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DEADLY SUPERBUG NDM-1 in BRITAIN

February 2, 2011 1 comment
superbugThe bacteria have spread from India and Pakistan and are now being found in hospitals here

Back in 1987 Dr. Robin Cook wrote the medical thriller “Outbreak.” The best-selling novel focused on a team of brilliant medical researchers desperately racing against time to stop a deadly virus from spreading across the United States and potentially killing millions.

Once again fiction becomes reality as England faces its own potentially deadly outbreak with the looming possibility that a superbug from India could bring mass fatalities and spread like wildfire across an unprotected population.

According to the British Health Protection Agency (HPA), a virulent super-bacteria called NDM-1 has invaded the island nation from the Indian sub-continent and Pakistan.

Concerned health professionals have found the bacteria cropping up in hospitals across the country.

Bacteriologists are now burning the midnight oil in a desperate attempt to get a handle on a disease that has the ability to kill thousands.

Superbugs—of which the NDM-1 bacteria is one—are resistant to Read more…

Categories: Britain, disease and pestilence Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Earthquake hits west of Scotland

January 24, 2011 Comments off

The British Geological Survey (BGS) said the 3.5-magnitude quake struck in Glenuig, 25 miles (40km) west of Fort William in the Highlands at about 0600 GMT.

People in Inverness, Skye and Oban, reported feeling tremors, which were experienced across the west Highlands.

The BGS said a such an earthquake might be felt up to 120km (74 miles) away but was unlikely to cause much damage.

It comes two weeks after residents in the North Yorkshire town of Ripon experienced a similar sized quake on 4 January.

Seismologist Davie Galloway said the UK tended to experience such quakes, on average, about once a year.

He said: “This quake was recorded on our instruments in Wales and in Shetland but it was actually felt by people 120km away in Inverness.

“We had a few calls from people who said they felt a vibration in their beds and also from people who said their cats were going mad.”

Mr Galloway said the quake originated from 16km below the ground.

He added: “Britain is criss-crossed by many geological faults but fortunately we are some distance away from the plate edges where most activity is experienced.”

Categories: Earthquake Tags: , ,