Plagues
S


Health

Ebola spreads to Freetown, Sierra Leone - WHO concerned virus could go global

Image
© Seylou/AFP/Getty ImagesDoctors in protective gear work in the isolation ward.
Disease

The worst outbreak of Ebola moved to Sierra Leone's capital of Freetown where an Egyptian was found with the city's first confirmed case of the disease. The unidentified Egyptian national had traveled from Kenema, the largest city in the nation's Eastern Province, and checked into a clinic east of Freetown, Sidie Yahya Tunis, director of Information, Communication and Technology at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, said by phone today.

The person was moved back to the Ebola center in Kenema, he said. "The Ebola disease usually spreads to other places when suspected or confirmed cases in one community move to another, they abandon treatment centers to stay with relatives or they seek treatment outside the Ebola centers," Tunis said. There have been 99 Ebola deaths in Sierra Leone out of 315 laboratory-confirmed cases, the ministry said in an e-mailed statement today. The ministry said yesterday that 92 people had died out of 305 cases. Cases of the hemorrhagic fever have killed more than 540 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in an outbreak that according to the World Health Organization may last another three to four months.

The toll is greater than the 280 people killed in 1976, when the virus was first identified near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. The rapid spread of the virus is largely due to people moving across borders as well as cultural practices that are contrary to public health guidelines, such as people touching the body of a deceased relative before the funeral.

Source: Bloomberg

Attention

The CDC claims to be 'astonished' by lab breaches of anthrax, smallpox and bird flu

A few days ago, word got out that 6 vials of variola, the virus that causes smallpox, were found in a cold storage room that is owned by the Food and Drug Administration on the NIH's Bethesda campus.

That research building was not equipped or approved for storage of deadly pathogens, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In addition to the 6 vials that were labeled variola, ten unmarked vials were found...and so far, no one has addressed what those vials may contain, or if they are even being tested.

Yesterday, the CDC announced that at least two of the vials contain viable samples of the deadly smallpox virus.

Comment: We should all feel safer knowing that the Keystone Cops of lab workers are bungling handling some of the most dangerous pathogens known to man.


Attention

Ebola deaths surge in Sierra Leone and Liberia; 44 new cases, 21 deaths

Image
© Reuters/Misha HussainA scientist separates blood cells from plasma cells to isolate any Ebola RNA in order to test for the virus at the European Mobile Laboratory in Gueckedou.
Ebola continues to spread in Sierra Leone, Liberia and to a lesser extent in Guinea, with a combined 44 new cases and 21 deaths between July 6-8, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

This brought the total in West Africa's first outbreak of the deadly viral disease to 888 cases including 539 deaths since February, the United Nations agency said.

"The epidemic trend in Liberia and Sierra Leone remains precarious with high numbers of new cases and deaths being reported," the WHO said.

Just one confirmed new case had been reported during the past week in Guinea, where the WHO said it was closely monitoring the situation. There has been resistance among some communities to measures recommended to control the outbreak, such as precautions during traditional burial ceremonies.

Comment:
New Light on the Black Death: The Viral and Cosmic Connection
Black Death found to be Ebola-like virus


Attention

UN warns Ebola outbreak could become a pandemic

ebola workers
© unknown
Health ministers from 11 West African countries began a two-day Emergency Ministerial meeting in Accra, Ghana, Wednesday amid concern the outbreak of the Ebola virus that began in Ghana could spread across their region as an uncontrolled pandemic.

In a statement distributed at the United Nations, the World Health Organization, WHO, classified the current Ebola outbreak as the worst ever.

The outbreak traces back to cases appearing in rural Guinea in March, which spread across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. So far, a total of 750 cases and 455 deaths have been reported in the affected countries, according to WHO

Ambulance

Crisis talks begin in western African nations as Ebola deaths rise 38 percent

Image
© Cellou Binani/AFP/Getty ImagesThe isolation ward for Ebola patients at a hospital in Conakry, Guinea.
Health ministers from across western Africa met on Wednesday to plan "drastic action" against the world's deadliest-ever Ebola epidemic as dozens of new cases continued to emerge.

There have been 759 confirmed or suspected cases of the haemorrhagic fever in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, with 467 people dead.

The new death toll represented a rise of 129 - or 38 percent - since the UN agency's last bulletin given just a week ago.

"This makes the ongoing Ebola outbreak the largest in terms of the number of cases and deaths as well as geographical spread," the WHO said in a statement announcing the two-day conference, which opened in Ghana's capital Accra, with 11 west African health ministers attending.

"Decisions taken at this meeting will be critical in addressing the current and future outbreaks," it said.

Since the region's first ever epidemic of the deadly and highly contagious fever broke out in Guinea in January, the WHO has sent in more than 150 experts to help tackle the regional crisis.

Comment: For more details on Ebola's similarity to the Black Death and possible cosmic (cometary) connection see:
Black Death found to be Ebola-like virus
New Light on the Black Death: The Viral and Cosmic Connection


Ambulance

West Africa Ebola outbreak 'out of control' and 'unprecedented' says Doctors Without Borders

Image
© AP
The Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa is "totally out of control," according to a senior official for Doctors Without Borders, who says the medical group is stretched to the limit in responding.

The outbreak has caused more deaths than any other of the disease, said another official with the medical charity. Ebola has been linked to more than 330 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, according to the World Health Organization.

International organizations and the governments involved need to send in more health experts and increase public education messages about how to stop the spread of the disease, Bart Janssens, the director of operations for the medical group in Brussels, told The Associated Press on Friday.

"The reality is clear that the epidemic is now in a second wave," Janssens said. "And, for me, it is totally out of control."

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



Fireball 4

Cyclical plague: Remains of 'End of the World' epidemic found in Ancient Egypt

Image
© Associazione Culturale per lo Studio dell’Egitto e del Sudan
Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of an epidemic in Egypt so terrible that one ancient writer believed the world was coming to an end.

Working at the Funerary Complex of Harwa and Akhimenru in the west bank of the ancient city of Thebes (modern-day Luxor) in Egypt, the team of the Italian Archaeological Mission to Luxor (MAIL) found bodies covered with a thick layer of lime (historically used as a disinfectant). The researchers also found three kilns where the lime was produced, as well as a giant bonfire containing human remains, where many of the plague victims were incinerated.

Pottery remains found in the kilns allowed researchers to date the grisly operation to the third century A.D., a time when a series of epidemics now dubbed the "Plague of Cyprian" ravaged the Roman Empire, which included Egypt. Saint Cyprian was a bishop of Carthage (a city in Tunisia) who described the plague as signaling the end of the world.

Occurring between roughly A.D. 250-271, the plague "according to some sources killed more than 5,000 people a day in Rome alone," wrote Francesco Tiradritti, director of the MAIL, in the latest issue of Egyptian Archaeology, a magazine published by the Egypt Exploration Society.

Comment: For a much broader perspective, you may read Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection: The Secret History of the World - Book 3 by Pierre Lescaudron and Laura Knight-Jadczyk, also available here.

For more historical background, you may also read Laura Knight-Jadczyk's Comets and the Horns of Moses (The Secret History of the World, volume 2), also available here.


Attention

Antibiotic-resistant superbug has made its way into the food supply

Researchers discovered carbapenem-resistant bacteria in raw squid for the first time.
superbug
© Image Wizard/Shutterstock
A dangerous "superbug" has made its way into the North American food supply for the first time, Canadian researchers announced Wednesday. Routine testing of raw squid, imported from South Korea, revealed a strain of bacteria resistant to carbapenems, a class of antibiotics used to treat life-threatening infections.

This is concerning because carbapenems are a "last resort" antibiotic, one doctors turn to when common antibiotics fail. Health officials have been watching them closely; in April, the World Health Organization warned that antibiotic resistance had become a serious, global threat to public health, listing the spread of carbapanem resistance as a main reason for that.

Butterfly

Malaysia swarmed by giant moths

Moths_1
© Lim Wui LiangThe dark-coloured moths are one of the largest found in South East Asia.
Swarms of giant moths have descended on Malaysia, invading homes and even disrupting a national football match.

Thousands of the furry insects, with a wing span of up to 16cm (6in), interrupted a semi-finals match at the Darul Makmur Stadium last week.

Over 800 sightings were also reported in neighbouring Singapore last month, sparking intense online debate.

The Lyssa Zampa tropical moth, which is also known as the Laos brown butterfly, is native to South East Asia.

Biology lecturer N Sivasothi said that while the moth sightings appear to be "unprecedented", it is not a new phenomenon.

"The moths are actually present during other times of the year but in very small numbers, so they are usually not noticed by people," Mr Sivasothi said, adding that the creatures typically emerge between April and August every year.

Ecologist Anuj Jain said moths' use of light for navigation often causes them to head to built-up areas.

"Their tendency to emigrate in search of new uneaten host plants attracts these moths to light in urban city areas," he said.

Experts said that while people suffering from asthma may be sensitive to hairs on their wings, the nocturnal creatures do not pose any threat.

Bug

Lyme disease is older than human race - 15 million-year-old bacteria found in amber-preserved ticks

Lyme disease is a stealthy, often misdiagnosed disease that was only recognized about 40 years ago, but new discoveries of ticks fossilized in amber show that the bacteria which cause it may have been lurking around for 15 million years - long before any humans walked on Earth.

The findings were made by researchers from Oregon State University, who studied 15-20 million-year-old amber from the Dominican Republic that offer the oldest fossil evidence ever found of Borrelia, a type of spirochete-like bacteria that to this day causes Lyme disease. They were published in the journal Historical Biology.

In a related study, published in Cretaceous Research, OSU scientists announced the first fossil record of Rickettsial-like cells, a bacteria that can cause various types of spotted fever. Those fossils from Myanmar were found in ticks about 100 million years old.
lyme disease fossilized ticks
Tick preserved in amber
As summer arrives and millions of people head for the outdoors, it's worth considering that these tick-borne diseases may be far more common than has been historically appreciated, and they've been around for a long, long time.

"Ticks and the bacteria they carry are very opportunistic," said George Poinar, Jr., a professor emeritus in the Department of Integrative Biology of the OSU College of Science, and one of the world's leading experts on plant and animal life forms found preserved in amber. "They are very efficient at maintaining populations of microbes in their tissues, and can infect mammals, birds, reptiles and other animals.

"In the United States, Europe and Asia, ticks are a more important insect vector of disease than mosquitos," Poinar said. "They can carry bacteria that cause a wide range of diseases, affect many different animal species, and often are not even understood or recognized by doctors.