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Another woman dies of mysterious virus in s Korea
Seoul (ANTARA News/Xinhua-OANA) – A pregnant woman has died of pneumonia related to an unidentified virus, nearly 15 days after the same cause brought about the first fatality in South Korea, local media reported Thursday.
The 36-year-old woman died early Thursday morning, about one month after being admitted to the intensive care unit of a large hospital in Seoul, according to the Korea Center for Disaster Control and Prevention (KCDC), Seoul`s Yonhap news agency reported.
She initially showed cold-like symptoms but later was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis. The victim was among eight patients who checked into the intensive care unit of the hospital for infection with the unknown virus.
Seven of the eight patients have recently given birth or are expecting, prompting widespread fears among the country`s pregnant women.
The KCDC has been focusing on verifying the origin of the virus by studying the specimen taken from the patient and conducting genetic analysis on it.
Antibiotics In Animal Feed Encourage Emergence Of Superbugs – FDA Sued By Health And Consumer Organizations
medicalnewstoday
If the FDA concluded in 1977 that adding low-dose antibiotics used in human medicine to animal feed raised the risk of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, why has it still done nothing about it? A suit filed by some health and consumer organizations says the FDA has not met its legal responsibility to protect public health – the practice of routinely adding low-dose antibiotics to animal feed has to stop, and the FDA has the authority to make it so.
Peter Lehner, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) executive director, said:
“More than a generation has passed since FDA first recognized the potential human health consequences of feeding large quantities of antibiotics to healthy animals.
Accumulating evidence shows that antibiotics are becoming less effective, while our grocery store meat is increasingly laden with drug-resistant bacteria. The FDA needs to put the American people first by ensuring that antibiotics continue to serve their primary purpose – saving human lives by combating disease.”
70% of all US antibiotic consumption is used up in adding low-doses to animal feed to make up for unsanitary living conditions and promote faster growth, according to NRDC. This practice has been steadily growing over the last six decades, despite the every-growing threat to humans of superbugs.
The antibiotic doses used in feed or water for turkeys, cows, pigs and chickens are too low to treat diseases – however, they are low enough for a significant number of bacteria to survive and build Read more…
Anti-locust programme in Central Asia and Caucasus
19 May 2011, Rome – FAO will assist ten countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus to save up to 25 million hectares of cultivated farmland from a locust crisis. Locusts are a serious threat for agriculture, food security and livelihoods in both regions including adjacent areas of northern Afghanistan and the southern Russian Federation.
A five-year programme to develop national capacities and launch regional cooperation is about to start thanks to assistance from the United States of America. Support from other donors is expected soon.
Ten countries at risk
In all, ten countries are at risk: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. There are three locust pests in the Read more…
Bedbugs with ‘superbug’ germ found
We’ve all heard the expression “don’t let the bed bugs bite.” Well that’s exactly what they do, and a new study shows some of them may be carrying a staph infection superbug.
First of all the study is very small and preliminary. Canadian scientists found drug-resistant staph bacteria in bedbugs at a hospital in British Columbia. Experts say while the bugs cause a lot of discomfort they have not been known to spread disease. Just the word bedbug gives a lot of people the willies.
The small pests were nearly wiped out 70 years ago, but they are once again a growing problem.
Karen Christie is an infection preventionist with ProMedica. She says, “In the state of Ohio, we’ve seen a real increase and part of the reason for that is they are resistant to some of the pesticides that are used to treat and kill bedbugs.”
The Centers for Disease Control released a study on the potential bedbug superbug this week. Doctors at a Vancouver hospital did research after seeing a spike in bedbugs and staph infections from a neighborhood near the hospital. Five bed bugs were crushed and analyzed. Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus or MRSA was found on three of the bugs. MRSA is resistant to several Read more…
Mice plague hits biblical proportions across New South Wales farms
Mice are at plague proportions in the NSW Riverina area. Source: The Daily Telegraph Source: Supplied
DROUGHTS, locusts and floods – now a mouse plague threatens to cripple winter crops.
With an estimated 8000 mice per hectare, farmers are fighting a losing war against the pint-sized enemy, which eats seedlings as quickly as they can be planted and chews through new crops.
Describing the vermin as “intelligent and crafty”, NSW Riverina farmer John Pattison said their natural predators had disappeared after recent weather events, allowing them to multiply at a fast rate.
Not seen in such numbers for 15 years, they hide underground and grab the seed as it germinates.
Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson said she would move swiftly to increase the production of poison to meet demand.
The worst affected areas are Hillston, Wentworth, Warren, Parkes and Griffith, with mouse activity and damage also reported in other areas across the Central West, Darling, Lachlan, Hume and Riverina.
Riverina firefighters have blamed mice for chewing through wire and starting a fire which almost killed a dairy farmer. Six people have also tested positive for a rare disease carried by mice.
Bat disease could allow insects to destroy crops
A deadly disease to bats could become a major financial headache for agriculture, costing Ohio farmers as much as $1.7 billion a year.
A new study is the first to tie a dollar value to the millions of crop-damaging insects that bats routinely devour each year. Now, the night-flying hunters face the threat of a fungal disease that kills most of the bats it infects.
White-nose syndrome, named for the fungus that spreads over bats while they hibernate, has killed at least 1 million bats in 15 states and Canada since it was discovered in New York in 2006.
On March 30, Ohio officials announced that they found the disease among bats hibernating in an abandoned limestone mine in the Wayne National Forest. They fear it will march through Ohio as it has Read more…
Disease hits wheat crops in Africa, Mideast
PARIS — Aggressive new strains of wheat rust disease have decimated up to 40 percent of harvests in some regions of north Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and the Caucasus, researchers said Wednesday.
The countries most affected are Syria and Uzbekistan, with Egypt, Yemen, Turkey, Iran, Morocco, Ethiopia and Kenya also hit hard, they reported at a scientific conference in Aleppo, Syria.
“These epidemics increase the price of food and pose a real threat to rural livelihoods and regional food security,” Mahmoud Solh, director general of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), said in a statement.
In some nations hit by the blight, wheat accounts for 50 percent of calorie intake, and 20 percent of protein nutrition.
“Wheat is the cornerstone for food security in many of these countries,” said Hans Braun, director of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), near Mexico City, singling out Syria.
“Looking at the political and social situation, what they don’t need is a food crisis,” he told AFP by phone.
Wheat rust is a fungal disease that attacks the stems, grains and especially the Read more…
Mosquito borne virus alert for Western Australia
There is a mosquito alert for people living and holidaying in northern and central WA after a high number of reports of encephalitis and Ross River virus. According to Department of Health entomologist Sue Harrington, it is confirmed that a Carnarvon resident has been diagnosed with the potentially fatal encephalitis while several other cases are currently being investigated.
This virus infection is characterized by fever, drowsiness, headache, stiff neck, nausea and dizziness. In severe cases, people can have fits, lapse into a coma and may be left with permanent brain damage or die Read more…
Stink bugs hit fruits, vegetables, field crops, also go into houses
A female version of the brown marmorated stink bug.
The Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) reported the coming of Asian stink bugs in January, and a report Monday morning said they are confirmed in Ingham, Eaton, Genessee and Berrien counties.
They do not bite or sting, but well, they do stink.
And, as is a big concern to the MDA and producers, they ruin fruit and other crops.
“Exotic pests such as the brown marmorated stink bug pose a serious threat to the economic health of Michigan’s $71.3 billion agri-food industry and our 53,000 farmers,” said Keith Creagh, MDA director. “MDA and Michigan State University researchers will work in concert to both identify control recommendations for our agriculture community, as well as monitor this pest’s spread in the state.”
For those who like to get technical, they are the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) or Halyomorpha halys (Stål).
The complete story appears in the Tuesday, April 12, 2011 edition and is available at coldwaterdailyreporter.mi.newsmemory.com.Report Asian stink bugs
BMSB superficially resembles several common species of stink bug native to Michigan. To distinguish them from other stink bugs, look for lighter bands on the antennae and darker bands on the membranous, overlapping part at the rear of the front pair of wings. They have patches of coppery or bluish-metallic colored punctures (small rounded depressions) on the head and pronotum. Those who believe they may have the pest should contact the local Michigan State University Extension office at (517) 279-4311.
For more information on brown marmorated stink bug, one can visit http://www.michigan.gov/mda.
India objects to ‘smuggling’ superbug samples out to UK
NEW DELHI: India on Thursday seriously objected to biological samples in the form of “swabs of seepage water and tap water” being carried out of the country “on the sly” by British scientists to test the presence of the multi-drug resistant superbug.
India said it was a signatory to World Health Organization’s International Materiel Transfer Agreement as per which permission is required to carry out any biological material from the country.
“The way scientists carried out samples from India to be tested in UK does not point to a good scientific motive. It is illegal,” said Dr V M Katoch, director general of Indian Council for Medical Research. “Some people want to keep the heat on India,” he added.
According to him, such multi-drug resistant bacteria — like what is being called a superbug caused by the NDM1 gene — exists in environment across the world. “To keep on pressing India as a hotbed of such superbugs is unfair, and its motive is questionable,” Dr Katoch added.
The scientists had collected 171 swabs of seepage water and 50 public tap water samples Read more…
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