tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54319562025-07-06T02:23:47.975-04:00Updates on the battle between Man and germs: antibiotic-resistant superbugs & other bacteria, potential pandemics, emerging infectious diseases, vaccination, inflammation, probiotics, food safety & travelers' health.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger419125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-60534652713703243202008-11-22T14:18:00.000-05:002008-11-22T14:19:36.904-05:00

Vaccines against rotavirus, the maincause of severe diarrhea in preschoolers, may win recommendationfor global use by the World Health Organization (WHO). About 527,000 young children die from rotavirus-induceddiarrhea annually, 85 percent of them in lower-income countriesof Africa and Asia, WHO says.(h/t Bloomberg.com)

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1156517341634907122006-08-25T10:49:00.000-04:002006-08-25T22:03:16.693-04:00

In the past couple of years, CA-MRSA has fully infiltrated itself into the US community, which I remarked on back in April 2005. As a new MSNBC article states, MRSA skin infections are often mistaken for spider bites, but don't clear up and rapidly get worse. Bug bites are common in summer but a new super bug sweeping San Diego could have potentially fatal effects. Local hospital emergency rooms

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1152368395653249442006-07-08T10:19:00.000-04:002006-07-08T10:19:55.873-04:00

By the time [Richard] Herskovitz got to the emergency room at Carroll Hospital Center [one day after dropping a computer on his foot], the swelling had moved up to his knee and his leg had turned dark. The former body builder still didn't know what was wrong until an orthopedic surgeon diagnosed it.Herskovitz said he still doesn't know the doctor's name, but he saved his life.'Saw my leg, knew

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1149127152250166232006-05-31T21:59:00.000-04:002006-05-31T21:59:12.400-04:00

Apparently "50 tons of red gunk...rained on India in 2001. It's possible that the stuff contains critters from outer space," sez Boing Boing.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1147583073195077452006-05-14T01:04:00.000-04:002006-05-14T01:05:38.886-04:00

Like something out of "Aliens," excruciatingly painful skin lesions extrude a mysterious, fibrous material -- in different colors. One sufferer finally took his life to end the agony. And some doctors think people are making it all up.Welcome to the bizarre infection called Morgellons Disease, which has afflicted over 100 people in south Texas and other southern states. Antibiotics eventually

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1147449822691425012006-05-12T12:03:00.000-04:002006-05-12T15:13:46.423-04:00

The antibacterial ingredient triclosan -- now added to nearly everything, from hand soap to toothpaste and cloth -- has been found to survive processing in water-treatment plants. It's also been detected in processed-sewage sludge (aka biosolids) spread as fertilizer in farmers' fields. (For some background, read my earlier discussion of the triclosan controversy.)That means the microbe-killing

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1146004065066971562006-04-25T18:27:00.000-04:002006-04-25T18:27:48.913-04:00

From today's WaPo, some additional detail on the scary situation for contact-lens wearers. Apparently many users are "confused and concerned. Eye doctors report a surge in calls from users of Bausch & Lomb's ReNu with MoistureLoc MultiPurpose Solution, which the company has asked retailers to stop selling."Bausch has already pulled all product from store shelves, and last week the FDA told users

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1145762395679107222006-04-22T23:19:00.000-04:002006-05-18T16:34:37.133-04:00

You're not just imagining it, CFS sufferers, and it's not just a hard-to-identify infection. The results of a study on a group of people in Wichita, Kansas with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has proven that there are a number of genetic components to the illness. A detailed WaPo story sums up an important finding in the research: "[T]hough [chronic fatigue] syndrome comes in many flavors,...experts

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1145670677542816362006-04-21T21:51:00.000-04:002006-04-21T21:51:17.650-04:00

The mumps virus outbreak has afflicted over 1,100 in Iowa and other midwestern states, and will likely spread as college student end the academic year and travel around the country. So says the CDC. "This is an unstable situation right now,' said Julie L. Gerberding, CDC director. The CDC has dispatched teams to Iowa and Nebraska to help health workers try to contain the outbreak, mainly by

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1145391317866787652006-04-18T16:15:00.000-04:002006-04-18T16:15:18.730-04:00

Many US farmers maintain a manure lagoon, filled with cow manure to which water is added. The mixture is mixed and then sprayed on crop fields as fertilizer. Great way to recycle cow pies, but some of the bacteria-laden mixture runs off into streams -- or even into wells -- and the whole mess stinks.Technology may change all that. Buzz Hoerr of Colchester, Vermont is president of ElectroCell

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1145374927118141052006-04-18T11:42:00.000-04:002006-04-18T11:46:01.060-04:00

There's a lot wrong with the MSM, but when they do their job well, it's only right to applaud their efforts. One of the bright spots in the Hurricane Katrina mess was the truly indefatigable efforts by the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper to continue providing area residents -- and the world -- with vital information. This the paper did, even though its facility was flooded and the paper

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1145159131202881692006-04-15T23:45:00.000-04:002006-04-15T23:45:31.310-04:00

From Sunday's WaPo:President Bush is expected to approve soon a national pandemic influenza response plan that identifies more than 300 specific tasks for federal agencies, including determining which frontline workers should be the first vaccinated and expanding Internet capacity to handle what would probably be a flood of people working from their home computers.The Treasury Department is

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1144795586949929102006-04-11T18:41:00.000-04:002006-04-11T18:46:26.950-04:00

A new book, sold only at Amazon.com and titled The Natural Bird Flu Cure "They" Don't Want You To Know About, has reached a ranking of 3,713 today! I haven't read it yet, but it appears to rely on scientific research on megadoses of Vitamin C. Worth a look, at least.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1144718003952341042006-04-10T21:13:00.000-04:002006-04-13T22:16:00.923-04:00

Update 13 Apr 06: Thanks to the rapid transmission of news today, companies must react immediately to negative developments. Bausch & Lomb has done that by telling stores to remove their ReNu brand contact-lens solution from shelves, advising users to switch to a different brand, and offering to refund the money of anyone who returns their ReNu product to Bausch.Update 11 Apr 06: B&L's stock

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1144407576488961372006-04-07T06:59:00.000-04:002006-04-11T18:24:22.720-04:00

Don't be left behind in the bird-flu panic! Show your fear (pretend it's just ironic postmodern ennui) -- or just clue others in to H5N1 -- with cool shirts, hats and buttons from H5N1 Wear!

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1144378424608569032006-04-06T22:53:00.000-04:002006-04-06T23:04:16.550-04:00

Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Washington used supercomputers to model the rapid spread throughout the United States of a hypothetical, mutated form of bird flu that could be easily transmitted between humans. They also studied how to slow the spread of a pandemic flu.They determined that though it would take time to develop and produce a vaccine perfectly

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1144354018552902272006-04-06T16:06:00.000-04:002006-04-12T10:12:40.486-04:00

Only cleaners with bleach appear to kill active Clostridium difficile (c-diff) bacteria, plus their spores. In fact, the use of non-bleach-containing cleaners actually seems to encourage the bacteria to form more spores -- which under the right conditions will grow and infect humans.(If bacteria produce more spores, they have greater potential to survive for long periods of time in the hospital

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1144296019521650372006-04-06T00:00:00.000-04:002006-04-06T12:49:32.240-04:00

Will felines someday take the place of attorneys in Shakespeare's famous statement? If a full-blown, human-transmissible bird-flu epidemic ever does come about, well, putting down Fluffy may mean the difference between (human) life and death.Think I'm kidding? "Cats are significantly more likely to catch and pass on bird flu than has generally been thought and could help the virus to mutate to

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1144288768223799602006-04-05T21:59:00.000-04:002006-04-06T00:15:35.710-04:00

Will antibiotic-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii become the next MRSA? It's been killing hospital patients in the UK and France, and causing problems in US military hospitals. Now it's showing up in Italian hospitals. A typically dry research paper, presented at the 16th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID)in France, discloses that "there is new and

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1144037106218812282006-04-03T00:05:00.000-04:002006-04-04T13:30:08.256-04:00

Update 04 Apr 2006: Less than two days after I posted this article, discussion of Dr. Pianka's recent utterances can be found filling the talk-radio waves and the blogosphere. There's a thoughtful take on this issue of "eco-sacrifice," courtesy of The American Thinker.Forrest M. Mims III reports at The Citizen Scientist about hearing the unbelievable at a recent meeting of the Texas Academy of

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1143909019580290572006-04-01T11:30:00.000-05:002006-04-02T13:48:48.086-04:00

How might quantum physics and the bird-flu epidemic be alike? Well, quantum theory posits that "by the very act of watching, the observer affects the observed reality." This bizarre phenomenon is usually related solely to scientific experimentation on subatomic particles. But it appears to have applications in everyday life, as well.In a review of the book Jackie Oh!, E.W. Wilder makes the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1143843102832950482006-03-31T17:11:00.000-05:002006-04-15T23:50:17.093-04:00

Update 15 Apr 2006: The mumps epidemic is spreading throughout the US Midwest.-------------------------"We are calling this an epidemic," said Iowa state epidemiologist Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, explaining that mumps has spread to more than one-third of the state and does not appear to be confined to certain age groups or other sectors of the population.Quinlisk said Iowa has had about five cases of

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1143733426822922292006-03-30T10:43:00.000-05:002006-03-30T10:45:36.670-05:00

Retailer John Wanamaker famously lamented, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half." His dilemma -- measuring ad-campaign results -- continues to be most ad agencies' Achilles' heel. I thought about that as I scanned the MSNBC headline: "First Bird Flu Shot Protects Only Half of People" -- which half? Apparently the new US avian-flu vaccine is "

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1143692961603907782006-03-29T23:29:00.000-05:002006-03-30T10:18:43.163-05:00

If you pick up an infection during your hospital stay, expect your bill to be an astonishing 750 percent higher than if you had stayed germ-free. That's what the state of Pennsylvania found in statistics from 2004. Pennsylvania is the first US state to require hospitals to report on HAI -- hospital-acquired infections. According to a new report by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431956.post-1143690678995183282006-03-29T22:51:00.000-05:002006-03-30T17:11:48.946-05:00

WaPo takes a look at some consumer products designed to help us spot and kill germs at the daily-life level -- things like toothbrush sanitizers and food-freshness strips. These products were recently showcased in Chicago at the huge trade show of the International Housewares Association."It's getting scarier out there for a lot of people. We've heard about anthrax and mad cow disease and all the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0