[Health] The Infectious Diseases Thread

[J.D.]

Reanimating large pre-historic viruses sounds ... unwise.

[wonderpug]

Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should!

[Freyland]

And this is how the zombie apocalypse starts.

[Moliere]

Experts Refuse To Warn Of Any New Health Hazards Until Americans Deal With Current Backlog

[KKBlue]

O M G ! ^
I was cheering on the fella in my mind while reading in disbelief! Holy shit, this guy... I wish he would step back from the podium so I could see his balls! They have to be huge! Wow! It's all reading like a dream, fantasy reality happening in my lifetime!
Then I noticed the symbol at the end of the article.

[Isgrimnur]

Blame the ancient squirrels:

Thank an ancient squirrel, climate change and French scientists for the new discovery of an ancient virus, Mollivirus sibericum, that sounds like it could launch a creepy movie.
...
The virus has been at rest for 30,000 years about 30 meters deep in the Siberian permafrost. Astrobiologists using it as kind of stand-in for Mars have taken core samples looking for life. Claverie said he stumbled on research that described reviving a plant from a seed that had been buried for 30,000 years. What intrigued Claverie was that the particular core sample came into contact with an ancient squirrel's nest.
...
When Claverie's team got the sample, they knew they'd have to be careful to protect animals and humans from whatever was in it; they weren't sure if they'd wake up Captain America or the Winter Soldier.

"We're not stupid enough to revive a virus that may pose a threat to human health," Claverie said.

So, they went fishing. "We use amoeba as bait to fish out whatever viruses may be in that specific sample," Claverie said.

The amoeba was the type typically found in contact lens infections. The team grew them, then mixed in parts of the permafrost samples in a petri dish. Most of the time, nothing happened.

"But every once in a while, we see them die and that's when we know somebody must be killing them," Claverie said. "This way, we know which to isolate from the others." Scientists say they are safeguarding the virus sample.

Using this technique has led to several discoveries -- Mollivirus sibericum is the latest of four giant viruses found so far in this one sample. It's called a "giant" virus because you can see it under a light microscope, like a bacteria, and it has a large number of genes.
...
"The name is a little mundane compared to the last giant virus we found 'the Pandoraviruses,'" he said. "Mollivirus sibericum, though could be as equally dangerous as what is in Pandora's Box, based on its behavior.

"It was a very low concentration of these viruses that infected the amoeba. If you think about it, it's really scary that only a handful of particles might be sufficient enough to start an epidemic."

Which is why, in the paper Claverie and his team published in a recent edition of PNAS, they express concern about other ventures into the permafrost.

[Jeff V]

I would think this could be another concern to add to the list of "shitty things that global warming will bring down upon us".

[Isgrimnur]

Peanuts and salmonella

Former peanut company executive Stewart Parnell faces a potential sentence of life behind bars Monday for his 2014 conviction on crimes behind a salmonella outbreak blamed for killing nine and sickening hundreds.

The 61-year-old former head of Peanut Corporation of America was scheduled to be sentenced in Georgia federal court with his brother and a former manager at the defunct company. They were found guilty in what some experts called the first food-poisoning trial of U.S. food processors.

The expected sentencings stem from U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control findings that traced a national salmonella outbreak to the Parnell company's peanut roasting plant in Blakely, Ga. The outbreak sickened 714 people in 46 states and may have contributed to nine deaths, the CDC reported.
...
A federal jury convicted Parnell last September on 71 criminal counts, including conspiracy, obstruction of justice and introduction of adulterated food. The verdict came after prosecutors presented evidence that Parnell and the co-defendants knowingly shipped salmonella-tainted peanut butter from the Georgia facility to Kellogg’s and other customers — who in turn used it in products ranging from packaged crackers to pet food.

Federal investigators who checked the Georgia facility found a leaky roof, roaches and evidence of rodents, all ingredients for breeding salmonella. They also uncovered emails and records showing food confirmed by lab tests to contain salmonella was shipped to customers.

Other peanut batches were never tested, but nonetheless were shipped with fake lab records saying salmonella screenings were negative, prosecutors charged.

[Isgrimnur]

Go Nigeria.

The WHO will not declare Nigeria out of the woods until 2017.

NBC News

Nigeria has been declared free of transmission of polio, leaving just two countries in the world where the virus is still regularly spreading: Pakistan and Afghanistan.
...
The World Health Organization announcement means that polio is no longer endemic in Nigeria, which was the last country in Africa with regular, ongoing transmission of the virus.
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It'll be two more years before Africa is declared polio-free. The virus can lurk in the body and it can go unreported in rural areas, so it takes a few years to be certain the virus isn't popping up anywhere. But it is not being actively transmitted, WHO said.

[LawBeefaroni]

Pakistan is trying. The CIA didn't do them any favors, but they're trying.

Authorities in Peshawar, in the north-west of the country, detained 471 people and charged them with "endangering public security".

The local government says they will only be freed once they have pledged in writing to vaccinate their children.

The Taliban prohibit vaccinations and have attacked health workers.

The Pakistani government has declared "war" on the disease. "We have decided to deal with the refusal cases with iron hands. Anyone who refuses will be sent to jail," said Riaz Khan Mehsud, deputy commissioner of Peshawar.

[stessier]

Go Nigeria.

The WHO will not declare Nigeria out of the woods until 2017.

NBC News

Nigeria has been declared free of transmission of polio, leaving just two countries in the world where the virus is still regularly spreading: Pakistan and Afghanistan.
...
The World Health Organization announcement means that polio is no longer endemic in Nigeria, which was the last country in Africa with regular, ongoing transmission of the virus.
...
It'll be two more years before Africa is declared polio-free. The virus can lurk in the body and it can go unreported in rural areas, so it takes a few years to be certain the virus isn't popping up anywhere. But it is not being actively transmitted, WHO said.

I just listened to the Nerdist podcast (#626 I believe) where they interview Bill Gates. At the end, they also interview the epidemiologist that works for them who is responsible for their polio program. He was talking about what it takes to declare a region polio free, why it is so hard to finish stamping it out, and why polio is even a target for complete elimination. It was really interesting.

He also talked about a recent outbreak in Syria and said that it was concerning because that area had been free for over 10 years. It turns out that a man had traveled from Pakistan and spread it in the region and because of the civil war, the vaccination program had completely fallen apart so that anyone 2 and under was susceptible.

[Jeff V]

The WHO will not declare Nigeria out of the woods until 2017.

Dear Friend,

By now I am sure you have heard that deadly polio virus has been declared eliminated from Nigeria. However, the WHO now has an abundance of funds located in this country and needs your help to move it elsewhere were it can continue to benefit humanity. To compensate for your trouble, you will receive a commission of ONE BILLION DOLLARS that is entirely tax free. Please respond immediately as the need elsewhere is quite urgent.

Signed,

WHO

[AWS260]

Stopping HIV in San Francisco.

The city that was once the epidemic’s ground zero now has only a few hundred new cases a year, the result of a raft of creative programs that have sent infection rates plummeting.

The reporter observes that SF's success has been made possible by the tech boom -- not only through increased tax revenues that can fund HIV programs, but also because the insane real estate market has driven out the poor blacks and Latinos, who are greatest risk of infection.

[Isgrimnur]

Gowns and gloves are dangerous:

Researchers asked real hospital workers to remove gowns and gloves smeared with fake bacteria. When they did, the fake bacteria wound up on their skin or clothes 46% of the time, according to their report published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

In other words, the odds that these healthcare professionals could take off their protective coverings without contaminating themselves were only slightly better than the flip of a coin.
...
Of 435 simulations performed in the study, 246 were done by nurses, 72 by doctors and 117 by folks like phlebotomists, physical therapists, dietitians and radiology technicians.
...
The hospital workers got the lotion on their clothes and skin 38% of the time when they took off their gowns and 53% of the time when they took off their gloves. Overall, the average “contamination” rate was 46%.

Employees of all four hospitals were about equally likely to contaminate themselves, the researchers found. In addition, all of the different kinds of workers were about equally likely to make a mistake in putting on or taking off their personal protective equipment. The most common mistakes were failure to pull gloves over the wrist, taking gowns off over the head (instead of pulling them away from the body), putting on gloves before the gown and touching the outside of a dirty glove when taking it off.

When volunteers made a mistake, they wound up contaminated 70% of the time. But even when they followed the procedures perfectly, they still contaminated themselves 30% of the time.
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Other studies of real-world conditions have found that between 2% and 5% of hospital workers caring for colonized patients wind up with the pathogens on their hands after taking off their gloves. In one study, 24% of those treating patients with Clostridium difficile got spores on their hands.

[Isgrimnur]

Scottish nurse in critical condition.

A Scottish nurse re-admitted to hospital on Friday with a complication related to the Ebola virus, which she contracted as an aid worker in Sierra Leone last year, is now in a "critical condition."

Pauline Cafferkey, 39, who was working for Save the Children in Kerry Town when she contracted Ebola, was transported from Glasgow to an isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead last week, where she's being treated for a complication in her recovery. She was thought to have beaten the disease and was discharged from an earlier hospitalisation in January.
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Over the weekend, her family said she received bad medical advice in Scotland when she recently fell ill. They told the Sunday Mail newspaper she went to a Glasgow hospital on Oct. 5, but was sent home even though the doctor assessing her knew of her earlier Ebola treatment.

Four days later she was flown by military plane into London for treatment in the isolation ward. Her family said doctors had missed a big opportunity to treat her earlier.

[Isgrimnur]

Oh, how you all laughed when I warned you about the semen. Well, who's laughing now?

UPI

New testing among men in Sierra Leone shows the Ebola virus can persist in semen nine months after symptoms start, leading to renewed efforts to educate people in countries affected by the epidemic.
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There are more than 8,000 male Ebola survivors in the countries of West Africa, raising concern, especially in light of the new study, that carelessness about sex could reignite the outbreak.
...
Researchers tested semen from 93 men in Freetown, Sierra Leone, for Ebola virus genetic material between 2 and 10 months after they were diagnosed.

All men who'd been diagnosed within the previous three months tested positive for the virus. More than half of men, 65 percent, whose semen was tested four to six months after diagnosis were found to have Ebola present in their semen. Of the men tested nine months after being diagnosed, 26 percent of their semen tested positive for Ebola.

26% at nine months? I'd say the 'up to' is premature speculation at this point.

[Blackhawk]

Premature speculation happens to everyone, sometimes.

[Smoove_B]

There are always surprises and unexpected elements associated with disease etiology, but this? It's crazy-town. 9 months!

[Blackhawk]

As an aside, I hate this thread. Every time I see it bumped onto the front page, I expect it to be Smoove announcing the end of civilization.

[Smoove_B]

No, no. I'll send out PMs first.

[Isgrimnur]

What better way to make sure the cull goes according to plan?

[MHS]

No, no. I'll send out PMs first.

To everyone, or just the people you like?

[Jeff V]

No, no. I'll send out PMs first.

To everyone, or just the people you like?

Well, I just got one from him notifying me the sex junket to Liberia has been postponed.

[Smoove_B]

To everyone, or just the people you like?

Like Coccidioides immitis, my message will spread far and wide to all my buddies here on OO. We've all been hanging out for so long, it's the least I could do.

[LawBeefaroni]

To everyone, or just the people you like?

Like Coccidioides immitis, my message will spread far and wide to all my buddies here on OO.

"Don't Blame Me, I Caught It From Smoove_B" t-shirts now available at Etsy.

[Isgrimnur]

Scottish nurse in critical condition.

A Scottish nurse re-admitted to hospital on Friday with a complication related to the Ebola virus, which she contracted as an aid worker in Sierra Leone last year, is now in a "critical condition."

It's meningitis:

A Scottish nurse rehospitalized nine months after beating Ebola is suffering from meningitis caused by the virus, not a relapse, a physician clarified Wednesday.

Nurse Pauline Cafferkey was admitted to a hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, on October 6 due to what UK health officials called "an unusual late complication" of her Ebola infection.
...
"To be very clear about this, she hasn't been reinfected with Ebola virus," Jacobs said. "This is the original Ebola virus that she had many months ago which has been inside the brain, replicating at a very low level probably, and which has now re-emerged to cause this clinical illness of meningitis."

Jacobs added that doctors were treating Cafferkey with an experimental anti-viral treatment. He said doctors had discussed its use with her and that the balance of risks favored this treatment.
...
He said Cafferkey's condition had significantly improved since she was declared critically ill last week, but that she was still in the isolation unit.

Premature speculation happens to everyone, sometimes.

Thank you for the pick-up on that one.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Is Alzheimer's caused by fungal infections?

Here, we provide evidence that tissue from the central nervous system (CNS) of AD patients contain fungal cells and hyphae. Fungal material can be detected both intra- and extracellularly using specific antibodies against several fungi. Different brain regions including external frontal cortex, cerebellar hemisphere, entorhinal cortex/hippocampus and choroid plexus contain fungal material, which is absent in brain tissue from control individuals. Analysis of brain sections from ten additional AD patients reveals that all are infected with fungi. Fungal infection is also observed in blood vessels, which may explain the vascular pathology frequently detected in AD patients.

[Smoove_B]

indeed. Did not see that coming at all.

[The Meal]

[Isgrimnur]

That would be a game changer if it checks out. It would certainly focus some more research on getting antifungals into the central nervous system.

[Odin]

I get nervous every time I see this thread pop up on the front page. It's useful, don't get me wrong, but whenever I see it there's a little jolt of "oh hell, now what?"

[Isgrimnur]

Iä! Shigella-Niggurath!

Santa Clara County health authorities Thursday said the number of Shigella cases linked to a downtown San Jose seafood eatery has reached 110 and urged people to carefully wash their hands to avoid transmitting the disease.

Officials also reported that the outbreak now includes 18 victims from Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties. The remaining 92 cases are from Santa Clara County.
...
Shigella infections can be very serious and, in rare cases, fatal, county officials said. The bacteria cause severe diarrhea and are easily transmitted, most often when an infected person doesn't wash hands after using the bathroom and then handles food.

County health officials suspect the disease was spread by a contaminated food handler, but the source remains under investigation. County officials have collected stool samples from Mariscos owners and employees, but does not expect lab results until next week, Cody said.

[Smoove_B]

Shigella is no joke -- the Shiga toxin just shuts down cells. What's interesting is that hemorrhagic E. Coli releases a Shiga-like toxin -- not the same exact one produced by Shigella dysenteriae, but strikingly similar. If I'm remembering correctly the leading theory is that at some point a bacterial virus (i.e. a virus that targets bacterial cells) scooped up the genetic material as part of infection from inside Shigella and ended up transferring it to E.Coli during a future infection. Nature is amazing (and scary).

[Isgrimnur]

Nurse: quarantine is inhumane

Hickox, who volunteered in Africa with Doctors Without Borders, was the first person forced into New Jersey's mandatory quarantine for people arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport from three West African countries.

And here's your lawsuit:

The health care worker who sharply criticized being quarantined at a New Jersey hospital last year because she had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa said in a lawsuit filed Thursday that Gov. Chris Christie and the state health department illegally held her against her will.

Attorneys for Kaci Hickox filed the federal civil rights lawsuit in Newark on Thursday. The suit also names former state Health Commissioner Mary O'Dowd and other health department employees. Hickox is seeking at least $250,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.
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Her suit lays out a series of temperature readings that were elevated when checked with a temporal thermometer, but normal when taken orally. A statement from O'Dowd that night said Hickox was being quarantined because she had developed a fever. The next day, Christie described her as "obviously ill." She said her mom later called her, afraid that she might be sick because of Christie's comment.

[AWS260]

The deadly legacy of HIV truthers. Great read, but awfully depressing.

When former President Nelson Mandela tried to question Mbeki’s AIDS policies at a 2002 African National Congress meeting, Mandela was publicly humiliated by top ANC officials, who were keen to show loyalty to Mbeki. They accused Mandela of breaking party discipline and undermining Mbeki, and ANC leader Ngoako Ramatlhodi described the other ANC officials as “like a pack of wild dogs, tearing their prey,” and said that after this “vicious mauling,” Mandela “looked twice his age, old and ashen.”

[Isgrimnur]

One down, two to go:

The world should stop vaccinating children against one of the three strains of the crippling polio virus as part of a drive to eradicate the disease once and for all, a group of health experts has advised the World Health Organization.
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The group is now recommending switching to a vaccine that only targets types 1 and 3, between April 17 and May 1, 2016, as type 2 has not been detected since 1999 and use of the vaccine itself can occasionally, inadvertently, aid the spread of the disease in countries with poor vaccine coverage.
...
A global vaccination campaign has all but beaten all three types of the wild polio virus, with only Pakistan and Afghanistan reporting cases this year.

But people who are vaccinated excrete the virus, putting those who have not been vaccinated at risk of catching it. Vaccine-derived cases have recently popped up in places with low vaccine coverage, such as Laos, Ukraine, Madagascar and Guinea.

"We want to stop that small number of type 2 that occurs in outbreaks," said Abramson. "When we’re not giving type 2 (vaccinations) you’re not going to see those outbreaks."
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"We haven’t seen type 3 wildtype in over three years. Hopefully very soon we will stop seeing wildtype type 1," Abramson said.

[Isgrimnur]

Chipotle E. Coli in the PNW

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc's shares touched their lowest level since July after the popular burrito chain said it closed 43 restaurants in the states of Washington and Oregon amid an investigation into an E. coli food poisoning outbreak.

Shares in the high-flying restaurant company touched a low of $608.52 in early trading on Monday and closed down 2.5 percent at $624 as investors and analysts fretted that food safety concerns could scare diners away from its more than 1,900 restaurants in the United States.

The outbreak is Chipotle's third food safety incident this year.

The closed restaurants, in and around Seattle and Portland, account for roughly 2 percent of Chipotle's U.S. footprint and could lower fourth-quarter sales at established restaurants by 0.6 percent, according to a "conservative bounce-back scenario," Bernstein analyst Sara Senatore said in a research note.
...
Chipotle said it closed all of the restaurants in the Seattle and Portland markets in "an abundance of caution" after learning that health department officials were investigating about 20 cases of E. coli, including in people who dined at eight of its eateries.

[Jeff V]

Chipotle food is already poisoned. They put cilantro in everything, even otherwise plain white rice.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

I wasn't sure whether this should go in this thread or in the weird science thread, but a new paper is out in the New England Journal of Medicine describing the case of a man who got cancer from a tapeworm.

[Smoove_B]

Come closer Texas, the Triatominaes have some sweet, delicious kisses for you:

The large bugs are turning up all over the state and research is showing most of them carry a parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, which doctors describe as a silent killer. A person could be infected for years and not know until more serious symptoms set in.

The greatest thing about this is that normally you'd expect the "kiss" to spread the disease. Spoiler alert - it doesn't.

Spoiler:

It's the feces the insect drops on your face that you end up rubbing into the itchy open wound while you're sleeping

Sleep tight!

Also: Northern VA has been "ground zero" for Chagas for 5+ years, but not because of the bugs - just the number of undiagnosed immigrants. Texas could really mix things up!