Plagues
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Eggs Fried

Unknown avian virus strikes Bhaktapur, Nepal farmers

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Poultry farmers of Bhaktapur district are once again worried after mysterious disease started killing adult fowls.

An epidemic of unknown disease has hit farms of Broiler poultry for the past one month. The disease which has not been yet identified has caused nervousness among poultry keepers, said poultry entrepreneur Laxman Gwachha.

The new disease shares the symptoms of the new castle disease. The Bhaktapur poultry farmers, who had been adversely affected by the outbreak of bird flu in the district a year ago, are worried as the mysterious disease is again likely to ruin their business.

Live fowls have also lost their weight. Chickens completing 30-35 days are dying due to the unknown disease . Generally, they become ready for supplying in 45-50 days of rearing.

Comment: On September 16, 2013 it was reported that crows and pigeons in Bhaktapur dropped dead in flight:

Terror grips Bhaktapur folk as birds drop dead in Nepal



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Spreading across the country: California hit with first wave of enterovirus D68

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© Reuters/Mike Cassese
The most populated US state confirmed its first batch of cases of the disease that has been spreading across the country, causing severe respiratory problems in infants and young children, according to the state's chief health official.

Four children, ranging in age from 2 to 13 and all from Southern California, have confirmed cases of enterovirus D68 (EV-D68). One of the patients is from Ventura County; the others are from San Diego County.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from mid-August to September 18, 2014, a total of 153 people from 18 states were confirmed to have respiratory illness caused by EV-D68, which has forced dozens of children to be hospitalized.

"There will definitely be more. It's just a matter of time. This will spread across the entire country," Dr. Pia Pannaraj, an infectious diseases specialist at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles, told KTLA.

Children who contract the virus may experience difficulty breathing and wheezing, particularly youngsters with asthma problems.

"These children start with what seems like a normal cold on the first day - runny nose, a little bit of cough - but by the second day, they can't breathe at all. They come in and they need a tube to help them breathe," Pannaraj said. More cases are anticipated in the coming weeks.

Comment: This virus is spreading rapidly and it appears that previous vaccinations make the children more vulnerable:
  • Unidentified respiratory virus hit more than 1000 children across 10 US states
  • Rare respiratory virus: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center sets patient record



Ambulance

Ebola threatens humanity by preying on human instincts of caring

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© John Moore/Getty ImagesSuspected Ebola patient Finda “Zanabo” prays over her sick family members before being admitted to the Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment center on Aug. 21, 2014, near Monrovia, Liberia.
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 kill rate: In this particular outbreak, a running tabulation suggests that 54 percent of the infected die, though adjusted numbers suggest that the rate is much higher.
  • Its exponential growth: At this point, the number of people infected is doubling approximately every three weeks, leading some epidemiologists to project between 77,000 and 277,000 cases by the end of 2014.
  • The gruesomeness with which it kills: by hijacking cells and migrating throughout the body to affect all organs, causing victims to bleed profusely.
  • The ease with which it is transmitted: through contact with bodily fluids, including sweat, tears, saliva, blood, urine, semen, etc., including objects that have come in contact with bodily fluids (such as bed sheets, clothing, and needles) and corpses.
  • The threat of mutation: Prominent figures have expressed serious concerns that this disease will go airborne, and there are many other mechanisms through which mutation might make it much more transmissible.

Comment: It is also important to make adequate information available about the disease and to inform people of the ways they may make themselves less susceptible to infection:

Are you prepping your diet?
Pestilence, the Great Plague and the Tobacco Cure
Vitamin C - A cure for Ebola
Is the Ketogenic Diet the cure for multiple diseases?


Padlock

All Sierra Leone's six-million population are confined to homes in desperate bid to contain Ebola

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© Reuters / Ahmed Jallanzo
All Sierra Leone's six-million population have been confined to their homes. The three-day shutdown is a desperate bid to fight the outbreak, as US health officials warn the disease could spread to over half a million people.

"Today the life of every one is at stake, but we will get over this difficulty if all do what we have been asked to do," President Ernest Bai Koroma said in a national address on Thursday, a day before the shutdown was due to come into force.

People were in a hurry ahead of the edict to buy food. Shopkeepers were distraught at the prospect of losing three days' worth of income, given that much of the country's population, including the capital Freetown, live on as little as $2 a day or less. Each day is a struggle.

Comment: For more on ways to prepare see:

Pestilence, the Great Plague, and the Tobacco Cure

Natural treatments for Ebola virus exist, research suggests

Natural allopathic treatment modalities for Ebola virus

And of course there is the matter of strengthening the immune system through adopting a Ketogenic Diet.


Attention

The extreme idiocy of sending troops to fight Ebola

obama ebola
"Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it" Once again it looks like Washington has forgotten the past. They are about to send 3000 troops to Africa to help contain the Ebola outbreak. There should be some serious red flags in this mission. The Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918 was a global disaster killing between 20-50 million people. The spread in the United States started with soldiers returning from WWI. While Ebola is different from influenza in the way it spreads it is just as deadly if not more so.

The 3000 troops are being sent directly to the hot zone to coordinate relief efforts. They plan on building 17 additional treatment centers and recruit and train medical personnel to staff them. They'll be providing logistics, engineering and other non-medical support. The military has said that troops will not have direct exposure to patients infected with the virus.

U.S. troops will receive protective gear and specialized training to avoid contracting Ebola. "We're going to train. We're going to equip them the best we can. You can never eliminate risk in a military operation. You deal with it. ... and the men and women who sign up and serve in the military understand that when they do," Kirby said. "And I can tell you that should any of our troops fall ill, we're going to do everything we can to make them better, and to get them back to the treatment that they need."

Comment: More on preparation for Ebola:
Are you prepping your diet?
Vitamin C - A cure for Ebola
Scientists stumble across the obvious treatment for Ebola: tobacco


Health

Enterovirus D68 spreading rapidly: Boston Children's Hospital reports 150 possible cases

Enterovirus map
© CDC States with confirmed cases of Enterovirus D68.

More than 150 children are being treated for possible cases of Enterovirus at Boston Children's Hospital, officials said Friday.

Doctors said they are seeing a sharp increase in the number of children with respiratory problems, and several with suspected cases of the virus are on life support. There are about 12 children in critical care and about 24 in intermediate care, doctors said.

The ages of the patients range from 2 years old to 10 years old, according to officials. The number of children being treated is about three times higher than what the hospital is used to seeing at this time of year.

Massachusetts General Hospital and Baystate Medical Center in Springfield reported suspected cases of Enterovirus earlier in the week. Lab samples are being sent to the Centers for Disease Control to confirm if the cases are Enterovirus D68.

Comment: See also:
Unidentified respiratory virus hit more than 1000 children across 10 US states, likely to spread across country

Respiratory ailment: Hundreds of Midwest kids hospitalized

Rare respiratory virus: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center sets patient record


Stock Up

Projected worse-case scenario: Half a million infected with Ebola

guinea ebola
© Cellou Binani/AFP via Getty ImagesGuinea's Red Cross health workers wearing protective suits carry a stretcher at the NGO Medecin sans frontieres Ebola treatement centre near the hospital Donka in Conakry on Sept. 14, 2014.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa could spread to hundreds of thousands more people by the end of January, according to an estimate under development by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that puts one worst-case scenario at 550,000 or more infections.

The report, scheduled to be released next week, was described by two people familiar with its contents, who asked to remain anonymous because it isn't yet public.

The projection, which vastly outstrips previous estimates, is under review by researchers and may change. It assumes no additional aid or intervention by governments and relief agencies, which are mobilizing to contain the Ebola outbreak before it spirals further out of control in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

"CDC is working on a dynamic modeling tool that allows for recalculations of projected Ebola cases over time," Barbara Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the agency, said in an e-mail. "CDC expects to release this interactive tool and a description of its use soon."

The World Health Organization said last month that the outbreak could reach 20,000 cases before being brought under control. That projection is already outdated, WHO spokesman Dan Epstein said yesterday in a phone interview.

Comment: See also:


Ambulance

Srinagar: Livestock carcasses float on flooded roads - faces epidemic outbreak

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An epidemic threat is looming large over flood hit Srinagar with thousands of carcasses of livestock lying dead in the streets of the summer capital.

In Army's largest dairy farm at Bemina on the Srinagar-Baramulla highway, bodies of hundreds of Jersey cows and buffaloes are lying unattended for the past eight days after the flood hit the city. The farm opposite to the Army's cantonment, Toto Ground, is spread over hundreds of canals of land in the middle of residential area.

Doctors termed the situation as "very threatening" saying if the dead animals were not removed and buried along with decomposing agents, the situation could lead to an epidemic outbreak. "This situation is a breeding ground for deadly diseases like cholera, hepatitis and typhoid," said a known doctor at SMHS hospital.

A young boy who identified himself as Saifullah Gulzar of Al-Shakir colony, Bemina said there were 370 cows and buffaloes in the Army run farm. He said the farm got submerged on Sunday,
September 7. "The main gate of the farm was closed which led to the death of the animals. Only seven cows could be saved while they were being washed away by floods," said Gulzar. While most of the carcasses have got stuck in the mud and flood water in the farm, many of them which were washed away by the flood were lying on the roadside, on the Srinagar-Baramulla highway.

Ambulance

Ebola update: Bodies of missing health workers, journalists found in Guinea; patients turning to black market for survivors blood

ebola health workers
Africa - Officials in Guinea searching for a team of health workers and journalists who went missing while trying to raise awareness of Ebola have found several bodies. A spokesman for Guinea's government said the bodies included those of three journalists in the team. They went missing after being attacked on Tuesday in a village near the southern city of Nzerekore. More than 2,600 people have now died from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. It is the world's worst outbreak of the deadly disease, with officials warning that more than 20,000 people could ultimately be infected. The three doctors and three journalists disappeared after being pelted with stones by residents when they arrived in the village of Wome - near where the Ebola outbreak was first recorded. One of the journalists managed to escape and told reporters that she could hear the villagers looking for them while she was hiding. A government delegation, led by the health minister, had been dispatched to the region but they were unable to reach the village by road because a main bridge had been blocked.

Comment: The virus has been mutating quickly, and blood transfusions from survivors may be unlikely to provide immunity. It would be far more practical to improve one's diet so as to help the immune system fight off disease pathogens. For more on ways to prepare see:

Pestilence, the Great Plague, and the Tobacco Cure

Natural treatments for Ebola virus exist, research suggests

Natural allopathic treatment modalities for Ebola virus


Blackbox

Which one is accurate? Multiple computer models are predicting Ebola deaths

zombie
© unknown
We could potentially be on the verge of the greatest health crisis that any of us have ever seen. The number of Ebola cases in Africa has approximately doubled over the past three weeks, and scientific computer models tell us that this Ebola pandemic could ultimately end up killing millions of us - especially if it starts spreading on other continents. At first, many assumed that this Ebola outbreak would be just like all the others - that it would flare up for a little while and then it would completely fade away. But that has not happened this time. Instead, this epidemic has seemed to pick up momentum with each passing week. Despite extraordinary precautions, hundreds of health workers have gotten the virus, and the head of the CDC says that the spread of Ebola is "spiraling out of control" and that it is "going to get worse in the very near future." For those that have thought that all of this talk about Ebola was just "fearmongering", it is time for you to wake up.

Comment: For more on ways to prepare see:

Pestilence, the Great Plague, and the Tobacco Cure

Natural treatments for Ebola virus exist, research suggests

Natural allopathic treatment modalities for Ebola virus

And of course there is the matter of strengthening the immune system through adopting a Ketogenic Diet.