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Hidden Epidemic: 
Tapeworms Living Inside People's Brains05.15.2012Parasitic worms leave millions of victims paralyzed, epileptic, or worse. So why isn’t anyone mobilizing to eradicate them? by Carl Zimmer A human brain overrun with cysts from Taenia solium, a tapeworm that normally inhabits the muscles of pigs. Courtesy of Theodore E. Nash , M.D.Theodore Nash sees only a few dozen patients a year in his clinic at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. That’s pretty small as medical practices go, but what his patients lack in number they make up for in the intensity of their symptoms. Some fall into...

Washington state’s worst outbreak of whooping cough in decades has prompted health officials to declare an epidemic, seek help from federal experts and urge residents to get vaccinated amid worry that cases of the highly contagious disease could spike much higher. It’s the first state to declare a whooping cough, or pertussis, epidemic since 2010, when California had more than 9,000 cases, including 10 deaths. Washington has had 10 times the cases reported in 2011, and so has Wisconsin with nearly 2,000 cases this year, though that state has not declared an epidemic. California responded to its crisis two years...

According to latest figures, nearly one in 88 U.S. children have autism spectrum disorders. The report further urges national attention on the need for earlier diagnosis and treatment, especially in rural and minority communities. Figures released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show a 23% increase in autism spectrum cases from 2006 to 2008, and 78% increase since 2002. The largest increases in autism prevalence were found among black and Hispanic children, who have lagged behind whites in previous counts. Numbers are higher for boys, with one in 54 8-year-olds now considered to have autism, Asperger's...

— The number of reported cases of a novel swine influenza virus has risen to 12 since July, encompassing 5 states, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The virus includes a gene from the human pandemic strain and affects mostly children. The infections in question involve a variant of the A(H3N2) virus that circulates among pigs. It contains a gene from the pandemic 2009 influenza A(H1N1) virus that codes for matrix proteins found in the viral shell. In 3 of the 5 states where the A(H3N2)v virus has surfaced — Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Maine —...

(Image: Everett Collection/Rex Features) A document has just gone on display at Mount Vernon, Virginia - the museum in the former home of George Washington, first US President. It is an order dated 1777 and signed by Washington himself to send troops that had not been vaccinated for smallpox - or survived it - to Philadelphia to be vaccinated. These troops were then to join up with the main army, where the disease was raging. It sounds like amazing foresight for its day. "Washington's careful handling of the smallpox epidemic at the beginning of the war was a significant...

FLAGSTAFF, Arizona—A relatively new type of drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus could represent the world’s next bacterial epidemic, an environmental health expert said here today at a conference for science writers. The superbug, called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain 398, or MRSA ST398, was first identified in an infant in the Netherlands in 1994 and traced back to her family’s pigs. Now, researchers are starting to see more serious infections and some of the cases reveal no direct link to livestock, said Lance B. Price, director of the Center for Microbiomics and Human Health at The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), in Flagstaff. “The rate...

Sarah Palin’s visit to the earthquake-ravaged Haiti showed she is not “afraid to get her hands dirty,” says the Rev. Franklin Graham. The former Alaska governor is a “woman of strong principle and no question she has a strong faith in God,” the son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham said during a Newsmax.TV interview in which he discussed his hosting her Haitian visit...... ...The former GOP vice-presidential candidate “has tremendous compassion for people, she loves people, and she cares deeply about people,” Graham said. “She was an encouragement not only to the staff and to the relief workers (but) even...

"It very much likely did come either with peacekeepers or other relief personnel," said John Mekalanos, Harvard University microbiology chair. "I don't see there is any way to avoid the conclusion that an unfortunate and presumably accidental introduction of the organism occurred."

Over 4,000 cases, 9 deaths reported this year; decline in vaccinations blamed . LOS ANGELES — State health officials reported Thursday that California is on track to break a 55-year record in whooping cough infections in an epidemic that has already claimed the lives of nine babies.

Despite appearances, overall physical activity levels have remained constant for the last quarter of a century during which time weight levels have rocketed, Professor John Speakman said. He claimed that the average man burned 1380 calories per day in the 1980s and continues to do so today. The average woman has burned 950 calories a day during the same period. What has changed is that calorie intake has increased by at least a third to on average 3,500 calories a day, he said.

...While heirloom vegetables are actually benign–and frequently very tasty–it seems to me that we are currently witnessing an alarming wave of another type of heirloom: diseases. I started thinking about it when I read this post from Gateway Pundit earlier today, about an outbreak of typhoid (yes typhoid) in California and Nevada. Typhoid, once the scourge of many major cities, was nearly eradicated by the advent of clean water technologies in the early part of the twentieth century. Yet typhoid is back, and it’s not the only heirloom disease we’re seeing in America of late. We’ve probably all seen the...

LOS ANGELES—California health officials are reaching out to minority communities about the statewide whooping cough epidemic that has claimed the lives of five Latino babies. The California Department of Public Health is teaming with New America Media, an ethnic media collaborative, to raise awareness through foreign language media about vaccinations for parents, caregivers and children. The highly contagious disease has been found in 1,337 Californians of all backgrounds as of June 30, and new parents are being asked to get vaccinated to prevent spreading it to vulnerable newborns.

Syria was said to have halted military exercises amid a troop epidemic. The Syrian opposition has asserted that President Bashar Assad ordered the suspension of military training. Assad was said to have issued the order in mid-June 2010 amid an epidemic of diarrhea at army camps. The Syrian military, said to have come under increasing domination by Iran, has not acknowledged the training suspension.

Pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough is an extremely contagious infection which has now been considered an epidemic in California. With a rising number of infections, whooping cough is well on the way to break the 50 year old record which was set in 1958. The last outbreak was five years ago, and claimed 8 lives. Already this year, five infants have died from whooping cough, according to California public health officials. This infection has come roaring back. The number of cases that are being investigated as or considered whooping cough is already at an unusual 1,510. Officials fear the...

Whooping cough is now an epidemic in California, and is on pace to break a 50-year record for infections and deaths for the year. As of June 15, California had 910 recorded cases of the highly contagious disease, and five babies -- all under 3 months of age -- have died from the disease this year. This year's surge in whooping cough cases, which is also known as pertussis, is a fourfold increase from the same period last year, when 219 cases were recorded. At least 600 additional cases of pertussis are currently under investigation by local health departments. Health...

Grassley says he is worried about wasting tax dollars. The United States still has 71 million doses of H1N1 swine flu vaccine that have not been used, but it is not yet time to throw them out, the federal government said on Monday. States and other providers should hang on to the vaccine and continue to offer them to people until drug companies can start distributing seasonal vaccine for the coming influenza season in the autumn, said Health and Human Services Department spokesman Bill Hall. Senator Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance committee, released a letter on...

WASHINGTON: A potentially deadly strain of fungus is spreading among animals and people in the northwestern US and the Canadian province of British Columbia, researchers reported on Thursday. The airborne fungus, called Cryptococcus gattii, usually only infects transplant and AIDS patients, but the new strain is genetically different, the researchers said. “This novel fungus is worrisome because it appears to be a threat to otherwise healthy people,” said Edmond Byrnes of Duke University in North Carolina, who led the study. “The findings presented here document that the outbreak of C gattii in Western North America is continuing to expand throughout...

The Great Influenza pandemic killed as many as 100 million worldwide when the global population was less than a third of what it is today. It killed more people in twenty-four weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty-four years, more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages in a century. It didn't single out the very young and the very old. Half those who died were young people in the prime of life - in their 20's and 30's. By a bizarre and unprecedented stroke it turned the immune system itself into a killer. Two-thirds...

A new analysis, using H1N1 deaths in the United States in the spring and projecting likely outcomes for this fall, shows that a typical -- or possibly even a milder flu season than average -- should have been expected. The finding begs the question: Has swine flu been oversold? The new study, done by researchers at Harvard University and the Medical Research Council Biostatistics Unit in the U.K., says swine flu cases in the spring indicated a flu season that might be, at worst, slightly worse than normal. "It would have been great to have that back in June," said...

The mysterious Ukrainian mutant flu we reported on earlier is now in full swing as eastern Europe buckles down for its potential spread into neighboring countries. Over 1.4 million people are now infected. 12 people have died in the past 24 hours even. Ria: The death toll from the flu epidemic in Ukraine has reached 328, with 12 deaths registered over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Wednesday. Last week, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) chief, Raisa Bohatyryova, said there were "constitutional prerequisites" for a state of emergency amid the flu epidemic, which has left...

Abstract The epidemiology of influenza swarms with incongruities, incongruities exhaustively detailed by the late British epidemiologist...propose a parsimonious theory explaining why influenza is, ..."seemingly unmindful of traditional infectious disease behavioral patterns." Recent discoveries indicate vitamin D upregulates the endogenous antibiotics of innate immunity and suggest that the incongruities explored by Hope-Simpson may be secondary to the epidemiology of vitamin D deficiency. We identify – and attempt to explain – nine influenza conundrums: (1) Why is influenza both seasonal and ubiquitous and where is the virus between epidemics? (2) Why are the epidemics so explosive? (3) Why do they end so...

Dear fellow citizens! I address you in performance of my constitutional duty under the Article 106 of the Basic Law of the state. The reason is the emergency epidemic situation in the country. Infections of viral origin, including the A/H1N1 flu, are rapidly spreading across Ukraine. The emergency is evident in the scale of the epidemic: the speed and the geography of its spreading, rapid progress of the illness and the exceptional number of deaths. People are dying. The epidemic is killing doctors. This is absolutely unprecedented and inconceivable in the XXI century. All the limits have been exceeded -...

SHOCK! Epidemic of pneumonic plague in Ukraine? (updated at 05:39 pm) MIGnews.com.ua Ministry of Health has not established the exact diagnosis of the epidemic disease in the western regions of Ukraine. Health Minister Vasyl Knyazevich has given information about spread of diseases in the Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv Regions today at the meeting of Cabinet of Ministers. According to the Minister, the World Health Organization is ready to render assistance to Ukrainian experts and the Ministry of Health in order to establish the cause of death and development of disease flu in the Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv Regions. "We are...

U.S. military troops will begin getting required swine flu shots in the next week to 10 days, with active duty forces deploying to war zones and other critical areas going to the front of the vaccine line, a top military commander said Tuesday. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart also told The Associated Press that as many as 400 troops are ready to go to five regional headquarters around the country to assist federal health and emergency management officials if needed as the flu season heats up. The Pentagon has bought 2.7 million vaccines, and 1.4 million of those will go...

World celebrities sing to stop global warming (AFP) – 10 hours ago GENEVA — British rock group Duran Duran and heavy metal band Scorpions are among 55 world celebrities who have joined in recording a song to draw attention to the global warming crisis, organisers said on Monday. The song is part of a mass media campaign on the threats of climate change organised by the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum, headed by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan. The song entitled "Beds'r Burning", which was originally recorded by the Australian group Midnight Oil in the 1980s, can be downloaded from...

April 28, 2009 | There is evidence there will be a major flu epidemic this coming fall. The indication is that we will see a return of the 1918 flu virus that is the most virulent form of the flu. In 1918 a half million Americans died. The projections are that this virus will kill one million Americans in 1976. -- F. David Matthews, secretary of health, education, and welfare (Feb., 1976) In January 1976, 19-year old U.S. Army Private David Lewis, stationed at Fort Dix, joined his platoon on a 50-mile hike through the New Jersey snow. Lewis didn't...

Hi All. I don't want to worry you, but with all the hype and attention in the media recently concerning the spread of H1N1 virus I decided to ring the Government's new Swine Flu Helpline yesterday just to check on what the Symptoms are and... what to watch for. Basically ..If you wake up looking like this .. don't go to work! Swine Flu Symptoms

The NHS may not be able to cope with a swine flu epidemic this winter as intensive care beds will be overwhelmed, a Lords report has warned. While preparations for a flu pandemic in Britain are more advanced than in most countries, there is more that could have been done, peers said in a report. The report criticised the Government's failure to keep its promise to set up a flu telephone helpline by April The Government has failed to offer reassurance that NHS services can deal with an expected "second wave" of swine flu in the autumn, The House of...

CDC is now estimating that the H1N1 virus will be a category 2. Case fatality ratio of 0.1 percent to less than 0.5 percent. Between 90,000 and 450,000 deaths in the US. Illness rate between 20 and 40 percent. Similar to 1957

The Obama administration has relied on a Bush-era public health strategy aimed at coordinating its response across an array of government agencies in the week since the first reports of a swine flu outbreak emerged, officials say, as it attempts to balance safety concerns with a desire to prevent a panic. While Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has become the public face of the administration's effort to manage the outbreak, President Obama has been briefed three times a day on his administration's first public-health crisis. Behind the scenes, Deputy National Security Adviser John O. Brennan is coordinating the response to...

The flu epidemic has finally reached America and already we have our first casualty, a toddler in Texas. The flu epidemic will no doubt have an effect on these and other vulnerable groups with weak immune systems including the elderly and Aids patients. I decided to write about this after listening to Michael Savage discuss it. His take was as you can very well imagine controversial as is some of his other remarks. Savage noted also that the government has done nothing useful to prevent the spread of this new influenza strain despite the fact that it may have as...

Official U.S. government PSAs warning people to get Swine Flu shots

The suspected death toll from the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico rose Monday to 149 people as health authorities cancelled all schools across the country until May 6. Mexican cabinet officials led by Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova gave a press conference today in Mexico City with the latest information they have gathered about the outbreak of a deadly new strain of swine flu that has halted many aspects of public life here and appears to continue to be spreading. Since the first case of swine flu was reported, 1,995 people have been hospitalized with serious cases of pneumonia,...

CHICAGO – Doctors know some patients needing lifesaving care won't get it in a flu pandemic or other disaster. The gut-wrenching dilemma will be deciding who to let die. Now, an influential group of physicians has drafted a grimly specific list of recommendations for which patients wouldn't be treated. They include the very elderly, seriously hurt trauma victims, severely burned patients and those with severe dementia. The suggested list was compiled by a task force whose members come from prestigious universities, medical groups, the military and government agencies. They include the Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control...

Doctors in America are advising worried patients to buy painters’ masks as a precaution against the global outbreak of swine flu that appears to have spread from Mexico to the United States, New Zealand and possibly Europe. With the worldwide death toll standing at about 81 and with about 1,300 people infected, authorities across the globe are torn between the desire to slow down a potential flu pandemic and the need to avoid bringing major cities on every continent to an economic standstill. As of today, the US was still allowing people to cross the border from Mexico – where...

group of Queens high school students likely brought Mexico's deadly swine flu epidemic to the city after they went on a wild spring-break party to Cancun earlier this month. Some seniors from St. Francis Prep in Fresh Meadows took the trip over Easter hiatus two weeks ago. Days later, an outbreak of flu-like symptoms erupted at the school, leaving about 200 kids complaining of being ill. Yesterday, city health officials confirmed that eight students "have probable human swine influenza" after testing positive for Influenza A, which officials say causes the swine strain of disease. "We're very concerned about what may...

As Mexico hunkers down, 2 cases found in Kansas and 8 likely in NYC Worries that the new swine flu strain that has killed as many as 68 people and sickened more than 1,000 across Mexico has “pandemic potential” increased with the announcement that the virus has spread to Kansas and likely to New York City. On Saturday, two new cases were confirmed in Kansas — the first U.S. cases outside of California or Texas. And New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said tests showed that eight New York schoolchildren had a type A influenza virus that was...

Continued Rise of Bed Bug Populations is Highlighted Nationally in New Research Study & with Upcoming Federal Summit Posted : Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:40:28 GMT Author : National Pest Management Association (NPMA) Category : Press Release News Alerts by Email ( click here ) Press Release News | Home FAIRFAX, Va. - (Business Wire) According to a new study from the Journal of American Medical Association, bed bugs do not transmit disease to their victims, but infestations continue to increase worldwide. The National Pest Management Association (NPMA) has reported a 71% increase in bed bug infestations in the states...

For the first time in more than a decade, the rate at which residents in Singapore are contracting tuberculosis is on the rise. And more younger people aged below 30 are being hit - a worrying trend that hints at greater spread of the infectious respiratory disease in the community. Last year, 39.8 in every 100,000 Singaporeans and permanent residents contracted it, up from 35.1 in 2007. The number of TB patients grew by 15 per cent to 1,451 last year, up from 1,256 in the previous year. The last time the tuberculosis rate grew was in 1998, when it...

The Dutch Hill Campground at Steamboat Lake State Park once was densely packed with lodgepole pine. But blue marks on bark now dominate the landscape, identifying the beetle-killed trees awaiting removal. The mountain pine beetle epidemic sweeping Colorado forests has taken a heavy toll on Steamboat Lake and Pearl Lake state parks, whose campgrounds were closed in October after being deemed unsafe after trees starting falling much earlier than expected... The epidemic will have a drastic impact on camping availability in the summer. Crews will begin cutting down beetle-killed and beetle-infected trees in Steamboat Lake State Park later this month,...

Obama's hopes DaschledHis ties to the former senator may have blinded him to potential ethics problems -- but in the end, the president takes the blame. By Mike Madden Feb. 4, 2009 | WASHINGTON -- Things would probably have gone a lot more smoothly for Tom Daschle if the whole country worked the way Washington does, at least at its most stratified levels. You serve in a high government post for a while, then you lose an election, and your friends step in to support you with helpful things like, say, a $1 million-a-year job in private equity, and a...

Ohio has taken the lead in race to have the most cases of salmonella. As of 9PM EDT, Wednesday, January 22, 2009, 491 persons infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium have been reported from 43 states. The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Alabama (1), Arizona (10), Arkansas (4), California (62), Colorado (12), Connecticut (9), Georgia (6), Hawaii (3), Idaho (11), Illinois (6), Indiana (4), Iowa (2), Kansas (2), Kentucky (3), Maine (4), Maryland (8), Massachusetts (42), Michigan (25), Minnesota (35), Missouri (9), Mississippi (3), Nebraska (1), New Hampshire (11), New Jersey (19),...

Dear Editor: A new article in World Magazine discussed the disturbing financial relationship between the breast cancer group, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and an organization that is the primary cause of the breast cancer epidemic in the U.S. - Planned Parenthood. The author, Alisa Harris, correctly reported that basic medical textbooks acknowledge that full term pregnancies offer women a considerable reduction in breast cancer risk. Logically, that means that the woman who chooses not to have a baby (i.e. by having an abortion) has a higher breast cancer risk than does the one who has a baby. The...

OTHER BUGS ACTING BADLY _______________________________________________________ International experts to study ebola reston INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC and animal health experts arrived on Tuesday to start a joint risk assessment on the ebola reston contamination of local hogs, officials of the Agriculture department said yesterday. Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III (R), flanked by international experts, addresses a press conference in Manila for an update on the outbreak of ebola reston at two pig farms north of the capital. The experts are (L to R) Kate Glynn of World Organization for Animal Health, Juan Lubroth and Kazuyuki Tsurumi of the Food and Agriculture Organization,...

Researchers have found out what made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly -- a group of three genes that lets the virus invade the lungs and cause pneumonia. They mixed samples of the 1918 influenza strain with modern seasonal flu viruses to find the three genes and said their study might help in the development of new flu drugs. The discovery, published in Tuesday's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could also point to mutations that might turn ordinary flu into a dangerous pandemic strain. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin and colleagues at the...

A deadly Ebola outbreak in the central Democratic Republic of Congo has killed nine and infected 21, the UN-sponsored radio Okapi quoted the health minister as saying Thursday.

Zim cholera death toll tops 1 100HARARE, ZIMBABWE Dec 18 2008 13:03The death toll from a cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe has soared to 1,111, the United Nations said on Thursday, adding to pressure for a quick solution to the crisis in the Southern African country. African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma backed a diplomatic push as the way to end political deadlock and rejected any suggestion of sending troops. The latest cholera figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva included a new outbreak in Chegutu Urban in Mashonaland West, west of Harare, where...

ZIMBABWE has cut water supplies to the nation's capital Harare, state media reported today, leaving most of the city dry as authorities struggle to contain a cholera epidemic. "Most parts of Harare - including the city centre - did not get water yesterday amid claims by Zinwa staff that the authority had stopped pumping after it ran out of one of the essential chemicals,"

An Indonesian bill that includes a bylaw requiring "sexually aggressive" people living with HIV/AIDS to be implanted with microchips is causing debate between some lawmakers, who argue that the bill is necessary to curb the spread of the virus, and advocates, who say the bylaw is discriminatory and a violation of human rights, the AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. According to John Manangsang, a lawmaker who supports the bill, authorities would be able to identify, track and punish people living with HIV/AIDS in the country's province of Papua who intentionally spread the virus with a $5,000 fine or up to six...

One day last October, Eric York lugged the carcass of an adult mountain lion from his truck and laid it carefully on a tarp on the floor of his garage. The female mountain lion had a bloody nose, but her hide bore no other signs of trauma. York, a biologist at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, found the big cat lying motionless near the canyon’s South Rim. He was determined to learn why she died. Because the park lacks a forensics lab, he did the postmortem in his garage, in a village of about 2,000 park employees. Epidemic experts...