Meningitis research updates

[waltky]

MenAfriVac works!...

New Vaccine Drives Africa Meningitis Cases to Lowest in Decade
June 06, 2013 — Case numbers in Africa's meningitis season this year were the lowest in 10 years thanks to a cheap new vaccine designed to treat a type of the disease common in the so-called meningitis belt, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

The vaccine, called MenAfriVac, was developed with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation specifically for use against meningitis A, a type which causes regular epidemics in Africa. Detailing data for Jan. 1 to May 12, the United Nations health agency said that just under 9,250 meningitis cases, including 857 deaths, were reported in 18 of the 19 African countries under enhanced surveillance for meningitis.

Women and children wait to participate in a vaccination campaign against meningitis at the community center in Al Neem camp for Internally Displaced People in El Daein, East Darfur, Sudan

Epidemics of meningitis A occur regularly in Africa's “meningitis belt”, a band of 26 countries stretching from Senegal to Ethiopia, and are particularly devastating to children and young adults. Bacterial meningitis, known as meningococcal meningitis, is a serious infection of the thin lining surrounding the brain and spinal cord. It can cause severe brain damage and is fatal in 50 percent of cases if untreated. According to the non-profit Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP), which helped develop the MenAfriVac vaccine, the seasonal outbreak of meningitis across sub-Saharan Africa in 2009 infected at least 88,000 people and killed more than 5,000.

The WHO said the falling numbers this year were due to the introduction of the newly developed vaccine. MenAfriVac costs just 50 U.S. cents a dose and has been progressively introduced in Africa since 2010, starting in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. “The introduction of this first meningococcal vaccine available for preventive purposes in Africa has enabled the immunization of over 100 million people from 10 countries in the meningitis belt in the past three years,” the WHO said. “The reduced case load and epidemic activity observed this year adds to the evidence on the impact...of this vaccine.”

New Vaccine Drives Africa Meningitis Cases to Lowest in Decade

 

[waltky]

New meningitis vaccine successful in Africa...

New Meningitis Vaccine a Success in Chad
September 16, 2013 — A study published this month in the Lancet medical journal found a new meningitis vaccine being used in Chad reduced the incidence of the disease by 94 percent. According to the World Health Organization, meningitis affects nearly half a billion people living in sub-Saharan Africa each year and, even with proper treatment, is often deadly.

Researchers say the first meningitis vaccine developed specifically for Africa has “dramatically reduced” the number of cases of the disease in Chad, as well as prevented its spread. Dr. James Stuart, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a co-author of the study, said his team looked at the effects of what is known as MenAfriVac on 1.8 million people under the age of 29 across three regions in Chad during the 2012 meningitis epidemic. "What we found was that the number of cases dropped dramatically in the part of the country that was vaccinated and that the meningitis epidemic continued in the part of the country that had not been vaccinated," Stuart said. "So this, although it was not a trial, suggested that the vaccine had a very positive effect on protecting people against meningitis."

Stuart said MenAfriVac, which targets the type-A strain of the disease, completely prevented type A in all of the vaccinated regions. It also reduced the incidence of all types of meningitis. According to the World Health Organization, more than one million cases of meningitis, which is the inflammation of the protective tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord, have been reported in Africa since 1988. The highest incidence of the disease occurs in what is known as the “meningitis belt” of sub-Saharan Africa, a strip of 25 countries stretching from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east. No other meningitis vaccines have proven to be as effective as MenAfriVac, Stuart said. "The new vaccine seems to stop people carrying the germ and it stops it therefore from being transmitted, whereas the old vaccine did not have an effect on carriage, so it did not stop the germ being transmitted between people," he said. "So this new vaccine therefore has a double effect. One is that it gives you a good individual protection against meningitis, and at the same time, it is actually stopping transmission, so it is actually preventing other people from getting meningitis as well."

A child receives a meningitis vaccination at the community center in El Daein, East Darfur, Sudan

Stuart said that such prevention is key when it comes to meningitis, as the disease can spread quickly, passing from person to person via bacteria that live in the throat. Outbreaks in sub-Saharan Africa are common and have killed as many as 25,000 people at a time. While this particular vaccine is not new, it was licensed in India in 2009 and introduced in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in December 2010, this was the first time researchers were able to test its effectiveness. The World Health Organization says antibiotics are available as treatment, but meningitis can lead to serious health problems once contracted, including seizures, deafness, paralysis and brain damage, and that it results in death in about 10 percent of reported cases. In Chad, the mortality rate has risen as high as 75 percent during outbreaks.

Stuart said that MenAfriVac will sell for less than 50 cents per dose in sub-Saharan Africa and can be included as part of routine preventative vaccinations for children. While its longterm effects are still being studied, Stuart said there have been no indications of negative side effects. Following its success in Chad, MenAfriVac has since been used to vaccinate an additional 100 million people against type A meningitis in sub-Saharan Africa. Stuart said plans are underway to roll out the vaccine in the rest of the meningitis belt countries.

New Meningitis Vaccine a Success in Chad

 

[waltky]

Africa to get Meningitis A Vaccine for Infants...

WHO OKs Use of Meningitis A Vaccine for Infants
January 08, 2015 ~ The World Health Organization has given the go-ahead for a meningitis A vaccine to be used in infants younger than a year old in Africa.

The vaccine, MenAfriVac, has been highly effective since its introduction four years ago in protecting children and adults ages 1 to 29. The inexpensive, safe vaccine has been administered to more than 215 million people in 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa's so-called meningitis belt, where the disease occurs regularly in an area between Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east.

The countries include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Togo and Gambia. One of the most devastating outbreaks occurred in 1996-97, when an epidemic of meningitis A infected a quarter-million people and killed 25,000 in a few months.

The logo of the World Health Organization is seen at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

But since the widespread use of MenAfriVac in 2010, there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of cases and it confers "community" immunity among unvaccinated groups. In 2012, there was a 90 percent drop in the incidence and transmission of meningitis A in Chad.

Meningitis A causes high fever and severe headache, along with vomiting and nausea, seizures, sleepiness and sensitivity to light. It is thought that giving the drug to infants as part of a routine vaccination schedule will further reduce the number of meningitis outbreaks. The low-cost MenAfriVac was developed by a partnership between the nonprofit Meningitis Vaccine Project and Serum Institute of India.

WHO OKs Use of Meningitis A Vaccine for Infants

 

[waltky]

Routine childhood immunisation rounds needed...

Huge gains on meningitis A in Africa could be under threat, warns WHO
Tuesday 10 November 2015 - Success of campaign that has almost rid 26 African countries of the disease could be at risk if vaccine not given routinely, says World Health Organisation

The “dramatic gains” made by a vaccination campaign that has almost rid 26 African countries of meningitis A could be undermined if the pioneering vaccine used is not included in routine childhood immunisation rounds, health experts have warned. The vaccine, MenAfriVac, was created to fight epidemics of the deadly disease, which used to kill or disable thousands of people each year across the “meningitis belt” that runs through a swath of sub-Saharan African countries, from Senegal to Ethiopia.

Because it is cheap – costing less than $0.50 a dose – and doesn’t need to be stored in fridges or iceboxes, the vaccine has nearly eliminated the disease, which is a bacterial infection of the thin lining around the brain and spinal cord. MenAfriVac was developed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Path, a non-profit global health group, in response to the 1996 outbreak of meningitis A that killed 25,000 people and infected more than 250,00 over the course of a few months.

Five years after the vaccine was launched, 220 million people between the ages of one and 29 have been vaccinated in 16 of the 26 countries in the belt: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan and Togo. Meningitis A has disappeared wherever the vaccine has been used, and in 2013 just four laboratory-confirmed cases were reported across the belt. But despite the vaccine’s success, scientists say that the disease could easily recur within the next two decades if the vaccine is not rolled out more widely.

The other 10 countries in the belt – Burundi, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda – still need to fully implement vaccination campaigns. “We have nearly eliminated meningitis A epidemics from Africa, but the fact is the job is not yet done,” said Dr Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele, director of immunisation, vaccines and biologicals at WHO. “Our dramatic gains against meningitis A through mass vaccination campaigns will be jeopardised unless countries maintain a high level of protection by incorporating the meningitis A vaccine into their routine childhood immunisation schedules.”

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[waltky]

Mum shares photo of dead girl's meningitis...

Thousands sign petition after mum shares image of girl's meningitis
Wed, 17 Feb 2016 - A mother shares an image of her two-year-old daughter before her death from meningitis to campaign for vaccines to be given to all children.

A mother has shared an image of her daughter before her death from meningitis to back a campaign for vaccines to be given to all children. Faye Burdett, aged two, from Maidstone, Kent died on Valentine's Day after fighting the infection for 11 days. Her family said they were enduring "a pain you cannot describe" after the toddler contracted meningitis B. Their photographs of Faye, including one of her in hospital, have been widely shared on social media.

Faye Burdett was taken to A&E with a rash on her forehead but died days later​

'Massive operation'

The most widely shared image shows her covered in a rash from the infection lying in her hospital bed. More than 331,000 people have signed a petition calling for the NHS vaccination programme to be widened to all children. A vaccine to protect against meningitis B became available on the NHS for babies in September but parents who want to have older children vaccinated must pay privately. "We campaign for change in her memory," said Faye's mother, Jenny. "Faye was taken to A&E with a rash on her forehead. She was then transferred by South Thames Retrieval Service to Evelina Children's Hospital, where her heart stopped in the ambulance. "They revived her and spent hours working on stabilising her. "We were given a 1% survival chance but she proved them wrong and carried on fighting. "After a few days she seemed to have turned a corner, but the sepsis started to affect her more."

Faye's mother Jenny published this picture of her daughter to raise awareness​

It was then that doctors presented the family with an option of amputation. "The extent of removal was massive, full leg amputation and one arm and plastic surgery," Jenny said. "We had to make the decision, a massive operation and she may die or we let her go peacefully on her own accord. "We decided the latter and then watched our little girl slip away." Charlene Reed, who set up a JustGiving page in memory of Faye, to raise money for the Evelina hospice, said Faye's mother shared the picture to raise awareness. "It's not nice, but it is reality. It's what this disease did to Faye which made her sadly lose her life on Sunday," she said.

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[waltky]

Bacterial meningitis outbreak in Niger...

Bacterial Meningitis Linked to Sand Storms in Sahel
July 27, 2016 - There’s new evidence linking hot desert sandstorms in Africa to bacterial meningitis in the Sahel, an area that stretches from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east. Known as the “meningitis belt,” researchers have homed in on why the region has its name.

Sandstorms are a fact of life in West Africa's Sahel region. New research suggests that exposure to all that airborne dust, along with the already high temperatures contribute to the high number of bacterial meningitis cases each year.” Most people carry the bacteria that causes meningitis in their nasal passages, but British and Belgian researchers think that sand and other airborne debris people breathe in during a sandstorm carries the bacteria high into the respiratory tract where it is more likely to develop into the deadly infection.

Daniel Neill is a researcher at the University of Liverpool in the school’s Institute of Infection and Global Health. “In our noses, mouths and throats some of these bacteria live quite harmlessly, and that’s very common throughout the world ,” said Neill. "But what’s very rare is for these bacteria to move from these sites in the nose and mouth and throat to places like the brain, lungs or bloodstream where they cause severe disease. So what we were able to show was that the dust causes the likelihood of the bacteria moving from the mouth, nose or throat from these other sites where they cause severe infection.” Over the past ten years, there have been about one million cases of bacterial meningitis in the Sahel, resulting in some 100,000 deaths.

А boy is seen eating dry couscous in the village of Goudoude Diobe, in the Matam region of northeastern Senegal.​

Streptococcus pneumoniae can cause often-lethal inflammation of the lining of the brain. Neill says it is treated aggressively with antibiotics, and effective meningitis vaccines have significantly reduced the incidence of the disease. For their study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Neill and colleagues spent eight years studying dust storms in the Sahel – which encompasses 26 countries with a population of 300 million people. Their work focused on Niger. Investigators measured periods of visibility during the storms. They found that the lower the visibility - where people could see for no more than three meters - the more cases there were of meningitis. When combined with extremely hot temperatures, he suggests, the bacteria release toxins that make it hard for the immune system to fight off infection.

Neill says the number of meningitis cases might be reduced if people who must go outdoors during a sand storm cover their noses and mouths with scarves or gauze material. “And that’s something that we could test relatively simply in which we’d like to do in the future is just to see whether adopting simple measures like that can affect the incidences of meningitis in these parts of the world,” said Neill. Dust storms tend to occur during the Sahel’s dry season, the hottest part of the year. Neill says by monitoring climate conditions, it may be possible to forecast when the most dangerous storms are likely to occur.

Uptick in Bacterial Meningitis Seen During Sand Storms

See also:

Scientists Find Potential New Antibiotic, Right Under Their Noses
July 27, 2016 — Scientists in Germany have discovered a bacteria hiding out in peoples' noses that produces an antibiotic compound that can kill several dangerous pathogens, including the superbug MRSA.

The early-stage finding, reported Wednesday in the journal Nature, could one day lead to a whole new class of antibiotic medicines being developed to fight drug-resistant bacterial infections, the researchers said. As well as being a focal point for many viral infections, the nasal cavity is also a rich ecosystem of 50 or so different species of bacteria, lead researcher Andreas Peschel of the University of Tuebingen told reporters in a telephone briefing. "[That's] the reason why we looked at this particular body site,” Peschel said. “[And] it led us to some very unexpected and exciting findings that may be very helpful in looking for new concepts for the development of antibiotics."

Most antibiotics discovered and developed until now have been isolated from soil-living or other environmental bacteria, but the researchers said this discovery highlights the value of the human microbiome as a potential new source. "The human body has a lot of different ecological niches," Peschel said. "Maybe this is just the right place to look for new human antibiotics. Lugdunin is an example that we've been able to characterize. We're sure there will be others to discover." Naming their new discovery lugdunin, the researchers said it was the first known example of a new class of peptide antibiotics.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) broths are shown in this file photo. Scientists have discovered a bacteria in people's noses that produces an antibiotic effective in treating a strain of the superbug MRSA.​

Lugdunin is produced by the nostril-dwelling bacterium Staphylococcus lugdunensis (S. lugdunensis). In experiments with mice, Peschel's team showed it is able to effectively treat a skin infection caused by the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), which can cause serious and superbug infections. They also found lugdunin was effective against a wide range of so-called Gram-positive bacteria, including strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

The researchers then analyzed nasal swabs from 187 hospital patients and found that in those who had the S. lugdunensis bacteria in their noses, only 5.9 percent also harbored the potential infectious S. aureus bacteria. In those with no S. lugdunensis, however, 34.7 percent were found to have S. aureus in their noses. This suggests that in the human nose, S. lugdunensis helps to keep S. aureus at bay, the researchers said. Peschel stressed that the research is at a very early stage and the team would need many years of work, ideally with a pharmaceutical company, before a potential new antibiotic medicine could be developed and tested in clinical trials.

Scientists Find Potential New Antibiotic, Right Under Their Noses

 

[waltky]

New meningitis test hopes to contain outbreaks...

Scientists Hope New Test Could Help Contain Meningitis Outbreaks
August 24, 2016 — A test has been developed that could help diagnose bacterial infections including meningitis in minutes, but it could take several years before a cheap testing device is available to developing countries, scientists said on Wednesday.

The new test could save lives, allow treatment of disease — which is difficult to diagnose — to start much sooner and reduce the risk of life-changing after effects, an international team of researchers led by Imperial College London said. "We would very much hope this could become something cheap enough to be applied even in resource poor regions," Imperial College Professor Michael Levin told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Currently the only test available for meningitis, whose symptoms include a high fever, headaches and vomiting, is expensive and takes more than 48 hours, Levin said. A study led by the pediatrician shows that bacterial infections can be distinguished from other causes of fever.

Meningococcal meningitis survivor and vaccination advocate Leslie Meigs looks on as her brother Andrew (18), a college student in Texas, receives Bexsero(R), a meningococcal group B vaccine approved by the FDA for ages 10-25.​

The research revealed that two genes in white blood cells become active only in case of bacterial infections, according to the study published in the JAMA medical journal. Researchers said a cheap pin-prick blood test able to accurately identify bacterial infections in less than one hour could be developed within five years. "If this works... [we] could have an accurate test in situations such as in sub-Saharan Africa where there are epidemics of meningitis and accurate testing using the current methodologies is really difficult," study co-author Dr Jethro Herberg said.

Meningitis is common across Africa's so-called "meningitis belt" from Senegal to Ethiopia. An outbreak of meningitis killed at least 90 people in Niger this year, according to medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). A 2009 outbreak caused more than 80,000 cases, while some 20,000 people died in another epidemic, in 1996-1997. Meningitis, which is prevalent in children and elderly people, can be treated with antibiotics, but 10 percent to 15 percent of patients die and up to 19 percent of survivors have long-term disabilities, including brain damage and limb amputations.

Scientists Hope New Test Could Help Contain Meningitis Outbreaks

 

[RodISHI]

Antifungal agents from the roots of Cudrania cochinchinensis against Candida, Cryptococcus, and Aspergillus species. Antifungal agents from the roots of Cudrania cochinchinensis against Candida, Cryptococcus, and Aspergillus species. - PubMed - NCBI

Cryptococcus Meningitis infection of the meninges, the tissue covering the brain.

The common name for the comparable to Cudrania conchichinensis used in the above study is Osage Orange which grows abundantly in the US. Some people have also used the leaves of this tree to treat certain cancers they were diagnosed with claiming success. Generally old fashion farmers and ranchers use the limbs of these trees to make fence post as they seem to last a lifetime and beyond.

Garlic injected also seemed to help in patients where it was injected intravenously. It may behoove people around others a lot to eat garlic as it has great antifungal and antibacterial properties.

 

[waltky]

There's a fungus among us...

Deadly fungal infection that doctors have been fearing now reported in U.S.
10 Mar.`17 - Nearly three dozen people in the United States have been diagnosed with a deadly and highly drug-resistant fungal infection since federal health officials first warned U.S. clinicians last June to be on the lookout for the emerging pathogen that has been spreading around the world.

The fungus, a strain of a kind of yeast known as Candida auris, has been reported in a dozen countries on five continents starting in 2009, where it was first found in an ear infection in a patient in Japan. Since then, the fungus has been reported in Colombia, India, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Pakistan, South Korea, Venezuela and the United Kingdom. Unlike garden variety yeast infections, this one causes serious bloodstream infections, spreads easily from person to person in health-care settings, and survives for months on skin and for weeks on bed rails, chairs and other hospital equipment. Some strains are resistant to all three major classes of antifungal drugs. Based on information from a limited number of patients, up to 60 percent of people with these infections have died. Many of them also had other serious underlying illnesses.

Those at greatest risk are individuals who have been in intensive care for a long time or who are on ventilators or have central line catheters inserted into a large vein. In the United States, the largest number of infections has been reported in New York, with at least 28 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infections have also been reported in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Last June, the CDC sent an urgent alert to clinicians to start looking for the infections, which are difficult to identify with standard laboratory methods. “As soon as we put out that alert, we started to get information about cases and now we know more about how it spreads and how it’s acting,” Tom Chiller, the CDC’s top fungal expert, said in an interview on Thursday. The CDC now tracks the number of infections, updating the case count every few weeks.

In addition to the 35 infected patients, an additional 18 were carrying the organism but weren't sickened by it. The microbe is among a group of newly emerging drug-resistant threats, health officials said. “These pathogens are increasing, they’re new, they’re scary and they’re very difficult to combat,” Anne Schuchat, CDC’s acting director, said during a briefing in Washington this week about growing antimicrobial resistance. Of the first seven cases that were reported to the CDC last fall, four patients had bloodstream infections and died during the weeks to months after the pathogen was identified. Officials said they couldn't be sure whether the deaths were caused by the infection because all the individuals had other serious medical conditions. Five patients had the fungus initially isolated from blood, one from urine, and one from the ear.

A strain of Candida auris cultured in a petri dish at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.​

The infection is still relatively rare. “It's really hitting the sickest of the sick,” Chiller said. So far, the fungus doesn't seem to be evolving into new strains within the United States. Because the country doesn't yet have any “homegrown” strains of the deadly fungus, “it gives us a better opportunity to contain it and stop it from spreading,” Chiller said. In other countries, infections have been resistant to all three major types of antifungal drugs, but so far the U.S. cases have been treatable with existing drugs.

MORE

 

[RodISHI]

There's a fungus among us...

Deadly fungal infection that doctors have been fearing now reported in U.S.
10 Mar.`17 - Nearly three dozen people in the United States have been diagnosed with a deadly and highly drug-resistant fungal infection since federal health officials first warned U.S. clinicians last June to be on the lookout for the emerging pathogen that has been spreading around the world.

The fungus, a strain of a kind of yeast known as Candida auris, has been reported in a dozen countries on five continents starting in 2009, where it was first found in an ear infection in a patient in Japan. Since then, the fungus has been reported in Colombia, India, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Pakistan, South Korea, Venezuela and the United Kingdom. Unlike garden variety yeast infections, this one causes serious bloodstream infections, spreads easily from person to person in health-care settings, and survives for months on skin and for weeks on bed rails, chairs and other hospital equipment. Some strains are resistant to all three major classes of antifungal drugs. Based on information from a limited number of patients, up to 60 percent of people with these infections have died. Many of them also had other serious underlying illnesses.

Those at greatest risk are individuals who have been in intensive care for a long time or who are on ventilators or have central line catheters inserted into a large vein. In the United States, the largest number of infections has been reported in New York, with at least 28 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infections have also been reported in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Last June, the CDC sent an urgent alert to clinicians to start looking for the infections, which are difficult to identify with standard laboratory methods. “As soon as we put out that alert, we started to get information about cases and now we know more about how it spreads and how it’s acting,” Tom Chiller, the CDC’s top fungal expert, said in an interview on Thursday. The CDC now tracks the number of infections, updating the case count every few weeks.

In addition to the 35 infected patients, an additional 18 were carrying the organism but weren't sickened by it. The microbe is among a group of newly emerging drug-resistant threats, health officials said. “These pathogens are increasing, they’re new, they’re scary and they’re very difficult to combat,” Anne Schuchat, CDC’s acting director, said during a briefing in Washington this week about growing antimicrobial resistance. Of the first seven cases that were reported to the CDC last fall, four patients had bloodstream infections and died during the weeks to months after the pathogen was identified. Officials said they couldn't be sure whether the deaths were caused by the infection because all the individuals had other serious medical conditions. Five patients had the fungus initially isolated from blood, one from urine, and one from the ear.

A strain of Candida auris cultured in a petri dish at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.​

The infection is still relatively rare. “It's really hitting the sickest of the sick,” Chiller said. So far, the fungus doesn't seem to be evolving into new strains within the United States. Because the country doesn't yet have any “homegrown” strains of the deadly fungus, “it gives us a better opportunity to contain it and stop it from spreading,” Chiller said. In other countries, infections have been resistant to all three major types of antifungal drugs, but so far the U.S. cases have been treatable with existing drugs.

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This has most likely been out there much longer than medical professionals would like to admit as they don't generally run lab test to see which type of Candida a person is infected with. It could possibly track back to animal feed too. Animal feed enzymes have become all the rage for fattening feed lot critters to add weight on them.

 

[yiostheoy]

That is a good news. Hopefully the scientists succeed in inventing a proper cure for this problem.

You ChristinaMathew post about once each year. What is up with that ??

 

[yiostheoy]

There's a fungus among us...

Deadly fungal infection that doctors have been fearing now reported in U.S.
10 Mar.`17 - Nearly three dozen people in the United States have been diagnosed with a deadly and highly drug-resistant fungal infection since federal health officials first warned U.S. clinicians last June to be on the lookout for the emerging pathogen that has been spreading around the world.

The fungus, a strain of a kind of yeast known as Candida auris, has been reported in a dozen countries on five continents starting in 2009, where it was first found in an ear infection in a patient in Japan. Since then, the fungus has been reported in Colombia, India, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Pakistan, South Korea, Venezuela and the United Kingdom. Unlike garden variety yeast infections, this one causes serious bloodstream infections, spreads easily from person to person in health-care settings, and survives for months on skin and for weeks on bed rails, chairs and other hospital equipment. Some strains are resistant to all three major classes of antifungal drugs. Based on information from a limited number of patients, up to 60 percent of people with these infections have died. Many of them also had other serious underlying illnesses.

Those at greatest risk are individuals who have been in intensive care for a long time or who are on ventilators or have central line catheters inserted into a large vein. In the United States, the largest number of infections has been reported in New York, with at least 28 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infections have also been reported in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Last June, the CDC sent an urgent alert to clinicians to start looking for the infections, which are difficult to identify with standard laboratory methods. “As soon as we put out that alert, we started to get information about cases and now we know more about how it spreads and how it’s acting,” Tom Chiller, the CDC’s top fungal expert, said in an interview on Thursday. The CDC now tracks the number of infections, updating the case count every few weeks.

In addition to the 35 infected patients, an additional 18 were carrying the organism but weren't sickened by it. The microbe is among a group of newly emerging drug-resistant threats, health officials said. “These pathogens are increasing, they’re new, they’re scary and they’re very difficult to combat,” Anne Schuchat, CDC’s acting director, said during a briefing in Washington this week about growing antimicrobial resistance. Of the first seven cases that were reported to the CDC last fall, four patients had bloodstream infections and died during the weeks to months after the pathogen was identified. Officials said they couldn't be sure whether the deaths were caused by the infection because all the individuals had other serious medical conditions. Five patients had the fungus initially isolated from blood, one from urine, and one from the ear.

A strain of Candida auris cultured in a petri dish at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.​

The infection is still relatively rare. “It's really hitting the sickest of the sick,” Chiller said. So far, the fungus doesn't seem to be evolving into new strains within the United States. Because the country doesn't yet have any “homegrown” strains of the deadly fungus, “it gives us a better opportunity to contain it and stop it from spreading,” Chiller said. In other countries, infections have been resistant to all three major types of antifungal drugs, but so far the U.S. cases have been treatable with existing drugs.

MORE

Women tend to carry fungi infections in their love canals.

Wish this article was more specific.

I am guessing they edited the more salient details to be politically correct.

 

[yiostheoy]

Meningitis is one of those diseases that like TB is spread when large groups of people are quartered together, such as military, prisons, schools, etc.

I have done the school thing, and the military thing. Luckily I did not get exposed.

Have never done the jail or prison thing, other than visiting prisoners for Catholic Mass.

 

[RodISHI]

There's a fungus among us...

Deadly fungal infection that doctors have been fearing now reported in U.S.
10 Mar.`17 - Nearly three dozen people in the United States have been diagnosed with a deadly and highly drug-resistant fungal infection since federal health officials first warned U.S. clinicians last June to be on the lookout for the emerging pathogen that has been spreading around the world.

The fungus, a strain of a kind of yeast known as Candida auris, has been reported in a dozen countries on five continents starting in 2009, where it was first found in an ear infection in a patient in Japan. Since then, the fungus has been reported in Colombia, India, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Pakistan, South Korea, Venezuela and the United Kingdom. Unlike garden variety yeast infections, this one causes serious bloodstream infections, spreads easily from person to person in health-care settings, and survives for months on skin and for weeks on bed rails, chairs and other hospital equipment. Some strains are resistant to all three major classes of antifungal drugs. Based on information from a limited number of patients, up to 60 percent of people with these infections have died. Many of them also had other serious underlying illnesses.

Those at greatest risk are individuals who have been in intensive care for a long time or who are on ventilators or have central line catheters inserted into a large vein. In the United States, the largest number of infections has been reported in New York, with at least 28 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infections have also been reported in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Last June, the CDC sent an urgent alert to clinicians to start looking for the infections, which are difficult to identify with standard laboratory methods. “As soon as we put out that alert, we started to get information about cases and now we know more about how it spreads and how it’s acting,” Tom Chiller, the CDC’s top fungal expert, said in an interview on Thursday. The CDC now tracks the number of infections, updating the case count every few weeks.

In addition to the 35 infected patients, an additional 18 were carrying the organism but weren't sickened by it. The microbe is among a group of newly emerging drug-resistant threats, health officials said. “These pathogens are increasing, they’re new, they’re scary and they’re very difficult to combat,” Anne Schuchat, CDC’s acting director, said during a briefing in Washington this week about growing antimicrobial resistance. Of the first seven cases that were reported to the CDC last fall, four patients had bloodstream infections and died during the weeks to months after the pathogen was identified. Officials said they couldn't be sure whether the deaths were caused by the infection because all the individuals had other serious medical conditions. Five patients had the fungus initially isolated from blood, one from urine, and one from the ear.

A strain of Candida auris cultured in a petri dish at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.​

The infection is still relatively rare. “It's really hitting the sickest of the sick,” Chiller said. So far, the fungus doesn't seem to be evolving into new strains within the United States. Because the country doesn't yet have any “homegrown” strains of the deadly fungus, “it gives us a better opportunity to contain it and stop it from spreading,” Chiller said. In other countries, infections have been resistant to all three major types of antifungal drugs, but so far the U.S. cases have been treatable with existing drugs.

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Women tend to carry fungi infections in their love canals.

Wish this article was more specific.

I am guessing they edited the more salient details to be politically correct.

This particular strain of the Candida fungus can be in the dirt and can survive on most any surface. It directly affects those with weakened immune systems with more virulence and can have deadly consequences. It has been under reported. Just a guess but it is very possible that it is one of those strains that has increased as the chemical Benzalkonium was more frequently used for personal and commercial applications. BKC kills natures killers and inhibitors to many strains of fungi and infectious viruses and that is also under reported. MRSA was widely reported on the increase in hospital settings where BKC was replaced by the old standard of heat sterilization methods for instruments and older standards for disinfecting surface areas. Even though the smallest amounts cause asthma it is still being widely distributed in commercial settings (offices and stores), medical facilities and hospitals. For awhile it was also put into inhalers for asthma patients (also the ones for children). Between fire retardants embedded into children's clothing, hand cleaners and detergents asthma increase among children and pets dramatically. It was used as a replacement in detergents for home use but I have noticed some companies have phased that out and found other replacements for household detergents and laundry soap. The shit should be outlawed for anything that would be used daily by anyone Benzalkonium chloride - Wikipedia.
(studied the effects of Benzalkonium Chloride pretty in-depth after learning that is what I was covered in at work)

 

[waltky]

Meningitis outbreak kills 336 children in Nigeria...

Meningitis epidemic kills 336 children in Nigeria
Apr 4,`17 -- Nigerian and international health officials say a meningitis epidemic has killed 336 children amid fears it could spread across the border to Niger.

The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control and U.N. agencies say 2,997 cases have been reported in the states of Zamfara, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger and Sokoto in northwest and north-central Nigeria since the disease surfaced in December. A statement Tuesday says most victims are between 5 and 14.

Some 500,000 doses of vaccine have arrived in Zamfara, where the disease surfaced. But officials say 2 million doses are needed and there's a worldwide shortage for the strain, which inflames the spinal cord and brain.

The statement notes the "risk of international border transmission." Meningitis killed 1,100 people and infected more than 10,000 in Nigeria and Niger in 2015.

News from The Associated Press