MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Robin Lloyd – “FLAGSTAFF, Arizona—A relatively new type of drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus could represent the world’s next bacterial epidemic, an environmental health expert said here today at a conference for science writers.

The superbug, called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain 398, or MRSA ST398, was first identified in an infant in the Netherlands in 1994 and traced back to her family’s pigs. Now, researchers are starting to see more serious infections and some of the cases reveal no direct link to livestock, said Lance B. Price, director of the Center for Microbiomics and Human Health at The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), in Flagstaff.

‘The rate of human [ST398] infections is going up in Denmark and the Netherlands,’ Price said. ‘We are just looking at the beginning of an epidemic.’ Price made his comments during a presentation at the 49th annual New Horizons in Science meeting, organized by the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.

The mechanism for transmission in these newer ST398 cases currently is unknown. Researchers are considering various explanations including human-to-human exposure, contaminated meat or changes in the organism that make it spread more easily, Price said. Already, ST398 was recently found in about half of the pigs and farmers tested in Iowa.” Read more.

The Genesis of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus – “Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has captured national headlines. In the fall of 2007, the CDC (Center for Disease Control in Atlanta) reported that deaths due to MRSA were greater than those caused by AIDS. MRSA is rapidly becoming one of the most prevalent and menacing diseases of our time and increases the risk of time spent in a hospital. MRSA are bacteria that represent “new” strains of antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus aureus (Figure 1). Although the media discusses MRSA as a single new strain, in reality MRSA represents more than 1100 distinct strains of S. aureus (Wim and Neeling 2005). S. aureus causes many diseases, including skin boils, infection of leg ulcers, and pressure sores. Occasionally, it can cause more serious disorders such as blood poisoning (septicemia), pneumonia, or bone, joint, or heart valve infection. What makes MRSA bacteria deadly is their resistance to penicillin and its derivatives.” Read more.

“A highly infectious virus found in wild salmon on B.C.’s central coast could have a devastating impact on the province’s wild salmon and herring, according to some experts.

Simon Fraser University Prof. Rick Routledge discovered the disease known as infectious salmon anemia, or ISA, in two of 48 sockeye smolts collected. The fish were caught 100 kilometres from the nearest fish farm, and had never been out to sea.

The infection was diagnosed by Dr. Fred Kibenge, an employee at the Atlantic Veterinary College in P.E.I., who notified the CFIA.

Routledge, who’s doing a long-term study on the collapse of Rivers Inlet sockeye, says the exotic disease could have a devastating impact on wild salmon in B.C.

He says the possible impact of the virus can’t be taken lightly and there must be an immediate response to assess the extent of the outbreak.

‘First thing that I think we should do is start looking for the source,’ said Routledge.

Infectious salmon anemia, or ISA has never been found in salmon off B.C.’s coast — not in the Atlantic species that are raised in ocean pens, and never in B.C.’s indigenous wild salmon.” Read more.

By Soutik Biswas – “More than 400 people, mainly children, have died in an outbreak of viral encephalitis in northern India, health officials say.

So far 2,300 patients have been admitted to a hospital in the affected Gorakhpur area of Uttar Pradesh state.

A doctor told the BBC that it was a “tragedy beyond imagination” with children dying every day.

Nearly 6,000 children have died of encephalitis in the hospital since the first case was detected in 1978.

Most of the deaths this year have happened since July, doctors say.

The disease occurs regularly during the monsoon in the Gorakhpur region bordering Nepal in the foothills of the Himalayas.

The low-lying areas are prone to floods and water-logging. Lack of sanitation provides a breeding ground for mosquitoes and leads to contamination of water supplies.

This happens because most people defecate in the open in villages of the area, while water is consumed mainly using shallow hand pumps.

‘Tragedy’

Doctors say affected patients come from 10-12 districts in the region, and are mostly poor.

Until 2005, the majority of deaths were caused by Japanese encephalitis, caused by a mosquito-borne virus, doctors say.

But in the past six years, children have been dying of viral encephalitis, a water-borne disease caused by contaminated water.” Read more.

“Parts of central and western Africa are experiencing a massive cholera outbreak which has claimed 2,466 lives so far this year, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

The outbreak is ‘one of the worst ever’ in the region, according to the UN children’s fund (UNICEF). Chad, Cameroon and parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo are hardest hit, and nearly a dozen additional nations are also affected.

However, the epidemic is being contained in coastal countries along the Atlantic Ocean, including Liberia, Ivory Coast and Ghana, UNICEF said.

Aid group Medecins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders) has stepped up a campaign in several of the countries affected to encourage prevention measures, including proper hand-washing.

Cholera is an acute intestinal infection which causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting, leading to dehydration.” Read more.

By DAMIEN GAYLE – “A plague of black widow spiders in Oklahoma has resulted in almost double the number of bites reported this year than last.

So far 49 bites from the venomous spiders have been reported to the Oklahoma Poison Control Centre, as increasing numbers seek shelter from the heat in homes and gardens.

The centre has warned Oklahomans to be on the lookout for the eight-legged creatures, whose bites are invariably painful – and can prove deadly.

The outbreak of the venomous spiders seems to be concentrated around the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, KRMG.com reported.

A drought and heatwave in the area has sent them searching for cool, dark places like sheds and garages, spider bite expert Randy Badillo told the news radio station’s website.

‘They’re shiny black, kind of like a black patent leather shoe, with a red hourglass figure on their abdomen,’ he said, adding that their bite is as distinctive as their appearance.

‘The black widow has a real sharp pin prick sensation to it so you should know pretty much right off the bat whether you’ve been bitten or not,’ he said.

While deaths have been associated with black widow bites, they are not always deadly.

Effects of the venom can include nausea, headache and muscle cramps.” Read more.

BY JANET GRDINICH – “Why ‘crazy hairy’ you ask? They’re called ‘crazy’ because each ant in a colony seems to scramble randomly, moving very fast. They’re called ‘hairy’ because of dense hair that, to the naked eye, make them look less glossy than most ant species. These ants don’t dig out anthills and prefer to nest in sheltered, moist spots. They will eat just about anything — plant or animal.

The ants, whose scientific name is Nylanderia pubens, were first seen in Florida in the 1950s then in Texas in 2002. Now they are moving and posing a threat to Louisiana and possibly Georgia.

A pest control agency sent a sample of the “hairy crazy ants” to the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum, where curator Victoria Bayless identified the species for the first time in Louisiana.

Bayless said the main difference between this species and other ant species is the size of the colonies. A single colony can contain millions of the pests because there are multiple queens, or head ants, that work together. She further states that hairy crazy ants reproduce rapidly and do not respond to normal pest control methods and researchers have not yet found a way to prevent or get rid of the ants. Hairy crazy ants have also been reported in walls of houses, she said. They can cause electrical shortages as they accumulate in large numbers. If one gets electrocuted, its death releases a chemical cue to attack a threat to the colony, the other ants rush in. Before long, you have a ball of ants. They can also overwhelm beehives — one Texas beekeeper was losing 100 a year in 2009.” Read more.