation in parts of this
impoverished country - where running water is sometimes cut
off due to unpaid bills - is responsible for the epidemic,
adding that it has not been stopped. On Aug. 19, health
authorities had recorded more than 2,400 cases of the
disease. The ministry advised people to respect normal
standards of hygiene and to protect themselves against
mosquitoes, which spread the disease. . .

. . .

One Third Of Global Population Now Infected With TB

Nearly a third of the world's population is infected with
the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, according to a new
report, with 7.96 million new cases of the disease reported
in 1997. The study, by the World Health Organization (WHO),
blamed poor control strategies for the situation, adding
that more than half of the new cases reported in 1997
occurred in five Southeast Asian countries. Control failures
also were cited for high rates in sub-Saharan Africa and
Eastern Europe, along with high rates of HIV infection in
some African countries, where the disease has hit people
whose immune systems have been weakened. The study,
published in today's Journal of the American Medical
Association, estimated that in the 212 countries monitored
by WHO, 1.86 billion people, or 32 percent of the global
population, carry the bacterium that causes the disease. . .

. . .

Health Crisis In Russia Deteriorates

Almost six million Russian men are missing from the nation's
expected statistical profile - killed by drink, accidents,
suicide, poor healthcare and high male infant mortality.
This alarming figure has been released in a United Nations
report that gives grim support to the growing concern over
Russia's falling birthrate, low life expectancy and
unusually high male mortality rate. It comes amid reports of
the reappearance on Russia's borders of diseases such as
anthrax and bubonic plague, once considered conquered but
now causing deaths in Siberia and southern Russia Russia's
population has fallen by two million in the past decade
already, from 148 million to 146 million. A particular worry
is the high death rate of men, maintaining Russia's
unenviable position of having one of the biggest gender
imbalances in the world - a position it held 50 years ago
after the very high casualties of the Second World War. The
UN report estimates that there are 5.9 million fewer men in
Russia than there would be in a country where the sex ratio
was the normal 96 men per 100 women. In Ukraine, it says,
there are a further 2.6 million men missing. Similar gaps
are found in Belarus and Moldova. The total number of men
missing from throughout the former Soviet Union is nine
million. . .

. . .

Many Americans Carry Hepatitis C Virus

At least 2.7 million Americans carry the hepatitis C virus,
making it the most common blood-borne infection in the
United States, a study found. The study from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is the first look
at the prevalence of hepatitis C in the United States. The
estimate was published in today's New England Journal of
Medicine. 'This is what we consider a conservative
estimate,' said Harold S. Margolis of CDC. 'This is everyday
Mr. and Mrs. American who live in a household. This doesn't
include the homeless and the prison population. The number
could be higher.'...Scientists discovered the virus in 1989.
People who inject illegal drugs or engage in unprotected sex
account for most people who carry hepatitis C, but people
who had blood transfusions before mid-1992 also are at risk.
The disease and alcohol abuse rank as the leading causes of
liver disease. The infection can lead to cirrhosis and liver
cancer and results in about 1,000 liver transplants annually
in the United States. . .

. . .

Japan Food Poisoning Epidemic Shows No Sign Of Slowing

SAKAI, Japan (CNN) -- Japan's worst food poisoning case in
50 years is showing no signs of easing. Since Friday, more
than 5,000 schoolchildren in the Japanese city of Sakai,
near Osaka, have been sickened. More than 400 remained
hospitalized Tuesday, and 17 were in serious condition.

Health officials believe that school lunches contaminated
with the potentially fatal O-157 E. coli bacteria caused the
outbreak. Each school prepares its own lunches, but all get
their food from the same suppliers. Officials suspect a
lunch distributed on July 5 was responsible. Sea eel sushi
and a clear soup were on the menu that day.

The bacteria, which is highly infectious, can take four to
five days to manifest its symptoms, which include diarrhea,
nausea and a high fever. Hospitals in and around Sakai have
been flooded with food poisoning victims since last week.

Earlier this year, E. coli outbreaks in other parts of
Japan, including Tokyo and Hiroshima, killed three children
and an elderly woman.

Food poisoning associated with the O-157 strain is fairly
common in the United States, where about 20,000 cases are
reported annually, experts say.

. . .

More Than 140 Down With E. Coli Poisoning In Illinois

More than 140 people were sickened with a potentially deadly
strain of E. coli after partying in a cow pasture last
weekend, and state health officials were scrambling to reach
more than 1,800 others who were there. It is the second
major E. coli outbreak in two weeks. In New York state, two
people have died and more than 600 others who attended a
county fair have E. coli symptoms. New York health officials
estimate as many as 1,000 people may have been infected,
which would make it the worst E. coli outbreak in U.S.
history. The worst outbreak was in 1993 when 700 patrons of
Jack in the Box restaurants in Washington state were
sickened by E. coil bacteria linked to undercooked hamburger
and four died. . .

. . .

Major E. Coli Outbreak In New York Leaves 290 Sick

The largest E. coli outbreak in state history - and possibly
one of the worst nationally - has sickened nearly 300 people
who believe they were infected after attending a county
fair. The outbreak at the Washington County Fair about 35
miles north of Albany has led to one fatality, 3-year old
Rachel Aldrich of Clifton Park...Health officials were still
investigating the outbreak's cause, but suspected the fair's
water supply may have been contaminated when rainwater
runoff washed cow feces from a nearby farm into an
underground aquifer.

. . .

Anthrax Outbreak Worries Republic Of Georgia

Forty-two people in Georgia's capital Tbilisi have been
hospitalized after being infected with the anthrax bacteria
over the last month, the Health Ministry in the former
Soviet republic said Wednesday. The government doesn't have
enough vaccine to fully protect the population, and the
potentially deadly disease could spread further, Health
Ministry spokesman Dzhoni Dzhanashiya said. Many people have
stopped buying beef in Tbilisi markets because the disease
was detected among cattle in several Georgian regions,
Dzhanashiya said.

. . .

Texas Experiences First Dengue Outbreak In Almost 20 Years

The biggest outbreak of "dengue fever" to hit south Texas in
almost 20 years has sickened more than a dozen people in the
border town of Laredo. Epidemiologists there have confirmed
14 cases of the viral illness, which is spread by mosquitoes
and nicknamed "breakbone fever." Over 100 cases have been
identified just across the Mexican border and many more are
suspected.

Dengue Fever Outbreak In Mexico Spreads North

AP -- "Scores of new cases of dengue fever in northern
Mexico indicate the disease is spreading, but health
officials in the United States say there's little danger of
the outbreak moving north into Texas. At least 5,500 people
have been diagnosed with the painful, mosquito-borne disease
this month alone in Mexico's Nuevo Leon state. Of those,
about 150 had the sometimes-fatal form known as hemorrhagic
dengue. Another 500 cases have been reported in the
neighboring state of Tamaulipas, which runs along the border
from Nuevo Laredo to the Gulf of Mexico. Five people have
died in Nuevo Leon and two in Tamaulipas. On Friday, the
government news agency Notimex quoted health officials in
northern Coahuila state as saying they had confirmed 77
cases there, including one case of hemorrhagic dengue.
Coahuila's assistant director of health services, Marco
Antonio Ruiz, was quoted as saying that another 461 cases
are being analyzed. Dengue is characterized by headaches,
rashes, cramps and severe muscle and bone pains. It usually
last about two weeks after infection, and treatment is
mostly to relieve symptoms. The hemorrhagic variety is
accompanied by internal bleeding and can be fatal. Texas has
recorded 22 dengue cases since July 1..."

----- End Of Quotes -----

As we continue our series in part ten, we will look at some
newly-discovered pathogens, the threat of bio-terrorism,
that which a man sows, a worldwide low sperm count and a
possible solution, and my time in Mexico City and air and
water pollution. We will conclude part ten by turning our
attention to yet another form of pollution; a hideous,
internal form of pollution which kills about four million
people worldwide every single year. This will include an
expose on the power and deceitful tactics of the tobacco
industry. I trust that you will join me.

Go To Part Ten . . .