Free Republic

The mysterious Ukrainian mutant flu we reported on earlier is now in full swing as eastern Europe buckles down for its potential spread into neighboring countries. Over 1.4 million people are now infected. 12 people have died in the past 24 hours even. Ria: The death toll from the flu epidemic in Ukraine has reached 328, with 12 deaths registered over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Wednesday. Last week, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) chief, Raisa Bohatyryova, said there were "constitutional prerequisites" for a state of emergency amid the flu epidemic, which has left...

Abstract The epidemiology of influenza swarms with incongruities, incongruities exhaustively detailed by the late British epidemiologist...propose a parsimonious theory explaining why influenza is, ..."seemingly unmindful of traditional infectious disease behavioral patterns." Recent discoveries indicate vitamin D upregulates the endogenous antibiotics of innate immunity and suggest that the incongruities explored by Hope-Simpson may be secondary to the epidemiology of vitamin D deficiency. We identify – and attempt to explain – nine influenza conundrums: (1) Why is influenza both seasonal and ubiquitous and where is the virus between epidemics? (2) Why are the epidemics so explosive? (3) Why do they end so...

Dear fellow citizens! I address you in performance of my constitutional duty under the Article 106 of the Basic Law of the state. The reason is the emergency epidemic situation in the country. Infections of viral origin, including the A/H1N1 flu, are rapidly spreading across Ukraine. The emergency is evident in the scale of the epidemic: the speed and the geography of its spreading, rapid progress of the illness and the exceptional number of deaths. People are dying. The epidemic is killing doctors. This is absolutely unprecedented and inconceivable in the XXI century. All the limits have been exceeded -...

SHOCK! Epidemic of pneumonic plague in Ukraine? (updated at 05:39 pm) MIGnews.com.ua Ministry of Health has not established the exact diagnosis of the epidemic disease in the western regions of Ukraine. Health Minister Vasyl Knyazevich has given information about spread of diseases in the Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv Regions today at the meeting of Cabinet of Ministers. According to the Minister, the World Health Organization is ready to render assistance to Ukrainian experts and the Ministry of Health in order to establish the cause of death and development of disease flu in the Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv Regions. "We are...

There has been a lot of confusion about what ingredients are in the H1N1 Vaccine. In order to distill the information to make it easier for you to make an informed choice, here is a brief synopsis of the information provided by the manufacturers in their package inserts...

U.S. military troops will begin getting required swine flu shots in the next week to 10 days, with active duty forces deploying to war zones and other critical areas going to the front of the vaccine line, a top military commander said Tuesday. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart also told The Associated Press that as many as 400 troops are ready to go to five regional headquarters around the country to assist federal health and emergency management officials if needed as the flu season heats up. The Pentagon has bought 2.7 million vaccines, and 1.4 million of those will go...

World celebrities sing to stop global warming (AFP) – 10 hours ago GENEVA — British rock group Duran Duran and heavy metal band Scorpions are among 55 world celebrities who have joined in recording a song to draw attention to the global warming crisis, organisers said on Monday. The song is part of a mass media campaign on the threats of climate change organised by the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum, headed by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan. The song entitled "Beds'r Burning", which was originally recorded by the Australian group Midnight Oil in the 1980s, can be downloaded from...

April 28, 2009 | There is evidence there will be a major flu epidemic this coming fall. The indication is that we will see a return of the 1918 flu virus that is the most virulent form of the flu. In 1918 a half million Americans died. The projections are that this virus will kill one million Americans in 1976. -- F. David Matthews, secretary of health, education, and welfare (Feb., 1976) In January 1976, 19-year old U.S. Army Private David Lewis, stationed at Fort Dix, joined his platoon on a 50-mile hike through the New Jersey snow. Lewis didn't...

Hi All. I don't want to worry you, but with all the hype and attention in the media recently concerning the spread of H1N1 virus I decided to ring the Government's new Swine Flu Helpline yesterday just to check on what the Symptoms are and... what to watch for. Basically ..If you wake up looking like this .. don't go to work! Swine Flu Symptoms

The NHS may not be able to cope with a swine flu epidemic this winter as intensive care beds will be overwhelmed, a Lords report has warned. While preparations for a flu pandemic in Britain are more advanced than in most countries, there is more that could have been done, peers said in a report. The report criticised the Government's failure to keep its promise to set up a flu telephone helpline by April The Government has failed to offer reassurance that NHS services can deal with an expected "second wave" of swine flu in the autumn, The House of...

CDC is now estimating that the H1N1 virus will be a category 2. Case fatality ratio of 0.1 percent to less than 0.5 percent. Between 90,000 and 450,000 deaths in the US. Illness rate between 20 and 40 percent. Similar to 1957

The Obama administration has relied on a Bush-era public health strategy aimed at coordinating its response across an array of government agencies in the week since the first reports of a swine flu outbreak emerged, officials say, as it attempts to balance safety concerns with a desire to prevent a panic. While Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has become the public face of the administration's effort to manage the outbreak, President Obama has been briefed three times a day on his administration's first public-health crisis. Behind the scenes, Deputy National Security Adviser John O. Brennan is coordinating the response to...

The flu epidemic has finally reached America and already we have our first casualty, a toddler in Texas. The flu epidemic will no doubt have an effect on these and other vulnerable groups with weak immune systems including the elderly and Aids patients. I decided to write about this after listening to Michael Savage discuss it. His take was as you can very well imagine controversial as is some of his other remarks. Savage noted also that the government has done nothing useful to prevent the spread of this new influenza strain despite the fact that it may have as...

Official U.S. government PSAs warning people to get Swine Flu shots

The suspected death toll from the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico rose Monday to 149 people as health authorities cancelled all schools across the country until May 6. Mexican cabinet officials led by Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova gave a press conference today in Mexico City with the latest information they have gathered about the outbreak of a deadly new strain of swine flu that has halted many aspects of public life here and appears to continue to be spreading. Since the first case of swine flu was reported, 1,995 people have been hospitalized with serious cases of pneumonia,...

CHICAGO – Doctors know some patients needing lifesaving care won't get it in a flu pandemic or other disaster. The gut-wrenching dilemma will be deciding who to let die. Now, an influential group of physicians has drafted a grimly specific list of recommendations for which patients wouldn't be treated. They include the very elderly, seriously hurt trauma victims, severely burned patients and those with severe dementia. The suggested list was compiled by a task force whose members come from prestigious universities, medical groups, the military and government agencies. They include the Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control...

Doctors in America are advising worried patients to buy painters’ masks as a precaution against the global outbreak of swine flu that appears to have spread from Mexico to the United States, New Zealand and possibly Europe. With the worldwide death toll standing at about 81 and with about 1,300 people infected, authorities across the globe are torn between the desire to slow down a potential flu pandemic and the need to avoid bringing major cities on every continent to an economic standstill. As of today, the US was still allowing people to cross the border from Mexico – where...

group of Queens high school students likely brought Mexico's deadly swine flu epidemic to the city after they went on a wild spring-break party to Cancun earlier this month. Some seniors from St. Francis Prep in Fresh Meadows took the trip over Easter hiatus two weeks ago. Days later, an outbreak of flu-like symptoms erupted at the school, leaving about 200 kids complaining of being ill. Yesterday, city health officials confirmed that eight students "have probable human swine influenza" after testing positive for Influenza A, which officials say causes the swine strain of disease. "We're very concerned about what may...

As Mexico hunkers down, 2 cases found in Kansas and 8 likely in NYC Worries that the new swine flu strain that has killed as many as 68 people and sickened more than 1,000 across Mexico has “pandemic potential” increased with the announcement that the virus has spread to Kansas and likely to New York City. On Saturday, two new cases were confirmed in Kansas — the first U.S. cases outside of California or Texas. And New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said tests showed that eight New York schoolchildren had a type A influenza virus that was...

Continued Rise of Bed Bug Populations is Highlighted Nationally in New Research Study & with Upcoming Federal Summit Posted : Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:40:28 GMT Author : National Pest Management Association (NPMA) Category : Press Release News Alerts by Email ( click here ) Press Release News | Home FAIRFAX, Va. - (Business Wire) According to a new study from the Journal of American Medical Association, bed bugs do not transmit disease to their victims, but infestations continue to increase worldwide. The National Pest Management Association (NPMA) has reported a 71% increase in bed bug infestations in the states...

For the first time in more than a decade, the rate at which residents in Singapore are contracting tuberculosis is on the rise. And more younger people aged below 30 are being hit - a worrying trend that hints at greater spread of the infectious respiratory disease in the community. Last year, 39.8 in every 100,000 Singaporeans and permanent residents contracted it, up from 35.1 in 2007. The number of TB patients grew by 15 per cent to 1,451 last year, up from 1,256 in the previous year. The last time the tuberculosis rate grew was in 1998, when it...

The Dutch Hill Campground at Steamboat Lake State Park once was densely packed with lodgepole pine. But blue marks on bark now dominate the landscape, identifying the beetle-killed trees awaiting removal. The mountain pine beetle epidemic sweeping Colorado forests has taken a heavy toll on Steamboat Lake and Pearl Lake state parks, whose campgrounds were closed in October after being deemed unsafe after trees starting falling much earlier than expected... The epidemic will have a drastic impact on camping availability in the summer. Crews will begin cutting down beetle-killed and beetle-infected trees in Steamboat Lake State Park later this month,...

Obama's hopes DaschledHis ties to the former senator may have blinded him to potential ethics problems -- but in the end, the president takes the blame. By Mike Madden Feb. 4, 2009 | WASHINGTON -- Things would probably have gone a lot more smoothly for Tom Daschle if the whole country worked the way Washington does, at least at its most stratified levels. You serve in a high government post for a while, then you lose an election, and your friends step in to support you with helpful things like, say, a $1 million-a-year job in private equity, and a...

Ohio has taken the lead in race to have the most cases of salmonella. As of 9PM EDT, Wednesday, January 22, 2009, 491 persons infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium have been reported from 43 states. The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Alabama (1), Arizona (10), Arkansas (4), California (62), Colorado (12), Connecticut (9), Georgia (6), Hawaii (3), Idaho (11), Illinois (6), Indiana (4), Iowa (2), Kansas (2), Kentucky (3), Maine (4), Maryland (8), Massachusetts (42), Michigan (25), Minnesota (35), Missouri (9), Mississippi (3), Nebraska (1), New Hampshire (11), New Jersey (19),...

Dear Editor: A new article in World Magazine discussed the disturbing financial relationship between the breast cancer group, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and an organization that is the primary cause of the breast cancer epidemic in the U.S. - Planned Parenthood. The author, Alisa Harris, correctly reported that basic medical textbooks acknowledge that full term pregnancies offer women a considerable reduction in breast cancer risk. Logically, that means that the woman who chooses not to have a baby (i.e. by having an abortion) has a higher breast cancer risk than does the one who has a baby. The...

OTHER BUGS ACTING BADLY _______________________________________________________ International experts to study ebola reston INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC and animal health experts arrived on Tuesday to start a joint risk assessment on the ebola reston contamination of local hogs, officials of the Agriculture department said yesterday. Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III (R), flanked by international experts, addresses a press conference in Manila for an update on the outbreak of ebola reston at two pig farms north of the capital. The experts are (L to R) Kate Glynn of World Organization for Animal Health, Juan Lubroth and Kazuyuki Tsurumi of the Food and Agriculture Organization,...

Researchers have found out what made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly -- a group of three genes that lets the virus invade the lungs and cause pneumonia. They mixed samples of the 1918 influenza strain with modern seasonal flu viruses to find the three genes and said their study might help in the development of new flu drugs. The discovery, published in Tuesday's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could also point to mutations that might turn ordinary flu into a dangerous pandemic strain. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin and colleagues at the...

A deadly Ebola outbreak in the central Democratic Republic of Congo has killed nine and infected 21, the UN-sponsored radio Okapi quoted the health minister as saying Thursday.

Zim cholera death toll tops 1 100HARARE, ZIMBABWE Dec 18 2008 13:03The death toll from a cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe has soared to 1,111, the United Nations said on Thursday, adding to pressure for a quick solution to the crisis in the Southern African country. African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma backed a diplomatic push as the way to end political deadlock and rejected any suggestion of sending troops. The latest cholera figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva included a new outbreak in Chegutu Urban in Mashonaland West, west of Harare, where...

ZIMBABWE has cut water supplies to the nation's capital Harare, state media reported today, leaving most of the city dry as authorities struggle to contain a cholera epidemic. "Most parts of Harare - including the city centre - did not get water yesterday amid claims by Zinwa staff that the authority had stopped pumping after it ran out of one of the essential chemicals,"

An Indonesian bill that includes a bylaw requiring "sexually aggressive" people living with HIV/AIDS to be implanted with microchips is causing debate between some lawmakers, who argue that the bill is necessary to curb the spread of the virus, and advocates, who say the bylaw is discriminatory and a violation of human rights, the AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. According to John Manangsang, a lawmaker who supports the bill, authorities would be able to identify, track and punish people living with HIV/AIDS in the country's province of Papua who intentionally spread the virus with a $5,000 fine or up to six...

One day last October, Eric York lugged the carcass of an adult mountain lion from his truck and laid it carefully on a tarp on the floor of his garage. The female mountain lion had a bloody nose, but her hide bore no other signs of trauma. York, a biologist at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, found the big cat lying motionless near the canyon’s South Rim. He was determined to learn why she died. Because the park lacks a forensics lab, he did the postmortem in his garage, in a village of about 2,000 park employees. Epidemic experts...

Qingdao Experiences a Mysterious Epidemic, Experts Suspect Epidemic Cerebrospinal Meningitis Jul 16, 2008 - 3:11:11 PM In July Qingdao Experiences a Mysterious Epidemic, Experts Suspect Epidemic Cerebrospinal Meningitis In July 2008, at the hospital affiliated with Qingdao University, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, and other large hospitals, every day tens of thousands of people exhibiting common cold symptoms have been referred from small and medium sized hospitals around the city. These patients all exhibit common symptoms including extreme headaches, vomiting, high fevers that do not break and other symptoms of illness. Senior citizens and children are exhibiting even more extreme symptoms that...

Crews will cut trees on more than 200 acres around Vail this summer in their continuing efforts to battle the pine beetle epidemic. This summer’s work will continue to create a ribbon of “defensible space” around the town that seeks to prevent the spread of fire... “It’s to protect lives, homes and property from the effects of catastrophic wildfire,” ... The work is part of the Vail Valley Forest Health Project, a multi-year effort coordinated by the Forest Service that seeks to combat the pine beetle infestation from East Vail to Edwards. The mountain pine beetle epidemic has killed up...

The chances of surviving the Black Death Why did some people survive the Black Death, and others succumb? At the time of the plague – which ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, carrying off 50 million people, perhaps half the population – various prophylactics were tried, from the killing of birds, cats and rats to the wearing of leather breeches (protecting the legs from flea bites) and the burning of aromatic spices and herbs. Now it seems that the best way of avoiding death from the disease was to be fit and healthy. Sharon DeWitte and James Wood of the...

A Catholic school guidance counselor in New York City has died from bacterial meningitis, CBS station WCBS-TV reported. The New York City health department confirmed the counselor worked at St. Francis Preparatory High School in the Queens borough. The victim's identity has not yet been released. On Thursday, a Long Island high school senior also died suddenly from the deadly bacteria. Michael Gruber, a senior at Massapaequa High School, was taking midterm exams and joking with friends on Wednesday when he came down with a fever and chills. He was dead by Thursday afternoon. After his death, the school district...

The winter vomiting bug norovirus has struck 2.8million people, with health professionals braced for another rise as people return to schools and offices. The virus - which causes projectile vomiting, diarrhoea, mild fevers and headaches - is striking down more than 200,000 a week, according to official estimates. Three hospitals have been placed on red alert, while hundreds of wards up and down the country have been closed to new patients as the number of beds being taken up by bug victims reaches critical levels.

Local foresters predict that up to 90 percent of lodgepole pines will die in some areas near West Vail. Local firefighters say that creates a veritable tenderbox that could easily ignite and spread. Sackbauer was pleased to see lots of work being done near his home this summer to reduce the risk of fire spreading, either from the forest into the neighborhood, or vice versa. workers created a 200- to 300-foot barrier of “defensible space,” a clear-cut area that aims to help stop the spread of fire. The town also hired a six-man “hand crew” to cut trees on town-owned...

Almost half of Colorado’s lodgepole forests are infested. Amid mountains covered by ailing, rust-colored pines, about 100 people pored over maps and discussed priorities Thursday in the battle to slow the spread of forest-killing beetles and clean up the destruction already wreaked. The Colorado Bark Beetle Cooperative is helping shape the U.S. Forest Service’s strategy for dealing with more than 1,000 square miles of trees infested by the bugs that burrow beneath a tree’s bark and sap its life. The result has been huge swaths and, in some cases, entire mountainsides of brown trees. The Forest Service, state agencies and...

It's now leaking out that there was more going on than met the eye at the Security and Prosperity Partnership Summit in Montebello, Canada, in August. The three amigos - President George W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon - finalized and released the "North American Plan for Avian & Pandemic Influenza." The "Plan" - that's what they call it, with a capital P - is to use the excuse of a major flu epidemic to shift powers from U.S. legislatures to unelected, unaccountable "North American" bureaucrats. This idea was launched on Sept. 14, 2005,...

Crews cutting trees in hopes stopping wildfire from jumping between neighborhoods and the forest. As the color red has grown in the forest... The mountain pine beetle epidemic has hit ...hard. Whether it’s a lightning strike or a barbecue sparking a blaze, Spaeh says she understands the risk of a destructive forest fire. ....town, county and the U.S. Forest Service are cooperating to create a layer of “defensible space” — a 200-to-300-foot barrier — that aims to stop the spread of a fire, either from the forest into the neighborhood or vice versa. “This is a really good thing,” ......

Black Death casts a genetic shadow over England 12:26 01 August 2007 NewScientist.com news service Colin BarrasBlack Death as illustrated in a 15th century bible The Black Death continues to cast a shadow across England. Although the modern English population is more cosmopolitan than ever, the plagues known as the Black Death killed so many people in the Middle Ages that, to this day, genetic diversity is lower in England than it was in the 11th century, according to a new analysis. Rus Hoelzel at the University of Durham, UK and his colleagues looked at the mitochondrial DNA from human...

<p>Mexican ambulance drivers are transporting hospital patients unable to pay for medical care or emergency-room services in their country to facilities in the United States, where their treatment is mandated by federal law, authorities said yesterday.</p> <p>The border crossings have been reported from Brownsville, Texas, to Douglas, Ariz., and involve Mexican ambulance companies whose drivers have been instructed by hospital officials in Mexico to take ailing and uninsured patients to the United States, the authorities said.</p>

China blames pig deaths on blue-eared disease Thu May 10, 12:09 PM ET A mystery virus killing hundreds of pigs in south China has been identified, the agriculture ministry said Thursday, warning it could mutate and spread during the hot summer months. The virus was probably linked to a reproductive and respiratory condition known as blue-eared pig disease, the ministry said in a statement on its website. "This disease spreads especially fast during the summer," the ministry said, citing the hot and humid weather of the season. The agriculture ministry requires veterinary departments to stay on high alert for the...

HONG KONG, May 7 — A mysterious epidemic is killing pigs in southeastern China, but international and Hong Kong authorities said today that the Chinese government is providing little information about it, or about the contaminated wheat gluten that has caused deaths and illnesses in other animals. The lack of even basic details is reviving longstanding questions about whether China is willing to share information about health and food safety issues with potential global implications. The Chinese government — and particularly the government of Guangdong Province, which is adjacent to Hong Kong — was criticized in 2003 for concealing information...

May 8, 2007 China Tells Little About Illness That Kills Pigs, Officials Say By KEITH BRADSHER HONG KONG, May 7 — A mysterious epidemic is killing pigs in southeastern China, but international and Hong Kong authorities said Monday that the Chinese government was providing little information about it or the contaminated wheat gluten that has caused death and illness in pets in the United States. The lack of even basic details is reviving longstanding questions about whether China is willing to share information about health and food safety issues with potentially global implications. The Chinese government — and particularly the...

'Stress threatens epidemic of heart disease' Last Updated: 1:36am BST 20/04/2007 The stress of everyday life is threatening a global epidemic of cardiovascular disease, a report by international health experts has warned. High blood pressure is a "silent condition" which is "grossly underestimated" by patients, their families, medics and politicians, according to the study unveiled at the European Parliament in Brussels. The move towards "Westernised" lifestyles - associated with high-fat diets, long working hours and lack of exercise - is partly to blame. But by 2025 almost two thirds of the world's adults could have high blood pressure. The report,...

LONDON (Feb. 28) - Scientists want to exhume the body of a British diplomat who died of "Spanish flu" during a pandemic in 1919 in hopes of discovering clues to fight a possible future global outbreak sparked by H5N1 bird flu . Sir Mark Sykes, best known for his work dismantling the Ottoman Empire, is believed to be buried in a lead-lined coffin, something which may have preserved enough human tissue to yield useful information on how he died, and the nature of the avian flu that killed him. "We're after an intact body," said John Oxford, a professor of...

Meningitis outbreak kills 1,000 in south Sudan Sun 21 Jan 2007 7:47 AM ET JUBA, Sudan, Jan 21 (Reuters) - At least 1,000 people have died in one week in south Sudan's Warap state from meningitis and another unknown disease, state governor Anthony Bol Madut said in a statement sent to Reuters on Sunday. Emerging from Africa's longest civil war, south Sudan's infrastructure is almost non-existent and outbreaks of disease are frequent. A cholera outbreak last year killed 147 people. "There is an outbreak of meningitis and (an) unknown disease spreading fast throughout the state and there is fear it...

Bird flu epidemic rumbles on around the world 12:31 11 January 2007 NewScientist.com news service Debora MacKenzie The H5N1 bird flu virus shows no signs of going away in 2007, with outbreaks in poultry and people flaring up across its heartland in east Asia and, most worryingly, in Africa. Other countries the virus reached in winter 2006, including Europe, are watching nervously for its return. And hitherto unaffected areas are anxiously testing mysterious bird deaths to see if they will be next. The biggest flare-up so far has been in Vietnam, where an outbreak in poultry that started in early...