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The Tasmanian devil, the spaniel-size marsupial found on the Australian island of Tasmania, has been hurtling toward extinction in recent years, the victim of a bizarre and mysterious facial cancer that spreads like a plague. Now Australian scientists say they have discovered how the cancer originated. The finding, being reported Friday in the journal Science, sheds light on how cancer cells can sometimes liberate themselves from the hosts where they first emerged. On a more practical level, it also opens the door to devising vaccines that could save the Tasmanian devils. “It’s a great paper,” said Katherine Belov, a geneticist...

 __________________________________________________ GREAT CHASTISEMENT DURING MIDDLE AGES WAS FEROCIOUS SPREAD OF 'BLACK DEATH' [Adapted from The Last Secret by Michael H. Brown] Are our times like the Middle Ages? And if so, might we one day face plague? Let's take a look, today, and in a second installment next week, at the "black death," which occurred in the 14th century. That great disaster -- one of the greatest on record -- took place at a time of immorality, irreligion (the Mass was celebrated in some places like a circus), and materialism. It followed on the heels of a climate swerve...

Is this cause for concern? I’m not sure, perhaps it’s common in severe cases of H1N1 that have progressed into a severe pneumonia. We attempted to contact the Polk County Medical Examiner on Sunday and were told to call back on Monday. Iowa has officially recorded 21 H1N1 deaths, including seven in Polk County alone. But the county’s medical examiner said he has performed autopsies on some residents who were never diagnosed with H1N1, but actually had it. “In the autopsy, what we’re seeing is very heavy, wet hemorrhagic lungs, lungs with a lot of blood in them,” said Dr....

MILLION HIT BY 'PLAGUE WORSE THAN SWINE FLU' Sunday November 15,2009 By Greg Miskiw A DEADLY plague could sweep across Europe, doctors fear, after an outbreak of a virus in Ukraine plunged the country and its neighbours into a state of panic. A cocktail of three flu viruses are reported to have mutated into a single pneumonic plague, which it is believed may be far more dangerous than swine flu. The death toll has reached 189 and more than 1 million people have been infected, most of them in the nine regions of Western Ukraine. President of Ukraine Viktor...

British scientists suspect that swine flu virus has mutated in Ukraine. Some doctors say that flu in the country has shown unprecedented symptoms, creating the effect of burnt lungs

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...

A DEADLY plague could sweep across Europe, doctors fear, after an outbreak of a virus in Ukraine plunged the country and its neighbours into a state of panic.

A DEADLY plague could sweep across Europe, doctors fear, after an outbreak of a virus in Ukraine plunged the country and its neighbours into a state of panic. A cocktail of three flu viruses are reported to have mutated into a single pneumonic plague, which it is believed may be far more dangerous than swine flu. The death toll has reached 189 and more than 1 million people have been infected, most of them in the nine regions of Western Ukraine. President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko has called in the World Health Organisation and a team of nine specialists are...

A DEADLY plague could sweep across Europe, doctors fear, after an outbreak of a virus in Ukraine plunged the country and its neighbours into a state of panic. A cocktail of three flu viruses are reported to have mutated into a single pneumonic plague, which it is believed may be far more dangerous than swine flu. The death toll has reached 189 and more than 1 million people have been infected, most of them in the nine regions of Western Ukraine. President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko has called in the World Health Organisation and a team of nine specialists are...

A cocktail of three flu viruses are reported to have mutated into a single pneumonic plague, which it is believed may be far more dangerous than swine flu. The death toll has reached 189 and more than 1 million people have been infected, most of them in the nine regions of Western Ukraine. President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko has called in the World Health Organisation and a team of nine specialists are carrying out tests in Kiev and Lviv to identify the virus. Samples have been sent to London for analysis. President Yushchenko said: “People are dying. The epidemic is...

A DEADLY plague could sweep across Europe, doctors fear, after an outbreak of a virus in Ukraine plunged the country and its neighbours into a state of panic. A cocktail of three flu viruses are reported to have mutated into a single pneumonic plague, which it is believed may be far more dangerous than swine flu. The death toll has reached 189 and more than 1 million people have been infected, most of them in the nine regions of Western Ukraine.

LAKE IN THE HILLS – Citizens infected with a fictitious pneumonic plague will line up outside Lincoln Prairie Elementary School on Saturday to help test the site as a medication dispensary in case of an emergency. The Lake in the Hills Police Department is carrying out the test as part of a grant from the McHenry County Department of Health for its emergency health plan. In case of a biological terrorist attack or widespread disease outbreak, the site would be able get medicine to the community, Lake in the Hills Chief of Patrol Services David Brey said. “This is just...

In last 24 hours, an unknown virus (presumed pneumonic plague) infected another 37 thousand and killed 12 more people. The authorities deny that this is pneumonic plague, and insist that people die from influenza, pneumonia and ARI. Meanwhile, an emergency message from the President of Ukraine to the international community to immediately help in the fight against the virus, only reinforces the suspicion that pneumonia and influenza is not the cause. "The current threat to national security of Ukraine, which we can not offset on our own, requires me to turn to our closest friends and strategic partners for emergency...

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...

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Public health officials are investigating the death of a University of Chicago researcher who studied plague bacteria and was found to have the microbe in his blood, university officials said on Monday. Malcolm Casadaban, who died on September 13, was researching a weakened strain of the plague bacteria Yersinia pestis. Because it is missing key proteins, the strain is not normally harmful to people. Medical center spokesman John Easton said Casadaban had the laboratory strain of Yersinia pestis in his blood, suggesting he had a form of the infection known as septicemic plague, which can kill even...

(CHICAGO) (WLS) -- There was word Saturday that the death of a University of Chicago scientist may be linked to a bacteria that causes the plague. The University of Chicago says there doesn't appear to be any threat to the public, and no other illness related to the case has been reported. The modified strain of "y-pestis" has been approved by the Centers for Disease Control for routine laboratory studies, and it is not known to cause illness in healthy adults.

Dog suspected source of China plague: state media 21 mins ago BEIJING (AFP) – A dog is suspected to be the origin of an outbreak of pneumonic plague in northwest China that has killed three people and left 10,000 under strict quarantine, state media reported. Ziketan, a remote town in a Tibetan area of Qinghai province, has been locked down since Saturday in an effort to contain the spread of the highly virulent disease. One patient was in critical condition and seven others were infected, most of them relatives of the first fatality, a 32-year-old herdsman, or local doctors, Xinhua...

BEIJING – A second man has died of pneumonic plague in northwest China, in an outbreak that prompted authorities to lock down a town where about a dozen people were infected with the highly contagious deadly lung disease, a state news agency said.

BEIJING (Aug. 3)- A second man has died of pneumonic plague in northwest China, in an outbreak that prompted authorities to lock down a town where about a dozen people were infected with the highly contagious deadly lung disease, a state news agency said. The World Health Organization office in China said it was in close contact with Chinese health authorities and that measures taken so far to treat and quarantine sickened people were appropriate. The man who died Sunday was identified only as 37-year-old Danzin from Ziketan, the stricken town in Qinghai province, the official Xinhua News Agency said....

Pneumonic plague is caused by the same bacteria as the bubonic plague, or Black Death, which is estimated to have killed 25 million during the Middle Ages. While bubonic plague is transmitted by infected fleas, the pneumonic plague is carried from person to person through the air, according to the World Health Organization. Patients typically become infected by being in close contact with someone who has the plague and is coughing or by handling contaminated articles. If left untreated, pneumonic plague can cause death within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms