Tag: Disease

Why Avoid Florida?

A good question for a spot that use to be the pinnacle of vacation spots.

But why not Florida?

I am glad you asked.

There are so many reason and let me count the ways.

First the mini dictator, DeSantis…..a red state that hates people…..brain eating amoeba….malaria….alligators…..sharks……15 foot pythons and anacondas…..and the biggest predator of them all….Disney….and now just more scary for the list.

Florida is contending with invasive species, spiking insurance rates, worrisome warming waters, political tensions, and now … leprosy? That’s according to the CDC, who on Monday issued a release spelling out how the infectious condition, also known as Hansen’s disease, has taken hold in the Sunshine State, especially the central portion, reports the Hill. Per the release, Florida was one of the top states that contributed to the 159 new cases in the United States in 2020, with Central Florida being hit especially hard: That portion accounted for 81% of the cases in Florida that year, and nearly 20% of the cases nationally.

The agency notes that its findings “contribute to rising evidence that leprosy has become endemic in the southeastern United States.” The CDC adds that “travel to Florida should be considered when conducting leprosy contact tracing in any state.” Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, is caused by the Mycobacterium leprae bacteria, which affects the nerves, skin, eyes, and nasal lining. Symptoms typically include discolored skin patches (as well as thick, stiff, or dry skin); loss of eyebrows or eyelashes; ulcers on the soles of one’s feet; muscle weakness; and a loss of sensation, meaning, for instance, a patient may not feel if their skin is being burned.

Upward of 200,000 cases are reported annually worldwide, per the World Health Organization, which notes that the most cases have emerged in Brazil, India, and Indonesia. The agency says the number of reported cases in the southeastern part of the US has “more than doubled” over the past decade, and that multiple cases tracked in Florida “demonstrate no clear evidence of zoonotic exposure or traditionally known risk factors.”

Central Florida?  Is that not where Disney is housed?

When it comes to Florida I’ll take vanilla.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Another Epidemic Waiting To Happen?

Some interesting news to start your month.

Sunday and I spent the morning checking the orchard out….the olives are in bloom, so is the plum, tangerine and satsuma are filled with small young fruit…..fig is coming along and the blueberries are plentiful….appears it will be a good year for fruit.

Now that the mundane is out of the way….let’s move on to other news.

We went through the all divisive Covid epidemic…..we have a flesh eating bug out there….even a brain eating beast….and now we have yet another problem waiting to explode.

More than six years ago, news of a newly discovered drug-resistant “killer fungus” started making the rounds in the US, and scientists hoped to “contain and stop the spread” of it. Now, a concerning development, as the CDC notes that the possibly fatal fungus has been charging through health care facilities around the country, reports NBC News. A new CDC study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on the fungus—a yeast called Candida auris that especially affects older people and those with weakened immune systems—found that not only is the number of people with an infection from the fungus spiking at an “alarming rate,” but the number of those carrying C. auris is also rising. The New York Times has the numbers: In 2019, state and local health departments reported about 500 cases of the fungal infection.

By 2021, that had reached nearly 1,500—a 200% increase. Although the study itself didn’t include 2022’s numbers, a CDC website noted that last year saw 2,377 cases. C. auris is now found in more than half of the nation’s states, with Nevada, Florida, California, Texas, Illinois, and New York seeing the highest concentrations, per the CDC site. The fatality rate of C. auris patients is also concerning: The CDC says about half of those who become infected die, though researchers acknowledge they aren’t able to point to the fungus itself as the main cause of death, as those who die often have other medical issues. Then there’s the fact that the fungus is highly resistant to various drug classes, including echinocandins. Per the Times, health officials say “if resistance to echinocandins becomes more common as the germ evolves, C. auris could become extremely difficult, if not impossible, to treat.”

Scientists believe that the fungal infection may have worsened during the pandemic due to attention and resources being directed toward COVID, and because medical professionals’ personal protective gear, which C. auris clings to, was changed out less often due to shortages. None of this means that fighting the fungus is a lost cause, as there has been progress on stopping the spread in New York and Illinois. And Dr. Waleed Javaid, an epidemiologist at Mount Sinai, says that patients who contract the infection are typically “extremely ill individuals” with other issues. “We don’t want people who watched The Last of Us to think we’re all going to die,” he tells NBC.

Oh goody something else to worry about these days….as if we do not have enough on our plates to worry about these days.

Be warned and be prepared.

Please people do not run out and buy up all the toilet paper you can find…..see where this is going before you panic.

Enjoy your Sunday….Be Well and Be Safe.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Panic Takes Hold!

I know I stated that I would not write any more on this topic unless it was something major…..this is something major…..PANIC!

After all the articles, news shows and blog posts on the coming apocalypse, the Virus, panic buying has started……and my friend at The Limin Report has written about this as well…..https://linesbyliming.com/2020/03/12/is-the-media-using-coronavirus-to-stoke-fear-and-panic-in-america-or-not/

I have told readers to be prepared but panic buying is not preparation……I have told my readers as well to use common sense and rationality….those qualities seem to be in short supply……sad thing is the with common sense it is seldom all that common.

Does anyone know why normally rational people are panic buying?

The worldwide spread of the novel coronavirus is leading to some curious side effects: Store shelves are being stripped bare from Singapore to Seattle. Supermarkets in the U.K. have started rationing items. In Hong Kong a delivery man was reportedly robbed at knife-point of hundreds of toilet-paper rolls. Australia has seen brawls break out at supermarkets prompting police to taser one man. And France effectively nationalized all production of face masks after people began depleting the supply.

Panic buying has emerged as reliable a feature of the coronavirus epidemic as a fever or dry cough.

Psychologists view control as a fundamental human need. With a disease that’s highly infectious and can turn deadly, this epidemic violates a sense of control in fundamental ways. Unless policy makers can find a way to restore that feeling, the cycle of panic buying, hoarding and scarcity only stands to escalate.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-10/why-rational-people-are-panic-buying-as-coronavirus-spreads

Take a deep breath…..calm down….take the advice of the CDC…..use common sense (if that is in your wheelhouse)……avoid crowds….wash hands….be prepared.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Last Of My Virus Reports

Since this topic is on everybody’s lips and mind I have decided to stop posting on the issue unless something major happens…..for all the information people need is out there they just need to find it and understand it (probably a bit difficult for some).

I did read a couple of reports that show just how bad this thing is becoming……

First that promised vaccine….

A fascinating new Bloomberg feature looks at how the ultra-wealthy are preparing for the growing COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

A particularly grim takeaway: Some of the rich have been asking their boutique physicians whether there’s any amount of money that can score them an early-access coronavirus vaccine before the huddled masses.

The tidbit comes via Tim Kruse, a private doctor in the wealthy city of Aspen, Colo., who told Bloomberg that his patients have been asking about a coronavirus vaccine — even though, you’ll remember, a vaccine for the virus doesn’t even exist yet.

https://futurism.com/neoscope/ultra-wealthy-coronavirus-vaccine-early

That kinda reminds me of the BS around transplants…….the rich get them, the poor die waiting.

We have bee told to avoid crowds of all sizes…..first does that mean political rallies?  Next what about a funeral?

Thanx to technology we can attend through the miracle if live streaming……

How can you say goodbye to a loved one who fell victim to a pandemic?

The recent and ongoing COVID-19 outbreak has forced those in the funeral business to address some uncomfortable questions. In fact, in a statement to Sky News, the United Kingdom’s National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) said that in the event of a pandemic, memorial services may need to be held over the internet.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/coronavirus-force-funerals-livestreamed

In my case that would not be a problem….for the only people in attendance will be my immediate family…..everybody else can read about it on Facebook or in the obits.

This thing is running a course…..so everyone please….Be Calm….Avoid Crowds And Be Prepared.

“lego ergo scribo”

Coronavirus Response

The president went to the airways last night to sooth the nerves of his fellow Americans who are having a hard time deciding what to do in response to the virus.

President Trump held a presser about the coronavirus Wednesday as the US announced its first case of unknown origin—meaning the person had apparently not traveled abroad or come on contact with a confirmed case, the Washington Post reports. As for Trump, he’s putting Mike Pence on the case. “I’m going to be putting our Vice President Mike Pence in charge, and Mike will be working with the professionals, doctors and everybody else that’s working,” he said, per CNN. Trump also said he’s willing to compromise with Democrats on coronavirus funding. “We started out by looking at certain things, we’ve been working with the Hill very, very carefully, very strongly, and I think that we have very good bipartisan spirit for money,” he said.

“We were asking for $2.5 billion, and we think that that is a lot,” he added. “But the Democrats—and I guess Senator Schumer—wants us to have much more than that.” Indeed, the AP reports that Schumer is seeking $8.5 billion in a newly unveiled coronavirus proposal. “If they want [us to] give more, we’ll do more,” Trump said. “We’ll spend whatever is appropriate.” He also said a coronavirus vaccine is something America “can develop fairly rapidly.” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar took the podium and said “the immediate risk to the American public is and continues to be low.” The CDC says the case of unknown origin is in Northern California, but little else is known.

I do hope that this calms the markets for our wealthy are losing money and we cannot let them down.

My thoughts…..oh boy Pence in  charge…..his answer to a pandemic is to pray and wait.

After the Senate hearing for the new Homeland Security chief I have NO faith on these people to do “all it takes” to control this disease.

In case you missed the exchange…..

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) slammed acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Chad Wolf on Tuesday for Wolf’s lack of answers during a tense grilling on the U.S. response to the coronavirus outbreak.

In a subcommittee hearing on the 2021 DHS budget, Wolf failed to provide specific answers Kennedy’s questions, including one on how many people are predicted to become infected with the new strain of virus.

“We’re working with HHS to determine that,” Wolf said, repeatedly deferring to the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Yes, sir, but you’re head of Homeland Security and your job is to keep us safe,” Kennedy shot back, often talking over Wolf. “Don’t you think you ought to check on that?”

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/484523-sen-kennedy-slams-acting-dhs-secretary-on-coronavirus

The drug to treat the virus was in the speech….there is already work being done on that front….

New drugs to treat patients already infected with the novel coronavirus, which has sparked outbreaks across multiple continents, will emerge much more quickly than vaccines to prevent infection, a top Food and Drug Administration official said Wednesday.

“The development of a vaccine is not going to prevent a pandemic here,” Peter Marks, the director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told STAT at the SVB Leerink Global Healthcare Conference, ahead of a keynote presentation there. And getting a vaccine ready for pivotal testing is going to take more than just a few months, he said.

Marks’ words stand in contrast to recent comments from the White House. Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s director of the National Economic Council, said Tuesday that drug companies are “probably coming up with a vaccine in much shorter time than people realize,” adding that the U.S.’s containment effort is “pretty close to airtight.”

Coronavirus vaccines are far off, FDA official says, but drugs to treat patients could come sooner

Again I am glad the the president has finally come out of the closet and promised to help…..if keeping promises from 2016 are any indication then the virus does not have a chance (that is called sarcasm).

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Will Climate Change Make You Sick?

An interesting question….we could say yes from drought or storms or habitat destruction….but there is a chance that something much older could be waiting to attack…..

A new study of ice cores in glaciers in the autonomous Chinese region of Tibet reveals that the ice floes are holding viruses previously unencountered by humans, raising the possibility of the microbes being released as the climate crisis continues. 

“We’ve opened up a Pandora’s box with climate change,” observed one Twitter user. 

The report, “Glacier ice archives fifteen-thousand-year-old viruses,” was published in the journal bioRxiv in early January by the scientists who examined the cores. It is awaiting peer review.

According to NBC News:

The experiment revealed 33 groups of virus genuses (also known as genera) in the ice cores. Of these, 28 were previously unknown to science, the researchers said. “The microbes differed significantly across the two ice cores,” the researchers wrote in the study, “presumably representing the very different climate conditions at the time of deposition.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/23/ancient-viruses-trapped-glaciers-thousands-years-could-be-released-climate-crisis

But not to worry…..according to that idiot senator, Rand Paul, it is all a fake…..

According to U.S. Senator Rand Paul, fears of climate change are overblown — but we should also venture out and drastically change the environments of other planets so humanity might settle them.

Paul tweeted his bizarre stance ­on Sunday, after he attempted to roast Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over her aggressive plans to fight climate change, a move which, as HuffPost reports, backfired spectacularly.

And clapbacks aside, his stance that there’s no urgent rush to try and mitigate climate change is troubling given the exhaustive mountain of evidence to the contrary.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/senator-climate-change-fake-terraform-worlds

There are few words that I can use to describe these morons that does not violate the bounds of decency…..so I will leave it at “MORONS”.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Sick Call

Congrats to the USA Women’s soccer team which beat France 2-1 to go on to the semis against England on 02Jul19…..

My days of lounging in the garden have been curbed…..the temps here are hovering around 100 and the humidity between 80 and 90%…..so gives me lots of time to read….and that is dangerous for my readers they never know what will appear on IST…that is what gave me the idea for today’s posts.

Found memories from my days in the US Army…especially overseas…in my case it was Southeast Asia…..anyway……every morning after breakfast there would be a “sick call”…if you were feeling awful you would go and sit and wait to be called for an examination.

We would all sit around the lobby of our medical facility and people would come out an call out…shots and you would get up and go for your scheduled shots or they would call “x-rays” and you would get up and go with that person and on and on until they came to most popular of “sick call” ailments…..penicillin shots and all the VD suffers would stand and go to get their shot for the varied diseased picked up in the back street.

What on Earth got me thinking about those days and those memories?

Cases of some sexually transmitted diseases, including chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, are rising in the U.S. armed forces, a trend that mirrors the general population but alarms military health officials who treat affected troops.

According to a report released earlier this year by the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch, incidence rates of chlamydia in service men and women more than doubled from 2013 to 2018, gonorrhea infection rates also doubled for men and rose by 33 percent for women, and diagnoses of syphilis were nearly three times the number just 10 years ago.

Defense Department officials said the increases can mean negative consequences for military readiness.

“From a military standpoint, sexually transmitted infections can have a significant impact on individual readiness, which in turn impacts unit readiness, which then leads to a decrease in force health protection,” said Maj. Dianne Frankel, an Air Force internal medicine physician, in the release.

Nearly 350,000 troops were diagnosed with a sexually transmitted illness between 2010 and 2018. According to the report, that included 212,405 cases of chlamydia, 32,987 cases of gonorrhea, 4,674 cases of syphilis, 28,295 cases of genital herpes and 71,138 cases of HPV

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/06/26/chlamydia-syphilis-cases-rise-among-us-military-members.html

Interesting what can be labeled a National Security issue, right?  Who knew a case of the “Clap” could be of NatSec concerns?

Amazing things you read make memories of younger days flood back into your brain…..

“Lego Ergo Scribo”…..(I Read; Therefore I Write)

Closing Thought–24May19

I live in Mississippi, the heart of the Diabetic Belt, and our insulin is anything but inexpensive…..$349 a month……the disease is about 11.3% of the population……

The Diabetes Belt?

So when I read of someone, a state, that is trying to make a difference for its residents I take notice……and Colorado is that state……

Diabetics in Colorado who use insulin to control their blood sugar levels won’t pay more than $100 per month for the drug starting in January thanks to a bill signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday.

“Today, we will declare that the days of insulin price gouging are over in Colorado,” Polis said in his office as he signed the bill, according to CBS Denver.

Insulin has been around for nearly a century, but the price that patients with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes pay for the drug has doubled since 2012, according to the Healthcare Cost Institute. The cost of insulin can creep up toward $1,000 for those whose health care coverage requires significant cost-sharing.

https://www.denverpost.com/2019/05/23/colorado-insulin-price-cap/
 
Makes me wonder why a state that is not on the top 10 list for diabetes would be the first to try and control the price of insulin……it should have been a top priority for a state like Mississippi or Alabama……but that would presume that the elected ones actually care about their voters….FLASH!  They Do Not!
The highest cases of diabetes…….
 
  1. Mississippi (11.3%)
  2. Alabama (11.1%)
  3. West Virginia (10.7%)
  4. Louisiana (10.3%)
  5. Tennessee (10.2%)
  6. Oklahoma (10.1%)
  7. Kentucky (10.1%)

You would think these 7 states would be the most interested in helping the sufferers of diabetes…..well you would be mistaken….the poorer the state the more diabetes and the less adequate programs.

So ends my Friday and I prepare for a good weekend and Memorial Day……hope all have a good time…be well, be safe……

Saturday–08Sep18

I try to make IST something for everyone and a good source of FYI…

As the weekend begins news comes that my state has the second highest incidents of sexual transmitted diseases (STDs)……another list that my state should be embarrassed of ….if it is a “Good” list we are at the bottom, if it is a “Bad” list we are at the top and it has been that way for a very long time.

http://backgroundchecks.org/these-are-the-most-sexually-diseased-states-in-the-us.html

All that comes with more terrible news about STDs…..

A record has been set in the US, but not one to celebrate: Almost 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were diagnosed last year—more than 200,000 over the record set in 2016, per the CDC in a report released Tuesday. One CDC director says there have been “steep and sustained increases” in sexually transmitted diseases over the past five years, a “very concerning” trend that hasn’t been seen in two decades. Experts suspect that with newer drugs lowering the risk of HIV infection and making the virus itself less lethal if it is contracted, condom usage has declined, leading to the rapid rise in STDs. But experts tell NBC News that other factors likely contributing include less funding for agencies focused on STD prevention, doctors failing to test patients for STDs, and a general lack of awareness about sexual health—including the need to get tested even if no symptoms are present.

These are the estimates of the number of people with new and existing cases of eight STDs in the United States. The estimates are based on 2008 data.

Another fact is the Deep Red South has 10 out of the top 15 states with the highest cases of STDs.

Sad that in the 21st century that this health issue should be in the news…..and as an aunty of mine use to always say…”keep in your pants and you will always smile”…..

As long as sex is the subject of this post…..there is another aspect of the exercise…..this study is one that I would never have considered…..some of this is not news that is uplifting….actually it is kinda sad.

Daniel Noah Halpern checks in on the state of the world’s sperm in a lengthy piece for GQ, and the upshot at its worst is that there is “the possibility that we will become extinct.” That line comes from Hagai Levine, who co-authored a 2017 Hebrew University/Mount Sinai meta-analysis of 185 studies that involved more than 40,000 men’s sperm and found a worsening picture, and sharply so: In 1973, sperm counts were about 99 million sperm per milliliter of semen; by 2011, that count was down to 47 million per milliliter, and it’s still dropping. “We are producing half the sperm our grandfathers did. We are half as fertile,” writes Halpern, and the numbers prod him to ask: “Would 40 more years—or fewer—bring us all the way to zero?”

Halpern explores a number of other questions, among them, why haven’t we noticed such a drastic change, and what’s the cause? In his view, the answer to the latter question is clear, and “the scientists I talked to were less cautious about embracing this explanation than I expected”: chemicals, which we’ve been ingesting since the industrial revolution but even more so since WWII. He offers a primer on endocrine disruptors like phthalates and BPA, which are found in more obvious places like water bottles, less obvious places like grocery store receipts, and far, far less obvious places like pasta and eggs. He also talks about the significance of a man’s anogenital distance (that’s the distance between the genitals and anus) and how it interrelates with those endocrine disruptors. What’s the solution? IVF, perhaps ultimately. Read his full piece for more.

The “Anogenital” distance?

chuq is out….I will relax today and tomorrow…..there is a “honey do” list waiting…..a really long list……have a good day.

Health Alert

I try to be an FYI blog when I need to……especially when it comes to possible health issues…..

The weekend and I have a health alert I need for my readers to now about…………

Spanish Flu……Bird Flu…..what do these have in common?

One was a pandemic and the other had the possibility to becoming one also….

I touch on this because of something I read the other day about another disease that could become a problem……

The Nipah virus has now killed at least a dozen people in southern India and health workers fear it could become a global epidemic if it isn’t tightly monitored. More than 40 other people have been infected with the virus, which has a mortality rate of around 75%, Fox News reports. Health officials believe the outbreak in Kerala state began with an infected fruit bat, with later infections coming from human-to-human contact. There’s no known cure or vaccine for Nipah, which causes symptoms including fever, vomiting, and convulsions. To avoid being infected by fruit bats, citizens have been urged to ignore fallen fruit on the ground, especially if it has claw or tooth marks.

Previous outbreaks of Nipah were recorded in West Bengal and Bangladesh, more than a thousand miles away from the current outbreak. Experts aren’t sure how it ended up in Kerala, especially since no cases have been detected elsewhere in southern India and even migratory bats don’t travel that far. Some experts believe it was spread through infected figs and dates, while others say pressures on fruit bat populations may have activated the virus. “This is why it is so important to find the source of this outbreak,” a medical officer tells FirstPost. “Only if we answer the question of how the virus came to this part of the world can we put in place scientific measures to ensure that such an outbreak does not happen anywhere close by again. Otherwise, we cannot be sure of how and in which way this virus would spread in the future.”

The one good thing is there are few fruit bats in the skies of America but that does not preclude some infected person from getting on a plane and spreading the disease worldwide.

Sorry to be a downer…..but it is better to know than be caught flat footed. right?

Like I said originally….FYI.