Important Recall:


3 children’s medicines recalled because of potentially lethal ingredient

Three brands of over-the-counter homeopathic children’s drugs, two bearing the CVS name, have been recalled over uncertainty about the amount of potentially poisonous belladonna.

Raritan Pharmaceuticals recall announcement, issued Thursday, says U.S. Food & Drug Administration tests determined varying amounts of belladonna from the amount stated on 135-tablet bottles of CVS Homeopathic Infants’ Teething Tablets in lot Nos. 41116 and 43436; 0.85-ounce bottles of CVS Homeopathic Kids’ Ear Relief Liquid, lot No. 35254; and 0.85-ounce bottles of Kids Relief Homeopathic Ear Relief Oral Liquid, lot No. 33149.

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Finland finds H5 bird flu in wild birds in Aland islands
Finland has detected H5 bird flu in wild birds in Aland islands, Baltic Sea, Finnish Food Safety Authority said on Thursday.
The office said it would make further studies to find out whether it was the highly pathogenic H5N8 virus which has hit wild birds and farms in several countries in Europe and the Middle East in last weeks.
The Finnish government is due on Friday to order farmers to keep flocks indoors, the office said.
Better the birds die than people.

Oh dear.
Ã…land is not far away from I living...
But then again I haven't eating poultry from Finland.
Eggs however...

Ebola nurse banned for hiding Pauline Cafferkey's high temperature

A senior nurse found to have concealed the true temperature of Ebola survivor Pauline Cafferkey has been suspended for two months.

A disciplinary panel said Donna Wood's dishonesty was "very serious, but not premeditated".

Mrs Wood and Ms Cafferkey were among volunteers returning from fighting Ebola in Sierra Leone in December 2014 when they were screened.

Ms Cafferkey became ill with the virus shortly afterwards .

Ms Cafferkey's high temperature, recorded at Heathrow Airport on 28 December 2014, should have triggered concerns that she was infected with the deadly virus.

Ban a nurse for 2 months??

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190,000 ducks destroyed at six Dutch farms after bird flu outbreak

Some 190,000 ducks were destroyed on Saturday at six farms in the Netherlands following an avian flu outbreak, the country’s first cull in response to an epidemic sweeping northern Europe.

Outbreaks of avian flu, primarily the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain, have been reported in Denmark, Finland, Germany and Sweden over the past week.

Dutch authorities did not say what strain of the virus had been discovered at a poultry farm in the village of Biddinghuizen, 70km (43 miles) east of Amsterdam.

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This bird flu outbreak seems to be more spread than I thought it was.
Authorities have decided to cull 200,000 poultry after a highly contagious bird flu outbreak was confirmed on a farm in southern Sweden.
http://www.thelocal.se/20161125/sweden-to-cull-37000-poultry-after-suspected-bird-flu-outbreak

Now they are in Texas.


Zika Virus Arrives in South Texas

Texas reported its first home-grown case of Zika virus infection Monday — making it the second U.S. state with mosquitoes spreading the virus.

It's a long-feared development but not a surprising one. Like Florida, South Texas is home to the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that spread Zika and also hosts many travelers to and from countries where the virus has been spreading.

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Canadian lab worker released after Ebola infection scare

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - The Canadian laboratory worker whose torn suit raised fears he had been exposed to the Ebola virus has been released from quarantine after he displayed no symptoms, a government official in the western province of Manitoba said on Monday.

The man is well and his quarantine has ended, said a Manitoba health department official, who asked not to be identified as she was not authorized to speak publicly.

She gave no further details.

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Ninth case of polio-like illness confirmed in Washington state

A boy in Spokane County, Washington, is the ninth person in the state with a confirmed case of a rare syndrome that can cause varying degrees of paralysis.

The boy, under age 10, has acute flaccid myelitis, also referred to as AFM.

The other children from Washington who were diagnosed with the syndrome this fall range in age from 3 to 14 and come from King, Pierce, Snohomish, Whatcom and Franklin counties.

AFM cases have not been limited to Washington. In October, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pediatrician Dr. Manisha Patel told CBS News, “We do have an uptick in cases of acute flaccid myelitis in 2016.”

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Zika strikes again.


UK has 'first sexually transmitted Zika'

The first likely case of sexual transmission of the Zika virus in the UK has been reported by the authorities.

The woman has made a full recovery, and it is thought she had been infected by her partner, who had recently visited a Zika-hit country.

Mostly spread by mosquitoes, Zika can linger in semen for months.

Cases of sexual spread have been reported in other countries and experts said the UK case was "not unexpected".

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California health officials report first death of flu season

California health officials on Thursday confirmed the state’s first death of this year’s influenza season and reminded everyone to get a flu shot before more people get sick.

“As this unfortunate case illustrates, the flu can be deadly and causes thousands of fatalities each year in the United States,” California Department of Public Health director Karen Smith said. “Fortunately, people can get vaccinated to help keep them from getting sick and spreading the flu to others.”

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Another death from flu :(


Alberta records first flu death of season in Calgary

One person has died in a Calgary-area hospital from influenza — the first such death in the province this season.

Alberta Health Services has confirmed a person died sometime before Nov. 26 after being hospitalized with the flu. A spokesman would not confirm the hospital or the person’s age or gender due to privacy concerns.

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Embattled Tomah VA dentist resigns

Officials at the troubled Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center said Friday that the dentist responsible for possibly infecting nearly 600 veterans has resigned.

The dentist has not been named.

The announcement came after House Speaker Paul Ryan of Janesville and Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson expressed outrage that the dentist was still working at the facility.

On Tuesday, Victoria Brahm, acting medical director at the center, announced that the VA was in the process of notifying 592 veterans treated by the dentist that they may be infected with hepatitis B, hepatitis C, or HIV because he did not follow proper sterilization procedures.

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Mumps Outbreaks Are Worst in a Decade

With a month still to go, 2016 is already the worst year for mumps outbreaks in a decade. Despite widespread vaccination requirements, college campuses are bearing the brunt of the attack as students live in close quarters and don’t always maintain the healthiest lifestyles.


As of Nov. 26, the latest date available, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had recorded 3,832 provisional mumps cases across 45 states and Washington, D.C. That’s nearly triple the 2015 total of 1,329 and the highest tally since 2006.

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https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/recalls-and-public-health-alerts/recall-case-archive/archive/2016/recall-115-2016-expanded

Editor’s Note: This release is being reissued as an expansion of the November 23, 2016, release to include additional products and production dates. The initial recall included 17,439 pounds of product. This expansion includes an additional 1,976,089 pounds of product, for a total of 1,993,528 pounds of product. Details of this release were also updated to reflect a change in distribution.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4, 2016 – National Steak and Poultry, an Owasso, Okla., establishment, is recalling approximately 1,976,089 pounds of ready-to-eat chicken products due to adulteration because of possible undercooking, resulting in the potential survival of bacterial pathogens in the products, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

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http://nypost.com/2016/12/06/rare-superbug-found-on-pig-farm-and-no-one-knows-how-it-got-there/

Rare superbug found on pig farm — and no one knows how it got there

A “nightmare” superbug has been found on a US pig farm — and researchers haven’t figured out the source of the potentially deadly bacteria.

Researchers discovered a strain of bacteria resistant to a class of antibiotics called carbapenems, which are considered a last-resort treatment for hard-to-fight bacterial infections.

The superbug, clinically known as carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE), was found after researchers swabbed the floors and walls of the farm’s pens and collected fecal samples during a five-month period in 2015. Their frightening discovery was published Dec. 5 in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

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New York City Has 5 Babies Born With Zika-Related Brain Issue

At least four babies have been born in New York City with Zika-related brain developmental symptoms since July, the city’s health department said on Wednesday, bringing the total number of such births to five.

The numbers were announced in an alert the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene sent to doctors, urging them to remain vigilant and to continue to warn pregnant women and sexually active women of reproductive age not using a reliable form of birth control against traveling to places where the virus is spreading.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/nyregion/new-york-city-zika.html

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Your curry and your pancakes may be tainted. There’s only one thing to do

Between the lead in the curry and the possibility of salmonella from Publix, a pair of food recalls this week go straight to many South Florida kitchens.

Publix recalled the 16-ounce bags of three Premium Pancake & Waffle Mix flavors —pumpkin, blueberry-flavored, banana-flavored chocolate chip — because the milk powder used might contain salmonella. Publix says the milk powder supplier told the supermarket chain of the potential problem. Customers can return the mixes to stores for a full refund.

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Miami's South Beach Is No Longer a Zika Zone But Texas Is


The Zika virus is no longer actively spreading in Miami's South Beach, and all of Florida's Zika zones have now been cleared, state health officials said Friday.

But Texas now has a probable outbreak, with four new cases in a cluster in Brownsville.

Officials in both states are hoping for a respite from Zika scares as weather cools and mosquitoes become less active.

Clearing South Beach doesn't mean that Zika is gone — the state reported five new home-grown cases Wednesday — but the identified areas of "active transmission" have been without fresh cases for more than six weeks.

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https://africatimes.com/2016/12/11/training-testing-and-transport-in-africas-fight-against-pediatric-tb/


Training, testing and transport in Africa’s fight against pediatric TB

Tuberculosis (TB) accounted for 400,000 of the AIDS-related deaths worldwide in 2015, and is one of the most common causes of death in people living with HIV. The dual epidemics of TB and HIV are particularly pervasive in Africa, where HIV has been the most important contributing factor in the increasing incidence of TB.

In 2015, the World Health Organization reports, there were 10.4 million new TB cases, with Nigeria and South Africa among just six countries that account for 60 percent of them.

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https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/about_us/viewNewsArticle.do?articleId=505

Some progress have been made with ZIKA over computer donated time on WCG.

Link to news is up there, link to more info is on my signature GIF.

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non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU