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There are four places in the United States set up to handle a patient sickened by the Ebola virus, and Missoula is one of those. .... And any hospital equipped to care for a tuberculosis patient can care for an Ebola patient, according to Dr. George Risi, an infectious disease specialist who recently returned from spending 20 days in a Sierra Leone Ebola ward. Accompanied by St. Patrick’s intensive care nursing director Kate Hurley, Risi helped local clinic staff care for up to 95 patients at a time. While untreated Ebola kills more than 70 percent of its victims, more...

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas is carefully evaluating a patient who may have Ebola Virus Disease. Based on the patient’s symptoms and recent travel history, the patient has been admitted into “strict isolation,” said spokeswoman Candace White in a prepared statement. Preliminary test results are expected Tuesday.

Shadia Nasralla September 30, 2014VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria has reported its first case of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus in a woman from Saudi Arabia who had recently traveled to the Alpine country, ORF Oe 1 radio reported on Monday, citing the health ministry. MERS, thought to originate in camels, causes coughing, fever and pneumonia, and kills about a third of its victims.(snip)

The Shellshock vulnerability in the commonly used Bash command line interpreter shell is likely to require more patches, as security researchers continue to unearth further problems in the code. Google security researcher Michal "lcamtuf" Zalewski has disclosed to iTnews that over the past two days he has discovered two previously unaddressed issues in the Bash function parser, one of which is as bad as the original Shellshock vulnerability. "The first one likely permits remote code execution, but the attack would require a degree of expertise to carry out," Zalewski said. "The second one is essentially equivalent to the original flaw,...

Sep 26, 8:40 PM EDT VIRUS PROBED IN PARALYSIS CASES IN 9 COLORADO KIDS BY MIKE STOBBE AP MEDICAL WRITER AP Photo AP Photo HEALTH VIDEO BUY AP PHOTO REPRINTS MULTIMEDIA CHILD LABOR IN PAKISTAN NEW YORK (AP) -- Health officials are investigating nine cases of muscle weakness or paralysis in Colorado children and whether the culprit might be a virus causing severe respiratory illness across the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday sent doctors an alert about the polio-like cases and said the germ - enterovirus 68 - was detected in four out of eight...

What is the first thing that leaps to your mind when you hear about a mystery virus that has afflicted children around the country just as the school year started? I know what it is. You know what it is. And many of the readers commenting on The Hill article know what it is. Even the writer, Susan Ferris, most likely knows what it is but does not mention the warning that dares not speak its name...at least in The Hill. I am of course referring to the many health warnings about the illegal children who crossed the border and...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Health officials are investigating nine cases of muscle weakness or paralysis in Colorado children and whether the culprit might be a virus causing severe respiratory illness across the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday sent doctors an alert about the polio-like cases and said the germ - enterovirus 68 - was detected in four out of eight of the sick children who had a certain medical test. The status of the ninth case is unclear. The virus can cause paralysis but other germs can, too. Health officials don't know whether the virus...

The collapse of XP support by Microsoft has led to a proliferation of disruptive internet advertising. These "SmarterPower" thugs are wrecking my FR access. Is this a plot? How do does one keep these ani off one's computer? They "pop-up" at every keystroke. And they have sound!Who needs this? Why pay an ISP or a cable company if they are selling us to every internet advertiser. Of course, the main issue is security and KGB-like surveillance by the Alinskyites. WTF are these people?

Benjamin Hale, Slate September 20, 2014 As the Ebola epidemic in West Africa has spiraled out of control, affecting thousands of Liberians, Sierra Leonians, and Guineans, and threatening thousands more, the world’s reaction has been glacially, lethally slow. Only in the past few weeks have heads of state begun to take serious notice. To date, the virus has killed more than 2,600 people. This is a comparatively small number when measured against much more established diseases such as malaria,HIV/AIDS, influenza, and so on, but several factors about this outbreak have some of the world’s top health professionals gravely concerned: Its...

Dr. Jane Orient, Executive Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, reported that the government has been “real tight-lipped” about the mysterious respiratory illness that has struck children in the United States, expressed concern that the illegal immigrant minors from Central America could be the source, and argued that the government should devote more resources to border security to combat the spread of disease on Wednesday’s “Laura Ingraham Show.”

A rare respiratory illness that’s sickened more than a thousand kids in 10 states is likely to spread all across the United States, ABC News reported, citing doctors. More from ABC News: The disease hasn’t been officially identified in every state, but in some states a rare respiratory virus called human enterovirus 68 has been found. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus is related to the rhinovirus, which causes the common cold. …At least 10 states — Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Iowa, Colorado, Ohio, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Georgia — have reported suspected outbreaks of human...

Reference article about fomites and spread of viruses in offic enclosed environments. Long technical article. Pertains to enteric and Norovirus among others. Short version via MailOnline available here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2748351/Why-really-need-wash-hands-work-Infections-spread-office-door-handle-half-workforce-just-two-HOURS.html (Snip) Study found between 40 and 60 per cent of office contaminated in two hours Pushing buttons in lifts and touching phones spread infection quickest  Disinfectant wipes and regularly washing hands is best way to kill germs   Infections can spread from an office door handle to half the workforce in just two hours, new research has found.  Using tracer viruses, a study found as much as 60 per cent of...

A respiratory illness that has already sickened more than a thousand children in 10 states is likely to become a nationwide problem, doctors say. The disease hasn't been officially identified but officials suspect a rare respiratory virus called human enterovirus 68. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus is related to the rhinovirus, which causes the common cold. According to Mark Pallansch, director of the Division of Viral Diseases at the CDC, similar cases to the ones in Colorado have been cropping up across the U.S. At least 10 states...

(CNN) — A respiratory virus is sending hundreds of children to hospitals in Missouri and possibly throughout the Midwest and beyond, officials say. The unusually high number of hospitalizations reported now could be “just the tip of the iceberg in terms of severe cases,” said Mark Pallansch, a virologist and director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Viral Diseases. “We’re in the middle of looking into this,” he told CNN on Sunday. “We don’t have all the answers yet.”

The virus causes symptoms like a cold, except worse, and is prompting up to 30 children a day to seek care at one Kansas City hospital, where about 15% of the youngsters were placed in intensive care, officials said. In a sign of a possible regional outbreak, Colorado, Illinois and Ohio are reporting cases with symptoms similar to the same virus and are awaiting testing results, according to officials and CNN affiliates in those states. In Kansas City, about 450 children were recently treated at Children’s Mercy Hospital, and at least 60 of them received intensive hospitalization, spokesman Jake Jacobson...

Unusually high levels of respiratory illness have been reported this week in Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s emergency department, and samples are being sent out for testing to see whether a rare virus might be to blame. “Obviously, it’s a concern,” Dr. Mysheika Williams Roberts, medical director and assistant commissioner at Columbus Public Health, said of the volume of respiratory cases. “What we are experiencing is unusual for us this time of year.” Last week, respiratory symptoms were the chief complaint of an average of 52 patients per day in the hospital’s emergency department. From Sunday through Tuesday of this week, respiratory...

By The Week Staff August 30, 2014Think Ebola is alarming? Scientists expect a much deadlier virus to emerge in the not-distant future. How likely is a pandemic? Epidemiologists believe we're statistically overdue for a global viral outbreak, which occurs every generation or so. This year's Ebola crisis is probably just a dress rehearsal: Though the virus has killed at least 1,420 people in Africa in the last five months, Ebola is transmitted only through intimate contact with bodily fluids and doesn't have the global reach of a true pandemic, such as Spanish influenza in 1918. Humanity had no prior exposure...

An international team of team of scientists has sequenced the RNA of 99 Ebola virus samples collected during the early weeks of the outbreak in Sierra Leone. The feat, described Thursday in the journal Science, gives researchers a powerful new tool in their effort to contain the deadly virus. ... Scientists are already scouring that sequence for clues to help them design effective drugs and vaccines. It could take years to find them all, said Sabeti, who studies infectious diseases at Harvard and at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass. For now, evidence embedded in the RNA reveals that the...

Britons are to be the first in the world to test a new vaccine against the deadly ebola virus. Altogether 60 healthy volunteers will be given the vaccine next month in a trial led by Oxford University scientists. If the vaccine performs as well in humans as in monkeys, the trial will be extended to 80 people in The Gambia and in Mali. The entire trial programme is being fast-tracked – subject to ethical approval – with the intention of using the vaccine in people at high risk in West Africa early next year. Latest figures show that more than...

A Sacramento hospital announced Tuesday that one of its patients may have Ebola. Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center said in a release the patient is isolated. The hospital's Dr. Stephen Parodi said in the release 'We are working with the Sacramento County Division of Public Health regarding a patient admitted to the Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center who may have been exposed to the Ebola virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will be testing blood samples to rule out the presence of the virus.