A Superbug Escapes
06-Oct-2004
Superbugs?bacteria that have become resistant to all antibiotics?are usually found in hospitals, where lots of antibiotics are used and bugs eventually evolve that cannot be killed by the drugs. This means you can be sicker coming out of the hospital than you were going in. Doctors and health authorities have always worried that these superbugs would escape from the hospital into the public realm?and now it's happening.
Megan Rauscher writes in planetark.com that antibiotic-resistant germs that cause skin infections and pneumonia in otherwise healthy children and adults are on the loose. In Corpus Christi, Texas, infections in children "has now reached epidemic proportions," according to Dr. Kevin Purcell.
In 1999, there were 9 cases, but the number jumped to 36 in 2000, 105 in 2001, 278 in 2002, and 459 in 2003. Among 1002 cases of antibiotic-resistant skin infections seen in Corpus Christi children between 1990-2003, 93% of them occurred outside the hospital.
Epidemiologist Dr. Jeffrey C. Hageman, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, discovered 17 cases of pneumonia outside hospitals in 9 different states that was caused by superbugs during last year's flu season.
"Most of these individuals were otherwise healthy?only five had an underlying condition that would put them at risk for the infection," Hageman says. "This was surprising but parallels what we are seeing with [superbugs] causing skin infections, which also tends to occur in otherwise healthy individuals."
The average age of the people who catch superbugs although they are not in the hospital is 21, much younger the average age for catching the disease. Hageman says, "?Pneumonia is generally a disease of older populations, greater than age 65."

i like bugs, i breed them:)

they are savages without morality or empathy. they only survive.
[right][snapback]2744784[/snapback][/right]

Brain Parasites ? You Probably Have Them
Half the people in the world have brains that are infected with Toxoplasma parasites. The eggs of this parasite live in the guts of cats until the parasites hatch and make their way up to the cat's brain. Are they dangerous? Yes, but in very subtle ways.
Bill Christensen writes in LiveScience.com that at first scientists didn't think these parasites were a problem, because when they intentionally infected rats with them, the rats seemed fine. But then they found that the brains of these infected rats were subtly different from those of ordinary rats.
Normal rats avoid areas that have been sprayed with cat urine, but infected rats did not follow this self-protective behavior. In fact, some of the infected rats actually sought out these smelly spots. In other words, the parasite infection causes the rat to become self-destructive.
Could this parasite infection be the root cause of modern phenomena such as suicide bombings? It's often amazing how self-destructive otherwise successful people can be?this could be one reason.

UPDATE: A physician wrote us this: "Your story is probably based on a somewhat outdated statistic that the European country known to have the highest rate of antibody-positive tests for Toxo, France, at one time had a 55% seropositive rate. (More recent statistics show a drop in prevalence over the past ten to twenty years).
"The article states and implies many things about Toxo which are simply untrue, and tend towards the hysterical. Most infections are self-limited and may be so mild as to go unnoticed. It's a big public health issue only for immunocompromised and newborn individuals.
It is exceedingly rare to see evidence of neurologic infection (cysts, as described in your article) in otherwise healthy individuals, and no evidence that 'subtle' brain infection is part of routine exposures.
"A positive titer (that 55% figure) does not signify active brain infection, any more than having a positive antibody test for chicken pox means you currently have chicken pox. It merely indicates exposure at some point in your life. The average current exposure rate, according to antibody tests on sample populations, appears to be about 15-25% in the US and Canada."

well... davidbugs is pretty dominent here at the forum.  
[right][snapback]1728381[/snapback][/right]

well... davidbugs is pretty dominent here at the forum.  
[right][snapback]1728381[/snapback][/right]

phew, maybe it's not quite that bad:

Personality Problems: Blame Your Cat
In an earlier story, we reported that your cat may be passing on parasites to you?parasites that affect the way your brain works. Now this story has been confirmed by a new story suggesting that a "clever cat parasite may alter human cultures on a massive scale."
ABC-TV News in Chicago reports that parasite ecologist Kevin Lafferty has published a research paper proving that the parasite Toxoplasma gondii has been transmitted indirectly from cats to half the people on earth, and it affects human personalities. He says that Toxoplasma is "frighteningly amazing."
Women who are infected have what we have come to think of as typical female personalities: warm, outgoing and attentive to others. Infected men are less intelligent and somewhat boring?the typical image of the guy sitting in front of the TV with a beer. Both infected men and women feel more guilty and insecure.
Some researchers think these parasites could be the behind all the hyperactivity that is being diagnosed in children today. Others even think that this parasite could be the cause of schizophrenia in genetically vulnerable individuals.
But Lafferty doesn't say we need to get rid of our pet cats, because a well-fed cat won't eat rats and thus won't become infected with the parasites. Despite growing up in a house filled with cats, his blood tested negative for the parasites.

Superbugs on the Loose:
Antibiotic-resistant superbugs are back in the news. These are caught and passed around mainly in hospitals, because so many antibiotics are used there, but occasionally they escape and invade the "real world."
The official name for superbugs is MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). It's a type of staph skin infection that's being increasingly seen in communities across the nation that is resistant to antibiotics, such as cephalexin and dicloxacillin, that are most commonly used to treat skin infections. MRSA is the origin of all those stories about "flesh eating" diseases.
Think that's a spider bite on your arm? It could be MRSA. Researchers report in the current issue of The New England Journal of Medicine that it's the most common skin infection seen in emergency rooms across the nation. It has been found hospitals and nursing homes for 40 years. In the last few years, however, a new type of MRSA has emerged, affecting people with no connection to health care settings. Outbreaks of these new strains of MRSA have been reported among athletes, correctional facility inmates and military recruits.
Researcher Gregory J. Moran says, "It appears now that everyone is at risk, so if you think you have a spider bite or other type of skin lesion that is not healing, you want to see your doctor to make sure it's not an infection like MRSA."