In Brief... A New Rival for HIV
It wasn't spotted until 1989, but hepatitis C is already killing 10,000 people annually, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) predicts that by 2010, it will claim more victims than AIDS.
Between 1993 and 1998, AIDS deaths had dropped to just below 18,000 a year from a high of more than 45,000. Rising indifference to morality in society has caused the CDC to warn of another upswing in HIV infections.
During the same period, hepatitis C infections skyrocketed by a dizzying 260 percent-a rate of increase that by 2010 will cause it to leapfrog past AIDS as a killer in the United States. Infections are caused through dirty needles, blood transfusions or tattoos.
Four million people in the United States and 200 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis C; 200,000 people get treatment in the United States, and that could double in four years.
David Bernstein, chief of hepatology at North Shore University Hospital in Mannhasset, New York, on Long Island, has hosted a rising flow of patients in recent years, among them Wall Street professionals who have just failed a physical and learned some staggering news: They are infected with hepatitis C.
This master of stealth can remain dormant in the liver for up to 20 years before symptoms such as jaundice, fatigue and abdominal pain appear. By the time hepatitis C has been diagnosed, it is already in its chronic stage, when serious liver scarring and the threat of cancer and death exist.
Like other plagues, hepatitis C has stymied scientists. No vaccine is available, and scientists have been unable to grow it in the lab. In the race pitting science against microbes, however, the spread of hepatitis C looks likely to outrun a cure. "The disease isn't becoming an epidemic," says Dr. Bernstein. "It is an epidemic."
Sources: Newsmax.com, Forbes.
An Article from:
World News and Prophecy: September - October 2001
Course Content
Jim Tuck
Jim has been in the ministry over 40 years serving fifteen congregations. He and his wife, Joan, started their service to God's church in Pennsylvania in 1974. Both are graduates of Ambassador University. Over the years they served other churches in Alabama, Idaho, Oregon, Arizona, California, and currently serve the Phoenix congregations in Arizona, as well as the Hawaii Islands. He has had the opportunity to speak in a number of congregations in international areas of the world. They have traveled to Zambia and Malawi to conduct leadership seminars In addition, they enjoy working with the youth of the church and have served in youth camps for many years.
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
Melvin Rhodes
Melvin Rhodes is a member of the United Church of God congregation in Lansing, Michigan.
