Dreaming of Mother Abigail?

[nacho]

Oh-ho!  Our old friend TB. 

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Federal health authorities are looking for people who may have been exposed aboard a plane to someone infected with a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis known as XDR-TB.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that the case involves a U.S. citizen who traveled on two international flights. XDR-TB was recently defined as a subtype of multiple-drug resistant tuberculosis. It can be fatal.

As with all TB, the disease can be spread through the air. "In this case, the infected patient traveled on two trans-Atlantic air flights and, in doing so, may have exposed passengers and crew to XDR-TB," the agency said.

"A federal quarantine order has been issued and CDC is currently collaborating with U.S., state and local health departments, international ministries of health, the airline industry, and WHO (World Health Organization)."

The infected patient traveled to Europe via Air France Flight 385, departing Atlanta on May 12 and arriving in Paris on May 13, the CDC said.

The patient returned to North America last Thursday aboard Czech Air Flight 0104 from Prague, Czech Republic, to Montreal, Canada, then drove into the United States.

"Since May 25, the patient has been hospitalized in respiratory isolation and is undergoing additional medical evaluation," the CDC said.

The patient, who has few symptoms, has radiographic evidence of pulmonary TB and tests positive for XDR-TB, the agency said.

"On the basis of the patient's clinical and laboratory status, and lack of receiving adequate treatment for XDR-TB, this patient was considered potentially infectious at the time of his airline travel, and meets the criteria in the WHO guidelines for initiating an airline contact investigation," it said.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/notes/2006/np23/en/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensively_drug-resistant_tuberculosis

[RottingCorpse]

TB has never really gone away.

Still, all these microbe mutations are distressing.

[nacho]

Everything always tracks back to Georgia.

CBS News has learned the man with the extreme form of tuberculosis is Andrew Harley Speaker, a 31-year-old lawyer from Atlanta. A medical official in Atlanta also confirmed the name on condition of anonymity.

[fajwat]

<an anonymous person> also confirmed the name on condition of anonymity.

Ha.  Hahahahaha.  Haha.  Hah.

chuckle.

[nacho]

Here, I'll make this the catch-all super-virus thread, since the other one is pretty devoted to Bird Flu.

It's just a matter of time, isn't it?  Another China virus that's not been reported until two months and 20 deaths later:

Chinese virus infections rising

The number of children infected with a deadly virus in eastern China has increased by nearly 700 in the past two days.

The virus, Enterovirus 71, has killed 20 children since it was discovered in Fuyang, a city in Anhui province.

State media said the number of cases had now increased to nearly 1,900.

The outbreak began in early March, but was only reported this week - leading to accusations by Chinese press of a cover-up by local authorities.

Fever and ulcers

The number of infected children has steadily increased since hospitals in Fuyang began admitting patients with fever, ulcers in the mouth, or a rash on their hands and feet, according to the Anhui Health Bureau's website.

An official investigation into the cause of the outbreak has been launched, and a prevention and control team has been set up to contain infected areas in the province, the bureau said.

The illness - known as EV71 - mainly affects children under the age of 10.

The World Health Organization said it was concerned about the number of deaths in the current outbreak, although EV71 has been reported in China before.

The question of reporting infectious diseases is especially sensitive in China, following widespread criticism of the handling of the Sars epidemic in 2003.

Attempts to cover up the scale of that outbreak led to the sacking of China's health minister and promises of reform.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7375764.stm

It just feels like these viral outbreaks are testing the walls, you know?  Not to assign any sort of intelligence to the whole thing, but how long before we see something that can lead to a serious pandemic?  And with China's continued policy of mum's the word, it'll be too late when it does hit...

[RottingCorpse]

And then the Dark Man comes.

[monkey!]

It only covers children. We're safe.

I just feel sorry for the pedophiles.

[nacho]

Okay...disease gets worse, spreads, and is now right where millions of tourists are going to be tromping around, then flying back to their countries all over the world.

Talk about a formula for disaster.  Is China giving us all the facts?  Because the first thing they would do is lie about the severity of the outbreak, this close to the Olympics.

China's capital recorded its first death from hand, foot and mouth disease on Wednesday as the authorities tried to contain the spread of the potent virus just three months before the city hosts the Olympic Games.

The illness has sickened tens of thousands of children across the country and killed at least 42 people.

A child died Sunday on the way to a hospital, according to Xinhua, the official news agency, which cited a Beijing Health Bureau spokeswoman, Deng Xiaohong.

The director of the health bureau's publicity office, contacted by telephone, declined to comment.

[fajwat]

My grad student chick has to write a grant proposal (for a class) to research something about the sars coronavirus 3clpro enzyme.

Okay.. it's useful to just think of this as "how would you research the chemical reactions of SARS"?

This might include investigating hereditary differences (e.g. inherited resistance if we had any examples of it, or differences between races), or finding drugs that disable the enzyme, etc.

What are your favorite research proposals for SARS at a bio-chemical level?  Or any supervirus.

[nacho]

What are your favorite research proposals for SARS at a bio-chemical level?  Or any supervirus.

Are you asking me?

Because, really, Joe and Smyth's 1999 paper on SARS:  Modern Day Zinc? is a real winner.  Zinc and You!

[fajwat]

Yes, you.  And everyone else. 

[nacho]

Tell her to read The Stand!  That's an ace research proposal.  Or, if she's a neo-con, she can read the Out of the Ashes series.

[fajwat]

that's not really at the biochemical level.  and the paper is due too soon to read a fiction book to help determine the topic.  But ... hm, are those good books?

[nacho]

The Stand is, yes.

And of course I have no idea on her research topic.  I remember SARS was this guy in Toronto, right?

[nacho]

Pagan Kennedy's got a scare for us today:

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/02/want-to-voice-your-opinion-about-the-doomsday-virus-good-luck/253071/

It might be the most lethal invention ever to come out of a lab. "I can't think of another pathogenic organism that is as scary as this one," the microbiologist Paul Kiem told The New Scientist.

The frightening new virus was created by Ron Fouchier, a researcher in the Netherlands, last year as he was experimenting with the bird flu. So far, human-to-human transmission of the bird flu has been rare because the virus lacks the necessary equipment to travel in a sneeze. But for years public-health experts have feared that it would one day go airborne. The bird flu has killed roughly 50 percent of the few people it has infected. If it could spread as easily as the seasonal flu, it would kill with the ferocity of a doomsday virus in a science-fiction movie.

And now that worst-case virus may have arrived. In the course of his investigations, Fouchier inadvertently engineered a virus that passes its death sentence through a sneeze. For now, the virus only exists in a lab in Rotterdam. (A somewhat less lethal version was created by another team of scientists last year, in Madison, Wisconsin.) Though the virus has only been tested in ferrets, which have respiratory tracts similar to our own, many scientists agree there's a good chance it could be just as lethal in humans.

Fouchier and many of his colleagues want to continue working with the super-bird-flu, despite its dangers. Meanwhile, a number of scientists -- along with the editorial board of The New York Times -- argue that this kind of research might just lead to the apocalypse. "We nearly always champion unfettered scientific research and open publication of the results," The New York Times editors wrote. But "in this case it looks like the research should never have been undertaken because the potential harm is so catastrophic and the potential benefits from studying the virus so speculative. Unless the scientific community and health officials can provide more persuasive justifications than they have so far, the new virus, which is in the Netherlands, ought to be destroyed."

In response to such concerns, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) asked scientists to suspend research on the lab-created bird flu until late March. During this brief moratorium, an elite group of professionals will discuss how to go forward with the research. The debate will happen in a closed-door meeting. You and I are not invited.

Why has the public been shut out? Shouldn't regular citizens be able to weigh in on whether scientists are allowed to play with a virus that could kill a third of the world's population? Of course, in almost every other case, I believe in scientific freedom. But the issue here is not free speech and thought. It's a debate about risk. In this case, the risk posed by noodling with the super-bird-flu is so extreme that it affects all of us. Are you willing to bet your life on this research?

It distresses me, then, that the conversation is taking place in a closed room. Members of the public should be able to speak out as well.

In an attempt to do just that, I called the NIH's National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity and asked whether I could submit my comments through email or a public website. I was told I could not. (However, the receptionist did give me a street address, and said that I could mail in a paper letter.)

In my response to my continued inquiries and pestering, an NIH communications officer told me that the NIH would provide an email address for feedback. She said she'd get back to me. That was more than three weeks ago. I haven't heard anything from her.

While we wait for the NIH to provide an online forum, here are some (admittedly lame) ways that you can express your views about the lab-created bird flu:

You can go on Facebook and like the idea of halting research on the doomsday virus.
Or you can root around in your desk for a paper envelope and send an old-fashioned letter:
    NIH Office of Communications and Public Liaison
    9000 Rockville Pike
    MSC 0188
    Bethesda, Maryland
    20892-0188