Americans have long taken the wonders of medical science for granted, watching as disease after disease has been conquered with antibiotics, vaccines, better nutrition and pharmaceutical "miracle drugs". But today, the magic isn't working -- and something scary is happening.

Thanks to self-destructive "alternative lifestyles", out-of-control immigration, the overuse of antibiotics and other causes, long-"vanquished" illnesses are once again ravaging the U.S., puzzling scientists and terrifying millions of victims and their loved ones.

That's the explosive subject of the February edition of WND's elite monthly Whistleblower magazine, titled " [ dead link | http://shop.wnd.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=108 ] THE NEW PLAGUES".

Consider this:

• The once-"conquered" scourge of tuberculosis has made a terrifying comeback, especially in America's inner cities (the American Lung Association has called TB "out of control"), and drug-resistant TB accounts for more and more new cases. The reason? Record legal and illegal immigration levels. Indeed, the highest numbers of multi-drug-resistant TB cases are in New York, California, Texas and Florida -- states with the highest populations of new immigrants.

• Leprosy, the contagious skin disease evoking thoughts of biblical and medieval times, is now making its mark in the United States, and many believe the influx of illegal aliens is the main factor.

• A new study reveals that homosexuals are much more likely to become infected with the dreaded "superbug" MRSA -- methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- than are heterosexuals. Some are even calling MRSA the "new HIV". Although previous MRSA contagion has been confined primarily to hospitals, it is now being spread in major cities through homosexual contact. But since staph is also transmissible through non-sexual contact, the University of California researcher who headed up the study warns: "Once this reaches the general population, it will be truly unstoppable".

• Avian influenza -- or "bird flu" -- has caused such concern at the highest level of the U.S. government that in 2005, the Congressional Budget Office reported that a severe pandemic of avian flu hitting the U.S. would kill 2 million Americans and throw the country into a major recession.

• Other diseases once virtually unknown in America, like Chagas disease and Dengue fever, are cropping up in southern border areas, while old and much-feared plagues like polio and malaria are also on the upswing.

Compounding all of this, the astronomical number of illegal aliens swarming into the United States is forcing the closure of dozens of hospitals, spreading previously vanquished diseases and threatening to destroy America's prized health-care system.