MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Michael Zennie – “A mysterious flu strain nearly wiped out a family, killing an 81-year-old woman and two of her children who were taking care of her. A third sibling remains deathly ill.

Lou Ruth Blake took sick with a respiratory infection February 23 and her son and two daughters rushed to her home in rural Lusby, Maryland.

Five days later, her children all came down with similar symptoms, likely tied to a particularly virulent bout of the flu.

But there were further complications. When Ms Blake’s three children went to the hospital, they were coughing up blood and showed signs of a staph bacterial infections, as well, the Washington Post reported.

Ms Blake died March 1 at MedStar Washington Hospital Center after being treated for Influenza A and underlying medical conditions.

Her son Lowell, 58, and her daughter Vanessa, 56, died Monday — five days after their mother — after they were hospitalized with the same virulent flu strain, as well.

Ms Blake’s second daughter, age 51, is currently in critical condition with the same collection of symptoms — a deadly respiratory infection caused by Influenza A and a staph infection.

On Tuesday, officials from the Maryland Department of Health and the federal Centers for Disease Control wearing full containment suits — complete with air tanks so they wouldn’t breathe the air — searched the house for clues about what might have made the flu so potent.” Read more.

Another Fatal H3 Case In Maryland? – “‘My 33 year old sister died on Tuesday morning in BWMC (old North Arundel) she got sick over the weekend was coughing up blood by Monday and died 4:30 am Tuesday. Hospital said it was pneumonia. but It happened so fast. sounds just like what these people had.’ The above comments represent another anecdotal report on flu-like cases in the Washington DC area. The above fatal case (33F) was said to be at the Baltimore Washington Medical Center, just south of Baltimore, and was in response to comments on the Calvert County cluster, which has been H3 confirmed.” Read more.

By Ioannis Gatsiounis – “KAMPALA, Uganda — The Ugandan government has come under fire for its handling of a mysterious disease that has killed hundreds of children in the northern part of this impoverished East African nation.

The illness, called nodding disease and characterized by symptoms similar to epilepsy, has afflicted more than 1,000 children since June. Its cause is unknown, and there is no cure. Victims often nod their heads uncontrollably. Many also suffer from mental retardation and stunted growth.

Officials are blaming each other for the outbreak. The Health Ministry faults the central government for failing to treat the disease and finance research into its cause. The government blames the Health Ministry for failing to tap funds in the ministry’s budget for malaria control to combat the epidemic…

A group of Ugandans living in Britain, alarmed by what they see as government indifference toward the country’s sick and poor, plans to raise funds to provide social care and transportation for families affected by the disease. The World Health Organization is assisting with research into its cause and treatment.

The disease mainly affects children from 5 to 15. It is characterized by repeated head drooping and is often accompanied by convulsions and staring spells. Those affected often see their growth permanently stunted, including brain growth.” Read more.

AP – “For the first time, scientists have found evidence of flu in bats, reporting a never-before-seen virus whose risk to humans is unclear.

The surprising discovery of genetic fragments of a flu virus is the first well-documented report of it in the winged mammals. So far, scientists haven’t been able to grow it, and it’s not clear if – or how well – it spreads.

Flu bugs are common in humans, birds and pigs and have even been seen in dogs, horses, seals and whales, among others. About five years ago, Russian virologists claimed finding flu in bats, but they never offered evidence.

‘Most people are fairly convinced we had already discovered flu in all the possible’ animals, said Ruben Donis, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientist who co-authored the new study.

Scientists suspect that some bats caught flu centuries ago and that the virus mutated within the bat population into this new variety. Scientists haven’t even been able to grow the new virus in chicken eggs or in human cell culture, as they do with more conventional flu strains.

But it still could pose a threat to humans. For example, if it mingled with more common forms of influenza, it could swap genes and mutate into something more dangerous, a scenario at the heart of the global flu epidemic movie ‘Contagion.’

The research was posted online Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” Read more.

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.

“23 cases of dengue fever, 16 cases of leptospirosis and 14 cases of typhoid have been confirmed from the Western Division however the Health Ministry said it has not reached the level of an outbreak.

Ministry spokesperson Peni Namotu said these cases recorded are as of January 25th this year, which is during the post-flood period in the Western Division.

Namotu said although the cases are from Sigatoka, Lautoka and Ba, the Health Ministry will make the decision on the declaration of an outbreak in due course.

Meanwhile, a 28-year-old mother of one from the village of Naviago near Lautoka is confirmed dead from dengue fever.

This has been confirmed by the village headman Rusiate Deutu after the announcement was made to them by Commissioner Western Commander Joeli Cawaki.

Deutu said Maraia Taleqa was part of the 200 evacuees from Bila and Naviago villages that moved to the Lautoka Girmit Centre which is used as an evacuation center.” Read more.