Because of increasing population densities and international travel,
new microbiology techniques available to terrorists and zealots,
incursions into rain forests and jungles, decreasing immunity systems,
decreasing emphasis on public health, and a variety of other new
vectors of pathogen transmission, the likelihood of a rampant plague or virus
has never been higher.
Whether it's an Al-Qaeda-produced
smallpox or
monkeypox
variant with a week-long incubation period, an
Ebola
or Marburg
variant being transmitted accidentally at airports, or a
suddenly-intense mutation of
avian influenza, the
impacts would be dramatic. See Laurie Garrett's magnificent
The Coming
Plague, winner of the the Pulitzer Prize, for more information, as
well as
The Impact of Globalization on Infectious Disease Emergence and
Control, National Academies Press, 2006. The government, and the
public health system, unfortunately would be
unlikely to
effectively respond with vaccine development, distribution,
and direct implementation.
We are hypothesizing a disease with a slow incubation, extreme
transmissibility, and a death rate of 10-30%. This is actually low for
many of the possible pathogens. This sort of pandemic would likely
drive much of the following:
- A dramatic decrease in the use of people-heavy places: airports,
malls, workplaces, grocery stores, buses, sports stadiums, you name it
-- we'd all be terrified that if we go out of our homes, we'll catch
it.
- Serious impacts on infrastructure stem from workers calling in
sick, or taking paid personal leave: power systems, transportation
systems, commercial sales, even most "knowledge work" offices will be
fairly barren, for a good long time.
- Hospital systems could break down: not enough beds, not enough
ability to quarantine, lots of people with damaged immune systems, and
worse. Developing and distributing vaccines or medicines may be
troubled, as bottlenecks and a lack of living nurses and doctors may
create "viral riots" in some areas.
- Refugees are likely, but entire communities will (like what happened
in the Black Plague, or the Great Influenza Epidemic) quarantine themselves,
and drive off the desperate, potentially-infected refugees.
- Economic collapse could quickly follow: international travel/
shipping, and even interstate travel/shipping of food and medicine,
will be seriously affected.
- National panics (imagine Fox or CNN's
breathless treatment of a new plague) could quickly
create hoarding, violence, estrangement, and other desperate,
counterproductive measures.
- Massive deaths create new horrors and health issues, as rotting bodies
are left where they fall.
- Internet use, where network systems are able to be maintained by
telecommuting or clean-room-ensconced systems administrators (see Cory Doctorow's
Nebula-winning
When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth), becomes vital to survival.
However, vast areas of the Web go dark, as key figures succumb.
- Cities quickly become uninhabitable, at least for a few months,
though these population centers will likely get any vaccines or
medicines early.
- Order and rule of law collapses, worldwide.
There are plenty of sub-scenarios where contagion doesn't fully apply;
where antigens, antivirals, and/or inoculations hold sway.
We hope that happens.
But we think it more likely that infection, uncertainty, and
accidental transmission will lead to a general population who are
fearful, uncertain, and reactive. In that case, society will shut
down, at least for a few weeks, which (in this fragile just-in-time
economy) is enough to cause catastrophe.
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| Recent Plague/Virus News |
Africa: Unable to Put Beef And Fish On the Table, Continent Courts Animal-Spread Diseases
Last year's outbreaks of the deadly Marburg and Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever viruses in southwestern Uganda and in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo's province of Kasai Occidental and the sporadic outbreaks of Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) across the continent once again bring to light the threat zoonotic diseases pose to sub-Saharan Africa in particular and the world generally.... Along with population increase comes the need for more arable and grazing land and the exploration of new forest, swamp and cave habitats. This raises the likelihood of exposure to 'new' infectious agents in those environments, and could result in the emergence of new disease pathogens. As population grows there is also an increase in the demand for food. In sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere, people are more and more turning to wild animals for food. This high demand for bush meat in the countries of the Congo Basin is helping to fuel the increase in outbreaks of such illnesses as Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever.
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Greatest threat to Britain is a flu pandemic that could kill 750,000, warns Government report
"The greatest threat facing Britain is a flu pandemic that could kill 750,000 people, a Government report will warn today. A national 'risk register' has identified an outbreak as the emergency that would have the greatest impact - though a terror attack is considered more likely."
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Meet the new neighbours
"...Mosquitoes, and the West Nile virus that some of them carry, are thriving in California’s plunging property market... Fully 63,000 homes were foreclosed in California between April and June... Empty houses mean untended pools. Untended pools quickly breed mosquitoes."
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Balancing traditional scientific freedom and openness
The challenge will be to engage a broad range of scientists in the fight against terrorism, without causing an unhealthy imbalance in the scientific enterprise. For instance, the billions of dollars spent by the US government on biodefence over the past few years may have distracted researchers from the fight against infectious diseases. The risk of a flu pandemic -- or the emergence of a lethal new disease -- is far greater than of a large-scale bioterrorist attack. While there is some scientific crossover between the expertise needed to fight natural and man-made epidemics, it is important to allocate research resources on a balanced view of the risks we face globally.
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Fears over new mosquito-borne virus
Health experts fear a mosquito-borne virus could cause a spike in cases of a debilitating disease.... In the past two years, West Australia health authorities have been notified of 15 cases of chikungunya, the Swahili term for the stooped posture which the virus causes in sufferers with joint pain. The disease also causes vomiting, extreme fatigue and, in rare cases, death. The Health Department declared chikungunya a notifiable infectious disease two months ago.
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UK government says pandemic 'inevitable'
A British government committee said globalization and lifestyle changes make it inevitable that Britain will be hit with a pandemic of some sort.... "Estimates are that the next pandemic will kill between 2 million and 50 million people worldwide and between 50,000 and 75,000 in (Britain)," the government report said. "Socio-economic disruption will be massive."
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FDA Panel Seeks to Water Down Warnings on Tamiflu Side Effects
"...Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, is an anti-viral medication that can be used to treat or prevent influenza. When used as a treatment, it reduces the duration of flu symptoms by approximately one day... According to the FDA, five children under the age of 17 died after "falling from windows or balconies or running into traffic." There have been a total of 25 deaths linked to Tamiflu, three of them in the United States."
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Fish Virus Feeds Fears It Will Spread to Mississippi River
"CHICAGO -- A deadly fish virus has been found for the first time in southern Lake Michigan and an inland Ohio reservoir, spurring fears of major fish kills and the virus's possible migration to the Mississippi River...The Illinois Department of Natural Resources invoked emergency fishing regulations June 30 to stop the spread of viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS), often described as "fish Ebola," which was found in round gobies and rock bass tested at a marina near the Wisconsin border in early June."
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When acquiring mosquito-borne disease is a good thing
"With 50 million cases in the tropics each year, dengue fever is humanity's most common insect-borne viral infection. Killing the mosquitoes that carry it is the only way to fight it, but now a large-scale survey in Thailand has revealed that this can make the deadliest form of dengue more prevalent.
Known as "breakbone fever", dengue is painful but normally not fatal the first time around ... the real threat is the second infection....causing a potentially fatal disease called dengue haemorrhagic fever. DHF kills 12,000 people a year, mainly children.
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Prions can survive sewage treatment, UW-Madison study says
"Mad cow disease-causing prions can survive conventional sewage treatment, according to a new study by University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists. Prions -- rogue misfolded proteins that cause mad cow disease, chronic wasting disease, and its human equivalent, variant Creutzfeldt- Jakob disease -- are not degraded by standard wastewater decontamination and can end up in fertilizers, potentially contaminating crops."
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CDC lab containing deadly virus suffers power outage
A laboratory building that contains a deadly strain of avian flu and other germs is among four that lost power for more than an hour Friday when a backup generator system failed again at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.... CDC officials did not attempt to override and restart the agency's backup generators because they didn't know what the anomaly was that shut them down, Skinner said.
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Tip: Bumming out? Don't forget that there's
also the
Recovery Scenario!
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Superbugs threaten to put Britain back to pre-antibiotic age
"Superbugs are threatening to return Britain to a 'pre-antibiotic' era in which common infections killed in huge numbers, a major new study warns. There is an urgent need for new, effective medicines to replace drugs that have become useless, says the report by the Royal Society, the UK's science academy. The battle against drug-resistant bacteria has concentrated too much on tackling dirty hospitals and curbing the over-use of existing antibiotics."
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10 people die from new CJD-like disease
A new form of fatal dementia has been discovered in 16 Americans, 10 of whom have already died of the condition. It resembles Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease -- with patients gradually losing their ability to think, speak and move -- but has features that make it distinct from known forms of CJD.
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Scripps research scientists reveal key structure from ebola virus
the research reveals the shape of the Ebola virus spike protein, which is necessary for viral entry into human cells, bound to an immune system antibody acting to neutralize the virus.... "Much about Ebola virus is still a mystery," says Erica Ollmann Saphire, the Scripps Research scientist who led the five-year effort. "However, this structure now reveals how this critical piece of the virus is assembled and, importantly, identifies vulnerable sites that we can exploit."
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Simian foamy virus found to be widespread among chimpanzees
Recent studies have shown that humans who hunt wild primates, including chimpanzees, can acquire SFV infections. Since the long-term consequences of these cross-species infections are not known, it is important to determine to what extent wild primates are infected with simian foamy viruses. In this study, researchers tested this question for wild chimpanzees by using novel non-invasive methods. Analyzing over 700 fecal samples from 25 chimpanzee communities across sub-Saharan Africa, the researchers obtained viral sequences from a large proportion of these communities, showing a range of infection rates from 44 percent to 100 percent.
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Salmonella probe grows -- maybe not tomatoes
Federal investigators retraced their steps Monday as suspicions mount that fresh unprocessed tomatoes aren't necessarily causing the salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds across the USA.
Three weeks after the Food and Drug Administration warned consumers to avoid certain types of tomatoes linked to the salmonella outbreak, people are still falling ill, says Robert Tauxe with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.... If another food is found to be the culprit after tomatoes were recalled nationwide and the produce industry sustained losses of hundreds of millions of dollars, food safety experts say the public's trust in the government's ability to track foodborne illnesses will be shattered.
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Extreme Weather Events Can Unleash A 'Perfect Storm' Of Infectious Diseases, Research Study Says
An international research team ... has found the first clear example of how climate extremes, such as the increased frequency of droughts and floods expected with global warming, can create conditions in which diseases that are tolerated individually may converge and cause mass die-offs of livestock or wildlife.... The study ... suggests that extreme climatic conditions are capable of altering normal host-pathogen relationships and causing a "perfect storm" of multiple infectious outbreaks that could trigger epidemics with catastrophic mortality.
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US health official: Complacency is 'public health enemy No. 1'
"Emerging infectious diseases are a major global public health threat, and there's nothing in the world of evidence that would suggest that the threat is getting smaller," Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a health conference in Malaysia.
"A pandemic would be a catastrophic human health event if it had any of the characteristics of the previous pandemics in terms of transmissibility and case fatality rate," she said.
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Food Safety: 'Near the Breaking Point'
For the FDA's embattled food safety inspectors, the salmonella scare was more evidence that a chronic lack of money and manpower has left the agency reacting to such events rather than preventing them in the first place -- a longtime goal. Stephen Sundlof, who runs the FDA's Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition, has recently wondered if his people can handle more than one big crisis at a time -- say, a nationwide outbreak of E. coli and salmonella. "[We're] near the breaking point," he says. The situation is so dire that the Bush Administration has made an extraordinary request to add $275 million to its proposed 2009 budget for the FDA.
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Superbug in hospital outbreak 'has same death rate as smallpox'
"EXPERTS fear the strain of Clostridium difficile that has killed eight people at the Vale of Leven Hospital, and been involved in the deaths of eight more, is as deadly as smallpox.
The strength of the 027 strain is under investigation, but the rate of fatalities in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde hospital, in West Dunbartonshire, has horrified bacteriologists."
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Highly infectious polio strain re-appears in UP
The oral polio vaccination drive has been advanced by the Uttar Pradesh government after a girl in the state's Badaun district was infected with a highly infectious polio strain, a senior official said on Thursday.
"After a gap of nearly eight months, the P1 polio virus has resurfaced in UP. After the detection of the highly virulent P1 virus, we have decided to advance the vaccination drive," regional team leader of the World Health Organisation's National Polio Surveillance Project, S.K. Parthyarch said.
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Hong Kong slaughters all market poultry: bird flu
Health officials ordered the slaughter of all live poultry in Hong Kong's street markets on Wednesday after detecting one of the largest outbreaks of the bird flu virus in years. The action comes after tests showed four markets had poultry infected with the H5N1 virus.
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Potentially fatal bacteria found in pigs, farmworkers
"Federal food safety and public health agencies are being urged to begin checking meat sold across the country for the presence of MRSA, a potentially fatal bacteria. Scientists have found the infection in U.S. pigs and farmworkers... MRSA -- methicillin-
resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- can be extremely dangerous, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Monina Klevens examined the cases of the disease reported in hospitals, schools and prisons in one year and extrapolated that "94,360 invasive MRSA infections occurred in the United States in 2005; these infections were associated with death in 18,650 cases."
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Tip: Bumming out? Don't forget that there's
also the
Recovery Scenario!
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WHO concerned by Indonesia's bird flu plan
ndonesia's health minister said Thursday her country would no longer report H5N1 avian flu deaths as they happen but will share a revised death toll every six months -- a threatened policy change experts said would put the country in violation of a key international health treaty.... "We will not announce every single new bird flu death because sometimes it is misunderstood," Supari told Reuters.
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Bird Flu Strain at Tyson Foods Leads to Killing of 15,000 Hens
While the virus discovered at Tyson Foods is harmless to humans, shares of U.S. chicken companies dropped as investors worried foreign buyers may ban U.S. chicken. The U.S. exports about 16 percent of its chicken and a loss of key overseas markets could create a glut of chicken here.
Following the discovery, the U.S. Agriculture Department has already suspended shipments of chicken from Arkansas to Russia, the most important overseas market for U.S. chicken.
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New Quarantine Regulations for Exotic Newcastle Disease
WASHINGTON, US - The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today issued a final rule that changes the exotic Newcastle disease (END) domestic quarantine regulations.... Exotic Newcastle disease is a highly contagious and fatal viral disease that affects all species of birds. END is not avian influenza and poses no risk to human health. However, it is another highly contagious disease of poultry and birds. It affects the respiratory, nervous and digestive systems of birds, and many birds die before demonstrating any clinical signs of the disease.
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Viral deaths under wraps
New Delhi: The government has refused to investigate thousands of suspected deaths from chikungunya while repeatedly asserting in Parliament that no one has died from this viral infection, public health experts say.
The disease had broken out in many places in 2006, and at least one city recorded an extraordinarily high mortality. Ahmedabad registered 2,944 deaths over its average during a four-month period when the outbreak had peaked, municipal records show.... During the 2006 outbreak, more than 1.4 million people were suspected to have been infected by chikungunya, a viral disease spread by mosquitoes.
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Some avian flu H7 viruses growing more human-like
The investigators determined that several recent North American H7 viruses have an increased ability to bind to a type of receptor molecule that is abundant on human tracheal cells and is less common in birds. Their results were published this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The finding -- which comes as the deadly Eurasian H5N1 virus continues to be seen as the likeliest candidate to spark a pandemic -- "underscores the necessity for continued surveillance and study of these [North American H7] viruses as they continue to resemble viruses with pandemic potential," says the report.... "The most important message we can take from this is that there will be another pandemic strain that will emerge -- tomorrow, next week, next year, whenever, but it's going to occur."
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Nanotechnology used to build artificial virus
The Lee research group at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea found an alternate strategy, one that used pre-organized supramolecular nanostructures to construct, for the first time, a filament-shaped artificial virus.... The virus' simultaneous ability to deliver genetic materials and hydrophobic therapeutic reagents are particularly useful, and the researchers' approach is flexible and allows for a variety of structural changes to the virus. Until we study the toxicology of these artificial viruses, however, we cannot judge their full potential for treating diseases.
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Scientists warn of bird flu epidemic
"Researchers who analysed samples of recent avian flu viruses found that a strain of the virus called H7N2 had adapted slightly better to living in mammals. Tests on ferrets proved the strain could be passed between animals but scientists said the evidence suggested that bird flu could be transmitted between humans."
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Mosquito invasion brings disease risk to UK
"An Asian mosquito species is poised to arrive in Britain, bringing with it the risk of a potentially lethal disease that the insect can pass from one person to another. The Asian tiger mosquito has already established itself in northern Italy where it has transmitted chikungunya fever to scores of people."
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Flu bugs growing resistance to drugs: studies
"Seasonal flu viruses are developing the ability to evade influenza drugs globally, but how and why this is happening is not clear, experts told a conference on Monday. Europe is the worst-affected by strains of influenza that resist the effects of antiviral drugs, but the resistance is growing globally, they told a meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America."
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45 percent people suffering from chronic diseases
"Around 45 percent people in Pakistan are suffering from various chronic diseases, and the recent wave of gastroenteritis was because of environmental hazards, according to studies conducted by the Pakistan Medical Association. The study also states that communicable and non-communicable diseases are rapidly increasing in the country because of the environmental hazards."
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Bubonic plague found in prairie dog
Federal and state officials are advising residents to take precautions after sylvatic plague was found in a dead prairie dog west of Interior.... This plague first appeared in the state in fall 2004 in Custer County. An outbreak occurred on Oglala Sioux reservation in 2005, then reappeared last year in Shannon County. The latest occurrence was in winter in Dewey County.
The plague is a bacterial infection of rodents that could kill a large number of prairie dogs or other rodents. Livestock aren't affected.
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Cull after bird flu hits S Korea
"South Korean officials say they have killed the entire poultry population of Seoul to curb the spread of bird flu. Quarantine officers destroyed 15,000 chickens, ducks and turkeys in farms and restaurants across the capital. The cull began just hours after the authorities recorded Seoul's second outbreak of the virus in a week."
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Tip: Bumming out? Don't forget that there's
also the
Recovery Scenario!
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Antibiotics rule pharma retail market
New Delhi: The first quarter (January-March) of this year has witnessed a change in the domestic pharma retail market with antibiotics and anti-bacterial drugs dominating the show in top 10 brands.... Interestingly, the growth of the industry is mainly driven by the chronic segment (like cardio-vasculars, diabetics, central nervous system), which have grown by 17-18 percent last year. Against this backdrop, offtake of acute segments (anti-infectives, gastro-intestinals, nutritionals) has been slow and grown by 10-15 percent only, industry experts said.
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Ventilator superbug resistant to antibiotics
"HOSPITALS face a dangerous new superbug threat in the form of a drug-resistant microbe that clings to catheters and ventilation tubes. Doctors studying the genetic code of the bug, commonly known as Steno, are worried about its ability to shrug off antibiotics. Around 1,000 cases of blood poisoning caused by Stenotrophomonas maltophilia are reported in the UK each year. Of these, almost a third are fatal."
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Risk Of Bird Flu Pandemic Probably Growing-Experts
"Some 150 experts are attending a meeting hosted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to update its guidance to countries on how to boost their defences against a deadly global epidemic.
The H5N1 avian flu virus has infected flocks in much of Asia, Africa and parts of Europe. Experts fear it could mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person, sparking an influenza pandemic that could kill millions."
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Who should MDs let die in a pandemic? Report offers answers
"Doctors know some patients needing lifesaving care won't get it in a flu pandemic or other disaster. The gut-wrenching dilemma will be deciding who to let die. Now, an influential group of physicians has drafted a grimly specific list of recommendations for which patients wouldn't be treated. They include the very elderly, seriously hurt trauma victims, severely burned patients and those with severe dementia."
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Deadly viral outbreak in China may not peak for two months
A fast-spreading viral disease in eastern China, which has claimed the lives of at least 21 children, might not peak for another two months as it thrives in warm weather, the UN warned on Saturday. Reports from China said Enterovirus-71 or EV-71 has infected nearly 3,000 children, most of them under two. Called hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), it starts with fever and leads to ulcers in mouth, hands and buttocks.... There is no vaccine or known cure and the disease takes its own course. In most cases, children recover after about a week without treatment but in serious cases, brain swelling and paralysis leading to death might occur.
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Urban Slum Conditions Are A Source Of Leptospirosis
Leptospirosis has emerged to become an urban slum health problem. Epidemics of severe leptospirosis, characterized by jaundice, acute renal failure and haemorrhage, are now reported in cities throughout the developing world due to rapid expansion of slum settlements, which in turn has produced the ecological conditions for rodent-borne transmission of the spirochete pathogen. A survey was performed in the city of Salvador, Brazil, to determine whether the risk of Leptospira infection clustered in households within slum communities in which a member had developed severe leptospirosis. We found that members of households with an index case of leptospirosis had more than five times the risk of having serologic evidence for a prior infection than members of neighbourhood households in the same communities. Increased risk of infection was found among all age groups who resided in these households. The finding that Leptospira infection clusters in specific slum households indicates that the factors associated with this environment are important determinants for transmission.
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New virus causes South American fever
Scientists have identified a new virus that causes bleeding and shock and killed at least one man in a remote area of Bolivia. Doctors at first thought the patient had dengue fever or yellow fever -- caused by two unrelated viruses that can also cause hemorrhagic fevers. "He went on in a few short days from a kind of fairly flu-like illness with headache, fever and muscle aches and deteriorated rapidly into ... the shock and bleeding," Nichol said. But it is never so severe as fictional accounts and films about viruses, Nichol stressed. The new virus is likely carried by a rodent, as most are, and does not pose a widespread threat.
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Flu Viruses Take One-way Ticket Out Of Asia, Then Travel The World
Seasonal influenza strains constantly evolve in overlapping epidemics in Asia and sweep the rest of the world each year, an international research team has found.... The Science study shows ... that each year since 2002, influenza A (H3N2) viruses have migrated out of what the authors call the "East and Southeast Asian circulation network," and from there spread around the world.
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We're the clear losers in the latest round of germ warfare
Future generations will laugh at the sheer arrogance and hubris that the medical profession exhibited with respect to infection in the 20th century.... Our apparent victory over the bugs was illusory, short-lived and ultimately pyrrhic... The inappropriate treatment of common benign viral illnesses (e.g. colds) with antibiotics is a major cause of the emergence of MRSA and other resistant bacteria. Doctors who allow themselves to be browbeaten into the inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics are hastening the day when they will have to tell their infected patients "there is nothing I can do for you".
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S. Korea Culls 3 Million Birds as Bird Flu Spreads Fast
"South Korea said on Thursday it had culled 3 million farmed birds and confirmed three more outbreaks of bird flu, as the country grapples with its worst avian influenza outbreak in four years. In just two weeks South Korea has confirmed 15 cases of the deadly H5N1 strain, raising alarm as the highly virulent virus is spreading at its fastest rate since the country reported its first case in 2003.
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Bird Flu virus entrenched in India: United Nations
In a grave and serious warning to India since the first outbreak of birdflu in Maharashtra in 2006, the United Nations today said that the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus might have got entrenched in the Indo-Gangetic plains of India and Bangladesh. This is almost confirmed by the massive spread of the disease across the states in India. After West Bengal, now it is the turn of Tripura. Bird flu has attacked this northeastern state, the fifth state of India that has become the prey of H5N1 avian influenza virus within a short span of three years.
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Can Climate Change Make Us Sicker?
"What do we talk about when we talk about global warming? It'll get hotter, that's a safe bet; polar ice caps will be melting, and wildlife that can't adapt to warmer temperatures could be on the way out. But what does it really mean for the health of us, the human race? It's a question that remains surprisingly difficult to answer — research into climate change's impacts on human health have lagged behind other areas of climate science. But what we do know has scientists and doctors increasingly worried — a rising risk of death from heat waves, the spread of tropical diseases like malaria into previously untouched areas, worsened water-borne diseases."
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Tip: Bumming out? Don't forget that there's
also the
Recovery Scenario!
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Mutation of the common cold linked to four deaths
Four seniors died at a Nanaimo, B.C. care home earlier this year and 57 others developed serious respiratory infections as a mutation of the common cold swept through the facility.
The Vancouver Island Health Authority confirms an outbreak of human metapneumo virus, a recently discovered viral mutation, began Jan. 3 at Dufferin Place long-term care home.
It affected 61 of the 150 residents at the home over a six week period.
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Bird Flu Crosses Species Barrier to Spread Among Dogs
A bird flu virus that killed dogs in South Korea can spread from one dog to another, showing that the disease is capable of crossing species and causing widespread sickness in mammals, a study found.... Transmission of avian influenza A virus to a new mammalian species is of great concern because it potentially allows the virus to adapt to a new mammalian host, cross new species barriers, and acquire pandemic potential,'' the Korean researchers said.
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Superbug MRSA spreading fast, report warns
"A staggering 29,000 Canadian hospital patients acquired the superbug MRSA in a one-year period, including an estimated 2,300 whose deaths were partly attributed to the pernicious bacteria, federal figures released today show. The increase in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus translates into 12,000 new infections plus 17,000 patients who became colonized, said Andrew Simor, co-chairman of the Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program. (Being colonized with MRSA means the patients are carriers who are not infected and show no symptoms.)"
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Warming seen having immunological consequences
"The first two bee sting-related deaths were reported in Fairbanks, Alaska in the summer of 2006, which researchers suspect was a consequence of global warming; and they predict that this is just the beginning. Honeybees and yellow jackets were rare in the area until the past few years...There has been a 50-percent increase in sting-related emergencies and, now, the first reports of anaphylactic reactions to bee stings."
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Viruses Found Transmitting Genes Among Bacteria
"We've found previously that the viruses can move between biomes [ecological communities] pretty easily," Rohwer told LiveScience. "So in theory they should be able to move things from one part of the world to another."...
That means genes that would confer environmental protection or some other adaptive tool could trek long distances via viruses from bacteria in one part of the world to another region.... "We're finding those genes in the viruses, which suggests that the viruses, when they're doing infection, they're actually manipulating the behavior of the bacteria when they're in them," Rohwer said....
In fish farms, the researchers found the viruses delivered "eating" genes to bacteria.
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Dengue epidemic hits Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro: An outburst of dengue has killed at least 47 people -- and perhaps twice that -- in Rio de Janeiro state this year, officials said Thursday, announcing a hot spot in a hemispheric outbreak that sickened nearly 1 million people in 2007.
State officials said 51 cases are being reported every hour as the outbreak strains public hospitals' capacity... Brazil had more than half of the 900,782 cases of dengue in the Americas last year, according to the Pan American Health Organization. Of the hemisphere's 317 deaths, 158 came in Brazil, including 31 in Rio state.
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UN: Indonesia failing in bird flu fight
"JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Efforts to contain bird flu are failing in Indonesia, increasing the possibility that the virus may mutate into a deadlier form, the leading U.N. veterinary health body warned. The H5N1 bird flu virus is entrenched in 31 of the country's 33 provinces and will cause more human deaths, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement released late Tuesday. "I am deeply concerned that the high level of virus circulation in birds in the country could create conditions for the virus to mutate and to finally cause a human influenza pandemic," FAO Chief Veterinary Officer Joseph Domenech said. "
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State media reports outbreak of bird flu in China
Bird flu has broken out in the south of China, killing more than 100 poultry, state media reported on Sunday, citing the agriculture ministry.
The outbreak occurred in a market in Guangzhou, in Guangdong province on Thursday, and was a "highly pathogenic" subtype of the H5N1 influenza virus, which can be deadly to humans, the report said.
A further 500 birds were culled and the disease was under control after emergency measures were taken.
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Impact of Bird Flu: Bad days for fast food shops in Dhaka
Sales in the city's fast food shops have marked a sharp fall as customers continued to ignore chicken items out of bird flu fear, hitting hard the booming fast-food business. "We're passing through a very critical time as our sales have dropped by 50 percent. Even our regular customers hardly visit our shops and those who come are scared of taking chicken items," said Sohel Rana, supervisor of 'Chicken King', a popular fast food shop in Dhanmondi area.... He also blamed the media for spreading the bird flu panic among the people. "Watching chicken culling on television and reading those in newspapers, people get panicked."... Nearly 100,000 poultry farms have been shut down due to the outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus, throwing around 2.5 million people out of jobs.
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H5N1 outbreaks in 9 Vietnamese provinces
"Bird flu outbreaks have been reported in Phu Tho and Ha Nam province, announced the Veterinary Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on March 2.
This has brought the number of the epidemic-hit cities and provinces to nine, including Thai Nguyen, Quang Ninh, Hai Duong, Nam Dinh, Tuyen Quang and Ninh Binh in the north and Vinh Long in the south."
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Drug-Resistant TB Rates Soar in Former Soviet Regions
"Drug-resistant tuberculosis cases in parts of the former Soviet Union have reached the highest rates ever recorded globally, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. The rates could soar even higher, spreading the potentially fatal disease elsewhere, a top W.H.O. official said, releasing findings from the largest global survey of the problem."
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Growing Threat Seen In Human-Wildlife Conflict, Drug Resistance
"An international research team has provided the first scientific evidence that deadly emerging diseases have risen steeply across the world, and has mapped the outbreaks’ main sources. They say new diseases originating from wild animals in poor nations are the greatest threat to humans. Expansion of humans into shrinking pockets of biodiversity and resulting contacts with wildlife are the reason, they say. Meanwhile, richer nations are nursing other outbreaks, including multidrug-resistant pathogen strains, through overuse of antibiotics, centralized food processing and other technologies."
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Emerging Infectious Diseases On The Rise: Tropical Countries Predicted As Next Hot Spot
"It's not just your imagination. Providing the first-ever definitive proof, a team of scientists has shown that emerging infectious diseases such as HIV, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), West Nile virus and Ebola are indeed on the rise. By analyzing 335 incidents of previous disease emergence beginning in 1940, the study has determined that zoonoses -- diseases that originate in animals -- are the current and most important threat in causing new diseases to emerge. And most of these, including SARS and the Ebola virus, originated in wildlife. Antibiotic drug resistance has been cited as another culprit, leading to diseases such as extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB)."
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Map pinpoints disease
"A detailed map highlighting the world's hotspots for emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) has been released. It uses data spanning 65 years and shows the majority of these new diseases come from wildlife. Scientists say conservation efforts that reduce conflicts between humans and animals could play a key role in limiting future outbreaks."
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Bird flu claims second life in Vietnam
"Hanoi - Bird flu has killed a second man in Vietnam this week, infected a child and poultry in two provinces and a health official warned more people would fall sick of the virus, the government and state media said on Saturday. The 27-year-old man died on Thursday night at a Hanoi hospital after he was taken there from the northern province of Ninh Binh on Tuesday with serious pneumonia, the official Vietnam News Agency reported."
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Skin disease linked with deforestation
"U.S. scientists have determined deforestation and social marginalization increase the risk of acquiring an infectious, tropical skin disease. The University of Michigan researchers examined the incidence of the disease American cutaneous leishmaniasis, or ACL, in Costa Rica. ACL -- characterized by skin lesions caused by an infectious organism carried by sand flies -- most commonly affects workers in forested lowlands, but tourists are increasingly at risk as remote tropical areas become more accessible."
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Malaria warning as UK becomes warmer
"Following a major consultation with climate change scientists, the Government is issuing official advice to hospitals, care homes and institutions for dealing with rising temperatures, increased flooding, gales and other major weather events. It warns that there is a high likelihood of a major heatwave, leading to as many as 10,000 deaths, hitting the UK by 2012....Hospitals are also warned to prepare for outbreaks of malaria and tick-born viruses, as well as increased levels of skin cancer and deaths from asthma and other breathing conditions."
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Video Reveals Violations of Laws, Abuse of Cows at Slaughterhouse
"Video footage being released today shows workers at a California slaughterhouse delivering repeated electric shocks to cows too sick or weak to stand on their own; drivers using forklifts to roll the "downer" cows on the ground in efforts to get them to stand up for inspection; and even a veterinary version of waterboarding in which high-intensity water sprays are shot up animals' noses -- all violations of state and federal laws designed to prevent animal cruelty and to keep unhealthy animals, such as those with mad cow disease, out of the food supply."
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India worst bird flu outbreak spreads
"KOLKATA, India (AFP) - India's worst outbreak of bird flu spread as health authorities battled on Friday to stop it reaching the densely populated city of Kolkata amid heavy rain that hampered culling efforts. Authorities reported the disease had affected two more districts, bringing the number hit by avian flu to 12 out of West Bengal state's total of 19. "We're afraid bird flu may spread to many areas -- it has already spread to two more districts," said state animal resources minister Anisur Rahaman in Kolkata, which has 13.2 million people, many of whom live in congested slums."
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Bacteria race ahead of drugs
"...Dr. Jeff Brooks has been director of the UCSF lab for 29 years, and has watched with a mixture of fascination and dread how bacteria once tamed by antibiotics evolve rapidly into forms that practically no drug can treat.
"These organisms are very small," he said, "but they are still smarter than we are."
Among the most alarming of these is MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a bug that used to be confined to vulnerable hospital patients, but now is infecting otherwise healthy people in schools, gymnasiums and the home. Last week, doctors at San Francisco General Hospital reported that a variant of that strain, resistant to six important antibiotics normally used to treat staph, may be transmitted by sexual contact and is spreading among gay men in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles. "We are on the verge of losing control of the situation, particularly in the hospitals," said Dr. Chip Chambers, chief of infectious disease at San Francisco General Hospital.
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U.N. says prepare for big flu pandemic economic hit
"Most countries have now focused on pandemic as a potential cause of catastrophe and have done some planning. But the quality of the plans is patchy and too few of them pay attention to economic and social consequences," he told BBC radio. "The economic consequences could be up to $2 trillion (1 trillion pounds) -- up to 5 percent of global GDP removed," he said, reiterating previous World Bank and UN estimates.
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Stomach bug sweeping the country
"Doctors estimate more than 100,000 people a week are catching norovirus, which causes diarrhoea and vomiting... At least 56 hospital wards across England and Wales have been closed to new patients, the BBC has learned.
The Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust says it is cancelling all non-urgent operations until 9 January because of what it calls the "unrelenting pressure" caused by the virus."
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Tuberculosis exposure feared on India-to-U.S. fligh | |
