well, it was true: But the dirty little secret is that these labs are all over the place, monitoring diseases that are smouldering and could cause epidemics. Their job is to investigate local diseases, monitor them, and stop their spread... including making vaccines to stop the spread of disease in animals and men...
Monitoring of Brucellosis in Agricultural Animals in Ukraine During 2013-2015
Brucellosis is one of the most widespread zoonosis in the world. Only 17 countries informed WHO that their territory is free from brucellosis. About 500 thousand cases of brucellosis in humans are registered in the world each year. The problem of brucellosis has remained actual to agriculture and health care for many years. Almost all agricultural animals are highly susceptible to brucellosis. ... Brucellosis is a chronic infectious disease. The disease in animals has the following signs: abortions and retention of secundines, orchitis, unviable litter and sterility. Brucellosis is included to the list of quarantine diseases due to its social threat.
in other words, brucellosis is a threat to farm animals and can spread to humans.
In Ukraine, the war has caused disruption to the normal animal health surveillance and control, resulting in delayed recognition of and response to important animal diseases.
Large numbers of abandoned livestock and pet animals might contribute to transmission and spread of the disease. Porous borders, uncontrolled movement of animals, or undisposed carcasses of animals left after bombardments or diseases, encroachment and destruction of wildlife habitats, displacement of wild and domestic animals and increased interface between human, wildlife and domestic animals can lead to increase in the likelihood of spillover of pathogens especially those associated with transboundary animal diseases, zoonoses and wildlife related diseases
Russian military invasion of Ukraine has massively disrupted the livestock sector of the country including animal health services and animal production in commercial, smallholder and backyard sectors
much of the worry is about the spread of African Swine flu, something that has decimated the pig population here in Asia (see this 2017 article about that worry)... but other diseases that are affected and could spread include Rabies, leptospirosis, tularemia and some very nasty viruses.
an article easier to read can be found on Web MD: which notes that the refugees could spread ordinary colds, but also TB, Covid, tuberculosis, diarrhea, and measles to western Europe, not to mention HIV (which in Eastern Europe is spread via IV drug use).
Which brings us back to Brucellosis. Before the war it was under control in the Ukraine because cattle etc were monitored.
but now, of course, the war has disrupted that monitoring. So a lot of diseases could get lose from the war...not just to humans but to animals (including African swine flu, brucellosis, rabies, etc) and this makes the problem of hunger worse in places like the Middle East which relies on Russian and Ukraine wheat to feed their people.
Sigh.but the Russians are correct in one thing: that suboptimal laboratory facilities in the Ukraine were a danger, mainly from accidental lab leaks.
One is reminded of Sadam Hussein being charged with making WMD: because he had such labs. Uh, the dirty little secret it that it dosn't take much to release one of these germs that is being investigated: indeed, the dirty little secret is that most of the biowarfare germs are in the environment... but they can be weaponized to spread faster and be resistant to antibiotics: of course, but that would endanger the perpetrator just as much as the enemy.
However, the real problem is quality control: corruption and carelessness has resulted in lab leaks of disease, which is why President Obama banned "gain of function" research from US labs because of quality control issues (and as a result the money was sent to Chinese labs to do this). Voila, the reason for the COVID coverup.
But of course that was not the only leak from a Chinese lab:
nor was that the only time a lab leak caused disease:
This 2020 article from the Times of India reports that a lab leak from a Chinese lab making vaccines infected over 6000 people in NW China with Brucellosis.
the cause? They used out of date disinfectants. (i.e. corruption: selling out of date stuff that should have been discarded to make a profit)...The factory had used expired disinfectants in July to August and the germs entered the waste water to infect those nearby.
The article also notes that China has about 40 000 cases of Brucellosis a year, mainly in their NW where it is pastureland.
sigh
Summry: Labs can be a danger if people get careless, (Wikipedia even has a list of these) but the reason the labs are there is to stop the spread of disease, and indeed the public health authorities, which includes labs that monitor disease and make vaccines, have stopped many epidemics, but gotten little thanks for doing so.
The military is especially sensitive to disease spread, even since the friendly ladies of Naples decimated the troops of the French king by giving them syphillis in the 1490s.
(one reason that the infectious disease specialists in the military are worried about monkey pox, which is spread by similar friendly contact, although no one wants to admit it).
Well, anyway, the discussion of Brucellosis would not be complete without discussing one of it's most famous victims: Florence Nightingale.
In the latest Downton Abbey film, the Dowenger Countess (Maggie Smith) makes a remark that she could stay in bed, remarking that Florence Nightingale took to her bed for 30 years.
Yes, when I was in medical school, Freudian theory was in vogue and this was pointed out to us as a neurosis, never mind that from her bed she managed to modernize modern nursing by publishing and supervising nurses training.
But since then, articles noted that she was infected with "Crimea fever" aka Brucellosis and that this might have been the reason for her chronic ill health.
Florence Nightingale's Crimean fever and chronic illness have intrigued historians for more than a century and a half. The purpose of this article is threefold: (a) to discuss the facts that point to the cause of Nightingale's Crimean fever as brucellosis, (b) to show that her debilitating illness for 32 years (1855-1887) was compatible with the specific form of chronic brucellosis, and (c) to present new evidence that she was still having severe symptoms in December 1887, when it was previously felt that she had no severe symptoms after 1870.
Brucellosis continues to be a public health problem despite vaccines and antibiotics. LINK
One of the results of the Crimean war was that it was a milestone in public health and military medicine.
And the person who was given credit for this was Florence Nightingale (albeit the docs who were also involved are usually overlooked, as are the ladies and nuns who worked with her). most of the casulaties in that war were from ordinary diseases from unclean water (cholera, diarrhea) and lice borne disease...so the first thing that needed to be done was clean up the place....
but a less known fact about her is her collection of statistics that was a pioneer study in public health.
....
which again brings us to laboratories and public health authorities who are quietly fighting disease and given little credit.
Alas, because a few big shots helped China coverup Covid, and because Big PHarm covered up the rare side effects of the vaccine, the conspiracy types are going all out to destroy these institutions.
Sigh.
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