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neal

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #700 on: April 18, 2024, 04:52:50 PM »
avian flu in mammalian wildlife

neal

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #701 on: April 20, 2024, 04:03:25 PM »
H5N1 Strain Of Bird Flu Found In Milk: WHO
By AFP - Agence France Presse
April 19, 2024


GENEVA: The H5N1 bird flu virus strain has been detected in very high concentrations in raw milk from infected animals, the WHO said on Friday (Apr 19), though how long the virus can survive in milk is unknown.

Avian influenza A (H5N1) first emerged in 1996 but since 2020, the number of outbreaks in birds has grown exponentially, alongside an increase in the number of infected mammals.

The strain has led to the deaths of tens of millions of poultry, with wild birds and land and marine mammals also infected.

Cows and goats joined the list last month - a surprising development for experts because they were not thought to be susceptible to this type of influenza....

..."Bird-to-cow, cow-to-cow and cow-to-bird transmission have also been registered during these current outbreaks, which suggest that the virus may have found other routes of transition than we previously understood," she told a media briefing in Geneva....


https://www.barrons.com/news/h5n1-strain-of-bird-flu-found-in-milk-who-2ce2c194

SteveMDFP

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #702 on: April 22, 2024, 02:36:10 PM »
Quote
760 illnesses/year and 22 hospitalizations/year,

If you divide that by 3 million that is not a lot.

There is no way to tell how many of them are caused by the milk or what the people did with it for storing. It´s not a super big issue because many more people end up in hospitals for things that are normal too (smoking, drinking, driving, skateboards etc).

The critical difference is that *if* (when?) a virulent, human-transmissible virus gets consumed by anyone, a global pandemic can start.

Consuming raw milk is not only a risk to the individual, it's a risk to the globe. This risk is not quantifiable -- there's no way to estimate the probability of this happening.  I personally think the risk is very, very low (but not zero).  But that's just my guess.  Should we bet the world on it?  This is why society puts into place strong, mandatory public health regulations.

SteveMDFP

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #703 on: April 23, 2024, 08:46:32 PM »
For those interested in HPAI in the US and risk of human transmission, on Thursday, April 25 from 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET, ASTHO will host a virtual symposium to facilitate a discussion between public health leaders and scientists driving the U.S. Government’s response to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).

Various authoritative individuals will be presenting.

ASTHO is The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
See:
https://www.astho.org/education/hpai-scientific-symposium/

Registration is free, but required.

kassy

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #704 on: April 24, 2024, 10:22:34 AM »
US health authorities said Tuesday they had discovered fragments of bird flu virus in the nation's pasteurized cow milk supply during the course of a large study, but the samples likely posed no health risk to humans.

An outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has spread among dairy cattle herds throughout the country and infected one human, who had mild symptoms.

Though the H5N1 strain of HPAI has killed millions of poultry during the current wave, affected cows have not fallen severely sick.

The Food and Drug Administration said in a statement that during the course of a national survey, it had discovered viral particles in "milk from affected animals, in the processing system, and on the shelves."

But the samples were run through a highly sensitive quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) test, which is able to detect remnants of the pathogen's genetic material even if the virus itself was inactivated by the heat of the pasteurization process.

"The pasteurization process has served public health well for more than 100 years," the agency said.

"Even if virus is detected in raw milk, pasteurization is generally expected to eliminate pathogens to a level that does not pose a risk to consumer health."

The agency's scientists are working to study positive samples further using "egg viability studies." These involve injecting an embryonated chicken egg with a sample and then seeing whether any active virus replicates.

...

https://www.bssnews.net/news/185352

I wonder if they will do the egg study for virus in raw milk too. Would be interesting.

A lot of the earlier results were probably found via this method too. We don´t know how many of the cows got infected via other cows vs how many were infected directly by birds. And where did the human case get it? Touched the milking machine too or another environmental source? Did they check the cows saliva?
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neal

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #705 on: April 25, 2024, 03:06:08 PM »
some "in the trenches" background from bovine vets

it's a good read, and it appears that the virus has been in herds for months, that people have been infected (no serious illnesses so far), but lots of issues in Agriculture to sort out...

A Message to the Ag Industry about H5N1

..As with all major threats, she says ag needs a comprehensive, cohesive plan to address the virus in dairy – and to also look at how to protect the beef, pork and poultry industries.

“At this point, I believe it's important to take one day at a time and systematically answer the questions that we need to get answered in order to define a sustainable path forward,” Russo says.

“We have a very clear picture that it's in the udder and is being shed in milk. But where else do we need to be concerned? That matters because that is going to define the control tactics to reduce spreading it from cow to cow. Those questions are ultimately going to be the pillar of our understanding and help to define strategies for controlling the virus in a sustainable way.”...

..Help can’t come soon enough for dairy producers and veterinarians in the trenches working with cows.

Veterinarians such as Dr. Barb Petersen in Texas have been dealing with the virus in their clients’ dairy herds since at least March.

"It has been circulating here as early as February, based on retrospective feedback from owners and fellow veterinarians," says Petersen, owner of Sunrise Veterinary Service in Amarillo.

By early March, she had begun sending daily emails and text messages to her Texas Panhandle dairy clients who needed answers and support.

Petersen, who has been in practice 15 years, did her best to provide both. But she didn’t know what she was dealing with. Neither did any other veterinarian Petersen reached out to within 200 miles of her practice.

“We started to text and email each other, and give summaries of ‘OK, here’s the test that this doctor has run. Here’s what another colleague has run,’” Petersen recalls.

“We tested for every single viral bacterial mycotoxin, lepto, rumensin toxicity, nitrates… I mean, you name it, every single thing that we vaccinate for, we tested for, for sure, right off the bat. And then even some of the things that we don't or can't vaccinate for. We tried to cast a really wide net.”

None of the test results provided an answer.

Some members of the animal health community suspected winter dysentery – an acute, highly contagious gastrointestinal disorder that can affect housed dairy cattle of all ages.

Petersen was skeptical.

“The first clinical symptom I saw was cows that had indigestion. They had manure that wasn’t well-digested, manure with particles of feed in it,” she says.

As she checked more cows and talked with colleagues, more information came to light and she began to identify recurring symptoms: thick, colostrum-like milk; lesions on cow vulvas; high temperatures; respiratory distress; a drop in feed consumption; and a corresponding lack of rumination. None of it added up to winter dysentery.

“This is a really strong and fierce reminder to keep your hands on the cows,” Petersen says. “It's wonderful to have data, but you have to trust and then verify.”

When Russo at Novonesis got news of the problem from a colleague, she called Petersen.

Russo, who’s worked both as a dairy veterinarian and in the poultry industry, asked Petersen to gather whatever samples she could – milk, dead birds, dead cats – and send them to a laboratory able to turn around results quickly. Advise them to check for H5N1, she added.

“I said, ‘You know, I may sound like a crazy person, a tinfoil-hat-wearing person, but this sounds a bit like influenza to me that’s been circulating (in the poultry industry),’ and I kind of left it there,” Russo recalls.

Petersen turned to a former veterinary classmate at Iowa State University, Dr. Drew Magstadt, now a pathologist at the school’s diagnostic laboratory.

“Whenever I've gotten into a real jam professionally – like, you have a question that you can't seem to find an answer to – the group of folks that have always helped me solve it have been pathologists,” Petersen says. “It’s been pathologists that I could give the clues to who helped finish the puzzle.”

On a warm March night in Amarillo, Petersen sat resting on her back porch at home when a text message from Magstadt popped up on her phone.

“There’s something in the results,” he wrote. “Can I call you?”

On the phone, Magstadt shared what he’d found in the lab tests: H5N1.

“I was like, ‘Are you serious?’” Petersen asked Magstadt. “Are you going to run those tests again?”

“Yes,” he said. “Just to make sure.”

The initial H5N1 confirmation flabbergasted Magstadt. The next day, he retested the samples to confirm the finding.

“I had thought we would find the results were negative and we would move on to other testing. So I was very, very surprised when the results came back positive,” Magstadt says.

The finding of H5N1 in a sample of milk from a dairy cow represented an industry first.

“The most surprising part of this, in my mind, is the fact that we’re finding so much virus as we are in the milk, in the mammary gland,” Magstadt says....

..Some veterinarians working with dairies in Texas believe the virus is more active than current data suggest. Nick Schneider, a consulting dairy practitioner, is one of them.

“The thing is, when you get into the Panhandle of Texas, I’m not sure there’s anybody (dairy farms) that did not have it,” says Schneider.

Texas is home to 335 Grade A dairies with an estimated 625,00 cows, according to information on the Texas Association of Dairymen website. More than 100 of those operations are in the Panhandle.

The virus likely is being under-reported by the dairy industry because the presence of the virus in dairy cows is new, and there are no reporting requirements, Russo says.

“It's not a foreign animal disease like it's considered in poultry, where there are reporting requirements,” she explains. “This is considered an emerging disease (in dairy cattle).”

The dairy industry needs to be “very forward looking” now and address the virus, advises Schneider, the Texas dairy consultant.

“Looking at what happened in the rearview mirror is great, but if you're not looking at where you're going, it's really just a pointless endeavor,” he says.

To that end, he advises gaining  insights and expertise in preparation for whatever new information emerges next.

“We need to think about this potentially being something we have to live with as being a part of the industry in the future,” Schneider says. “I hope I'm wrong. I would love to be wrong about that. But it's something that we definitely need to consider when we're thinking of how we're going to manage it.”....

...“Poultry, for instance has very distinct biosecurity principles they abide by to include lines of separation,” Russo says. “One is they keep the outside world out. Another is their use of PPE (physical protective equipment) to protect employees and also the birds from anything that might be carried onto the farm.”

The latter is a message Dr. Barb Petersen has taken to heart. Petersen says she was exposed to H5N1 for more than a month before she learned about the virus and its ability to infect dairy cows and people.

“I’m very fortunate that I never got sick,” she says.

Her advice? “Protect yourselves and your people on the dairy. There's been underreporting of the virus. Understandably, there's been a lot of fear. But every dairy that I've worked with has – with the exception of one – had sick human beings at the same time they had sick cows.”

Based on that knowledge, Petersen has acquired PPE available through Texas Health and Human Services.

“All the states have personal protective equipment available. Go and get it for your dairies,” she encourages other veterinarians. “If a dairy is on the fence, just provide it to them, offer it to everybody.”

Petersen says she has worked with people infected by H5N1 who do not interact with dairy cows. “I'm talking owners and feeders who don't usually touch cows,” she says.

Research is underway to determine how much of a health risk the virus poses to humans, Russo says.

“This is a rapidly evolving situation, and the people that are working on it are doing everything they can to ensure the safety of those individuals that are most at risk,” she says...

...The virus continues to hit the U.S. poultry industry hard.

Cal-Maine Foods, the largest producer and distributor of fresh shell eggs in the U.S., announced April 2 that chickens at its facility in Parmer County, located in the southwest part of the Texas Panhandle, tested positive for the virus. As a result, Cal-Maine had to cull nearly 2 million chickens − 1.6 million hens and 337,000 pullets.

In the AgriTalk discussion aired earlier this spring, Flory asked Miller, the Texas ag commissioner, whether he believes state agriculture department investigators are in front of the latest issues with HPAI in dairy cattle.

“I think so,” Miller replied. “We’ve got about 10 months before the ducks and geese come back, so I think we’ll have it figured out by then.”

Moving forward, the U.S. livestock industry might operate in a new world – one where the H5N1 virus is endemic.

Russo is undaunted by the challenge.

“This is not insurmountable, but it’s an issue we need to address swiftly,” she says.

Culled dairy cows going into the food supply deserve special attention, she says.

“We need to do the work so that we can define those movement strategies for the practitioners that are being asked to write health certificates on these farms that have the virus circulating,” Russo says.

The dairy industry needs to be more proactive for the sake of the poultry industry, she adds

“Putting our heads in the sand, and hoping it burns itself out is not going to work. It's just not,” she says. “It would take down the entire poultry industry by doing that, because this is highly pathogenic to them.”

That is not hyperbole, Russo says: a dime-sized piece of manure with H5N1 can infect up to 1 million chickens or turkeys...


https://www.bovinevetonline.com/news/industry/message-ag-industry-about-h5n1

SteveMDFP

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #706 on: April 25, 2024, 05:37:29 PM »
some "in the trenches" background from bovine vets
...
Petersen says she has worked with people infected by H5N1 who do not interact with dairy cows. “I'm talking owners and feeders who don't usually touch cows,” she says.
...
https://www.bovinevetonline.com/news/industry/message-ag-industry-about-h5n1

This is very concerning, and very peculiar.  As of *today* the CDC says there has been only one human case of H5N1 since 2022 in the US, a dairy worker who only got self-limited conjunctivitis.  It's hard to imagine that any clinical lab would detect H5N1 in a human specimen and not immediately call the CDC.  Either Peterson is wrong about what these humans had, or something very odd is going on.

SteveMDFP

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #707 on: April 26, 2024, 04:33:24 PM »
For those interested in HPAI in the US and risk of human transmission, on Thursday, April 25 from 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET, ASTHO will host a virtual symposium to facilitate a discussion between public health leaders and scientists driving the U.S. Government’s response to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).

Various authoritative individuals will be presenting.

ASTHO is The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
See:
https://www.astho.org/education/hpai-scientific-symposium/

Registration is free, but required.

This symposium (held yesterday, Thursday) was recorded, and the recording is now published on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/aTizSNagjFI?si=-bwbY4l0GHxJ4t3n

For those who have been following this thread closely, there were few surprises.  A couple of my impressions and new information presented here:

- in Texas, H5N1/HPAI RNA (but not viable virions, yet) has breen detected in consumer milk (pasteruized).
- Only one human case of H5N1 was acknowledged, contrary to Dr Petersen's assertion (this case was very mild). 
- There appears to be abundant attention (appropriately) to bovine H5N1 at the Federal and State level, including the CDC.
- Despite being hosted by a relatively obscure organization, attendance exceeded capacity in this virtual meeting, indicating to me widespread concern over these developments among those interested in epidemics/pandemics/public health.
- Genetic analysis has shown no indications of resistance to anti-viral agents so far.

In sum, nothing to panic about, probably nothing to *worry* about, and the matter seems to be currently being appropirately monitored and analyzed by the public health authorities.

neal

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #708 on: April 27, 2024, 02:29:32 PM »
1 in 5 US retail milk samples test positive for H5N1 avian flu fragments

A senior official from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said today that its nationwide survey of retail milk has found remnants of H5N1 avian flu viruses in one in five samples, with the highest concentrations in regions where outbreaks in dairy cattle have been reported.

Donald Prater, DVM, acting director of the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), shared the new findings with state health officials who took part in a scientific symposium on H5N1 hosted by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). The results come in the wake of earlier findings this week from more limited FDA sampling, along with similar findings from a smaller set of samples tested by a lab that's part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response (CEIRR) Network.

At today's ASTHO briefing, state health officials heard the latest investigation and research updates from federal health officials and had the opportunity to ask their own questions, everything from virus shedding in cow manure to pandemic preparedness.

Prater reiterated that the FDA hasn't changed its assessment that the nation's milk supply remains safe. So far, early work on milk samples that were positive for H5N1 fragments haven't found any viable (potentially infectious) virus.

He said, however, that the FDA still has a long list of data gaps to fill, including identifying the risk of infection to humans via oral consumption and validating that existing pasteurization methods can inactivate H5N1.

Other data gaps include how long the virus survives in raw milk and the infectious dose of viruses. Though a major concern is retail milk, Prater also said the FDA needs to see if contamination is occurring in other products, such as cheese made from raw milk.


https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza-bird-flu/1-5-us-retail-milk-samples-test-positive-h5n1-avian-flu-fragments

kassy

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #709 on: April 27, 2024, 08:50:23 PM »
Analysis of the genomes suggests that the cattle outbreak probably began with a single introduction from wild birds in December or early January. “It’s good news that there’s only been one jump that we can discern so far. But bad news, in many ways that it has been spreading for probably several months already,” says Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who has analysed the genomes.

...

The data also show occasional jumps back from infected cows to birds and cats. “This is a multi-host outbreak,” says Nelson.

A single jump, many months ago, is “the most reliable conclusion you can make,” based on the available data, says Eric Bortz, a virologist at the University of Alaska Anchorage. But an important caveat is that it isn’t clear what percentage of infected cows the samples represent, he says.

Fill in the blank
That’s only one of many data gaps. Scientists lack information about each sample’s precise collection date and the state where it was collected. Such gaps are “very abnormal,”Nelson says.

The missing ‘metadata’ make it harder to answer many open questions, such as how the virus is transmitted between cows and herds, and make it tricky to pin down exactly when the virus jumped to cows. These insights could help to control further viral spread, and protect workers on cattle farms “who can least afford to be exposed,” says Worobey.

Worobey, Gangavarapu and their colleagues are now racing to analyse some metadata uncovered through online sleuthing by Florence Débarre, an evolutionary biologist at the French national research agency CNRS in Paris. Gangavarapu says dates and geographic information for 152 of the 239 samples have been extracted from a USDA presentation posted on YouTube on 26 April.

Researchers also want more swabbing of cattle and wild birds to gain more insights into the outbreak’s exact origin and to decipher another puzzle. The genomic data reveal that the viral genome sequenced from the infected person does not include some of the signature mutations observed in the cattle. “That is a mystery to everyone,” says Nelson.

One possibility is that the person was infected by a separate viral lineage, which infected cattle that have not been swabbed. Another less likely scenario, which can’t be ruled out, says Nelson, is that the person was infected directly from a wild bird. “It raises just a whole slew of questions about what black box of samples we are missing.”

...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01256-5

How much of the cattle gets moved between hers/sold on since january? The milking machines are probably stationary. If it is moving from cows back into birds then how? That is probably not going to involve milking machines. Could they share drinking places?
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

kiwichick16

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #710 on: April 27, 2024, 11:06:02 PM »
another Thatcher stuff up

the Conservative goverment was told the blood and plasma had to be assumed to be infected ......and they carried on using it  ......Murder ....or manslaughter ???

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/27/revealed-government-was-warned-of-infected-blood-risks-in-1970s
« Last Edit: April 28, 2024, 03:25:48 AM by kiwichick16 »

vox_mundi

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #711 on: April 28, 2024, 08:34:13 PM »
Florida Dolphin Found With Highly Pathogenic Avian Flu: Report
https://phys.org/news/2024-04-florida-dolphin-highly-pathogenic-avian.html

Allison Murawski et al, Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus in a common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) in Florida, Communications Biology (2024)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-024-06173-x
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morganism

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #712 on: April 29, 2024, 01:22:44 AM »
 Seem like Lyme disease risk is getting worse? It is.

Rheumatologist, epidemiologist discusses growth, spread of deer ticks, which transmit malady, and offers tips for how to avoid parasites

The odds of contracting Lyme disease from tick bites during warmer weather months continue to rise. That’s owing to a series of factors, including changes in climate conducive to maintenance of tick populations over a longer period of time and the expansion of range for the parasites south and west from historically high-risk areas in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, according to the Companion Animal Parasite Council.  To give readers a refresher in ways to avoid contracting Lyme disease the Gazette spoke with Nancy Shadick, a rheumatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a clinical epidemiologist who has researched the malady since the 1990s. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

In the last five to 10 years, have you seen Lyme disease rates increasing?

Lyme disease is still the most common vector-borne illness. It continues to spread in endemic areas such as the upper Midwest and the Northeast, but it has also spread down into the mid-Atlantic region and upward into the upper Northeast. With climate change and warmer temperatures, one example is that Lyme disease is now spreading up into Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

Is climate change the main reason we’re seeing an increase?

There is also increased general awareness and reporting. The CDC is now reporting both confirmed and probable Lyme disease cases, for example.

There are certain geographic areas of the country that are considered high-risk. What are other factors that might cause an area to be high-risk?

Areas that are wooded or have dense foliage — suburban or rural — tend to have more Lyme disease cases. Ticks live in wooded areas and brush. So you won’t get it in an urban area, for example, where there’s little greenery. Golf courses can be risky. When golfers hit a golf ball into the brush, they leave the highly manicured golf course and go into the brush, which could be an area where there are a lot of ticks. The presence of whitetail deer is another indicator that there might be Lyme disease, or small mammals such as white-footed mice, which can be carriers.

And are all ticks bad? Or is it specifically deer ticks?

Lyme disease is transmitted by the deer tick, also known as the blacklegged tick. Other ticks, such as dog ticks, can transmit other illnesses, but not Lyme disease.

GAZETTE: Who is at most risk of infection?

In general there is a bimodal age distribution of Lyme disease with children aged 5 to 9 most highly affected. Additionally, there has been an increasing male predominance of the illness. The incidence rate ratios of males over females in most age groups were 39 to 89 percent higher for the time period of 1992 to 2016.

And what about pets? Are they at risk of carrying Lyme disease, or getting it themselves?

Yes, pets can bring ticks into the house. For example, if your dog is out running in the woods, comes inside and sits on the furniture or sleeps in the bed with you, it does increase your likelihood of getting a tick bite. And a dog can contract Lyme disease, although they have certain protections that we don’t have yet, like vaccination. Dogs can be vaccinated, and many dogs take a tick and flea treatment that prevents them from getting tick bites.

If I’m someone who is outdoors a lot in the summer, what are things that I can do to protect myself?

Be aware of your environment. When you hike, stay on the trail. You should tick-proof your clothing by wearing a repellent containing DEET. There are other repellents that contain more natural repellents — like lemon oil or eucalyptus — but those are not as effective at repelling ticks. If you can, wear light-colored clothing, so you can identify the tick more easily. Wear long pants and tuck them into your socks. And then the most important thing that you should do is every time you’re out in potential tick-laden areas, you should do a tick check. In general it takes 36 hours for a tick to infect you, so if you check for ticks that evening, you can feel pretty confident that you haven’t been bitten. Ticks like humid, warm areas to bite, so check all parts of your body, especially folds in your skin like your elbows, behind your knees, or on your neck.

What are symptoms of Lyme disease?

Early symptoms include the classic erythema migrans rash, which is a red, ring-like rash that spreads. This can develop within days or weeks, and sometimes a rash won’t occur at all. You can also experience a flu-like illness with a fever, headache, and achy joints. If not caught early, Lyme disease can progress to facial paralysis, arthritis, meningitis, or inflammation of the heart called carditis that can cause rhythm abnormalities. If you suspect Lyme disease, it’s important to seek treatment. The best way to recover quickly is to take antibiotics as soon as you can.

In terms of research, are we making progress either in prevention or treatment of Lyme disease-related ailments?

A Lyme disease vaccine from Pfizer and Valneva is in a Phase 3 trial right now. We’re hopeful that the vaccine will be ready in 2025. The UMass Chan Medical School is also studying another potential therapy to prevent Lyme disease that is in clinical trials. This prevention is not a vaccine but a monoclonal antibody that kills the Lyme bacteria in the tick’s gut.

Practically speaking, are there any resources or sites that you would recommend for people to learn more about Lyme disease and the risk it poses in their area?

There is a Harvard Health Lyme Wellness website that offers a lot of educational information. The CDC also has an excellent website for the general public and has a tick-borne illness reference manual for clinicians. Each state department of health typically has tick borne illness information and monthly reports on the illness.

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/06/how-to-prevent-lyme-disease-this-summer/

vox_mundi

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #713 on: April 30, 2024, 01:41:25 PM »
Cats Suffer H5N1 Brain Infections, Blindness, Death After Drinking Raw Milk
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/concerning-spread-of-bird-flu-from-cows-to-cats-suspected-in-texas/

On March 16, cows on a Texas dairy farm began showing symptoms of a mysterious illness now known to be H5N1 bird flu. Their symptoms were nondescript, but their milk production dramatically dropped and turned thick and creamy yellow. The next day, cats on the farm that had consumed some of the raw milk from the sick cows also became ill. While the cows would go on to largely recover, the cats weren't so lucky. They developed depressed mental states, stiff body movements, loss of coordination, circling, copious discharge from their eyes and noses, and blindness. By March 20, over half of the farm's 24 or so cats died from the flu.

In a study published today in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, researchers in Iowa, Texas, and Kansas found that the cats had H5N1 not just in their lungs but also in their brains, hearts, and eyes. The findings are similar to those seen in cats that were experimentally infected with H5N1, aka highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI). But, on the Texas dairy farm, they present an ominous warning of the potential for transmission of this dangerous and evolving virus.

The early outbreak data from the Texas farm suggests the virus is getting better and better at jumping to mammals, and data from elsewhere shows the virus is spreading widely in its newest host.

In the meantime, it's definitely not the time to start drinking raw cow's milk. While drinking raw milk is always dangerous because it carries the threat of various nasty bacterial infections, H5N1 also appears to be infectious in raw milk. And, unlike other influenza viruses, H5N1 has the potential to infect organs beyond the lungs and respiratory tract, as seen in the cats. The authors of the new study note that a 2019 consumer survey found that 4.4 percent of adults in the US consumed raw milk more than once in the previous year, suggesting more public awareness of the dangers of raw milk is necessary.

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Clade 2.3.4.4b Virus Infection in Domestic Dairy Cattle and Cats, United States, 2024
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/30/7/24-0508_article

... ... genetic data shows almost exact matches between the cows, their milk, and the cats. "Therefore, our findings suggest cross-species mammal-to-mammal transmission of HPAI H5N1 virus and raise new concerns regarding the potential for virus spread within mammal populations," ...
There are 3 classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus

vox_mundi

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #714 on: May 01, 2024, 04:50:37 PM »
USDA Testing Beef for H5N1 Amid Current Outbreak In Dairy Cows
https://phys.org/news/2024-05-usda-beef-h5n1-current-outbreak.html

On April 29, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it is now testing ground beef for any presence of the H5N1 virus that continues to spread among dairy cows.

The agency said it is sampling ground beef bought in grocery stores in states where dairy cattle have tested positive for the virus, also known as H5N1, CNN reported. Officials are also testing samples of muscle tissue from sick cows that have been culled from their herd. Last but not least, the USDA is injecting a "virus surrogate" into ground beef and then cooking it at different temperatures to see how much virus is killed under each heat setting.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Colombia bans US beef due to bird flu
https://www.thefencepost.com/news/colombia-bans-us-beef-due-to-bird-flu/

Colombia has banned U.S. beef products from certain states, the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and Reuters reported last week.

Colombia imposed the ban after avian influenza was found in dairy cattle, although it has not been found in beef cattle.

A USDA spokesman told The Hagstrom Report, “USDA continues to maintain its robust surveillance system that is designed to mitigate the spread of animal diseases, thereby protecting public health, and maintaining a safe food supply, including for meat, for domestic and international markets.”

---------------------------------------------------------------

States begin to restrict cattle imports from those with influenza cases
https://www.avma.org/news/states-begin-restrict-cattle-imports-those-influenza-cases

In an effort to prevent domestic cattle from being exposed to highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI, more specifically avian influenza Type A H5N1), 21 states have restricted cattle importations from states where the virus is known to have infected dairy cows: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) will not be issuing federal quarantine orders at this time, nor is the agency recommending any state quarantines or official hold orders on cattle, the agency announced April 2.

“However, we strongly recommend minimizing movement of cattle as much as possible, with special attention to evaluating risk and factoring that risk into movement decisions. Do not move sick or exposed animals.”
« Last Edit: May 01, 2024, 05:42:48 PM by vox_mundi »
There are 3 classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

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squilliam

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #715 on: May 02, 2024, 07:00:15 AM »
It seems kind of ironic if there is an outbreak of bird-flu caused by our western love for 'snot', or how the Chinese people describe the taste of milk, which has the potential to be a far greater problem than Covid ever was. If Covid was caused by Chinese wet-markets, then we have little room to argue against the consequence of our own love for dairy/beef.

vox_mundi

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #716 on: May 02, 2024, 02:07:01 PM »
Avoid Raw Milk to Cut Risk of Bird Flu, FDA Officials Urge
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-raw-bird-flu-urge.html

People drinking raw unpasteurized milk are at risk for potentially contracting bird flu, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned May 1.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/index.htm
There are 3 classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus

John Batteen

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #717 on: May 02, 2024, 08:08:19 PM »
I wonder if consuming the deactivated virus particles in pasteurized milk could have any kind of protective effect like a vaccine?

SteveMDFP

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #718 on: May 02, 2024, 08:25:38 PM »
some "in the trenches" background from bovine vets
...
Petersen says she has worked with people infected by H5N1 who do not interact with dairy cows. “I'm talking owners and feeders who don't usually touch cows,” she says.
...
https://www.bovinevetonline.com/news/industry/message-ag-industry-about-h5n1

This is very concerning, and very peculiar.  As of *today* the CDC says there has been only one human case of H5N1 since 2022 in the US, a dairy worker who only got self-limited conjunctivitis.  It's hard to imagine that any clinical lab would detect H5N1 in a human specimen and not immediately call the CDC.  Either Peterson is wrong about what these humans had, or something very odd is going on.

Maybe something odd *is* going on (like inadequate surveillance of dairy workers):

The U.S. may be missing human cases of bird flu, scientists say
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/05/02/1248538298/the-u-s-may-be-missing-human-cases-of-bird-flu-scientists-say

"Officially, there is only one documented case of bird flu spilling over from cows into humans during the current U.S. outbreak.

But epidemiologist Gregory Gray suspects the true number is higher, based on what he heard from veterinarians, farm owners and the workers themselves as the virus hit their herds in his state.

"We know that some of the workers sought medical care for influenza-like illness and conjunctivitis at the same time the H5N1 was ravaging the dairy farms," says Gray, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
...
Still, epidemiologists say it's critical to track any possible cases. They're concerened some human infections could be flying under the radar, especially if they are mild and transient as was seen in the Texas dairy worker who caught the virus.

"I think based on how many documented cases in cows there are, probably some decent human exposure is occurring," says Dr. Andrew Bowman, associate professor of veterinary preventive medicine at The Ohio State University. "We just don't really know."
...
The lack of testing early in the outbreak isn't necessarily surprising. In places like Texas and Kansas, veterinarians weren't thinking about bird flu when illnesses first cropped up in early March and it took time to identify the virus as the culprit.

But the total number of tests done on humans at this point seems low to Jessica Leibler, an environmental epidemiologist at Boston University School of Public Health.

"If the idea was to try to identify where there was spillover from these facilities to human populations, you'd want to try to test as many workers as possible," says Leibler, who has studied the risk of novel zoonotic influenza and animal agriculture.

Also, notes Gray, the virus is probably much more geographically widespread in cattle than the reported cases show, "possibly spilling over much more to humans than we knew, or then we know."
_________________________________________________________

There's more to read. 

My level of concern is increasing.

kassy

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #719 on: May 05, 2024, 05:38:47 PM »
Higher CO2 Levels Have a Concerning Effect on Viruses Floating Through The Air<


Keeping CO2 levels low reduces infectious airborne viral loads, new research suggests. While the study focused on the pathogen behind COVID-19, it has clear implications for reducing the risk of transmitting viruses in spaces where ventilation is limited.

"Opening a window may be more powerful than originally thought," says University of Bristol chemist Allen Haddrell, "especially in crowded and poorly ventilated rooms, as fresh air will have a lower concentration of CO2, causing the virus to become inactivated much faster."

By measuring SARS-CoV-2 capacity to remain infectious while aerosolized in droplets under different environmental conditions, Haddrell and colleagues discovered the virus's stability is directly impacted by CO2 levels in the air. They used a new technique called Controlled Electrodynamic Levitation and Extraction of Bioaerosol onto a Substrate (CELEBS), which measures the impact of temperature, relative humidity, and different gas concentrations on suspended virus particles.

Atmospheric CO2 concentrations are currently around 400 parts per million (ppm). Crowd enough people in a closed room, however, concentrations can soar to around 3,000 ppm. The team found the number of viral particles that can remain infectious under these elevated concentrations can be 10 times higher than what would be found in outdoor air.

"The high pH of exhaled droplets containing the SARS-CoV-2 virus is likely a major driver of the loss of infectiousness," explains Haddrell. "CO2 behaves as an acid when it interacts with droplets. This causes the pH of the droplets to become less alkaline, resulting in the virus within them being inactivated at a slower rate."

What's more, highly crowded environments in poorly ventilated spaces can exceed 5,000 ppm of CO2.

...

Interestingly, different strains of SARS-CoV-2 had different patterns of stability in the air. After only 5 minutes viable viral particle concentrations were 1.7 times higher for Omicron (BA.2) than for Delta. This suggests there may be a lot of variability between viral particle types.

So while more research is required to confirm the relationships between CO2 and other types of viruses, the researchers suspect this could explain why many respiratory viruses have seasonality. During colder weather people are likely to spend more time indoors experiencing greater exposure to air with higher levels of CO2.

...

https://www.sciencealert.com/higher-co2-levels-have-a-concerning-effect-on-viruses-floating-through-the-air
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

neal

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #720 on: May 11, 2024, 09:31:01 PM »
In the population...

Abstract
Avian influenza (serotype H5N1) is a highly pathogenic virus that emerged in domestic waterfowl in 1996. Over the past decade, zoonotic transmission to mammals, including humans, has been reported. Although human to human transmission is rare, infection has been fatal in nearly half of patients who have contracted the virus in past outbreaks. The increasing presence of the virus in domesticated animals raises substantial concerns that viral adaptation to immunologically naive humans may result in the next flu pandemic. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) to track viruses was historically used to track polio and has recently been implemented for SARS-CoV2 monitoring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, using an agnostic, hybrid-capture sequencing approach, we report the detection of H5N1 in wastewater in nine Texas cities, with a total catchment area population in the millions, over a two-month period from March 4th to April 25th, 2024. Sequencing reads uniquely aligning to H5N1 covered all eight genome segments, with best alignments to clade 2.3.4.4b. Notably, 19 of 23 monitored sites had at least one detection event, and the H5N1 serotype became dominant over seasonal influenza over time. A variant analysis suggests avian or bovine origin but other potential sources, especially humans, could not be excluded. We report the value of wastewater sequencing to track avian influenza.


https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.10.24307179v1

vox_mundi

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #721 on: May 15, 2024, 07:23:36 PM »
Avian Flu Detected In New York City Wild Birds
https://phys.org/news/2024-05-avian-flu-york-city-wild.html

A small number of New York City wild birds carry highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza, according to a study published in the Journal of Virology,. The work highlights that the interface between animals and humans that may give rise to zoonotic infections or even pandemics is not limited to rural environments and commercial poultry operations, but extends into urban centers.

In the study, the NYCVH collected and screened 1,927 samples between January 2022 and November 2023 and picked up the H5N1 signal by detecting it in six city birds representing four different species. All the positive samples came from the urban wildlife rehabilitation centers, stressing the critical role such centers can play in viral surveillance.

By comparing the genetic makeup of the samples to each other and other available H5N1 viruses in a public database, the researchers found that they were slightly different and belonged to two different genotypes, which are both a mix of Eurasian H5N1 2.3.4.4.b clade virus and local North American avian influenza viruses. New York City is a popular stopover location for migrating wild birds during their remarkable journey.

Detection of clade 2.3.4.4b highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza virus in New York City, Journal of Virology, (2024)
https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jvi.00626-24
There are 3 classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus

etienne

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #722 on: May 31, 2024, 06:52:40 AM »
Interesting article in the Guardian.

Quote
Scientists have discovered a 50,000-year-old herpes virus – and perhaps how modern humans came to rule the world

Revolutionary ancient DNA evidence indicates that Homo sapiens finished off Neanderthals through deadly infectious diseases
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/30/50000-year-old-herpes-virus-humans-dna-homo-sapiens-neanderthals

longwalks1

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #723 on: June 02, 2024, 11:40:47 PM »
Not around so much.   For the milk and influenza posts I wondered, "but what is the efficacy of pasteurization on viruses".  Web search was not good.  The PCR viral fragments in milk posts does appear to show effectiveness.   

I did not see Bangs - Brucellosis mentioned as a risk of unpasteurized milk.   

And no mention of the plant based "milks"   I used to buy the soy unflavoured non-gmo but not organic stuff in Canada.   Approaching $10 a gallon these days for soymilk in usOfa, well I am using dairy milk now in coffee.   

The days of Methodists, Mennonites, Hutterite, etc. non-alcohol drinking  family dairy operations is long gone (25 , 50, 100 head).   1 - 5 thousand head now - who are the individuals who work at those factories these days.   

morganism

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #724 on: June 04, 2024, 01:17:50 AM »
The Black Death and its Aftermath

The Black Death was the second pandemic of bubonic plague and the most devastating pandemic in world history. It was a descendant of the ancient plague that had afflicted Rome, from 541 to 549 CE, during the time of emperor Justinian. The bubonic plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, persisted for centuries in wild rodent colonies in Central Asia and, somewhere in the early 1300s, mutated into a form much more virulent to humans.
Animation showing the spread of the plague in western Eurasia.
Spread of the plague in western Eurasia, 1346-1353

At about the same time, it began to spread globally. It moved from Central Asia to China in the early 1200s and reached the Black Sea in the late 1340s. Hitting the Middle East and Europe between 1347 and 1351, the Black Death had aftershocks still felt into the early 1700s. When it was over, the European population was cut by a third to a half, and China and India suffered death on a similar scale.

Traditionally, historians have argued that the transmission of the plague involved movement of plague-infected fleas from wild rodents to the household black rat. However, evidence now suggests that it must have been transmitted first by direct human contact with rodents and then via human fleas and head lice. This new explanation better explains the bacteria’s very rapid movement along trade routes throughout Eurasia and into sub-Saharan Africa.

At the time, people thought that the plague came into Mediterranean ports by ship. But, it is also becoming clear that small pools of plague had been established in Europe for centuries, apparently in wild rodent communities in the high passes of the Alps.
(snip)
The disruption caused by the plague also shaped new directions in medical knowledge. Doctors tending the sick during the plague learned from their direct experience and began to rebel against ancient medical doctrine. The Black Death made clear that disease was not caused by an alignment of the stars but from a contagion. Doctors became committed to a new empirical approach to medicine and the treatment of disease. Here, then, lie the distant roots of the Scientific Revolution.

Quarantines were directly connected to this new empiricism, and the almost instinctive social distancing of Europe’s middling and elite households. The first quarantine was established in 1377 at the Adriatic port of Ragussa. By the 1460s quarantines were routine in the European Mediterranean.

Major outbreaks of plague in 1665 and 1721 in London and Marseille were the result of breakdowns in this quarantine barrier. From the late 17th century to 1871 the Habsburg Empire maintained an armed “cordon sanitaire” against plague eruptions from the Ottoman Empire.

Michel Serre's painting depicting the 1721 plague outbreak in Marseille

Michel Serre's painting depicting the 1721 plague outbreak in Marseille.

As with the rise of national universities, the building of quarantine structures against the plague was a dimension in the emergence of state power in Europe.

Through all of this turmoil and trauma, the common people who survived the Black Death emerged to new opportunities in emptied lands. We have reasonably good wage data for England, and wage rates rose dramatically and rapidly, as masters and landlords were willing to pay more for increasingly scarce labor.

The famous French historian Marc Bloch argued that medieval society began to break down at this time because the guaranteed flow of income from the labor of the poor into noble households ended with the depopulation of the plague. The rising autonomy of the poor contributed both to peasant uprisings and to late medieval Europe’s thinly disguised resource wars, as nobles and their men at arms attempted to replace rent with plunder.

At the same time, the ravages of the Black Death decimated the ancient trade routes bringing spices and fine textiles from the East, ending what is known as the Medieval World System, running between China, India, and the Mediterranean.

By the 1460s, the Portuguese—elbowed out of the European resource wars—began a search for new ways to the East, making their way south along the African coast, launching an economic globalization that after 1492 included the Americas.

And we should remember that this first globalization would lead directly to another great series of pandemics, not the plague but chickenpox, measles, and smallpox, which in the centuries following Columbus’s landing would kill the great majority of the native peoples of the Americas.

In these ways we still live in a world shaped by the Black Death.

https://origins.osu.edu/connecting-history/covid-black-death-plague-lessons?language_content_entity=en



vox_mundi

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #725 on: June 06, 2024, 12:57:26 AM »
Elephant Seal Outbreak Marks First Transnational Spread of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza In Mammals
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-elephant-outbreak-transnational-highly-pathogenic.html

Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses are becoming increasingly flexible and are adapting to mammals in new ways that could have global consequences for humans, wildlife and livestock, according to a new study of a massive outbreak among elephant seals in Argentina in 2023.

The study, published as a preprint on bioRxiv and co-led by University of California, Davis' School of Veterinary Medicine and the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) in Argentina, shows clear mammal-to-mammal transmission of the virus. It states the outbreak is the first known, multinational transmission of the virus in mammals ever observed globally, with the same virus appearing in several pinniped species across different countries over a short period of time.

The study's genomic analysis showed the virus is now evolving into separate avian and marine mammal clades in South America, which is unprecedented. There is growing concern that H5N1 viruses adapted to mammal transmission could jump to other species, including people.

... The virus' separation into avian and marine mammal clades unfolded as H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b—specifically genotype B3.2—arrived on the continent through migratory birds before spilling over to mammals. It then separated from the avian clade virus to become its own, marine mammal-adapted virus. Concerningly, while the virus moves across pinnipeds, it can also still infect birds. That was evident in the study, where the virus found in terns was identical to that from elephant seals.

"We're showing the evolution of this marine mammal virus over time," said virologist and co-leading author Agustina Rimondi of INTA. "This virus is capable of adapting to mammals, as we can see from the mutations that are consistently found in the viruses belonging to the mammalian clade." ...

Marcela Uhart et al, Massive outbreak of Influenza A H5N1 in elephant seals at Península Valdés, Argentina: increased evidence for mammal-to-mammal transmission, bioRxiv (2024)
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.31.596774v1
There are 3 classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus

vox_mundi

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #726 on: June 09, 2024, 03:47:06 PM »
What Can Trump Do About Vaccines? More Than You Might Think.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/09/trump-anti-vaccine-mandates-00162360

Donald Trump, former Covid-19 vaccine booster, is now the nation’s most high-profile critic of immunization mandates.

The former president has on the campaign trail promised to strip funding from schools with vaccine requirements and lambasted independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a “fake” anti-vaxxer, while obscuring his role in speeding the development of the Covid shot when he was president during the pandemic.

Trump’s new anti-vaccine persona could have far-reaching consequences if he’s elected to a second stint as president with far-reaching administrative powers. Public health experts say a White House opposed to immunization mandates could potentially cause upticks in cases of measles, polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases, or hamper efforts to fight a future pandemic.

The CDC could pare back the number of vaccines it recommends children receive or eliminate those recommendations entirely. The CDC could change the paperwork required to be shared with parents to make vaccines sound less safe than they are. Or the FDA could increase the number of years of safety testing required for new vaccines and impose other onerous requirements for vaccines to be approved in the U.S.

Trump also could, as a thank-you to vaccine skeptics for their support in November, appoint someone who opposes the government’s traditional role in promoting vaccines, such as Kennedy or Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who called for a pause in the use of Covid-19 mRNA vaccines and did not encourage parents to vaccinate their children during a recent measles outbreak.

“The short version is they can create — through their control over money, control over processes and infrastructure at the federal level — enormous havoc,” said Georges Benjamin, executive director at the American Public Health Association. “If you want to see an organization not function, put somebody that’s not qualified to be there, or who may have credentials on paper but is not motivated to really do the job in a way that enhances the public’s health.”

... “If he appoints any of those Fox News talking heads in a leadership position of the CDC or NIH or FDA, absolutely they could do a lot of damage,” said Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.

... “Imagine what happens if CDC guidance changes to, ‘Vaccination is a question for families. CDC recommends that families talk to their provider or minister about vaccines,’ and doesn’t recommend anything, ... The NIH could decide not to fund certain kinds of vaccine research.

Some state and local jurisdictions have already been moving in that direction. In West Virginia, the GOP-controlled Legislature voted to remove vaccine requirements for students in private and parochial schools, though Republican Gov. Jim Justice, who is running for Senate, vetoed the bill. A Houston-area school board voted in May to remove sections from science textbooks that address vaccines.

Cy-Fair ISD trustees vote to omit textbook chapters about topics such as climate change and vaccines
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/education-news/2024/05/09/487046/cy-fair-isd-trustees-vote-to-omit-textbook-chapters-about-topics-such-as-climate-change-and-vaccines/
There are 3 classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus

Rodius

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #727 on: June 10, 2024, 01:56:57 AM »
Measles will explode if vaccines arent given for that. A lot of children will die.

And the way the latest bird flu is progressing, it cant be long before it turns up as a fully functioning new flu... imagine what could happen if a new, lethal, flu turns up in a climate of anti-vax and anti-isolation?

kassy

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #728 on: June 13, 2024, 09:46:38 AM »
Tiger mosquitoes behind dengue fever rise in Europe

An invasive species of mosquito has set up home in 13 countries in the EU, including France, Spain and Greece, with experts linking their presence to a rise in dengue fever in Europe.
Climate change is creating favourable conditions for the tiger mosquito to spread, said the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
As far north as Paris, where the Olympic Games will take place at the end of July, authorities have been monitoring and trapping the insect.

...

Mosquitoes have become a growing threat in Europe over the past two decades.
The Asian tiger mosquito, aedes albopictus, which is thought to be the most invasive species of mosquito in the world, is now spreading across Europe from its southern European 'base camp'.
It has become established in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Spain, according to the ECDC.
It has also been recorded in Belgium, Cyprus, Czechia, the Netherlands and Slovakia.

...

Tiger mosquitoes spread diseases such as dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika virus which, until recently, were typically only present in parts of Africa, Asia and the Americas.
Another mosquito, aedes aegypti, which transmits yellow fever, as well as other diseases, has set up home in Cyprus. Experts say its potential for spreading to other parts of Europe is "concerning" given its preference for biting humans, and its ability to transmit disease.
Dengue starts with flu-like symptoms but can become serious and, in some cases, fatal.
Mass outbreaks have been rising in recent years. Last year eight incidents of multiple infections were recorded in France, four in Italy and two in Spain.
Most European cases are imported - a reflection of the international movement of people and trade, with imported cases soaring to nearly 5,000 last year.
But locally-acquired infections are also rising: 130 people were affected in 2023, up from 71 the year before.
West Nile virus, which is also transmitted by mosquitoes, is now present in more European regions than ever before.
One person was reported to be infected by the virus in southern Spain at the start of March, highlighting how climate conditions are creating a suitable environment for mosquitoes even "very early in the year", the ECDC said.

...

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce5520m6x2go
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

SteveMDFP

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Re: Pathogens and their impacts
« Reply #729 on: June 14, 2024, 07:15:43 PM »
Interesting and unusual disease outbreak:

Dozens of hikers sickened after visiting Grand Canyon's Havasupai Falls
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/havasupai-falls-grand-canyon-norovirus-sick-arizona/
and
https://wanderwisdom.com/news/hikers-ill-havasupai-falls-arizona

These folks had notably severe, fairly prolonged nausea/vomiting/diarrhea.  My hunch is that a GI tract pathogen was aerosolized by the falls, and then inhaled.  My guess, offhand, is that either norovirus or cryptospiridium might be the most likely culprits.  Both can be acquired by the inhalation route.  Norovirus has previously caused disease for backpackers in the Grand Canyon area.  If aerosolization was the mechanism, it's almost surprising that GI tract problems are not more common among people visiting waterfalls around the world.

Relation to global warming?  Maybe warmer waters are better for these pathogens to remain viable longer.  Perhaps the recent extreme heat there caused birds to succumb and drop into the waters above the falls.  Nothing like an animal corpse to seed pathogens into the environment.