Plagues

[Gary Oak]

It looks like Florida's ecomony is going to take another hit as this can't be good for tourism.


Now Miami Has Dengue Fever, Too
The first non-travel related case of dengue fever has hit Miami—and it’s thanks to the same mosquitoes that carry Zika.
Samantha Allen,09.30.16 5:00 AM ETAs if Zika weren’t bad enough, dengue fever has landed in Miami, too.

On Wednesday, the Florida Department of Health announced the first non-travel related case of dengue fever to be reported in Miami-Dade County this year. It is also the second local case of dengue in Florida this year. The infected individual in Miami-Dade has “received medical treatment and is expected to make a full recovery,” the DOH noted in a press release.

But the DOH is also “investigating close contacts around the individual” to determine if others have been infected—not through direct person-to-person contact but through mosquito bites.

That’s right: Dengue is transmitted by the very same Zika-spreading Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that Miami-Dade officials have been trying to control for months.

“It’s not unexpected in light of dengue being transmitted elsewhere by the the same vector in the same areas,” Joseph Conlon, a technical adviser for the American Mosquito Control Association, told The Daily Beast of the new dengue case. “This underscores the importance of keeping our eye on vector control—not Zika control.”

Dengue does not spread directly from person to person, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes; rather, the virus uses Aedes aegypti mosquitoes as its vector. Symptoms of infection include fever, headaches, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pain, and bleeding, according to the CDC. Dengue fever can be serious and even fatal—especially in the Latin American and Asian countries where it primarily occurs—but, as the World Health Organization notes, early detection and health care access can “lower fatality rates below 1 percent.”

For Miamians who have already been dealing with Zika all summer, this dengue case comes at a particularly frustrating moment.

In July, non-travel related cases of Zika infection were first reported in the trendy Wynwood neighborhood near downtown Miami, prompting an unprecedented CDC travel advisory for the small but highly trafficked area. After a combination of aerial and ground spraying, the CDC was able to relax the Wynwood travel advisory on Sept. 19.

But by that point, Zika had already spread to Miami Beach, where county officials are still trying to ensure that transmission is under control. On Wednesday, as WPLG reported, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Giménez responded to mounting community pressure by releasing a map of Miami Beach showing the locations of five traps that have captured Zika-positive mosquitoes, all of them spread several blocks apart.

“It is also important to note that while we did have five traps that tested positive for Zika on dates ranging from August 22 to September 9, multiple subsequent tests have since been conducted, and all of those tests came back negative,” Gimenez said in a press release.

But new local cases continue to be reported almost daily. On Thursday, the DOH announced four new non travel-related cases of Zika in Miami-Dade, one of whom was exposed to the virus in Miami Beach. In total, according to DOH statistics that are tracked daily by the Miami Herald, there have been 110 locally transmitted cases of Zika in Miami-Dade County.

And now, dengue. This is not the first time that dengue has hit Florida. As the DOH website notes, an 88-person dengue outbreak hit Key West in 2009 after a 75-year absence from the state. Since 2010, there have been “several transient dengue introductions,” but none have resulted in “persistent transmission” except for a smaller, 28-person outbreak south of Port St. Lucie in 2013 (PDF).

“There is some evidence that the United States lifestyle, such as routine use of air conditioning and screened windows, as well as spending more time indoors, may protect us from having large outbreaks,” the DOH notes.

Whether this new dengue case in Miami-Dade is an isolated incident or the start of another outbreak remains to be seen. For now, the good news is that the same tactics that work on Zika will help prevent dengue, too.

After a lengthy debate, Congress approved a $1.1 billion anti-Zika funding package on Thursday that includes $394 million for mosquito control. With luck, Florida will be able to squash two tropical viruses for the price of one.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... r-too.html

[Blue Frost]

Obama's friends from across the border will bring in more, no worries though the kids will be out of harms way right never mind the American kids that get the stuff, especially the whites, and non muslim.

[Gary Oak]

A deadly, drug-resistant fungus has arrived in the US

Rafi LetzterNov. 4, 2016, 11:13 AM 26,436 facebook linkedin twitter email print
A non-auris form of Candida from a liver sample is shown under a microscope. CDC PHIL
It's a kind of yeast that drifts through hospitals, taking root in open wounds and blood and the nooks and crannies of people's ears. It can weather all three major drugs doctors use to kill fungus. It's almost impossible to distinguish from its less deadly cousins. And now, according to a CDC report, it's arrived in the United States.

Doctors first discovered Candida auris in 2009, in the ear of a Japanese patient who complained of an infection. It belongs to a genus of fungi — Candida — that typically blossom deep in the guts of very ill people, having previously established a colony there and then emerging, like a sleeper cell, to take advantage of a compromised immune system.

But auris doesn't behave that way. It spreads through hospitals, jumping from patient to patient. Two outbreaks in "unnamed countries" infected more than 30 patients each, according to the CDC

As of June this year, the CDC reported that it had turned up in eight countries beyond Japan. A paper published in 2015 argued that diagnosis and treatment methods are "not evolving" fast enough to keep up with Candida leading to "misdiagnosis and clinical failure." The authors write that rates of infection probably far outpace reports, especially in countries with less-developed medical systems.

And now, in an email to the press Friday, the CDC writes that Candida auris has arrived in the US.

Thirteen cases have been discovered so far. The seven which the CDC has fully investigated occurred between May 2013 and August 2016 in New York, Illinois, Maryland, and New Jersey. Most (71%) showed some drug resistance.

"All of the patients had serious underlying medical conditions and had been hospitalized an average of 18 days when C. auris was identified," the CDC wrote. "Four of the patients died; it is unclear whether the deaths were associated with C. auris infection or underlying health conditions."

The agency is encouraging doctors to implement strict antifungal protocols in order to protect their very sick patients from the disease, using disinfectants active against fungi.

More broadly they write that the discovery highlights the need for major, coordinated public health efforts to address the emerging problem of drug-resistant diseases in hospitals.


http://www.businessinsider.com/cdc-warn ... us-2016-11

[Blue Frost]

I read about that, just another gift from Obama, the gift that keep on giving.

[Gary Oak]

Could it be that Canada is working with the CIA on bioweapons ? I wouldn't be surprised at all that CHina and Russia have some biodiseases to use if war breaks out with the west. It would be a horror.

A Telltale Sign A Canadian BioWar
Lab Released Ebola In Africa
By Yoichi Shimatsu

Vaccines are normally produced in horses (strong immune systems) or chicken eggs (in quantity), but pigs are hosts of many microorganisms that occur in humans. and so there is high risk of contamination. With organs similar to human, pigs however are excellent subjects for testing artificially gene-modified viruses for use in biological warfare.

The National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, (an offshoot of the British military biowarfare program at Porton Down, is where an accidental release from a pig-infection experiment just occurred (see Reuters article below).

This same lab, which has contracts with the Pentagon, was involved in the capture, isolation, and gene modification of the Zaire ebola virus from Central Africa that was later deliberately introduced by NSA chief Anthony Lake and Plan International into the Republic of Guinea, as detailed in my two investigative articles:

· All The Queen's Men Can't Save The Biowar Ebola...

· www.rense.com/general96/queensmen.html
· All The Queen's Men Can't Save The Biowar Ebola Serum. By Yoichi Shimatsu Exclusive to Rense ... being quietly conducted in the backwater of Winnipeg, Canada ...


· Ebola Out Of Gabon-Congo Was Smuggled Into West...

· www.rense.com/general96/eboutofgabo.html
· Ebola Out Of Gabon-Congo Was Smuggled Into West Africa By Yoichi Shimatsu Exclusive To Rense.com 9-4-14. ... (LCDC), based in Winnipeg, Canada; and

Here is the Reuters article of 8 November 2016 on the latest problem at this biowar lab:

Canadian lab worker may have been exposed to Ebola by pigs infected with the virus during an experiment

Worker noticed split in seam of protective suit during decontamination
He may have been exposed to Ebola while working with infected pigs
Six pigs were a part of experiment at a high-level Canadian laboratory
All proper emergency procedures were followed and risks are low

A Canadian lab worker may have been accidentally exposed to Ebola while working with pigs that were infected with the virus on Monday.

The man was working with six infected pigs as part of an experiment, government officials said on Tuesday.

He noticed a split in the seam of his protective suit during standard decontamination procedures and prior to leaving the Winnipeg, Manitoba lab, said John Copps, director of Canadian Food Inspection Agency's National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, where the incident happened.

All proper emergency procedures were followed and the risk to the employee, co-workers and community are low, Copps said.
A Canadian lab worker (file photo) may have been accidentally exposed to Ebola while working with pigs that were infected with the virus on Monday. The man was working with six infected pigs as part of an experiment, government officials said on Tuesday

A Canadian lab worker (file photo) may have been accidentally exposed to Ebola while working with pigs that were infected with the virus on Monday. The man was working with six infected pigs as part of an experiment, government officials said on Tuesday

Ebola attracted global attention in 2014 during an epidemic in West Africa that killed thousands.

The Winnipeg animal disease lab is on the same site as a microbiology laboratory where scientists developed an experimental Ebola vaccine.

The facility is one of only a handful of North American labs capable of handling pathogens requiring the highest level of containment.

There have been no confirmed Ebola cases in Canada, according to the Public Health Agency's website.

The employee has agreed to be isolated and will be monitored for symptoms by health officials for 21 days, Copps said.

It was not immediately clear how much contact the employee had with others before realizing the risk of possible infection.

Six pigs (file photo) were infected with Ebola as part of the experiment, and the man was suited up to move an anaesthetized pig to be sampled. It is unclear how the man's suit ripped, officials said

Six pigs (file photo) were infected with Ebola as part of the experiment, and the man was suited up to move an anaesthetized pig to be sampled. It is unclear how the man's suit ripped, officials said

Government officials offered few details about the employee during a conference call with journalists.

Six pigs were infected with Ebola as part of the experiment, and the man was suited up to move an anaesthetized pig to be sampled, Copps said.

It is unclear how the suit ripped, he said.

Ebola is spread through bodily fluids and individuals are not considered infectious until they develop symptoms, which has not happened in this case, said Theresa Tam, deputy chief public health officer of Canada's Public Health Agency.

She said the employee was offered an Ebola vaccine, but officials would not say if it was used.

http://rense.com/general96/telltaleabola.htm

[Blue Frost]

I really wish there wasn't such a thing, it's indiscriminate, and horrific just like a nuclear weapon is.

[Gary Oak]

I hope that thisscreworm will not be able to hanle the Canadian winter. I also hope that it does not harm the Florida golden panther population too much. Florida has a lot of cool wildlife. It seems a lot of invasive species really like living there too.

This deadly flesh-eating parasite is invading the US for the first time in decades

Florida is on high alert after the return of an invasive, flesh-eating parasite that has killed more than 100 deer since July.

The re-emergence of the New World screwworm, which was thought to have been eradicated from the US decades ago, has resulted in an agricultural state of emergency being declared in Monroe County, Florida, as authorities try to contain the outbreak.

The screwworm, so named because its ridges resemble the spiral shape of a screw, is the larvae (maggot) of the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly.

When this species matures, it looks much like a common housefly, but its larvae are especially dangerous.

The larvae infect warm-blooded animals, burrowing into open wounds and feeding on living flesh. People are also at risk from the parasite, although none have been infected in the recent outbreak.

The parasite, which hadn't been seen in Florida for 50 years, was the target of a long-fought eradication campaign starting in the 1930s, which was ultimately deemed successful in 1966.

Since then, local authorities have maintained a biological control called the sterile insect technique, to prevent the screwworm from re-entering the US from South and Central America.

This process involves releasing infertile male flies that have been sterilised by radiation into the wild. Female flies only mate once in their lives, and when they mate with these infertile males, no offspring result, ensuring that the screwworm is bred out of existence in infested areas.

But despite efforts to protect the US from the parasite with ongoing sterile fly barriers at the Darién Gap between Panama and Colombia, the screwworm got back in somehow, turning up in Monroe County in July, where it was reported in wild deer.

The deer species infested, called Key deer, only lives in Florida, and is endangered, with less than 1,000 remaining in the National Key Deer Refuge, run by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

But as if the Key deer didn't have enough problems, the screwworm infestation has seen 132 of these animals killed since July – about 15 percent of the whole population.

"We had no idea what this thing was," ranger Kristie Killam told Frances Robles at The New York Times.

"There was a few here and there in July and August, but it was September, when the rut started, that we started scratching our heads and saying, 'This is a little bit out of the ordinary'," she added. "It looks like a horribly infected wound, an infected wound that never got treated, infected with mushy maggots."

Initially mistaking the parasite wounds for regular flesh wounds caused by deer fighting, the rangers weren't aware of the deadly pest in their midst, which also infected two cats, a dog, and a pig.

But lab tests run in September confirmed the outbreak was indeed screwworms, with Florida declaring an agricultural state of emergency in October.

The good news is that protection measures to stem the outbreak – including sterile flies, a quarantine area, and anti-parasitic medications – appear to be working.

The US Fish & Wildlife Service announced last week that the deer population seems to have stabilised at 875, with no new deaths in a week – the first time this has happened since the outbreak began.

While any warm-blooded animals are susceptible to screwworms, the real threat is to agriculture – although there's also a rare but potential risk to humans.

Since the eradication in the 1960s, only sporadic instances of screwworm infections in the US have occurred – usually isolated cases of infected travellers returning from other countries.

One of these cases involved a 12-year-old girl who had travelled with her family to Colombia, then complained of extreme pain in her scalp upon returning home to Connecticut.

Doctors eventually removed 142 screwworm larvae from her head, resorting to using "bacon therapy" – luring the parasites out with pieces of meat placed over the worms.

Efforts to contain the latest outbreak are expected to continue well into 2017, and hopefully we'll have new information soon to show us that infection counts are dropping – as this nightmarish parasite is the last thing the world needs right now.

http://www.sciencealert.com/this-deadly ... in-decades

[Blue Frost]

[Gary Oak]

I suspect that this is no longer in use as it would cost big pharma far too much $$$$$

[Blue Frost]

It actually was in stuff till the late 70s i believe, Physohex soap, and shampoos had it till they decided it caused cancers.

[Gary Oak]

Hopefully this won't get out into the rural areas. I wonder how many superbugs are running rampant in Asia with their seeling antibiotics over the counter and high population density ?

A Woman Was Killed by a Superbug Resistant to All 26 American Antibiotics

She won’t be the last

Yesterday morning, I published a story about the silent spread of resistance against the antibiotic of last resort, colistin—a major step toward the emergence of a superbug resistant to all antibiotics. While reporting this story, I interviewed Alex Kallen, an epidemiologist at the CDC, and I asked if anyone had found such a superbug yet. “Funny you should ask,” he said.

Funny—by which we all mean scary—because yesterday afternoon, the CDC also released a report about a Nevada woman who died after an infection resistant to 26 antibiotics, which is to say all available antibiotics in the U.S. The woman, who was in her 70s, had been previously hospitalized in India after fracturing her leg, eventually which led to an infection in her hip. There was nothing to treat her infection—not colistin, not other last-line antibiotics. Scientists later tested the bacteria that killed her, and found it was somewhat susceptible to fosfomycin, but that antibiotic is not approved in the U.S. to treat her type of infection.

The woman was isolated so that her superbug would not infect other patients in the hospital. And subsequent samples from other patients near her in the hospital have not turned it up. If this superbug is somehow gone from the hospital and gone from the U.S., that would be great news. But even if so, other pan-resistant superbugs are likely to emerge.

Here’s why: The most worrisome kind of colistin resistance is caused by a single gene called mcr-1. The bacteria that killed this woman did not have mcr-1; it’s still unclear how they became resistant. Other cases of colistin resistance have emerged before though. What makes mcr-1 special is that sits on a loop of free-floating DNA called a plasmid, which bacteria of different species can pass back and forth. And there are many plasmids out there with genes that confer resistance to this or that class of antibiotics.


Where might bacteria go to hang out and swap plasmids? Well your gut is a big bag of bacteria. One day, you might pick up some bacteria with a plasmid carrying resistance to colistin. Years later, you might pick up some bacteria with a plasmid carrying resistance to carbapenems. And so. They start swapping plasmids. All this time you are healthy, and these bacteria just lurk in your gut, not causing much trouble. Then you get sick, your immune system is down, and you take antibiotics for an infection. The antibiotics kill everything but the resistant bacteria, which have by now collected all the resistance genes and no competition. That’s how you get a pan-resistant infection.

The danger isn’t just that a single pan-resistant bacteria emerges and terrorizes the world. It’s that pan-resistant bacteria can keep emerging independently. The nightmare might go away, only to come back somewhere else.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/arch ... in/513050/

[Blue Frost]

I have to wonder how often she took antibiotics to begin with, most people that get them don't need them, or almost over the illness when they are prescribed.
People are not doing themselves a favor getting a pill every time they are sick, those pills kill the good stuff in us also that fight off those bugs.

[Gary Oak]

I have a good immune system and I usually just consider most illnesses exercise for my immune system

[Blue Frost]

That's what it is, and makes your body stronger, people are getting weaker though relying on a pill or shot.

[Blue Frost]

[Gary Oak]

Oh what a horrible disease !

[Gary Oak]

Hopefully Canada will remain too cold for malaria.

Malaria Superbugs Threaten
Global Malaria Control

By Patricia Doyle
2-15-17

We know that resistant Malaria superbug has now spread to Africa. Three msulim Refugees traveled back to Africa, Angola, Uganda and Liberia and on return to the UK came down with the resistant Malaria.

Resistant Malaria was first identified in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Myanmar and now has sickened travelers to Angola, Uganda and Liberia.

Europe will no doubt have cases this late Spring and Summer. Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Balkans will have to be on the lookout for Malaria. IN the Summer, European countries like France, UK Germany and northern Europe will have to monitor for this deadly form of Malaria.

Given all of the "travel" back and forth to Africa of refugees, and illegals from Africa, the US will have to be on highest alert for this form of Malaria as well. Florida and Georgia, as well as Gulf Coast states, will have to monitor for Malaria. Even NY state has had cases of Malaria.

We need to monitor refugees, illegals for diseases like Malaria, TB etc. These diseases like resistant Malaria, Chagas disease and all forms of TB are real killers not to be played with

Patty


Malaria Superbugs Threaten Global Malaria Control - Scientists


LONDON -- Multidrug-resistant malaria superbugs have taken hold in parts of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, threatening to undermine progress against the disease, scientists said.

The superbugs - malaria parasites that can beat off the best current treatments, artemisinin and piperaquine - have spread throughout Cambodia, with even fitter multidrug resistant parasites spreading in southern Laos and northeastern Thailand.

"We are losing a dangerous race to eliminate artemisinin resistant...malaria before widespread resistance to the partner antimalarials makes that impossible," said Nicholas White, a professor at Oxford University in Britain and Mahidol University in Thailand who co-led the research.

"The consequences of resistance spreading further into India and Africa could be grave if drug resistance is not tackled from a global public health emergency perspective."

More than half the world's people are at risk of malaria infection. Most victims are children under five living in the poorest parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

Recent progress against the mosquito-borne disease has been dramatic and numbers falling ill have been significantly reduced, but it still kills more than 420,000 people each year, the World Health Organization says.

Malaria specialists worldwide say emerging drug resistance in Asia is now one of the most serious threats to that progress.

From the late 1950s to the 1970s, chloroquine-resistant malaria parasites spread across Asia and then into Africa, leading to a resurgence of malaria cases and millions of deaths.

Chloroquine was replaced by sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP), but resistance to SP subsequently emerged in western Cambodia and again spread to Africa.

The fear now is that the same pattern of resistance spread and the resurgence will repeat itself.

"We now see this very successful resistant parasite lineage emerging, outcompeting its peers, and spreading over a wide area," said Arjen Dondorp, of the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit in Thailand, who co-led the work.
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Efforts to control malaria in Asia must be stepped up urgently "before it becomes close to untreatable".

In their study in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, the scientists said that after examining blood samples from malaria patients in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, they found that a single mutant parasite lineage, known as PfKelch13 C580Y, has spread across three countries, replacing parasites containing other, less artemisinin-resistant mutations.

They explained that while the C580Y mutation does not necessarily make the parasite more drug-resistant, it does have other qualities that make it more risky - notably it appears to be fitter, more transmissible and able to spreading more widely.

Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Angus MacSwan

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-healt ... SKBN15G5WZ

[Blue Frost]

Gotta wonder if these strains are genetically modified, they manipulate some many making every generation more stronger than the last they tried to kill.

[Gary Oak]

If I had to bet if they were GMO or not I would bet that many of them are like that ebola strain that didn't have the kill rate as real ebola yet spread like wildfire and quite unlike real ebola

[Blue Frost]

Rats, and such like ants, and mosquito have such a fast breeding rate they can become immune, and change to be immune to this stuff, we on the other hand !