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Scientists created bird flu superbug that could set off next global pandemic

January 31, 2012 Comments off

naturalnews.com

flu

(NaturalNews) During roughly the same time period that health experts worldwide have been warning that the infamous H5N1 avian flu virus could soon morph into a highly-transmissible, exceedingly-deadly “super strain” capable of killing millions, scientists from around the world have been exposed deliberately developing such a strain in laboratories.

Last month, we reported about research work conducted by Ron Fouchier from Erasmus Medical College in the Netherlands that had successfully created a super-deadly strain of H5N1. Fouchier and his colleagues had originally planned to publish their controversial findings in medical journals until the scientific community and many members of the public decried the research, calling for an immediate end to it (http://www.naturalnews.com/034228_bioterrorism_flu_strain.html).

Not only is the publishing of critical data about a deadly new strain of H5N1 a massive public health risk, but the research itself is a huge risk as well, as the strain could end up escaping from labs and quickly spreading around the world. Bio-terrorists could also gain hold of the strain — or produce a similar one themselves — to be used for starting the Read more…

Categories: disease and pestilence Tags: , , , ,

Nodding disease kills 200 children in Uganda

January 25, 2012 Comments off

newvision

By Pascal Kwesiga

Over 200 children have so far died of the mysterious Nodding disease in northern Uganda where it broke out three years ago.

The Ministry of Health reported early this month that it had recorded 66 deaths as a result of the disease. The number has since more than tripled.

The ministry on Tuesday also announced that the number of children infected with the disease had also risen to over 3,000 from 2,000 that was reported at the beginning of this year.

In an interview with New Vision, the commissioner for health services, Dr. Anthony Mbonye, said they were investigating reports that the disease that has been concentrated in Kitgum, Lamwo and Pader districts has spread to Lira and the surrounding areas.

Mbonye added that in Tumangu sub-county in Kitgum, almost every household has at least a Read more…

Categories: disease and pestilence, Uganda, Uncategorized Tags: , ,

Man dies of bird flu in southwest China: Report

January 23, 2012 Comments off

vancouversun.com

The current strain of H5N1 is highly pathogenic, kills most species of birds and up to 60 per cent of the people it infects.

The current strain of H5N1 is highly pathogenic, kills most species of birds and up to 60 per cent of the people it infects.

BEIJING — A man in southwest China died of bird flu on Sunday after three days of intensive care treatment in hospital, the official Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry of Health as saying.

The 39-year old — who died in hospital in Guiyan, capital of Guizhou province — began suffering from fever on January 6.

Xinhua said China’s centres for disease control and prevention at provincial and national levels confirmed the man had died after being infected with the H5N1 bird flu strain.

The man had had close contact with 71 individuals, but none had shown unusual symptoms, the health ministry told Xinhua. The report did not mention whether the man had been in recent contact with birds.

The virus is normally found in Read more…

Categories: China, disease and pestilence Tags: , , , ,

India orders cull to tackle bird flu outbreak

September 21, 2011 Comments off

afp

Fresh bird flu outbreaks have been confirmed in two villages in West Bengal (AFP/File, Diptendu Dutta)

NEW DELHI — India has ordered the immediate culling of chickens in an eastern part of the country in a bid to contain an outbreak of bird flu.

Outbreaks were confirmed in two villages in West Bengal, which has been severely hit by the virus in previous years, a government statement said late Tuesday.

Samples tested positive for the H5 strain of avian influenza, popularly known as bird flu.

All chickens will be culled within a three kilometre (nearly two mile) radius of the focal point of the infection, the statement said, without giving numbers.

Eggs and chicken feed will Read more…

Categories: disease and pestilence, India Tags: , , , ,

Asia is hit with mutated bird flu virus

August 30, 2011 Comments off

bigpondnews.com

The UN says a mutant strain of the deadly H5N1 virus could be spreading in Asia.

The UN says a mutant strain of the deadly H5N1 virus could be spreading in Asia.

Bird flu is showing signs of returning, and a mutant strain of the deadly H5N1 virus could be spreading in Asia, the United Nations has warned.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) issued a warning on Monday that a mutant strain of bird flu could be spreading to previous virus-free countries by wild bird migrations, CBS News reports.

The FAO says the new strain can apparently dodge existing avian Read more…

Categories: asia, disease and pestilence Tags: , , , , ,

World-wide cholera pandemic traced to Bangladesh

August 29, 2011 1 comment

rawstory

A cholera pandemic that has swept poor countries in three waves over nearly four decades has been traced to a bacterial strain that first emerged in Bangladesh, scientists reported on Wednesday.

The current pandemic is the seventh since cholera, a water- and food-borne diarrhoeal disease caused by the Vibrio cholerae bug, emerged nearly two centuries ago.

Gene sequencing of 154 samples of V. cholerae taken from patients around the world show today’s pandemic can be traced to an initial outbreak of cholera in the Bay of Bengal in 1975, the investigators said.

In 1982, the strain, known as El Tor, acquired genes making it resistant to antibiotics. As a result, successive waves of the disease spread around the world, propagated from the original source.

The new probe, published in the British journal Nature, points to the Read more…

Categories: disease and pestilence Tags: , , , ,

Rare brain amoeba claims three lives

August 20, 2011 Comments off

abc

Image Wikipedia

Three young Americans have died this year from a rare water-borne amoeba that swims up through the nose and infects the brain, the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) said.

Naegleria fowleri – an amoeba found in warm freshwater lakes and rivers and occasionally in poorly treated swimming pools – causes a “rare, but severe” brain infection and kills around three people a year, the CDC said.

In the first week the disease causes major headaches, fever, vomiting and a stiffening of the neck, eventually leading to confusion, seizures and Read more…

Categories: disease and pestilence Tags: , , , ,

81 children die after HFMD outbreak in Vietnam

August 20, 2011 Comments off

omantribune

HANOI Vietnam is battling to control an unusually severe outbreak of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) that has killed 81 children this year and infected tens of thousands more, health officials said on Thursday.

About three-quarters of the more than 30,000 reported HFMD cases so far this year have occurred in children younger than three, said Graham Harrison, the World Health Organisation’s acting representative for Vietnam.

“It’s a challenge to deal with it,” he said. “It’s certainly a significant increase on the previous two or three years.”

All of the dead were children, Vietnam’s health ministry said.

HFMD is a common viral illness of infants and children that causes fever and blister-like eruptions in the mouth, according to the US-based Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which are Read more…

Categories: disease and pestilence, Vietnam Tags: , ,

Disease outbreaks, looting hampering relief efforts in Somalia famine

August 17, 2011 Comments off

news-medical

“Outbreaks of measles and cholera are striking down Somali children already weakened by hunger, resulting in dozens of new fatalities,” the Guardian reports (Rice, 8/13). According to the WHO, “181 people have died from suspected cholera cases in a single hospital in Mogadishu, and there have been several other confirmed cholera outbreaks across the country,” the New York Times writes (Gettleman, 8/12). UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado “said Friday that tens of thousands of children have died and countless more are particularly at risk of cholera and other diseases because of drought and violence in East Africa,” the Associated Press/NPR notes (8/12).

The World Food Programme (WFP) “said Saturday that it is Read more…

Categories: disease and pestilence, Somalia Tags: , , ,

China releases 600 million wasps to combat moths

August 11, 2011 Comments off

physorg

Chinese forestry officials have released some 600 million parasitic insects into the north China city of Baoding to combat the spread of the American White Moth that has been (in their caterpillar stage) eating the leaves off of forest and domestic orchard trees, as well as some farm crops. This is the fifth year in a row that Chinese officials have released wasps hoping to reduce the damage caused by the moths.

The American White Moth, known in the U.S. as the Fall Webworm, (though some call them “forest locusts”) creates, during its larval stage, the familiar webbed nests seen on hardwood tree limbs all across the country. It is one of the few insects that have migrated from North America to other parts of the world. The Fall Webworm doesn’t generally harm the trees where it lives, though it does reduce the amount of leaves on them, which isn’t considered all that much of a problem until it moves to Read more…

Categories: China, disease and pestilence Tags: , , , ,