Genetic engineering may lead to antibiotic resistance. Scientists believe these antibiotic markers may contribute to the decreasing effectiveness of antibiotics against diseases. Genetic engineering may be linked with a resurgence of infectious diseases. While natural vectors respect species barriers, the barrage of artificial vectors made by genetic engineers are designed to cross species barriers, thus greatly enhancing the potential for creating new viral and bacterial pathogens, and spreading drug and antibiotic resistance . Totally unrelated pathogens are showing up with identical virulence and antibiotic resistance genes.
Recent statistics are frightening.
Infectious diseases were responsible for one-third of the 52 million deaths from all causes in 1995. Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is now estimated to affect 10 million each year with 3 million deaths. At least 50 new viruses attacking humans emerged between 1988 and 1996. Vancomycin resistance rose from 3 percent to 95 percent in San Francisco hospitals in the four years between 1993 and 1997. The first genetic engineers called for a moratorium in the Asilomar Declaration of 1975, precisely because they were afraid of inadvertently creating new viral and bacterial pathogens.