Zika virus 'not controllable': CDC director's grim warning

MIAMI — The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention delivered a grim assessment Tuesday of the government's ability to contain Zika, saying it's too late to stop the dangerous virus from spreading throughout the United States.

"Zika and other diseases spread by (the Aedes aegypti mosquito) are really not controllable with current technologies," CDC Director Thomas Frieden said. "We will see this become endemic in the hemisphere."

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Zika again.



Mosquito army released in Zika fight in Brazil & Colombia

Scientists are planning to release an army of millions of modified mosquitoes in areas of Brazil and Colombia.

They say the unusual approach is an attempt to provide "revolutionary protection" against mosquito-borne diseases such as Zika and chikungunya.

The mosquitoes are infected with a bug called Wolbachia which reduces their ability to spread viruses to people.

The $18m dollar project is funded by an international team of donors, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
"Vaccinating mosquitoes"

The scheme - which aims to start in early 2017 - is also financed by local governments in Latin America, the US and the UK.

Wolbachia is a naturally occurring bacterium that infects 60% of insect species worldwide, but scientists say it does not harm humans.

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If wolbachia is "naturally occurring" and already in "60% of insects", I'm not real clear what effect they think this scheme would have.
They plan on releasing "an army of millions" which is not quite an "army" in mosquito terms.
No one has any certain number of how many mosquitoes there are but estimates run between 70,000,000,000,000,000, (70 quadrillion) and 200,000,000,000,000,000,(200 quadrillion) at any given moment.

But if you can collect $18 million to fund a scheme, I guess it's wortha shot... or is it?

If wolbachia is "naturally occurring" and already in "60% of insects", I'm not real clear what effect they think this scheme would have.
They plan on releasing "an army of millions" which is not quite an "army" in mosquito terms.
No one has any certain number of how many mosquitoes there are but estimates run between 70,000,000,000,000,000, (70 quadrillion) and 200,000,000,000,000,000,(200 quadrillion) at any given moment.

But if you can collect $18 million to fund a scheme, I guess it's wortha shot... or is it?

Yes it's worth a shot. Wish we could kill all the mosquitoes, but we can't.

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Quarter of World's Population Are Infected With Latent Tuberculosis

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

In rich countries, tuberculosis is sometimes thought of as a thing of the past, the disease that claimed Keats, Poe, Chopin. But globally, TB is today the number one infectious killer, causing an estimated 1.8m deaths in 2015.

http://www.newsweek.com/tb-tuberculosis-epidemics-disease-infection-vaccines-worl-population-514165

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Yemen's suspected cholera cases soar to 1,410 within weeks: WHO

The number of suspected cholera cases in Yemen has ballooned to 1,410 within three weeks of the outbreak being declared, the World Health Organization said on Friday, as 18 months of war has destroyed most health facilities and clean water supplies.

Yemen's Health Ministry announced the outbreak on Oct. 6 in Sanaa city, and by Oct. 10 the WHO said there were 24 suspected cases. The following day, a WHO official in Yemen said there was "no spread of the disease".

But on Friday, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told a Geneva news briefing that as of Thursday there were 1,410 suspected cholera cases in 10 out of Yemen's 23 governorates - mostly in Taiz, Aden, Lahj, Hodeida and Sanaa.

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Fatal Measles Complication Killed Patients Years Later

A deadly measles complication that kills kids years after they seemingly recover may not be as rare as doctors thought, researchers said Friday.

The fatal and incurable complication has killed at least 16 California adults and children, the researchers in Los Angeles and San Francisco said.

They say they're afraid the condition is far more common than anyone thought, and say it strongly reinforces the need for vaccinating every single child who can be.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fatal-measles-complication-killed-patients-years-later-n674706

Measles, Mumps, and Rubella, shot.

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Study:

Zika virus could cause infertility in men, new study suggests

The Zika virus could cause infertility in men, a new study suggests.

Scientists in the US discovered that mice infected with Zika had shrunken testicles, low testosterone levels and low sperm counts.

Although the findings have not yet been replicated in humans, experts say that the virus may also have worrying conseqences for men who become infected.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/10/31/zika-virus-could-cause-infertility-in-men-new-study-suggests/

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Zika infections double in Vietnam

The number of confirmed Zika cases in Vietnam has more than doubled over the past three days to 23, with a dozen of the new infections recorded in the commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

The mosquito-borne virus has been spreading in Southeast Asia after outbreaks in the Americas. Thailand reported the
region's first confirmed case of microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size, linked to Zika in late September.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/zika-vietnam-1.3832552

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Study:


Ebola adapted to easily infect people

Ebola dramatically adapted to infect human tissues with ease in the first few months of the 2014-15 outbreak, research suggests.

Two studies, in the journal Cell, found a mutation increased the virus' ability to infect human cells fourfold.

Scientists have argued the mutation may have been "pivotal" in the outbreak becoming the largest in recorded history.

There were 28,616 Ebola cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

And 11,310 people died during the outbreak.

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CDC identifies first US cases of drug-resistant fungal infection

(CNN)Thirteen individuals have become ill from a serious and sometimes fatal fungal infection previously unseen in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. The fungus, Candida auris, is known to occur in health care settings such as hospitals and nursing homes.
Seven cases occurred between May 2013 and August 2016 in four states: Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and New York. As of August 31, four of these seven patients, all with bloodstream infections, died, though it is unclear whether their deaths were due to C. auris.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/04/health/drug-resistant-c-auris-found-in-us/index.html

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http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/01/valley-fever-california-central-valley-prison

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Malaria drugs' complete failure tracked

Scientists have developed a way to track the spread of a dangerous form of malaria that cannot be treated with the main therapy.

Doctors in Cambodia reported the complete failure of artemisinin and piperaquine - the key drugs taken to kill malaria - this year.

The discovery of resistance markers, reported in the Lancet, will allow scientists to track the threat.

Experts said the study was a big step forward.

Artemisinin resistance has been known about for years, but a recent rise in resistance to piperaquine as well means the main malaria treatment, taking both together, is starting to fail.








http://www.bbc.com/news/health-37859264

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Despite Past Setbacks, Worldwide Polio Eradication Within Reach

When John Germ’s father contracted polio as an adult, his doctor doubted that he would ever walk again.

Determined to disprove that dismal prediction, “he and my mother tied an iron to his leg where the rope would never touch the ground, and he lifted his leg little by little every day until he could walk again,” Germ, the 2016-2017 president of Rotary International, said at a live media briefing on World Polio Day. “He walked with a limp. He didn’t give up.”

Joining the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the humanitarian organization co-hosted the briefing at CDC on Oct. 24 to stress the significance of obliterating polio despite recent setbacks.

New cases in Nigeria demonstrate the persistence of polio, particularly in insecure areas, and they underscore the need to improve tracking of the disease. The virus has been spreading in inaccessible areas of Borno—a state in northeastern Nigeria—for about five years before it was detected, said Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, director of the CDC.

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How to survive the election, psychologically

With the election tomorrow, I believe Americans will soon confront a new level of “election stress.”

In every other presidential election of my lifetime, the results of the contest seemed very important, but I sensed that America was bigger than any of its leaders. A candidate losing might mean things would be less good, for a time, but they would be good, nonetheless. Ultimately, they would tend to get better.

This faith in America and its leaders—and in Americans—helped me and, I believe, most Americans have hope that we would find the right path, as a people and as a nation. But, now, with our politics so polarized, and our parties embracing such different principles, I believe millions and millions of Americans will greet the election of a presidential candidate they do not favor as a sign that the country does not speak to them or for them. And they may not have the expectation or the hope that it will, again, ever.

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Testing Begins On An Experimental Zika Vaccine With Inactivated Virus

Federal scientists have launched another test in human volunteers of a Zika vaccine. This one uses a more traditional approach than an experiment that started in August.

Federal officials are eager to develop a vaccine as quickly as possible, which is why they are pursuing multiple approaches. This experimental vaccine, called ZPIV, has already proved effective when designed to target a virus similar to Zika, called Japanese encephalitis.

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Canadian lab worker possibly exposed to Ebola from pigs

WINNIPEG, Manitoba – An employee in a high-level Canadian laboratory may have been accidentally exposed to the Ebola virus on Monday after working with pigs who were infected with the virus as part of an experiment, government officials said on Tuesday.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/11/08/canadian-lab-worker-possibly-exposed-to-ebola-from-pigs.html

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Birth Year May Affect Your Flu Risk. Here's How




People's birth years can affect their risk of catching certain strains of influenza — probably because their first case of flu somehow sets their immune system, researchers reported Thursday.

Their findings could be good news for what scientists predict about the risk of a killer flu pandemic, and they could also help researchers find better flu vaccines, the researchers said.
"Our work implies that we have never seen a true 'virgin soil' influenza pandemic," the team wrote in their report, published in the journal Science. "Virgin soil" means a population that has no immunity at all to a new infection.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/birth-year-may-affect-your-flu-risk-here-s-how-n682076

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Cull ordered after bird flu virus found on Austrian poultry farm

VIENNA – A turkey on an Austrian poultry farm in the western province of Vorarlberg has tested positive for the H5N8 bird flu virus and all birds on the farm will be culled, the health ministry said on Friday.

Austria and Switzerland on Thursday took precautionary steps to prevent the spread of bird flu to domestic poultry after discovering cases of the disease in wild ducks around Lake Constance in the latest in a series of cases across Europe.

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Bird flu spreads in Germany, sparking fears for holiday meals

Germany revealed more cases of a dangerous strain of avian influenza on Saturday, alongside reports that the disease had spread to Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Croatia.

The H5N8 virus has affected some 30,000 chickens in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Authorities said an area of 3 square kilometers (1.2 square miles) around the affected farm had been sealed off.
Berlin has set up a crisis management task force to tackle the issue, after reports also came in from Austria that another large outbreak was suspected in an area along the border with Bavaria.

Caution is urged.

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