New human diseases rapidly emerging according to a report in BBC News 20 February 2006. Scientists speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference claim that new infectious diseases are emerging at faster rates than ever before. Every year scientists discover one or two new infectious diseases in humans. Many of these such as HIV (AIDS) and avian influenza (bird flu) are coming from animals. Professor Mark Woolhouse, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK has catalogued over 1,400 disease causing agents. He commented to the BBC: “This accumulation of new pathogens has been going on for millennia – this is how we acquired TB, malaria, smallpox, but at the moment, this accumulation does seem to be happening very fast. So it seems there is something special about modern times – these are good times for pathogens to be invading the human population.” Some of the reasons given for the increase in new diseases are changes in land use and agricultural practices, global travel and trade and hospitalisation. Prof Woolhouse also commented: “Pathogens are evolving ways to combat our control methods.”
Editorial Comment: Many sceptics have claimed creation cannot be used as a basis for science because it cannot be used to make predictions. Over the last few years we have made the following predictions about human diseases and we are pleased to see AAAS scientists confirming we were right. In 2002 we wrote: “The fact that new bacterial diseases are being discovered is good evidence that the world in general, and humans in particular, are degenerating – is exactly what you would expect if you take Biblical history seriously.” (See “Beware of Bartonella”, 21 Mar 2002).
Last year following a report that a US trade expert claimed 30 new diseases had emerged in the last decade we wrote: “These new diseases are no surprise to someone who accepts the Biblical framework, rather than the evolutionary one. The Biblical picture of Creation indicates that the world began good without any diseases, but following man’s rebellion against the Creator, the earth began a long progression downhill from good to bad to worse to the present day. This degeneration commenced with God judging man’s sin by cursing the ground with thorns and thistles and imposing the biological phenomenon of death. The world further degenerated following God’s judgment at the flood which destroyed the original balanced environment and soil, and the ideal atmospheric conditions. The flood was followed by an increasingly erratic climate with the coming of winter and summer, ice and snow etc. Human diseases have been on the increase as a result of this degenerate trend, which includes the degeneration of the human genome. Creation Research predict on the basis of this history, that we will see even more new diseases in the next 50 years, in man, animals and plants, as evidence of this trend.”
As for the present report, please note: the fact that some organisms can combat our control methods is not evolution either. Our control methods are eliminating (selecting out) germs already resistant to our control methods. (Ref. predictions, diseases, devolution)