Octopus Overlords

Smoove_B wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 5:27 pm Add thrush to your list. Maybe get something to eat first.

LordMortis wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 5:47 pm

Alefroth wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 5:40 pm That's mind boggling. I assume masking and distancing are the primary drivers. Are there any others at work?

Isolation. Specifically I would say school from home style isolation. Coworkers with kids getting sick and coming to work while they themselves were sick were always the vectors of spread at my work.

Sudy wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 9:20 am The downside is that I haven't kept up exercise in even a minor way since I've been working from home, and overall my health is significantly poorer. But at least I don't have the sniffles.

Definitely curious how many people will now don a mask in tight public spaces during regular cold/flu season. I can see carrying one in my pocket for the bus. During cold days it doubles as face protection.

Alefroth wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 5:40 pm That's mind boggling. I assume masking and distancing are the primary drivers. Are there any others at work?

Sudy wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 9:55 am Many of us with little in depth understanding of Asian culters

Blackhawk wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 2:06 pm

Sudy wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 9:55 am Many of us with little in depth understanding of Asian culters

Asia has mask cults?

But yeah, even in the post-mask world, I will be wearing masks if I have the sniffles and need some cough drops from the store, or need to get groceries. Knowing what we know now, I would be an asshole not to.

Blackhawk wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 2:06 pm I will be wearing masks if I have the sniffles

Blackhawk wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 2:06 pm

Sudy wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 9:55 am Many of us with little in depth understanding of Asian culters

Asia has mask cults?

Jeff V wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 7:54 pm Do you know what's been effective in avoiding sniffles in the first place? Masks.

A remarkable side effect has been no one in our family getting routine colds since the whole pandemic started. I heard flu is also way down and attributed in part to mask measures.

Michigan health officials reported the first confirmed human case of Sin Nombre hantavirus in the state, an illness spread by rodents, but not between individuals.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) said an adult female in Washtenaw County was recently hospitalized with a serious pulmonary illness from Sin Nombre hantavirus. The individual was likely exposed when cleaning an unoccupied dwelling that contained signs of an active rodent infestation, MDHHS said.

Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS)
...
Hantaviruses Causing HPS
Sin Nombre virus (SNV) was first isolated from rodents collected on the premises of one of the initial HPS patients in the Four Corners region.

Discovered in 1993 near the Cañon de la Muerte on the Navajo Reservation, it was originally named the Muerto Canyon hantavirus, in keeping with the convention for naming new pathogens. However, the Navajo Nation objected to the name in 1994. It was also near the Four Corners point in the United States, so the virologists then tried naming it the "Four Corners virus". The name was changed after local residents raised objections. In frustration, the virologists changed it to Sin Nombre, meaning "without a name" in Spanish.

The new Texas Department of State Health Services rules permit widespread delivery of raw milk anywhere in the Lone Star State, allowing raw milk dairies to distribute their products to practically anyone in the state.

It means groups like the Cameron, TX-based Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance have, after a decade or more, been successful in winning in Texas in the debate about sales of milk without pasteurization that kills most bacteria.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a health advisory on June 10 about the rise of RSV, a respiratory illness that causes similar symptoms to COVID-19, in southern parts of the country.

“Due to this increased activity, CDC encourages broader testing for RSV among patients presenting with acute respiratory illness who test negative for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,” the advisory reads.
...
Respiratory syncytial virus is “a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms,” the CDC explains. Although most people recover in a week or two, RSV can cause severe illness, especially in infants and older people.

Because it’s a respiratory illness, RSV spreads much the same way COVID-19 does: Respiratory droplets from infected person (often through a cough or sneeze) makes contact with your eyes, nose or mouth or you touch a surface contaminated with the virus, then touch your face.

Right now, the South is experiencing a sudden rise in RSV cases, which had been lower than normal since April 2020, the CDC notes. Lab-confirmed cases first started to rise in March 2021, and they’ve since skyrocketed in states like Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, and Oklahoma.

Jeff V wrote: Wed Jun 16, 2021 9:51 pm At this point, I have no problem with "good ol' boys" down south marching themselves to the grave. There's really no downside to allowing them to carry on as they believe is their god-given right to die.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the Texas Department of State Health Services, and the Minnesota Department of Health, with assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are investigating three cases of Burkholderia pseudomallei (melioidosis) infections. Based on genomic analysis, these three cases (one male, two females; two adults and one child) may share a potential common source of exposure. The first case, identified in March 2021, was fatal. Two other patients were identified in May 2021, one of whom is still hospitalized. One has been discharged to a transitional care unit. None of the patients’ families reported a history of traveling outside of the continental United States.

Symptoms of melioidosis are varied and nonspecific and may include pneumonia, abscess formation, and/or blood infections. Due to its nonspecific symptoms, melioidosis can initially be mistaken for other diseases such as tuberculosis, and proper treatment may be delayed.

Dallas County Health and Human Services says the confirmation of monkeypox infection in the city is "rare," but "not a reason for alarm."

DCHHS confirmed the infection in a person who traveled from Nigeria to Dallas and arrived at Love Field on July 9. Local health officials said Friday the person is currently isolated at a Dallas hospital to prevent the spread of the virus and is said to be in stable condition.

Jeff V wrote: Tue Aug 03, 2021 7:56 am Plague-bearing Chipmunks in Tahoe!

Marburg, which is in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola, was detected less than two months after Guinea declared an end to an Ebola outbreak that erupted earlier this year. Samples taken from a now-deceased patient and tested by a field laboratory in Gueckedou as well as Guinea’s national haemorrhagic fever laboratory turned out positive for the Marburg virus. Further analysis by the Institut Pasteur in Senegal confirmed the result.

Marburg is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads among humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, surfaces and materials.

Illness begins abruptly, with high fever, severe headache and malaise. Many patients develop severe haemorrhagic signs within seven days. Case fatality rates have varied from 24% to 88% in past outbreaks depending on virus strain and case management.

Although there are no vaccines or antiviral treatments approved to treat the virus, supportive care – rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids – and treatment of specific symptoms, improves survival. A range of potential treatments, including blood products, immune therapies and drug therapies, are being evaluated.

A fourth person in a fourth US state has mysteriously contracted a deadly South Asian bacterium without leaving the continental US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday.

Two of the four cases have been fatal, including the latest one identified in Georgia late last month during a post-mortem exam.

CDC investigators determined that all four cases are connected and they suspect a so-far-unknown imported product may be to blame. The CDC had released an advisory on June 30 about the three earlier cases.

The first case was identified in an adult in Kansas in March, which was also fatal. In May, investigators identified a case in a 4-year-old Texas girl and another case in an adult in Minnesota. Both of those patients were hospitalized for extended periods before being released to transitional care facilities. The young girl in Texas reportedly suffered brain damage from the infection.

dbt1949 wrote: Mon Aug 09, 2021 3:37 pm And God said "You shall not touch fruit bats."

stessier wrote: Tue Aug 10, 2021 10:34 am Don't think I saw this one posted yet - 4 people in 4 different states get deadly bacteria from South Asia without ever leaving the US.

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Aug 10, 2021 11:07 am

stessier wrote: Tue Aug 10, 2021 10:34 am Don't think I saw this one posted yet - 4 people in 4 different states get deadly bacteria from South Asia without ever leaving the US.

It was a few posts up. I didn't realize there was another new case found and this article is much more interesting than the CDC alert I posted back in July, regardless.

“It all started with an enquiry from a nurse,” Dr Karl Kruszelnicki told listeners to his science phone-in show on the Triple J radio station in Brisbane. “She wanted to know whether she was contaminating the operating theatre she worked in by quietly farting in the sterile environment during operations, and I realised that I didn't know. But I was determined to find out.”