For weeks scientists, researchers and health officials have found themselves in a desperate scramble to determine the origin of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic that has now infected almost 5,000 people and killed more than 300. They've been baffled by the sudden emergence of the disease and panicked by its rapid spread to some 30 countries.

The latest theory about the origin of the epidemic should be of great interest to those who take the Bible seriously, particularly its instructions regarding health and diet.

The combined worldwide death toll of the last two great influenza epidemics—the 1957 Asian flu and the 1968 Hong Kong flu—together exceeded 1.5 million people. Both epidemics have been traced to China's Guangdong province, which includes Hong Kong. SARS may yet prove to be the third devastating epidemic to arise from that region.

What is it about this area of South China that gives birth to such new and deadly viral strains?

An article on Time magazine's Asian edition Web site explains that "for centuries, Guangdong province has had the world's largest concentration of humans, pigs and fowl living in close proximity, explaining why many influenza outbreaks can be traced back to that region" (www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501030407/other_bugs.html).

This particular combination of people, pigs and poultry has proven deadly. Fowl—particularly ducks, geese and chickens—can become infected with varieties of avian (bird) flu. Normally that isn't a problem to human beings, because the avian flu varieties can't infect people. However, when pigs are added to the mix—and in the crowded farms of southern China all three species are practically living on top of each other—the combination can become lethal.

In such conditions, avian flu viruses are passed from poultry to pigs, and ultimately to people. The Time article explains: "Pigs are particularly dangerous [for the creation of new diseases that affect people], because they can be infected by human viruses and those from animals such as rodents and fowl, making them the most potent mixing vessels in which pathogens can mutate and jump from animal species to humans."

Within pigs, viruses can mingle their genetic material and form new strains that in turn are passed back to the farmers. Having no immunity to such new viral strains, the farmers' immune systems cannot fight off the invader and a new epidemic is off and running. And in a country of well over a billion people, human-to-human spread of the disease is simple and quick.

A variation of this theory appeared on WorldNetDaily, suggesting that the viral exchange may take place on a somewhat different level. "In southern provinces of China, farmers raise hens, ducks, pigs and fish in one integrated system. They use the droppings and leftover food from the pigs to feed the fowl. The fowl droppings, in turn, help fertilize the fish ponds. While it sounds like a perfect system, raising three different species with no waste, the species may be exchanging viruses among themselves through the feces" (www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32244).

If the whole idea sounds disgusting, it is. And God thought so too. One of the crucial health principles He revealed to the ancient Israelites some 3,500 years ago was that bodily waste should be buried in the ground, not recycled as food (Deuteronomy 23:12-13). Bacteria in the soil would detoxify the waste, transforming it into useful fertilizer as He intended—a process mankind wouldn't discover until many centuries later.

But there's more to the story, too. God never intended for human beings and pigs to live in close proximity—and He certainly never intended for people to eat them. In Leviticus 11:7 and Deuteronomy 14:8 He declares swine (along with a number of other creatures) as "unclean," designating them as unfit for human consumption. Included also are spiders, snakes, snails, frogs, rats, mice and the like—things most of us would never be tempted to put into our mouths.

God doesn't spell out the reasons for not eating certain types of animals. However, in recent years medical doctors and nutritionists have discovered sound reasons for not ingesting the flesh of these creatures. You can find some of this research summarized in our free booklet What Does the Bible Teach About Clean and Unclean Meats?.

It appears that the SARS epidemic, if indeed it is proven to have originated in this melting pot of people, pigs and poultry—may well have been entirely preventable. The AIDS epidemic, as we have discussed previously in issues of The Good News, was likewise preventable and never would have arisen had everyone simply obeyed God's laws.

New diseases are appearing at the rate of more than one per year. Who knows how many of them could be prevented if only people would follow the instructions of our Creator?—WNP