• Nine die in Alabama from infected IVs

    Alabama public health officials are currently investigating the deaths of nine patients who received intravenous nutrition from contaminated feedbags; officials say that the intravenous nutrition solution, called total parenteral nutrition (TPN), contained Serratia marcescens bacteremia, which leads to a bacterial infection in the blood; investigators have traced the source of the contaminated intravenous nutrition feed bags to the pharmaceutical supplier Meds IV; the bacteria is commonly found and it is difficult to specifically link the organisms that killed the nine patients to those found at Meds IV facility

  • Information about Maryland biolabs scarce

    High-level containment laboratories and storage facilities that handle dangerous biological agents exist in Frederick County, Maryland, outside the secured gates of Fort Detrick, but state law mandates that the number and location of each remains confidential; supporters of the current system say that confidentiality is critical to maintain the security and safety of the labs, but critics argue that the secrecy makes it impossible for emergency services in the neighborhood to prepare properly for accidents

  • Full-body scanners not a health risk

    A new study concludes that there is “no significant threat” from backscatter X-ray scanners; even though they use ionizing radiation, which is known to cause cancer, the doses are so low — less than 1 percent of the additional radiation a person gets from flying in an airplane in the first place, and about the same received through 3 to 9 minutes of daily life on the ground — that only a handful of cancer cases are likely to result directly from scanner use

  • Satellite information helps eradicate mosquitoes

    Louisiana’s St. Tammany Parish is partnering with Colorado-based location intelligence software company aWhere, Inc. to test a new satellite-based surveillance system that can locate and analyze potential mosquito breeding sites with near pinpoint accuracy

  • Starving bugs dead

    One way to kill bugs and pests is to starve them to death; caterpillars attack tomato and potato plant in order to extract an enzyme called threonine, or TD1 — a key nutrient caterpillars need to grow; Michigan State University researchers show that the potato and tomato plants release an enzyme — called TD2 — which caterpillars consume at the same time they consume TD1; TD2 has devastating effects a few hours later — in the pests’ stomachs; TD2 goes to work in the gut of caterpillars to degrade TD1; in effect, the plants concede the first battle — allowing caterpillars to consume as much TD1 (but also TD2) as they wish — in order to win the war (the caterpillars will be dead within a few hours)

  • Superbug sweeps across Los Angeles hospitals

    Last week, public health officials in Los Angeles reported an outbreak of a drug-resistant superbug in several local healthcare facilities; the deadly drug-resistant strain is Klebsiella pneumonia (CRKP) and is estimated to kill 40 percent of those who are infected with it; the LA county health department has identified 356 cases of the bacteria over a six month period; CRKP has primarily been infecting senior citizens; CRKP is part of a larger wave of antibiotic germs that have plagued hospitals in recent years; the bacteria was originally found on the east coast of the United States, and was only first seen last year in the Los Angeles area

  • Canada launches TB website to stem spread of disease

    Researchers at Canada’s McGill University recently launched a free website to help doctors around the world stem the spread of tuberculosis (TB); the website offers detailed information on TB vaccinations in over 180 countries; while TB levels are at all-time lows in Canada and the United States, TB has grown increasingly prevalent around the world particularly in Africa and India; in India, there are nearly two million new cases of TB each year and it is the leading cause of death among people between the ages of fifteen and forty-five; the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Studies recently warned that up to ten million people could die of TB by 2015; if detected early, TB can be treated with antibiotics

  • Australia battling mosquitoes to stop spread of dengue fever

    Public health officials in Queensland in northern Australia are actively battling dengue fever following an outbreak of the virus; fifty-five people have been infected in Innisfail and its outlying areas; two cases of dengue fever have been detected in Cairns, 56 miles north of Innisfail; to stem the spread of the disease, public health officials are on a campaign to eradicate mosquitos and their breeding grounds; so far the government has wiped out an estimated 50,000 mosquito breeding sites; in one week, fourteen public health field officers searched 1,117 properties in Innisfail and found 13,628 potential breeding sites

  • UN warns of potential food crisis

    A UN Food and Agriculture Organization official warned that countries are not doing enough to increase food production to meet rising demand and that the world could be headed for a global food crisis; global food production must rise by 70 percent in order to meet the estimated demand for food; food prices have already soared in recent months and in 2010 food prices increased by 25 percent; rising prices sparked food riots in Egypt and Tunisia, which contributed to the overthrow of their governments; large disasters and droughts have significantly reduced crop yields across the world; as supply has fallen, demand has spiked due to population growth and increased use of food to manufacture biofuels

  • Controversy of Kansas biosecurity lab continues

    KSU attracted the $650 million National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility for making vaccines and anti-virals to combat the world’s most dangerous animal diseases, beating out the competition during a multi-year screening process; in addition, KSU is planning a 26 April open house for a brand-new “innovation campus” west of Kansas City that will provide graduate level and professional science master’s degree programs (targeted versions of traditional academic programs) as well as industry training in animal health, food safety, and bio-security for more than 120 companies located in the “Kansas City animal health corridor”; critics say that building such a lab in Kansas — one of the largest livestock producing states, and a state which lies at the nation’s transportation crossroads and in the middle of Tornado Alley — is not such a good idea

  • Border agents intercept "destructive" Pakistani insects in Oakland

    The Khapra beetle, which is native to India, can eat its way through up to 70 percent of grain stores to which it has access; it was eradicated in the United States in 1966, and has been subject to federal quarantine since then; U.S. border agents in the Port of Oakland discover — and destroy — the larva in a shipment from Pakistan

  • Countries closely monitor Japanese food for radiation

    On Saturday, Japan announced that radiation was detected in spinach and milk produced near the Fukushima nuclear plant; the levels were low enough to not pose a long-term threat to human health, but they were above the national safety level, so the Japanese government has stopped sales of food products from near the damaged plant; countries importing food products from Japan are on alert

  • Ticks identified as cause of lethal disease in China

    In 2006 villagers in Anhui Province in central China began dying of an illness characterized by high fever, gastrointestinal distress, and a depressed platelet count; researchers suspected anaplasmosis, an infection spread by ticks caused by the bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum – but they found neither bacterial DNA nor antibodies against it; each spring since then the disease has struck with a vengeance, killing up to 30 percent of those infected in six provinces of China; scientists have now identified the enemy

  • Cholera outbreak in Haiti projected to infect twice as many people

    U.S. researchers fear that Haiti’s cholera epidemic could be far worse than initially projected; new models estimate that nearly 800,000 people will be infected with cholera, almost double initial estimates; nine months after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that shook Haiti last year, cholera cases began to appear for the first time in nearly a hundred years; public health officials are currently debating how to stem the spread of cholera by pursuing vaccination, antibiotics, or sanitation; Harvard researchers are advocating for the use of all three

  • The health effects of airport security scanners

    The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has begun to use whole-body imaging scanners as a primary screening measure on travelers passing through airport security checkpoints; one type of scanner employs millimeter wave technology, which delivers no ionizing radiation; the second type of scanner currently deployed at airports, however, uses backscatter X-rays that expose the individual being screened to very low levels of ionizing radiation; what are the health implications of these scanners? Two prominent radiologists offer answers