In the latest UTNE Reader (March-April 2002) was little factoid (p. 20) that absolutely blew my mind:

Everyday Anthrax
The anthrax scare that dominated the news last fall would have been barely worth mentioning in Haiti, where as many as 500 people contract the disease each year. As the investigative newsletter CounterPunch (Nov. 1-15, 2001) reports, anthrax has been prevalent in Haiti since the mid-1970s, a result of government apathy and drug company greed. Sick animals are slaughtered and fed to desparately hungry families, who ingest the bacteria and fall fatally ill, because neither the government, nor the drug companies have provided access to cheap vaccinations.

Two things came to mind:

First, I have a new image of anthrax. Originally, I thought it was something as rare as smallpox....

Smallpox presently has only two known forwarding addresses: the first is two padlocked freezers in the Atlanta headquarters of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the other is a Russian virology institute known as Vector, or the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology, in Novosibirsk, Siberia. Once the pride of the Soviet scientific enterprise, Vector is now a decaying facility desparately trying to convert its work from developing biological weapons to more peaceful pursuits. Depending on your politics or state of mind, you could lose sleep thinking about either of these facilities....
(from "Germ Culture" by Howard Markel, Harper's Magazine March 2002)

Second, I think the Canadian government should send a fraction our stockpiled Cipro to the Haitain people who evidently could use it right now.

What? You thought I was going to write about Canadian Hockey gold? { blissful sigh }

posted at 11:35 AM