Tag: outbreak

Apocalyptic mice plague ravages Australia: First came the drought. Then, the floods. Now, the mouse…

Strange Sounds – June 23, 2021

First came the drought. Then, the floods. Now, the mice. Farmers in Australia are burning their own crops. They’re desperate to escape an epic plague infesting their hay. The mice are invading homes. They’re destroying crops. They even force the evacuation of prisons. They’re chewing through appliances, sofas, cars — and livelihoods.

Colin Tink, 63, has been farming all his life and has never experienced a mouse plague like the one ravaging Australia’s eastern grain belt. Nor a drought like the one that preceded it, which turned fertile crop areas into dust bowls.

When the rains finally came last year, Tink thought his fortunes were changing.

The rain led to bumper crops through the spring and summer months (September to March in the Southern Hemisphere). Silos are overflowing with grain. And barns are piled high with hay. Tink grew enough hay to feed his cattle for two years.

Then the mice arrived. Millions of them. There are so many that even a prison had to be evacuated!

The vermin burrow deep into his hay. What they don’t eat is ruined anyway as their urine trickles down through the bales. The smell is acrid. It sticks in your nose and lingers on your clothes.

“It breaks your heart a bit,” Tink said. “We’re back to square one.”

https://strangesounds.org

New, ‘GREEN fungus’ case reported in India, adding to 3 other color types of infection developing in Covid patients

RT – June 16, 2021

As thousands suffer from black, white and yellow fungus in India, doctors are now worried that another infection, dubbed “green,” has been added to the list of post-Covid complications for patients.

A 34-year-old man in Madhya Pradesh, a large state in central India, is believed to possibly be the first patient diagnosed with the new type of fungus, local media reports. Scientifically known as Aspergillosis infection and said to be relatively uncommon, it affects the lungs.

The man had been treated for Covid-19 for two months – one of which he spent in an intensive care unit – before he was released from a hospital. However, back at home he started experiencing nose bleeds, fever and weight loss. Doctors first thought he had contracted black fungus, or mucormycosis, but tests apparently showed the green type of infection, Indian news media company NDTV reported citing his doctor, Ravi Dosi. The patient was airlifted to Mumbai for further treatment, as 90% of his lungs have been affected, according to The Times of India daily.

“This possibly is the first green fungus case in the country,” a local health department official, Apoorva Tiwari said, as quoted by India’s ANI News agency.

Dosi, who is the head of Chest Diseases Department at Sri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences (SAIMS) in Indore, warned that more research is needed on the new fungus. He also explained that “it is not that the fungal infection gives color shades in the body.” The name comes from shades that appear during laboratory tests with various types of fungal infection, he said.

Fungus cases have emerged in India as the densely populated Asian country has been battling the coronavirus pandemic. At least three ‘color’ types have been detected in Covid patients, with the deadly black one hitting the worst, and several states having declared it to be an epidemic.

https://www.rt.com

CDC warns about spike in RSV cases across South

Maggie Fox – June 10, 2021

(CNN)A common cold virus called respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is spreading across the South, causing an unusual wave of late spring disease, the US Centers for Disease Control and prevention said Thursday.

The CDC issued a Health Advisory Network warning to doctors and other health care providers to be on alert for the virus, which can cause pneumonia, especially in very small children and babies.

“Due to this increased activity, CDC encourages broader testing for RSV among patients presenting with acute respiratory illness who test negative for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,” the CDC said in the alert.

“RSV can be associated with severe disease in young children and older adults. This health advisory also serves as a reminder to healthcare personnel, childcare providers, and staff of long-term care facilities to avoid reporting to work while acutely ill — even if they test negative for SARS-CoV-2.”

RSV is spread like most other respiratory diseases — by small droplets and on contaminated surfaces.

“RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children under one year of age in the United States. Infants, young children, and older adults with chronic medical conditions are at risk of severe disease from RSV infection,” the CDC said.

https://www.cnn.com

Risk of brain-eating amoeba, flesh-eating bacteria may increase due to climate change: Experts

Julia Jacobo – May 29, 2021

The sweltering summer heat may send swimmers diving head-first into the nearest body of water, but climate change may contribute to life-threatening risks for swimmers as waterborne pathogens thrive and multiply faster in increasingly warming waters, experts said.

Scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about the possibility for dangerous pathogens, such as Naegleria fowleri, a brain-eating amoeba, and Vibrio vulnificus, a flesh-eating bacteria, said Dr. Sandra Gompf, an infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at the University of South Florida.

These pathogens move fast and can kill quickly.

Once diagnosed, Naegleria fowleri is very difficult to treat, said Darien Sutton, a Los Angeles emergency medicine physician and ABC News medical contributor. Once it enters the brain, it causes a form of meningitis, and once the patient is exhibiting symptoms it’s often too late to save them.

Vibrio vulnificus infections can lead to necrotizing fasciitis, a severe infection in which the flesh surrounding an open wound dies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

https://abcnews.go.com

As if black & white fungus were not enough: 1st case of deadly ‘YELLOW fungus’ reported in Covid-19 patient in India

RT – May 25, 2021

A patient who was recovering from Covid-19 has been found to have symptoms of yellow fungus, news agency ANI quoted a doctor in an Uttar Pradesh hospital as saying. The new disease is reportedly more dangerous than black fungus.

Dr. BP Tyagi, an otolaryngologist in the city of Ghaziabad in the state of Uttar Pradesh, said it was the first case of yellow fungus in a patient recovering from Covid-19. The 45-year-old man had been undergoing treatment for Covid-19 over the past few months, however, his condition deteriorated over the past few days, so he was admitted to the hospital and an examination revealed yellow fungus.

According to the doctor, yellow fungus is a potentially fatal disease caused by bad hygiene and humidity. It is more dangerous than black fungus or white fungus, as it’s difficult to diagnose because it starts inside the body, affecting the internal organs. Black fungus begins with a distinct facial disfiguration which is easy to spot. The symptoms of yellow fungus include lethargy, lack of appetite, weight loss, and in severe cases, the disease can lead to organ malfunction. He added that the patient earlier had symptoms of black fungus and white fungus, which are also complications of Covid-19.

This comes as cases of mucormycosis (commonly known as black fungus) and white fungus have been on the rise among Covid-19 patients in India. Several states declared it to be an epidemic. Fungal infections have been reported in patients who were put on prolonged oxygen support or have been prescribed steroids as part of treatment for Covid-19. Both black and white fungus affect the lungs and other vital organs and can be extremely dangerous.

https://www.rt.com

6 Indian states declare Covid-linked ‘black fungus’ an epidemic as death toll rises

RT – May 21, 2021

Multiple Indian states and territories have formally declared mucormycosis – more commonly known as ‘black fungus’ – to be an epidemic as Indians who have recovered from Covid-19 continue to die from the infection.

After the Union Health Ministry called on Indian states to declare an epidemic on Thursday, three states and one territory reportedly did so on the same day. They are Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Gujarat, and the Chandigarh union territory.

The states and territories join Telangana and Rajasthan, which had already declared an epidemic before the ministry’s letter, to make a total of six states and territories which officially recognize black fungus as an epidemic under the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897.

Recognizing the infection as an epidemic makes the reporting of suspected and confirmed cases to the health department mandatory and also gives the Indian government more resources to fight the problem.

The Union Health Ministry warned on Thursday that black fungus was leading to a “prolonged morbidity and mortality amongst Covid-19 patients.”

The infection enters through the bloodstream via a cut or through the respiratory system via the nose, and can then spread to the heart, the brain, and the lungs. Symptoms can include facial swelling and black lesions, and mucormycosis has a fatality rate of around 54%.

Black fungus can have even more of an impact on those who have recovered from Covid-19, however, which is what’s thought to have caused India’s latest problem with the infection.

According to most recent reports, at least 90 people have died from the fungus during the pandemic, with thousands more cases recorded. Health experts argue that steroids used for Covid-19 patients, along with a lack of proper sanitation, could be behind the surge of cases.

https://www.rt.com

Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada

Jessica Murphy – May 5, 2021

Doctors in Canada have been coming across patients showing symptoms similar to that of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare fatal condition that attacks the brain. But when they took a closer look, what they found left them stumped.

Almost two years ago, Roger Ellis collapsed at home with a seizure on his 40th wedding anniversary.

In his early 60s, Mr Ellis, who was born and raised around New Brunswick’s bucolic Acadian peninsula, had been healthy until that June, and was enjoying his retirement after decades working as an industrial mechanic.

His son, Steve Ellis, says after that fateful day his father’s health rapidly declined.

“He had delusions, hallucinations, weight loss, aggression, repetitive speech,” he says.

“At one point he couldn’t even walk. So in the span of three months we were being brought to a hospital to tell us they believed he was dying – but no one knew why.”

Roger Ellis’ doctors first suspected Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease [CJD]. CJD is a human prion disease, a fatal and rare degenerative brain disorder that sees patients present with symptoms like failing memory, behavioural changes and difficulties with co-ordination.

One widely known category is Variant CJD, which is linked to eating contaminated meat infected with mad cow disease. CJD also belongs to a wider category of brain disorders like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS, in which protein in the nervous system become misfolded and aggregated.

But Mr Ellis’ CJD test came back negative, as did the barrage of other tests his doctors put him through as they tried to pinpoint the cause of his illness.

His son says the medical team did their best to alleviate his father’s varying symptoms but were still left with a mystery: what was behind Mr Ellis’s decline?

In March of this year, the younger Mr Ellis came across a possible – if partial – answer.

Radio-Canada, the public broadcaster, obtained a copy of a public health memo that had been sent to the province’s medical professionals warning of a cluster of patients exhibiting an unknown degenerative brain disease.

“The first thing I said was: ‘This is my dad,'” he recalls.

Roger Ellis is now believed to be one of those afflicted with the illness and is under the care of Dr Alier Marrero.

https://www.bbc.com

Russia reports world’s first case of human infection with H5N8 bird flu

Polina Devitt, Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber – February 20, 2021

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has registered the first case of a strain of bird flu virus named A(H5N8) being passed to humans from birds and has reported the matter to the World Health Organization (WHO), Anna Popova, head of consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said on Saturday.

Outbreaks of the H5N8 strain have been reported in Russia, Europe, China, the Middle East and North Africa in recent months but so far only in poultry. Other strains – H5N1, H7N9 and H9N2 – have been known here) to spread to humans.

Russia reported the case of human infection to the WHO “several days ago, just as we became absolutely certain of our results,” Popova said on Rossiya 24 state TV. There was no sign yet of transmission between humans, she added.

Seven workers at a poultry plant in Russia’s south had been infected with the H5N8 strain in an outbreak at the plant in December, Popova said, adding that the individuals involved felt fine now. “This situation did not develop further,” she said.

In an email WHO’s European arm said it had been notified by Russia about a case of human infection with H5N8 and acknowledged this would if confirmed be the first time the strain had infected people.

https://www.reuters.com

Fatal ‘rabies-like disease’ discovered in bats in Australia poses threat to humans

Ricky Scaparo – April 8, 2021

(ETH) – What is being deemed as a deadly “rabies-like” disease has just been discovered by Medics in South Australia where at least two cases of Australian Bat Lyssavirus (ABL) have been identified.

The report reveals that the potentially killer virus can be transmitted from bats to humans through means of bites and scratches. Both ABL and rabies belong to the same group of viruses called Lyssavirus, which attacks the nervous system. One Doctor, Louise Flood from the Department for Health and Wellbeing’s Communicable Disease Control Branch, has warned that if symptoms are left untreated they could be “invariably fatal”.

She said: “ABL is a rabies-like disease that can be transmitted to humans if they are bitten or scratched by an infected bat and if treatment is delayed until after the onset of symptoms, the condition is invariably fatal.” she goes on to warn that although only one percent of bats carry this disease, the rise in these cases is becoming “concerning”.

She went on to say “While only one percent of bats usually carry ABL, these two recent exposures are concerning and is an important reminder that bats should only ever be handled by appropriately trained and vaccinated animal handlers.

“While the development of ABL from bat bites or scratches can be prevented through prompt wound management and post-exposure prophylaxis, it is important to avoid contact in the first place.” Another warning was issued regarding pets by Dr. Mary Carr from the Department of Primary Industries, urging Australians to take them to the vets if they have been attacked by a bat.

She said: “If you suspect your animal has been either bitten or scratched by a bat please contact your local vet or the Emergency Animal Disease hotline.” The report indicates that early signs of this virus in humans include flu-like symptoms, such as headaches, fever, and weakness.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Canadian Doctors Baffled by Mysterious Brain Disease

Lynn Allison – April 1, 2021

There have been dozens of cases of a mysterious, previously unknown brain disease that causes memory loss, hallucinations, and muscle atrophy striking Canadians. It can be deadly and doctors do not have a clue what causes the coniditon.

According to The Guardian, the neurological illness has doctors baffled and politicians demanding answers. In the province of New Brunswick alone, there have been 43 reported cases. Experts say the symptoms of the mystery disease mimic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a rare, fatal brain disorder, according to a leaked memo from the province’s public health agency. CJD is caused by abnormally folded proteins called prions.

‘We are collaborating with different national groups and experts; however, no clear cause has been identified at this time,” said the memo. While the symptoms detected in these unusual cases are similar to CJD, diagnostic screening showed that the cause was not triggered by human prions.

“We don’t have evidence to suggest it is a prion disease,” said Dr. Alier Marrero, the lead investigator in New Brunswick. According to The Guardian, while researchers do not know the cause of the mysterious illness, they are looking into environmental factors such as water sources, plants, and insects.

“We don’t know what’s causing it,” said Marrero. “At this time, we only have more patients appearing to have this syndrome.” The neurologist said patients begin to experience unexplained pains, spasms, and behavioral changes. But as time progresses, they develop cognitive decline, muscle wasting, and other weird symptoms such as the feeling of insects crawling all over them. While only one such case of the mystery disease was confirmed in 2015, there have been dozens more each year and the numbers are rising. Researchers believe five people have died from the yet unnamed syndrome.

https://www.newsmax.com