Free Republic

Conservative writer Bre Payton died suddenly Friday at age 26 after being diagnosed with an illness. Payton, a writer at The Federalist, was discovered unconscious by friend Morgan Murtaugh, early Thursday morning and was taken to a San Diego hospital. Murtaugh shared on Twitter that Payton had been diagnosed with H1N1 flu, commonly known as swine flu, before she died suddenly on Friday.

"...Sarah’s boyfriend rang and said he was concerned about her.” “He said she was slurring words, really confused and she had numbness down the right side of her...." Cullen’s death triggered a serious “untoward incident investigation” at the hospital. It concluded that “although there are lessons to be learned surrounding the patient’s care, it is unlikely a change in care plan would have an impact on the patient’s outcome.” Senior nurse Jacqueline Baseley, who saw Cullen on the 28, told her inquest: “I discussed with both Sarah and her boyfriend that I felt it was more of a panic attack.”...

Letters warning parents about the dangers of viral meningitis were sent home to schools in Genesee, Saginaw and Tuscola counties. The latest was just sent Thursday to Springview Elementary School in Flushing and Marshall Greene Middle School in Birch Run. The outbreak has many people wondering why there’ve been so many cases in such a short period of time. "It's caused by certain viruses that are common from July through October, so it's not unusual first of all for these cases to occur,” said Dr. Gary Johnson, medical director for Genesee County Health Department. Johnson has been monitoring the recent...

HSV-1 is the same herpes virus that causes cold sores, and only rarely does it lead to viral meningitis, which causes the tissue covering the brain and spinal cord to become enflamed, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is believed that baby Mariana contracted the deadly virus from a kiss. Mariana's parents, Nicole and Shane Sifrit, both tested negative for the virus, they told CNN affiliate WHO. Just 18 days old when she died, Mariana had spent her last week at the University of Iowa Children's Hospital in Iowa City, suffering from severe medical complications....

Health officials would not reveal the name of the employee. But a parent told CBS2’s Rachel Kim that the woman was a third-grade teacher at Montara Avenue Elementary School in South Gate. The parent said school and health officials met with parents on campus Friday night. One mother said she was given instructions on medication to give her child. ... Parents said they want the campus cleaned before allowing their children back to school and plan to hold a protest on campus Monday morning.

AS cases of meningitis, a rare and potentially fatal disease, popped up in cities nationwide over the past several years, public health officials noticed a trend: many of those infected were gay men. There’s no known medical reason why meningitis, which is transmitted through saliva, would spread more among gay and bisexual men. Yet New York, Chicago and now Southern California have experienced outbreaks disproportionately affecting that population. “It is perplexing,” said Dr. Rachel Civen, a medical epidemiologist at L.A. County’s Department of Public Health. Of the 13 cases of meningitis this year in L.A. County — excluding Long Beach,...

German hospitals are increasing security to protect doctors and nurses from violent attacks by migrants who are unhappy with the medical treatment they are receiving. Critics are warning that German taxpayers will end up paying billions of euros to provide healthcare for a never-ending wave of asylum seekers. This is in addition to the billions of euros already being spent to provide newcomers with food, clothing and shelter. In addition to the massive economic and social costs, as well as the burden of increased crime, including a rape epidemic, Germans are now facing the risk of being exposed to exotic...

CORAL GABLES (CBS4) – They’re back. Giant African land snails which once took a decade to eradicate from South Florida have returned. Giant African land snails, considered to be one of the most damaging snails in the world, have been found in the Coral Gables area of Miami-Dade County, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The Giant African land snail is one of the most damaging snails in the world because they consume at least 500 different types of plants, can cause structural damage to plaster and stucco on houses, and can carry a parasitic worm...

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — A breed of giant, ravenous snails that first appeared in Barbados five years ago has thrived on the tropical island, destroying crops and prompting calls for the government to eliminate the slimy pests. A nocturnal "snail hunt" last weekend reported finding hundreds of thousands of giant African snails swarming the central parish of St. George, the country's agricultural heartland, where farmers had complained of damage to crops including sugar cane, bananas and papayas. "We saw snails riding on each other's backs and moving in clusters," said David Walrond, chairman of the local emergency response office, which organized...

BOSTON — Two senior executives of a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy were charged Wednesday with racketeering and murder in the production of tainted drugs that killed 64 people and sickened hundreds of others across the country with fungal meningitis in the fall of 2012. The United States attorney’s office here charged Barry J. Cadden, an owner of New England Compounding Center Inc. and the head pharmacist, and Glenn A. Chin, a supervisory pharmacist, with 25 acts of second-degree murder in seven states — Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. “Senior N.E.C.C. pharmacists knew that, despite the filthy conditions...

A meningitis outbreak at the University of Maryland may be related to another virus that has swept across the country during recent months, though further testing is being conducted to determine the possibility. If the tests are positive, it would mean that yet another manifestation of enterovirus-68 has occurred. In Maryland, the state public health lab is conducting a broad range of testing on specimens submitted to the agency, state epidemiologist Dr. David Blythe says. Agency officials would not specify whether testing for EV-68 was occurring and did not confirm whether samples had been sent to the Centers for Disease...

MEMPHIS, TN - (WMC-TV) - Three Tennesseans are dead following an outbreak of fungal meningitis. In all, 25 cases have been reported in the state. Officials at the Memphis Shelby County Health Department say these meningitis outbreaks have been contained to Middle and East Tennessee. They say there have been no reported cases of meningitis in Memphis, Shelby County, or other parts of West Tennessee.

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (AP) — In the heart of this close-knit gay community, Luke Martel reflects the feelings of many when it comes to a strain of meningitis that has killed three gay men this year in Los Angeles County: He's concerned but not overly so.

Parties and other social events may be curtailed at the University of California, Santa Barbara after a fourth case of meningitis was confirmed in a potentially deadly outbreak that has left one student permanently disabled. Santa Barbara County public health officials on Monday urged the school to suspend some campus events, including Greek fraternity and sorority parties, after an 18-year-old male student was diagnosed as the fourth case in a month.

Emergency doses of a meningitis vaccine not approved for use in the U.S. may soon be on the way to Princeton University to halt an outbreak of the potentially deadly infection that has sickened seven students since March. Government health officials said Friday they have agreed to import Bexsero, a vaccine licensed only in Europe and Australia that protects against meningitis B, a strain not covered by the shots recommended for college students in the U.S.

... A new, casually transmittable infection — a unique strain of bacterial meningitis — has cast a pall over the gay night life and dating scene, with men wondering whether this is AIDS, circa 1981, all over again. Seven men have died in New York City, about a third of diagnosed cases, since 2010. And in the last few months, the contagion seemed to be accelerating. It has targeted gay and bisexual men, and nobody knows exactly why. The city’s best hope to curb the outbreak is to vaccinate as many at-risk men as possible, focusing on those most in...

A new study led by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK has, for the first time, used genome sequencing technology to track the changes in a bacterial population following the introduction of a vaccine. The study follows how the population of pneumococcal bacteria changed following the introduction of the 'Prevnar' conjugate polysaccharide vaccine, which substantially reduced rates of pneumococcal disease across the U.S. The work demonstrates that the technology could be used in the future to monitor the effectiveness of vaccination or antibiotic use against different species of bacterial...

"Health officials work to diffuse fears of national epidemic"“Gay” sex is becoming even more dangerous. Health officials are warning sexually active “gay” men about an outbreak of potentially deadly bacterial meningitis in Los Angeles and New York. The disease has infected 22 people in New York and caused seven deaths since 2010. Health officials in Los Angeles are testing to see if the strain infecting “gay” men there is the same one hitting New York. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation began offering free meningitis vaccines today after a “gay” man from West Hollywood was declared brain dead on Friday. Thirty-three-year-old lawyer...

Officials in West Hollywood are warning members of the public to protect themselves against meningococcal infection, an illness caused by a bacteria or virus that can be fatal. City Councilman John Duran held a news conference Friday afternoon alongside Chris Brown, director of health and mental health for the LA Gay and Lesbian Center, to sound an alarm. Duran told NBC4 one of his long-time supporters -- a 33-year-old gay man -- had been diagnosed with meningitis two days ago, was hospitalized and is now in a coma. The man died Friday afternoon, Duran said. The man had attended an...

New York City health officials are urging some men to get vaccinated against meningitis amid an outbreak that has sickened 22 New Yorkers and killed seven. The dangerous strain of bacterial meningitis appears to be spreading through sexual encounters between men who meet through websites or smartphone apps, or at bars or parties, according to the City’s health department. More than half of the infected men have had HIV, a virus that attacks the immune system making infections more likely and more severe. “Vaccination is the best defense,” City health commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said in a statement. “I urge...