Health & Wellness

Viruses genetically engineered to kill bacteria rescue girl with antibiotic-resistant infection

Alex Fox
Sciencemag.org
Wed, 08 May 2019 13:00 UTC

Isabelle Carnell (second from right) with her doctor, Helen Spencer (left); phage researcher Graham Hatfull (second from left); and her mother (right).

One week after Helen Spencer's 15-year-old cystic fibrosis patient had a double lung transplant in September 2017, the incision wound turned bright red. For half her life, Isabelle Carnell had been battling a drug-resistant infection of Mycobacterium abscessus, and now it was rapidly spreading, erupting in weeping sores and swollen nodules across her frail body. "My heart sinks when I see that a [lung transplant] patient has got a wound infection, because I know what the trajectory is going to be," says Spencer, Isabelle's respiratory pediatrician at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. "It's a torturous course that has ended in death for all those children."

With the standard treatments failing, Isabelle's mother asked Spencer about alternatives-adding that she had read something about using viruses to kill bacteria. Spencer decided to take a gamble on what seemed like a far-fetched idea: phages, viruses that can destroy bacteria and have a long-if checkered-history as medical treatments. She collaborated with leading phage researchers, who concocted a cocktail of the first genetically engineered phages ever used as a treatment-and the first directed at a Mycobacterium, a genus that includes tuberculosis (TB). After 6 months of the tailor-made phage infusions, Isabelle's wounds healed and her condition improved with no serious side effects, the authors report today in Nature Medicine.

Comment: See also:

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San Francisco city attorney subpoenas anti-vax doctor Kenneth Stoller's records

Cat Ferguson
Mercury News
Wed, 08 May 2019 15:59 UTC

Ramping up the pressure in a statewide battle over medical exemptions for student vaccinations, San Francisco City Attorney's Office has issued a subpoena to Dr. Kenneth Stoller, a vocal opponent of mandatory vaccines. The city is requesting medical and billing records related to every medical exemption he's written since 2016.

The unusual move comes as tensions rise over vaccination requirements during the worst measles outbreak in the United States in nearly two decades.

Comment: See:

In 2015, California passed Senate Bill 277, which outlawed so-called personal belief exemptions for student vaccination requirements. Any licensed physician is still allowed to write exemptions for legitimate medical concerns.

Such medical exemptions have increased significantly since SB 277. State Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, who wrote the 2015 law, and public health experts believe some doctors are selling exemptions, whether kids need them or not.

Comment: Evidence clearly supports that vaccines have not been proven safe or effective. Kudos to Dr. Stoller for protecting the health of people in his community.

High levels of sunscreen ingredients end up in the bloodstream: study

Manas Mishra
Reuters
Thu, 09 May 2019 15:44 UTC

© REUTERS/Toby Melville
A couple apply sunscreen as they drive their motor cruise boat along the River Thames in west London, Britain, June 21, 2017.

The active ingredients of commonly-used sunscreens end up in the bloodstream at much higher levels than current U.S. guidelines from health regulators and warrant further safety studies, according to a small study conducted by U.S. Food and Drug Administration researchers and published on Monday.

The over-the-counter products originally marketed to prevent sunburn with little regulation are widely used to block radiation from the sun that can cause skin cancer, the most common malignancy in the United States.

The study of 23 volunteers tested four sunscreens, including sprays, lotion and cream, applied to 75 percent of the body four times a day over four days, with blood tests to determine the maximum levels of certain chemicals absorbed into the bloodstream conducted over seven days.

Comment: Always with the concern for 'confused consumers'. As if reading a study that says too much of a harmful chemical in your sunscreen is being absorbed into your body when you apply is somehow confusing. This stuff is toxic and you shouldn't be putting it on your skin. Find alternatives without the toxic crap or mitigate your sun exposure. There's nothing confusing about this.

See also:

Medical tyranny: Florida judge orders chemotherapy for 3yo, despite parents wishes

Gloria Gomez
Fox5
Thu, 09 May 2019 10:28 UTC

Joshua McAdams, Taylor Bland with their son, Noah McAdams

A 3-year-old cancer patient must undergo chemotherapy over the next 28 days despite the wishes of his parents, a Tampa judge ruled Wednesday afternoon. But she did not make a decision about treatment options after that.

The ruling marks the latest twist in the case of Noah McAdams, who was was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia back in April. After two rounds of chemotherapy, his parents Joshua McAdams and Taylor Bland decided they wanted to try a more natural, holistic approach.

When they failed to show up for a chemo appointment at All Children's Hospital on April 22, authorities tracked them down in Kentucky and brought the family back. Days later, a Tampa judge ordered temporary custody to Noah's maternal grandmother.

After a day's worth of testimony Wednesday, the judge decided that Noah would get chemotherapy for 28 days, but allowed the possibiliy of holistic treatments in conjunction with the chemo. She also delayed any ruling on follow-up rounds of treatment until a later date.

Comment: See also:

Inside the mind of the 'Vaccine Hesitant'

Anne Mason
sacredosiris.com
Wed, 24 Apr 2019 11:42 UTC

As you've been reading the news these days, have you noticed a new angle on the "anti-vaccine movement?" The same old rhetoric is being employed, but a bit more subtly. It's couched in the context of pseudoscientific inquiry into the "phenomenon and psychology" of anyone critical of the vaccine program. Conveniently, media coverage focused on the "state of being vaccine hesitant" draws the conversation away from the actual concerns of the "vaccine hesitant" - such as vaccine injury, zero liability for vaccine manufacturers, an ever-increasing vaccine schedule (72 doses by age 18!) and no double-blind placebo safety testing for any childhood vaccine on the schedule.

All these pieces depict the "vaccine hesitant" as if they are a singularly minded subgroup characterized by a shared "affliction" which requires intervention. This is a clever pretense, but one that many well intended people have been led to believe is actually in earnest, as suggested by articles such as this piece in the Atlantic.

Comment: Vaccine Hesitancy: A new mental disease?

The perception of using one's intellect to assess the potential harm of vaccines does not deserve to be labeled as a human defect requiring treatment by the WHO. Vaccine hesitancy is not a problem to be overcome or a disease to be cured, but a sign that the house of cards that Big Pharma has built is beginning to fall. People who care about their health and the health of their children should have vaccine hesitancy! This is a sign of a mind that is able to think freely and a mind that is not easily controlled.

Diabetes drugs linked to 'flesh-eating' genital infection - study

RT
Wed, 08 May 2019 17:00 UTC

Some newer diabetes drugs have been linked to a nightmarish "flesh-eating" genital disease that can spread rapidly and kill skin tissue as it grows, according to a new study by US Food and Drug Administration scientists.

Symptoms of the disease known as 'Fournier gangrene' include pain, redness and a foul odor in the genital area. Alarmingly, the infection starts by attacking your genital or anal region, but can also spread rapidly and kill other body tissue along the way.

The rare infection concerns people taking a newer class of diabetes medications known as SGLT2 inhibitors, according to FDA scientists who recently published their findings on the issue.

Comment: Fore more on this alarming side effect, check out: The link between diabetes meds and flesh-eating genital infections

Heart failure deaths rising in U.S., especially among younger adults

Lisa Rapaport
Reuters
Wed, 08 May 2019 16:44 UTC

More U.S. adults are dying from heart failure today than a decade ago, and the sharpest rise in mortality is happening among middle-aged and younger adults, a new study suggests.

Researchers examined data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on deaths from heart failure between 1999 and 2017 among adults 35 to 84 years old.

Between 1999 and 2012, annual heart failure death rates dropped from 78.7 per 100,000 people to 53.7 per 100,000, the researchers found. But then mortality rates started to climb, reaching 59.3 fatalities for every 100,000 people by the end of the study period.

"Up until 2012, we saw decline in cardiovascular deaths in patients with heart failure and this was likely due to advances in medical and surgical treatments for heart failure," said senior study author Dr. Sadiya Khan of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

"However, this study demonstrates for the first time that the cardiovascular death rate is now increasing in patients with heart failure and this increase is especially concerning for premature death in people under 65," Khan said by email.

Let people smoke, drink, eat red meat - Norway's new Health Minister

Sputnik
Tue, 07 May 2019 11:18 UTC

Norway's newly appointed Health Minister Sylvi Listhaug, no stranger to controversy, has once again stirred the public by claiming that she wants to avoid becoming the "moral police" and instead intends to let fellow Norwegians indulge in bad habits as they please.

Progress Party figurehead and newly-minted Health Minister Sylvi Listhaug has shocked her compatriots with an unorthodox stance on nutrition, alcohol, and tobacco.

"I believe people should be allowed to smoke, drink and eat as much red meat they just want. The authorities may like to inform, but people already know pretty well what is healthy and what isn't, I believe", Listhaug told national broadcaster NRK.

Comment: People did know what was healthy, but decades of propaganda have warped that understanding.

Comment: Evidently Norway is electing politicians which speak for its citizens as well as, for the most part, common sense. And this is a welcome trend that we're seeing throughout Europe:

For more on Sylvi Listhaug:

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Glass, germs, and steel: Why Mayor De Blasio's draconian public health policy will fail

Sarah Dillingham
New English Review
Wed, 01 May 2019 00:01 UTC

Measles is in the news again. The humble microbe has many faces: scourge of the New World, benign and ubiquitous rite of childhood passage, simultaneous conduit of modern scientific achievement and vexing icon of evasive, unrealized dreams; and most recently, contemporary Rorschach test in the latest American culture war. U.S. measles cases spanning 22 states surged last month to 695 confirmed cases in 2019, marking the highest annual number since the disease was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000. The ongoing outbreak began last fall when infected travelers returned from Israel, Ukraine, and the Philippines, triggering clusters in New York, Washington State, and California - and a concurrent wave of proposed legislation to curtail non-medical exemptions for required childhood immunizations in over a dozen states.

As state legislatures considered bills tightening immunization requirements, U.S. Representative Adam Schiff formally requested censorship of vaccine-critical speech across social media platforms. The Congressional Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) also scheduled hearings designed to reinforce and amplify conventional wisdom blaming "vaccine hesitancy" for recurring outbreaks; witnesses were carefully selected to censure "anti-vaxxers" and quash safety concerns. That strategy was echoed in increasingly heated, polemical news reports and editorials condemning vaccine skepticism. This climate set the stage for two successive and unprecedented executive orders in Rockland County and Brooklyn, New York which sought to mandate vaccination under threat of criminal penalty for non-compliance. The trend culminated in President Trump - who has notably expressed concern over vaccine safety and considered spearheading a vaccine safety commission - urging citizens in no uncertain terms to "get the [Measles, Mumps, and Rubella] shot."

Measles madness: Germany considers fining parents to boost measles vaccination rates

Frank Jordans
AP
Sun, 05 May 2019 00:00 UTC

© AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File
In this March 27, 2019, file photo, measles, mumps and rubella vaccines sit in a cooler at the Rockland County Health Department in Pomona, N.Y. On Monday, May 6, 2019, U.S. health officials said 60 more U.S. measles cases were reported the previous week, driving up a 2019 tally that is already the nation’s highest in 25 years.

Germany's health minister is proposing fines for parents of school-age children who haven't been vaccinated for measles amid concern that the highly contagious and potentially deadly disease could make a comeback.

In an interview published Sunday with German weekly Bild am Sonntag, minister Jens Spahn said parents who can't prove their children have been vaccinated for measles should have to pay up to 2,500 euros ($2,790).

The minister also proposed that children without measles vaccinations be banned from going to daycare facilities, to protect others who are too young or medically unable to receive a measles immunization.

Compulsory medical procedures, including vaccinations, are a politically sensitive issue in Germany and it's unclear whether Spahn's proposal, which has yet to be discussed by Cabinet, will be implemented.

Comment: The above article is a wonderful example of how the 'measles outbreak' is being covered by lamestream news outlets. For a more rigorous look at this story, see:

That cave looks familiar.

Buffalo_Ken

My wife prayed about her decision. She got the shot. It almost killed her. Fuck you and your prayers Kathy Hochul. Maybe you're talking to the...

sbc

The real Church of Satan! Always has, always will be.

JTF Truth

Time to burn down the college of physicians or at least rename it the college of totalitarian Fascist Marxist Physicians and start issuing them...

JTF Truth

Her god is probably Baal. [Link]

rs1

Health & Wellness

Viruses genetically engineered to kill bacteria rescue girl with antibiotic-resistant infection

San Francisco city attorney subpoenas anti-vax doctor Kenneth Stoller's records

High levels of sunscreen ingredients end up in the bloodstream: study

Medical tyranny: Florida judge orders chemotherapy for 3yo, despite parents wishes

Inside the mind of the 'Vaccine Hesitant'

Diabetes drugs linked to 'flesh-eating' genital infection - study

Heart failure deaths rising in U.S., especially among younger adults

Let people smoke, drink, eat red meat - Norway's new Health Minister

Glass, germs, and steel: Why Mayor De Blasio's draconian public health policy will fail

Measles madness: Germany considers fining parents to boost measles vaccination rates

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