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Animals carry all kinds of bacteria and viruses, even friendly and domesticated ones like dogs and cows. This is why we pasteurize animal products like milk and cheese and encourage people to avoid raw foods. Just because Uncle Jim Bob runs an organic farm doesn’t mean his free-range goats are germ-free.
One of the rarer infections you can get from raw foods is called brucellosis, caused by several species of the bacterial genus. Brucella. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, there are only between 100 and 200 cases in the US each year, but the symptoms, which are similar to the flu, can be really unpleasant.
In China, brucellosis is more common and outbreaks still occur. However, the most recent brucellosis outbreak, which has infected at least 3,245 people, is surely the first: the source of the infection was not contaminated food but a pharmaceutical factory. How the hell could that happen?
Well, there is more than one way to get brucellosis. Eating raw or unpasteurized food is one way. Another is to touch animal products contaminated with the bacteria, which can enter the body through breaks in the skin. Yet another route is inhalation. While this is primarily a threat to those who come into close contact with animals or animal products, such as slaughterhouse workers, inhalation infection can occur if the bacteria are aerosolized. And that is exactly what happened in China.
CNN has reported that a pharmaceutical company that made brucellosis vaccines for animals was using expired disinfectants. The waste gases emitted by the factory contained Brucella, which then made its way to Lanzhou City, infecting thousands of people.
Who wants a Chinese COVID vaccine?
This news does not come at a particularly good time for China, which has been blamed for causing and later covering up the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. As in several other countries, Chinese companies are working to produce a vaccine against the coronavirus. One company, called CanSinoBIO, is testing its vaccine on soldiers. Good luck to them!
I don’t want to be jingoistic, but there’s a reason things like this don’t happen in the United States, Europe, Japan, or other advanced nations: a culture of safety and regulation when it comes to industries that have the power to heal or kill. Your clients. China just doesn’t have that. However, the US (and many other countries) use Chinese ingredients in the drugs we make. How i wrote for USA Today, this is a substantial threat to national security and public health.
Incidents like the massive infection described above should further strengthen our determination to aggressively deal with China, forcing them to adopt standards that are acceptable to Americans and citizens of other advanced nations. Until then, China poses an unnecessary risk to global health. As an example, who among you will sign up for a Chinese COVID vaccine?
