Plague traced back to Bronze Age

Plague has been a scourge on humanity for far longer than previously thought, ancient DNA shows.

Samples taken from the teeth of seven bodies contained traces of the bacterial infection in the Bronze Age.

They also showed it had, at the time, been unable to cause the bubonic form of plague or spread through fleas - abilities it evolved later.

The researchers, at the University of Copenhagen, say plague may have shaped early human populations.

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34603116

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Nearly 200 sickened by Shigella outbreak in San Francisco area: officials

Nearly 200 people in the San Francisco area have been sickened by an intestinal disease caused by the highly contagious Shigella bacteria since an outbreak began at a Mexican seafood restaurant 10 days ago, health officials said on Monday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/26/us-sanfrancisco-outbreak-idUSKCN0SK2KW20151026

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MERS, Ebola, bird flu: Science's big missed opportunities

Anyone who goes down with flu in Europe this winter could be asked to enroll in a randomized clinical trial in which they will either be given a drug, which may or may not work, or standard advice to take bed rest and paracetamol.

Those who agree could be helping the world prepare for the next potentially deadly disease pandemic as well as helping scientists who are now desperate to plug gaps in knowledge left by previous missed opportunities.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/26/us-health-epidemic-research-insight-idUSKCN0SK0P020151026

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Parts of London have higher TB rates than Iraq or Rwanda.
A third of London's boroughs suffer from high rates of TB, with more than 40 incidents per 100,000 people.
Some wards in Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hounslow and Newham have rates of more than 150 per 100,000.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-34637968

Would you risk it for £750?


Would you be willing to be injected with a fragment of the Ebola virus to aid medical research?

Hammersmith Medicines Research (HMR) is looking for volunteers to help it in its search for a vaccine against the deadly disease.

It needs healthy people between the ages of 18 and 65 to be injected with a single protein from the Ebola virus in the hope that it will trigger an immune response.

Those taking part will need to attend 12 outpatient visits over the course of a year, starting next month, and will be paid up to £750.

http://money.aol.co.uk/2015/10/27/ebola-vaccine-trial-seeks-volunteers/

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Ebola deployment by military crucial but carries risks: report

Foreign military personnel played a crucial role in stemming the Ebola outbreak in Liberia and Sierra Leone, researchers say, but warned against treating their intervention as a blueprint for future humanitarian crises.

Military help was required as health systems in Liberia and Sierra Leone were ill-equipped and many aid agencies withdrew staff and halted operations when the outbreak began, University of Sydney researchers said.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/ebola-military-1.3290440

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Parts of London have higher TB rates than Iraq or Rwanda.
A third of London's boroughs suffer from high rates of TB, with more than 40 incidents per 100,000 people.
Some wards in Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hounslow and Newham have rates of more than 150 per 100,000.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-34637968

Thanks for the link, Janne :)

Seems the US. has the same problems. Very scary disease.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tuberculosis-mdr-tb-treatment_56211f2be4b06462a13bc8fd

This Disease Could Kill 75 Million People By 2050


The White House has a plan to combat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, but it may never get funded.

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The White House has a plan to combat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, but it may never get funded.

That is because federal tax cuts are more important.

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The Biothreat Is Real — And We're Not Ready, Report Says

It's a scary scenario: A genetically engineered Nipah virus is sprayed into the air during a July 4th celebration in Washington, D.C., and across the country, killing more than 6,000 people.

A badly prepared United States does almost nothing at first, and people die as officials scramble to get a grip on what happened.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/biothreat-real-were-not-ready-report-says-n452906

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Tuberculosis now rivals AIDS as leading cause of death: WHO

For the first time, tuberculosis infections rivaled HIV/AIDS as a leading cause of death from infectious diseases, the World Health Organization said in a report released on Wednesday.

It found that during 2014, 1.1 million people died of TB in 2014. During the same period, HIV/AIDS killed 1.2 million people globally, including 400,000 who were infected with both HIV and TB.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/28/us-health-tuberculosis-global-idUSKCN0SM1Z520151028

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Guinea records three new cases of Ebola, brings total to nine

Three more people in Guinea have been infected with the Ebola virus, a senior health official said on Wednesday, further dampening hopes of an imminent end to the world's worst recorded outbreak of the disease.

The three were infected in Forecariah in western Guinea from the family of a woman who died of Ebola and whose body was handled without appropriate protection, said Fode Tass Sylla, spokesman for the national center for the fight against Ebola.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/29/us-health-ebola-guinea-idUSKCN0SN00X20151029

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Thoughts and prayers for her.

Teen Girl Has Bubonic Plague, Oregon Public Health Officials Say


A teen girl from eastern Oregon has contracted the bubonic plague, health officials said.

The Crook County girl is believed to have acquired the disease from a flea bite during a hunting trip near Heppner in Morrow County, officials said. The trip started on Oct. 16, she fell ill five days later and was hospitalized three days afterward.

The girl is recovering at a hospital intensive care unit. Her condition isn't known.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/oregon-public-health-officials-teen-girl-bubonic-plague-34840937

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Deforestation 'may have started west Africa's Ebola outbreak'

Deforestation may have triggered the recent Ebola outbreak in west Africa, France’s environment minister Ségolène Royal told a London summit hosted by the Prince of Wales ahead of next month’s Cop21 conference.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/29/deforestation-might-have-started-west-africas-ebola-outbreak

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Study: Funerals Were Prime Places for Ebola Spread

PHILADELPHIA – About one-fourth of patients with the Ebola virus in West Africa recalled attending the funeral of an Ebola victim before they fell ill themselves, researchers reported here.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ASTMH/54374

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Christie and nurse who was quarantined over Ebola fears face hurdles in quarantine lawsuit

In one corner stands a nurse volunteer who treated Ebola victims in West Africa, then found herself quarantined for three days in New Jersey, a forced isolation that became a cause célèbre for health care workers across the country. In the other corner is Governor Christie, the man who said he was protecting the health and safety of the general public when he imposed a mandatory quarantine of health care workers returning from Ebola-ravaged countries.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/christie-and-nurse-who-was-quarantined-over-ebola-fears-face-hurdles-in-quarantine-lawsuit-1.1445468

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Dengue fever outbreak remains at its peak in Kaohsiung

Taipei, Nov. 1 (CNA) Kaohsiung reported 214 new cases of dengue fever infection in the past week, an increase of 30 cases from the previous week, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Sunday, warning that the epidemic remains at its peak in the southern Taiwan port city.

http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201511010010.aspx

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That's not good Lynn we have Dengue here up north in the tropic's . Sounds like it's going to be a bad year for it .

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That's not good Lynn we have Dengue here up north in the tropic's . Sounds like it's going to be a bad year for it .

Let's hope not Glenn.

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British scientists are spraying spider webs with ebola and the Black Death

As if we needed another reason to avoid spiders and their creepy, clingy homes, now we find out military scientists are spraying webs with deadly diseases like ebola and the Black Plague.

Why? Well, perhaps they are creating new super-weapons that allow mutant human beings to climb buildings and shoot web from their fingers to infect enemies?

http://metro.co.uk/2015/11/02/british-scientists-are-spraying-spider-webs-with-ebola-and-the-black-death-5476209/

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Florida kindergartner dies of bacterial meningitis

Health officials say a kindergartner in Palm Beach County has died of bacterial meningitis.

Palm Beach County Health Department officials said that as a precautionary measure, the agency issued one-dose antibiotics to students and staff at the school who had contact with 5-year-old Kamar Davin. Officials say the boy died Thursday.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/11/02/florida-kindergartner-dies-bacterial-meningitis.html

:(((

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