December 2011
19 posts
China bird flu victim dies in Shenzhen city (BBC) →
From BBC News:
A man who had been diagnosed with China’s first case of bird flu in more than a year has died in the southern city of Shenzhen, health officials say. The 39-year-old bus driver was admitted to hospital with pneumonia but tested positive for the bird flu virus.
The H5N1 bird flu strain has a high level of mortality, killing up to 60% of humans infected with it.
Positive...
China bans pork additive (US still allows it)... →
From Xinhua News:
BEIJING, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) — China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced Friday that the country has banned the production and sale of ractopamine, a controversial feed additive used to promote lean meat growth in food animals.
The ban became effective on Dec. 5, according to a document posted on the ministry’s website Friday.
The order...
: how many writers does it take to change a... →
via @williams_paige AKA thestoryofastory:
If you use this at your next party, and don’t lie, you know you will, you may thank this dude, Mike Pope, a technical editor at Microsoft in Seattle.
Q. How many writers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A. Ten. One to change it; nine to think they could have done it better.
Q: How…
Christmas greetings from the President of Ireland...
Teachtaireacht Nollag 2011, ón Uachtarán Michael D Higgins
Ba mhaith liom beannachtaí na Nollag agus na hAthbhliana a thabhairt do gach duine anseo in Éirinn agus dár muintir dhomhanda atá scaipthe ar fud na cruinne.
Cé gur gnách linn smaoineamh ar an Nollaig mar thréimhse shona, agus clanna ag teacht le chéile chun taitneamh a bhaint as an séasúr féiltiúil, tá a fhios agam freisin, go mbeidh...
Keep watching the skies! Multi-drug resistant... →
Occurrence of Multidrug-Resistant and Toxic-Metal Tolerant Enterococci in Fresh Feces from Urban Pigeons in Brazil. Microbes Environ. 2011 Dec 22. [Epub ahead of print]
da Silva VL, Caçador NC, da Silva CD, Fontes CO, Garcia GD, Nicoli JR, Diniz CG.
Abstract: Enterococcus are emerging as important putative pathogens resistant to chemicals that are widely released into the environment, and urban...
CDC: Whether your food-related illness gets... →
From Food Safety Epidemiology Capacity in State Health Departments — United States, 2010
December 23, 2011 / 60(50);1701-1704:
…In 2010, a total of 787 FTEs were working as foodborne disease epidemiologists in state, regional, and local health departments in the United States. Of these, 616.5 (78%) had an epidemiology-related degree or had completed some coursework in epidemiology; 170.5...
Sen. Schumer: China ignores seafood safety... →
By SeafoodSource staff | 22 December, 2011 -
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York is calling on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ramp up inspection of imported seafood for banned antibiotics and other substances, singling out China as a habitual offender.
“It has become abundantly clear that seafood from China can stink, and it’s time the FDA stepped up their efforts to protect public...
Brain-eating amoeba kills woman via her neti pot.... →
“The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals is warning residents about the dangers of the improper use of neti pots. The warning follows the state’s second death this year caused by Naegleria fowleri, the so-called brain-eating amoeba.
“A 51-year-old DeSoto Parish woman died recently after using tap water in a neti pot to irrigate her sinuses and becoming infected with the...
Announced overnight: Big ground-beef recall for... →
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2011 - Hannaford, a Scarborough, Maine-based grocery chain, is recalling an undetermined amount of fresh ground beef products that may be contaminated with a strain of Salmonella Typhimurium, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.
The products subject to recall are any size package of the following:
“73%...
CDC: Do not castrate lambs with your teeth.... →
Notes from the Field: Campylobacter jejuni Infections Associated with Sheep Castration — Wyoming, 2011
December 9, 2011 / 60(48);1654-1654
On June 29, 2011, the Wyoming Department of Health was notified of two laboratory-confirmed cases of Campylobacter jejuni enteritis among persons working at a local sheep ranch. During June, two men had reported onset of symptoms compatible with...
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the CDC: A Long,... →
Independent journalist David Tuller, MPH, coordinator of a new, concurrent master’s degree program in public health and journalism at UC Berkeley, takes a deep investigative dive into the tangled history of the emergence of chronic fatigue syndrome and the CDC’s apparently mistaken assumptions about the illness’s defining traits and sources. It’s a long piece that was...
Is a Buddhist ritual (kissing & releasing...
“Our study indicates that under experimental conditions, Eurasian Tree Sparrows are susceptible to H5N1 infection, either by direct inoculation or by contact with infected poultry. Their ability to transmit H5N1 infection to other birds is also demonstrated, suggesting that the sparrows may play a role in the dissemination of the virus. Finally, the presence of significant quantities of H5N1...
This is our job now (via Nieman Storyboard):
“…Langewiesche’s unsparing analysis fulfills a requirement set forth by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel in their classic work The Elements of Journalism.
”’ ‘A journalism built merely on accuracy fails to get us far enough,’ they write, citing a group of scholars called the Hutchins Commission, who studied journalism for years and concluded that ‘It is no...
NDM-1 was manufactured "hype" to damage India:... →
The scare abroad over the superbug or NDM-1 (New Delhi Metallo beta lactamase) last year was deliberately created to tarnish India’s image as a medical tourism destination, says V.M. Katoch, director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
“A hype to create some kind of a scare about superbug theory obviously helps some countries,” Katoch, who is also secretary...