MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“(CBS/AP) Totally drug-resistant tuberculosis? That’s what doctors are calling the long-feared and virtually untreatable form of the killer lung disease that’s striking people in India.

It’s not the first time highly resistant cases like this have been seen. Since 2003, patients have been documented in Italy and Iran. It has mostly been limited to impoverished areas, and has not spread widely. But experts believe there could be many undocumented cases.

The airborne disease is mainly transmitted through close personal contact and isn’t nearly as contagious as the flu. Most cases of this ‘drug-resistant’ TB have not been from person-to-person infection but mutations that have occurred in poorly treated patients. No one expects the Indian TB strains to rapidly spread elsewhere.

Is this particular disease actually drug-resistant? There is still debate within the public health community – the World Health Organization hasn’t accepted the term, calling the cases ‘extensively drug-resistant TB,’ or XDR. But Dr. Paul Nunn, a coordinator at the WHO’s Stop TB Department in Geneva, said there is ample proof that these virtually untreatable cases do exist.

‘It is concerning,’ said Dr. Kenneth Castro, director of the CDC’s Division of Tuberculosis Elimination. ‘Anytime we see something like this, we better get on top of it before it becomes a more widespread problem.'” Read more.

India: New, Deadlier Form of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Strikes Mumbai and Ratnagiri – “The TB menace in India is likely to grow worse with the new, deadlier form of virus detected in Mumbai. 12 tuberculosis patients at Hinduja Hospital in Mahim, Mumbai have been found to have a virus which has been termed Totally Drug Resistant (TDR) – TB. The viruses were isolated in the fluid samples of the patients. This virus has the latest and most severe form of drug resistance in TB viruses after the Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR-TB), and Extremely Drug-Resistant (EDR-TB) varieties diagnosed a while back.” Read more.

By MATTHEW MOSK, BRIAN ROSS and RYM MOMTAZ – “Compelling new scientific evidence suggests United Nations peacekeepers have carried a virulent strain of cholera — a super bug — into the Western Hemisphere for the first time.

The vicious form of cholera has already killed 7,000 people in Haiti, where it surfaced in a remote village in October 2010. Leading researchers from Harvard Medical School and elsewhere told ABC News that, despite UN denials, there is now a mountain of evidence suggesting the strain originated in Nepal, and was carried to Haiti by Nepalese soldiers who came to Haiti to serve as UN peacekeepers after the earthquake that ravaged the country on Jan. 12, 2010 — two years ago today. Haiti had never seen a case of cholera until the arrival of the peacekeepers, who allegedly failed to maintain sanitary conditions at their base.

‘What scares me is that the strain from South Asia has been recognized as more virulent, more capable of causing severe disease, and more transmissible,’ said John Mekalanos, who chairs the Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School. ‘These strains are nasty. So far there has been no secondary outbreak. But Haiti now represents a foothold for a particularly dangerous variety of this deadly disease.’

More than 500,000 Haitians have been infected, and Mekalanos said a handful of victims who contracted cholera in Haiti have now turned up in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and in Boston, Miami and New York, but only in isolated cases…

‘Cholera is a disease of the impoverished … When the standards of living are already at the lowest levels, cholera is a killer of historic proportions. If it spreads to other parts of the world, in those kinds of settings, I fear there will be a very high rate of death.'” Read more.

By Nina Golgowski – “Twelve Americans have been reported infected with a mutating and now possibly human-to-human transmitted form of the H1N1 Swine Flu virus called H3N2v.

An investigation undertaken by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that human infections of these viruses followed contact with swine as well as through ‘limited human-to-human transmission.’

‘While there is no evidence that sustained human-to-human transmission is occurring, all influenza viruses have the capacity to change and it’s possible that this virus may become widespread,’ the CDC explained through their website.

According to the report presented by the CDC, the virus has been found in five states sprawled around the East Coast and Midwest since August of 2011, though in a late November report they listed the first as being in July.

Out of 10 diagnosed with the virus excluding West Virginia’s two victims – reported in the CDC’s November report – three were hospitalized.

The CDC stated that the severity in illness following diagnosis with the virus has been found similar to previous flu virus infections with mild illness.” Read more.

Flashback: Iowa: Health Officials Concerned Over Potentially Large Outbreak of New Recombinant Flu Virus Spreading Human-to-Human – “A new type of flu virus has afflicted three children in Iowa. This virus has been linked to pigs in the past, but these new cases appaear to have been spread from person to person. Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, medical director for the Iowa Department of Public Health, said that the children did not become seriously ill. The children live in rural Webster and Hamilton counties. There is concern about a potentially greater outbreak of the flu because the swine origin A/H3N2 virus was detected in patients who hadn’t had contact with animals.” Read more.

Flashback: UK: Britain on Alert for Strain of Killer Flu, ‘One of the Biggest Biological Threats of Our Time’ – “A NEW strain of killer flu which could spread to ­Britain within 24 hours is ‘one of the biggest biological threats of our time’, experts warned. The alert comes after people started to fall victim to seasonal flu and the more virulent swine flu at the same time. Such a rare incidence creates the risk of a lethal mutation, leading to an ‘ominous’ super-flu virus for which humans have almost no immunity, said medical scientists. Dr Peter Hotez, a world-renowned infectious disease expert, warned: ‘Highly infectious strains of the virus against which humans have little defence can spread from one continent to another within 24 hours.’” Read more.

By Vatsal Anand – “The TB menace in India is likely to grow worse with the new, deadlier form of virus detected in Mumbai. 12 tuberculosis patients at Hinduja Hospital in Mahim, Mumbai have been found to have a virus which has been termed Totally Drug Resistant (TDR) – TB. The viruses were isolated in the fluid samples of the patients.

This virus has the latest and most severe form of drug resistance in TB viruses after the Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR-TB), and Extremely Drug-Resistant (EDR-TB) varieties diagnosed a while back. The TDRTB has also been diagnosed in Iran earlier and India is the second country that has reported it. With close to 4 lakhs people estimated to die each year from the disease in India, the newly developed drug resistance can complicate the problems of health authorities, particularly in Mumbai and adjoining areas.

Out of the 12 patients detected with the TDR-TB, 10 are from Mumbai while the other two are from Ratnagiri and UP. One of these patients has died already. The laboratory of Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai has been certified by WHO for testing the drug resistance of virus in TB patients. Dr. Zarir Udawala from the hospital stated that the mutation of virus has very serious implications on public health. He started the work of isolating TDR-TB cases in patients suffering from pulmonary TB.

According to a senior public health official of BMC, the municipal body of Mumbai, drug resistance develops in patients because they do not complete the full term of 6 to 9 months of medication after being infected with TB virus. The effect of TB virus subsides within 2 months and the patients stop taking the drug after that. The effect is that the some TB germs persist and start to multiply.

1.7 million people were reported to die of TB in the year 2009, and the latest drug resistance is all set to take this toll higher. From the MDR-TB, that was discovered in 1992, to the EDR-TB found a few years back, to the TDR-TB, the anti-viral treatment options seem to have completed a full circle. According to Dr. Udawala, the patients afflicted with the latest form of the virus can only be provided drastic surgery and medications for partial relief. The findings of his team have been published in a peer reviewed journal of the USA.” Source – OnlyMyHealth.com.

“Kampala (Uganda), Jan 8 : A mystery disease has killed over 100 people and infected more than 2,000 in northern Uganda.

The disease, first reported in September 2009, has since been dubbed “nodding disease” as it leaves its victims nodding, Xinhua reported.

Spread over the region’s five districts, the disease is characterised by head nodding, mental retardation and stunted growth and affects children and young adults. It causes young children and adolescents to nod violently while eating.

Scientists are to launch a series of investigations as the previous efforts couldn’t identify the disease’s cause.

The two previous samples and tests carried out by Centres for Disease Control (CDC) scientists in Atlanta in the US failed to identify the cause of the disease, said Richard Nduhura, minister of state for health in charge of general duties.

A team of scientists from the ministry of health, World Health Organisation (WHO) and CDC is going to carry out new tests, said Nduhura, who is leading a fact finding mission in the affected areas.” Source – newKerala.com.

By Wang Qingchu – “Two dead black-headed gulls found in Hong Kong were tested H5N1 positive, Hong Kong’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said.

The dead gulls, a migratory bird commonly seen in the special administrative region, were discovered in Tuen Mun and Lantau Island last Friday and on Monday. There is no poultry farm within 3 kilometers where the carcasses were found, Wen Wei Po reported today.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department has alerted chicken farmers to take precautions against the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu.

Further tests are being conducted to confirm the results, the authority said.

Hong Kong raised its bird flu alert level to ‘serious’ on December 21 after the H5N1 virus was found in a dead chicken in a local poultry market. As a result, nearly 20,000 chickens in the market were destroyed and local farms were banned from sending chickens to the market for 21 days.

A man died in hospital last Saturday after being infected with the H5N1 virus in Shenzhen, a city bordering Hong Kong.” Source – People’s Daily Online.