MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“Federal health authorities say a nationwide outbreak of listeria in Colorado cantaloupes is now responsible for 21 deaths and the number may continue to grow.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday reported new deaths in Indiana and New York. The CDC also confirmed a death in Wyoming that state officials reported last week. CDC said 109 people have been sickened in the outbreak — including the 21 dead — in 23 states from California to the East Coast.

The agency previously reported five deaths in Colorado, five in New Mexico, two in Texas, two in Kansas and one each in Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. CDC said it is also aware of one miscarriage associated with the outbreak.

The death toll in the cantaloupe outbreak is now tied with a 1998 outbreak of listeria in hot dogs and possibly deli meats made by Bil Mar Foods, a subsidiary of Sara Lee Corp. That outbreak was also linked to 21 deaths. The deadliest outbreak in the United States before that is believed to have been listeria in Mexican-style soft cheese in 1985, which was linked to 52 deaths.

CDC officials have said the symptoms of listeria can take up to two months to show up and that they expect more illnesses through October.” Read more.

By Masroor Gilani – “Already cursed by floods and suicide bombings, Pakistan now faces a new menace from an unprecedented outbreak of the deadly tropical disease dengue fever.

In less than a month, 126 people have died and more than 12,000 have been diagnosed with the virus, which has spread rapidly among both rich and poor in Pakistan’s cultural capital Lahore.

Dengue affects between 50 and 100 million people in the tropics and subtropics each year, resulting in fever, muscle and joint ache.

But it can also be fatal, developing into haemorrhagic fever and shock syndrome, which is characterised by bleeding and a loss of blood pressure.

Caused by four strains of virus spread by the mosquito Aedes aegypti, there is no vaccine — which is why prevention methods focus on mosquito control.

Pakistani authorities in Lahore have blamed the crisis on prolonged monsoon rains and unusually high seasonal temperatures.

But furious locals say the outbreak is yet another example of government inefficiency, citing a failure to take preventive measures to kill off the mosquitos and lengthy power cuts.

Saad Azeem, 45, is a police officer who should be out spraying the streets with insecticide, but he is laid up at home suffering from the fever and mourning the death of his elderly father.

‘My father was 79 years old and a retired deputy superintendent of police. His death due to dengue fever really shocked us,’ Azeem told AFP.

‘This dengue has become a calamity.'” Read more.

By Jaime FlorCruz and Haolan Hong – “Beijing (CNN) — An outbreak of polio has been confirmed in China for the first time since 1999, leaving one person dead and hospitalizing another nine, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The disease, a contagious viral illness that in its most severe form causes paralysis, difficulty breathing and sometimes death, broke out in the prefectures of Hotan and Bazhou in the country’s western Xinjiang province.

Among the ten cases confirmed, six are in children under three years old and four are young adults.

The WHO said evidence indicates the virus is genetically linked to polio cases currently circulating in Pakistan, which borders Xinjiang. Pakistan has been affected by the nationwide transmission of the same WPV1 strain.

It also warned the virus could spread beyond the current affected area.

‘Although other areas in China or other countries are not immediately at risk due to the geographic distance to the affected province, the polio virus can travel great distances and find susceptible populations, no matter where they live,’ Helen Yu, from the WHO’s Beijing office told CNN.” Read more.

By Kevin Cokely – “At least 80 students, teachers and staff at Ennis High School have tested positive for exposure to tuberculosis.

The skin tests were ordered because a teacher now on medical leave was diagnosed with the bacterial infection just before the first day of school.

Dr. Brian Smith of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said people who a positive skin test normally are not sick and are not infectious.

‘What a positive skin test means is that a person has been exposed to the disease and they have picked up a tiny bit of the bacteria that has caused their body to react to the skin test, so in those persons you can kill the bacteria by giving a single medication for nine months,’ he said.

Those who tested positive are now being told to get chest X-rays at Baylor Medical Center in Waxahachie.

Sixteen-year-old Shabrekia Richardson found out Friday her skin test came back positive.

‘I was shocked,’ the high school junior said. ‘I actually started crying. … I just thought, ‘I’m in a school.’ I never thought in a school I could get something like this.'” Read more.

WHO: Dangerous Tuberculosis Spreading at Alarming Rate in Europe, Will Kill Thousands If Not Halted – “Multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis (TB) are spreading at an alarming rate in Europe and will kill thousands unless health authorities halt the pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday. Launching a new regional plan to find, diagnose and treat cases of the airborne infectious disease more effectively, the WHO’s European director warned that complacency had allowed a resurgence of TB and failure to tackle it now would mean huge human and economic costs in the future.” Read more.

TORONTO — A Montreal hospital has been battling for the last year to extinguish an outbreak with a worrisome and highly drug-resistant bacteria.

The outbreak at the Jewish General is the first in Canada caused by this strain of the bacteria, a bug that has sparked serious concern because of how easily it spreads and its ability to transfer resistance to other bacteria.

A report on the outbreak was presented in Chicago on Sunday to the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a major annual gathering of infectious diseases specialists.

Dr. Mark Miller, head of infection control at the Jewish General, said the outbreak has been brought under control, but a few patients with the bacteria are still being treated in the hospital.

The outbreak was caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae, which is normally found in the human intestine. In healthy people, these bacteria can live in the intestine without causing illness. In hospitals, however, they can cause a range of infections, including pneumonia, bloodstream infections and urinary tract infections.

Klebsiella pneumoniae traditionally have been treated with antibiotics called carbepenems. But in the last decade or so, a strain of the bacteria has developed that is resistant to this class of drugs. To make matters worse, the genetic component that gives Klebsiella pneumoniae this resistance has the capacity to transfer into other bacteria, making them resistant to these drugs as well.

The strain with this component is called KPC-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae, and it has even more tricks in its arsenal. The gene that makes it resistant to carbepenems is packaged in a cassette of genes that confer resistance to a number of other antibiotics.” Read more.

By Kate Kelland – “LONDON, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis (TB) are spreading at an alarming rate in Europe and will kill thousands unless health authorities halt the pandemic, the World Health Organisation(WHO) said on Wednesday.

Launching a new regional plan to find, diagnose and treat cases of the airborne infectious disease more effectively, the WHO’s European director warned that complacency had allowed a resurgence of TB and failure to tackle it now would mean huge human and economic costs in the future.

‘TB is an old disease that never went away, and now it is evolving with a vengeance,’ said Zsuzsanna Jakab, the WHO’s Regional Director for Europe.

‘The numbers are scary,’ Lucica Ditiu, executive secretary of the Stop TB Partnership told a news conference in London. ‘This is a very dramatic situation.'” Read more.

“KARACHI: A huge locust swarm invaded the city yesterday shortly before 4pm. It came from the northwest and northeast directions. It was several miles long, and hovered over Karachi for at least two-and-a-half hours.

It was the biggest swarm that has invaded Karachi in recent years. It was spotted at about 3.50pm over Nazimabad and nearly 50 minutes later it was again seen, this time moving in the opposite direction. But after about an hour-and-a-half it was back over the city, and settled down on the greenery in various localities, including the PECHS, denuding many trees and plants in a matter of minutes.

Some of the locust that the children managed to catch were three inches long.

Warning of heavy breeding of locust had been issued by the Desert Locust Information Service sometime ago, which had said that breeding of locust in Pakistan and India had been going on for the last two months.

The locust had moved east from Saudi Arabia and other places in the Middle East, and had laid over extensive areas of Sind, Bahawalpur and Rajasthan. The hatching began towards the middle of the last month, and the legging about the middle of this month.” Read more.

By Andy Cunningham – “They came to Kentucky to compete in a clogging competition. However, hundreds of people went back home with a mysterious illness.

People from five different states reported getting sick after attending the competition in Morehead this past weekend.

Health officials are now trying to figure out why.

‘The calls started coming in Monday morning,’ said Bobby Ratliff.

Ratliff is the Gateway District Public Health Director. He says the phones have been ringing off the hook ever since.

‘We are trying to work with folks in all of these states, and still try to identify what happened here,’ he said.

A dozen squads were entered in the 2011 Bluegrass State Clogging Championships in Morehead, including squads from Winchester and Owingsville.

The mystery illness apparently spread through the field of competitors, their parents, instructors and staff members.

‘The first 24 hours, folks are experiencing fever, headache, diarrhea, and vomiting,’ Ratliff said.

The doors at Studio One School of dance in Winchester remained closed due to the unidentified illness. A sign on the door says, ‘Everyone is sick and that is not an exaggeration.'” Read more.