Tag: Disease

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.

An Old Killer Arises

Most everyone knows of the problems Viet vets had upon their return from the war zone….PTSD and those damn symptoms of Agent Orange….well a new killer has been discovered after all these years….

A half a century after serving in Vietnam, hundreds of veterans have a new reason to believe they may be dying from a silent bullet—test results show some men may have been infected by a slow-killing parasite while fighting in the jungles of Southeast Asia. The Department of Veterans Affairs this spring commissioned a small pilot study to look into the link between liver flukes ingested through raw or undercooked fish and a rare bile duct cancer, per the AP. It can take decades for symptoms to appear. By then, patients are often in tremendous pain, with just a few months to live. Of the 50 blood samples submitted, more than 20% came back positive or bordering positive for liver fluke antibodies, said Sung-Tae Hong, the tropical medicine specialist who carried out the tests at Seoul National University in South Korea.

“It was surprising,” he said, stressing the preliminary results could include false positives and that the research is ongoing. Though rarely found in Americans, the parasites infect an estimated 25 million people worldwide. Endemic in the rivers of Vietnam, the worms can easily be wiped out with a handful of pills early on, but left untreated they can live for decades without making their hosts sick. Over time, swelling and inflammation of the bile duct can lead to cancer. Jaundice, itchy skin, weight loss, and other symptoms appear only when the disease is in its final stages. The VA study, along with a call by Sen. Chuck Schumer for broader research into liver flukes and vets stricken with the cancer known as cholangiocarcinoma, began after the AP raised the issue last year. About 700 veterans with cholangiocarcinoma have been seen by the VA in the past 15 years.

Just great!  As if these vets did not have enough on their shoulders…..now this….

May you all have a good Sunday…..be well, be safe…..chuq

Yemen–America’s Shame

For two year the Saudis have been bombing Yemen back into the Stone Age…..the humanitarian crisis is getting worse by the bomb…..not not are the people in starvation mode they are also facing the worse cholera epidemic in a 100 years…..and all made possible by the US and its aid to our buddies the Saudis.

As the world focuses on isolated incidents of terrorism taking place in Western countries, the wholesale slaughter being committed by Western countries against others generally goes unnoticed unless being pinned on the victim nation. However, even with Americans and other Westerners paying scant attention to Iraq and Syria, the conflict in Yemen scarcely gets a mention except in communities of human rights activists and geopolitical commentators.

Even after Yemen has overtaken Syria as the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis, most of the world has remained deathly silent about the situation unfolding there.

While not overwhelmingly involved with troops, bombing campaigns, and the like in the way that it is in Syria or Iraq, the United States is nonetheless complicit in the destruction of an entire country by providing intelligence, weapons, and political support to Saudi Arabia and the GCC in their war against the Yemeni people. In addition to that support, however, the United States has, at times, also contributed limited direct military support to the Saudi effort.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-faces-of-yemen-where-is-american-outrage/5619219

One of America’s most respected news stows is “60 Minutes” and they recently did a feature on Yemen…..

Saudi Arabia’s year long blockade and bombing campaign in Yemen has gotten very little coverage in the United States, even as the extreme food and fuel shortages have developed into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Now, as the Saudi noose on Yemen tightens — leaving 7 million people facing starvation and another 1 million infected with cholera — the war is having its moment in the media spotlight.

On Sunday, “60 Minutes” aired a 13-minute segment on the war’s devastating humanitarian toll. The program featured imagery of starving children and interviews with displaced people, all obtained after Saudi Arabia blocked “60 Minutes” from entering the country.

https://theintercept.com/2017/11/20/60-minutes-yemen-war-us-involvement/

The Saudis have gone so far as to bomb the available airport to keep supplies from entering into the country…..I lost a lot of respect I had for “60 Minutes” after they failed to report the whole story did nothing but a fluff piece to silence some critics…..this is why we have some much call out of “fake news”….no one wants to report the truth anymore.

An estimated 130 children or more are dying every day in war-torn Yemen from extreme hunger and disease, according to ​Save the Children, an international aid group

The charity said a continuing blockade by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels aligned with the country’s former president was likely to further increase the death rate. It said more than 50,000 children are believed to have died in 2017.

The coalition closed all air, land and sea ports to stem the flow of arms from Iran on November 6, after Saudi Arabia intercepted a missile fired towards its capital Riyadh. It has since said that aid can go through “liberated ports” but not the key Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/yemen-children-are-dying-at-a-rate-of-130-a-day-while-saudiled-blockade-continues-20171118-gzo21m.html

Even the American Conversation has weighed in on the atrocity that is Yemen…..

Yemen has been upside down for three years. Hunger, epidemics, and a blockade are all getting tighter. But the misery has escalated following the ballistic missile which was fired from Yemen at the King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital on Nov. 4. Overnight, Yemen became completely isolated from the entire globe.

This development has ushered in a new wave of civilian suffering. It feels like the war has just opened a new chapter of violence in a country beset by crises since the eruption of the 2011 uprising.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/dispatch-from-yemen-were-cut-off-and-starving/

Sad and to watch American news then NO one cares about the plight of children in Yemen or the rate of starvation…..truly sad.

Closing Thought–13Nov17

Over the weekend I read a news story that took me aback.  It made me ask why this is not a news story lead instead of he said, she said…..

It appears that the Black Death is making a comeback…..you know that disease the wiped out about half of Europe in the 1300’s.

It is making a comeback in Africa….it seems to have started in Madagascar….and moved inland…..

Malawi has become the tenth country in Africa to be put on high alert over fears the pneumonic plague could spread there from Madagascar, where at least 140 people have been killed by the devastating disease.

South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Seychelles, Tanzania, La Reunion and Mayotte, Mauritius and Comoros are the other nine nations preparing for the spread of the disease from the east African island.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ten-african-nations-now-high-alert-over-spread-black-death-plague-1646963

I think that this outbreak is a little too important to be on page 6 of the newspaper….

Health Update

My Sunday and always looking for something a bit unusual, at least for me to post about to keep the conversation going.

Today I found a couple of health stories that I think my readers would like……

Think back a year or so ago….the Ebola scare that had the world going batcrap crazy….more recently it is the Zika virus….but what could possibly be worse than those two?

The director of the CDC says we’re close to living in a “post-antibiotic world” after an antibiotic-resistant superbug was discovered in the US for the first time last month, Reuters reports. “It basically shows us that the end of the road isn’t very far away for antibiotics,” the Washington Post quotes Tom Frieden as saying. “We may be in a situation where we have patients in our intensive-care units … for which we do not have antibiotics.” Patient zero is a 49-year-old woman in Pennsylvania with E. coli. The bacteria that infected her, while treatable with other antibiotics, had a gene—mcr-1—that is unaffected by the antibiotic colistin. Colistin is known as the last antibiotic line of defense against “nightmare bacteria.”

Researchers, who published their findings Thursday, fear the mcr-1 gene could be passed on to other bacteria that aren’t treatable with other antibiotics. If that happens, the Post states that “routine operations could become deadly; minor infections could become life-threatening crises.” NBC News reports the Pennsylvania woman hadn’t traveled anywhere in five months, so it seems the bacteria had been hiding undetected in the US. It’s previously been found in Europe, China, Canada, and South America.

Seems there is always something in the health that will scare the crap out of the population……

And then there is this story….my daughter is a zombie freak….she is always looking for the start of the apocalypse….so to give her something else to worry about I showed her this story……

Worry about your health at times? Well, at least you don’t believe you have no body parts, blood, or organs, or consider yourself dead or immortal. Yet those are among the beliefs plaguing people with Cotard’s syndrome, an illness discovered in 1880 that’s extremely rare and awful when it strikes, Medical Daily reports. In case you doubt it, there are two studies (here and here) that found a .57% and .62% rate of Cotard’s, respectively, in large groups of psychiatric patients. Researchers say the condition—also known as “walking corpse syndrome”—often begins with severe depression and a health anxiety that can inspire odd complaints. One 28-year-old woman, for instance, told hospital staff that her stomach was missing and her liver was “putrefying.” The report on her case notes that the syndrome generally affects those in middle-age or later years, but when young people are diagnosed, they are overwhelmingly (90%) female.

Over time, patients may believe they don’t exist or lack body parts, which can trigger a slew of problems including poor hygiene, self-harm, and a refusal to eat. “There was no point in eating because I was dead,” a sufferer identified as Graham told New Scientist in 2013. He was the first Cotard’s patient to get a brain scan, and a neurologist likened the brain function the scan showed to “that of someone during anesthesia or sleep.” Experts say antidepressants and antipsychotics can help, along with shock therapy, which may explain the low rate of Cotard’s today. Drugs and psychotherapy worked so well for Graham that he was able to live on his own. “I don’t feel that brain-dead anymore,” he says. “Things just feel a bit bizarre sometimes.”

After a few four letter words directed at her old Dad….she went to WebMD …..she wanted the “skinny” on this disease……(I smiled devilishly)…..your children are never too old to torment….LOL  BTW, my granddaughter is getting a kick out of my tormenting her mother….she sez she has the best family…..everyone is so light hearted and likes to have fun……she’s so damn smart!

My work is complete….now I can go enjoy the rest of my Sunday….and you guys do the same….see ya tomorrow!

News Of Tomorrow……Today

From the VOMITORIUM

One last post before I shut down for the weekend…….I gave you the news of today back in January 2015….that of the Syrian refugees……I have found some news of tomorrow and I will pass it on…..today.

I have not written much From The VOMITORIUM is a long time…..I guess I need to re-start the series…..after all there is so much puke being passed off as news….it needs to be given the disdain that it deserves.

Our borders are porous at best…..and candidates and bloggers and pundits and just plain d/bags have said that so many things are coming across our borders…..terrorists, rapists, gangsters, disease etc…..I recall about a year ago when the conversation was all about the “illegals” there were people like Beck and Jones that even went so far as to “report” that leprosy was coming in on the backs of these “illegals” and possibly other diseases to infect the population in one way or the other….

I suspect that if we do get some of the Middle East refugees then we will most likely here more of these wild accusations…..

Then I saw a story on the web that made me think that this would be the perfect story to ‘report’ on by these nut cases……

Michigan doctors have an unwanted first on their hands: a patient with bubonic plague. It sounds a lot worse than it is, however. The unidentified patient is recovering and has a form of the plague that isn’t contagious, reports MLive. And Michigan residents will be happy to learn that the person is believed to have picked up the disease not at home but on a recent trip to Colorado, probably from the fleas of an infected animal. This is actually the 14th plague case in the US this year, well above the national average of three, notes the CDC. Four of them have been fatal, and the reason for this year’s uptick isn’t clear.

“Theoretically, the illness can move to bloodstream or to a lung infection, but this (Michigan) individual had localized infection, so there’s no concern about transmission,” the medical director of the Marquette County Health Department tells the Detroit Free Press. Despite its devastation in the Middle Ages, the plague isn’t the dreaded killer it used to be, explains CNN. Antibiotics and antimicrobials can generally conquer it, especially when detected early.

What made me think of this is that Michigan has a large Muslim community and what better way to show your “Christian” love than to blame them for the possible outbreak of the “Black Death”……

So far not much has been said about this situation….but how long will that last with the current attitudes towards the Middle East and Muslims?  And then there is the possibility of thousands of refugees possibly coming to a town near you.

Okay if you are thinking that this is a bit of a stretch…..then I will agree…..but the chattering class has made more out of less.

If you do not like that one…….if it is too far-fetched for you…….. how about the new florist for the White House……

The White House on Thursday named an Iranian-American woman to the position of florist, a job that had been vacant since earlier this year.

Hedieh “Roshan” Ghaffarian will serve as the White House’s new chief floral designer, coming to the job with more than 25 years of experience in the industry, the White House said.

Ghaffarian was born in Tehran and immigrated to California as a young girl with her family following the Iranian Revolution. She started her own flower business in her 20s, the White House said.

This oughta get the haters juices flowing…I can hear the crap now….she is a plant by the Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood (sorry the MB is a Sunni group not Shia)(if that confuses you….then get off your lazy ass and look it up)….this will get the hidden Muslim bullsh*t flowing (it has sort of slowed down in the last year or so)…..etc…etc….etc……..

To my Right wing batcrap crazies……There you go people I have given you ammo for your next crazy bullsh*t conspiracy….try not to screw it up, okay?  You guys know how wrong you can be, right?

Remember!  You heard it here….first!

Go….enjoy your weekend!

Is Stupid Contagious?

You know for the longest time I thought we could contribute the stupidity of the public to over exposure to FOX News, Alex Jones, Glen Beck, Reality TV other such sources…..I never considered that it could be a virus….a stupidity virus?……NO!  I am not joking or making light……there is a for real Stupid virus!.

US researchers have come across a virus that may make us stupider—and it’s turning up in the throats of otherwise-healthy people, the Independent reports. Some 43% of 92 people in a study were found to have the virus. Those affected scored about 10% lower on tests involving visual processing, Science reports; for instance, it took them comparatively longer to draw a line through a numerical sequence on a page. Their attention spans also appeared to be shorter. “There’s more and more studies showing that microorganisms in your body have a bigger influence than anything anyone would have predicted, and this could be something along those lines,” says a researcher.

Known as chlorovirus ATCV-1, the virus typically affects freshwater algae, Healthline reports. Mice infected with the virus subsequently suffered declining scores on similar cognitive tests. The virus, researchers found, managed to cross the blood-brain barrier and take a toll on genes in the mice’s brains. A few things to note, however: More research is needed to see if the virus exists in people outside the Baltimore study area, and even if it is, an outside expert says its effect seems minimal: “If you ask me if I am worried about the existence of this virus, I am not.”

Personally, I believe it is more serious than the researchers say……just watch the news, any news, stupid is approaching a pandemic …….

Thoughts?

Will There Be An Ebola Blowback?

The US is taking a moment for a deserved long breath.

Now that the fear of Ebola is lessening with each cured person there is the possibility that there could be another form of fear that will take hold.  The fear of people!  Especially if they are from West Africa or are thought to be from that region.

Think back to the days and weeks after the horrendous attacks on 9/11……..there were many attacks on people of the Muslim religion and even some that were attacked because they may have appeared to be Arabic or Middle Eastern.  There were beatings and even a death of two because of the person’s appearance.

Yep, a form of racial profiling.

Now that the US has moved to limit the areas where people can enter the US to 5 airports, most on the east coast and the central states…….and the Right wing wanting all flights from Africa prevented from landing in the US…..this could set up a scenario of panic and distrust..

God forbid that another outbreak (that is a media term) should show its ugly face….an even uglier face will be that of the people in this society.  The radical Right will immediately start looking for a scapegoat and that will be anyone that appears to be from Africa…. not necessarily West Africa….just anyone that appears to be one of the people that brought the disease to our shores.

Since the death of Mr. Duncan there has already been a minor backlash rumblings against Africans, especially in the Dallas, Texas area.

Then in Rome the fear strikes……..

A woman from Guinea has reportedly been attacked by angry bus passengers who told her she was infected by Ebola and had to get off, according to media reports.

The 26-year-old was allegedly beaten by a group of teenagers after they accused her of having the deadly virus.

 “They told me that I had Ebola and that I had to get off the bus,” said Fataomata Sompare, who has been living in Italy for four years.
How long will it be, if the Ebola outbreak continues, that this could become a norm instead of an isolated occurrence?

We Americans have to seem to always blame others for the problems the country endues….we blame the Chinese back in the 1800’s…..we blamed the Irish in the early 1900’s………we blame the Japanese-Americans for Pearl Harbor, we blamed, as I have pointed out, Arab-Americans for 9/11, thanks to Al-Qaeda Americans are suspicious of every Mosque and now with the Ebola on a tear it is only a matter of time before we blame African-Americans, especially first generation,  for the problems the disease is causing..

With Americans propensity for hate how long will not be before we go in search of a scapegoat?  An Ebola scapegoat.

Ebola: Why Not Ask Real Questions?

Opinion from Chuq’s Desk:

 

Okay, enough is enough!  We have been bombarded with everything Ebola and most of it is worthless full and fodder.  America’s paranoia is running at a fever’s pitch.

I will bow to social convention and join the Ebola conversation….most will probably appreciate my direction of this post…..but hey….they can just get over it, right?

Now everyone can take a deep breath…..Nigeria is damn near Ebola free (for now…..Senegal is getting pretty damn close and now for the US…….we had some cases….nothing like West Africa but if you listened to your butt monkeys that you elected …we had an epidemic……

To what purpose is the MSM fixation on the Ebola outbreak?  I mean really?  We get lots of horror stories but little useful information.  We got every little political toad that ever wanted to be on TV got to say something of which little was accurate……but we Americans listened and we panicked….it is what we do……

Is what the media is doing a public service?  To me it is bordering on sensationalism.  At what point will it be considered fanning the flames of hysteria?  Is there a saturation point?  Just what is the point of this overreaction? Or would it be over-reporting?

Yes, Ebola is a horrific disease and yes there is a necessity for accurate information…usable information……but do we really need all this filler that is bordering on the psychotic?

So far I have seen little on the control and the cure and a whole bunch of typical bullsh*t that serves NO purpose other than to increase the panic.  Oh wait!  We have a new Ebola Czar……a position that may not be needed…..but what the Hell….it gives politicos something to use in their election ads.

Apparently the public carves a good dose of fear…….and this situation is feeding that hunger even though it appears the worst of this situation may be behind us………..

When will this end?

My guess it will lessen around November 5th…..or shortly after the votes are counted the situation will NO longer be needed..

Finally, just what is this Ebola overkill really accomplishing?

Questions………..  Answers needed.

If anyone was a good answer please share………

I am listening!