posted 05-15-2002 08:15 PM               

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) - Eighteen British soldiers serving in Afghanistan have been struck by a contagious but unidentified fever, and 350 people have been quarantined to prevent it spreading, the top British commander in the coalition said Wednesday.

Brig. Roger Lane said the 18 ailing men were all military medical personnel serving at the main allied air base at Bagram, about 30 miles north of the capital, Kabul.

At the Pentagon, spokesman Lt. Col. David Lapan said no U.S. or other coalition personnel in Afghanistan are known to have come down with the fever. Lapan said the exact nature and cause of the illness has not yet been determined.

Two of the British soldiers were seriously ill and their next of kin have been notified, Lane said. One was evacuated to Britain for treatment while the other was flown to a U.S. military hospital in Germany. The rest are being cared for at Bagram.

"We believe it's some kind of enteric (intestinal) fever, but we have yet to go and establish what exactly it is," Lane said.

Soldiers first started reporting symptoms three days ago, including fever, diarrhea and vomiting, Lane said. The illness was similar to meningitis, but medics did not believe that was the culprit.

Lane said the area around the field hospital where the sick soldiers work had been isolated and military police were deployed to prevent trespassers. Some 350 people work at the hospital.

About 1,700 British troops are currently deployed at Bagram and have been involved in two military operations in eastern Afghanistan since arriving in the country last month. There also are soldiers from countries ranging from Australia to Poland at Bagram, including about 2,700 U.S. troops.

Lane said, however, that no hospital personnel had left the base since they arrived. The hospital has treated almost exclusively British troops, though one Afghan was treated two weeks ago, he said.

Earlier this month, three British Royal Marines were evacuated to Bagram during an operation in mountainous eastern Afghanistan. Two were diagnosed with altitude sickness and one had dysentery.

posted 05-17-2002 06:22 PM               

BAGRAM, Afghanistan –– Another 20 British soldiers in Afghanistan have come down with symptoms of a mysterious disease, and one of the men was so sick he was to be evacuated Friday, a British military spokesman said.

Seven British soldiers have already been evacuated – six to Britain and one to a U.S. military hospital in Germany – since the outbreak began Sunday.

Lt. Col. Ben Curry said two of the 20 soldiers were isolated after displaying symptoms of the unknown disease, but it was unclear what it was.

British officials discovered the possible new cases Thursday after a senior medical officer ordered a check of all British troops deployed at Bagram air base "in order to identify anyone who displayed the symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting."

Curry said the 20 personnel had reported the symptoms during the check. The most serious case was to be evacuated to Britain Friday, while two others showing serious symptoms of the infection were isolated and treated. The remaining 17 had shown milder symptoms and were still in their tents.

Some 334 British troops, most at 34 Field Hospital, have been put under quarantine. Only the most serious of the 20 possible new cases was put under quarantine.

Soldiers have shown symptoms similar to an intestinal fever. Eight patients have recovered so far, but are still under quarantine.

Military officials have rejected the possibility of a biological terrorist attack.

posted 05-21-2002 08:44 PM               

Health officials in El Salvador are concerned after 16 people were bitten during their sleep by vampire bats.

The attacks have happened during the last few weeks near the beach resorts of Costa Azul and Monzon.

Officials at the public health state department are urging victims to be vaccinated against rabies.

The bats drink blood by biting the feet, hands and sometimes ears of their victims.
They are believed to have migrated to the beaches from Barra de Santiago.

posted 05-21-2002 08:55 PM               

British MoD confirms Norwalk Virus as source of Afghan outbreak

By Andy Oppenheimer

The mysterious illness recently contracted by around 40 British soldiers serving in Afghanistan was confirmed by UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) sources on 18 May as Norwalk virus (dubbed ‘winter vomiting’ by the media).

Norwalk has been confirmed in two cases, although tests are not complete on all those affected. The symptoms exhibited by those afflicted – high fever, profuse vomiting and diarrhea – prompted some early suspicion of a biological warfare (BW) attack given that al-Qaeda has been experimenting with BW for use against allied forces. The MoD, however, consistently denied any such suspicions.

The Norwalk Virus is non-fatal; it causes acute gastroenteritis with nausea, profuse vomiting; fever; and myalgia that lasts 24-48 hours. The virus is transmitted through contaminated food, water, or infected contacts (through vomited particles dispersed in the air) and is well established as a chief cause of viral gastroenteritis epidemics. The disease occurs throughout the year without a seasonal predominance. The MoD said there was “no suggestion” that troops had brought it from the UK. There is no recognised treatment for the illness; patients must simply be kept hydrated.

The UK field hospital at the centre of the outbreak, located at Bagram airbase just outside Kabul, has been closed except to cases of the disease and guards are keeping it under quarantine. Six soldiers described as “very seriously ill but improving”, were evacuated for treatment last week, mainly to the UK.

The hospital has treated almost exclusively British troops, though one Afghan was treated two weeks ago. The MoD has also tightened up hygiene measures, with all troops put on sterilised food rations and bottled water.

Commentators have cited poor public health conditions and possible access to local food as likely causes of the illness.

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posted 05-22-2002 06:31 PM               

Iceberg Breaks Away From Antarctica

By Randolph E. Schmid
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, May 21, 2002; 6:16 PM

WASHINGTON –– Another new iceberg has broken away from Antarctica, the National Ice Center reported Tuesday.

The berg named D-17 broke off from the Lazarev Ice Shelf, a large sheet of glacial ice and snow extending from the Antarctic mainland into the southeastern Weddell Sea.

The new iceberg is 34.5 miles long and 6.9 miles wide, about the same size as St. Lucia Island in the Caribbean Sea. It was observed on an image collected by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program.

Icebergs are named for the area quadrant of Antarctica where they appear. D-17 is the 17th berg reported since record keeping began in 1976.

Just last week, an iceberg nearly as large as the Chesapeake Bay – called C-19 – broke away from Antarctica, where it is late summer.

In March, another giant berg broke free in an adjacent area. Named B-22, it measured 2,120 square miles, bigger than the state of Delaware. Also in March, a large floating ice shelf in Antarctica collapsed.

However, new measurements indicate the ice in parts of Antarctica is thickening, reversing earlier estimates that the sheet was melting.

Scientists reported in January that new flow measurements for the Ross ice streams indicate some of their movement has slowed or halted, allowing the ice to thicken. Researchers don't know if the thickening is merely part of some short-term fluctuation or represents a reversal of the ice's long retreat.

That report, in the journal Science, came less than a week after a paper in Nature reported that Antarctica's harsh desert valleys – long considered a bellwether for global climate change – have grown noticeably cooler since the mid-1980s.

The National Ice Center, based in Suitland, Md., provides worldwide ice analyses and tracking to assist the military and private shippers. It is a joint operation of the Navy, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Coast Guard

posted 05-23-2002 11:21 PM               

ATLANTA- Sepsis, the bloodstream infection that destroys the body's organs by causing massive inflammation, is increasing at a rapid rate in the United States, according to a 20-year study released Tuesday.

The rate of sepsis infections rose an average of 16 percent a year from 1979 to 1999, the latest year for which statistics are available, said the study by Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The total increase for the two-decade period was 329 percent.

Researchers said the rise is probably because doctors are becoming more adept at diagnosing the infections, and because overuse of antibiotics is creating drug-resistant germs, making the infections harder to fight.

Sepsis sets off a chemical reaction that cripples the body's ability to break up blood clots, choking off organs by rampant inflammation. It can be a complication of trauma, surgery or many illnesses. Patients can be treated with antibiotics and fluids, but the infection still kills about 225,000 Americans a year. It accounts for about $15 billion in health care costs each year in the United States, the study said.

The good news: Sepsis is becoming less deadly as doctors learn to recognize it more quickly. The infection killed patients about 17 percent of the time in 1999, compared with 29 percent in 1979, the study said.

Last year, the federal government approved the first drug - Eli Lilly & Co.'s Xigris - to treat sepsis infections directly, by slowing the clotting and inflammation. In severe cases, sepsis kills 30 percent to 40 percent of the people it strikes, but Xigris cuts the chances to about 25 percent, the researchers said, making early diagnosis even more critical.

posted 05-27-2002 01:46 AM               

LOS ANGELES- Birds falling from the sky. Pelicans having seizures. Dolphins dying on beaches. For two months, a growing number of marine mammals and birds has been dying along the California coast.

About 70 dolphins have washed up on state beaches, while more than 200 sea lions and 200 seabirds have gotten sick or died. One of the leading suspects is domoic acid, a potent toxin that attacks the brain. The naturally occurring toxin is produced by the plankton species Pseudo-nitzschia. The toxin moves up the food chain from the slender, glass-shelled diatoms to sardines, anchovies, crabs and other shellfish that, in turn, become dinner for birds and marine mammals.

"There's dead pelicans on the beach, and then these weird ones having seizures," said Jay Holcomb, director of the International Bird Rescue Research Center. "We had the public calling in, saying, 'These birds are falling out of the sky.'"

Blooms of Pseudo-nitzschia have occurred before but experts said it was only recently that sealife kills were linked to them. Scientists caution that other types of microscopic sea life also can produce toxins. This month record high levels of domoic acid, ranging up to 380 parts per million, have been found in mussels taken from Santa Barbara waters. The federal alert level is 20 ppm, said Gregg Langlois, a marine biologist with the state Department of Health Services.

Some researchers believe domoic acid poisoning caused a 1961 incident that partly inspired Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds." Seabirds that may have eaten tainted anchovies descended on Santa Cruz-area villages, nipping people, staggering around, smashing windows and smacking into cars and houses. No human illnesses have been reported in California but state health officials advise against eating locally sport-harvested shellfish, crabs, sardines and anchovies. Commercially harvested seafood is considered safe because it is inspected.

Humans eating tainted seafood can get amnesic shellfish poisoning, which can cause twitching, nausea, permanent short-term memory loss and even death. High domoic acid levels prompted a partial shutdown of mussel harvesting along Prince Edward Island in Canada last month.

The link between the acid and human illness was discovered there in 1987 after more than 100 islanders became ill and several died from eating tainted mussels. In 1991 the crab season in Washington, Oregon and California was halted after tests detected domoic acid in crab meat.

The deaths of more than 400 California sea lions in 1998 also were traced to the acid. But research into the plankton is so recent that nobody is sure what sparks the algae growth or why the cells produce different levels of the toxin at different times.

California's long coastline means many more animals might have perished out of sight of the public. Also, the deaths could have a larger impact by whittling down isolated breeding colonies and by killing off mothers during breeding season.

By some estimates, harmful algal blooms have caused more than $1 billion in losses in the United States in the past several decades, including loss of tourism, fisheries and the costs of treating public illnesses, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Some bacteria and viruses attack certain algae species but more research is needed before a biological remedy might be available. Even then, the impact on the environment would be uncertain.

"It's a complex biological system and I don't think we have any idea of what will happen if you begin to perturb it," said Christopher Scholin, staff scientist with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. "You might get something worse." The latest outbreak began in March in northern California. The high levels found in Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay subsided and the problem now is concentrated in the south, Langlois said. The Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro has treated about 170 sea lions.

posted 05-29-2002 12:23 AM               

The tests on the Dutch imports follow a report by the UK Food Standards Agency in December 2001 that undeclared pig proteins had been used to "bulk up" chicken from Holland and Belgium.

The FSAI also found undeclared hydrolysed collagen in 26 per cent of the chicken fillets. Species-specific DNA tests on 30 chicken samples then revealed that 17 contained bovine DNA, porcine DNA or both. As yet, the authorities have been unable to trace the source of the undeclared bovine material.

Peter Smith, chairman of SEAC, the UK government's advisory body on BSE and its human form vCJD, told New Scientist: "If the source of the bovine material was fit for human consumption under EU regulations, then these findings pose no significant health risk. The problem is we don't know."

It is not illegal to add proteins to chicken, provided the additives are included in labelling of the meat. Protein additives are often extracted from old animals, which are not suitable for sale as meat, or from body parts such as skin, bones and ligaments. But this process does not destroy prions, the infectious proteins that cause BSE.

Meat or milk

Wayne Anderson, chief food scientist at FSAI, told the Guardian newspaper that there is a theoretical risk of BSE contamination. "The presence of bovine proteins in chicken is disgusting. What if it's material not controlled under the EU's specified risk material restrictions?" he says.

However, FSAI's director, Alan Reilly, was anxious to play down the risk. He told New Scientist: "There may be many explanations for the bovine material, but we won't know until the Dutch authorities come back and tell us.

"It is possible the bovine DNA signal is due to casein, a protein found in milk, which is often added to chicken and not linked to BSE," he says. "And the collagen protein could be from chicken skin." But Reilly confirmed that bovine DNA had been found in all the samples containing collagen.

Yvonne Huigen, a spokesperson from the Inspectorate for Health Protection in the Netherlands, says Dutch officials are trying to identify the source of the bovine additive. However she said there was no reason to restrict chicken exports: "At the moment we are dealing with a labelling problem, it is not a health problem."

In a separate move, scientists advising the UK Food Standards Agency
called on Thursday for an EU-wide ban on the 15 per cent of sausages that are made with sheep intestines, in a bid to reduce a theoretical risk of contracting BSE from sheep.

Gaia Vince
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992321

posted 05-29-2002 01:13 AM               

Mystery Virus Hits London Hospital

LONDON- More than 100 people at a London hospital have been struck by the same type of virus that infected British soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

The virus, which causes diarrhea and vomiting, is an increasingly common cause of food poisoning or gastroenteritis cases seen in schools, institutions or other communities, including hospitals.

Although gastroenteritis is caused by a number of viruses, experts estimate that Norwalk viruses are responsible for about one-third of cases after the age of 2.

At Whipps Cross Hospital in east London, 63 patients and 38 staff have been struck by a Norwalk-like virus. The first case was confirmed last week and the sick have been isolated and new admissions restricted. Earlier this month 38 British marines serving in Afghanistan and connected to a field hospital got sick - some severely - and health officials later identified that in 25 of them, the illness had been caused by a Norwalk-like virus. The rest of the soldiers had been struck by more common tummy bugs.

There are several Norwalk-like viruses. It is unknown whether the one which struck the London hospital is the same as the one that hit the soldiers. The viruses, found worldwide, do not usually cause severe illness.

posted 06-03-2002 05:52 PM               

LONDON (Reuters Health) - Britain's Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) on Friday reported the first case in England of a new type of antibiotic-resistant bacterium.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria are known as "superbugs" because they are so difficult to treat. The new bacterium is resistant to vancomycin as well as methicillin, and vancomycin has been one of the first-line drugs used to treat MRSA infections.

While there are other drugs available to treat this new vancomycin-resistant superbug, the PHLS says the finding underscores the importance of using antibiotics carefully to minimise the development of resistance.

In a statement the PHLS said: "A hospital patient was found to be infected with this organism in April. They were successfully treated for their infection by altering the antibiotics used, although they subsequently died of another cause unrelated to infection."

The infection was caused by a glycopeptide-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus--a strain of the bacterium that has developed low-level resistance to vancomycin. Investigators identified no further spread of the new bacterium.

"This is particularly concerning because vancomycin is one of the drugs that is often used to treat this organism, particularly in strains which are already resistant to methicillin-like drugs, as was the case in this patient," the PHLS said. "This resistance may arise when vancomycin has been used over a long period."

Dr. Georgia Duckworth of the PHLS said: "With the development of antibiotic resistance, Staphylococcus aureus infections have become harder to treat as there are fewer antibiotics that are effective. Since the discovery of MRSA, vancomycin has been the first choice antibiotic used in its treatment. Although strains of Staphylococcus aureus with low level resistance to vancomycin have been identified before in Japan, United States and France, as well as in Scotland and Bristol, this first GISA case in England is a serious development.

"Fortunately, this organism is still treatable. There are other drugs which we can use to tackle it including some new drugs which have been introduced fairly recently.

"However," Duckworth continued, "this case underscores the fact that there is no cause for complacency in antibiotic usage--whenever we use an antibiotic, even if totally appropriately, we encourage the development of resistance to it. We must use all antibiotics very carefully if we are to minimise the emergence of resistance to antibiotics. Once resistance has been detected, robust infection control practices are essential to contain the spread of such organisms."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020517/hl_nm/bacteria_uk_1&printer=1

Virus of deadly disease spreads in Iran
Fri May 24,11:21 AM ET

TEHRAN, Iran - A deadly virus has infected 30 percent of Iran's cattle stock and killed 20 people since last year, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Friday.

Mohammad Mehdi Gouya, the head of the Disease Management Center of the Health Ministry, was quoted as saying that the 20 people who died were among more than 140 people diagnosed carrying Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever.

Health officials have warned that a new outbreak was possible with hot weather coinciding with the return of Muslim pilgrims from the annual Hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Relatives of pilgrims slaughter cattle and distribute meat among neighbors, IRNA said. Health officials say spilled blood from slaughtered cattle can cause infections.

Crimean-Congo fever was first identified in the northeastern Khorassan province in 1978 after entering Iran through imported cattle from eastern states, it said. The fever broke out in Pakistan and Afghanistan — Iran's eastern neighbors — earlier this year. Doctors said three people died then.

The virus causing Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever — which is found in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe — is transmitted by ticks, which thrive on sheep and cattle. Infected people can transmit the virus by blood, saliva or droplets from sneezing.

posted 06-11-2002 03:46 AM               

GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- A raccoon attacked a 6-year-old girl in front of several friends, biting her 10 times after jumping on her back.

Samantha Ortiz of Georgetown Township, which is near Jenison in eastern Ottawa County, was walking on a bicycle trail with five friends about 6:30 p.m. Friday when she looked back and saw the raccoon.

She said she moved to the side of the trail to let the animal pass, but it jumped on her back and started biting.

"I put my hand down and it was biting me. It was growling like a dog and biting me all over," Samantha told The Grand Rapids Press for a story Monday. "Maybe he smelled chicken 'cause I didn't wash my hands after I ate." Samantha said she was scared because her friends ran away when the raccoon attacked. "I didn't know if it was going to kill me," she said.

When the animal tried to bite her toes, the girl said she put one of her friend's bikes on top of the raccoon and ran home. Her mother, Dee Cardero, said she was hysterical when she heard Samantha screaming. "I ran and opened the front door and saw blood all over her," Cardero said.

Samantha had bites on her hands, arms and legs. She was treated at Spectrum Health Butterworth hospital, where she received rabies shots in the area of each bite. The series of shots will continue for a month, her parents said

posted 06-11-2002 07:30 PM               

GUWAHATI, India, June 11 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of people are suffering from malaria in India's northeastern Assam state where 73 people have died of the disease in the past six weeks, a health official said on Tuesday.

Officials said the disease assumed epidemic proportions after a prolonged spell of heavy rain that created vast pools of stagnant water and provided a breeding ground for mosquitoes, which spread malaria.

"At least 400,000 people tested positive," B.K. Baishya, Assam's chief malaria control officer, told Reuters in Guwahati, the state's main city.

He said health workers and volunteers were spraying insecticides across the tea-growing and oil-rich state as part of a mosquito elimination drive. Authorities have also supplied chloroquine tablets to villagers to prevent more people dying of the disease.

"We have formed more than 150 rapid response teams made up of doctors, nurses and pathologists to take care of people affected by malaria," Baishya said.

Malaria kills about 100 people in Assam every year, while more than 1,200 people died of the disease in 1995. Last year 122 people died of malaria in Assam.

Medical experts say there are 300-500 million cases of malaria every year worldwide, 90 percent of them in Africa.
http://webcenter.newssearch.netscape.com/aolns_display.adp?key=200206111135000249348_aolns.src

posted 06-14-2002 12:57 AM               

ATLANTA- West Nile virus, which has killed 18 people along the East Coast since it surfaced in this country three years ago, will probably continue its westward march this summer, health officials warned Thursday.

And in Southern states, where balmy weather often stretches well into the fall, the mosquito-borne virus is moving closer to becoming a year-round threat, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Mosquitoes spread West Nile from infected birds to humans, who can then develop deadly encephalitis, or swelling of the brain.

Humans cannot pass the virus to one another. West Nile was first detected in New York in 1999. Last summer was the most severe so far, with 66 human infections and nine deaths reported. Sporadic infections have been detected as far west as Illinois, Arkansas and Louisiana, and health officials said migratory birds will probably carry the virus even farther west this season. And transmission by birds makes it difficult for health officials to guess when and where the virus will show up next.

"It remains somewhat of an unpredictable virus," said CDC infectious-disease expert Dr. Stephen Ostroff. "There is no reason that the virus wouldn't continue to expand its geographic range within the United States." No human cases have been identified so far in 2002.

The CDC urged people to report dead birds to health authorities and to protect themselves against mosquito bites by getting rid of standing water and wearing insect repellent and long sleeves.

West Nile cases have mostly been confined to the summer months, when mosquitoes thrive. But humans were infected as late as December last year in Georgia, and birds tested positive in February this year in Florida.

posted 06-14-2002 06:25 PM            

The past few weeks have demonstrated that even New York CityÂ’s educated, highly skeptical and supposedly hip urban population can readily be led to believe it is in their interest to allow government agencies to repeatedly spray them with dangerous insecticides, to come to their door and collect routine blood samples or to inoculate them with a "life-saving" vaccine.

A government agency or a corporation could have accidentally caused the epidemic by allowing a virus to escape from a laboratory such as the bio-warfare/animal virus lab at Plum Island NY. They also could have deliberately spread a virus as an experiment or may have simply used the media to create the illusion of a viral epidemic in order to justify immunizing large segments of the population with an experimental vaccine or to expose the population to whatever chemicals are actually being sprayed.

As a population downsizing initiative governmental agencies might try to manipulate the media to create the illusion of a viral epidemic in order to go door to door inoculating select individuals with disease. This could be done in order to eliminate certain segments of unwanted population. The door to door blood sampling and statistical surveys the CDC is currently conducting in Queens could very well be field testing for the results of a new bio-warfare or population control agent. While it may be horrifying to suggest such a plan it would not be that surprising a development in a City whose MayorÂ’s fame is based on the people heÂ’s already gotten rid of and whose stated goals are to eliminate even more people in the future.

During Congressional hearings in 1994 [See Report by the U.S. Congress titled Examining Biological Experimentation on U.S. Military ]http://www.cco.net/~trufax/trans/roc1.html] the U.S. government admitted to more than 50 years of experimentation on hundreds of thousands of unknowing or deliberately misinformed American citizens. One can only guess what theyÂ’ve done to people in other nations. The placement by our government of a biological warfare and exotic animal virus laboratory just two miles off the tip of Long Island would seem to be ideally suited to use New York CityÂ’s enormous population consisting of every race and ethnicity in the world as experimental test subjects.

Eugenics, the science of improving the human race by selective breeding, genetic engineering and the sterilization or elimination of undesirable, diseased, handicapped or maladjusted humans has a long history in the U.S. and England and is still a key part of the population control policies of various United Nations and U.S. government agencies. The Nazis were directly influenced by the Eugenics movement in the U.S. which promoted forced sterilization, mandatory vaccinations and euthanasia among other “public health” initiatives.

Titans of finance and industry like the Rockefellers and Fords saw Eugenics as a logical extension of industrial production and as a tool for social control that would insure economic stability and profits. They created world-renowned institutes and university endowments which have used humans as laboratory testing animals for most of this century and which are the ideological source of the exact social policies advanced in New York City by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. These same institutes and university programs are also the source of most of the scientific, economic and political “experts” we see quoted in the media and on television.

While it may be very disturbing to contemplate the possibility that this so-called encephalitis crisis and the unprecedented spraying of Malathion on New York City is part of an insidious government plot, the history of such actions by our own government is long and very well documented. The media coverage of this “crisis” has been exceptionally one-sided, basically depicting this issue as if there is no scientific or lay opposition to what is being done and what little opposition there is as being the work of what Mayor Giuliani calls, “hysterical environmental terrorists”.

The following documents are intended to suggest the possibility that there is more going on here than you will read about in the daily newspapers.

From: http://www.bioinfo.com/jev.html [from Federal Register: March 22, 1996 (Volume 61, Number 57, Page 11812]

Oravax/Peptide Therapeutics Group [PTG]

Oravax Encephilitis Vaccine Patent Application from 1996:

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Notice of Intent To Grant an Exclusive License of a U.S. Government-Owned Patent

Agency: U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, DOD [Department of Defense]. Action: Notice.

Summary: In accordance with 37 CFR 404.7 (a)(I)(i), announcement is made of the intent to grant an exclusive, royalty-bearing, revocable license of U.S. Patent Application Serial Number 08/348,882, filed November 28, 1994 and entitled ``Infectious DNA Clones of Japanese Encephalitis Virus and Attenuated Strains Japanese Encephalitis Virus Made from the Clones'', to OraVax, Inc., 230 Albany Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139. Rights to this invention are owned by the United States Government as represented by the Secretary of the Army. Anyone wishing to object to the grant of this license has 60 days from the date of this notice to file written objections along with supporting evidence, if any. Written objections are to be filed with the Command Judge Advocate, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Fort Detrick, Frederick, Maryland 21702-5012.

Addresses: Commander, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, ATTN: Command Judge Advocate, Fort Detrick, Frederick, Maryland 21702- 5012.

For further information contact: Mr. John F. Moran, Patent Attorney, (301) 619-2065 or telefax (301) 619-7714. Gregory D. Showalter, Army Federal Register Liaison Officer.

[FR Doc. 96-6928 filed 3-21-96; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 3710-01-M

[from Federal Register: March 22, 1996 (Volume 61, Number 57, Page 11812]

[Note: On 10/4/99 I called the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command at Ft. Dietrick. John F. Moran is no longer working there but the information about the contract was confirmed. Requests for further information should be directed to the public affairs officer, Mr. Chuck Dasey (301) 619-2736]

[From: ]http://194.202.157.11/peptide/] [Peptide Therapeutics Group plc is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the research and development of novel vaccines and therapeutics. Its focus is primarily on disorders of the immune system and infectious diseases. It is based in Cambridge, UK and, following the recent acquisition of OraVax, Inc. also has operations in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It has seven products in clinical trials and several pre-clinical and research programs underpinned by five proprietary technology platforms. It's mission is to build a profitable biopharmaceutical company by discovering novel vaccines and therapeutics and developing these products through collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies.]

Product Portfolio: Japanese Encephalitis Vaccine Peptide is developing a vaccine for the prevention of Japanese encephalitis viral infections using its ChimeriVax(tm) technology. JE is a potentially fatal neurotropic viral infection common in Asia, including Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, India and Thailand. The World Health Organization has identified the development of safer and less expensive vaccines against JE as a high priority, which should ensure its use in endemic regions. In addition, a safer vaccine that requires only a single dose for immunization would better meet the needs of travelers and the military. Safety and preclinical efficacy of the JE vaccine has been demonstrated in pre-clinical studies. a Phase I trial is scheduled to commence by the end of 1999 [Note the coincidence of the date coinciding with this epidemic].

PMC [Peptide Therapeutics Group] has been granted a worldwide license to the ChimeriVax(tm) technology for the development of vaccines against JE (and tick borne encephalitis), in return for PMC funding all future research and development costs and agreeing to pay OraVax milestone payments and royalties on sales of licensed product.

[Note: the documents above are intended as examples of the kind of experimentation and government contracting that exist and are not intended or presented here as evidence that the companies, individuals or government agencies involved are behind the current encephalitis crisis in New York City. -RL]

Newsday Area Labs Have Long Studied Virus / Yale, Rockefeller began tests in '50s 09-29-1999 page A28 “Epidemiologists suspect that the West Nile virus has for the first time been isolated in humans or animals in the Western Hemisphere, but the virus has for decades made its home in several U.S. research laboratories, including Rockefeller University in Manhattan and Yale University in New Haven, Conn. In fact, investigators there were the first to grow and study the West Nile virus in the United States. The work began in the 1950s when unidentified viral samples from around the world arrived at Rockefeller on a steady basis.”

"There's no point in not spraying, because there's no harm in spraying. So even if we're overdoing it, there's no risk to anyone in overdoing it...The more dead mosquitoes," he added, "the better. I don't think the media should try to push this out of proportion”. NY Times 9/10/99

A 5/12/97 NY Times feature on the Manhattan Institute titled, “Turning Intellect Into Influence; the Manhattan Institute Has Nudged New York Rightward”, states, “The Manhattan Institute was an early proponent of shrinking city government; it enabled Charles Murray to publish the 1984 book that many people believe begat welfare reform, and it promoted theories about crime and public disorder that later underlay the work of the former Police Commissioner, William J. Bratton. It took up the question of the quality of life in New York City in 1990, well before Mr. Giuliani made that a cornerstone of his successful election campaign in 1993. The institute has savaged open admissions al the City University of New York, pushed hospital privatization and aggressively promoted school choice. Now, its critique of rent control is helping to inform State Senator Joseph L. Bruno's move to phase out rent regulations, and its proposal for charter schools is circulating through legislative offices in Albany...Mr. Giuliani and his campaign staff began meeting with institute members in 1992, and since that time have absorbed many of its ideas, particularly on such issues as the city's tax structure, economic development, education policy, policing and quality of life.”

Recent articles on the Plum Island Biological warfare/Animal disease lab NY Times 9/22/99 U.S. Would Use Long Island Lab to Study Food Terrorism NY Times 9/23/99 Residents Near Lab Taking Germ Plan Matter-of-Factly Daily News 9/21/99 L.I.'s Nearby Plum Island Eyed for Deadly Testing Newsday 9/23/99 Plum Island Upgrade Debated / Worries about lab for animal diseases Newsday 9/24/99 Editorial/ Bioterrorismism /A real threat. Using Plum I. labs to develop vaccines against it would make sense. Earlier articles on Plum Island: Newsday Lab Focus Was On 4 Animal Diseases 11-21-1993 From: NEWSDAY Danger Is Their Business At Plum Island http://www.lihistory.com/specdisc/displum.htm NEWSDAY Plum Island Safety Check 04-07-1994 NEWSDAY Security on Plum Island Must Be Taken Seriously 1/4/93 NEWSDAY Plum Island Cited By EPA 3/12/93 NEWSDAY Plum Island Bird Kill Probed 7/2/93 NEWSDAY Plum Is The Word In Russian 3/3/94 NEWSDAY Vacco Suit: Plum Isle Polluting 5/3/98

Lab Focus Was On 4 Animal Diseases When the military officially closed Ft. Terry in 1954, Army officers turned over to Plum Island scientists 134 strains of 13 viruses collected from four continents, most obtained for development as biological warfare weapons, Army Chemical Corps rec... Author: John McDonald; Size: 8K; 11-21-1993; Page Number: 60; Section: Newspapers & Newswires

Among hundreds of Rockefeller funded institutes and projects in the U.S., England and Germany that have been involved in promoting Eugenics, was the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Eugenics and Human Heredity in Berlin. The head of that institute, Dr. Otmar Verschuer, was Josef MengeleÂ’s patron, teacher and co-researcher. Another Rockefeller sponsored doctor and researcher, Dr. Franz Kallmann, helped save Verschuer after WWII by testifying favorably about his value to science during the U.S. government de-Nazification hearings. Dr. Kallmann later created the American Society of Human Genetics, which organized the "Human Genome Project". [See: ]http://www.livelinks.com/sumeria/politics/eugenics.html] [Also see: Nazi Germany, Klaus P. Fischer pg. 515]

1994 Report by the U.S. Congress titled Examining Biological Experimentation on U.S. Military [See: ]http://www.cco.net/~trufax/trans/roc1.html] “During the last 50 years, hundreds of thousands of military personnel have been involved in human experimentation and other intentional exposures conducted by the Department of Defense (DOD), often without a service member's knowledge or consent. In some cases, soldiers who consented to serve as human subjects found themselves participating in experiments quite different from those described at the time they volunteered...The U.S. General Accounting Office issued a report on September 28, 1994, which stated that between 1940 and 1974, DOD and other national security agencies studied hundreds of thousands of human subjects in tests and experiments involving hazardous substances. (Note 65) GAO stated that some tests and experiments were conducted in secret. Medical research involving the testing of nerve agents, nerve agent antidotes, psychochemicals, and irritants was often classified. Additionally, some work conducted for DOD by contractors still remains classified today”

Malathion information sites: http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/Biology/4S03/malathio.htm
http://www.chem-tox.com/malathion/plane/default.htm
http://www.chem-tox.com/malathion/
http://www.chem-tox.com/malathion/research/index.htm
http://www.ncchem.com/malathion.htm
http://unix.adept.net/~mcsinfo/genetic.htm
http://members.tripod.com/C_E_A_S_E/framesindex.htm

Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T. (ArtistsÂ’ Response To Illegal State Tactics) ARTISTpres@aol.com (718) 369-2111 http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html

--------------------------------
From this page:
http://www.anusha.com/spraynyc.htm

posted 06-15-2002 06:40 PM               

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Experts said on Saturday they were worried by a leaked report that describes an outbreak of smallpox in the Soviet Union -- one they say may point to the testing of a smallpox biological weapon.

Seven people became ill in the 1971 outbreak and three died of what appeared to be the more fatal, and more rare, hemorrhagic form of the infection, said Dr. Alan Zelicoff of the Monterey Institute of International Studies, one of the authors of the report.

"Someone has successfully disseminated smallpox as an aerosol," Zelicoff said in an interview.

"It has been talked about and it has been rumored about but no one has ever actually done it," he added. "It is real, it has happened and it works. We have to live with it."

Zelicoff described the report at a meeting on Saturday of policymakers, bioterrorism experts, emergency response officials and others at the Institute of Medicine in Washington. The experts are helping to put together U.S. policy on whether and when to vaccinate against smallpox.

Smallpox was declared eradicated worldwide as a disease in 1979, but the former Soviet Union, and perhaps other countries, continued to develop the potentially deadly virus as a biological weapon.

Experts are considering whether to vaccinate Americans now that, after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, a biological attack is considered more likely than ever before.

Vaccination in the United States stopped in 1972 and doctors say it is unlikely more than a small fraction of those who were vaccinated have any useful immunity left.

Dr. D.A. Henderson, who led the fight to eradicate smallpox through a global vaccination campaign and who advises the government on bioterrorism issues, said he was not especially worried by the report.

"We do know the Russians were engaged with weaponizing the virus. We do know they were fiddling with the virus," he told the meeting. "I see nothing new."

The outbreak was in Aralsk, a port on the Aral sea in what is now Kazakhstan, Zelicoff said. He says he believes it originated from a field test of a smallpox biological weapon.

FIELD TESTING CITED

"There were a total of three deaths from hemorrhagic disease," he told the meeting. "Anyone who was not vaccinated, that is, the three people, died from the disease," he said.

The others, who had all been vaccinated, contracted smallpox but did not die.

According to the New York Times, which reported on a leaked version of the report in Saturday, it mentions an interview with General Pyotr Burgasov, a former official in the Soviet germ weapons program. He was quoted in November by the Moscow News as saying the outbreak was caused by field testing of 400 grams, or a little less than a pound, of the virus.

The report said at the time, Soviet health officials rushed to contain the outbreak, disinfecting homes, stopping travel to and from the area and vaccinating 50,000 people.

"I've never seen anything quite so disturbing as this," said Zelicoff, who is also a smallpox expert at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico.

He said he interviewed one of the survivors, a woman who was on a ship in the Aral Sea at the time of the outbreak. The most likely way she became ill, he said, was through breathing in aerosolized smallpox.

Henderson cast doubt on this but Zelicoff said he has factored in the time smallpox can live in the air, the winds on the Aral Sea, and the fact that no one below deck on the ship became infected.

The United States is working with vaccine makers to produce enough vaccine to cover everyone in the country in case of an outbreak. Henderson said existing stocks of the vaccine could be delivered within 12 hours.

"In the short term I don't think this changes the need for the acquisition of vaccine to cover everyone," Zelicoff said. "All things being equal, look, the vaccine worked pretty well. What it says is that we shouldn't stop here. We almost certainly need to look at antiviral drugs."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said tests were underway on an antiviral drug called tenofovir, now used against a herpes virus, which has shown promise against pox viruses in animals.

posted 06-18-2002 12:28 AM               

Bacteria Linked to Coral Disease

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON- Bacteria found in the intestines of humans and other animals have been identified as the cause of a disease killing elkhorn corals in the Caribbean Sea.

First reported in 1996, the disease has spread widely, causing severe damage to the branched corals. On some reefs near Key West, mortality of elkhorn coral has reached 95 percent, and the disease has been recorded in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Caribbean areas of Mexico, the Bahamas and Florida, said James W. Porter of the University of Georgia.

Porter and his research team traced the white pox disease that causes the problem to Serrate marcescens bacteria, which are widely found in the intestines of humans and other animals.

The findings are reported in Monday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Elkhorn used to be the commonest coral in the Caribbean, but now it has been proposed for inclusion on the endangered species list," Porter said. "Elkhorn coral is the giant redwood of the coral forest." Asked how the bacteria got to the coral, he responded: "We don't know. ... We are investigating the possibility that the origin of the bacteria is human waste, but we don't know."

That is a crucial question in the Florida Keys, where most waste is treated in septic fields rather than undergoing extensive treatment to kill the bacteria. "The implications for people in the Florida Keys are high," Porter said.

Discussions are under way into improving wastewater treatment, he said, but it costs a lot and state and federal help are not assured. "Everyone down here is in love with the water. They want to do the right thing," he said, "but the cost to maintain the highest water quality standards could be prohibitive for the individual citizenry."

The city of Key West, the largest in the Keys, last October opened a $67 million upgrade of its wastewater collection system and a new advanced treatment plant, city spokesman Andy Newman said. Major hotels also have their own sewage-treatment facilities, he said.

Cheva Heck of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Keys National Marine Sanctuary agreed that while the bacteria have an association with humans, "The research itself doesn't tell us where it comes from."

Dale W. Griffin of the U.S. Geological Survey's Center for Regional and Coastal Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla., said he found it interesting that bacteria with a fecal source have been identified as pathogens in the reef.

"One of the primary concerns in the Florida Keys is the waste disposal problem," said Griffin, who was not part of the research team. He noted the paper made no conclusion about the source of the bacteria killing the corals.

Coral colonies affected by white pox have irregularly shaped white spots which eventually grow and kill the coral by consuming the thin layer of living tissue that covers a coral's limestone skeleton. The bacteria can grow by as much as one-half square inch to three square inches daily.

Treating the infected coral also poses problems, as the bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics, Porter said in a telephone interview.

Meanwhile, stress caused by the warming of the waters in the region is weakening the corals, making them more vulnerable to infection, he said. White pox disease has struck only elkhorn coral so far, something Porter found surprising.

Other corals have their own problems, such as bleaching when the algae that populate and build the corals die off. That problem that has been increasing, and many blame on global warming.

Coral reefs are under assault worldwide, according to the United Nations, which blames global warming, fertilizer and sewage runoff and even fishermen's use of dynamite in some areas. Besides the University of Georgia, where Porter is a professor of ecology, researchers on the project came from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the company MicroGenomics, Clemson University, Mote Marine Laboratory, Tetra Tech Inc., the Environmental Protection Agency and the University of South Carolina.

---

On the Net: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: http://www.pnas.org

National Marine Fisheries Service coral page: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/prot-res/PR/coralhome.html

posted 06-23-2002 01:53 AM               

Scientists mix spiders with goats
23jun02

LONDON: As comic book hero Spider-Man fills cinemas with his webby adventures, prepare to meet an equally astonishing creation - Spidergoat.

Scientists have combined the DNA from a goat and spider to create an animal which produces silk that is five times stronger than steel. The fibre, derived from the goats' milk, harnesses the huge strength of silk spun by spiders.

The breakthrough could be worth millions because the silkmilk fibre can be used to make body armour which is far tougher than normal bullet-proof vests – while weighing little more than a cotton shirt.

The hybrid goats were created by the insertion of a single gene from an orb-weaving spider into a fertilised goat egg.

The amazing genetically-engineered goats are outwardly normal, but carry the gene responsible for production of a spider silk protein. Each goat is only 1/70,000th spider, but when fully grown the females produce a milk which can be treated to produce a fibre with spider-silk strength.

The animals are believed to be the first commercially-viable creatures made from the DNA of two species.

posted 06-26-2002 12:40 AM               

Well anyway, here's an article about cows going wild in Norway.

Updated 25.06.02, kl 15:54 (GMT +01:00)

Cows rampage in Norway

In a bizarre series of incidents, two farmers in different parts of the country were hospitalized after being attacked by cows. Elsewhere, four men narrowly missed having their car crushed by a crash-landing cow.

Friday saw the first attack in the odd cow crime wave. Stian Skoglund, 23, was bashed and trampled by a furious cud-chewer. Stian was helping his girlfriend with her summer job on a farm in Belta in Ĺsnes when the attack occurred.

"The cow attacked me. I was going to scare up the cows at about four in the afternoon and chase them over to where they are milked twice a day," Stian recalled.

As he approached he noticed that one of them was uneasy. He made eye contact with the animal and tried to calm it. Instead, the beast became provoked and charged."The cow butted me and I fell," Stian said.

He got up and tried to escape but the cow again knocked him to the ground before it began to hop and trample him. The cow shattered one of his legs just four centimeters below the knee.

Skoglund also suffered several broken ribs, cuts and bruises. The attack finally stopped when he played dead.Now he wonders if the attack might have been connected to a job he did a few days earlier when he drove away the body of a calf that had died on the farm.

"Maybe it was her motherly instincts being aroused. I have also heard that I shouldn't have made eye contact with her, that only provokes them," Skoglund said.

A 45-year-old farmer in Nordby, Raelingen was hospitalized Tuesday in stable condition after an encounter with a cow he found leaving Jahr farm.

The animal first charged his wife. After waving his arms to distract the animal, the farmer found himself being knocked to the ground."The cow went berserk and couldn't be stopped.The farmer was thrown into the air and landed injured on the ground," a witness said.

While terrified witnesses tried in vain to calm the rampant cow others contacted authorities who sent an ambulance and a medical helicopter. A veterinarian was also summoned. He tranquilized the animal and a decision about it future is likely today.

The attack at Jahr farm comes a year after a nearby farmer was trampled to death by several bulls. A flying - and landing - cow accounted for a close encounter with death on road E39 near Rogaland on Monday night.

Four men traveling in a car saw only a large shadow in the sky before a massive impact shook the ground. Driver Olav Kjeldstad managed to avoid hitting the object, looked behind him and saw a cow in the road.

Police deduced that the cow must have fallen from a ten-meter high cliff overhanging the road. The animal only managed a few moos before dying of its injuries.

"I was pretty shaken afterwards but I have to admit we had a laugh as well.

The whole thing was tragicomic," Kjeldstad said.

Aftenposten English Web Desk
Jonathan Tisdall/Oestlendingen/Romerikes Blad/NTB
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=353179

posted 06-26-2002 10:16 AM            

PC or Bust
Wess Harris is a West Virginia farmer and sociologist (huh?) has a bone to
pick with the local 4-H Clubs. Seems his 9-year-old daughter went to one of
their summer camps two years ago and (gasp!) participated in activities
which included "Indian-inspired council circles that sometimes involved war
whoops, 'spirit sticks,' ceremonial face paint and headdresses." Omigosh!

Well, despite that fact that such wholesome, educational activities have
been going on for some 80 years now at the ol' 4-H, Harris got his PC
pantyhose all up in a bunch and made a federal case out of it.

And according to the Washington Times, "The Bush administration has begun a
civil rights investigation into the use of American Indian symbols and
tribal names in West Virginia's 4-H Club chapter," which is run by West
Virginia University.

If a "voluntary" agreement isn't reached, the Justice Department "could
order an end to the $4.5 million the Agriculture Department gives each year
to the university and its 4-H program." Somebody get me my bow and arrow.
--------------------------