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Archive for 02/19/2012

Report: Experts Fear Diseases ‘Impossible to Treat’ Following Alarming Rise in Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria

02/19/2012 Leave a comment

By JEREMY LAURANCE – “Britain is facing a ‘massive’ rise in antibiotic-resistant blood poisoning caused by the bacterium E.coli – bringing closer the spectre of diseases that are impossible to treat.

Experts say the growth of antibiotic resistance now poses as great a threat to global health as the emergence of new diseases such as Aids and pandemic flu.

Professor Peter Hawkey, a clinical microbiologist and chair of the Government’s antibiotic-resistance working group, said that antibiotic resistance had become medicine’s equivalent of climate change.

The ‘slow but insidious growth’ of resistant organisms was threatening to turn common infections into untreatable diseases, he said. Already, an estimated 25,000 people die each year in the European Union from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

‘It is a worldwide issue – there are no boundaries,’ he said. ‘We have very good policies on the use of antibiotics in man and in animals in the UK. But we are not alone. We have to think globally.’ Between 2005 and 2009 the incidence of E.coli ‘bacteraemias’ [the presence of bacteria in the blood] rose by 30 per cent, from 18,000 to over 25,000 cases. Those resistant to antibiotics have risen from 1 per cent at the beginning of the century to 10 per cent.

‘Only one in 20 of infections with [resistant] E.coli is a bacteraemia, so the above data are only the tip of an iceberg of infected individuals,’ says a report produced by Professor Hawkey’s group, commissioned by the Department of Health and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.” Read more.

Categories: Pestilence

Iran Poised to Greatly Expand Uranium Enrichment Capability, Former Netanyahu Chief of Staff Says Israeli Strike on Iran ‘Imminent’

02/19/2012 Leave a comment

By Madeleine Morgenstern – “The former chief of staff to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday an Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities is ‘imminent.’

Naftali Bennett appeared on Fox News’ ‘Huckabee’ and painted a dire picture of a world with a nuclear Iran, saying Israel will not hesitate to take action if necessary — and that time is of the essence.

‘We’re at the very last moment. This is going to be the first time in history that a maniacal, radical Islamic regime will acquire a nuclear weapon,’ he said. ‘The day after they have a bomb will be a different day for the entire world.’

On Saturday, a report emerged saying Iran is headed for a major nuclear expansion, the same day as reports that Iranian warships had passed through the Suez Canal.

Calling Iran ‘an octopus of terror,’ Bennett told host Mike Huckabee in no uncertain terms: ‘We have to stop them, and yes, it is imminent.’

Huckabee questioned whether Israel would be able to sustain a ‘hot war’ against Iran, to which Bennett replied, ‘if necessary we will.'” Read more.

AP Exclusive: Iran poised for big nuke jump – ” Iran is poised to greatly expand uranium enrichment at a fortified underground bunker to a point that would boost how quickly it could make nuclear warheads, diplomats tell The Associated Press. They said Tehran has put finishing touches for the installation of thousands of new-generation centrifuges at the cavernous facility – machines that can produce enriched uranium much more quickly and efficiently than its present machines.” Read more.

Two Iranian warships arrive at Syrian port – “Two Iranian warships that passed through the Suez Canal earlier this week docked in Syria on Saturday, Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported. The ships from Iran’s 18th fleet – which is comprised of a Khark supplier and Shahid Naqdi destroyers – had stopped in Jedda, Saudi Arabia earlier this month, according to Iran’s state Press TV. Earlier Saturday, Iranian Admiral Habibollah Sayari told a crowd of military leaders and naval personnel that the ships had crossed the Canal for the ‘second time since the Islamic revolution,’ according to the Iran’s official IRNA.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War