NewsTrust - Infectious Diseases - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

Whatever happened to mad cow disease?

Mon, 02 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

now for the science bit - By Hayley Crawford - May. 02 (News) - The first report of BSE was in the UK in 1986. Around 180,000 cows in the UK were suspected to have been infected in the years after that, but since the incubation period of this disease is 3 to 8 years, the government couldn’t risk waiting: almost 4.5 million cows were killed, without having visible symptoms. These days, cows are tested before entering into the human food chain.

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As cholera worsens, violence breaks out in Haiti

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

GlobalPost - By Ezra Fieser - Nov. 16 (News Report) - Anger over the cholera outbreak led to violent demonstrations today as protesters set fire to a police station and clashed with U.N. forces in Cap-Haitien, a city on the north coast. One protester was killed. Many Haitians blame a Nepalese U.N. contingent for causing the outbreak when sewage from their camp leaked into the Artibonite.

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America’s Hidden Diseases

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Melinda Burns - Nov. 06 (News Report) - Americans living in high poverty bear the burden of more than 20 common diseases that the medical establishment largely does not monitor, diagnose or treat, studies show.

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War and Sickness in Afghanistan

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Peter Hotez - Nov. 05 (Special Report) - Neglected diseases exacerbate the awful toll already taken by world conflicts, U.S. researcher says.

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CNS Stop-Tuberculosis (TB) Initiative

Tue, 11 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

CNS Stop-TB News Monitor - May. 11 (Research) - CNS Stop-TB News Monitor provides a snapshot of five major news pieces on tuberculosis (TB) prevention, treatment, care and support related issues, from around the world, particularly prioritising news highlights from TB high-burdened countries and links to major TB-related events or other advocacy opportunities.

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A new side effect of H1N1 virus: exaggeration

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Robert Farley - Oct. 22 (News Analysis) - Public health officials making the pitch for the H1N1 vaccine to a wary public are having to overcome an unprecedented torrent of misinformation. PolitiFact looked into several of the claims making the rounds in chain e-mails and from political talk show hosts.

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Inoculation Misinformation

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Jess Henig - Oct. 19 (News Analysis) - Wild rumors are flying about the newly developed vaccine for pandemic influenza H1N1, also known as "swine flu." We’ve seen e-mails stating that the vaccine is tainted with antifreeze or Agent Orange, causes Gulf War syndrome, or has killed U.S. Navy sailors. One says the vaccine is an "evil depopulation scheme." The claims are nearly pure bunk, with only trace amounts of fact.

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How Foreclosures Breed Mosquitoes

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

thebigmoney.com - By Paul Smalera, Win Rosenfeld - Sep. 11 (Special Report) - Filmmakers Andrew and Leslie Cockburn discuss a scene from their new documentary American Casino. The scene shows how a sea of abandoned swimming pools in California has become a mosquito Club Med.

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India Battles the Flu and Recession, Too

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New America Media - By Sandip Roy - Sep. 06 (Special Report) - In India, the media are struggling to find new angles to cover the H1N1 virus, which is quickly becoming a chronic front-page story. The Times of India published the photographs of random Indians and their ideas of fail-safe swine flu prevention tactics. One involved praying. Another involved raw partridge. Spritzing with anti-bacterial liquids is epidemic. NAM editor Sandip Roy reports from Bengaluru.

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Mexico shuts down to prevent spread of flu

Mon, 04 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By Ioan Grillo - May. 04 (News Report) - Nine days after Mexico discovered that it was the epicenter of a new strain of killer flu, the nation is in the midst of an obligatory five-day holiday to stop the disease spreading.

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Tracking Risk Perception of Swine Flu As It Unfolds

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Marcel Salathé - Apr. 30 (Research) - But while the virus spreads quickly, information about the virus spreads even faster than the virus itself. By now, almost everyone with access to a news source is aware of swine flu, and people are worried to different degrees and react in very different ways. My colleagues and I who study the spread of infectious diseases would like to know what people think about swine flu, how they feel about it, and how they will eventually react. To achieve this goal, we have created an easy online (and anonymous) survey, which I cordially invite you take. Let me give you some background info on why we believe this is important.

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Men with infected scrotums less desirable to women!

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

researchilike.blogspot.com - By Srinivas Murthy - Apr. 25 (News Report) - Stating the obvious, but still nice to have the data. Ours being a shallow society, the 'marriageability' of somebody with a filarial hydrocele (only click if you're not eating your breakfast and you have a strong stomach) is probably not that high. The severe impact on sexual function, as well as the obvious cosmetic challenges, make them low on the list of potential suitors for young ladies.

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Somali refugees' path of hardship

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By Tristan McConnell - Mar. 30 (News Report) - The escalating violence in Somalia has meant that in the past year 165 people a day fled to the camps. At least 13 percent of the refugees in the camps are malnourished. Disease outbreaks are common. In February, cholera struck.

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Obesity Caught Like Common Cold

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

LiveScience - By Robert Roy Britt - Jan. 26 (News Report) - Yet another claim that a common and contagious virus is linked to some cases of obesity is in the news today. Studies on humans show that 33 per cent of obese adults had contracted an adenovirus called AD-36 at some point in their lives, according to an article in the UK's Daily Express, whereas only 11 per cent of lean men and women have had the virus.

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Faith, Hope, and Chastity

Mon, 05 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Texas Monthly - By Katy Vine - May. 05 (Special Report) - Texas ranks number one in teenage births, which, all told, cost taxpayers at least $1 billion a year. (Twenty-four percent of those births are not the girl's first delivery.) While the number of teenage births in Texas is actually going down of late, it is decreasing at a slower rate than the nation's at large. And 52.5 percent of Texas teens are having sex, compared with the national average of 47 percent. Rates of HIV/AIDS infection among teens are currently on the rise. Texas ranks fifth in teenage pregnancy (a number even more disconcerting in light of the fact that the U.S. ranks near the top in this category among developed nations).

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A User-Friendly Computer Virus

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Utne Reader - By Brian Vastag - Feb. 28 (Special Report) - It took Blizzard Entertainment, the Irvine, California, company behind the game, nearly a week to stop the virtual plague. At that time the online Tolkienesque world of swords and sorcery boasted 4 million subscribers (it now has more than 9 million). The company's programmers had created Hakkar the Soulflayer--a monster so strong that players would have to band together to kill it--to enrich the game. They expected his blood curse to remain localized. But they hadn't accounted for human behavior.

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Huge Proportion Of Maternal Deaths Worldwide Are Preventable

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

ScienceDaily - Feb. 19 (News Report) - These results indicate that effective treatment and prevention of infectious disease, such as antiretroviral drugs for treating HIV/AIDS and insecticide-treated bed nets for preventing malaria, could greatly reduce the maternal death toll in Mozambique and perhaps in other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. However, it should be noted that the single most common cause of death was as expected: haemorrhage, massive blood loss around the time of delivery, reflecting the failure of health systems to provide adequate obstetric care and safe blood transfusion.

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Is the way we raise our food giving us MRSA?

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:14:17 -0800

Salon - By Alex Koppelman - Nov. 07 (Special Report) - Recently, though, Dutch researchers have proposed the addition of two new groups to those being screened as risks -- pig farmers and veterinarians. One group of researchers found that pig farmers in one area of the country were more than 760 times as likely as the general population to be carrying MRSA. They concluded that if their observation held true elsewhere, then "pig farming poses a significant risk factor for MRSA carriage in humans that warrants screening wherever pig farmers or their family members are admitted to a hospital." Other studies have recommended isolating the farmers until tests come back negative -- guilty until proven innocent. A separate study found that veterinary professionals students were carrying MRSA at a rate similar to that of another risky group, people who'd been hospitalized in a foreign country.

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Companies doing what the FDA won't: Banning antibiotics for livestock

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 01:46:25 -0700

Worldwatch Institute - By Danielle Nierenberg - Mar. 22 (News Report) - On Tuesday, the U.S. food service giant Bon Appétit Management Company announced that it will start sourcing only all-natural, antibiotic-free beef. Store representatives said the move was prompted by concerns that "the heavy use of [antibiotics] in agriculture has resulted in [the medicines'] declining effectiveness against common bacterial infections in humans."

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Killer bug sows panic in Israel

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 20:58:52 -0800

Tectonic - By (no credit given, South Africa news source) - Mar. 09 (News Report) - Jerusalem - A killer bacteria resistant to antibiotics is sowing panic across Israel as it sweeps through hospitals, leaving scores dead and afflicting hundreds more.

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HIV-Positive Women Talk It Over in 'Mama's Club'

Sun, 23 Jul 2006 20:55:59 -0700

Women's eNews - By Rachel Scheier - Jul. 23 (News Report) - KAMPALA, Uganda --Grace Tumuhirwe was infected with the AIDS virus when her uncle raped her at the age of 12. A few years later, when she began to show symptoms, her family threw her out, and she rented a room in a Kampala slum. She found a boyfriend, who helped her with money, and soon she found herself pregnant. Now she has a year-old HIV-positive son.

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