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Terra Daily: 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."
2008-02-12 16:33:37
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The Telegraph: 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."
2008-01-30 19:40:56
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Washington Post (US): 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."
2008-01-25 18:26:08
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AFP: 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."
2008-01-21 16:06:46
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San Francisco Chronicle: 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.
2008-01-14 08:58:47
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UPI: Hordes of rats ravaging Indian state "CALCUTTA, India, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- The Indian state of Mizoram saw its crops ravaged by hordes of hungry rats last year, leading to the loss of nearly 40,000 tons of rice. Mizoram agriculture official James Lalsiamliana said the state's flowering bamboo crops drew in large numbers of the rodents, which went on to eat up much of the crop supply in 2007, the BBC reported Saturday. Lalsiamliana said that among the other crops decimated by the rodent invasion were the state's watermelon, chilli, banana, pumpkin and papaya supplies."
2008-01-13 16:02:08
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Reuters UK: 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.
2008-01-12 11:04:19
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BBC (UK): 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."
2008-01-05 14:18:19
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Reuters: Tuberculosis exposure feared on India-to-U.S. flight "U.S. health officials are trying to track down 44 people who sat near a woman infected with a hard-to-treat form of tuberculosis aboard an airliner from India to determine whether they have been infected, authorities said on Friday. The infected woman is 30 years old and is being treated for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, or MDR TB, at a hospital in the San Francisco area, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She had been diagnosed in India with MDR TB but traveled last month anyway, the CDC said."
2008-01-09 22:39:55
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The Observer: Inside Ebola "Inside Ebola's zone of death Uganda is gripped by fear of an epidemic explosion' as the killer virus develops a slower and potentially more lethal version."
2007-12-14 09:56:42
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Jakarta Post (Indonesia): Bird flu resurfaces in Asia, human deaths and poultry outbreaks reported "Bird flu has resurfaced in parts of Asia, with human deaths reported in Indonesia and China and fresh poultry outbreaks plaguing other countries during the winter months when the virus typically flares. Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by the H5N1 virus, announced its 93rd death on Friday after a 47-year-old man died a day earlier in a Jakarta hospital, said Health Ministry spokesman Joko Suyono. He fell ill on Dec. 2 and was admitted with flu-like symptoms, becoming Indonesia's 115th person infected with the disease."
2008-01-09 22:43:48
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Washington Post (US): Virus Starts Like a Cold But Can Turn Into a Killer "Infectious-disease expert David N. Gilbert was making rounds at the Providence Portland Medical Center in Oregon in April when he realized that an unusual number of patients, including young, vigorous adults, were being hit by a frightening pneumonia.
"What was so striking was to see patients who were otherwise healthy be just devastated," Gilbert said. Within a day or two of developing a cough and high fever, some were so sick they would arrive at the emergency room gasping for air. "They couldn't breathe," Gilbert said. "They were going to die if we didn't get more oxygen into them." Gilbert alerted state health officials, a decision that led investigators to realize that a new, apparently more virulent form of a virus that usually causes nothing worse than a nasty cold was circulating around the United States. At least 1,035 Americans in four states have been infected so far this year by the virus, known as an adenovirus. Dozens have been hospitalized, many requiring intensive care, and at least 10 have died.
2007-12-10 10:57:22
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Reuters (Africa): A new virus called Chikungunya spreads to several new countries via mosquito "This mutation increases the potential for Chikungunya virus to permanently extend its range into Europe and the Americas," Stephen Higgs and colleagues at the University of Texas Medical Branch wrote in their report, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Pathogens.
2007-12-08 12:20:30
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AllAfrica.com: Uganda: Cabinet Meets Over Ebola Epidemic "At Mulago Hospital, where Dr. Jonah Kule, a medic from Bundibugyo, died of suspected Ebola on Tuesday night, some sections were paralysed yesterday as health workers feared to handle patients without appropriate protective gear. In the casualty ward, Saturday Vision saw empty glove boxes and plastic containers meant to carry disinfectants. By about 11:00am, a crowd of patients was outside the casualty ward waiting in vain to be called in, while others went home frustrated. In emergency ward 3B, some workers wore masks, white gumboots and gloves, while others did not. Meanwhile, in the out-patient department in Old Mulago, work was going on normally except for the low turn up of patients compared to other days. The hospital director could not be reached for comment as he was in marathon meetings."
2007-12-08 11:48:32
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AllHands.com: Uganda: 'Hiv/Aids is Nothing Compared to Plague' "This hut had to be at a good distance of not less than 200 metres. Relatives would bring food and pour it on a banana leaf about 100 metres from the 'condemned' patient, who would then pick it or eat it from there. This was meant to cut out any direct contact with healthy people.
Often, these patients would die at night and would be buried just next to the hut by only family members. Neighbours would shun such homes for a long time.
Just like happens when a disease breaks out and is yet to be identified, rumours of witchcraft abounded as regards plague.
But it was the colonial government which brought an end to the pandemic when it exploited cultural beliefs to wipe out plague. The cure, the government said, lay in the tail of an undesirable rodent that is a menace in our homes - the rat. And it was real."
