[CLIP]
> "Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended
> Consequences" by Edward Tenner was published this year by Knopf (New York,
> 1996). I think it's a good addition to the others I've recommended about
> technology and the human condition. Tenner discusses medicine, natural
> disasters, pests (animal and plant), the computerized office (RSIs anyone?)
> and sports. His specific focus is the way in which advances which seemed
> to promise solutions may result in even worse situations, as in DDT and
> filtered cigarettes which encourage people to continue smoking because now
> it's "safer"
[CLIP]
> There are already tuberculosis strains immune to Vancomycin (the
> "antibiotic of last resort" used when all else fails). If the medical
> industry doesn't get it's ass in gear (Good Luck!) then look for the return
> of "Terminal Wards" where people with incurable and debilitating infections
> get stored until they die.
I had in mind an iatrogenic disease--a particularly nasty variant of
[memory garbled-whatever root one uses for 'stomach'] enteritis, that had an
80% mortality rate before penicillin. Well, there's a substrain that's
outright resistant to all 200+ antibiotics as of 9/1/96. I haven't heard
of it spreading yet.
[CLIP]
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/ Kenneth Boyd
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