Lloyd writes:

<<Think about it...those of European, Asian and African decent used to have
good resistance to what we call German Measles.  For lots of good reasons a
vaccine was developed, but the vaccine is short-lived.  Today it is widely
recognized that an outbreak will be a public health disaster, as German
Measles resistance has been lost and most of the world's population is
highly susceptable...and German Measles can kill!  Same with Smallpox.>>

    When I was a kid, almost everyone got measles at some point; it was taken
for granted. In other parts of the world, it was, and is, a major killer, but
in the UK there used to be only a few deaths a year. For a good many years
now, children have been vaccinated, and the disease has almost disappeared
here. Over the last few years, there have been fears over the safety of the
triple vaccine used, which covers, measles, mumps and rubella. There's no
clarity about the truth of this, but the government responds to public
concern with sheer arrogance, and refuses to make the vaccines available
separately. The result is that vaccination rates are now so low that there is
a serious danger of a measles epidemic, and with little or no resistance in
part of the population, it could indeed be a disaster. A little humility and
willingness to listen from the government could save the situation, but how
often do you meet a humble politician?

<>

    This may have been due to a failure to identify it. ROB Manley records
having bought four AFB hives in about 1908. He says:

    'I sent a sample of diseased brood to the British Bee Journal, who
diagnosed 'Black Brood'. I am not, even to this day, quite sure what black
brood was supposed to be, and I am a little doubtful if the authorities at
Bedford Street (or was it Henrietta Street then?) were either.'

    My 1924 edition of Cowan's book describes two forms of foul brood,
strong-smelling foul brood, which is clearly EFB, and odourless foul brood,
which is AFB. Things may possibly have been clearer on the other side of the
Atlantic, but it seems that the information necessary to identify the disease
has been available to UK beekeepers for less than a century.