Disease outbreaks will increase as per ZetaTalk

[Starr DiGiacomo]

 

Taking Sick

On Jan 15, 1998 ZetaTalk stated that Illness will increase as Planet X approaches.  Zetas right again !!!

ZetaTalk: Take Sick, written Feb 15, 1998.

Increasingly, as the pole shift nears, the populace will take sick. This will take the form of known illnesses occurring more frequently, seemingly depressed immune systems, but will also appear as new and puzzling illnesses not seen before in the memory of man. What is going on here?

The changes at the core of the Earth that have resulted in El Nino weather patterns and white buffalo and deformed frogs also affect man. The germs are on the move. Their carriers are on the move. And thus humans are exposed to diseases that are so rare as to be undocumented in medical journals.

You will see increasing illness, odd illnesses, microbes that travel because an insect is scattering about and spreading germs in places where it normally doesn't travel. 90% of all the illness and distress you're going to see is a natural situation, a natural occurrence. Because of the changing, swirling in the core of the Earth, and this will continue to up-tick until the pole shift.

And reiterated in 1999

ZetaTalk: Next 3 1/2 Years, written Sep 15, 1999.

Sickness will slightly increase from where it is today. There is a lot of illness now because people who are already unstable are unable to take the turmoil caused by the increased emanations from the Earth. Some of them have simply sensed what is coming and have decided to die. This is true of animals as well as humans. Sickness will increase, but not to the point where it is going to get exponentially worse.

On Feb 2, 2000 a Washington report confirmed this increase, and published concerns were subsequently reported.

Diseases From Around World Threatening U.S.
Reuters, Feb 2, 2000

30 New Diseases Make Global Debut
At least 30 previously unknown diseases have appeared globally since 1973, including HIV, AIDS, Hepatitis C, Ebola haemorrhagic fever and the encephalitis-related Nipah virus that emerged in Indonesia. Twenty well-known infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, and cholera have re-emerged or spread since 1973.

  

Is Global Warming Harmful to Health?
Scientific American, August 2000

Notably, computer models predict that global warming, and other climate alterations it induces, will expand the incidence and distribution of many serious medical disorders. Disturbingly, these forecasts seem to be coming true.

And since this time, SARS and increased incidence of flesh eating disease,
and entire cruise ships regularly returning to port with the passengers ill with stomach flu have been reported.
Depressed immune systems?
Zetas RIGHT Again!

After the pole shift, there will be many opportunistic diseases that will afflict mankind. This does not require an imagination, as today they afflict mankind after disasters. The primary affliction will be from sewage laden water, which will pollute the drinking water man is forced to use. We have been adamant about mankind distilling their drinking water after the pole shift for this reason. Distillation removes heavy metals as well as killing microbes by the boiling process. Any disease that flourishes in malnourished bodies and in areas of poor hygiene will take advantage of the pole shift disasters. Scurvy due to lack of Vitamin C will occur, with bleeding gums and even death if not corrected. Many weeds are high in Vitamin C and survivors should arm themselves with knowledge about the vitamin content of weeds. Unprotected sex by survivors either taking advantage of the weak, as in rape, or by simple distraction and grief and a lack of contraceptive devices will spread AIDS and hepatitis. Morgellons, which is caused by a synergy of parasites and microbes when the immune system is low will likely increase. There will be outbreaks of diseases which were endemic in the past, such as small pox or measles, but in those survivor communities where the members have been immunized in the past these will be limited and quarantines can help in this regard.

http://www.zetatalk5.com/ning/20no2010.htm

 

Chile battles youth unrest and typhoid fever outbreak

Posted on September 15, 2011 by The Extinction Protocol

September 15, 2011 – SANTIAGO – Chile’s problems dealing with youth unrest over slow education reforms are being compounded by concerns the capital may be in the grip of a typhoid fever outbreak. The government has battled to enforce restraint on law enforcement agencies amid angry student-led protests, which have disrupted urban centers across the country for more than a month. The reforms demanded by youth groups are nowhere near being implemented and protests continue to simmer with support from teachers and workers unions. Now authorities are faced with the more immediate risk of typhoid. Health authorities issued repeated alerts for tougher hygiene checks and controls after they found several people infected and seriously ill with typhoid in the western metropolitan area of Santiago. At least seven cases were confirmed by the Public Health Institute but there were no immediate reports of fatalities. “Typhoid fever is an acute infectious disease triggered by a salmonella bacteria strain,” Institute Director Maria Teresa Valenzuela said. In most cases the infection is caused by consumption of contaminated food and drink or fruit and vegetables grown in areas where contaminated water is used in irrigation. Typhoid fever produces symptoms of high fever, diarrhea or intense headaches. The Santiago region has been prone to typhoid outbreaks since the 1990s when incidence of the disease caused up to 190 cases a year.

http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/chile-battles...

Epidemic Hazard in India on Saturday, 17 September, 2011 at 03:16 (03:16 AM) UTC.

Description
The Department of Health and Family Welfare has informed that it had received a message through telephone on 12th September 2011 of an outbreak of fever of unknown cause leading to three deaths at Poilwa village, Peren District. Immediately the State Rapid Response Team (RRT) of Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP), Nagaland, comprising of Dr. John Kemp (State Surveillance Officer), Dr. Sao Tunyi (Epidemiologist), Dr. Kevisevolie Sekhose (Epidemiologist), and Venezo Vasa (Entomologist) conducted an outbreak investigation at Poilwa village. The team collected three samples from suspected cases out of which all the three were tested positive for Scrub Typhus. Till date, there are 9 cases with 3 deaths. This was stated in a official press note issued by Dr. Imtimeren Jamir, the Principal Director, Directorate of Health & Family Welfare, Kohima. Scrub Typhus is Rickettsial disease caused Orientia tsutsugamushi and transmitted by the bite of mite called Leptotrombidium deliense. In Nagaland, it was formerly detected by IDSP with Central Surveillance Team at Longsa village Mokokchung in 2006, and in Porba village of Phek District in 2007. The State RRT team carried out the outbreak investigation along with doing and entomological survey. The patients were treated with appropriate medicines and awareness and preventive measures were communicated with the villagers. The concerned local health authorities and programs are informed for further necessary action. The mop-up operation is being carried out by the National Vector Borne Disease Control Program.
Biohazard name:	Typhus (Scrub)
Biohazard level:	3/4 Hight
Biohazard desc.:	Bacteria and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which vaccines or other treatments exist, such as anthrax, West Nile virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, SARS virus, variola virus (smallpox), tuberculosis, typhus, Rift Valley fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Among parasites Plasmodium falciparum, which causes Malaria, and Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes trypanosomiasis, also come under this level.
Symptoms:	- After bite by infected mite larvae called chiggers, papule develops at the biting site which ulcerates and eventually heals with the development of a black eschar. - Patients develop sudden fever with headache, weakness, myalgia, generalized enlargement of lymph nodes, photophobia, and dry cough. - A week later, rash appears on the trunk, then on the extremities, and turns pale within a few days. - Symptoms generally disappear after two weeks even without treatment. - However, in severe cases with Pneumonia and Myocarditis, mortality may reach 30% Diagnosis - The most commonly used test for diagnosis is Wel-Felix Test, which is available at State IDSP laboratory, Kohima. - More specific serological tests like detection of IgM can also be done for diagnosis.
Status:	confirmed

Turns out, the plague isn't just ancient history. New Mexico health officials recently confirmed the first human case of bubonic plague — previously known as the "Black Death" — to surface in the U.S. in 2011. 

An unidentified 58-year-old man was hospitalized for a week after suffering from a high fever, pain in his abdomen and groin, and swollen lymph nodes, reports the New York Daily News. (Officials declined to say when the man was released from the hospital.) A blood sample from the man tested positive for the disease.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/10/first-case-of-bubonic-plague-...

http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/10/first-case-of-bubonic-plague-...

Epidemic Hazard in USA on Saturday, 17 September, 2011 at 03:33 (03:33 AM) UTC.

Description
Umatilla County health officials today confirmed a case of plague in an adult male county resident. He may have been infected while hunting in Lake County, noted Sharon Waldern, clinic supervisor for the county’s public health department. “Lake County had two cases of human plague last year.” The man has been hospitalized and is receiving treatment, Waldern noted. “People need to realize he was never considered contagious and he started treatment fairly quickly.” Plague is spread to humans through a bite from an infected flea. The disease is serious but treatable with antibiotics if caught early, officials said. Plague can be passed from fleas feeding on infected rodents and then transmitted to humans. Direct contact with infected tissues or fluids from handling sick or dead animals can pass the disease, as well as through respiratory droplets from cats and humans with pneumonic plague, officials said in a press release. Some types are spread from person to person, but that is not the case here, Waldern said. Symptoms typically develop within one to four days and up to seven days after exposure and include fever, chills, headache, weakness and a bloody or watery cough due to pneumonia, enlarged, tender lymph nodes, abdominal pain and bleeding into the skin or other organs. Plague is rare in Oregon. Only three human cases have been diagnosed since 1995 and they all recovered. Last year two human cases of plague were diagnosed in Lake County. As far as she knows, this is the first ever incident in Umatilla County. “In this recent case it is important to stay away from flea-infested areas and to recognize the symptoms. People can protect themselves, their family members and their pets,” said Genni Lehnert-Beers, administrator for Umatilla County Health Department. “Using flea treatment on your pets is very important, because your pets can bring fleas into your home.” People should contact their health care provider or veterinarian if plague is suspected. Early treatment for people and pets with appropriate antibiotics is essential to curing plague infections. Untreated plague can be fatal for animals and people. Antibiotics to prevent or treat plague should be used only under the direction of a health care provider. Additional steps to prevent flea bites include wearing insect repellent, tucking pant cuffs into socks when in areas heavily occupied by rodents, and avoiding contact with wildlife including rodents.
Biohazard name:	Plague (Bubonic)
Biohazard level:	4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:	Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
Symptoms:
Statu The Black Death: Bubonic Plague	confirmed http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/?pageid=event_desc&edis_id=EH...

[Starr DiGiacomo]

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1122619/black-death-bubonic-pl...

BLACK DEATH PLAGUE fears: Holidaymakers die after eating marmot meat – plane QUARANTINED

A PLANE was raised by medics in anti-contamination suits after two passengers died after contracting the bubonic plague, sparking an airport lockdown.

UPDATED: 09:19, Sat, May 4, 2019

Up to 11 passengers were shepherded off the plane which had made an emergency landing in Mongolia. They were sent for hospital checks immediately, the Siberian Times reports. The husband and wife had eaten meat from a marmot, a large rat-like rodent.

The plague began in the UK and Europe in 1347 due to fleas living on rats.

A special medical facility at the airport in Ulaanbaatar examined other passengers after paramedics boarded the plane from provincial posts set up as soon as the plane landed.

and another:

http://outbreaknewstoday.com/hungary-reports-4-human-anthrax-cases-...

Hungary reports 4 human anthrax cases

May 4 2019

Hungarian health authorities have reported (computer translated) four human cutaneous anthrax cases, at least one confirmed, in two separate counties in recent weeks.

The affected individuals were reported from farms in Bács-Kiskun and Békés counties. In addition, an additional 30 people were treated prophylactically with antibiotics due to possible exposure.

Animal health officials have reported a confirmed anthrax case in a cow and an additional four suspect cases on an outbreak in Kötegyán, Bekes.

These are the first human anthrax cases in Hungary in several years.

Anthrax is a serious infectious disease caused by gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria known as Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax can be found naturally in soil and commonly affects domestic and wild animals around the world. Although it is rare, people can get sick with anthrax if they come in contact with infected animals or contaminated animal products.

Cutaneous  anthrax occurs when the spore (or possibly the bacterium) enters a cut or abrasion on the skin. It starts out as a raised bump that looks like an insect bite. It then develops into a blackened lesion called an eschar that may form a scab. Lymph glands in the area may swell plus edema may be present. This form of anthrax responds well to antibiotics. If untreated, deaths can occur if the infection goes systemic. 95% of cases of anthrax are cutaneous.

and another:

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-05/03/c_138031743.htm?fbclid=...

15 dead, over 15,000 infected by dengue virus in Sri Lanka

Source: Xinhua| 2019-05-03 20:45:06

COLOMBO, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Fifteen people have died and over 15,000 infected by the dengue virus across Sri Lanka in the first four months of this year, the Epidemiology Unit said here Friday.

Till April 30, a total of 15,407 dengue cases were reported with the highest number of cases reported from the Colombo district with 3,405 cases, followed by Gampaha in the outskirts of Colombo with 2,007 cases and Jaffna in the north with 1,783 cases.

Medical experts urged people to seek immediate medical attention if they suffered from high fever, uncontrolled vomiting, abdominal pain, dizziness and reduced urinary.

"All fever patients need rest and should refrain from attending work or school," epidemiologists said.

"Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) can be fatal," epidemiologists added.

Last year, over 50 people died and over 48,000 affected by the dengue virus in Sri Lanka, with the National Dengue Control Unit launching several programs to eradicate dengue's breeding grounds in several districts of the island country.

[Rodney E. Langley]

Hello Starr, we appreciate your dedication through all the years. Thanks.

[Starr DiGiacomo]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cruise-ship-measles-quarantined-st-l...

Cruise Ship Quarantined In St. Lucia Over Confirmed Measles Case

05/1/2019

Passengers and crew were not allowed to leave the ship during the quarantine because of the possibility of spreading the highly contagious disease.

Nearly 300 people are being quarantined on a cruise ship at the St. Lucia port in the Caribbean after a crew member was confirmed to have measles.

Dr. Merlene Fredericks-James, St. Lucia’s chief medical officer, confirmed the quarantine on Monday in a filmed statement but did not reveal the name of the cruise ship. Neither crew members nor passengers were allowed to leave the ship during the quarantine.

The infected person is a female crew member, NBC News reported.

“One infected person can easily infect others through coughing, sneezing, droplets being on different surfaces, etc.,” Fredericks-James said in a filmed statement on Monday. “Because of the risk of potential infection, not just from the confirmed measles case but from other persons who may be on the boat at the time. We thought it prudent...to not let anyone on the boat disembark.”

Fredericks-James told NBC News on Tuesday that it is likely that other people may have been exposed to the measles on the boat.

Fredericks-James didn’t disclose the name of the cruise ship in her statement on Monday, but St. Lucia Coast Guard Sgt. Victor Theodore told CNBC on Wednesday that a cruise ship named Freewinds was currently docked at the island. 

The Church of Scientology operates a cruise ship by name of Freewinds based in the Caribbean, where it holds religious retreats “ministering the most advanced level of spiritual counseling in the Scientology religion,” according to the church’s website. HuffPost has reached out to the church for comment.

In an interview with St. Lucia News Online, the country’s acting National Epidemiologist Dr. Michelle Francois said that the island has been free of any locally-transmitted cases of measles since 1990. 

Speaking to the press on Monday, Fredericks-James noted the recent measle outbreak in the U.S. that has hit 22 states.

This is “largely because persons have not been taking the vaccine because there is a vaccine that protects the person from getting measles,” she said.

The number of measles cases in the U.S. has hit a new high with a total of 704 cases as of this April, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week.

[Juan F Martinez]

Ohio man contracts flesh-eating bacteria in water off Pinellas County

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (FOX 13) - 4-30-2019 The second case of flesh-eating bacteria has been reported out of the Bay Area, this time in a man who visited from Ohio last month. Doctors were able to save the man's foot following his spring break trip to Pinellas County.

Barry Briggs likely contracted the bacteria when he and his son were in the water off of Weedon Island on March 23. That night, Briggs' foot began to swell.

Less than 48 hours later, after traveling home, Briggs was in the hospital undergoing emergency surgery. He'll never forget what the surgeon told him before he went under the knife.

This is the second flesh-eating bacteria case in the Bay Area in less than a month. Not long after Briggs contracted his infection, Mike Walton ended up with one in his hand after cutting himself with a fishing hook.  Both cases happened off the coast of Pinellas County.

http://www.fox5dc.com/news/ohio-man-contracts-flesh-eating-bacteria...

[Starr DiGiacomo]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/health/drug-resistant-candida-au...

A Mysterious Infection, Spanning the Globe in a Climate of Secrecy

The rise of Candida auris embodies a serious and growing public health threat: drug-resistant germs.

Bacteria are rebelling. They’re turning the tide against antibiotics by outsmarting our wonder drugs.

Last May, an elderly man was admitted to the Brooklyn branch of Mount Sinai Hospital for abdominal surgery. A blood test revealed that he was infected with a newly discovered germ as deadly as it was mysterious. Doctors swiftly isolated him in the intensive care unit.

The germ, a fungus called Candida auris, preys on people with weakened immune systems, and it is quietly spreading across the globe. Over the last five years, it has hit a neonatal unit in Venezuela, swept through a hospital in Spain, forced a prestigious British medical center to shut down its intensive care unit, and taken root in India, Pakistan and South Africa.

Recently C. auris reached New York, New Jersey and Illinois, leading the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to add it to a list of germs deemed “urgent threats.”

[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]

The man at Mount Sinai died after 90 days in the hospital, but C. auris did not. Tests showed it was everywhere in his room, so invasive that the hospital needed special cleaning equipment and had to rip out some of the ceiling and floor tiles to eradicate it.

“Everything was positive — the walls, the bed, the doors, the curtains, the phones, the sink, the whiteboard, the poles, the pump,” said Dr. Scott Lorin, the hospital’s president. “The mattress, the bed rails, the canister holes, the window shades, the ceiling, everything in the room was positive.”

C. auris is so tenacious, in part, because it is impervious to major antifungal medications, making it a new example of one of the world’s most intractable health threats: the rise of drug-resistant infections.

For decades, public health experts have warned that the overuse of antibiotics was reducing the effectiveness of drugs that have lengthened life spans by curing bacterial infections once commonly fatal. But lately, there has been an explosion of resistant fungi as well, adding a new and frightening dimension to a phenomenon that is undermining a pillar of modern medicine.

“It’s an enormous problem,” said Matthew Fisher, a professor of fungal epidemiology at Imperial College London, who was a co-author of a recent scientific review on the rise of resistant fungi. “We depend on being able to treat those patients with antifungals.”

Simply put, fungi, just like bacteria, are evolving defenses to survive modern medicines.

Yet even as world health leaders have pleaded for more restraint in prescribing antimicrobial drugs to combat bacteria and fungi — convening the United Nations General Assembly in 2016 to manage an emerging crisis — gluttonous overuse of them in hospitals, clinics and farming has continued.

Resistant germs are often called “superbugs,” but this is simplistic because they don’t typically kill everyone. Instead, they are most lethal to people with immature or compromised immune systems, including newborns and the elderly, smokers, diabetics and people with autoimmune disorders who take steroids that suppress the body’s defenses.

Scientists say that unless more effective new medicines are developed and unnecessary use of antimicrobial drugs is sharply curbed, risk will spread to healthier populations. A study the British government funded projects that if policies are not put in place to slow the rise of drug resistance, 10 million people could die worldwide of all such infections in 2050, eclipsing the eight million expected to die that year from cancer.

In the United States, two million people contract resistant infections annually, and 23,000 die from them, according to the official C.D.C. estimate. That number was based on 2010 figures; more recent estimates from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine put the death toll at 162,000. Worldwide fatalities from resistant infections are estimated at 700,000.

Antibiotics and antifungals are both essential to combat infections in people, but antibiotics are also used widely to prevent disease in farm animals, and antifungals are also applied to prevent agricultural plants from rotting. Some scientists cite evidence that rampant use of fungicides on crops is contributing to the surge in drug-resistant fungi infecting humans.

Yet as the problem grows, it is little understood by the public — in part because the very existence of resistant infections is often cloaked in secrecy.

With bacteria and fungi alike, hospitals and local governments are reluctant to disclose outbreaks for fear of being seen as infection hubs. Even the C.D.C., under its agreement with states, is not allowed to make public the location or name of hospitals involved in outbreaks. State governments have in many cases declined to publicly share information beyond acknowledging that they have had cases.

All the while, the germs are easily spread — carried on hands and equipment inside hospitals; ferried on meat and manure-fertilized vegetables from farms; transported across borders by travelers and on exports and imports; and transferred by patients from nursing home to hospital and back.

C. auris, which infected the man at Mount Sinai, is one of dozens of dangerous bacteria and fungi that have developed resistance.

Other prominent strains of the fungus Candida — one of the most common causes of bloodstream infections in hospitals — have not developed significant resistance to drugs, but more than 90 percent of C. auris infections are resistant to at least one drug, and 30 percent are resistant to two or more drugs, the C.D.C. said.

Dr. Lynn Sosa, Connecticut’s deputy state epidemiologist, said she now saw C. auris as “the top” threat among resistant infections. “It’s pretty much unbeatable and difficult to identify,” she said.

Nearly half of patients who contract C. auris die within 90 days, according to the C.D.C. Yet the world’s experts have not nailed down where it came from in the first place.

“It is a creature from the black lagoon,” said Dr. Tom Chiller, who heads the fungal branch at the C.D.C., which is spearheading a global detective effort to find treatments and stop the spread. “It bubbled up and now it is everywhere.”

‘No need’ to tell the public

In late 2015, Dr. Johanna Rhodes, an infectious disease expert at Imperial College London, got a panicked call from the Royal Brompton Hospital, a British medical center in London. C. auris had taken root there months earlier, and the hospital couldn’t clear it.

“‘We have no idea where it’s coming from. We’ve never heard of it. It’s just spread like wildfire,’” Dr. Rhodes said she was told. She agreed to help the hospital identify the fungus’s genetic profile and clean it from rooms.

Under her direction, hospital workers used a special device to spray aerosolized hydrogen peroxide around a room used for a patient with C. auris, the theory being that the vapor would scour each nook and cranny. They left the device going for a week. Then they put a “settle plate” in the middle of the room with a gel at the bottom that would serve as a place for any surviving microbes to grow, Dr. Rhodes said

Only one organism grew back. C. auris.

It was spreading, but word of it was not. The hospital, a specialty lung and heart center that draws wealthy patients from the Middle East and around Europe, alerted the British government and told infected patients, but made no public announcement.

“There was no need to put out a news release during the outbreak,” said Oliver Wilkinson, a spokesman for the hospital.

This hushed panic is playing out in hospitals around the world. Individual institutions and national, state and local governments have been reluctant to publicize outbreaks of resistant infections, arguing there is no point in scaring patients — or prospective ones.

Dr. Silke Schelenz, Royal Brompton’s infectious disease specialist, found the lack of urgency from the government and hospital in the early stages of the outbreak “very, very frustrating.”

“They obviously didn’t want to lose reputation,” Dr. Schelenz said. “It hadn’t impacted our surgical outcomes.”

By the end of June 2016, a scientific paper reported “an ongoing outbreak of 50 C. auris cases” at Royal Brompton, and the hospital took an extraordinary step: It shut down its I.C.U. for 11 days, moving intensive care patients to another floor, again with no announcement.

Days later the hospital finally acknowledged to a newspaper that it had a problem. A headline in The Daily Telegraph warned, “Intensive Care Unit Closed After Deadly New Superbug Emerges in the U.K.” (Later research said there were eventually 72 total cases, though some patients were only carriers and were not infected by the fungus.)

Yet the issue remained little known internationally, while an even bigger outbreak had begun in Valencia, Spain, at the 992-bed Hospital Universitari i Politècnic La Fe. There, unbeknown to the public or unaffected patients, 372 people were colonized — meaning they had the germ on their body but were not sick with it — and 85 developed bloodstream infections. A paper in the journal Mycoses reported that 41 percent of the infected patients died within 30 days.

A statement from the hospital said it was not necessarily C. auris that killed them. “It is very difficult to discern whether patients die from the pathogen or with it, since they are patients with many underlying diseases and in very serious general condition,” the statement said.

As with Royal Brompton, the hospital in Spain did not make any public announcement. It still has not.

One author of the article in Mycoses, a doctor at the hospital, said in an email that the hospital did not want him to speak to journalists because it “is concerned about the public image of the hospital.”

The secrecy infuriates patient advocates, who say people have a right to know if there is an outbreak so they can decide whether to go to a hospital, particularly when dealing with a nonurgent matter, like elective surgery.

“Why the heck are we reading about an outbreak almost a year and a half later — and not have it front-page news the day after it happens?” said Dr. Kevin Kavanagh, a physician in Kentucky and board chairman of Health Watch USA, a nonprofit patient advocacy group. “You wouldn’t tolerate this at a restaurant with a food poisoning outbreak.”

Health officials say that disclosing outbreaks frightens patients about a situation they can do nothing about, particularly when the risks are unclear.

“It’s hard enough with these organisms for health care providers to wrap their heads around it,” said Dr. Anna Yaffee, a former C.D.C. outbreak investigator who dealt with resistant infection outbreaks in Kentucky in which the hospitals were not publicly disclosed. “It’s really impossible to message to the public.”

Officials in London did alert the C.D.C. to the Royal Brompton outbreak while it was occurring. And the C.D.C. realized it needed to get the word to American hospitals. On June 24, 2016, the C.D.C. blasted a nationwide warning to hospitals and medical groups and set up an email address, [e-mail], to field queries. Dr. Snigdha Vallabhaneni, a key member of the fungal team, expected to get a trickle — “maybe a message every month.”

Instead, within weeks, her inbox exploded.

Coming to America

In the United States, 587 cases of people having contracted C. auris have been reported, concentrated with 309 in New York, 104 in New Jersey and 144 in Illinois, according to the C.D.C.

The symptoms — fever, aches and fatigue — are seemingly ordinary, but when a person gets infected, particularly someone already unhealthy, such commonplace symptoms can be fatal.

The earliest known case in the United States involved a woman who arrived at a New York hospital on May 6, 2013, seeking care for respiratory failure. She was 61 and from the United Arab Emirates, and she died a week later, after testing positive for the fungus. At the time, the hospital hadn’t thought much of it, but three years later, it sent the case to the C.D.C. after reading the agency’s June 2016 advisory.

[Starr DiGiacomo]

http://www.breakingchristiannews.com/articles/display_art.html?ID=2...

Health: Measles Outbreak Prompts State of Emergency in NY, Kids Blocked from Schools, Jail Threatened

News Staff : Mar 29, 2019

The county is experiencing New York State's longest measles outbreak since the disease was declared officially eliminated from the United States in 2000.

(Rockland County, NY)—[CBN News] A county in the northern suburbs of New York City declared a state of emergency this week over a measles outbreak that has infected more than 150 people since last fall. (Image: Measles rash/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/via LA Times)

Under the declaration, which lasts at least 30 days, anyone under 18 who is not vaccinated against measles is barred from public gathering places, including schools.

Officials say the danger from this outbreak is so severe that they're ready to take even more drastic measures. They say if they find out that an unvaccinated person has been in a public place, law enforcement will get involved.

Those in violation could be charged with a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail.

Thomas Humbach, attorney for Rockland County, said, "We've gotten to the point where people were not cooperating. Where people would be known to have had the measles or been exposed to measles and in a public place like a shopping center or a restaurant. And we'd ask. 'You know where have you been? Who have you been in contact with?' So we can follow up in our public health capacity. And we were getting no answers or refused answers and at that point, it impairs the county's ability to help the general public avoid this disease."

The county is experiencing New York State's longest measles outbreak since the disease was declared officially eliminated from the United States in 2000.

The emergency declaration means that unvaccinated children are banned from public places like schools, stores, and churches.

So some parents who had resisted vaccinating their children have reluctantly agreed to get them a measles shot.

"I feel like I am being bullied right now to go get vaccinations," Lainie Goldstein of Grandview told the Journal News.

Gary Siepser, CEO of the Jewish Federation and Foundation of Rockland County, blamed the outbreak on the anti-vaccine movement.

"It has found its way through social media and confused parents and confused people about the importance of vaccination," Siepser said. "And it just happens that there's a group in Rockland County that has bought into that."

[Starr DiGiacomo]

http://kentuckytoday.com/stories/hep-a-outbreak-in-ky-nearing-4000-...

Hep A outbreak in Ky. nearing 4,000 cases with 40 deaths

Posted Monday, February 11, 2019 10:20 am

FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) - Kentucky public health officials keep recommending vaccination for Hepatitis A as the outbreak nears 4,000 cases with 40 deaths across the state.
According to figures from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, through Jan. 26 the number of cases stood at 3,919, resulting in 1,905 hospitalizations and 40 deaths, since the outbreak began being tracked in November 2017. Cases have been reported in 103 of Kentucky’s 120 counties.
Eighty counties have reported five or more cases, meaning they meet the threshold for what is considered an outbreak of Hepatitis A virus. Boyd, Carter, Fayette, Floyd, Jefferson, Kenton, Laurel, Madison and Whitley counties report 100 or more cases associated with the outbreak.
The Department for Public Health says people who are considered high risk for exposure to the Hepatitis A virus should get vaccinated as soon as possible, to avoid contracting the virus and lessen the spread of the disease. High risk groups include individuals who use illicit drugs, close contacts of illicit drug users, and homeless people.  DPH said 80 percent of the cases have occurred in those groups.
Other priority areas of the population for vaccination include: people with direct contact with someone who has Hepatitis A (particularly during their infectious period); men who have sexual contact with men; and people who are at increased risk of complications from Hepatitis A (e.g., people with chronic liver disease).
“Immunizations can be obtained from a healthcare provider, pharmacies, and clinics throughout the state,” said DPH Commissioner Dr. Jeffrey Howard.  “Local health departments have limited vaccine supply for at-risk individuals who are uninsured.  In addition, if you live in a county experiencing an outbreak, we also urge you to be vaccinated for Hepatitis A as well as continue to practice regular and thorough hand washing, particularly if you are engaging with any of the high-risk groups.”
Health officials describe Hepatitis A as a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease of the liver, which causes inflammation of the liver and affects the organ’s ability to function. Signs and symptoms of infection include nausea, diarrhea, and loss of appetite, fever, fatigue, jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes), clay-colored bowel movements, dark-colored urine, and abdominal discomfort. Signs and symptoms usually appear 2-4 weeks after exposure but may occur up to 7 weeks after exposure. Children under 6 years of age with Hepatitis A often show few signs and symptoms.
The virus is found in the stool of infected people and is usually spread person-to-person when infected people do not properly wash their hands or do not have access to proper sanitation. Transmission typically occurs when a person ingests infected fecal matter, even in microscopic amounts, from contact with contaminated objects, food, or drinks. DPH recommends frequent hand washing, particularly after using the restroom, or before eating, to prevent transmission of hepatitis A and many other common diseases.
Since 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that all children receive the Hepatitis A vaccine series. DPH recommends children aged 1 to 18 years receive the two-dose Hepatitis A vaccine, as well as at-risk adults.
Kentucky now requires all students in kindergarten through 12^th grade to have two doses of the Hepatitis A vaccine in order to attend school or receive a provisional certificate of immunization.

[Starr DiGiacomo]

https://abcnews4.com/news/healthandfitness/mysterious-paralyzing-il...

Mysterious paralyzing illness reported in 36 states, including South Carolina

Monday, December 10th 2018

NEW YORK (AP) — This year has seen a record number of cases of a mysterious paralyzing illness in children, U.S. health officials said Monday.

It's still not clear what's causing the kids to lose the ability to move their face, neck, back, arms or legs. The symptoms tend to occur about a week after the children had a fever and respiratory illness.

No one has died from the rare disease this year, but it was blamed for one death last year and it may have caused others in the past.

What's more, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials say many children have lasting paralysis. And close to half the kids diagnosed with it this year were admitted to hospital intensive care units and hooked up to machines to help them breathe.

The condition has been likened to polio, a dreaded paralyzing illness that once struck tens of thousands of U.S. children a year. Those outbreaks ended after a polio vaccine became available in the 1950s. Investigators of the current outbreak have ruled out polio, finding no evidence of that virus in recent cases.

The current mystery can be traced to 2012, when three cases of limb weakness were seen in California. The first real wave of confirmed illnesses was seen in 2014, when 120 were reported. Another, larger wave occurred in 2016, when there were 149 confirmed cases. So far this year, there have been 158 confirmed cases.

In 2015 and 2017, the counts were far lower, and it's not clear why.

The condition is called acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM. Investigators have suspected it is caused by a virus called EV-D68. The 2014 wave coincided with a lot of EV-D68 infections and the virus "remains the leading hypothesis," said Dr. Ruth Lynfield, a member of a 16-person AFM Task Force that the CDC established last month to offer advice to disease detectives.

But there is disagreement about how strong a suspect EV-D68 is. Waves of AFM and that virus haven't coincided in other years, and testing is not finding the virus in every case. CDC officials have been increasingly cautious about saying the virus triggered the illnesses in this outbreak.

Indeed, EV-D68 infections are not new in kids, and many Americans carry antibodies against it.

Why would the virus suddenly be causing these paralyzing illnesses?

"This is a key question that has confounded us," said the CDC's Dr. Nancy Messonnier, who is overseeing the agency's outbreak investigation.

Experts also said it's not clear why cases are surging in two-year cycles.

Another mystery: More than 17 countries have reported scattered AFM cases, but none have seen cyclical surges like the U.S. has.

When there has been a wave in the U.S., cases spiked in September and tailed off significantly by November. Last week, CDC officials said the problem had peaked, but they warned that the number of cases would go up as investigators evaluated — and decided whether to count — illnesses that occurred earlier.

As of Monday, there were 311 illness reports still being evaluated.

This year's confirmed cases are spread among 36 states. The states with the most are Texas, with 21, and Colorado, 15.

But it's not clear if the state tallies truly represent where illnesses have been happening. For example, the numbers in Colorado may be high at least partly because it was in the scene of an attention-grabbing 2014 outbreak, and so doctors there may be doing a better job doing things that can lead to a diagnosis.

For an illness to be counted, the diagnosis must include an MRI scan that shows lesions in the part of the spinal cord that controls muscles.

[Starr DiGiacomo]

https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/6-children-dead-12-sick-in-vir...

6 children dead, 12 sick in viral outbreak at New Jersey rehab center

Published: October 24, 2018

A severe viral outbreak at a New Jersey rehabilitation center for "medically fragile children" has left six youngsters dead and 12 others sick, the state Health Department said Tuesday.
There have been 18 cases of adenovirus at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Haskell, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of New York, the New Jersey Health Department said in a statement.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an email that it is providing technical assistance to the state. In the past 10 years, cases of severe illness and death from the type of infection found at the facility have been reported in the United States, said CDC spokeswoman Kate Fowlie in an email, though it's unclear how many deaths there have been.
The strain afflicting the children is usually associated with acute respiratory illness, according to the CDC, which on its website instructs health workers to report unusual clusters to state or local health departments.
The Health Department didn't release the ages of the victims or address the severity of the illness in the other dozen cases.
The six deaths happened this month, according to Health Department spokeswoman Donna Leusner.
The facility was instructed not to admit new patients until the outbreak ends, and the Health Department said the number of new cases appears to be decreasing.
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said these kinds of fatalities are not common, but they're known to happen.
"Here I think you have this kind of nasty combination of very fragile children and this particularly aggressive virus," he said.
The strain in the New Jersey outbreak is No. 7 and is affecting "medically fragile" children with severely compromised immune systems, according to the Health Department. It has been associated with communal living and can be more severe
A scientific paper cited by the CDC reported that a 1998 outbreak of type 7 adenovirus at a pediatric chronic-care facility in Chicago claimed the lives of eight patients. The 2001 paper said civilian outbreaks of the type 7 infection had not been frequently reported because of a lack of lab resources, and that the full impact on chronic-care facilities and hospitals is likely underestimated.
In New Jersey, a team was at the center Tuesday and Sunday and found "minor handwashing deficiencies," the Health Department said.
"The Health Department is continuing to work closely with the facility on infection control issues," the department said in a statement.
The center helps educate "medically fragile children," according to its website. Messages left with the center were not returned.
Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement that he was "heartbroken" about the deaths and that he had been briefed by the health commissioner, Dr. Shereef Elnahal, who told him that the department is on site and trying to prevent the virus from spreading further.
"I am confident that the steps being taken by state and local officials will minimize the impact to all those who remain at the facility, including patients and employee," Murphy said.
Adenoviruses often cause mild illness, particularly in young children, but people with weakened immune systems are at risk of getting severely sick, according to the CDC

[Starr DiGiacomo]

Warning, graphic content.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6216301/Nearly-40-years-de...

The monkeypox mutation: Nearly 40 years since we defeated smallpox, scientists fear a new deadly plague could strike at any moment

18:14 EDT, 27 September 2018

Public Health England have said that monkeypox does not spread easily
Third patient, a medic, is receiving care at Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle
They had treated the patient before they were diagnosed with monkeypox

One hundred years ago a third of the global population — some 500 million people — became infected with ‘Spanish flu’. Up to 50 million of them died in the 1918 pandemic.
Ever since, scientists have been alert to the possibility of another super-virulent influenza virus.
Today, with more than seven billion people on the planet, numerous densely-populated mega-cities, and the ease of modern air travel, the death toll from such a virus could be unimaginably higher.

A 40-year-old woman was rushed to hospital on Tuesday by staff wearing biohazard gear. The disease started from animals in Africa

Monkeypox has spread from wild animals in Africa to humans - three in the United Kingdom

Now, the emergence of a disease called monkeypox in Britain, has raised another scenario in which the next killer pandemic isn’t the flu virus at all. Instead, it is a highly infectious agent that has jumped the species barrier, spreading from wild animals in Africa to humans

Initially, it would infect people locally, but while spreading and evolving, intermingling its genetic material with other human viruses and even human DNA, it would become ever more contagious until it could be transmitted merely by a cough or a sneeze

Infectious disease experts have long warned of the possibility. Yesterday, the third confirmed case of monkeypox, in a female hospital healthcare assistant, heightened such fears.
The 40-year-old woman was rushed to hospital on Tuesday by staff wearing biohazard gear. She is being treated in isolation at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, 150 miles from her home in Fleetwood, Lancashire.
Family members and colleagues of the hospital worker are reportedly waiting to be vaccinated, while public health officials are tracing anyone she may have had contact with in the 24 hours before she fell ill.
So how worried should we be?
Monkeypox is caused by a close relative of the smallpox virus, but is less infectious and usually causes a mild illness, with a fever, headache and a rash that turns into chickenpox-like blisters. However, in some West

African outbreaks ten per cent of cases — an alarmingly high number for an infectious disease — have proved fatal.
Smallpox was eradicated in 1980 following a global immunisation campaign led by the World Health Organisation (WHO), but some scientists are now suggesting that monkeypox virus may be mutating to fill the lethal vacancy.

The first two British cases, one in Cornwall and another in Blackpool, were diagnosed in people believed to have become infected in Nigeria where a large outbreak started last year — the first cases in the country for 40 years. It is the third case that has triggered questions about the virus’s contagious power.
The healthcare worker at Blackpool Victoria Hospital is not believed to have had any direct contact with the infected traveller from Nigeria, but may have become infected while changing the patient’s bedding. She has said she was wearing gloves that were too short to cover the skin on her arms.
According to the WHO, monkeypox is spread only by close contact with an infected person’s spit, blood or pus. But has a mutation in the virus rendered that guidance perilously out of date? Could it have already evolved into a strain that can spread more easily between humans.

Scientists at Public Health England are urgently analysing samples of the virus to determine its genetic makeup. They will then compare it with samples collected in Central and West Africa, where cases of the disease have risen 20-fold since the 1980s. Monkeypox is believed to have originated in sooty mangabey monkeys and rope squirrels, and first infected humans who consumed them as ‘bushmeat’ more than 50 years ago.
Viruses that can ‘jump’ from animals to humans are called zoonoses. The Black Death, AIDS/HIV and Spanish flu — the world’s three biggest known pandemics — are all zoonoses.
Ebola which first struck in Zaire in 1976 and killed as many as 90 per cent of those infected in the 2014 epidemic, is another zoonotic disease, carried by bats in central Africa. Could monkeypox be the next one?

Our first inkling of monkeypox’s existence came in the 1950s, when doctors in Africa noticed the emergence of a viral infection in their patients that seemed similar to smallpox but was less contagious. Since then, the virus has become steadily more infectious.
Nigeria is currently experiencing the largest documented epidemic of human monkeypox — with 152 cases reported and seven deaths so far confirmed. Certainly, the WHO is taking it seriously. They are warning that ‘the emergence of monkeypox cases is a concern for global health security’.
A leading British authority on epidemics, John Oxford, emeritus professor of virology at Queen Mary, University of London, believes that the world is currently due a very large animal-originated pandemic.

However, he’s playing down fears that monkeypox could be the one. He explains that this is because monkeypox is a DNA virus — its genetic material is made up of a chemical known as deoxyribonucleic acid. ‘These viruses don’t mutate rapidly, they are stable . . . ’ he says.
By contrast RNA viruses, which have ribonucleic acid as their genetic material, are far less stable and can mutate into more dangerous forms very quickly.
Often they do this by ‘co-opting genes’ from other human viruses present in the infected individual. This gene-swapping effectively enables viruses to ‘learn new ways to be contagious. RNA viruses include Ebola, SARS, rabies, the common cold and influenza.
That’s not to say monkeypox may not prove to be an alarming exception to this rule. One leading scientist who has studied monkeypox in Africa for 15 years disagrees with Professor Oxford.

Professor Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, warns that despite being ‘stable’ DNA virus, monkeypox is mutating into more contagious versions.
Chillingly, an investigation she co-authored in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases warns that monkeypox ‘is adapting for efficient replication in a novel ecological niche — humans’. ‘The global effects of the emergence of monkeypox strains that are highly adapted to humans could be devastating,’ the report adds.
Because of ‘the apparent rapid evolution of this virus, health authorities in presently unaffected areas should become vigilant and actively prepare to take immediate action’, it concludes

So what defensive action could we take if a mutant monkeypox virus is unleashed in Britain? Well, it seems we are at least well prepared and have Tony Blair to thank. After 9/11, the former Prime Minister ordered £80 million worth of the vaccination for use in a ‘smallpox plan’, to protect the population in the event of a terrorist attack that used the virus as a germ-warfare weapon.
At the time, the initiative was condemned as a waste of money, not least because one of Blair’s chief political donors — Lord Drayson — owned the company that manufactured the inoculations

Monkeypox, thought to have been spread by prairie dogs, was detected in the US in 2003
Now however Blair’s controversial move may prove an unwitting masterstroke of forward planning, because all the available evidence shows the smallpox vaccine may effectively protect people against infection from monkeypox, too.
Indeed, it the smallpox vaccine that will be given to contacts of the healthcare worker in Blackpool. Furthermore, the majority of Britons aged over 50 could well already be protected, as they were already vaccinated in childhood against smallpox.
By sheer chance, we appear to be well-positioned to deal with any monkeypox ‘apoxcalypse’. But it’s only a matter of time before the next virus emerges.
In his book Spillover, the award-winning American natural-history writer David Quammen warns that the human race faces a viral ‘doomsday’ if deadly infections learn the contagious trick that flu and cold microbes employ — spreading in coughs and sneezes.

‘If an infection such as HIV could be transmitted by air, you and I might already be dead,’ Quammen says. ‘If the rabies virus — another zoonosis — could be transmitted by air, it would be the most horrific pathogen on the planet.’
We have been warned.