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THE Pandemic Thread (merged)

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Re: THE Pandemic Thread (merged)

Unread postby vox_mundi » Wed 18 Apr 2018, 11:26:25

First XDR Typhoid is On the vVerge of Being Untreatable, Spreading Globally

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A') tenacious epidemic of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) typhoid in Pakistan is just one small genetic step away from becoming untreatable—and health experts expect it to spread worldwide.

“It’s a global concern at this point,” Dr. Eric Mintz, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told The New York Times. “Everything suggests this strain will survive well and spread easily—and acquiring resistance to azithromycin is only a matter of time.” Azithromycin is currently the only antibiotic remaining that treats the infection.

Typhoid fever, caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi bacteria, is endemic to Pakistan, parts of which suffer from poor infrastructure, crowded urban areas, and insufficient access to healthcare. The epidemic caused by the XDR strain—the first of its kind—has been unfolding there since November 2016. It has now affected at least 850 people in 14 districts, according to the latest figures from the National Institute of Health in Islamabad and first reported by the Times. Prior to this epidemic, there were only four known, unrelated cases of such heavily drug-resistant typhoid, occurring in Iraq, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')img]https://i.pinimg.com/236x/17/81/9d/17819d0cff492793e94c6b75aa1fd4f9.jpg[/img]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he XDR strain has already begun spreading outside of Pakistan, with a travel-related case appearing in the United Kingdom.

In a recent report on the strain’s emergence in the journal mBio, infectious disease experts established that it could withstand assaults from five classes of antibiotics used to treat typhoid. They concluded that the strain’s development was a “startling demonstration” of how easily S. Typhi can pick up genetic elements that confer drug resistance, “rendering it XDR and further narrowing treatment options.”
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]... “Once we aren’t able to treat this effectively, we’re going back to the pre-antibiotic era. That would mean a lot of fatalities in our future,” Dr. Klemm said.

Antibiotics are the only effective treatment for typhoid fever, a systemic infection with varying severity that can become life-threatening. The infection is generally marked by fever, headache, nausea, loss of appetite, and constipation or sometimes diarrhea. The heaviest death tolls are in children younger than age four. About 2 to 5 percent of those infected can become chronic asymptomatic carriers, shedding the bacteria in their feces. The Salmonella Typhi bacteria are typically spread through food or water contaminated with feces.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')i]XDR strains can materialize in one single step, virtually anywhere where the H58 strain and the added plasmid are both present — whether a sewer system or even a single human gut.

“There are multiple worst-case scenarios,” said Dr. Klemm. “One is that this strain spreads to other regions through migration. But the other is that it pops up elsewhere on its own — plasmids with drug resistance are everywhere.”

Researchers estimate that there are somewhere between 10 million to 20 million cases each year worldwide, leading to between 130,000 to 210,000 deaths. And that’s the case with antibiotic treatments largely still available and working.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]“This isn’t just about typhoid,” said Dr. Rumina Hasan, a pathology professor at the Aga Khan University in Pakistan. “Antibiotic resistance is a threat to all of modern medicine — and the scary part is, we’re out of options.”

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi manifests a case fatality rate of ~15%.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')img]https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/oregon.png[/img]
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

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Re: THE Pandemic Thread (merged)

Unread postby vox_mundi » Thu 10 May 2018, 12:17:59

White House Announces It Has No Global Health Security Chief the Day After Ebola Outbreak Declared

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]The White House announced today that Rear Adm. Tim Ziemer, who sat on the National Security Council and was the senior director for global health security and biothreats, left the Trump administration on Tuesday, and HuffPost reports that Ziemer’s office doesn’t exist anymore, with his staff being rerouted to other NSC departments. Great news.

According to HuffPost, Ziemer leaving came “amid a reshuffling” by new national security advisor and NSC head John Bolton ...

The news comes just one day after the World Health Organization announced a new outbreak of Ebola after two new cases were confirmed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the past five weeks, HuffPost reported yesterday, the Central African country has seen 17 people die with Ebola-like symptoms.

“It is unclear in his absence who at the White House would be in charge of a pandemic,” Ziemer’s predecessor, Beth Cameron, told HuffPost. Added Jeremy Koyndyk, who previously led the Obama administration’s response to the 2014 Ebola crisis: “I hope it’s not lost on anyone that it happened the exact week that we have new reports on the Ebola outbreak.”

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Ebola Returns To Congo Just as Trump Asks to Rescind Ebola Funds

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '.').. “The last outbreak occurred approximately at the same time of year, and it appears that these outbreaks are occurring with greater frequency,” says Anne Rimoin from UCLA, who has worked in the Congo for 16 years. That could be because the Congolese are getting better at detecting the disease, “but there is some evidence that this outbreak appears to have been smoldering for a few months,” Rimoin adds. “Perhaps the ecology is changing, and it has something to do with the reservoir species.” She means the animals that harbor the Ebola virus—bats are likely candidates, but the exact species is still a mystery.

Just as news of the Ebola outbreak broke, Donald Trump asked Congress to rescind $252 million that had been put aside to deal with Ebola, as part of a broader move to cut down on “excessive spending.” That pot of money is the leftover from a $5.4 billion sum that Congress appropriated for dealing with the West African Ebola epidemic in 2015.

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http://trumpgolfcount.com/#page-top http://trumpgolfcount.com/displayoutings

That epidemic ended two years ago, but “having some money left over was intentional,” says Ron Klain, the former Ebola czar. It allows USAID to quickly deploy responders to the site of a future outbreak, to prevent it from metastasizing into an international disaster. It is not, as the Trump administration suggests, an example of “irresponsible federal spending.” Quite the opposite: It’s a savvy investment, since epidemics are always more expensive to deal with once they rage out of control.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')i]“If Congress accepts Trump’s proposal, USAID will have no funding for a response when the next crisis comes,” says Klain, “and it will have to wait until Congress passes new funding, or diverts funds from some other, then-existing disaster response,” ... “It is crazily short-sighted to do this.”

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CDC To Cut By 80 Percent Efforts To Prevent Global Disease Outbreak

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')our years after the United States pledged to help the world fight infectious-disease epidemics such as Ebola, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is dramatically downsizing its epidemic prevention activities in 39 out of 49 countries because money is running out, U.S. government officials said.

The CDC programs, part of a global health security initiative, train front-line workers in outbreak detection and work to strengthen laboratory and emergency response systems in countries where disease risks are greatest. The goal is to stop future outbreaks at their source.

Two weeks ago, the CDC began notifying staffers and officials abroad about its plan to downsize these activities, because officials assume there will be “no new resources,” said a senior government official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss budget matters.

Countries where the CDC is planning to scale back include some of the world’s hot spots for emerging infectious disease, such as China, Pakistan, Haiti, Rwanda and Congo.

Money "Saved": $252 Million

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Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Infectious disease does not respect geographical borders.


Pandemic Flu is #1 Health Security Concern

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Video - The U.S. won't be ready to face a flu pandemic until it improves its vaccines, health care infrastructure, and coordination with other countries — all of which are top priorities for the White House, a National Security Council official said Monday.

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Simulation of what may happen if a highly contagious and lethal airborne pathogen were to occur today.

Donald Trump Says Ebola Patients Should Be Barred from U.S.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')onald Trump expressed panic over news that an Ebola patient will be flown to a specialized isolation unit at an Atlanta hospital. The billionaire took to Twitter on Wednesday to suggest that American borders should be closed to anyone with the virus that has killed 729 people in West Africa. That would apparently include two U.S. citizens — a doctor and a missionary — who are fighting for their lives in Liberia.
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late.
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Re: THE Pandemic Thread (merged)

Unread postby onlooker » Thu 10 May 2018, 13:11:15

Three deadly viruses that could spawn the next pandemic
https://www.irinnews.org/analysis/2017/ ... t-pandemic
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Re: THE Pandemic Thread (merged)

Unread postby vox_mundi » Wed 05 Sep 2018, 19:22:19

Isn't this How the Movie Contagion started ... or 12 Monkeys

CDC Quarantines Plane at JFK After 100 Passengers Report Fever & Feeling Ill

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')img]https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--w5gq37IF--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/b8w0s7xm746ncodes1ob.jpg[/img]

Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are currently investigating a plane that was held on the tarmac at JFK International Airport in New York after several passengers became ill.

Emirates Airlines Flight EK203 was in quarantine as officials determined why around 100 passengers complained of feeling ill, a CDC spokesperson said in a statement, confirming early reports on that number.

The flight landed safely at approximately 8:50am ET this morning after taking off from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Before landing, the pilot informed ground control that two male passengers had fevers and that 100 of the 521 passengers on board were “coughing non-stop,” according to early reports.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]... "I asked the (flight attendant) for a mask before we even took off, but there was none available ... It was so obvious that a large number of people were ill well before takeoff."

"People were coughing the whole time. Now some people have fevers over 100," ... "They should never had been allowed to board."

... Passengers who are not ill will be allowed to continue with their travel plans, and if necessary will be followed up with by health officials.

New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s press secretary Eric Phillips has tweeted that the flight made a stop in Mecca before continuing to New York and that Mecca is currently experiencing a flu outbreak.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/09/05/heal ... index.html

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Elsewhere ...

Flight Landing in France Evacuated after Child On Board Suspected of Being Ill with Cholera
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late.
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Re: THE Pandemic Thread (merged)

Unread postby vox_mundi » Sat 22 Sep 2018, 14:48:15

1918 Spanish flu: 'We didn't know who we'd lose next'

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '.').. One nine-year-old girl from Coventry whose 35-year-old mother and seven-year-old sister died two days apart wrote to Mr Collier in the 1970s about the impact of the disease.

"It caused quite a sensation having to have a double funeral on November 11th 1918, which was the very day the First World War ended," she wrote.

"I can remember very well when the cortege was on its way to the church. Bells, hooters and all sounds of celebration were raving but how silent people stood who realised it was our funeral.

... "You've got harrowing stories of soldiers who've survived the war... they're on their troop ship on their way home and they get a letter to say that their wife's died," said Ms Mawdsley, a PhD researcher at Queen Mary University of London.

"There was all this celebration, joy and relief at the end of the war that collides with death and grief."

... The young son of a Baptist minister in Leicester wrote of his father sleeping in the cemetery chapel while he conducted funerals from dawn until dusk.

He wanted to avoid taking the virus home to his wife and eight children - all of whom survived. They were the lucky ones: Leicester was hit especially hard with more people dying there in 1918 than there were babies born.

About one in every four deaths in the city that year was attributed to influenza.

"The funeral corteges followed each other through the town," the man wrote to Collier on 19 May 1973.

"Often there was more than one coffin in a hearse. Graves were used to bury more than one person, especially when more than one of a household were victims at the same time."
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]"Some victims suffered something called heliotrope cyanosis which was kind of a creeping blue which started in your fingertips, tips of your ears and nose and lips but you could go completely black," she said.

"As it progressed you were more and more likely to die. Immediately after death the corpse would go completely black, which must have been very traumatic for loved ones to see."

The relentless processions of bodies through the streets was a sight a man from Stepney in east London could never forget.

"The undertakers couldn't make the coffins quick enough, let alone polish them," he wrote on 16 May 1973. "The bodies changed colour so quickly after death they had to be screwed down to await burial.

"The gravediggers worked from dawn to dusk seven days a week to cope. The smell of those deaths was indescribable."
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late.
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Re: THE Pandemic Thread (merged)

Unread postby vox_mundi » Tue 23 Oct 2018, 15:45:15

Here's Why the Next Pandemic May Bring Down the Global Financial House of Cards ...

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Today, the most systemically dangerous non-bank in America is Prudential, the insurance company. Prudential remained on Treasury's "too big to fail" list of systemically-important financial institutions even after all the other non-banks fell off it: GE Capital, AIG, MetLife.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')rudential is not huge by conventional stock-market standards: Its market capitalization is just $42 billion, and its book value (assets minus liabilities) is $48 billion.

But those assets and liabilities are truly enormous: According to the FSOC report, Prudential has $832 billion of assets, and $778 billion of liabilities. Compare its rival Berkshire Hathaway, which has $702 billion in assets but a much more modest $350 billion in liabilities.

Prudential also has an eye-popping $1.4 trillion in financial assets under management.

The biggest number of all: Prudential has $3.7 trillion of life insurance. That's about 20% of U.S. GDP.


Prudential's entire market capitalization could be wiped out with $42 billion of unexpected losses on its life insurance portfolio. That's just 1.1% of its portfolio.

That as few as 175,000 $250,000 policies.

Can such a thing happen? Yes. Look at the number of healthy men, in their prime earning years, who dropped dead during the 1918/1919 pandemic.

The global mortality rate from the 1918/1919 pandemic is not known, but an estimated 10% to 20% of those who were infected died. With about a third of the world population infected, this case-fatality ratio means 3% to 6% of the entire global population died. Over 675,000 Americans died in the 1918/1919 pandemic. Currently 2-5 million Americans would be expected to die in a modern pandemic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu

If a large unexpected mortality event saddled Prudential with a lot of claims, its massive life-insurance claims would only be the beginning of its — and the country's — problems.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '&')quot;The Council therefore determined that the negative effects of Prudential’s material financial distress could be transmitted to other financial firms and markets through the exposure channel, which could cause an impairment of financial intermediation or financial market functioning sufficiently severe to impose significant damage on the broader economy.

The Council concluded that such a forced liquidation of assets could cause significant disruptions to key markets, including corporate debt and asset-backed securities markets, particularly during a period of overall stress in the financial services industry and in a weak macroeconomic environment."

The bottom line: Prudential could be forced to start liquidating its assets at fire-sale prices, which could set off a chain reaction in the rest of the financial markets and even the economy as a whole.

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Medic Becomes Third Person Infected with Monkeypox in England

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '.').. No cases of the virus had been reported previously in the UK, or even more widely in Europe.

The two cases had both travelled to the UK from Nigeria, where they would have contracted their infections. There have been reports of an increase in cases of monkeypox in Nigeria and elsewhere in west Africa in the past few months, and this is likely to explain why we have seen these infections for the first time in the UK.

A third case has now been reported, this time in a healthcare worker who was infected in the UK while caring for one of the imported cases.

... This year we have seen bigger than normal outbreaks of Lassa fever (Nigeria), Nipah virus in (India), and of course the Democratic Republic of Congo, supported by various global organisations, is still tackling its second Ebola virus outbreak of 2018.


Nigeria Confirms 7 Monkeypox Virus Deaths

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')ctober 19th, 2018 – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a Level 2, Practice Enhanced Precautions, alert for people visiting Nigeria.

The CDC issued this travel alert since the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has continued to respond to Monkeypox cases from states across the country.

This is important news since there is no cure for the disease, and about 10 percent of people who contract the Monkeypox virus die, says the CDC.
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late.
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Re: THE Pandemic Thread (merged)

Unread postby onlooker » Mon 02 Dec 2019, 17:47:42

https://www.naturalblaze.com/2019/11/wa ... otics.html

"Walmart Pork Found To Have “Superbug” Bacteria Resistant To Antibiotics"

How long before a super virulent Superbug decimates humanity?
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Re: THE Pandemic Thread (merged)

Unread postby Subjectivist » Mon 28 Dec 2020, 13:18:18

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('onlooker', 'h')ttps://www.naturalblaze.com/2019/11/walmart-pork-found-to-have-superbug-bacteria-resistant-to-antibiotics.html

"Walmart Pork Found To Have “Superbug” Bacteria Resistant To Antibiotics"

How long before a super virulent Superbug decimates humanity?


From time to time I see reports about superbug outbreaks in India where you can buy antibiotics over the counter without a prescription. This has lead to people taking anti-biotics for all sorts of viruses like flu or the common cold that are not directly impacted by the anti-biotic leading to the bacteria in the body being least susceptible reproducing much more than those easily killed off. It is a kind of forced selection where the least responsive to anti-biotic bugs get lots of chances to reproduce compared to all the other types.
II Chronicles 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
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