| May 19, 2008
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Spreading Plagues and Pestilence:
Is Morgellons Disease Caused by
Genetically Modified Foods?
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Hebrews 12:26
And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, "YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN."
Revelation 6:8
I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.
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| Shalom in Christ Jesus, |
Comfort one another with these words
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren,
about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have
no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will
bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by
the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the
Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the
trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive
and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord
in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one
another with these words. -
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
The worldwide growth of
disease and various plagues are another ominous sign that we are growing ever
closer to the point that Jesus must return to save us from complete destruction.
On one hand, it is gloomy that things are so bad but on the other, it is truly
wonderful that our Lord is coming soon, we are to be comforted as Paul tells us
in Thessalonians. This is the number one focus we should always have before
anything else, even before the timing issues.
Sometimes I think how petty
we Premillenialists can be. Will it really matter what time the Lord actually
comes once we are in the Millennium and once we are in eternity? Yet, I see so
many discouraged and dragging their spiritual feet because the Lord tarries and
has not come when they thought He should. On the other side, others are
changing theologies altogether because things are not being done to their
liking or again the way they believe they should be done.
Pride is truly raising its
ugly head.
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In this alert some of these
diseases such as Morgellons discussed in the first two articles are truly
frightening and sound like something that could have come right out of the book
of Revelation. However, those researching this disease say that it has been
around for hundreds of years and as the Word teaches, there is nothing new
under the Sun. My wife knows a woman who claims she had this terrible illness
and The Lord healed her.
We also see the incredible
rise in sexual related diseases, which is a direct result in disobedience and
rebellion towards the Word of God. In fact, all of these diseases can be
directly or indirectly related in some way to sinful behavior in most cases and
as man rebels against God pestilence is multiplying. We see the wild beasts of
the earth, whether microscopic in size or large animals, are turning against
man and themselves becoming sick and dying because of man's sin and tinkering
with nature.
There is also a question of
bio-terror or even darker bio-warfare taking place that is being withheld,
covered up or possibly a part of a covert black-ops or special operation. With
the Satanic grip that is now on the governments of the world and its
leadership, I would not be surprised with anything.
It is important to
understand the whole idea of the 'conspiracy theory' is as much a part of the
US Governments (and other governments) overall dis-information campaigns as
true rumors and speculations are. We again have had the language muddled by
misusing and mixing together of the meanings of 'rumor', speculation' and the
phrase 'conspiracy theory'. This is a pet peeve of mine because we are being
used and manipulated by the government, press, educational establishment and
corporate elite.
Let
this be our motivation to get out and preach the gospel and disciple the saints
before that day does come. This is no time to hide because of the darkness
because it is still light.
BE/\LERT!
Scott
Brisk
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| Morgellons: Scientists debate cause of feared 'worms-under-skin' disease
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Victims complain of inflammation, lesions, fatigueWORLDNETDAILY - By Chelsea Schilling - May 15, 2008Scientists are debating whether a dehabilitating condition called Morgellons disease could be caused by bacteria or fungus on plants in California, Texas and Florida, though many agree that research is leaving them with more questions than answers. While there are many unfounded theories about the cause of Morgellons disease, including alien abduction and government conspiracies, some have attempted to draw a link between the mysterious illness and genetically modified food by suggesting engineered crops may contain bacterium responsible for the disease. What is Morgellons disease?Dr. Vitaly Citovsky of the Morgellons Research Foundation said the condition has many reported symptoms that have virtually stumped scientists. "Generally, people complain of an appearance of fibers in their skin," he told WND. "It itches. There's some inflammation, skin lesions, and they complain that it generally affects their well-being with fatigue similar to Lyme disease. Some people complain of psychological conditions. We cannot define it precisely." Other commonly reported symptoms include: - Multi-colored fiber-like strands or crystals protruding out of skin
- Fatigue
- A feeling of parasites or worms crawling under skin
- Black specks in lesions that do not heal
- Joint swelling and/or hair loss
- Memory loss or general brain fog with difficulty concentrating
The Morgellons Research Foundation reported that approximately 10,000 U.S. families with Morgellons symptoms registered with the organization prior to February 2007. Of all individuals reporting, 24 percent lived in California, and a disproportionate number resided in the San Francisco metropolitan area. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a Jan. 16 statement indicating that Kaiser Permanente's Northern California Division of Research has received a $338,000 grant to to learn more about Morgellons, an affliction it refers to as a "skin condition." However, Dr. Ahmed Kilani, president and CEO of Clongen Laboratories and a specialist in infectious disease detection, told WND the illness is much more than a mere skin condition. "It spreads between individuals," he said. "Unlike infection, this is something much more serious. People die from complications because the disease is more than skin deep. It's not just a skin condition that causes lesions. It goes into the stomach and impacts the G.I. tract and causes brain conditions." Link between Morgellons and genetically altered crops?Citovsky sees a connection between the mysterious Morgellons disease fibers and a type of bacteria that causes tumors in plants, called Agrobacterium. "Agrobacterium species are known to be found in patients in hospital settings," Citovsky told WND. "The person is often weakened and has some skin lesions or some other roots of infection, and like any other bacteria, Agrobacterium can go there and just proliferate using the skin as a medium for its growth. So, if you have a lesion, and you work in the garden, you'll get all kinds of dirt in there and germs among the Agrobacterium." Citovsky explained that the bacterium is present in virtually all soil and is often used to genetically alter crops. "A year ago, we took biopsies from the skin of patients," he said. "We looked for the presence of genetic material of Agrobacterium mutations. Agrobacterium is bacterium that is used also, among other things, in genetic engineering of plants." Dr. Stanton Gelvin, a professor at Purdue University College of Science who has studied the bacterium for nearly 30 years, said, "Agrobacterium is the means by which DNA is transferred to the plant. After the DNA is transferred to the plant, [genetic engineers] use antibiotics and kill the Agrobacterium. So there's no Agrobacterium around, and now you have a plant with new genes in it." Both Gelvin and Citovsky said there are no traces of the bacterium in plant tissue following genetic alteration. Though many patients have tested positive for it, they vehemently protest any suggestion that humans can have genetically altered cells and contract Morgellons disease by eating engineered crops treated with Agrobacterium. "That idea is total lunacy," Citovsky said. "It has nothing to do with it. Forget this mumbo jumbo people use, environmentalists for some unknown reason, when they are protesting against genetically engineered plants. Those plants feed millions of people who are hungry and dying. It has nothing to do with the disease." Bacteria or fungi?Dr. Kilani reviewed two samples of fibers from Morgellons patients and extracted DNA from the strands. His research indicated the fibers could come from a fungus. "Everyone has their own theories about this, but I don't think it's connected to Agrobacterium," he said. "I think it's another organism that has not been described in clinical medicine. It could be a fungus or a parasite or something more complex than bacteria." Kilani said he thinks Morgellons disease could be linked to areas of the U.S. with swamp land and wet areas because there has been a high prevalence of disease reports in the San Francisco Bay Area and other places with bodies of water and high levels of humidity, such as Texas and Florida. "There is something in the environment," Kilani said. "It is probably linked to plants, yes. Maybe it lives on plants, and it adapted to the human host." Citovsky, however, provided a simple explanation for increased Morgellons disease reports in the three states. "Who knows," he said. "Maybe people complain more there." A scientific mysteryKilani said scientists don't have the support to investigate Morgellons disease because they are short on funds and resources. "Nobody thinks it's a disease, so that is part of the problem. Until they do, it's going to continue spreading. It's in households, so when one individual is infected, we find out that the rest of the household is infected." Though many people, even members of the medical science community, do not believe Morgellons is a legitimate disease, Kilani said he receives as many as 10 calls every day from people who identify themselves as having the symptoms. He refuses to accept the notion that it is a fabricated illness. "No, this can't be," he said. "Not almost a half-million patients, no. I have met people from all walks of life: High-powered attorneys, physicians, nurses, actors, actresses, athletes. They go nuts after awhile. They become socially rejected because of the way they look. The whole thing is just a disaster." Kilani said Kaiser Permanente is the first and only recipient of funding for Morgellons research from the CDC, but he doesn't think the grant will be enough to help scientists determine if Morgellons disease is caused by bacteria, fungi or any other environmental factor. "I'm not sure how far that will go because $338,000 is a drop in the bucket," he said. It'll be spent in a week. It's just not enough money. Whoever gets funding and can investigate this problem is going to make a huge contribution because there are lots of people with this illness." Original Report Here
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Morgellons disease: Is this a disease or an episode of the X Files?
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'After extensive tests, scientists including a police forensics team drew a blank as to their origin, despite comparing them to more than 90,000 organic compounds.'THE EVENING STANDARD of LONDON [Associated Newspapers/DMGT] - September 18, 2007The symptoms sound like something from The X Files - sufferers complain of a crawling sensation all over the body, egg-like lumps under the skin and, even more bizarrely, cuts which produce tiny red and blue fibres.Many doctors, however, are highly sceptical - dismissing the symptoms as imaginary and patients as delusional. But a growing number of experts believe the symptoms are genuine, and the U.S. government's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is investigating the condition - Morgellons disease - as reported in the New Scientist.This belated recognition comes as a great relief to the many thousands of sufferers, such as Beverley Warren, who have struggled for years with this debilitating condition. "It feels like tiny insects crawling or biting under my skin," says Beverley, 63, from Manchester. As a result she hardly sleeps at night, constantly woken by the intense itching on her arms. "I scratch and scratch, but it doesn't help. I've suffered hundreds of nights like this. Sometimes I just lie awake, crying." Beverley's arms are covered with dozens of sores. Some have tiny, white, egg-like lumps on them, just under the skin surface. More bizarrely, when Beverley scratches her arms, small black specks, which look like tiny grains of pepper, appear from under the surface of the skin. The problem appeared 11 years ago. Doctors and dermatologists have been unable to give her a diagnosis, and two skin biopsies have provided no answer. At the suggestion of a dermatologist, Beverley applies creams to try to soothe the itching and then bandages her arms for two days to protect the area.Unfortunately, this hasn't helped. "The only thing that provides relief is when I put ice on my arms," she says.Then in April, Beverley discovered that she was not the only person with the problem. After typing 'itching on the arms' into an internet search engine, she came across a website for Morgellons disease. "My husband looked at the screen and said: 'My God, those are all the symptoms you've described.'" Incredibly, more than 10,000 people worldwide had registered on the website claiming they suffered, too. But in addition to Beverley's symptoms, many complained of something even stranger: tiny fibres, of various colours, growing out of their skin. One of them is Rita, who lives in Somerset. She says: "The fibres are 1mm or 2mm long and are either pinky red, blue, brown, black or transparent. They look like little hairs and most grow out of the lesions on my arms, legs and torso." Four years ago, Rita, 47, started being affected by what many sufferers describe as brain fog. "My thinking became cloudy and forgetful," she explains. "I jumble up my words and sometimes, if someone is talking to me, I can't understand what they are saying so I have to ask them to repeat themselves." The condition forced Rita to give up her career as a legal secretary. "The doctors are very dismissive. One doctor sent the fibres off to a lab, but all she said was that nothing abnormal had been detected." Among Morgellons sufferers, this is a common experience. The disease was named in 2002 by an American mother, Mary Leitao, whose two-year- old son one day pointed to his lip and said 'bugs'. Mary was alarmed to find fibres growing there, but soon became frustrated that no doctor would investigate her son's condition. She began researching it for herself, and came across a 17th-century article which described a condition, 'The Morgellons', where unusual hairs would grow out of the skin. In the U.S., where the majority of cases are found, the number of people claiming to have the same symptoms - and the absence of a medical explanation - led to last month's launch of the government's CDC investigation, involving a team of specialists in epidemiology, environmental health, dermatology, chronic diseases, infectious diseases, pathology and mental health. However, most experts believe the condition is a psychological disorder called delusional parasitosis.Sufferers convince themselves the crawling sensations and fibres are evidence of an infection by a parasite. "The brain tells them something is crawling on or under their skin," says Professor Lynn Kimsey, an expert on insects and disease at the University of California. "The human brain is wired to make connections between events, but we don't always draw the right conclusions. Only in a small proportion of cases do real parasites - such as mites - cause this type of thing." Instead, Prof Kimsey says, the skin sensations are likely to be the result of changes in brain and nerve chemistry, commonly triggered by drug or alcohol abuse or hormonal changes such as the menopause. The patients constantly scratch their skin - a process called neurotic excoriation - creating sores that never get the chance to heal. As Professor Noah Scheinfeld, a dermatologist at Columbia University in the U.S., explains: "The skin becomes a sink for nervous energy and the slightest sensation can lead people to itch." Even the fibres have a simple explanation: "They inevitably turn out to be lint from clothes, household fibres or hair," Kimsey says. "Sores and scabs attract and trap these fibres." The sceptics say Morgellons is best treated with dermatological creams for the sores - and possibly anti-psychotic drugs in severe cases. But a handful of experts have found evidence that seems to contradict conventional explanations. Randy Wymore, assistant professor of pharmacology at Oklahoma State University, stumbled across the Morgellons website and, surprised by the number of people claiming to be affected, offered to test some of the fibres at his lab. "I thought it would be easy to determine their origin," he says. But contrary to his expectations, the fibres did not match any common environmental ones. So Wymore invited some Morgellons patients in to be examined by a colleague, Rhonda Casey. She found that even under unbroken skin there were masses of fibres. After extensive tests, scientists including a police forensics team drew a blank as to their origin, despite comparing them to more than 90,000 organic compounds.Meanwhile, at the State University of New York, Vitaly Citovsky, professor of biochemistry and cell biology, found that the lesions of Morgellons patients test positively for the presence of agrobacterium, a bacterium used in the commercial production of genetically modified food - but not normally found in skin sores. Psychiatrist Robert Bransfield has studied a database of 3,000 Morgellons patients and argues that the psychological profile of Morgellons patients does not fit with a diagnosis of delusional parasitosis. "Before the onset of their illness, their mental status appears to be quite representative of the general population," says Bransfield. "Later on they may become paranoid and delusional; but they don't start out that way." Immunopsychology experts such as Bransfield are discovering that the body's own immune reaction to invasion by a parasite can significantly affect levels of brain chemicals, such as serotonin. In other illnesses, such as hepatitis C, this can result in altered psychological states and mental symptoms. Morgellons could work this way, too, Bransfield suggests. Some test results have led researchers to speculate that Morgellons may be caused by an unusual fungal parasite. For Beverley, the new investigation cannot come soon enough. "I'm not delusional," she says. "I just want to find out what is happening to my body."Original Report Here
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UN alert: One-fourth of world's wheat at risk from new fungus
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WORLD TRIBUNE [East West Services] - May 13, 2008The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned in March that Iran had detected a new highly pathogenic strain of wheat stem rust called Ug99. The fungal disease could spread to other wheat producing states in the Near East and western Asia that provide one-quarter of the world's wheat. The FAO warned stated east of Iran - Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan to be on high alert. Scientists and international organizations focused on controlling wheat stem rust have said 90 percent of world wheat lines are susceptible to Ug99. The situation is particularly critical in light of the existing worldwide wheat shortage. The fungus causes dark orange pustules on stems and leaves of infected plants. The pustules can completely girdle stems, damaging their conducting tissue and preventing grain fill. Yield losses may reach 70 percent, while some fields are totally destroyed. If stem rust arrives early in the growing cycle, losses are higher. Spores released by the fungal pustules are spread by the wind and may travel great distances in storms. Word of the new wheat disease comes amid global shortages of rice and wheat resulting from typhoon-related flooding in Java, Bangladesh, and India and from agricultural pests and diseases in Vietnam. Last year Australia suffered its second consecutive year of severe drought and a near complete crop failure, heavy rains reduced production in Europe, Argentina suffered heavy frost, and Canada and the U.S. both produced low yields. Food riots have broken out in Egypt, Haiti and several African states, including Mauritania, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Senegal in recent months. Original Report Here
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| German Beehives Hit by Mass Die-Off |
Beekeepers are pointing the finger at a Bayer CropScience pesticide marketed under the name Poncho, but government tests aren't conclusive
BUSINESS WEEK [McGraw-Hill] - By Andrew Curry - May 12, 2008
In Germany's bucolic Baden-Württemburg region, there is a curious silence this week. All up and down the Rhine river, farm fields usually buzzing with bees are quiet. Beginning late last week, helpless beekeepers could only watch as their hives were hit by an unprecedented die-off. Many say one of Germany's biggest chemical companies is to blame.
In some parts of the region, hundreds of bees per hive have been dying each day. "It's an absolute bee emergency," Manfred Hederer, president of the German Professional Beekeeper's Association, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Fifty to 60 percent of the bees have died on average, and some beekeepers have lost all their hives."
The crisis hit its peak last weekend. Beekeepers from Germany's Baden-Württemburg reported hives full of thousands of dead bees. The worst-hit region, according to state officials, was along the upper Rhine river between the towns of Rastatt and Lorrach. The Rhine valley is one of Germany's prime agricultural regions.
Regional officials spent the week testing bees, pollen, honey and plant materials to look for the die-off's causes. The Julius Kühn Institute in Braunschweig, a federal research institute dealing with agricultural issues, set up a special hotline for beekeepers to send in dead bees for analysis.
Blaming the Pesticides
But on Friday, Baden-Württemburg Agriculture Minister Peter Hauk said scientists still weren't sure what was behind the disaster. "As long as the causes are still unclear, we must consider all the possible ways we can reduce the risks for the bees," Hauk said. Hauk encouraged beekeepers to move their hives outside the affected area to prevent further damage.
Meanwhile, Germany's beekeepers were pointing fingers at one of Germany's largest companies, blaming a popular, recently-introduced pesticide called clothianidin for the recent die-off. Produced by Monheim-based Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of German chemical giant Bayer AG, clothianidin is sold in Europe under the trade name Poncho. It's designed to attack the nervous systems of insects "like nerve gas," says Hederer. The chemical was used last year to fight an outbreak of corn rootworm, and its success against the pest led to a much wider application this spring up and down the Rhine.
But clothianidin is not a particularly selective poison. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency's fact sheet on the pesticide, "clothianidin is highly toxic to honey bees." Seeds are treated with the clothianidin in advance or sprayed with it while in the field, and the insecticide can blow onto other crops as well. The chemical is often sprayed on corn fields during the spring planting to create a sort of protective film on cornfields. Beekeepers say it's no coincidence that the bee die-off began at the beginning of May, right when corn planting started. "It's the pesticides' fault, one hundred percent," Baden Beekeeper Association chairman Ekkehard Hülsmann told the Bädische Zeitung newspaper.
The circumstantial evidence is piling up. Beekeepers and agricultural officials in Italy, France and Holland all noticed similar phenomena in their fields when planting began a few weeks ago. French beekeepers recently protested the use of clothianidin in the Alsace region, just across the Rhine from Baden-Württemburg. Hederer said German officials have been ignoring the damage pesticides do to bee populations for years. "The people who work in government agencies are all in the pockets of manufacturers," he said. Beekeepers are fed up, he says: "We've decided that keeping bees is more important than keeping our mouths shut."
The Canary in the Coal Mine
Nonetheless, government officials say the early results aren't conclusive. "The bees that were tested showed a buildup of [clothianidin] --- but in such small amounts that the scientists couldn't say it was definitely the cause," the Baden-Württemburg Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on Friday. "The expert commission will continue its urgent investigation." Hauk said the ministry was developing new guidelines for farmers using clothianidin to reduce the amount bees were exposed to.
As intensive agriculture becomes more and more common in Germany, the country's insects are beginning to suffer. Like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, bees are a prime indicator of the environment's health. The consequences could be dire-bees pollinate 80 percent of German crops, from apples to rapeseed. A total bee collapse could cost German farmers billions of euro.
The latest die-off is hitting a bee population already battered by a particularly long, wet and cold winter. Infestations of bee parasites like the varroa mite have also taken a heavy toll on bees in the past few years. Germany's bees are still in better shape than those in the United States, where the mysterious "Colony Collapse Disorder," or CCD, has devastated the American beekeeping industry. "Bees in the US-with its huge farms-get a lot more attention than Germany, with its little fields the size of handkerchiefs," Hederer says. "It's sad, but true: There always has to be a huge catastrophe before people start to use their brains."
With material from AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
Original Report Here |
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US: 1 in 4 Teen Girls Has Sexual Disease |
ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Lindsey Tanner - March 11, 2008
CHICAGO - At least one in four teenage girls nationwide has a sexually transmitted disease, or more than 3 million teens, according to the first study of its kind in this age group.
A virus that causes cervical cancer is by far the most common sexually transmitted infection in teen girls aged 14 to 19, while the highest overall prevalence is among black girls-nearly half the blacks studied had at least one STD. That rate compared with 20 percent among both whites and Mexican-American teens, the study from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.
About half of the girls acknowledged ever having sex; among them, the rate was 40 percent. While some teens define sex as only intercourse, other types of intimate behavior including oral sex can spread some infections.
For many, the numbers likely seem "overwhelming because you're talking about nearly half of the sexually experienced teens at any one time having evidence of an STD," said Dr. Margaret Blythe, an adolescent medicine specialist at Indiana University School of Medicine and head of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on adolescence.
But the study highlights what many doctors who treat teens see every day, Blythe said.
Dr. John Douglas, director of the CDC's division of STD prevention, said the results are the first to examine the combined national prevalence of common sexually transmitted diseases among adolescent girls. He said the data, from 2003-04, likely reflect current rates of infection. - - -
The study by CDC researcher Dr. Sara Forhan is an analysis of nationally representative data on 838 girls who participated in a government health survey. Teens were tested for four infections: human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer and affected 18 percent of girls studied; chlamydia, which affected 4 percent; trichomoniasis, 2.5 percent; and herpes simplex virus, 2 percent. - - - -
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Chlamydia among under-16s up 9-fold in 4 years |
'Lot of evidence' shows even if condoms always used disease can still be transmitted
WORLDNETDAILY - January 12, 2008
London health experts say something needs to be done beyond making condoms available to lower the number of children with sexually transmitted diseases, because the handouts from school nurses just aren't doing the work.
"There is --- a lot of evidence to show that even if condoms are used all the time the disease can still be transmitted. We need to focus on better sexual education that involves parents, not just the school nurse," Trevor Stammers, a physician and healthcare ethics lecturer, told the London Evening Standard.
He said the government's dedication to contraception should be reconsidered.
"These figures are astounding and show we need to focus more on discouraging young teenagers from having intercourse too early. Not only is underage sex illegal, it is unhealthy and dangerous," he said. "The government is not discouraging children from making their sexual debut and the areas where the disease is most prevalent are where there is the most deprivation."
His comments to the newspaper came after health officials came out with confirmation that chlamydia is affecting up to one in 10 sexually active young people in the British study area. - - - -
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Community-acquired MRSA infection often fatal |
REUTERS [Thomson-Reuters]/RUETERS HEALTH - February 21, 2008
NEW YORK - Among people with a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection caught in the general community (rather than in hospital), more than 20 percent were dead within a year, according to new research findings.
Dr. Samy Suissa told Reuters Health that doctors have to be on the lookout "for increasingly frequent community-acquired MRSA infections that too often turn out to be fatal."
MRSA infections used to be seen only in hospitalized patients, but nowadays they are occurring more frequently in the general population.
Suissa, at McGill University Health Center, Montreal, Canada, and colleagues used a UK general practice database to identify 1439 MRSA patients diagnosed in the community from 2001 to 2004. Each patient was compared with up to 10 matched patients without a MRSA diagnosis.
All of the subjects were older than 18 years of age, the average age was 70 years, and none had been hospitalized within the previous 2 years. The patients with MRSA were more likely to have other medical conditions, the researchers report in the online medical journal BMC Medicine.
After 1 year of follow-up, 21.8 percent of MRSA patients had died compared to only 5.0 percent of those in the non-MRSA group.
"Our study suggests that MRSA can be a potentially serious infection in the community leading to increased mortality," the investigators conclude.
They add that the "judicious use of antibiotics is essential to prevent these quite deadly community-acquired MRSA infections," given the emergence of antibiotic resistance when antibiotics are used indiscriminately.
SOURCE: BMC Medicine, January 31, 2008.
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Superbug linked to homosexual behavior |
'Society hasn't learned from the AIDS pandemic'
WORLDNETDAILY - January 15, 2008
Eerily reminiscent of reports a quarter century ago of the rapidly spreading AIDS epidemic, a new variety of staphylococcus bacteria, highly resistant to antibiotics, is now spreading among homosexual males in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles, according to a new report in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
"Wake up, medical and political establishment: Homosexual behavior is unhealthy - no matter how many secular sermons you preach against 'homophobia,'" wrote Peter LaBarbera in a statement on the Americans for Truth About Homosexuality website.
"Due to liberal political correctness, which insists on treating aberrant - even deadly - behaviors and lifestyles as a 'civil right,' we as a society don't seem to have learned much from the AIDS pandemic," he said.
He called it an "eerie reminder" of the first stories about AIDS. "It is unfathomable that after that plague, disease specialists and the media are now surprised at the correlation of a new infection with homosexual behavior," he said.
The study noted that cases were found in the highest concentrations in and around San Francisco's Castro district and in patients who visit health clinics that treat HIV infections in homosexuals in Boston and San Francisco.
The bacteria is called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and has been seen previously in hospitalized patients. However over the last few years, researchers said its impact has expanded, with a strain called USA300 now being documented as an exceptionally drug-resistant variant.
The bacteria is resistant to six common antibiotics, and the study revealed that nearly 1 in 500 residents in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood is infected. The risk homosexuals will contract it is 13 times greater than the rest of the city's population.
"We probably had it here first, and now it is spreading elsewhere," Binh An Deip, the report's lead author, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "This is a national problem, and San Francisco is at the epicenter."
The infection causes boils and other infections but the report said what is unusual is that up to 40 percent of the infections occur in the buttocks and genitalia.
"Data --- suggest that multidrug-resistant USA300 has spread rapidly among men who have sex with men in San Francisco and Boston, and that having male-male sex seems to be a risk factor---," the report said.
The report also warned that because of the "patterns of increased sexual risk behaviors" among homosexuals, largely because of a carelessness that has resulted from "the availability of potent antiretroviral therapy" to treat HIV, there also has been an accompanying resurgence in early syphilis, rectal gonorrhea and new HIV infections among the homosexual populations studied.
Some cases even have developed into "necrotizing fascitis," the so-called "flesh-eating" disease because of its quick progression that often requires surgery, or amputation, to halt its progress, the report said. - - - -
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Drug-resistant staph found to be passed in gay sex |
REUTERS [Thomson-Reuters] - By Amanda Beck - January 14, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO - A drug-resistant strain of potentially deadly bacteria has moved beyond the borders of U.S. hospitals and is being transmitted among gay men during sex, researchers said on Monday.
They said methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is beginning to appear outside hospitals in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles.
Sexually active gay men in San Francisco are 13 times more likely to be infected than their heterosexual neighbors, the researchers reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
"Once this reaches the general population, it will be truly unstoppable," said Binh Diep, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco who led the study. "That's why we're trying to spread the message of prevention."
According to chemical analyses, bacteria are spreading among the gay communities of San Francisco and Boston, the researchers said.
"We think that it's spread through sexual activity," Diep said.
This superbug can cause life-threatening and disfiguring infections and can often only be treated with expensive, intravenous antibiotics.
It killed about 19,000 Americans in 2005, most of them in hospitals, according to a report published in October in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
About 30 percent of all people carry ordinary staph chronically. It can be passed by touching other people or by depositing the bacteria on surfaces or objects.
The bacteria can cause deep-tissue infections if they enter the body through a wound in the skin.
Of those people who carry staph, most carry it in their noses but community-based MRSA also can live in and around the anus and is passed between sexual partners.
Incidence of MRSA is rising along with the resurgence of syphilis, rectal gonorrhea, and new HIV infections partly because of changes in beliefs about the severity of HIV and an increase in risky behaviors, such as illicit drug use and having sex that abrades the skin, Diep's team wrote.
"Your likelihood of contracting each of these diseases increases with the number of sexual partners that you have," Diep said. "The same can probably be said for MRSA."
Staph infections often look like raised red dots on the skin. Left untreated, the areas can swell and fill with pus. - - - -
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America's Immune Deficiency Syndrome |
WORLDNETDAILY - By Joseph Farah - January 18, 2008
The headlines are kind of alarming these days.
Old forgotten diseases are suddenly making a comeback. And new strains of old plagues are deadlier than anything previously seen.
You've heard of AIDS - Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Is America's immune system under attack?
The latest news out of San Francisco is not good.
A drug-resistant strain of potentially deadly bacteria has moved beyond the borders of U.S. hospitals and is being transmitted among homosexual men during sex.
Does this sound familiar? Shades of the 1980s?
Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus, or MRSA, is beginning to appear outside hospitals in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles.
According to a study done at the University of California, San Francisco, homosexual men are 13 times more likely to contract the disease, which is documented to spread in skin-to-skin contact.
That means it could easily spread to the general population. When it does, the results could be cataclysmic.
"Once this reaches the general population, it will be truly unstoppable," explains Binh Diep, the researcher who led the study.
While AIDS disproportionately affected intravenous drug users, hemophiliacs and, of course, homosexual men practicing their own special brand of risky and unnatural acts, it never did break into the general population in a big way.
AIDS was actually hard to get.
This new bug is not.
But the very same people are spreading it - a special-interest group defined proudly by their sexual deviance, a special-interest group actually empowered politically by the very AIDS crisis that once threatened to wipe it out.
It's just another alternative lifestyle, we're told.
Yet it is a lifestyle that is deadly - one that serves as a breeding ground for AIDS, syphilis, rectal gonorrhea, dozens of other sexually transmitted diseases and now MRSA.
I have a profound question to ask: Isn't it time to make anal sex taboo, again?
I mean, look what we have learned over the last 20 years!
What do you suppose is riskier - smoking or anal sex?
That's right. Anal sex is far more dangerous. Those practicing it live far shorter lives and frequently die more painful deaths.
Yet, it's increasingly more difficult to find a place to have a smoke than it is to have homosexual sex.
Let's face it. It's cool to be "gay" on television, in the movies, in public schools and in America's newsrooms. It is not nearly as cool to smoke. Why? Because people recognize smoking is a health threat. But they don't recognize that sodomy is a much more serious health threat.
Simply for writing this column, I will be subjected to the most vicious hate speech imaginable. I will be called a bigot, a Nazi, a homophobe and worse.
Not once have I ever heard anti-smoking crusaders referred to as bigots, Nazis or tobacco-phobes.
Please explain the difference.
I'll tell you the difference.
Give me a choice between smoking and anal sex and I'll choose smoking every time. Not just because anal sex has no appeal to me whatsoever, but because anal sex is far more dangerous.
Isn't it time we stopped promoting it on TV, the movies, in public schools and in America's establishment press?
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AIDS research in crisis as 'miracle' vaccines actually INCREASE chance of catching virus |
LONDON DAILY MAIL [Associated Newspapers/DMGT] - By David Gardner - March 21, 2008
The search for a cure for Aids was in crisis last night after it was revealed that two supposed "miracle" vaccines not only fail to protect people from the virus, but could put them at greater risk of becoming infected.
It is a massive blow to Aids research, which has ground to a halt - with seven other trials of similarly designed would-be vaccines either suspended or called off indefinitely.
The US government alone pumps £250million a year into research to try to find a "Holy Grail" vaccine which would put an end to Aids.
Now scientists fear the disastrous outcome of the two most promising trials leaves them back at square one.
Hailed as major breakthroughs when the tests began, the US-funded STEP and Phambili studies were shut down when it became clear the vaccines could leave patients more susceptible to the virus, which attacks the immune system and which killed more than two million victims last year - 320,000 of them children.
More than 25million people have died from Aids since 1981 and an estimated 33million are living with the disease, most in Africa.
In the UK, there have been at least 17,600 Aids-linked deaths and more than 88,000 people have contracted the HIV virus which leads to Aids.
The two aborted studies used the same vaccine, made from a common respiratory virus loaded with fragments of HIV.
The STEP study involved male homosexuals in North and South America, the Caribbean and Australia.
The Phambili trial, involving more than 3,000 men and women heterosexual volunteers in South Africa, was halted less than one year into its four-year schedule after it, too, raised fears that the vaccine could endanger patients.
The vaccine was supposed to cut the number of infections and make the HIV virus less deadly and less contagious in those who had already contracted it.
But, rather than protect the immune system, the tests appeared to show that the vaccine somehow primed it to become more susceptible to HIV.
Results from both trials, which cost about £16million, suggested that people were twice as likely to become infected after having the vaccine.
The debacle has sent shockwaves through Aids organisations that have raised millions of pounds towards research over the past 20 years. - - - -
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TB Patients Chafe Under Lockdown in South Africa |
NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Celia W. Dugger - March 25, 2008
PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa - The Jose Pearson TB Hospital here is like a prison for the sick. It is encircled by three fences topped with coils of razor wire to keep patients infected with lethal strains of tuberculosis from escaping.
But at Christmastime and again around Easter, dozens of them cut holes in the fences, slipped through electrified wires or pushed through the gates in a desperate bid to spend the holidays with their families. Patients have been tracked down and forced to return; the hospital has quadrupled the number of guards. Many patients fear they will get out of here only in a coffin.
"We're being held here like prisoners, but we didn't commit a crime," Siyasanga Lukas, 20, who has been here since 2006, said before escaping last week. "I've seen people die and die and die. The only discharge you get from this place is to the mortuary."
Struggling to contain a dangerous epidemic of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, known as XDR-TB, the South African government's policy is to hospitalize those unlucky enough to have the disease until they are no longer infectious. Hospitals in two of the three provinces with the most cases - here in the Eastern Cape, as well as in the Western Cape - have sought court orders to compel the return of runaways.
The public health threat is grave. The disease spreads through the air when patients cough and sneeze. It is resistant to the most effective drugs. And in South Africa, where these resistant strains of tuberculosis have reached every province and prey on those whose immune systems are weakened by AIDS, it will kill many, if not most, of those who contract it.
As extensively drug-resistant TB rapidly emerges as a global threat to public health - one found in 45 countries - South Africa is grappling with a sticky ethical problem: how to balance the liberty of individual patients against the need to protect society. - - - -
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Rat plague hits Bangladesh
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AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - May 18, 2008Dhaka - The UN's World Food Programme began distributing emergency food aid on Sunday to 120 000 people facing famine in south eastern Bangladesh, where an invasion of rats led to widespread crop destruction. People from the affected areas in the Chittagong hill tracks were struggling to feed themselves and had been eating wild roots from the jungle ever since the area was overrun by millions of rats, the WFP said. It said its food aid would meet the immediate needs of over 25 680 households from May to August this year and would help "maintain adequate food consumption and protect livelihood". "Thousands of poor tribal families would have remained destitute due to the loss of their crops, and livelihoods," said the acting WFP representative in Bangladesh Edward Kallon. "The donor assistance has enabled WFP to respond quickly to feed these vulnerable poor families who are in need of food," he said. 150 000 people affected Aid workers said the rat invasion had affected about 150 000 people. Bangladesh's army, local officials and the UN Development Programmes were also handing out aid in affected areas. "Rat flood" The flowering of bamboo forests for the first time in 50 years in the affected areas, located along a 300-kilometre border stretch with India, led to the so-called "rat-flood". The rodents multiplied by feeding on bamboo blossoms, rice stalks and vegetables. Villagers said that whatever they tried to grow was devoured within hours. Plague every 50 to 60 years The bamboo forests first began blossoming last year in the Lusai Hills in the neighbouring Indian state of Mizoram. Authorities declared it a disaster zone after rats went on to eat food stocks. Locals said the plague happened once every 50 to 60 years, with the last such disaster in 1958. It was feared the rats would infest the region for at least three more years, as they did in the late 1950s. Original Report Here
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| Ants swarm over Houston area, fouling electronics |
ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Linda Stewart Ball - May 15, 2008
DALLAS - In what sounds like a really low-budget horror film, voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area, shorting out electrical boxes and messing up computers.
The hairy, reddish-brown creatures are known as "crazy rasberry ants"-crazy, because they wander erratically instead of marching in regimented lines, and "rasberry" after Tom Rasberry, an exterminator who did battle against them early on.
"They're itty-bitty things about the size of fleas, and they're just running everywhere," said Patsy Morphew of Pearland, who is constantly sweeping them off her patio and scooping them out of her pool by the cupful. "There's just thousands and thousands of them. If you've seen a car racing, that's how they are. They're going fast, fast, fast. They're crazy."
The ants-formally known as "paratrenicha species near pubens"-have spread to five Houston-area counties since they were first spotted in Texas in 2002.
The newly recognized species is believed to have arrived in a cargo shipment through the port of Houston. Scientists are not sure exactly where the ants came from, but their cousins, commonly called crazy ants, are found in the Southeast and the Caribbean.
"At this point, it would be nearly impossible to eradicate the ant because it is so widely dispersed," said Roger Gold, a Texas A&M University entomologist.
The good news? They eat fire ants, the stinging red terrors of Texas summers.
But the ants also like to suck the sweet juices from plants, feed on such beneficial insects as ladybugs, and eat the hatchlings of a small, endangered type of grouse known as the Attwater prairie chicken.
They also bite humans, though not with a stinger like fire ants.
Worse, they, like some other species of ants, are attracted to electrical equipment, for reasons that are not well understood by scientists.
They have ruined pumps at sewage pumping stations, fouled computers and at least one homeowner's gas meter, and caused fire alarms to malfunction. They have been spotted at NASA's Johnson Space Center and close to Hobby Airport, though they haven't caused any major problems there yet.
Exterminators say calls from frustrated homeowners and businesses are increasing because the ants-which are starting to emerge by the billions with the onset of the warm, humid season-appear to be resistant to over-the-counter ant killers.
"The population built up so high that typical ant controls simply did no good," said Jason Meyers, an A&M doctoral student who is writing his dissertation on the one-eighth-inch-long ant.
It's not enough just to kill the queen. Experts say each colony has multiple queens that have to be taken out.
At the same time, the ants aren't taking the bait usually left out in traps, according to exterminators, who want the Environmental Protection Agency to loosen restrictions on the use of more powerful pesticides.
And when you do kill these ants, the survivors turn it to their advantage: They pile up the dead, sometimes using them as a bridge to cross safely over surfaces treated with pesticide.
"It looked like someone had come along and poured coffee granules all around the perimeter of the rooms," said Lisa Calhoun, who paid exterminators $1,200 to treat an infestation of her parents' home in the Houston suburb of Pearland.
The Texas Department of Agriculture is working with A&M researchers and the EPA on how to stop the ants.
"This one seems to be like lava flowing and filling an entire area, getting bigger and bigger," said Ron Harrison, director of training for the big pest-control company Orkin Inc.
Original Report Here |
| Bats Perish, and No One Knows Why |
NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Tina Kelley - March 25, 2008
Al Hicks was standing outside an old mine in the Adirondacks, the largest bat hibernaculum, or winter resting place, in New York State.
It was broad daylight in the middle of winter, and bats flew out of the mine about one a minute. Some had fallen to the ground where they flailed around on the snow like tiny wind-broken umbrellas, using the thumbs at the top joint of their wings to gain their balance.
All would be dead by nightfall. Mr. Hicks, a mammal specialist with the state's Environmental Conservation Department, said: "Bats don't fly in the daytime, and bats don't fly in the winter. Every bat you see out here is a 'dead bat flying,' so to speak."
They have plenty of company. In what is one of the worst calamities to hit bat populations in the United States, on average 90 percent of the hibernating bats in four caves and mines in New York have died since last winter.
Wildlife biologists fear a significant die-off in about 15 caves and mines in New York, as well as at sites in Massachusetts and Vermont. Whatever is killing the bats leaves them unusually thin and, in some cases, dotted with a white fungus. Bat experts fear that what they call White Nose Syndrome may spell doom for several species that keep insect pests under control.
Researchers have yet to determine whether the bats are being killed by a virus, bacteria, toxin, environmental hazard, metabolic disorder or fungus. Some have been found with pneumonia, but that and the fungus are believed to be secondary symptoms.
"This is probably one of the strangest and most puzzling problems we have had with bats," said Paul Cryan, a bat ecologist with the United States Geological Survey. "It's really startling that we've not come up with a smoking gun yet." - - - -
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China steps up fight against virus sickening young kids
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Most of the cases have been blamed on enterovirus 71, or EV-71
ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Audra Ang - May 7, 2008
BEIJING - China announced Wednesday new rules that require health care providers to report all cases of a viral illness that has killed 28 children and sickened thousands in outbreaks across the country.
There have been 15,799 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease this year, the official Xinhua News Agency said, cropping up in areas ranging from the tropical island province of Hainan in the south to Jilin province in the northeast and Yunnan province in the southwest. - - -
The outbreaks are the latest headache for authorities as they gear up for the Beijing Olympics. Preparations have already been upset by unrest in Tibet and protests during the global torch run. - - -
Hand, foot and mouth disease is a common childhood illness that spreads through contact with saliva, feces, fluid secreted from blisters or mucus from the nose and throat. There is no vaccine or specific treatment, but most children typically recover quickly. It is unrelated to the foot and mouth disease that affects livestock.
The increasing number of cases brings up parallels with the Communist leadership's handling of previous infectious outbreaks, especially the SARS epidemic of 2003.
Government attempts to conceal the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome - a new disease at the time - contributed to its spread, ultimately causing 774 deaths worldwide and forcing Beijing to apologize amid international criticism. - - -
Last year, some 80,000 hand, foot and mouth cases were recorded in China, with 17 deaths, Mao said, adding that the figures were likely incomplete. - - -
In the hardest-hit central province of Anhui, 22 children have died since March. Three fatalities have also been reported in Guangdong province in the south and one in Zhejiang province in the east.
Most of the cases have been blamed on enterovirus 71, or EV-71, one of several viruses that cause the illness. EV-71 can result in a more serious form of the disease that can lead to paralysis, brain swelling and sometimes death. - - - -
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EV71 virus has caused deaths in Vietnam: health official
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AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - May 5, 2008
HANOI - A virus that causes hand, foot and mouth disease has infected around 400 people in Vietnam this year and led to an unknown number of deaths, a health official in the communist country said Tuesday.
No precise data on cases and fatalities was available because enterovirus 71 or EV71 is not a notifiable disease in Vietnam, said Nguyen Huy Nga, head of the Health Ministry's Preventive Medicine Department.
The intestinal virus, which hits children hardest because of their weaker immune system, has killed at least 26 children in neighbouring China and infected thousands more, raising fears it could spread across the region.
"Vietnam has had about 2,000 cases of hand, food and mouth disease this year, of which about 20 percent were caused by EV71," Nga told AFP, saying 90 percent of cases were in southern Vietnam, especially Ho Chi Minh City.
"There were some deaths involving the virus but we have no specific figure."
He said "children under 10 are the group most vulnerable to this disease."
The senior epidemiologist of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Vietnam, Dr Sean Tobin, said there was "no obvious association between the cases in China and those in Vietnam."
"As this is not a notifiable disease, there is no formal collection of data and no clear picture of the numbers in Vietnam," he said. "But reports from local health officials suggest that the number and severity of cases this year is higher."
Tobin said "the disease is recognized as an increasing public health problem" in Vietnam and added that local health authorities had asked the WHO for help "to determine options for monitoring and control."
EV71, which begins with fever, blisters, mouth ulcers and rashes, is highly contagious and spread through direct contact with the mucus, saliva or faeces of an infected person.
Original Report Here |
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Paralysis Outbreak In Meat Workers Handling Pigs' Brains |
MEDICAL NEWS TODAY - February 4, 2008
Main Category: Neurology / Neuroscience
Also Included In: Veterinary; Nutrition / Diet
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an update last week to its investigation of an outbreak of a paralysing condition that is affecting certain meat processing plant workers who use compressed air to remove the brains from the heads of pig carcases.
The illness is called Progressive Inflammatory Neuropathy (PIN) and its symptoms range from acute paralysis to gradual increase of weakness on both sides of the body, which in some cases happens over 8 days and in others over 213 days. The symptoms vary in severity from slight weakness and numbness to paralysis that affects mobility, mostly in the lower extremities.
The current thinking, which is yet to be proved, is that the meat workers are being exposed to splatter and aerosol droplets of pig brain tissue created by the compressed air blast, which liquefies the tissue before expelling it from the pig skull. Once inhaled, small particles of pig brain tissue are then is attacked by the worker's immune system which uses antibodies that also attack the body's own almost identical human nerve tissue.
Following the PIN outbreak in a Minnesota meat processing plant, the CDC launched a nationwide survey of large slaughterhouses and found two more meat plants that had used the compressed air system recently. One of the plants was also reporting cases of a neurologic illness among its meat processing workers.
The outbreak came to the attention of the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) in October last year, when it started getting reports of an unexplained neurologic illness among meat processing workers in a swine slaughterhouse in Southeast Minnesota, and which the CDC calls "plant A".
The MDH conducted a full and detailed investigation of the plant, which employs some 1,200 workers and processes 18,000 pigs a day. They interviewed workers and looked at health records, and found a total of 12 employees who have either been confirmed as having PIN (8 so far), probably have it (2), or possibly have it (2).
The 12 workers, six of whom are female, started having symptoms between November 2006 and November 2007 and reported being healthy beforehand. They ranged in age from 21 to 51 years.
According to the MDH, 11 of the 12 workers affected showed evidence of axonal or demyelinating peripheral neuropathy (damage to nerve fibres and surrounding protective tissue). Spinal fluid taken from 7 of the workers showed they had high protein levels with little or no rise in pleocytosis or white blood cell count. A raised white blood cell count is usually evidence of inflammation.
However, five patients showed evidence of inflammation when examined by spinal MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), four of them in peripheral nerves or roots and one in the anteorior spinal cord.
All 12 affected workers said they either worked at or had contact with the area of the plant where pig heads were processed (called the "head table"). The head table was in an area of the plant known as the "warm room".
The MDH conducted a case-controlled study that included 10 of the 12 workers (the 8 confirmed and the 2 probable cases of PIN), and two control groups: a random selection of 48 healthy workers from the warm room, and all 65 healthy workers from the head table. After examining throat swabs and blood samples from the consenting participants, the MDH to date has not found any infectious agent that could explain the PIN symptoms.
Futher results from the case-control study showed that 7 of the 10 workers with PIN (70 per cent of the case patients) were seven times more likely to have worked at the head table than the controls from the warm room (25 per cent, or 12 of 48). Case patients were also more likely to have handled brains and muscle from pigs' heads than members of either control group.
Travel outside the US or inside the US, exposure to chemicals, including fertilizers and insecticides, or having had vaccinations, were also not found to be causes of the PIN illness.
The health authorities then investigated the processing methods and safety equipment in the warm room and the head table in particular, and concluded, for now, that the compressed air method used to liquefy and remove the brain tissue from the pigs' heads could be causing the PIN through creating aerosol droplets of brain tissue that is then inhaled by the workers.
The plant operator has suspended use of the compressed air equipment voluntarily and stepped up use of personal protective equipment (PPE), including face shields and long sleeves for the head table workers and any other workers who want to use additional PPE, said the CDC report.
Following the Minnesota plant A outbreak report, the CDC surveyed all 25 federally inspected swine slaughterhouses in the US with more than 500 employees. They found three plants, including Minnesota plant A, using the compressed air method to remove pigs' brains. The other two are in Nebraska and Indiana. Of those, only the Indiana plant has reported cases of suspected PIN, which are currently being further assessed. In the meantime, all three plants have stopped using the compressed air method to remove brain tissue, said the CDC.
The CDC said that:
"Whether compressed-air devices are being used for pig-brain extraction in other slaughterhouses or processing facilities, in the United States or internationally, is unknown."
"Clinicians should provide CDC with information regarding swine slaughterhouse workers who might have illnesses similar to PIN, including patients with peripheral neuropathy, myelopathy, or features of both."
If doctors se any patients who work in slaughterhouses with these symptoms, they should report them to their state health department and also let the CDC know on 770-488-7100.
A puzzling feature of this outbreak was raised by the plant owner at one of the affected plants, who started as a floor walker in 1970. He told the Washington Post that they had been "harvesting pig brains since 1998, using the same method and the same 70-pound pressure air hose." So why did the outbreak not take place ten years ago, when they started using the method? The plant owner said that was the "million-dollar question".
"Investigation of Progressive Inflammatory Neuropathy Among Swine Slaughterhouse Workers --- Minnesota, 2007---2008:."
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
MMWR January 31, 2008 / 57 (Early Release);1-3.
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Sickened pork workers have new nerve disorder |
REUTERS [Thomson-Reuters] - By Julie Steenhuysen - April 16, 2008
CHICAGO - Eighteen pork plant workers in Minnesota, at least five in Indiana and one in Nebraska have come down with a mysterious neurological condition they appear to have contracted while removing brains from slaughtered pigs, U.S. researchers and health officials said on Wednesday.
They said the illness is a new disorder that causes a range of symptoms, from inflammation of the spinal cord to mild weakness, fatigue, numbness and tingling in the arms and legs.
"As far as we are aware it is a brand new disorder," said Dr. Daniel Lachance of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who presented his findings at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in Chicago.
Lachance has been following the 18 Minnesota patients, all of whom have evidence of nerve involvement, typically affecting the legs.
He said tests showed patients had damage to the nerves at the root level near the spinal cord, and at the far reaches of their motor nerves, where the nerves connect with muscle.
The first cases of the condition were reported in November of last year at Quality Pork Processors Inc in Austin, Minnesota, where workers had been using compressed air to blow pork brains out of the skull cavity.
Lachance said this process appears to be triggering some sort of inflammatory response. So far, no infectious agent has been found that could explain the illness.
'STRONG ASSOCIATION'
Lachance said it is possible that bits of pig brain stimulated an immune response in the bodies of the workers, causing their immune systems to improperly attack their own nerve tissue.
"It is a very strong association -- the fact that we are talking about harvesting (pig brains) and potentially exposing workers to nervous system tissue and then they are coming down with a neurological syndrome," he said in a telephone interview.
Dr. James Sejvar of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said it is unlikely the condition could be passed from person to person.
"It doesn't appear this is in any way a foodborne illness," Sejvar told a media briefing. He said the processing technique used appears to be very uncommon.
"We canvassed 25 of the largest pork processors in the United States," Sejvar said. "We have identified only these three plants that use this process."
All three plants have suspended the processing practice as a precaution.
While symptoms range in severity, most of the cases are mild. "Most of these patients have relatively mild weakness on their examinations or in fact no weakness, but have a predominance of sensory symptoms. They could be walking around and not have the appearance of being ill," Lachance said.
He said those who were mildly affected received drugs that address numbness and pain, and those who were more severely affected were treated with drugs that suppress or modulate the immune system.
"No one has completely recovered," Lachance said, adding, "Most have improved to a very modest degree, mainly in terms of their fatigue and sensory symptoms."
(Editing by Will Dunham and Xavier Briand)
Original Article Here |
| Tanzania: Bubonic plague kills 9 |
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - May 17, 2008
Dar Es Salaam - Bubonic plague has killed nine people in northern Tanzania since February, a regional official said on Thursday.
The plague outbreak was first reported in one village in late February, but has since spread to six others and infected 72 people, Salash Toure, a medical official in Manyara region, near the Kenyan border, told AFP.
"The disease can easily be eradicated through increased health education on the use of pesticides and the destruction of vectors (rats or other rodents)," Toure said, adding that local authorities needed the pesticides to treat it.
"The government has already dispatched the required amount of pesticide," to the remote region, Raphael Kalinga, an official with the health ministry, told AFP.
The disease is endemic in some parts of northern Tanzania, he added.
Bubonic plague is a potentially fatal bacterial infection which causes swollen and tender lymph nodes, high fever, and chills.
It is carried by small rodents and fleas that live on them, but is not spread between humans.
Original Report Here |
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Colorado: Salmonella outbreak linked to tap water |
ASSOCIATED PRESS - March 20, 2008
DENVER - State health officials warned residents of a southern Colorado town Wednesday to stop drinking and cooking with tap water because they said it might be linked to a salmonella outbreak.
The state health department said 33 cases of salmonella have been confirmed and 46 other reports were being investigated in Alamosa, a city of 8,500 about 160 miles south of Denver. Officials said that the tap water tested positive for bacteria believed to be salmonella, but that the results had not been confirmed.
Water-borne salmonella outbreaks are fairly rare, said Mark Salley, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The bacteria are typically spread by food, he said.
Salmonella can cause diarrhea, fever and stomach pain. Victims typically recover on their own, but the elderly, infants and people with impaired immune systems may require treatment. Untreated, salmonella can cause death in vulnerable victims, the health department said. - - - -Read Full Report |
| Madagascar: UN help sought for outbreak of Rift Valley fever |
UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE - April 18, 2008
Health and agriculture ministry officials in Madagascar have asked two United Nations agencies for assistance as they fight a deadly outbreak of the viral haemorrhagic disease known as Rift Valley Fever (RVF).
Seventeen people are suspected to have died from the virus outbreak across five regions of the Indian Ocean island nation, according to local authorities, and a total of 418 cases are suspected this year, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) reported today. Laboratory tests by scientists have also confirmed at least 59 cases of human infection.
Officials in Madagascar have asked the WHO, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) to undertake a joint mission to the country to support their efforts to contain the outbreak.
Transmitted by mosquitoes, RVF is a dangerous disease that affects both livestock - including sheep, goats, cattle and camels - and humans, but is usually well-established in animal populations by the time the first human cases are observed.
Humans become infected through mosquito bites or direct contact with infected material and liquids such as animal blood during slaughtering, while the uncooked milk of infected animals can also pose a risk. No cases of human-to-human transmission have ever been reported.
While some infected people experience no detectable symptoms, others develop flu-like fever, muscle pain, headaches, joint pain, vomiting, loss of appetite and sensitivity to light. In more severe cases patients can also experience lesions in their eyes, neurological problems, liver impairment and haemorrhagic fever symptoms including widespread bleeding.
Original Report Here |
| Parents may be jailed over vaccinations |
ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Maria Cheng - March 12, 2008
LONDON - As doctors struggle to eradicate polio worldwide, one of their biggest problems is persuading parents to vaccinate their children. In Belgium, authorities are resorting to an extreme measure: prison sentences.
Two sets of parents in Belgium were recently handed five month prison terms for failing to vaccinate their children against polio. Each parent was also fined 4,100 euros ($8,000).
"It's a pretty extraordinary case," said Dr. Ross Upshur, director of the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto.
"The Belgians have a right to take some action against the parents, given the seriousness of polio, but the question is, is a prison sentence disproportionate?"
The parents can still avoid prison - their sentences were delayed to give them a chance to vaccinate their children. But if that deadline also passes without their children receiving the injections, the parents could be put behind bars.
Because of privacy laws, Belgian officials would not talk specifically about the case, such as why the parents refused the vaccine or how much longer they have to vaccinate their children.
The polio vaccine is the only one required by Belgian law. Exceptions are granted only if parents can prove their children might have a bad physical reaction to the vaccine. - - - -
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Moriel Ministries does not necessarily endorse everything that is transmitted to our email groups, as being completely trustworthy or godly as some items are drawn from secular sources. Nor does it suggest in any way that any individual or organization mentioned should be followed or given any special credence. Be Alert! is for the dissemination of information only and godly discretion must be applied by recipients to every transmission received by them, from us. |
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