JANUARY 1-15, 1995 | DISEASE RESURGENCE - THE MICROBES STRIKE BACK

Diseases that were cheerfully believed to have been eradicated are inexplicably cropping up again in India

- MAX MARTIN AND AMBIKA SHARMA

SUDDENLY, DISEASES that were ostensibly banished are now on the warpath. At the recent outbreak (August 26-October 18, 1994 in central and western India; mainly in Surat, Gujarat) of what was supposed to be the plague, which showed up in India after 30 years of oblivion, former director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (icmr), V Ramalingaswami, made an ominous observation, “Infectious diseases are waiting in the wings to exhibit their re-emergence or enhanced virulence.”