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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Three Gorges Dam Boosts Parasitic Infections |
| 2005-08-03 |
| (Pay article. Additional info from the print edition.) ...potentially deadly schistosomiasis, also known as "snail fever", which infects snails and people, has long been a priority for China. In 1949, some 12 million people were infected... Current infections are on the upswing, from 700k in 2000 to 850k today. ...an even deadlier parasitic disease, hydatidosis, caused by a parasitic worm, is spreading across the Tibetan Plateau and western Sichuan Province...at least 600k Chinese are currently infected, and an additional 60 million people are at risk. Humans usually contract the disease by contact with the eggs of the parasite expelled in canine feces. If not treated, it results in likely death... Culling infected dog populations is not feasible in Tibet, where the large Buddhist population strongly resists the practice... |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #8 Seems like everything out there works on ______ and humans. As Famous Scientist Dave Barry once remarked, to germs we are just big, rubbery motels. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2005-08-03 16:15 |
| #7 This should have been foreseen -- Egypt has a similar problem with a parasitic snail that lives in the Nile. The spring flood used to wash most of the snail population out to sea each year, but once the Aswan dam was built... |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-08-03 15:58 |
| #6 Not only are Hydro-electric dams centralized targets the power grid of any industrial nation is a target rich environment. One doesn't have to take out the dam itself simply the distribution network. In the long run the Three Gorges Dam may be an environmental disaster but not in the way people think. Failure of the dam would of course result in one of the worst floods caused by man in history. But I was thinking more along the lines of reduced soil fertiltiy down stream due to flood control. As to any increase in parasitic infections there is always the law of unintended consequences. |
| Posted by: Cheaderhead 2005-08-03 15:06 |
| #5 just a little natural selection going on |
| Posted by: bk 2005-08-03 15:02 |
| #4 For some reason, BH, we seem to care primarily about diseases that effect people. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-08-03 13:50 |
| #3 BH - Don't forget Swine Flu! |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2005-08-03 13:49 |
| #2 Snail fever - affects snails and humans. Bird Flu - affects birds and humans. HIV - affects monkeys and humans. WTF, are we plague whores, or what? Seems like everything out there works on ______ and humans. |
| Posted by: BH 2005-08-03 13:42 |
| #1 Scientific American also believes in global warming. Part of the hysteria over the dam has to do with environuts going on and on about how this is going to have major negative environmental impact. I don't think much about their views. As a military target, it's wonderful - a single hydro dam that will supply power to huge numbers of people. What will tens of millions of Chinese do when the lights are turned out during a Taiwan conflict? (The Canucks have a big hydro installation to our north, and it supplies a great deal of power to the New England area. Hydro installations are wonderful for the cheap power they provide, but as power installations go, they are extremely vulnerable because so much capacity is centralized in a single dam). |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-08-03 13:36 |