After war, plague

The four horsemen of the apocalypse—conquest, war, famine, and death—are currently rampant upon the earth. The conquest (or liberation) of Iraq seems close to complete. War, which rages constantly, is finishing in Iraq but continues in many countries. Famine is affecting tens of millions in Africa but attracting only a tiny fraction of the publicity devoted to war in Iraq (including, it has to be said, in the BMJ). Death, who rides the fourth pale horse, kills through “sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.” Plague—or, less poetically, infection—is the dominant theme in this BMJ. …