Category Archives: planetkillers

CDC issues warning on multidrug-resistant yeast infection | CIDRAP – err… really not good news

cause for concern is that the testing of the C auris isolates demonstrated that nearly all exhibited varying levels of resistance to multiple classes of antifungal drugs—including azoles, echinocandins, and polyenes. That finding indicates that treatment options for C auris infections could be limited.A fungus that is resistant to the three major classes of antifungal drugs “could be a real management challenge,” Chiller noted.The other challenge is that C auris is difficult to identify. The CDC said biochemical-based tests cannot differentiate between C auris and other invasive Candida infections, so the pathogen can be misidentified and potentially treated inappropriately. Originally, Chiller said, many of the infections were identified as C haemulonii before being correctly identified as C auris. Chiller said hospitals need molecular techniques to correctly identify C auris infections.Chiller also noted that the fungal infection is emerging simultaneously on different continents. While the isolates appear to be highly related within the countries reporting infections, they are highly distinct between continents.

Source: CDC issues warning on multidrug-resistant yeast infection | CIDRAP

North Carolina’s Factory Farms Produce 15,000 Olympic Pools Worth of Waste Each Year | Civil Eats

Elsie Herring stays indoors on the days the industrial hog farm next door sprays manure from a lagoon-like holding pit across the field that ends eight feet from her kitchen window. Because a filthy mist coats her property if the wind is blowing from the west, Herring has learned to avoid activities like sitting on her porch, grilling outside, hanging laundry on the line, opening windows, and drinking water from the well. Herring lives in Duplin County, North Carolina, on a plot of land her family has owned for more than a century. Located in the eastern part of the state, Duplin contains more than 18.5 million confined animals, including 2.3 million hogs. In Herring’s part of the state, pigs outnumber people almost 40 to one. “You can smell the odor inside,” 67-year-old Herring says. “The feces, the ammonia—all that stuff—we have to breathe it in, because we have to breathe.” On top of physical symptoms like headaches, stomachaches, excessive coughing, watery eyes, and the urge to vomit, area residents often experience anxiety and depression from the sense of helplessness they feel and the lack of relief from the stench, Herring says. Last week, environmental groups including the Waterkeeper Alliance, Environmental Working Group, and North Carolina Riverkeeper organizations addressed what they see as “yawning gaps in the North Carolina state agricultural regulatory system” by releasing a collection of maps and data on the 6,500 concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)—and their accompanying waste lagoons—in the Tarheel State.

Source: North Carolina’s Factory Farms Produce 15,000 Olympic Pools Worth of Waste Each Year | Civil Eats

Researchers welcome discovery of rare helium gas in Tanzania | News | DW.COM | “Spin, hot air, destroy the earth for profit.”

Researchers say the discovery of as much as 54 billion cubic feet of the gas in southern Tanzania could satisfy total world demand for almost seven years at current rates.

Source: Researchers welcome discovery of rare helium gas in Tanzania | News | DW.COM | 28.06.2016

Study documents live Zika virus in urine and saliva | CIDRAP

Urine and saliva as transmission threat?The Fiocruz Institute scientists initially announced their findings in Brazil in early February and published the full results on Jun 24 in Public Library of Science (PLoS) Neglected Tropical Diseases.Of nine patients sampled, 6 were from a group of pregnant women with rash, and 3—2 men and 1 woman—had sought care for their Zika symptoms at a Fiocruz acute care clinic. Nine urine samples and five saliva samples were collected from the patients. Tests on the samples included reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), quantitative RT-PCR, nucleic acid testing (NAT), and Vero cell inoculation.Live virus was found in two samples from different patients, one from urine and one from saliva. For patients who submitted both types of sample, urine viral loads were higher than in saliva.The authors said their finding in saliva seems to confirm a case report of live virus isolated from the saliva of a patient who got sick in January after returning from the Dominican Republic to Italy, reported in March in Eurosurveillance.In April, French researchers in an early-online letter to the New England Journal of Medicine reported a sexual Zika transmission case in which they couldn’t rule out the possible of saliva as one of the ways the infected man passed the virus to his female partner.The importance of both body fluids as transmission routes isn’t clear and needs more study, the authors wrote. They noted that the acidic pH of urine might restrict viral spread.For saliva, the isolation of viable virus doesn’t always prove that the virus can transmit orally, because saliva typically contains antiviral molecules and is relatively hypotonic, meaning it can lyse enveloped viruses. They said the possibility of person-to-person spread through disruptions in oral mucosa or periodontal pockets, however, should be investigated.

Source: Study documents live Zika virus in urine and saliva | CIDRAP

Dozens of U.S. Diplomats, in Memo, Urge Strikes Against Syria’s Assad – The New York Times {New Neo-Con Spin to “force” US to start another failed Middle East War?}

{The Foreign Service is a corps of some 13,000 employees}

 

More than  have signed an internal memo sharply critical of the Obama administration’s policy in Syria, urging the United States to carry out military strikes against the government of President Bashar al-Assad to stop its persistent violations of a cease-fire in the country’s five-year-old civil war. The memo, a draft of which was provided to The New York Times by a State Department official, says American policy has been “overwhelmed” by the unrelenting violence in Syria. It calls for “a judicious use of stand-off and air weapons, which would undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed U.S.-led diplomatic process.”

Source: Dozens of U.S. Diplomats, in Memo, Urge Strikes Against Syria’s Assad – The New York Times

Zika complications seen in 6 US pregnancies so far | CIDRAP

In an update today. the CDC reported more local Zika infections in US territories and more travel-related cases in US states. Affected territories reported 135 more illnesses last week, raising the total number of local cases to 1,436. One fewer related Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) was reported in the territories, dropping that number to 6. In US states, 64 more travel-related Zika cases were reported, along with the recent lab-acquired case in Pennsylvania, putting the overall total at 756. The number of sexually transmitted Zika cases remained the same, at 11, and 1 more GBS cases was reported in US states, lifting that total to 3.

Source: Zika complications seen in 6 US pregnancies so far | CIDRAP

Leonard Cohen – Anthem (w/lyrics) London 2008 – Peace for the Soul

There is a crack A crack in everything That’s how the light gets in. We asked for signs and the signs were sent: the birth betrayed the marriage spent Yeah the widowhood of every single government signs for all to see I can’t run no more with that lawless crowd Ah but they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up a thundercloud and they’re going to hear from me.

Source: Leonard Cohen – Anthem (w/lyrics) London 2008 – Peace for the Soul

Rio 2016: Studies find ‘super bacteria’ in Olympic venues, top tourist beaches – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Scientists have found dangerous drug-resistant “super bacteria” off beaches in Rio de Janeiro that will host Olympic swimming events and in a lagoon where rowing and canoe athletes will compete when the Games start early August. Key points: Super bacteria found in five of Rio’s beaches, in the Olympic Lagoon, and in a river Federal police are investigating whether Rio’s water utility Cedae is committing environmental crimes Bacteria lie dormant but attack when a healthy person falls ill for another reason The findings from two unpublished academic studies concern Rio’s most popular spots for tourists, and heighten concerns that the city’s sewage-infested waterways are unsafe.

Source: Rio 2016: Studies find ‘super bacteria’ in Olympic venues, top tourist beaches – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Multistate E coli outbreak prompts General Mills flour recall | CIDRAP

Who do you trust? Who can you trust?

Minneapolis-based food processor General Mills today announced a recall of Gold Medal, Wondra, and Signature Kitchens flour in connection with an outbreak of 38 Escherichia coli O121 infections in 20 states. In a press release, the company said E coli O121 has not been found in any of its flour or in the manufacturing facility, nor have consumers reported any confirmed illnesses to the firm, but the recall is being issued out of abundant caution. The recall involves about 10 million pounds of flour, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported today. General Mills said the products are sold in Safeway, Albertsons, Jewel, Shaws, Vons, United, Randalls, and Acme stores.

Source: Multistate E coli outbreak prompts General Mills flour recall | CIDRAP

US warns of nearly invincible superbug | News | DW.COM | {The final “oops!”?}

US health officials reported Thursday that they had discovered the first case in the country of a patient with an infection resistant to all known antibiotics. The discovery raises fears that the so-called superbug could pose serious danger for routine infections if it spreads. “We know now that the more we look, the more we are going to find. We risk being in a post-antibiotic world,” said Thomas Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, referring to the urinary tract infection of a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman who had not travelled within the prior five months. “We need to do a very comprehensive job of protecting antibiotics, so we can have them and our children can have them,” Frieden added.

Source: US warns of nearly invincible superbug | News | DW.COM | 26.05.2016