Latest Biological weapons Stories
By Anonymous * Newly discovered arenavirus. NewsMedical.net reported on April 17 that a team of health experts from Bolivia, the U.S. Navy based in Lima, Peru; and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has named "Chapare," a previously unrecognized arenavirus, after the Chapare River in the Andes foothills. The new Chapare arenavirus, discovered in serum samples from a patient in rural Bolivia who eventually died of the infection, produces clinical hemorrhagic symptoms...
BANGALORE: It's official: A chikungunya outbreak has hit the city. Of 21 samples sent to the Public Health Institute, seven - all from Srirampura and surrounding areas - tested positive for chikungunya, confirmed Dr H M Vinutha, joint director, PHI. Dr Gangalakshmi, medical superintendent at BBMP Referral Hospital, Srirampura, said 17 new cases of chikungunya were treated on Tuesday. The disease was first reported at the hospital, where 86 cases were treated on Sunday. Seventeen patients...
By The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - A cyclone wrecks coastal Myanmar, spawning outbreaks of malaria, cholera and dengue fever. Flooding inundates Iowa, raising an array of public health concerns.As these disasters draw attention to weather hazards, which many fear could be exacerbated by climate change, scientists are working to be able to better predict health dangers as they forecast the weather."Everything is connected in our Earth system," Conrad C. Lautenbacher, head of the...
Despite claims by Myanmar's junta that health conditions are normal in the nation's devastated Irawaddy delta, many believe the area is a recipe for disease.Myint Hlaing and his family cook and bathe with water from an irrigation ditch fouled by human waste and a rotting cow carcass. His 10-year-old daughter suffers from diarrhea, while his family and other cyclone survivors endure daily rains in damaged huts as monsoon season approaches."Shelter is the most important thing we...
Researchers have developed the first animal model of the infection caused by chikungunya virus (CHIKV), an emerging arbovirus associated with large-scale epidemics that hit the Indian Ocean (especially the French Island of La Réunion) in 2005, later spreading to India, and Italy in 2007. Using this mouse model, scientists of the Institut Pasteur and INSERM determined which tissues and cells are infected by the virus in both the mild and severe forms of the disease it causes. They detail...
Few things sting like a mosquito's bite -- especially if that bite carries a disease such as malaria, yellow fever, Dengue fever or West Nile virus. But if researchers from The University of Arizona in Tucson have their way, one day mosquito bites may prove deadly to the mosquitoes as well."Our goal is to turn the female mosquito's blood meal into the last meal she ever eats," said project leader Roger L. Miesfeld, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics in UA's College...
ALBUQUERQUE - A group of researchers has discovered a mechanism that helps protect deer mice from hantavirus even though the rodents carry the life-threatening disease. The research could pave the way for new therapies for treating hantavirus and other so-called zoonotic diseases transmitted to humans by animals - a huge class that includes SARS, rabies, influenza and AIDS. "We are blessed with the fact that many zoonotic diseases have hosts" that are immune to ill effects of the disease,...
To: MEDICAL EDITORS Contact: Dan Miller of Pennsylvania Department of Health, +1-717- 787-1783 HARRISBURG, Pa., July 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Department of Health today confirmed a diagnosis of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome in a 40-year-old man who worked at a Boy Scout camp in Clearfield County. The man was seriously ill but he has recovered and has been discharged from the hospital. Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome causes a person's lungs to fill with fluid, making...
By Cathy Locke, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Jul. 12--El Dorado County health officials are urging precautions in areas that may be infested by rodents after a resident contracted hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a disease spread by rodents. The woman became ill in June and was hospitalized, but has recovered, according to a news release issued Thursday by the county Environmental Health and Public Health departments. Public health officials are investigating how the woman was exposed to the...
MEXICO CITY -- Mexicans have long been taught to blame diseases brought by the Spaniards for wiping out most of their Indian ancestors. But recent research suggests things may not be that simple.While the initial big die-offs are still blamed on the Conquistadors who started arriving in 1519, even more virulent epidemics in 1545 and 1576 may have been caused by a native blood-hemorrhaging fever spread by rats, Mexican researchers say.The idea has sparked heated debate in Mexican academic...
Latest Biological weapons Reference Libraries
Francisella tularensis is a pathogenic species of gram-negative bacteria and the causative agent of tularemia or rabbit fever. It is a facultative intracellular bacterium. It is classified as a Class A agent by the U.S. government due to its ease of spread by aerosol and its high virulence. In 1911 the species was found in ground squirrels in California. There are four subspecies that have been classified. Biovar tularensis is found mostly in North America. Biovar palearctica is found...
Burkholderia pseudomallei is a Gram-negative, bipolar, aerobic, motile rod-shaped bacterium. It causes the disease melioidosis in humans and animals and is also capable of infecting plants. The bacteria can from in a number of artificial environments. Optimal temperature is around 40°C in pH-neutral or slightly acidic environments. Most strains can ferment sugars without gas formation. The bacteria produces both exo and endo toxins although the role of these toxins has not been fully...
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease with a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family. It is transmitted by the bite of female mosquitoes and is found in tropical and subtropical areas in South America and Africa, but not in Asia. Primates and a few kinds of mosquitoes are the only known hosts. The origin of the disease is most likely Africa. From there it was introduced to South America through the slave trade in the 16th century. There...
Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus is a mosquito-borne viral pathogen that causes Venezuelan equine encephalitis or encephalomyelitis (VEE). It can affect all equine species, such as horses, donkeys, and zebras. Equines may suddenly die or show progressive central nervous system disorders after infection. It is contractible by humans and will usually experience flu-like symptoms when infected. People with a weak immune system can become seriously ill or die. It is transmitted primarily...
Rinderpest (also cattle plague) is an infectious viral disease of cattle, domestic buffalo, and some species of wildlife. It is characterized by fever, oral erosions, diarrhea, lymphoid necrosis, and high mortality. The last confirmed case was in 2001. In 2011 it should be announced that a global eradication of rinderpest was complete. The term comes from the German language meaning cattle-plague. The rinderpest virus is closely related to measles and canine distemper viruses. It is a...
