Each year millions of people, especially during the winter months, become infected with easily preventable intestinal viruses, colds, flu, bronchitis and many other disorders.
According to health experts at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, "Keeping hands clean is one of the most important steps we can take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others."
Another effective method to prevent the spread of communicable disease is quarantine and isolation. Here is some of what the Centers for disease Control and Prevention web site has to say about quarantine and isolation: "Quarantine refers to the separation and restriction of movement of persons who, while not yet ill, have been exposed to an infectious agent and therefore may become infectious. Quarantine of exposed persons is a public health strategy, like isolation, that is intended to stop the spread of infectious disease. Quarantine is medically very effective in protecting the public from disease…isolation would last for the period of communicability of the illness."
Interestingly, almost 3500 years ago God Almighty inspired in His Holy Bible the following admonition: "The priest shall examine the sore on the skin of the body; and if the hair on the sore has turned white, and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a leprous sore. Then the priest shall examine him, and pronounce him unclean. But if the bright spot is white on the skin of his body, and does not appear to be deeper than the skin, and its hair has not turned white, then the priest shall isolate the one who has the sore seven days. And the priest shall examine him on the seventh day; and indeed if the sore appears to be as it was, and the sore has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall isolate him another seven days. Then the priest shall examine him again on the seventh day; and indeed if the sore has faded, and the sore has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is only a scab, and he shall wash his clothes and be clean. But if the scab should at all spread over the skin, after he has been seen by the priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen by the priest again. And if the priest sees that the scab has indeed spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is leprosy (Lev 13:3-8)."
How much suffering and death could be averted if we in the modern world followed this Biblical principal?
What about the looming bird flu pandemic? The U.S. Government's web site, AvianFlu.gov suggests: closing schools … canceling public gatherings … planning for liberal work leave policies … teleworking strategies … voluntary isolation of cases … voluntary quarantine of household contacts.
Don't expect God's common sense solutions for preventing the spread of diseases to be implemented by most people or governments in this God-jeering world.
Principles of health for the good of society are in the Bible. Some of them have been rediscovered by science in our day, but remain largely ignored. If a person has a cold or intestinal virus their employer – in many cases – expects them to come to work, even if they infect hundreds of customers. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" somehow just doesn't seem to fit very well into the pay envelope at the end of the week.
For an in-depth look at how to avoid disease, read or download our article, Defeating Disease: How the Bible Can Help by Douglas S. Winnail. Also be sure to read our eye-opening booklet, Does God Heal Today? by Roderick C. Meredith.