Killers on the Loose

MARGARET desperately searched for a cure when her son Tito contracted malaria. Three drugs, including highly acclaimed chloroquine, were administered. Nevertheless, Tito died​—at a mere nine months of age.

In Kenya, Margaret’s home, such tragedy is all too common. “Newsweek” reports: “‘Anopheles gambiae,’ the queen of malaria-bearing mosquitoes, thrives in this part of the world. Children don’t. Five percent of them die of malaria before reaching school age.”

In 1991 tuberculosis killed 12 prisoners and a guard in New York State, U.S.A. “We’re going to control it in the prisons,” says Dr. George DiFerdinando, Jr., “but the real question is how are you going to control it now that it is established in the community?”

The World Health Organization reports that 1.7 billion​—nearly a third of the world’s population—​carry the tuberculosis bacterium. Each year, eight million of these develop the active disease, and three million die.

In a New York hospital, a baby girl was born 11 weeks premature, but this was only part of her problem. The peeling skin of her hands, the sores on her feet, the enlarged liver and spleen, all gave clear evidence that she had contracted syphilis while in her mother’s womb.

“Some babies are so severely damaged by the disease while in their mothers’ wombs that they are stillborn,” reports “The New York Times.” “A few others die soon after birth, some with severe skin lesions that break during the delivery.”

Malaria, tuberculosis, and syphilis​—all three were thought to be under control and close to eradication a few decades ago. Why are they now making a devastating comeback?