Category Archives: pandemic

Avian Flu Diary: Florida: Dengue Forces Suspension Of Blood Donations In Two Counties

Globalization and air transport strike again – too easy for someone infected to be on other side of globe in less than 24 hours and get bitten by a local mosquito that then becomes infected from the human and infects the next mammal it feasts upon and so it goes…

As a proactive and precautionary measure, OneBlood is temporarily suspending blood collection operations in Martin and St. Lucie counties in Southeast Florida until further notice.  The decision comes after more than a dozen cases of Dengue Fever have been reported by the Florida Department of Health in these two counties over the past several weeks.

“Safety of the blood supply is our number one priority,” said Dr. Rita Reik, Chief Medical Officer for OneBlood.  “We will resume blood collections in Martin and St. Lucie counties once it is determined the threat of Dengue Fever has been minimized,” Reik said.

via Avian Flu Diary: Florida: Dengue Forces Suspension Of Blood Donations In Two Counties.

Young E. Coli Victim Receives Kidney Transplant from Mother | Food Safety News

Drinking raw milk is a freedom issue – right? Freedom to… endanger children?

Food Safety News is following the progress of 3-year-old Kylee Young, who has just received a kidney from her mother, Jill Brown. In April 2012, Kylee was one of 19 people — 15 of them children — who fell ill with E. coli after drinking raw milk from a farm near Wilsonville, Oregon.

via Young E. Coli Victim Receives Kidney Transplant from Mother | Food Safety News.

Eat Drink Better | Cooking, healthy food, and sustainable eating!

Even so, U.S. shrimpers look like Boy Scouts compared to Asian and South American “shrimp barons,” who are clearing huge swaths of ecologically sensitive mangrove habitat to create shrimp factory farms. It’s estimated that one-fifth of mangroves worldwide have been lost since 1980, mostly because they have been razed to make way for shrimp farms. Shrimp that comes from cleared mangroves is estimated to have a carbon footprint 10 times higher than beef from cows raised on cleared Amazon rain forest.

What about farmed shrimp?

Overseas shrimp farms are commonly cesspools of antibiotics, fertilizers, banned pesticides, contaminated water, and other waste. According to Canadian journalist Taras Grescoe, “The simple fact is, if you’re eating cheap shrimp today, it almost certainly comes from a turbid, pesticide- and antibiotic-filled, virus-laden pond in the tropical climes of one of the world’s poorest nations.”

If local villagers object to the farms, which have been blamed for polluting or siphoning the water supply and contaminating agricultural land with salt water and waste, their concerns are often ruthlessly quashed—sometimes with violence, including beatings, rapes, arson, shootings, and even murder. In Thailand, Burmese migrants are press-ganged into working on fishing boats that supply feed to shrimp farms, and workers report appalling conditions—and even executions at sea.

Considering the devastating ecological impact of cheap shrimp—in addition to the accompanying human rights abuses—isn’t it time to put an end to “endless shrimp”?

via Eat Drink Better | Cooking, healthy food, and sustainable eating!.

My 30 Years as a Poultry Inspector | Food & Water Watch

(Pogo – the old cartoon opossum – said: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” We vote for people who want to gut government at all costs as a matter of faith and trust in the market to “protect” consumers. I trust the market to look the other way until a hundred or a thousand die quickly from a blatant incident.)

When I was a USDA inspector, we went bird by bird to assure that plants were producing clean, wholesome products. But that won’t be the case if the USDA’s plan to privatize poultry inspection goes forward. I worked with the pilot phase of this plan to privatize the inspection of our poultry, but it could soon be approved for broader use… and it turns the “inspection” of our food into a sham. In plants where they’ve been testing this new process, line speeds have been permitted to run as fast as 200 birds per minute. That’s faster than any human could possibly inspect all those birds.

Privatizing inspection means shifting the actual hands-on inspection of the birds from highly trained, taxpayer-funded, unbiased, Federal employees to plant employees who are not required to have any training at all — and in doing so, the USDA had to change the name of these employees to “sorters” in lieu of inspectors, because what they’re doing is not inspection.

It is a sad state of affairs when our government is more concerned about saving money than it is about people’s health, but that’s what we’ve got here: a money-saving system that makes it impossible to do adequate inspection of our poultry. A properly trained inspector utilizes ALL of their senses to make a decision about the wholesomeness of the bird. I have no idea of how checking carcasses flying by at unregulated speeds of three per second, without any authority to touch the products, turn or do anything else, can be called “inspection.”

via My 30 Years as a Poultry Inspector | Food & Water Watch.

Texas pertussis levels on track to reach highest levels in 50 years | Vaccine News Daily

The cost of self-delusion that vaccinations are not needed or that refusing them for your kids is “freedom” related…

Two pertussis-related deaths occurred this year in Texas in infants too young to be vaccinated.

“This is extremely concerning,” Lisa Cornelius, an infectious diseases medical officer at the DSHS, said. “If cases continue to be diagnosed at the current rate, we will see the most Texas cases since the 1950s. Pertussis is highly infectious and can cause serious complications, especially in babies, so people should take it seriously.”

The DSHS issued a health alert on Tuesday advising doctors on how to diagnose and treat pertussis. The department strongly urged people to ensure their children’s and their own vaccinations are up to date.

The department recommends pregnant women get a dose of pertussis vaccine during each pregnancy, preferably between the 27th and 36th weeks of pregnancy. The vaccine helps protect the baby before he or she can start getting a vaccine series at two months of age. Family members and medical providers who will be around newborns should also be vaccinated.

Pertussis is a bacterial infection that typically starts with cold-like symptoms and a mild cough. After a week or two, severe coughing can start and last for several weeks. The whooping sound that follows the coughing fits gives the disease its other name, whooping cough.

via Texas pertussis levels on track to reach highest levels in 50 years | Vaccine News Daily.

Mumps Outbreak Linked To Jersey Shore Nightclub: Gothamist

The viral disease is pretty rare these days, but there have been a few outbreaks in the United States in recent years, including a major outbreak in Brooklyn’s Orthodox community in 2009 and 2010. According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms (if there are any) include swollen, painful salivary glands that cause your cheeks to puff out, along with fever, headaches, trouble chewing and swallowing and loss of appetite. The disease is easily spread via saliva (shared drinks and utensils, sneezing, hot-‘n-heavy dance floor makeouts), and while cases usually resolve themselves, people with mumps have to be quarantined until they’re no longer contagious.

via Mumps Outbreak Linked To Jersey Shore Nightclub: Gothamist.

WHO announces four new cases of MERS-CoV | Vaccine News Daily

The World Health Organization announced on Saturday that it was informed of an additional four laboratory-confirmed bases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection in Saudi Arabia.

Since September of last year, WHO has announced a total of 108 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS-CoV, resulting in 50 deaths.

via WHO announces four new cases of MERS-CoV | Vaccine News Daily.

North Carolina DHHS makes flu vaccines mandatory for healthcare workers | Vaccine News Daily

Will not be long before state legislature that believes in knows everything – will move to take away this power from state government because it interferes with right to be dumb and give others the flu!

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services recently directed leaders of 14 state-operated healthcare facilities to institute a mandatory flu vaccination policy for 10,000 employees and volunteers to protect patients.

Employees of the DHHS Division of State Operated Healthcare Facilities were told about the policy in late August. Employees must be vaccinated by December 1.

via North Carolina DHHS makes flu vaccines mandatory for healthcare workers | Vaccine News Daily.