Scientists seeking to fight future pandemics have created a variety of “bird flu” potentially so dangerous that a federal advisory panel has for the first time asked two science journals to hold back on publishing details of research.

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Pestilences

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences•Strongs 3061: loimos, loy´-mos; of uncertain affinity; a plague (literally, the disease, or figuratively, a pest):—pestilence(-t) and earthquakes, in divers places.”
—Matthew 24:7

Iniquity Abounding

“For the mystery•Strongs 3644: musterion, moos-tay´-ree-on; from a derivative of mu/w muo (to shut the mouth); a secret or “mystery” (through the idea of silence imposed by initiation into religious rites): — mystery. of iniquity•Strongs 458: anomia, an-om-ee´-ah; from 459; illegality, i.e. violation of law or (genitive case) wickedness:—iniquity, x transgress(-ion of) the law, unrighteousness.
•Strongs 459: anomos, an´-om-os; from 1 (as a negative particle) and 3551; lawless, i.e. (negatively) not subject to (the Jewish) law; (by implication, a Gentile), or (positively) wicked:—without law, lawless, transgressor, unlawful, wicked. doth already work: only he who now letteth•Strongs 2722: katecho, kat-ekh´-o; from 2596 and 2192; to hold down (fast), in various applications (literally or figuratively):—have, hold (fast), keep (in memory), let, x make toward, possess, retain, seize on, stay, take, withhold. will let, until he be taken out of the way.”
—2Thessalonians 2:7

In the experiments, university-based scientists in the Netherlands and Wisconsin created a version of the H5N1 influenza virus that is highly lethal and easily transmissible between ferrets, the lab animals that most closely mirror human beings in flu research.

Members of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, which was created after the anthrax bioterrorism attacks of 2001, worried that such a hazardous strain might be intentionally or accidentally released into the world if directions for making it were generally known.

After weeks of reviewing papers describing the research, the NSABB said Tuesday it had recommended that the experiments’ “general conclusions” be published but not “details that could enable replication of the experiments by those who would seek to do harm.”

“Censorship is considered the ultimate sin of original research. However, we also have an imperative to keep certain research out of the hands of individuals who could use it for nefarious purposes,” said Michael Osterholm, a member of the board who is also director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “It is not unexpected that these two things would clash in this very special situation.”

The board cannot stop publication. Its advice went to the Department of Health and Human Services, whose leaders asked the authors of the papers and the journals reviewing them — Science, published in Washington, and Nature, published in London — to comply.

The journals’ responses to the request were chilly, although both hinted they were willing to go along under certain conditions. Dutch researchers said they “are currently working on a new manuscript that complies with the recommendation.” The scientists at the University of Wisconsin could not be reached.

The work was paid for by the National Institutes of Health as part of a large portfolio of research aimed at “pandemic preparedness.”

The recommendation from the board puts the federal government in a distinctly controversial and embarrassing position.

It calls for a limit on the free exchange of information, something viewed as anathema by most scientists. It also suggests there wasn’t sufficient forethought about what might happen if the experiments actually worked.

The board reached the decision unanimously, Keim said.

The substance of the experiments has been known to some members of the influenza research community since early summer. There are strong and widely divergent views of what should be done with the results. A few scientists say the work should never have started.

About 600 people, mostly in Southeast Asia, have become ill from the H5N1 virus since 1997. About 60 percent have died. The virus is rarely passed from person to person. In most cases, infection requires close contact with sick birds.

Because of its extreme virulence, H5N1 has been the flu strain most feared as the source of a possible influenza pandemic. What it lacked were the genetic changes permitting easy transmission by coughing, sneezing and touch. The new research has apparently produced those changes for the first time, at least in ferrets.

Exactly how the key new mutations occurred is unclear, although it seems in part to be the product of chance. Influenza viruses are constantly changing in small ways. Simply infecting ferrets enough times with the virus may have been sufficient to allow mutations favoring easy transmissibility to emerge by chance and then be “saved” by natural selection.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2066624/Anthrax-isnt-scary-compared-Man-flu-virus-potential-wipe-millions-created-warns-frightened-scientist.html#ixzz1f2qKQSIX

Scientist responsible is bracing himself for a media storm
Just five tweaks to H5N1 makes it more contagious
Contagious version of bird flu could cause pandemic
Scientists divided over whether findings can be released

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Pestilences

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences•Strongs 3061: loimos, loy´-mos; of uncertain affinity; a plague (literally, the disease, or figuratively, a pest):—pestilence(-t) and earthquakes, in divers places.”
—Matthew 24:7

A group of scientists is pushing to publish research about how they created a man-made flu virus that could potentially wipe out civilisation.
The deadly virus is a genetically tweaked version of the H5N1 bird flu strain, but is far more infectious and could pass easily between millions of people at a time.
The research has caused a storm of controversy and divided scientists, with some saying it should never have been carried out.

The current strain of H5N1 has only killed 500 people and is not contagious enough to cause a global pandemic.
But their are fears the modified virus is so dangerous it could be used for bio-warfare, if it falls into the wrong hands.
Virologist Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands lead a team of scientists who discovered that a mere five mutations to the avian virus was sufficient to make it spread far more easily.
He conducted his tests on ferrets as the animals have become a model of choice for influenza and have similar respiratory tracts to humans.
Fouchier is so prepared for a media storm that he has hired an advisor to help him work on a communication strategy.
The research done was part of an international drive to understand H5N1 more fully.
Fouchier admitted the strain is ‘one of the most dangerous viruses you can make’ but is still adamant he wants to publish a paper describing how it was done.
The study is one of two which has caused serious debate about scientific freedom and about regulating research which might have potential public health benefits but at the same time could also be useful for bio-terrorism.
The other paper, also on H5N1, was done by a joint team at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Tokyo.
It is understood to have had comparable results to the study done by Fouchier.

Both papers are now being reviewed by the U.S National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB).
NSABB does not have the power to prevent the publication but it could ask journals not to publish.
Paul Keim, chairman of NSABB, said: ‘I can’t think of another pathogenic organism that is as scary as this one. I don’t think anthrax is scary at all compared to this.’
Traditionally scientific research has always been open so that fellow scientists can review the work of others and repeat their methods to try and learn from them.
But numerous scientists have said they believe research on the avian flu should be suppressed.
However bio-defense and flu expert Michael Osterholm, who is director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of innesota, said the work carried out was important medically.
He added he could not discuss the papers because he was a member of NSABB but said if they were published certain information could be withheld and made available to those who really need to know.
‘We don’t want to give bad guys a road map on how to make bad bugs really bad,’ he said.

ATLANTA – The home base for Occupy Atlanta has tested positive for tuberculosis.

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Pestilences

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences•Strongs 3061: loimos, loy´-mos; of uncertain affinity; a plague (literally, the disease, or figuratively, a pest):—pestilence(-t) and earthquakes, in divers places.”
—Matthew 24:7

The Fulton County Health Department confirmed Wednesday that residents at the homeless shelter where protesters have been occupying have contracted the drug-resistant disease. WGCL reports that a health department spokeswoman said there is a possibility that both Occupy Atlanta protesters and the homeless people in the shelter may still be at risk since tuberculosis is contracted through air contact.

“Over the last three months were have been two persons who have resided in this facility who have been diagnosed with confirmed or suspected infectious tuberculosis (TB),” said Fulton County Services Director Matthew McKenna in a written statement to CBS Atlanta. “One of these persons was confirmed to have a strain of TB that is resistant to a single, standard medication used to treat this condition. All person(s) identified as positive have begun treatment and are being monitored to ensure that medication is taken as directed.”

The Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless has indicated that two cases have been made public knowledge to the group, the first coming from someone who contracted the disease in September. The identities of the people who have contracted the disease, however, have not been disclosed by the health department to this point.

The news of the tuberculosis contractions could force Occupy Atlanta to move once again. WGCL reports that more than 100 protesters made the move to the homeless shelter Oct. 30 after Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed evicted Occupy Atlanta from Woodruff Park, citing that they were no longer allowed to camp out overnight. The homeless shelter is also facing an eviction of its own from the city.

Tim Franzen spokesman for Occupy Atlanta told WAOK’s Rob Redding that the group is not thinking about moving its headquarters from the homeless shelter because of the tuberculosis report. Read more about the report here

If you’re a strain of Salmonella, it’s a very good week. If you’re a human, not so much.

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Pestilences

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences•Strongs 3061: loimos, loy´-mos; of uncertain affinity; a plague (literally, the disease, or figuratively, a pest):—pestilence(-t) and earthquakes, in divers places.”
—Matthew 24:7

There are two stories occurring simultaneously that underline the rising danger of drug-resistant organisms in the food supply, and the porousness of networks for detecting the dangerous bugs in time.

First, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration are tracking a US-wide outbreak of Salmonella Heidelberg that so far has killed one person and sickened 77 others that the agencies know of. (There are likely to be many more victims; most cases of foodborne illness are never reported to authorities.) The cases are scattered across 26 states, and apparently have been occurring since the second week of March, with the largest number so far in Michigan and Ohio (10 each), Texas (9), Illinois (7), California (6, including the death) and Pennsylvania (5).

The strain is “resistant to many commonly prescribed antibiotics,” according to the CDC, and may be traveling on ground turkey. The FDA on Friday issued a “public health alert” regarding fresh and frozen ground turkey, but neither agency has yet been able to pin the outbreak to a single product, processing plant or company. The CDC says that routine samples processed by NARMS (National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System), a surveillance system shared by CDC, FDA and the USDA, has retrospectively found the outbreak strain in four samples that were purchased between the beginning of March — before the earliest known case was reported — and the end of June. Three of the four trace back to a single processing facility that the agencies have not yet named. (See Update at end.)

Meanwhile, worse is coming. A multi-national team of scientists say in a paper released today by the Journal of Infectious Diseases that they have identified a clone of a different serotype, Salmonella Kentucky, that has become resistant to fluoroquinolones such as Cipro, the drug usually used to treat Salmonella infections. Comparing data from different countries’ surveillance systems, the researchers discovered that it has been causing human illnesses since 2002 in Europe, the Middle East and the US. It appears to have originated in Egypt in the late 1990s, and its primary vehicle is chicken.

The authors say the first clue to the emergence of this highly resistant strain (technically, Salmonella enterica serotype Kentucky ST198-X1) was illnesses among French people who had traveled in north Africa, starting with a single tourist who took a cruise on the Nile in 2002. That was followed by an outbreak that spread through hospitals in Slovakia starting in 2003. All of these cases were notable, because the Kentucky serotype is unusual in humans, though it had been commonly found in poultry since the 1930s. Making the infections more unusual was how resistant they were: not only to the fluoroquinolones, but also to amoxicillin, streptomycin, spectinomycin, gentamicin, sulfamethoxazole, and tetracyclines.

To test the strain’s current distribution, the authors called on countries where there are national surveillance systems for foodborne illnesses that incorporate laboratory analysis of whatever organisms are recovered: France, the United Kingdom, Denmark and the US. Between 2000 and 2008, they found, all of those databases recorded increasing amounts of the Kentucky strain, and higher percentages of Kentucky isolates that were multi-drug and ciprofloxacin resistant. An important point: In the earlier years, the Kentucky cases were all associated with travel to north Africa; but more recently, infections occurred among people who had never left their home countries, suggesting local spread.

Where did it come from? The authors say there’s really no question: They found the same strain in chickens and turkeys in Ethiopia, Morocco and Nigeria, all areas where fluoroquinolones are used in poultry farming.

Chickens themselves, though, are no longer the only vehicles. The highly resistant Kentucky strain has also been found in the US on spices that were imported from North Africa. You’ll recall that this summer’s massive outbreak of E. coli O104 in Europe arose from fenugreek seeds imported from Egypt, raising questions of whether the plants from which the seeds came had been contaminated by manure bearing the resistant organism. It’s tempting to wonder whether the same did not happen here.

Fluoroquinolones are just one of the drugs given to animals in intensive farming that are fundamentally identical to drugs given to humans. The World Health Organization, among other bodies, has been warning for years that using fluoroquinolones in this manner would make them not useful for human Salmonella infections, and the appearance of the highly resistant Kentucky strain appears to prove them right.

The authors have no doubt where it came from. In a statement distributed by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (which is the owner of JID, though publication is handled by the Oxford Journals) first author Simon Le Hello of France’s Pasteur Institute said: “We hope that this publication might stir awareness among national and international health, food, and agricultural authorities so that they take the necessary measures to control and stop the dissemination of this strain before it spreads globally.”

There’s another very intriguing aspect of this troubling Kentucky strain. I’ll take that up in a future post.

UPDATE: About 10 minutes after I hit the button on this, the Associated Press published a bulletin that Cargill Inc. will recall 36 million pounds of ground turkey because of the US outbreak and death. The recall appears to have been prompted by sleuthing by ferocious food-safety lawyer Bill Marler, who identified the plant Thursday afternoon.

Cite: Le Hello, S. et al. International Spread of an Epidemic Population of Salmonella enterica Serotype Kentucky ST198 Resistant to Ciprofloxacin.
Journal of Infectious Diseases. Released online.

Karl Lauterbach, health spokesman for the opposition Social Democrats, has warned that some of those who have fallen ill in the E.coli epidemic could face severe health problems.

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Pestilences

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences•Strongs 3061: loimos, loy´-mos; of uncertain affinity; a plague (literally, the disease, or figuratively, a pest):—pestilence(-t) and earthquakes, in divers places.”
—Matthew 24:7

“Around 100 patients have suffered such terrible kidney damage that they will require a transplant or have to undergo dialysis for the rest of their lives,” he told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

The aggressive enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) bacteria can cause haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a potentially fatal kidney complaint. The killer bug has claimed at least 33 lives and has left some 3,000 people ill across 14 countries.

Lauterbach warned that further epidemics could not be ruled out. “EHEC pathogens are on the rise throughout the world. And Germany will also see repeated EHEC outbreaks in the future.”

The SPD politician said the postal registration of EHEC infections was one of the reasons that the epidemic had been so widespread. He told the paper that he wanted to see an investigation by the parliament’s health committee into the current procedures and argued that hospitals should have to register any future EHEC cases directly with the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s public health authority.

At the moment local health authorities inform the state health office which then tells the Robert Koch Institute, a process that takes at least a week.

Health Minister Daniel Bahr has admitted that there needs to be improvements in the reporting procedures. “The flow of information between all the parties is particularly important,” he told Bild am Sonntag.

Meanwhile Consumer Protection and Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that there also have to be improvements in the way food products are regulated.

“I have asked regional officials to place particular emphasis on inspecting the producers and importers of sprouts and their products,” she told the paper in remarks published on Sunday.

“That must also include imports of seeds from abroad,” she said, adding that she would push for tougher regulations pertaining to the growing of sprouts.

Investigators feel they now have definitive proof that vegetable sprouts from an organic farm in the Lower Saxon village of Bienenbüttel were the source of the outbreak.

On Saturday the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) backed findings by authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia that sprouts were the source.

Holger Eichele, spokesperson for the Federal Consumer and Agriculture Ministry, said that the BfR analysis had confirmed that the bacteria on sprouts found in the garbage bin of two sick people was indeed the aggressive O104:H4 strain. “This lab result is an important step in the chain of proof that raw sprouts can be regarded as the source of the EHEC infections over the past few weeks.”

EU Health Commissioner John Dalli welcomed the confirmation. “The source of contamination is now identified and the epidemiological findings are backed by laboratory results,” he said in a statement.

The strain of Escherichia coli bacteria responsible for an outbreak that has left 18 dead, sickened hundreds and sparked economic and diplomatic disruptions across Europe is a lethal strain that has never been behind a human outbreak and may be causing an unusually large number of severe illnesses, health officials said Thursday.

Pestilences

To view dictionary popup window put your cursor on the blue scripture words.

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines•Strongs 3042: limos, lee-mos´; probably from 3007 (through the idea of destitution); a scarcity of food:—dearth, famine, hunger., and pestilences•Strongs 3061: loimos, loy´-mos; of uncertain affinity; a plague (literally, the disease, or figuratively, a pest):—pestilence(-t), and earthquakes, in divers places.”
—Matthew 24:7

The outbreak is the deadliest in modern history to involve E.coli, and appears to be the second- or third-largest in terms of number of ill. The strain behind the outbreak could be a genetic recombination of two different E. coli bacteria that has produced an unusually virulent bug, the World Health Organization said Thursday, citing preliminary genetic sequencing.

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European Pressphoto Agency
Spanish farmers throw fruit and vegetables outside the German consulate in Valencia, Spain, to protest against the initial accusations by Hamburg authorities that Spanish cucumbers were the source of infection of the E. coli bacteria outbreak.

This particular strain of E. coli—0104H4—is not new, though it’s rare and hasn’t previously been flagged as a human disease before, said Robert Tauxe, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s deputy director of its foodborne, bacterial and myotic disease division. A singular case had been reported in the 1990s in South Korea, Dr. Tauxe said.

According to the World Health Organization, of more than 1,600 people sickened by this E. coli strain, 499 have developed a rare and potentially fatal kidney-failure complication known as hemolytic-uremic syndrome—a complication that can shut down the kidneys and normally occurs in only a small percentage of people sickened during an E. coli outbreak.

“I’ve never seen this array of virulence and antibiotic resistance. It’s a very unique combination,” Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said of the strain. But he cautioned that it’s not really clear what proportion of people are developing the severe kidney complication, know as HUS, because it’s still unknown how many are actually sick. Some may have milder symptoms and haven’t visited a doctor. “We clearly need more information on how many other people got sick,” he said.

The source of the outbreak, which has hit at least 11 European countries, remained unknown Thursday but officials believe it is some form of produce consumed in northern Germany and are warning people to avoid eating raw lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

Nearly all the sick people either live in Germany or recently traveled there. Two people who were sickened are now in the U.S., and both had recently traveled to Hamburg, Germany, where many of the infections occurred.

In Germany, there are typically about 60 cases of HUS a year. Since the beginning of May, Germany has seen at least 470 cases of the disease, according to the Robert Koch Institute, which is funded by the German health ministry. There have been an additional 1,064 less-severe cases of E .coli infections.

As the world’s biggest importer of vegetables, at $6.6 billion in 2010, Germany is particularly vulnerable to food infections, say trade analysts. The U.S. is the world’s second biggest importer, at $6.5 billion in 2010, of which most comes from Mexico.

E. coli infection can cause bloody diarrhea and can result in hemolytic-uremic syndrome, or HUS, the result of a severe infection releasing toxins into the blood, shutting down the kidneys. The toxins caused by this strain can also wreak havoc on the nervous system, causing disorientation and seizures, according to the University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf hospital. Treatments being used in the latest outbreak include dialysis, plasma transfusions and an antibody called Soliris(TM) from Alexion Pharmaceuticals in the U.S.—all three of which have shown varied levels of success.

Cases have been reported in Sweden, Denmark, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Spain and Austria, according to the European Centre for Disease Control. The Czech Republic government also reported one case, and WHO reported cases in Switzerland and Norway.

The U.K.’s Health Protection Agency said Thursday that four new illnesses tied to the outbreak have been documented in England, bringing the total number of cases in England to seven.

Although the outbreak of E.coli has been limited mostly to northern Germany, it has the European vegetable industry reeling from public fears about the virus, as well as prompting a diplomatic spat between Spain and Germany about who is to blame for the crisis.

Russia on Thursday banned all fruit and vegetable imports from the E.U., and Spanish politicians continued to call for compensation from Germany, which fingered Spanish cucumbers as the E. coli source last week. Hamburg city health officials said Tuesday that the Spanish cucumbers were not the source, but some health experts noted that pinpointing or exonerating a source is difficult when it comes to produce because it may be linked to one field or harvest, yet perishes quickly.

Germany is the biggest buyer for both Spanish and Dutch vegetables. Spanish officials are unhappy at the perception that their vegetables are to blame.

Spanish farmers dumped 300 kilos of produce on the doorstep of Germany’s Valencia consulate Thursday.

The E.U. described Russia’s decision to ban imports of fresh vegetables from the bloc as “disproportionate.” Frederic Vincent, health and consumer affairs spokesman for the European Commission, said the executive would demand an explanation of the decision from the Russian authorities. No fatalities or infections have been reported in Russia.

The stakes are consequential. The total production value of fruits and vegetables in the EU is $70 billion, and the total economic value of the supply chain is $170 billion, according to Freshfels, a Brussels-based trade group representing the EU fresh produce industry, which doesn’t break down the two categories. Much of the production in the EU is grown within the country, according to Freshfel.

“There has been a huge drop in sales of salad products from any source,” says Alex Lawson, who covers the European vegetable trade for Fresh Produce Journal, a U.K.-based trade publication.

—Jeanne Whalen, Ira Iosebashvili, Stephen Fidler and David Roman contributed to this article.

BERLIN (AFP) – Germany on Monday held crisis talks amid reports that at least 14 people have died and hundreds are ill in an outbreak of a highly virulent strain of bacteria found on imported cucumbers.

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Pestilences

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences•Strongs 3061: loimos, loy´-mos; of uncertain affinity; a plague (literally, the disease, or figuratively, a pest):—pestilence(-t) and earthquakes, in divers places.”
—Matthew 24:7

Belgium and Russia banned the import of vegetables from Spain, believed to be the source of at least some of the contaminated cucumbers. Madrid shot back saying it would seek financial compensation from the European Union for lost sales.
More than two weeks after the food poisoning outbreak was first reported in northern Germany, the number of confirmed and suspected cases has reached 1,200, according to media reports.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany’s national disease institute, said three deaths have been officially linked to the bacteria, but “in total about a dozen people have died according to regional authorities”.
These authorities later Monday announced two more deaths: a woman of 50 and a man of 75 — bringing the toll to at least 14.
The Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has described the outbreak of the strain of E. coli as “one of the largest worldwide and the largest ever reported in Germany”.
Authorities in Germany warned against eating raw vegetables after traces of the bacteria were found on organic cucumbers from Spain last week.
But officials said they are unsure what caused the sudden outbreak of enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) which can result in full-blown haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a disease that causes bloody diarrhoea and serious liver damage and possible death.
The outbreak has hit countries including Britain, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, but most these cases appear to involve people who had recently travelled to or from Germany.
“Normally we see about 1,000 cases per year, but we’ve now had some 1,200 cases in just 10 days,” Jan Galle, director of the Luedenscheid clinic in western Germany, told ZDF public television.
“And we know that this time the EHEC strain is especially virulent and resistant, and has led to a very high number of HUS” cases, he added.
RKI has reported 329 confirmed HUS cases nationwide.
German Consumer Affairs Minister Ilse Aigner held emergency talks with Health Minister Daniel Bahr and regional state representatives, telling reporters the crisis has “taken a European dimension”.
Burger said the source of the contamination had not been definitively identified.
Last week his organisation said a study had shown that all those affected had eaten significantly above-average amounts of tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers.
Many German supermarkets and shops removed all Spanish-grown vegetables from their shelves.
Belgium said it was blocking cucumber imports from Spain, while Russia said it was banning vegetable imports from both Spain and Germany.
The Netherlands, which usually exports vast amounts of vegetables to Germany, said sales had collapsed. German farmers also said consumers were boycotting their vegetables.
Doctors remained unsure how to treat the disease which can result in total kidney failure.
“We have 61 adults hospitalised, 21 in intensive care,” a spokeswoman for the Eppendorf University Clinic in Hamburg, where most cases are being treated clinic, said Monday evening.
The clinic has appealed for blood donations.
“We are using between 500 and 700 bags of plasma per day, compared to 60 normally. We’re running out of supplies,” the spokeswoman said.
Rolf Stahl, a neurologist at the clinic, said nearly a third of patients there had lost all kidney functions and were on dialysis.
Doctors were experimenting with a new type of monoclonal antibodies drug, Eculizumab, which, while not officially approved, has been administered to 11 patients in a bid to save their lives.
“The infection source remains active and we have to reckon with a growing number of cases,” Bahr said.

Scientists in Canada have found MRSA in bedbugs from three hospital patients who live in a poverty-stricken Vancouver neighborhood.

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Pestilences

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences•Strongs 3061: loimos, loy´-mos; of uncertain affinity; a plague (literally, the disease, or figuratively, a pest):—pestilence(-t) and earthquakes, in divers places.”
—Matthew 24:7

Although bedbugs are not known to spread disease – they do lead to scratching – which can cause the skin to tear and make people at risk for bacteria, said Dr. Marc Romney, an author on the study.
There’s no evidence of whether or not the bedbugs actually spread the MRSA bacteria or another less dangerous drug-resistant germ, but the study is “an intriguing finding” that needs to be looked at further, said Romney, a microbiologist at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.
The hospital is located near the poor downtown neighborhood where the three patients live, and when Romney and his colleagues saw a spike in both bedbugs and MRSA in the area, they decided to see if there was any correlation.
For the study, five bedbugs were crushed and analyzed. MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, was found on three bugs. MRSA is resistant to several types of common antibiotics and can become deadly if it gets through the skin and into the bloodstream.

Two bugs had VRE, or vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus Faecium, a less dangerous form of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Both germs are often seen in hospitals, and experts have been far more worried about nurses and other health-care workers spreading the bacteria than insects.
It’s not clear if the bacteria originated with the bedbugs or if the bugs picked it up from already infected people, Romney added.
“While the findings of this study are likely to raise concerns about bedbugs and bacterial transmission in impoverished communities, our primary concern for the public at large remains to be the psychological impact bedbugs have on those suffering from infestations,” said Jeffrey White, a research entomologist for Bedbug Central, a website dedicated to information concerning bedbug issues.
“We understand the anxiety this study’s findings may cause amongst the general public, however, the study only confirms what has long been suspected and more research needs to be conducted to understand the value of this information.”
The study was released Wednesday by Emerging Infectious Diseases, a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A gene that makes bugs highly resistant to almost all known antibiotics has been found in bacteria in water supplies in New Delhi used by local people for drinking, washing and cooking, scientists said on Thursday.

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Pestilences

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences•Strongs 3061: loimos, loy´-mos; of uncertain affinity; a plague (literally, the disease, or figuratively, a pest):—pestilence(-t) and earthquakes, in divers places.”
—Matthew 24:7

The NDM 1 gene, which creates what some experts describe as “super superbugs”, has spread to germs that cause cholera and dysentery, and is circulating freely in other bacteria in the Indian city capital of 14 million people, the researchers said.

“The inhabitants of New Delhi are continually being exposed to multidrug-resistant and NDM 1-positive bacteria”, said Mark Toleman of Britain’s Cardiff University School of Medicine, who published the findings in a study on Thursday.

A “substantial number” of them are consuming such bacteria on a daily basis, he told a briefing in London. “We believe we have discovered a very significant underlying source of NDM 1 in the capital city of India,” he said.

NDM 1, or New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1, makes bacteria resistant to almost all antibiotics, including the most powerful class, called carbapenems.

It first emerged in India three years ago and has now spread across the world. It has been found in a wide variety of bugs, including familiar pathogens like Escherichia coli, or E. coli.

No new drugs are on the horizon for at least 5-6 years to tackle it and experts are concerned that only a few major drug companies, such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) and AstraZeneca (AZN.L), still have strong antibiotic development programmes.

Toleman’s study, carried out with Cardiff University’s Timothy Walsh and published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, investigated how common NDM 1-producing bacteria are in community waste seepage — such as water pools or rivulets in streets — and tap water in urban New Delhi.

The researchers collected 171 swabs from seepage water and 50 public tap water samples from sites within a 12 kilometre radius of central New Delhi between September and October 2010.

The NDM 1 gene was found in two of the drinking-water samples and 51 of seepage samples, the researchers said, and bacteria positive for NDM 1 were grown from two drinking-water samples and 12 seepage samples.

“We would expect that perhaps as many as half a million people are carrying NDM 1-producing bacteria as normal (gut) flora in New Dehli alone,” Toleman said.

Experts say the spread of superbugs threatens whole swathes of modern medicine, which cannot be practiced if doctors have no effective antibiotics to ward off infections during surgery, intensive care or cancer treatments like chemotherapy.

In a commentary about Walsh and Toleman’s findings, Mohd Shahid from Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Uttar Pradesh, India, said global action was needed.

“The potential for wider international spread of … NDM 1 is real and should not be ignored,” he wrote.

The World Health Organisation WHO.L has designated April 7 as World Health Day and under the slogan “No action today, no cure tomorrow” it is campaigning about the risks of life-saving antibiotics losing their healing power.

“We are at a critical point in time where antibiotic resistance is reaching unprecedented levels,” said Zsuzsanna Jakab, the WHO’s regional director for Europe.

“Given the growth of travel and trade in Europe and across the world, people should be aware that until all countries tackle this, no country alone can be safe.”

(Editing by Ben Hirschler)

First, it was birds falling from the sky, then thousands of dead fish washing up on shore.