Steep rise in measles in U.S... after Centers for Disease Control said it had been eliminated in 2000

Measles cases in the United States hit a 15-year high in 2011.

Ninety percent of the cases were traced to other countries with lower immunisation rates, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

There were 222 cases of measles in the United States last year, more than triple the usual number, said the CDC.

There had been only about 60 cases per year between 2001 and 2010.

No one has died of the disease in the United States since 2008 but approximately 20 million people contract the measles virus each year worldwide, and about 164,000 die from it, said Dr Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunisation and Respiratory Diseases. Read More

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Swine Flu Jab Leads To the Development of Sleep Disorders

As per recent reports, it has been declared that many of the patients assisted with the swine flu vaccines have developed an overwhelming sleep disorder.

It has been recovered that almost 27 people, out of which majority portion includes children have been diagnosed of suffering from the disorder narcolepsy.

However, the medical officials have stated that still many of the people who might be suffering from the disorder are yet to be examined; this tends out to be a major concern for them.

Although, it has been declared that the Health Minister, James Reilly has claimed that all the patients who have been affected will be compensated, but at the same time, the major problem still remains unsolved. Read More

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Super Salmonella Bacteria Found

Certain Salmonella bacteria, the microbes that cause food poisoning, have the potential to become as much as 100 times more virulent than normal, recent research has found. In the study, these super-bugs overcame the protective effects of a Salmonella vaccine, killing vaccinated mice.

The scientists found that some of the bacteria have the potential to become much nastier than others, a result that has implications for averting outbreaks among humans and animals, they write in a study published April 12 in the journal PLoS Pathogens.

Led by Douglas Heithoff of the University of California, Santa Barbara, they used a technique called animal passage, in which a pathogen is weakened or strengthened by infecting an animal with it. Read More

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China reports bird flu outbreak

Agricultural authorities in northwest China have culled about 95,000 chickens after an outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus, state press reported Wednesday.

The outbreak in Touying township of the Ningxia region was discovered on Friday last week after over 23,000 chickens began showing symptoms, Xinhua news agency said, citing the Ministry of Agriculture.

The ministry said the "epidemic is now under control", the report said, while work teams have been sent to the area to step up prevention measures. Read More

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Ron Fouchier the bird flu virologist is on Time list of 100 most influential..... But then Again So is Bashar Assad and Kim Jong Un

The Dutch virologist at the centre of the row over a mutant bird flu virus is included in the latest Time Magazine ranking of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Ron Fouchier is a professor at Rotterdam's Erasmus teaching hospital where he led research to develop a highly infectious strain of the bird flu virus H5N1 on behalf of a US health institute.

H5N1 rarely transfers from animal to human, but if it does, the infection is often fatal. Foucher was asked to find out if H5N1 could lead to a pandemic and was able to show that a couple of mutations in the virus dna changed it into an extremely virulent form.

There is an ongoing dispute about whether the research should be published. The Dutch government has slapped an export ban on the research because of fears it could end up in the wrong hands. Read More

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FAO to probe resurgence of H5N1 virus in Tripura, India

AGARTALA: Reports of repeated resurgence of pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Tripura have prompted the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to send a five-member specialist team to the state on Wednesday to investigate the matter.

According to official records, as many as 13 lakh poultry have either died or been culled in the past four years in Tripura. The poultry industry has received a setback due to frequent outbreaks of avian flu and the state has incurred an estimated loss of Rs 25 crore over the years.

More than 10,000 poultry farmers and nine state-owned companies, including the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), have borne the brunt of the outbreaks.

Animal resource development minister Aghore Debbarma said that the state government had requested FAO to investigate the reasons of frequent occurrence of bird flu in government-run companies over the past three years. Read More

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H5N1 Cases Confirmed in China

China's Northwestern Ningxia Hui autonomous region has reported an outbreak of the highly epidemic H5N1 bird flu virus in poultry, the Ministry of Agriculture announced.

More than 23,000 chickens at several farms in a village of Touying town in the city of Guyuan in Ningxia showed symptoms of suspected avian flu Friday and the National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory confirmed the epidemic was a H5N1 bird flu case after testing samples collected at those sites.

The body said in a statement that a total of 95,000 chickens have been culled after the H5N1 bird flu case was confirmed.

The epidemic is under control now as a team was dispatched to the quarantined area to guide epidemic prevention. Source

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Food Poisoning Strikes 250 Inmates at Michigan Jail

About 250 inmates being held at the Kent County Jail in Grand Rapids, MI suffering with food poisoning symptoms since Sunday still do not know for certain what ails them.

None required hospitalization and all are said to be recovering.

The illnesses among the inmates began on Sunday, when Undersheriff Jon Hess says the jail served a taco-type meal that included a "chicken product." Hess said the meat was cooked at the proper temperature in a kettle, and then kept warm in a steamer.

Because the steamer was not keeping the meat warm enough, a pizza oven was substituted. Later Sunday afternoon, inmates said the meat did not smell or taste right. The jail feeds 1,000 inmates for every meal. Read More

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Suspected food poisoning on China campus‎

CHENGDU - Health authorities in Southwest China's Sichuan province are probing a suspected food poisoning incident that sickened dozens of university students on Wednesday.

Nearly 100 students from Sichuan University sought medication for vomiting and diarrhea Wednesday afternoon, the provincial health department said in a statement Thursday.

It said the incident was reported on the university's Jiang'an campus near the Shuangliu International Airport in the provincial capital Chengdu, but did not give details.

A student who gave only her family name as Xia said she suspected the food served at the school cafeteria was to blame. Read More

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