Plagues
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Health

Somerset UK: Floodwater contains 60 times the amount of safe bacteria - epidemics may follow weather woes


Express, UK
Sat, 01 Feb 2014 00:00 UTC
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© PATests found samples contained 60,000 to 70,000 bacteria per 100 millilitres.
Health fears are growing after floodwater in Somerset has been found to contain 60 times the amount of safe bacteria for agricultural water.

Tests found samples contained 60,000 to 70,000 bacteria per 100 millilitres.

The World Health Organisation says agricultural water should have no more than 1,000 bacteria per 100 millilitres.

The safe level for bath water is capped at just 500 bacteria per 100 millilitres.

The research was commissioned by Sky News and carried out on Thursday by Microbiologist Nathaniel Storey from the University of Reading.

There is so sign of the weather letting up, as Flood-hit communities have been warned to be on their guard as high tides and gale-force winds could send water levels rising even further.

The Environment Agency has especially warned those living in parts of south-west England and the Midlands to take care as it issued nine severe flood warnings - meaning there is a danger to life - for the Cornwall and North Devon coasts and the River Severn, south of Gloucester.
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Comet

Two of history's deadliest plagues were linked, with implications for another outbreak: Scientists discover link between Justinian plague and Black Death

Ker Than
National Geographic
Wed, 29 Jan 2014 12:05 UTC
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© Bettmann/CorbisAn illustration of a physician wearing specialized clothing to protect against the plague.
Two of history's deadliest plagues, which swept across Europe hundreds of years apart, were caused by different strains of the same deadly microbe, scientists say.

The finding raises the possibility that a new strain of plague could infect humanity again in the future.

The Justinian plague struck in the sixth century and is estimated to have killed between 30 and 50 million people - about half the world's population at that time - as it spread across Asia, North Africa, Arabia, and Europe.

The Black Death struck some 800 years later, killing 50 million Europeans between 1347 and 1351 alone.

Comment: Famous last words, especially since according to the research, both plagues were caused by a virus and not bacteria. More so, unjustified overuse of antibiotics during the last century led to an antibiotic tolerance, and as a result we hear more and more about cases of 'super-infection'. The odds are, unfortunately, against us, especially when our immune systems are being gravely compromised by the consumption of grains.

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Info

Bubonic plague DNA found in teeth could strike again

Sara Watson
Guardian Liberty Voice
Mon, 27 Jan 2014 22:29 UTC
Bubonic Plague
© Guardianlv.com
Scientists in Canada found small pieces of DNA in ancient teeth, and they are warning that another outbreak similar to the bubonic plague could strike the modern world again. The Yersinia pestis bacteria was uncovered in the teeth of two skeletons that were buried at the time of the Justinian outbreak in Iron Age Germany. The bacteria could be behind two of the deadliest pandemics in history. It is known as the cause of the bubonic plague, or Black Death, that decimated large numbers of the populations throughout Europe in 1348. It is also suspected to be behind the Justinian plague in the Roman Empire, so called as it appeared during the reign of Emperor Justinian in 541 AD.

Researchers have analyzed 12 skeletons from a cemetery in Bavaria. There were 10 found with low levels of the bacteria and two which had enough in the teeth to be extracted. The remains were dated at the time of the Justinian outbreak, judging by the distinctive beads that were placed around the necks of the women buried in the cemetery. This dates them to 525-550 AD, right at the beginning of a plague that wiped out one-quarter of the population.
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Comet 2

Madagascar faces plague epidemic

Mary Boland
Irish Times
Tue, 21 Jan 2014 16:34 UTC
Experts warn former French colony faces Black Death epidemic unless it slows spread of rodent-borne disease
Madagascar black death
© Stephane de Sakutin/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesA young boy carries a tank to collect water in Antananarivo in Madagascar. Malagasy officials announced last month that the city’s coffers were empty and there was no funding for rubbish collection. Refuse has been piling up, encouraging the growth of the rodent population.
The director of Toliara jail in southwest Madagascar is wary of giving a wrong impression. "Sure we have rats, but lots of places do," says Serge Idriss Hasambarana. "We catch maybe 10 or so a month. Maybe more. The Pasteur Institute gave us traps."

Some 600 prisoners are held here in four cramped cells, a situation Hasambarana insists he is powerless to change. "Look around," he says, pointing to the crumbling walls and peeling paint of his sparse office and adjacent buildings. "This place was built by the French, and it hasn't been touched since. We need a lot of improvements around here but we don't get any money for it."

Comment: For a different perspective on the nature of the Black Death, read and consider the following SOTT Focus research:

New Light on the Black Death: The Viral and Cosmic Connection

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Comet

Bubonic plague outbreak in Madagascar leaves 32 dead and 100 quarantined in prison

Steve White
Mirror
Mon, 20 Jan 2014 16:24 UTC
Black Death burial
© PABlack death: Workmen uncover a 14th century 'plague pit' burial ground in London earlier this year
The disease wiped out a third of Europe in the 14th Century and has returned to parts of Africa and Asia in recent years

Bubonic plague, which 700 years ago wiped out a third of Europe, has broken out on Madagascar.

At least 32 people on the East African island have died from the 'Black Death' with another 100 suspected cases. Surviving victims are being held in a prison.

The disease is spread by fleas carried by rats. If left untreated, it is fatal within 24 hours.

Comment: For a different perspective on the nature of the Black Death, read and consider the following SOTT Focus research:

New Light on the Black Death: The Viral and Cosmic Connection

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Black Cat

Cat exposes 4 people to rabies in South Carolina


WBTW News13
Wed, 15 Jan 2014 13:00 UTC
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© UnknownA feral cat with a messed up ear.
Four adults have been recommended for post-exposure treatment after being exposed to rabies by a cat that tested positive for the disease after being found in the Hemingway area of Williamsburg County, state health officials reported Wednesday.

"To reduce the risk of getting rabies, we recommend that people avoid wild animals acting tame and tame animals acting wild," said Sue Ferguson of S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control's Bureau of Environmental Health Services.

"About 275 South Carolinians must undergo preventive treatment for rabies every year, with most exposures coming from bites or scratches by a rabid or suspected rabid animal. Wild animals carry the disease most often, but domestic pets can contract rabies as well."

Ferguson said state law requires pet owners to have their pets regularly vaccinated against the disease.
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Fireball 2

The comet of the black death: Comet Negra, 1347

George Bishop
GeorgeBishopJr.com
Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:00 UTC
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Number three in our weekly series of Great Comets: The Comet of the Black Death, or Comet Negra. Hard to beat this one for dramatic impact.

The Comet of the Black Death is said to have coincided with the great plague, the "Black Death," that killed half the population of Europe from 1346 to 1350. The plague is thought to have originated in Central Asia and, transmitted by fleas on rats, been carried along the Silk Road into Europe.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder depicted the Black Death this way, in his 1562 painting "The Triumph of Death":
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There are other theories, too, about the origin and spread of the Black Death. One says that a comet or fragments of a comet precipitated the Black Death. If you remember that scientists have said that the last Ice Age was caused by an asteroid impact, it's not much of a stretch to imagine that a piece of a comet striking the Earth could have disrupted the atmosphere enough to initiate the famines and plagues that characterized the Black Death:
"In France . . . was seen the terrible Comet called Negra. In December appeared over Avignon a Pillar of Fire. There were many great Earthquakes, Tempests, Thunders and Lightnings, and thousands of People were swallowed up; the Courses of Rivers were stopt; some Chasms of the Earth sent forth Blood. Terrible Showers of Hail, each stone weighing 1 Pound to 8; Abortions in all Countries; in Germany it rained Blood; in France Blood gushed out of the Graves of the Dead, and stained the Rivers crimson; Comets, Meteors, Fire-beams, corruscations in the Air, Mock-suns, the Heavens on Fire . . ."

Comment: There has been much research that indicates that the plague was actually a result of cometary bombardment. The evidence actually supports what the people said at that time, reporting earthquakes, comets, rains of death and fire, corrupted atmosphere, and death on a scale that is almost unimaginable. For more background information read:

New Light on the Black Death: The Cosmic Connection
New Light on the Black Death: The Viral and Cosmic Connection
Black Death Study Lets Rats Off the Hook

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Health

First North America H5N1 bird flu death confirmed in Canada


BBC News
Wed, 08 Jan 2014 02:22 UTC
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© Reuters.China has been vaccinating poultry against the H5N1 virus.
Canadian health officials have confirmed the first known fatal case of the H5N1 avian influenza strain in North America. Canadian Health Minister Rona Ambrose said the deceased person was an Alberta resident who had recently travelled to Beijing.

Calling the death an "isolated case", Ms Ambrose said the risk to the general population was low.
Ten people have died in Alberta this season from swine flu, or H1N1.

H5N1 infects the lower respiratory tract deep in the lung, where it can cause deadly pneumonia.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it is difficult to transmit the virus from person to person but when people do become infected, the mortality rate is about 60%.

In the latest incident, the infected person first showed symptoms of the flu on an Air Canada flight from Beijing to Vancouver on 27 December, officials said.

The passenger continued on to Edmonton and on 1 January was admitted to hospital where they died two days later. Canadian federal health officials said they would not identify the patient's sex, age or occupation.

Ms Ambrose said Canadian officials were working with Chinese authorities on the case. "The risk of getting H5N1 is very low. This is not the regular seasonal flu. This is an isolated case," she said.
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Bizarro Earth

Why did 100,000 dead bats reportedly fall out of the sky in Australia?

Chris Gayomali
The Week
Wed, 08 Jan 2014 11:51 UTC
bat
© ThinkstockRIP, little guy.
Residents describe the stench of rotting carcasses littering the streets

While blistering cold continues to punish most of North America, here is your friendly annual reminder that summer is in full swing down in Australia.

Unfortunately for residents of several towns scattered across the north-east state of Queensland, enjoying all that wonderful sunshine may be a bit difficult, especially when surrounded by the rotting, noxious corpses of thousands of dead bats.

Several newspapers report that over the weekend, 100,000 of the winged creatures have seemingly fallen out of the sky, littering trees, yards, and sidewalks with dead or dying animals

The culprit in this case is apparently a scorching summer heat wave, which can wreak havoc on a bat's fragile anatomy. "Anything over 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit) and they just fall," says Louis Saunders, a local conservation worker. "It's a horrible, cruel way to die."
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Syringe

Taiwan: Hundreds monitored after H7N9 bird flu case


Yahoo! News
Wed, 01 Jan 2014 09:00 UTC
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© AFP/Sam Yeh
A monitor shows the temperature of passengers at Sungshan Airport in Taipei, on April 4, 2013
Taiwanese authorities are monitoring hundreds of people who may have had contact with a mainland Chinese tourist infected with the H7N9 strain of bird flu, officials said Wednesday.

The 86-year-old man from the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu is in stable condition in hospital in Taiwan, where he was on an eight-day tour, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said in a statement.

As many as 500 people may have had contact with him, all of whom are being asked to report to doctors should they develop possible symptoms, the statement added.

The 149 people who may have had close contact include two family members accompanying him on the tour, the tour guide, bus driver, medical personnel and patients sharing the same hospital ward, it said.
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