Flu Epidemic Kills 22 Children Nationally
February 24, 2008
The flu has spread across the country and the centers of disease control is now calling it an epidemic.
At least 22 children have died from the flu in Florida this season. Florida is the only state seeing just regional outbreaks.
Twenty states have seen increases in flu activity over the past two weeks.
The symptoms are sudden onset of a high fever, headache, cough, and respiratory congestion. One big problem is that not all of the flu strains are targeted in this years vaccine.
If this is your first time visiting Bible Prophecy In The News, I'd like to invite you to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Arkansas - Leprosy Outbreak Denied
February 9, 2008
The Springdale Chamber of Commerce on Friday tried to defuse Thursday’s television report that suggested there had been a leprosy outbreak in that city.
The release from Springdale Chamber President and CEO Perry Webb states, in part: “You may be aware of a media report that is suggesting there has been an outbreak of leprosy in Springdale. This is not true. The chamber has been in touch (Friday ) morning with Gov. Mike Beebe, Congressman John Boozman, the Center for Disease Control and the Washington County Health Department. Each of these entities is fully engaged and is reporting to us that there is no outbreak (of leprosy in Springdale or northwest Arkansas ). ”
Representatives of the Washington County Health Department explained that nothing has changed in the number of known cases of communicable diseases in northwest Arkansas in the past year, the news release states.
World Said to Be on Brink of Cancer Epidemic
February 5, 2008
International health agencies say the world is on the brink of a cancer epidemic. The World Health Organization reports 7.6 million people died of the disease in 2005. It predicts the number of cancer deaths and new cases of the disease will rise astronomically in the coming years, unless action is taken now to reverse smoking trends and provide treatment to patients in developing countries.
To mark World Cancer Day, Monday, health campaigners are sending out a message that cancer need not and should not be a death sentence. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.
India Bird Flu Outbreak Portends Pandemic
January 30, 2008
An epidemic of avian influenza in West Bengal, India has the Indian “government in panic mode”, according to the Times of India Web site.
And with good reason: 15 million of West Bengal’s 80 million people are crammed into its capital city, Kolkata (Calcutta), which is a petri dish of poverty, pollution, political intransigence and hopeless public health. It is the city where Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity order.
If the infection reaches Kolkata’s poultry markets, there is a much greater risk of animal-to-human transmission than there has been in Indonesia or Vietnam, where infections of H5N1 influenza have already crossed species from animals to humans.
There have been many more human infections of highly-pathogenic influenza in Indonesia (120 cases, 98 deaths) and Vietnam (102 cases, 48 deaths) than in India. There were three outbreaks of avian influenza in India in 2006, but there have been no human deaths there, yet.
India To Cull 2.7 Million Chickens
India will cull as many as 2.7 million chickens by Jan. 30 to rein in bird flu, as the disease spread to 13 of 19 districts in West Bengal state.
Authorities culled 1.9 million chickens as of yesterday after the outbreak was reported earlier this month in the eastern state, federal Animal Husbandry Secretary Pradeep Kumar said in New Delhi today.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed about containing the disease,” Kumar said. “There’s a need to convince people about the necessity of culling.”
As many as 125,283 poultry birds died in the state after the outbreak, Kumar said. The decline in the natural mortality of the birds because of avian influenza is a “good sign,” he said.
Rainfall in the state had prevented the culling of potentially infected birds, Kumar said. The government will give importance to the “mopping up and disinfection” operation once the culling is over, Kumar said.
Fast Moving Blood Infection Kills Student
January 24, 2008
A 22-year-old Dillard University student has died of a rare infection of the bloodstream that can spread bacteria throughout the body, New Orleans Health Department Director Kevin Stephens said Tuesday.
Citing a request for privacy from the mans family, Dillard spokeswoman Karen Celestan said she could not release the name of the student, who died Friday.
However, the state Office of Public Health is offering preventive care to the students close contacts and offering information about the illness, said Dr. Takeisha Davis, the departments regional medical director.
Although the infection is difficult to treat because it moves quickly, Stephens said vaccines are effective. The body needs about two weeks after the shot to build up enough antibodies to ward off the infection, Davis said.
Dillard will be offering free immunizations to faculty, staff and students today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Lawless Memorial Chapel, Celestan said.
This infection, which can cause death within two days, is rare, striking one person in 500,000, Stephens said. Early warning signs are rash, fever and flu like symptoms.
At this point, “theres no need to call out the troops,” Stephens said, because this case appears to be an isolated one.
People can ward off the infection with basic hygienic practices such as frequent hand-washing and covering the mouth when coughing and sneezing, and not sharing personal items such as razors, he said.
The vaccine to be administered today is used to combat meningitis, which, Stephens said, is related to this ailment. Such infections can be common among first- and second-year college students because they are more likely to live close together in dormitories. State law requires the vaccine for incoming college students, Stephens said.
Older people are also vulnerable, he said.
Epidemic Superbug Strains Evolved From Single Bacterium - USA300
January 22, 2008
The drug-resistant “superbugs” that have cut a swathe through day care centers, schools, locker rooms and prisons across the United States in the last five years stem from one rapidly evolving bacterium, US scientists said Monday.
Scientists studying the genetic make-up of these bugs, which are resistant to almost all antibiotics, say they are nearly identical clones that have emerged from a single bacterial strain, which they have dubbed USA300.
“The USA300 group of strains appears to have extraordinary transmissibility and fitness,” said Frank DeLeo, a researcher with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in Hamilton, Montana.
“We anticipate that new USA300 derivatives will emerge within the next several years and that these strains will have a wide range of disease-causing potential.”
Most drug-resistant staph infections cause soft-tissue infections such as boils that are readily treatable, but a skin infection can become a deadly pneumonia or blood or bone infection in a matter of days if the patient doesn’t get the right drugs.
What’s particularly worrying to health authorities is that the MRSA infections, (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) have spread beyond their traditional hospital setting, seeding an epidemic in the wider community.
The NIAID scientists studied the DNA of 10 patient samples of the USA300 bacterium taken from individuals treated at different US locations between 2002 and 2005. They compared the genetic sequences of the bugs to each other and to USA300 strains used in earlier studies.
The genomes of eight of the 10 patient samples were virtually identical, indicating they came from a common strain. The remaining two bacteria were related to the other eight, but more distantly.
The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Morgellons Study Seeks Clues On Skin-crawling Syndrome
January 18, 2008
Morgellons, a straight-out-of-science-fiction type syndrome will be the subject of a major new study, federal health officials said Wednesday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has contracted with Kaiser Permanente Northern California to investigate the mystery disease which makes sufferers feel like bugs are crawling under their skin. Symptoms include itching, biting and crawling sensations and red, blue or black filaments that emerge from skin lesions.
“The cause of this condition is unknown,” Dr. Michele Pearson, principal investigator with the CDC, said during a telephone news conference Wednesday. “Those who suffer from this condition, as well as their families and physicians, have questions, and we want to help them find meaningful answers.”
The San Francisco Bay Area is believed to be one of the nation’s hot spots for the malady, according to a patient registry maintained by the Morgellons Research Foundation, an advocacy group. Others include the Los Angeles region, Texas and Florida.
Scientists and doctors continue to debate whether Morgellons (pronounced mor-GELL-uns) represents a real, physical disease or is a type of mental illness. People suffering from the syndrome are typically treated with psychiatric drugs, although one clinic in Texas has treated patients with long-term antibiotics.
In addition to the feeling of bugs crawling under the skin and the mysterious
Advertisement
fibers, patients also complain of fatigue, joint pain, hair loss, vision problems and difficulty in thinking clearly.
Drug-resistant MRSA Staph Infection Found To Be Passed In Gay Sex
January 14, 2008
A drug-resistant strain of potentially deadly bacteria has moved beyond the borders of U.S. hospitals and is being transmitted among gay men during sex, researchers said on Monday.
They said methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is beginning to appear outside hospitals in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles.
Sexually active gay men in San Francisco are 13 times more likely to be infected than their heterosexual neighbors, the researchers reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
“Once this reaches the general population, it will be truly unstoppable,” said Binh Diep, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco who led the study. “Thats why were trying to spread the message of prevention.”
According to chemical analyses, bacteria are spreading among the gay communities of San Francisco and Boston, the researchers said.
“We think that its spread through sexual activity,” Diep said.
This superbug can cause life-threatening and disfiguring infections and can often only be treated with expensive, intravenous antibiotics.
It killed about 19,000 Americans in 2005, most of them in hospitals, according to a report published in October in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
About 30 percent of all people carry ordinary staph chronically. It can be passed by touching other people or by depositing the bacteria on surfaces or objects.
The bacteria can cause deep-tissue infections if they enter the body through a wound in the skin.
Of those people who carry staph, most carry it in their noses but community-based MRSA also can live in and around the anus and is passed between sexual partners.
Incidence of MRSA is rising along with the resurgence of syphilis, rectal gonorrhea, and new HIV infections partly because of changes in beliefs about the severity of HIV and an increase in risky behaviors, such as illicit drug use and having sex that abrades the skin, Dieps team wrote.
“Your likelihood of contracting each of these diseases increases with the number of sexual partners that you have,” Diep said. “The same can probably be said for MRSA.”
Staph infections often look like raised red dots on the skin. Left untreated, the areas can swell and fill with pus.
Norovirus Vomiting Bug - Pandemic Levels With 3.6 Million Sick In UK
January 14, 2008
More than 3.6million workers have called in sick so far this week, a survey suggests.
A record one in eight staff has been laid low, with the winter vomiting bug, norovirus, cited as the main culprit.
Chronic coughs and colds have also seen workers take to their beds.
Health experts warn that sickness may soon reach pandemic levels with large swathes of the population being struck down.
Aaron Ross, of FirstCare, the absence management firm which produced the figures, said: “This is the worst period of sickness we have ever seen and it comes at a very bad time for employers.
“Most organisations wound down during the unusually long holiday period and they are experiencing real trouble starting up again.
“There has been a lot of press coverage surrounding the norovirus and people are being advised to stay at home for two days after the symptoms have stopped.”
Norovirus - which causes uncontrollable projectile vomiting - is said to be costing the economy £ 40million a day in lost productivity.
One hundred hospital wards were closed to admissions last week in an attempt to halt the march of the virus, which is 100,000 times more infectious than salmonella.
Mr Ross said: “Wards are closed, shops and restaurants are limiting their activities, deliveries and service calls will be late.
“All of this will have a knock-on effect on those staff who are at work as they will be put under more pressure to cover absent colleagues.
“The extra stress and strain will, in turn, make these employees more susceptible to falling ill themselves.”
He said that 4 per cent of the employees covered by FirstCare had called in sick on Monday with a similar pattern seen yesterday.
“This is the closest thing to a pandemic that employers will have seen for years and it should be a wake up call for businesses that don’t have contingency plans for high sickness rates,” he added.
The spread of norovirus can be restricted by washing hands regularly and disinfecting much-used items, such as remote controls and telephones.
Other tips include ventilating a room after someone has been sick and not sharing towels, toothbrushes or cutlery.
Norovirus symptoms last for up to three days and it is contagious for another two days or so.
The very old, very young and those already seriously ill with other ailments risk complications from dehydration.
There is no treatment other than drinking plenty of liquid.
Mr Ross said the impact of norovirus showed that firms should prepare for even more serious illnesses such as bird flu.
He claimed that some of the absenteeism could be explained by stress brought on by the cost of the festive period.
“With Christmas credit card bills round the corner and a cold winter approaching we are likely to see continued high sickness rates,” he said.
“I recommend that businesses bring forward the pay day for January as well as December because it is a very long month.
“The weather also has a profound effect. It has been a mild winter so far and that is why there have been so many coughs and colds - the weather has not been able to kill them off.”
Dengue Fever Could Spread To United States
January 10, 2008
Dengue fever, a potentially deadly virus usually found in the tropics, could begin spreading widely in the U.S. as mosquitoes that transmit the disease move into more states, according to two leading epidemiologists.
The disease has already struck Hawaii, Texas and Puerto Rico after decades of absence in the U.S., Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and colleague David Morens write in the Jan. 9 Journal of the American Medical Association. They expect the threat to persist with increased air travel and urban development.
More than 760,000 cases of dengue and almost 20,000 cases of its deadly form, dengue hemorrhagic fever, were reported in the Americas in the first 11 months of last year, according to the Pan American Health Organization. With no specific treatments or proven vaccines to prevent the infection, an outbreak could overwhelm communities, Fauci and Morens said.
“This is an important problem, and our options for control and prevention at the moment are not very good,” said Morens, Fauci’s senior scientific adviser, in a phone interview today. “It’s easy to forget when a disease has been away for a long period of time.”
Dengue can be caused by four kinds of flavivirus, a family of viruses that also includes yellow fever and West Nile. The Aedes mosquitoes that transmit dengue have been around for hundreds of years and have re-emerged in greater numbers since efforts to prevent yellow fever waned in the 1970s, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Prophecy In The News Ads
Did God Send A Prophet In The Last Days?
Latest Bible Prophecy In The News Headlines
- 7.8 Earthquake Strikes China
- Israel At 60
- 3rd-graders Asked To Help Classmate In Gender Change
- Ark of the Covenant Altar Found In Sheba’s Palace
- Beijing and Riyadh Will Call The Shots On Ailing Dollar’s Future
- The Threat Mr. Putin Sees
- Blood Moon Eclipses, Signs In The Skies
- Israel at 60: Will Israel Strike Iran Before Bush Leaves Office
- Child Viral Death Toll Up to 34 In China - 25,000 Infections
- Radio Talk Show Host Bernie Ward Admits To Child Porn in Plea Deal
Sections
- A Perilous Planet
- Coming Economic Collapse
- Disease & Pestilence
- Israel Gods Timepiece
- Moral Decay, Iniquity, Love Waxes Cold
- Prophecy In The News Featured Story
- Prophecy News Misc.
- Science and Technology
- Wars, Rumors of Wars & Terrorism
- Watch Russia
- World Religion, Spirituality & Atheism
