Salmonella and Your Body :-(

Here is a video on Salmonella spp. entering the body.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpLUQza4uWw&feature=related

Salmonella Outbreak

June 27, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP)- The Food and Drug Administration is issuing a rare warning to consumers, asking diners to avoid Evergreen Produce brand alfalfa sprouts or spicy sprouts because they may be linked to 20 cases of salmonella poisoning.

The Idaho-based company has not recalled the sprouts though the FDA says they are possibly linked to illnesses in Idaho, Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota and Washington state. Nadine Scharf, who identified herself as the co-owner of the company, said Monday that the company has stopped producing the alfalfa and spicy sprouts but is not planning to recall them from store shelves.

Scharf said the FDA has asked her to recall the sprouts but that she doesn't believe the agency has enough evidence to link the illnesses to her products. Most of the sprouts have probably been consumed anyway, she said.

The FDA "inspected every nook and cranny, every part of our plant, and that was a week ago and they haven't come up with anything yet," Scharf said. "We'll see. Maybe they will. Who knows."

While the FDA now has the power to force a recall thanks to a food safety law enacted earlier this year, the agency has not yet used that power. FDA generally works with companies to voluntarily issue a recall before it takes more drastic steps.

The agency's warning to consumers Monday is an unusual step that the agency will generally only take if a company refuses to recall a product and officials believe there is possible danger to those who consume it. Salmonella is an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in people with weakened immune systems. It can cause diarrhea, fever and vomiting.

In the warning, the FDA urged consumers not to eat alfalfa or spicy sprouts in plastic bags labeled "Evergreen Produce" or "Evergreen Produce Inc." The agency said it believes they were distributed in Idaho, Montana and Washington state. Scharf said that their products are distributed to Spokane, Wash., where they are then sent to other places.

Raw sprouts are a frequent culprit in foodborne illness because of the moist, warm conditions in which they are grown. At least 47 people have died and 4,000 have been sickened in an outbreak of E. coli in Europe that is believed to be caused by sprouts. FDA officials said the two outbreaks are not related.

There have been at least 30 outbreaks associated with raw or lightly cooked sprouts in the United States in the last 15 years.

Scharf said she thinks the publicity over the European outbreak is causing the agency to be more vigilant.

"Recalling the sprouts that are out there would be like saying I am guilty of having bacterially contaminated sprouts, and as of today they haven't documented the fact that any of our sprouts have bacteria in them," she said.

F.D.A. Approves Drug to Treat Clostridium difficile

F.D.A. Approves Drug to Treat Clostridium difficile

　

　

As a young infectious disease researcher in 1971, Dr. Sherwood L. Gorbach received an urgent call for help from a drug company. Some patients treated with the company’s antibiotic in New Zealand had developed severe cases of diarrhea and bowel inflammation, and some had died.

Dr. Gorbach ended up devoting much of his career to tracking down the cause of that outbreak and pursuing treatments. On Friday, 40 years after he began his quest, the Food and Drug Administration approved a drug he helped develop.

The drug, called Dificid, is the first new medicine in 25 years approved to treat diarrhea caused by Clostridium difficile, a nasty and persistent bacterium that one study suggests may have surpassed the better known MRSA as the leading hospital-acquired infection.

In clinical trials, Dificid, also known as fidaxomicin, proved better than the only approved drug in keeping patients free of symptoms 25 days after the end of treatment. The new drug was developed by Optimer Pharmaceuticals, where Dr. Gorbach, now 76, is the chief scientific officer.

Infections and deaths from C. difficile — the name means "difficult" — have increased sharply since the 1990s, in part because of the spread of a more virulent strain. It is estimated that several hundred thousand Americans are infected each year. Up to 1 percent of patients must have their colons removed and about 5 percent die.

While most of those infected are elderly people in hospitals or nursing homes, younger adults and children can also be infected, and there are cases that arise outside the hospital.

Problems usually start when people are treated with antibiotics for some other infection. That can kill off many of the harmless bacteria in the intestines, allowing C. difficile, which is resistant to most antibiotics, to take over.

Two drugs are now used to treat C. difficile, one of which — metronidazole, a generic antibiotic also sold by Pfizer as Flagyl — was never actually approved for this use. The other is Vancocin, an oral form of the antibiotic vancomycin, which is sold by ViroPharma and was approved in 1986.

While the drugs usually clear the diarrhea, it can come back, often more than once.

"When patients get better and are discharged and have another recurrence, it sets them back to Square 1," said Lynne V. McFarland, an expert at the Puget Sound veterans affairs hospital in Seattle.

Dificid might help reduce those recurrences.

In two clinical trials involving a total of about 1,100 patients, both Dificid and Vancocin cleared the diarrhea in more than 85 percent of patients by the end of the 10-day treatment period. But in later weeks, roughly 25 percent of the Vancocin users had a recurrence compared with only about 15 percent of the Dificid users.

The net result was that 25 days after the end of treatment, about 70 percent of those treated with Dificid were still free of disease compared with 57 percent of those treated with Vancocin, according to Dificid’s label.

The main side effects are nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and gastrointestinal hemorrhage.

Dificid is the first approved product for 13-year-old Optimer, which is based in San Diego. Cubist Pharmaceuticals will help market the drug, which is a tablet taken twice a day

Eun K. Yang, an analyst at Jefferies & Company, has predicted annual sales could reach $159 million by 2015.

Vancocin had sales of $259.6 million in 2010, up 22 percent because of price increases, while the number of prescriptions declined. ViroPharma has said that C. difficile infections in the United States may have leveled off or declined since 2008.

Optimer declined to disclose the price of Dificid until a conference call with analysts on Tuesday. But the drug is likely to be at least as expensive as Vancocin, which costs $1,000 or more for a course of treatment.

A high price might limit Dificid’s use to the most severe cases. Generic versions of Vancocin could be approved in the coming year, which would hurt sales of Dificid.

For Dr. Gorbach, the approval was a coda to a career spent mostly as a professor of medicine and public health at Tufts University.

It was there that he and colleagues identified toxin-producing clostridia as the culprits in the New Zealand outbreak. Upjohn, the manufacturer of the antibiotic involved, paid for the research. The finding was published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1978.

In 2003, Dr. Gorbach was asked for advice by another pharmaceutical company, Optimer. He grew excited when he learned that hamsters treated with fidaxomicin had remained healthy even after treatment stopped.

"All the other drugs, when you stop the treatment, they all die within two or three days," he said.

In 2005, while keeping his post at Tufts, he joined the company

French E. Coli Episode Seems Isolated, Officials Say

　

The French authorities said Sunday that the latest outbreak of a deadly strain of E. coli in Europe appeared to be isolated, even as European Union officials discussed wider action to restrict sales of bean sprouts, the suspected cause of the outbreak.

Seven patients remained hospitalized Sunday, said Véronique Seguy, a spokeswoman for the regional health agency in Aquitaine, in southwestern France, where the outbreak occurred.

Tests indicated that the patients were sickened by E. coli O104:H4, the same strain of bacteria that has killed 43 people in Germany and one in Sweden in recent weeks, Ms. Seguy said.

Two patients in France were in intensive care, Ms. Seguy said. But no new cases have been reported in recent days, an indication that the outbreak was an isolated event.

Most of the infections in France have been linked to a charity event at a children’s play center in Bègles, a suburb of Bordeaux, on June 8. Most of the people who became ill recalled eating gazpacho garnished with sprouts. Sprouts were also identified as the source of a German outbreak.

Britain and Ireland were among the European countries that warned consumers over the weekend against eating any raw bean sprouts or other sprouted seeds.

So far the bloc has not issued any continentwide restrictions, but national experts were scheduled to speak by telephone later on Sunday to discuss whether the evidence gathered in the French and German cases was sufficient to restrict sales of sprouts.

I expect the experts will be asking if it’s entirely a coincidence that bean sprouts have come under suspicion twice in the space of just one month as responsible for such an unusual and dangerous and deadly strain of E. coli," said Frédéric Vincent, a spokesman for the European health commissioner.

Mr. Vincent said that some of the discussions would focus on whether the problem originated with the sprouts or with seeds used to grow the sprouts, and whether the seeds came from inside or outside the European Union. He said the European Commission had not ordered any suspect produce to be removed from the market because it was waiting for more evidence of the source of the latest outbreak.

Another likely reason for caution is that the commission, the European Union’s executive body, has come under intense pressure to coordinate hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of compensation to farmers for losses incurred on produce they had to take off the market after Spanish cucumbers were wrongly identified as a likely source of the outbreak in Germany.

Over the weekend a British seed company, Thompson & Morgan, rejected responsibility for the outbreak after a French official said that the sprouts used in the gazpacho were from seeds supplied by the company.

"We note that the French outbreak was localized to a specific event, which would indicate to us that something local in the Bordeaux area, or the way the product has been handled and grown, is responsible for the incident rather than our seeds," the statement said.

The company said it was cooperating with the British health authorities

Richard Howitt, a British member of the European Parliament, warned the French authorities against blaming the company, which is in his constituency, without definitive proof. Mr. Howitt said seeds for the sprouts could have picked up bacteria in Italy, where the company had sourced them. He also said that the French should be held responsible for any damage to the vegetable and salad markets in Britain if the company was not to blame.

In Britain, the Food Standards Agency said Saturday that no cases of food poisoning had been reported there that were linked to the outbreak in France. But it warned that sprouted seeds — including alfalfa, mung beans and fenugreek — "should only be eaten if they have been cooked thoroughly until steaming-hot throughout."

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland warned that "consumers should not eat raw bean sprouts or other sprouted seeds, and caterers should not serve raw bean sprouts or other sprouted seeds." The Irish authority also warned of "the possibility that contaminated seeds are on the market," and it said that if "those seeds are still in circulation, other outbreaks could occur."

The outbreak of E. coli is one of the deadliest to affect Europe in recent years, though it abated in Germany after the health authorities located its main source: sprouts grown on an organic farm in Lower Saxony in northern Germany.

Some of the cases could have been caused by the bacteria’s entering parts of the drinking water system, according to the health authorities in the German state of Hesse and the Robert Koch Institute, the German federal institution responsible for disease control.

Helge Karch, the director of the Institute for Hygiene at the University Hospital in Münster, Germany, writing in the latest issue of The Lancet, said the authorities had underestimated how the bacteria could have entered the drinking water.

Still, a spokeswoman for the Hesse Ministry for Social Affairs, which deals with health and consumer affairs, said last week that so far there was no danger of a complete contamination of the water system.

ACCURATE RESULTS ARE CRUCIAL!

State government officials and operators of the criminal justice system hope bad news is old news when it comes to the Indiana Department of Toxicology, soon to be under new management.

The news isn't getting better. An independent audit of positive cocaine test results for criminal cases between 2007 and 2009 found that 32 percent of the tests fell short of accepted scientific standards.

That compares to a 10 percent error rate for marijuana for the period, a finding that stirred great concern back in April. Results for alcohol, then for amphetamines and other drugs, are yet to come.

Hundreds of prosecutions could be affected. While procedural missteps do not necessarily indicate false positives -- and wrongful convictions -- the error rate for cocaine raises "a distinct possibility that there are some false positives," says former Marion County prosecutor Scott Newman, who is troubleshooting the lab.

The lab, which serves every county expect Marion, has been run by Indiana University since 1957. A new law enacted in response to its troubles shifts the job to a state government agency as of July 1.

That's encouraging in a couple of ways. It calls for a director and an advisory board with toxicology savvy and requires national accreditation. The period of the disturbing audits was one in which the lab was headed by a person without toxicology credentials, and Newman says the staff lacked direction either from management or protocol. National accreditation should set that path, as well as subjecting the lab to regular outside inspection.

The question remains, however, whether new proprietorship can handle the immense caseload yielded by the wars on drugs and drunken driving. Inadequate staffing and underfunding have been cited as culprits in the poor audit results, and the budget for the lab has been cut to $2.1 million from $2.5 million.

State Sen. Thomas Wyss, co-chairman of a gubernatorial assessment team that recommended the transfer from IU, says he is open to endorsing more if the advisory council makes a case later. Steven Johnson, executive director of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council, agrees that the money is sufficient. The final outcome of the audit will have much to say about that issue. And in light of the embarrassing results so far, who can refute Larry Landis, executive director of the Indiana Public Defender Council, when he argues the audit should be extended to pre-2007?

The advisory council will have to decide that as well, Scott Newman says. It's going to be a group with quite a job on its hands.

Bordetella Pertussis

Smithtown, NY (SmithtownRadio.com) – Fourteen students in three Smithtown area schools have been sicken with whooping cough.
Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a highly contagious respiratory disease, according to the Center for Disease Control. It is caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis
In a pre-recorded phone call to school district parents Wednesday morning, Superintendent of Schools Ed Ehmann said nine cases were reported at Nesaquake Middle School, four at St. James Elementary School and one at Tackan Elementary School. Ehmann also said that letters would be sent out to parents in those three schools but decided to make the phone calls today to because he “wanted to let everyone know this situation exists.”
Pertussis is known for uncontrollable, violent coughing which often makes it hard to breathe. In addition to the cough, runny nose and a slight fever are also symptoms.
Smithtown school students are immunized against the disease, which is reportedly helping to reduce the severity of the illness. However, public health officials advise that the pertussis immunization may be only 80 percent effective and that protection from the vaccination often wanes by the pre-pubescent years.
“Pertussis has been common in the community in recent years, mostly among adults, in whom immunity has waned,” said Suffolk County Health Commissioner James L. Tomarken in a released statement Tuesday. “While most individuals will recover fully from pertussis, we are concerned about infants who have not received full immunization and to whom pertussis is particularly dangerous and can be fatal.”
Suffolk County public health officials have alerted area pediatricians of the outbreak and have advised school officials to implement appropriate infection control measures.

Leptosipirosis

PENANG BOTANICAL GARDEN RIVER CONTAMINATED BY LEPTOSPIROSIS VIRUS

GEORGE TOWN, June 7 (Bernama) -- The river water at the Penang Botanical
Garden has been found to be contaminated with the leptospirosis virus.
Timur Laut Environmental Health senior assistant officer Alexander Selvam
advised visitors not to bath or play in the river.
"The area has not been closed to the public. But signboard warnings have
already been put up," he told reporters today.
So far no one has been infected by the virus. The health office would be
monitoring the situation, he added.
Meanwhile, park director Datuk Tengku Idaura Tengku Ibrahim said signboards
were put up near the river immediately after the alert.



My dog was tested for letospirosis virus and we are still waiting on the results. Here is the link to a website detailing how you dog can become infected with the virus.

http://www.2ndchance.info/leptospirosis.htm

YOU HAVE GOT TO CHECK IT THIS OUT! VACATION TRIP TO COSTA RICA LEAVES A LADY TERRIFIED-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61FZiZKmQMg

Hi Every Everyone,

Since we were discussing sputum in class, I found this link. I hope its educational.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=157J2GHvgiM

Sputum

My first topic of discussion is sputum! Yeaaaa, fun right? During one of my classes, a colleague of mine who refers to himself as the "Gold Standard", describes his approach to sputum as "whip it like an egg". What do you think about this approach?

Hello

Hi everyone,

It's taken a while to get here but I am here :-D. I would like to start out by thanking everyone who visits my page and I hope you learn something and feel free to share anything you like :-)) This blog was created to entertain and share interest topics, articles, videos,etc pertaining to infectious diseases. Infectious diseases are also know as communicable diseases. These diseases invade the human body and cause various symptoms, illnesses, and sometimes can lead to death. As clinical laboratory scientist, It is our responsibility to accurately, cost effectively, and time efficiently identify these organisms so that clinicians can treat the patients and prevent any further infection to the patient.