Bring out your dead...squirrels.
Posted on 09/15/2005 8:32:24 AM PDT by Puppage
NEWARK, N.J. -- Authorities are searching for three mice infected with bubonic plague that disappeared from a research laboratory about two weeks ago.
While health experts say the risk to the public is slim to none, the incident highlights ongoing security failures at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
The mice went missing from the lab of the Public Health Research Institute, which is located on the UMDNJ campus and conducts bioterrorism research for the federal government.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI are investigating, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported in Thursday's newspapers. The rodents may have been eaten by other laboratory animals, although the possibility that they have been stolen has prompted the institute to interrogate two dozen of its employees and conduct some lie detector tests, the newspaper said.
UMDNJ did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday morning.
If the mice got outside the lab, New Jersey Health Commissioner Fred Jacobs said they would have already died from the disease.
Federal official said the mice may never be accounted for.
Must just be me.
A new strain...The Red White and Bluebonic plague.
Why can't they do this sort of disease testing near Guantanemo and not in NJ?
So, aren't DemocRATS other large rodents?
This would explain the symptoms of Liberals and their ilk as well as the overall degradation of our society and the wellbeing of America.
"The disease becomes evident 2–7 hours after daily audio exposure to infectious rantings, diatribe, falsehoods, and personal insults.
Initial symptoms are chills, fever, headaches, and the formation of buboes that are the result of the audio bacteria and the truth coming into contact. The buboes are formed by the audio infection of the lymph nodes, which swell and become prominent.
If left unchecked, the audio bacteria infects the bloodstream (septicemic plague), which can progress to the lungs (pneumonic plague). In septicemic plague there is bleeding into the skin and other organs, which creates black patches on the skin, hence the name Black Death. Untreated septicemic plague is universally fatal, .......unless relentless truthful conservative audio antibiotics are taken."
This article reminds me of Pinky and the Brain.
Pinky-- "what are we going to do tomorrow night, Brian?"
Brian-- "the same thing we do every night..try to take over the world."
Theme Song:
Pinky and the Brain
They're Pinky and the Brain
Yes, Pinky and the Brain
One is a genius, the other's insane
They're laboratory mice
Their genes have been spliced
They're dinky
They're Pinky and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain,
Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain
Before each night is done
Their plan will be unfurled
By the dawning of the sun
They'll take over the world
They're Pinky and the Brain
Yes, Pinky and the Brain
Their twilight campaign
Is easy to explain
To prove their mousey worth
They'll overthrow the Earth
They're dinky.
They're Pinky and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain,
Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, NARF!
A list of symptoms and to be aware of the signs of infection and seeks medical attention etc.
Bring out your dead...squirrels.
The mice. It was an obscure reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy.
Shades of 'Secret of Nimh'....
I wonder if anyone tried Atlantic City; maybe they are trying to win enough to free their friends.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/09/16/plague_infected_mice_missing_from_lab/
SNIP
The possibility of theft prompted the institute to interrogate two dozen of its employees and conduct lie detector tests, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported yesterday.
The FBI said it was investigating. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also investigating, the newspaper reported.
University officials did not return a call seeking comment late yesterday.
Should we find comfort that they are dead, because we don't know what else they infected? Here's one for your "just damn" list.
Just damn.
If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...
Which exit was that?
I am SO happy to have you back here!
In the 19th century we imported Chinese labor to work on the railroads (and other things) and there was a burgeoning population of illegal immigrants in Chinatown in San Francisco. They had their own little private epidemic; private because as illegals the sick and the dead were hidden from the authorities. From there it spread to the population of small rodents that is the disease's natural reservoir, and slowly it spread toward the large population of prairie dogs in the southwest, where today that area comprises the world's second plague reservoir.
It's a dangerous disease for two reasons - the organism Y. pestis reproduces very rapidly in the body, and it has an endotoxin that causes severe anaphylactic shock - headache, fever, chills - which is actually what kills. You sock it with too high a dose of antibiotics and it can actually make the shock worse.
Nobody diagnosed in time should die these days, but the catch is "in time." Too late and it's still a 14% fatality rate. Consider that at its height in Europe it was 30-40% fatal. If it hits the pneumonic form and spreads as a respiratory disease fatalities can approach 90+%. It's nothing to take lightly.
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