Octopus Overlords

A REPORT RELEASED today by the United Nations says that we’ve neglected a major component of the superbug problem: the environment. It serves as a reservoir for bacterial genes that create antimicrobial resistance, and it receives farm run-off and pharmaceutical effluent that let new resistance emerge.

“The same drivers that cause environment degradation are worsening the antimicrobial resistance problem,” Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, known as UNEP, said in a statement. “The impacts of antimicrobial resistance could destroy our health and food systems.”

The 120-page policy document, “Bracing for Superbugs,” recognizes the environment as a place where antibiotic resistance both arises and wreaks havoc, causing as many as 1.27 million deaths per year.

Veteran influenza epidemiologist Keiji Fukuda remembers vividly when he first became fearful that a virulent bird flu virus, H5N1, might be on the verge of triggering a devastating pandemic. The virus, seemingly out of nowhere, did something bird flu viruses were thought not to be able to do. It infected 18 people, killing six of them.

That happened in 1997, in Hong Kong.

A quarter century later, H5N1 has returned to the headlines, with an outbreak at a Spanish mink farm — reported in mid-January — triggering the latest round of fears that the virus might be inching closer to acquiring the ability to easily transmit among humans.

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“Trying to predict what H5N1 will do in the human population absolutely requires a great deal of scientific humility,” cautioned Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

“I will never, ever, take H5N1 for granted,” he said.“I just don’t know what it’s going to do.”

...

“If we did have another pandemic right now I think it would be very difficult to get the public to do anything to try to limit or control transmission. That is to me a big setback,” he said.

Fukuda concurred. “What has become clear to me over time is that the big challenge is not the viruses. That’s not what gives me a pit in my stomach,” he said. “The real challenge is whether people, whether governments, whether policymakers have the ability to actually address the challenge in the way that needs to be done. And I don’t see so much which encourages me, to be blunt. That’s what gives me a pit in my stomach.”

Smoove_B wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 12:09 pm Everything old is new again as concerns grow over H5N1 - bird flu:

Veteran influenza epidemiologist Keiji Fukuda remembers vividly when he first became fearful that a virulent bird flu virus, H5N1, might be on the verge of triggering a devastating pandemic. The virus, seemingly out of nowhere, did something bird flu viruses were thought not to be able to do. It infected 18 people, killing six of them.

That happened in 1997, in Hong Kong.

A quarter century later, H5N1 has returned to the headlines, with an outbreak at a Spanish mink farm — reported in mid-January — triggering the latest round of fears that the virus might be inching closer to acquiring the ability to easily transmit among humans.

...

“Trying to predict what H5N1 will do in the human population absolutely requires a great deal of scientific humility,” cautioned Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

“I will never, ever, take H5N1 for granted,” he said.“I just don’t know what it’s going to do.”

...

“If we did have another pandemic right now I think it would be very difficult to get the public to do anything to try to limit or control transmission. That is to me a big setback,” he said.

Fukuda concurred. “What has become clear to me over time is that the big challenge is not the viruses. That’s not what gives me a pit in my stomach,” he said. “The real challenge is whether people, whether governments, whether policymakers have the ability to actually address the challenge in the way that needs to be done. And I don’t see so much which encourages me, to be blunt. That’s what gives me a pit in my stomach.”

Nine deaths have been confirmed, while 16 suspected patients are in quarantine. Health officials are also monitoring 15 asymptomatic close contacts of infected people.

No vaccine or antiviral treatment is approved to treat Marburg virus disease, which has an average death rate of around 50%, according to the WHO.

On Tuesday, the WHO convened an urgent meeting to evaluate several possible vaccine candidates that could be administered during the outbreak. The meeting brought together a consortium of vaccine developers, researchers and government officials — a group the WHO created in 2021 to advance a Marburg vaccine.

“Everything that we do needs to be done with alacrity," Dr. Philip Krause, the chair of the WHO Covid Vaccines Research Expert Group, said at the meeting. "Even if we’re going to do a study over many outbreaks, the more participants in that study that could be enrolled at each outbreak, the more likely we are to reach a conclusion sooner."

People can spread Marburg virus through blood, other bodily fluids or contaminated objects or surfaces. Past outbreaks, mostly in Africa, have had death rates of 24% to 88%, depending on the virus strain and the strength of efforts to control transmission.

Isgrimnur wrote: Tue Feb 14, 2023 11:18 pm Ah, a disease that didn't "exist" before 1967.

In one very specific and mostly benign way, it’s starting to feel a lot like the spring of 2020: Disinfection is back.

“Bleach is my friend right now,” says Annette Cameron, a pediatrician at Yale School of Medicine, who spent the first half of this week spraying and sloshing the potent chemical all over her home. It’s one of the few tools she has to combat norovirus, the nasty gut pathogen that her 15-year-old son was recently shedding in gobs.

Right now, hordes of people in the Northern Hemisphere are in a similarly crummy situation. In recent weeks, norovirus has seeded outbreaks in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. Last week, the U.K. Health Security Agency announced that laboratory reports of the virus had risen to levels 66 percent higher than what’s typical this time of year. Especially hard-hit are Brits 65 and older, who are falling ill at rates that “haven’t been seen in over a decade.”

Americans could be heading into a rough stretch themselves, Caitlin Rivers, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, told me, given how closely the U.S.’s epidemiological patterns tend to follow those of the U.K. “It does seem like there’s a burst of activity right now,” says Nihal Altan-Bonnet, a norovirus researcher at the National Institutes of Health. At her own practice, Cameron has been seeing the number of vomiting and diarrhea cases among her patients steadily tick up. (Other pathogens can cause gastrointestinal symptoms as well, but norovirus is the most common cause of foodborne illness in the United States.)

To be clear, this is more a nauseating nuisance than a public-health crisis. In most people, norovirus triggers, at most, a few miserable days of GI distress that can include vomiting, diarrhea, and fevers, then resolves on its own; the keys are to stay hydrated and avoid spreading it to anyone vulnerable—little kids, older adults, the immunocompromised. The U.S. logs fewer than 1,000 annual deaths out of millions of documented cases. In other high-income countries, too, severe outcomes are very rare, though the virus is far more deadly in parts of the world with limited access to sanitation and potable water.

Cambodia has informed @WHO of two confirmed cases of #avianinfluenza #H5N1, an 11 year old girl that died and another member of her family, @SCBriand just said in a @WHO press conference. Field investigations are going on, she said.

The British press dubbed the future Prime Minister “Thatcher, Thatcher, milk snatcher” for sponsoring legislation to eliminate the free milk program for students over the age of seven.
...
In the UK at the time milk was delivered in glass bottles sealed with foil caps. Because the lustry caps invited attacks by birds, the milk on occasion was linked to outbreaks of bacterial poisoning caused by Campylobacter jejuni. The problem was that some birds, such as magpies and jackdaws are known to frequent rubbish and cow manure piles where such bacteria are prevalent.
...
So Margaret Thatcher, who at the time was accused of undermining the health of children, may actually have prevented some bouts of serious bacterial infection. Some Thatcher opponents now claim that the aging politician’s bent appearance is a result of calcium deficiency and is just deserved for her crimes against children. Insensitive nonsense.

Health officials say thousands of attendees of a religious revival at a Kentucky university might have been exposed to measles.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kentucky Health officials said an unvaccinated and contagious person was in attendance Feb. 17 and 18. The CDC estimates that 20,000 people were in attendance at the Asbury University revival in Wilmore, Kentucky.

Officials are recommending that anyone 12 months or older who is unvaccinated against measles get the vaccination.

Isgrimnur wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 6:02 pm This week I learned that there are PhD Thatcher apologists:

In the UK at the time milk was delivered in glass bottles sealed with foil caps. Because the lustry caps invited attacks by birds, the milk on occasion was linked to outbreaks of bacterial poisoning caused by Campylobacter jejuni. The problem was that some birds, such as magpies and jackdaws are known to frequent rubbish and cow manure piles where such bacteria are prevalent.
...
So Margaret Thatcher, who at the time was accused of undermining the health of children, may actually have prevented some bouts of serious bacterial infection.

The U.S. could see a renewed surge of mpox infections even worse than last year, new federal modeling has concluded, based on data showing most American communities remain far short of vaccination rates needed to fend off outbreaks in at-risk groups.

With "moderate confidence," the CDC's modelers said in a report published Thursday that most parts of the country have a "greater than 35%" risk of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, resurging over the coming months.

"It's not us saying get more people vaccinated because we think it's a good idea. We need to get more people vaccinated because we know there's a linear relationship between how many people are vaccinated and the chance of not having an outbreak," Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, deputy coordinator for the White House's mpox response, told CBS News on Thursday.

The CDC estimates that just 23% of the "at-risk population" for mpox, like men who have sex with men and people with multiple sex partners, have been fully vaccinated. Vaccination rates are in the single digits across many states.

Authorities are now ramping up outreach ahead of the return of travel, and events in the warmer months could fuel the renewed spread of the virus, alongside other sexually transmitted infections.

Smoove_B wrote: Sat Feb 18, 2023 9:19 pm The biggest disease outbreak I ever worked on was for norovirus and it was in a jail. Would not recommend.

Anywhere you have lots of people sharing space (dorm, school, cruise ships, etc...) it has the potential to go bonkers.

Infection with SARS-CoV-2 has a significant impact on cognitive function in patients with preexisting dementia, according to new research, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease Reports.

Patients with all subtypes of dementia included in the study experienced rapidly progressive dementia following infection with SARS-CoV-2.

Covid is bad news for the demented.

Infection with SARS-CoV-2 has a significant impact on cognitive function in patients with preexisting dementia, according to new research, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease Reports.

Patients with all subtypes of dementia included in the study experienced rapidly progressive dementia following infection with SARS-CoV-2.

A Tacoma, Washington, woman who has refused court-ordered tuberculosis treatment for over a year is evading arrest and has reportedly taken public transit to go to a casino while on the lam.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has been trying to get the woman to comply with treatment since at least January 2022, when she received her first court order. Since then, she has received over a dozen court orders for treatment and isolation amid monthly court hearings and order renewals. Last month, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Philip Sorensen finally found her in contempt and issued a warrant for her arrest and involuntary detention at the county jail for treatment and isolation.

"In each case like this, we are constantly balancing risk to the public and the civil liberties of the patient," the health department wrote in a blog post days before the arrest warrant was issued. "We are always hopeful a patient will choose to comply voluntarily. Seeking to enforce a court order through a civil arrest warrant is always our last resort."

But, according to a report from The News Tribune, the woman continues to buck authorities, evading apprehension and her court-appointed monitor.

Nineteen people fell ill with a diarrheal disease in Montana last year after drinking untreated water that many believed to be from a natural spring but which was, in fact, just creek drainage brimming with pathogenic bacteria.

One person was hospitalized in the outbreak, which ended only after authorities diverted the water source, local health officials reported Thursday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly.
The outbreak follows a trend that sprang up in the US several years ago of drinking so-called "raw water." That is untreated, unfiltered water collected directly from freshwater sources that is often claimed—without evidence—to have health benefits.

Proponents have argued that raw water avoids undesirable components of municipal water, which they identify as disinfectants, fluoride, imaginary "mind-control" drugs, traces of pharmaceuticals, and heavy metals, such as lead from pipes. They also suggest, without evidence, that raw water can contain unique probiotics and other "natural" minerals and compounds that can improve health.

Health officials have pointed out that untreated, unfiltered water is a clear health risk, given the likelihood of pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and parasites, as well as naturally occurring contaminants, such as radionuclides and mineral deposits.

Hrothgar wrote: Fri Apr 14, 2023 12:41 pm Morbidity and Mortality Weekly

Hrothgar wrote: Fri Apr 14, 2023 12:41 pmGreat, now I have the image in my head of Smoove kicking back in his plastic bubble reading Morbidity and Mortality Weekly.

Smoove_B wrote: Fri Apr 14, 2023 1:49 pm Beaver Fever

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) - an illness that kills thousands of Americans each year.

The vaccine still needs approval from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before it can be rolled out to the public.

Officials say the vaccine, named Arexvy by the manufacturer GSK, is a major breakthrough that will save many lives.

It could be available to people over 60 within months, officials say.
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On average, it kills 100-300 children under the age of 5 in the US every year, according to the CDC.

It also kills about 6,000 to 10,000 adults over 65 annually, and causes between 60,000 to 120,000 hospital admissions.

A Florida man nearly lost his leg from a rare flesh-eating bacterial infection that developed after he was bitten by a human while breaking up a family brawl, according to a report by NBC News.

The man, Donnie Adams, a 53-year-old funeral assistant from the Tampa suburb of Riverview, sought care in mid-February for a painful swelling on this bitten thigh. He told doctors he had gotten the bite while trying to break up a physical fight between two family members. He was bitten in the process of pulling the pair away from each other.

He reportedly declined to say what sparked the brawl or which family member actually bit him. But doctors believed his story after seeing the wound.

"When I saw him in the hospital, you could still see the bite marks on his thigh," Dr. Fritz Brink, a wound care specialist at HCA Florida Healthcare who treated Adams, told NBC News. "It made teeth marks. I was very convinced that he was telling a true story."

Max Peck wrote: Tue Jun 13, 2023 6:18 pm From the files of Beth Mole, a Florida Man story...

Florida man gets flesh-eating infection from human bite during family fight

A Florida man nearly lost his leg from a rare flesh-eating bacterial infection that developed after he was bitten by a human while breaking up a family brawl, according to a report by NBC News.

The man, Donnie Adams, a 53-year-old funeral assistant from the Tampa suburb of Riverview, sought care in mid-February for a painful swelling on this bitten thigh. He told doctors he had gotten the bite while trying to break up a physical fight between two family members. He was bitten in the process of pulling the pair away from each other.

He reportedly declined to say what sparked the brawl or which family member actually bit him. But doctors believed his story after seeing the wound.

"When I saw him in the hospital, you could still see the bite marks on his thigh," Dr. Fritz Brink, a wound care specialist at HCA Florida Healthcare who treated Adams, told NBC News. "It made teeth marks. I was very convinced that he was telling a true story."