From Maryn McKenna at Superbug, excerpt but please go to the site for the full take :
" Out of all the scary diseases, none seem to make people horripillate quite as much as the viral hemorrhagic fevers: Ebola, Lassa, Marburg and the rest. That might be due to their still-murky origins, crossing over from the edges of the world of animals into the infringing habitats of men. It might be their uncomfortable classification in biosafety level 4, reserved for life-threatening infections that spread by fine exhaled aerosols and for which there is no vaccine and no treatment. (Four is the highest level. There is no 5.) Probably it is due in part to the enduring impact of the 15-year-old book The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, which in its early pages conducts a master class in describing truly revolting symptoms:
He is holding an airsickness bag over his mouth. He coughs a deep cough and regurgitates something into the bag."
Showing posts with label Maryn Mckenna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maryn Mckenna. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
New CDC flu numbers: This may not go well
This comes from Maryn McKenna at Superbug. As always she does wonders with her writing, excerpt (go to her site for the full context) :
" In public health, one of the numbers you hear most often — and especially so the past few years — is 36,000. That's the number of deaths that the CDC estimates occur in an average year from influenza.
Or rather, estimated. Because today, in its weekly bulletin MMWR and also in a teleconference for the press, the CDC announced that it is discarding that widely used number, in favor of newer numbers from newer studies that take into account the wide variation in illness and death from one flu season to the next.
The new estimate is: 23,607. Or, a range that goes from 3,349 to 48,614. Or, in the language recommended by a CDC scientist and a communications specialist in the press call, "tens of thousands of people [who] may die each year in an average flu season."
" In public health, one of the numbers you hear most often — and especially so the past few years — is 36,000. That's the number of deaths that the CDC estimates occur in an average year from influenza.
Or rather, estimated. Because today, in its weekly bulletin MMWR and also in a teleconference for the press, the CDC announced that it is discarding that widely used number, in favor of newer numbers from newer studies that take into account the wide variation in illness and death from one flu season to the next.
The new estimate is: 23,607. Or, a range that goes from 3,349 to 48,614. Or, in the language recommended by a CDC scientist and a communications specialist in the press call, "tens of thousands of people [who] may die each year in an average flu season."
Friday, August 13, 2010
Warning to Travelers About New, Drug-Resistant 'Superbug'
An article written by Maryn McKenna in CNBC Guest blog, excerpt :
" Medical tourism, family travel and international migration have combined to import a potent new form of antibiotic resistance halfway around the planet—and the physician-researchers who have tracked its rapid spread say it is already on the verge of becoming untreatable.
News of the new resistance factor has been percolating in smaller medical reports for a few months, including the weekly bulletin of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (which I covered on my blog in June). But Wednesday's announcement, published "ahead of print" on the website of the journal Lancet Infectious Disease, signals a higher level of concern."
" Medical tourism, family travel and international migration have combined to import a potent new form of antibiotic resistance halfway around the planet—and the physician-researchers who have tracked its rapid spread say it is already on the verge of becoming untreatable.
News of the new resistance factor has been percolating in smaller medical reports for a few months, including the weekly bulletin of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (which I covered on my blog in June). But Wednesday's announcement, published "ahead of print" on the website of the journal Lancet Infectious Disease, signals a higher level of concern."
Sunday, August 1, 2010
News break: "Pig MRSA" ST398 involved in the death of a child?
An important post by Maryn Mckenna at Superbug, excerpt :
" The latest postings to the website of the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases include a sad and very troubling letter from physicians in Lyon and Paris, reporting the death from necrotizing pneumonia of a previously healthy 14-year-old girl. That would be sad under any conditions, but here's what makes the death so troubling: It appears to have been caused by MRSA — but not by the community strain, USA300, that has been implicated in a number of deaths from necrotizing pneumonia.
Instead, her death appears to have been caused by infection with MRSA ST398 — the livestock-associated strain that was first noted in pigs raised with antibiotics, and the pig-farm workers caring for them, in the Netherlands 6 years ago, and that has since spread across the European Union, Canada and into the United States.
This may be the first death associated with ST398, though I can't say that for sure as I am away from my big computer and working without my database. I'll update later today and confirm or knock that down.
The physicians say that the girl came in with flu-like symptoms and abdominal pain, was put on IV antibiotics (cefotaxime and amikacin), underwent an exploratory laparotomy that showed nothing, and shortly afterward developed acute respiratory distress and was put on a vent. A chest X-ray was shadowy on both sides. She went rapidly downhill and died 6 days later.
On analysis, the staph strain infecting her was ST398; there was no indication where she had picked it up. The strain had an unusual characteristic: It possessed the ability to make the cell-destroying toxin Panton-Valentine leukocidin, PVL for short, a genetic trick that until now has been a property only of community MRSA strains such as USA300. Though its role is disputed, PVL has been linked to community MRSA's ability to start infections on intact skin, and to the cellular damage that destroys children's lungs in cases of pneumonia caused by USA300. Until now, ST398 has been PVL-negative."
" The latest postings to the website of the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases include a sad and very troubling letter from physicians in Lyon and Paris, reporting the death from necrotizing pneumonia of a previously healthy 14-year-old girl. That would be sad under any conditions, but here's what makes the death so troubling: It appears to have been caused by MRSA — but not by the community strain, USA300, that has been implicated in a number of deaths from necrotizing pneumonia.
Instead, her death appears to have been caused by infection with MRSA ST398 — the livestock-associated strain that was first noted in pigs raised with antibiotics, and the pig-farm workers caring for them, in the Netherlands 6 years ago, and that has since spread across the European Union, Canada and into the United States.
This may be the first death associated with ST398, though I can't say that for sure as I am away from my big computer and working without my database. I'll update later today and confirm or knock that down.
The physicians say that the girl came in with flu-like symptoms and abdominal pain, was put on IV antibiotics (cefotaxime and amikacin), underwent an exploratory laparotomy that showed nothing, and shortly afterward developed acute respiratory distress and was put on a vent. A chest X-ray was shadowy on both sides. She went rapidly downhill and died 6 days later.
On analysis, the staph strain infecting her was ST398; there was no indication where she had picked it up. The strain had an unusual characteristic: It possessed the ability to make the cell-destroying toxin Panton-Valentine leukocidin, PVL for short, a genetic trick that until now has been a property only of community MRSA strains such as USA300. Though its role is disputed, PVL has been linked to community MRSA's ability to start infections on intact skin, and to the cellular damage that destroys children's lungs in cases of pneumonia caused by USA300. Until now, ST398 has been PVL-negative."
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