Blog note. Jesus indicated that ‘fearful sights’ (various natural disasters) would occur leading up to the time known as the Tribulation and Great Tribulation (a combined seven year period of great destruction on earth). Although these types of things have occurred in the past for centuries and thousands of years, they could be identified as the ‘season of the times’ due to the ferociousness of these events. They would be occurring in greater intensity, severity, frequency, size, duration, scope … just like the pains that a woman experiences in labor the farther along she is in the labor process. We are in the ‘season of the times’ that comes just before the seven (7) year Tribulation/Great Tribulation period

… And great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. (Luke 21:11).

… And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; (Luke 21:25)

… Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken; (Luke 21:26)

… This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. (2 Timothy 3:1)

Jesus is giving a series of prophecies about what to look for as the age of grace comes to a close. These verses are several of many such prophecies from throughout the Bible. 2017 was the worst year in recorded history for the intensity, frequency, severity, duration and occurrence of a large number of severe natural disasters worldwide. Earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, torrential flooding, unprecedented wildfires in unusual places, devastating droughts, excessive/scorching heat setting records everywhere, record snowfalls in Europe and Russia. Snow in the Arabia. This list can go on. Most studied Eschatologists believe these ‘fearful sights’ and massive natural disasters are all part of the ‘CONVERGENCE’ of signs that this Biblical and prophetic age is closing. Most people who study prophecy are familiar with the routine reference(s) made that these things will be like a woman having labor pains, growing in intensity, frequency, size and duration.

Philippines confirms second polio case as outbreak declared two decades after disease was eradicated. Increasing pestilences in increasing places, increasing over time.

 Sarah Newey, global health security correspondent. 20 SEPTEMBER 2019. Telegraph.co.uk

An outbreak of polio has been declared in the Philippines, with cases confirmed in two children almost 20 years after the country eradicated the incurable childhood disease. 

 On Thursday, health officials reported that a three-year-old girl had contracted polio in the southern province of Lanao del Sur, announcing a massive vaccination drive in response.

Just one day later it emerged that a five-year-old boy had tested positive for the disease some 870 miles away in Laguna, south of the capital Manila.

The authorities said that traces of polio have also been detected in the sewage system in Manila and in waterways in the southern Davao region. 

Polio is a devastating and highly infectious childhood virus which invades the nervous system and can lead to paralysis. The disease can only be prevented by an oral vaccine – there is still no known cure. 

Until this week, the last known case of polio in the Philippines was in 1993 and in 2000 the World Health Organization declared the southeast Asian nation polio free.

“It is deeply disconcerting that poliovirus has re-emerged in the Philippines after nearly two decades,” said Oyun Dendevnorov, Unicef’s Philippines representative.

“The outbreak calls for urgent action to protect more children from being infected.” 

The two cases are not wild poliovirus, which has been eradicated in every country on the planet bar Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

Instead, it is vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) type two – a rare form of the virus that only arises in under-immunised communities with poor sanitation. The WHO had thought that wild poliovirus type two was eradicated in 2015. 

The Philippines has seen growing anti-vax sentiment since 2017 when a dengue immunisation, Dengvaxia, was found to pose health risks to children who had not previously had the disease. 

The country was one of the first to roll out the vaccine, produced by French drugmaker Sanofi Pasteur, and the revelations prompted a huge public backlash – with trust in immunisations plummeting as a result. 

In 2018 just 20 per cent of people surveyed by the Vaccine Confidence Project said they thought immunisations were safe, compared to 80 per cent in 2015. 

In this sceptical climate the country has seen the widespread resurgence of measles, while the government declared a national emergency in August after the death toll in a dengue epidemic surpassed 600 people. 

It now appears this hesitance has spread to the oral polio vaccine. Although 95 per cent coverage is needed to prevent outbreaks, fewer than 70 per cent of children in the Philippines have had the polio vaccine, local media has reported. 

In an attempt to stem the outbreak the Philippines, in collaboration with the WHO and Unicef, will launch a widespread immunisation campaign to give millions of children the polio vaccination. 

“We are very concerned that polioviruses are now circulating in Manila, Davao, and Lanao del Sur,” said Dr Rabindra Abeyasinghe, the WHO representative in the Philippines.

“We urge all parents and caregivers of children under 5 years of age to have them vaccinated so that they are protected against polio for life.”