The Great Flu — "Even at the lowest difficulty this game delivers a sense of just how hard it is to handle and contain the spread of a dangerous virus." (
via)
posted by netbros
on Aug 18, 2009 -
28 comments
In 1962, in a mission-run girls' boarding school in Kashasha, Tanzania, a student started laughing uncontrollably. Her laughter spread throughout the school, and the girls grew violent when teachers tried to calm them. Administration closed the school, sent some girls home, and the "
epidemic of laughing and crying" spread to villages up and down the Bukoba district.
[more inside]
posted by lauranesson
on Feb 22, 2008 -
30 comments
Obesity has been called an epidemic in the United States.
Looking at an
interactive statistic [CNN, flash] of the state-by-state numbers is sobering
mf.
64% of adults are overweight and approx 25% are obese
[
Wikipedia 1,
2].
The usual suspects have so far been a culture of low-exercise
mf
high-consumption (due to
urban sprawl, driving, TV, ... ),
microbes mf,
genetic predisposition,
and bad diet
(the ubiquity of
junk food with its high levels of fat, sugar and salt.
Recently the high fructose levels in the common American diet has also been noted.
Fructose comprises 50% of table sugar and up to 90% of high-fructose corn
syrup (HFCS), both ingredients found in copious
amounts in most American 'convenience' foods.
[Wikipedia: Fructose#References, Wikipedia:HFCS]).
Now it seems that a
decisive
assessory
is a common virus, the
Human Adenovirus-36, which may really make obesity
an actual epidemic. [
Int. Journal of Obesity,
CNN]
posted by umop-apisdn
on Aug 21, 2007 -
48 comments
Doctor Larry Brilliant (mentioned before) spoke at TED this year, calling himself the "luckiest man in the world." He played witness to the last case of Smallpox, and played a significant role in making it the last case. Inspiring/terrifying video
here, long, with some
graphic images of smallpox.
Back in 1974, Brilliant's technique for early detection in India was to take graphic photos door to door, asking if anyone inside
looks like this. Now, as head of Google's philanthropic efforts, he's advocating systems for "early detection, early response." Unsurprisingly, Google, etc, are an important piece of that system: can we detect what's happening before it can spread?
One of the first responses to Brilliant is up already, a means for doctors to
immediately text epidemiological information straight into a global spatial database. It's a rough and promising start, and its fascinating that it's coming from the bottom up, instead of NGOs like the Red Cross.
posted by cloudscratcher
on Aug 30, 2006 -
17 comments
Is H5N1 flu transitioning to a human-to-human illness? Recent
reports of familial clusters suggest that it may be, though there are certainly other possible explanations, such as families living in environments contaminated by virus-laden bird feces. On the other hand, it would seem that epidemiologists are growing increasingly interested in the possibility that these clusters are indicative of human-to-human transmissions. Further, the virus may be inching towards being asymptomatic, which isn't as good as it sounds: if people can carry the virus and transmit it to others without showing symptoms, it will be very difficult to impossible to tell who is a vector and highly difficult to control any emerging epidemic.
posted by chakalakasp
on Dec 2, 2005 -
23 comments
China isn't known for being open about most things, including the spread of deadly diseases. (Many will remember China's original attempt to
cover up SARS. As the
International Society for Infectious Diseases reports, a prominent
WHO virologist has made a claim that China has now experienced at least 300 human avian flu deaths and is actively attempting to cover this information up. "We are systematically deceived," he is reported to have said. "At least 5 medical co-workers who should be reporting on the
situation in the provinces were arrested, and [other] publication-willing
researchers were threatened with punishments."
posted by chakalakasp
on Nov 23, 2005 -
27 comments
Bush Considers Military Role in Flu Fight If the flu (say) breaks out in New Jersey, why not use the New Jersey National Guard. Just what is the guard for? Simply to be sent overseas for our bringing freedom to nations not having what we believe we have?
posted by Postroad
on Oct 4, 2005 -
61 comments
Greta got a blog. Greta Van Susteren is blogging now, or at least posting articles on foxnews.com and using the word 'blog' in the process. You can read her thoughts on the grave
epidemic of missing white women this country faces!
posted by delmoi
on Aug 25, 2005 -
64 comments
Over the past month, people in
Qinghai province, China have been reporting that migratory birds in the mostly-rural region were dropping dead of an unknown disease, later diagnosed as a few hundred cases of
"an isolated case" [sic] of
influenza strain H5N1, a.k.a.
bird flu. Three weeks later,
the Chinese government admitted that
actually about a thousand birds had died of bird flu in the province. Now there are reports saying
that at least 8,000 animals--not just birds--have died from the flu, including not only breeds of fowl not previously known to be affected by the virus, but non-avian species, too.
Every national park and bird sanctuary in China has been
closed for weeks, since the first reports surfaced of an outbreak. But today, disturbing photos started appearing on Chinese language news websites, supposedly taken at the closed
Qinghai Lake Nature Reserve. They appear to show
thousands of dead birds (
warning, disturbing images -
Engrish version via Babelfish here) on the island in the middle of Qinghai Lake, China's largest saltwater lake and a rest-stop for migratory birds from all across southeast Asia. Nervous pandemic-watchers
are debating whether the photos are real or doctored, but compared to
previous photos of the
once-lively birding spot, something definitely seems to be wrong.
[ much more inside >> ]
posted by Asparagirl
on Jun 5, 2005 -
42 comments
1.7 million deaths in the U.S. and 180-360 million dead globally. That's the estimate of the impact of the next
influenza pandemic from Michael Osterholm,
published in today's
New England Journal of Medicine. He warns that almost every public health response to the inevitable emergence of pandemic influenza A strain is unplanned or inadequate: A vaccine would take minimum six months (and millions of fertilized chicken eggs); there are no plans to setup and staff the temporary isolation wards or replace dead health-care workers; nor are there detailed plans for handling the number of dead bodies. Given the deeply interconnected nature of the global economy a pandemic would be impossible to stop and wreak havoc in every nation. "Frankly the crisis could for all we know have started last night in some village in Southeast Asia,"
said Dr. Paul Gully, Canada's deputy chief public health officer. "We don't have any time to waste and even if we did have some time, the kinds of things we need to do will take years. Right now, the best we can do is try to survive it. We need a Manhattan Project yesterday."
posted by docgonzo
on May 5, 2005 -
75 comments
The Church Awakens "The AIDS pandemic is the greatest humanitarian crisis," Casey said. "It just begs a reaction from the church."
The church is now in full reaction mode. More than 2,000 Christian medical professionals, church leaders, and students gathered for the ninth annual Global Missions Health Conference, November 11-13, at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. They spoke not only of statistics that confirmed the extent of the pandemic (43 million people living with HIV/AIDS; 8,000 deaths each day; 14 million orphans), but of working together.
posted by halekon
on Dec 21, 2004 -
62 comments
Vatican declares fresh Death all around. It seems the Vatican is telling people in countries with high AIDS infection not to use condoms, because the virus is small enough to pass through the porous latex. The World Health Organization believes condoms do reduce the risk of AIDS transmission. To which the Vatican's Cardinal Trujillo replied: "They are wrong about that... this is an easily recognisable fact."
posted by the fire you left me
on Oct 9, 2003 -
93 comments
SARS much more deadly than first estimated. Analysis of the latest statistics on the global SARS epidemic reveals that
at least 10 per cent of people who contract the new virus will die of the disease. The low death rates of about four per cent cited until now by the World Health Organizatio n and others are the result of a statistical difficulty, well known to epidemiologists, that hampers the early analysis of new disease outbreaks. [...] A better current estimate of the deadliness of SARS may be the number of deaths as a proportion of resolved cases. Those numbers for Hong Kong, Canada and Singapore are
15.8, 18.3 and 13.7 per cent.
posted by Bletch
on Apr 25, 2003 -
68 comments
The bird flu is back. Despite
denials by the Hong Kong government, the World Health Organization
announced yesterday that two people were killed by the same virulent species-jumpingstrain of influenza that caused the
1997 panic. It's certainly less gruesome than the
ebola outbreak going on in Congo right now, but, unlike ebola, the flu is highly contagious. [more inside]
posted by ptermit
on Feb 20, 2003 -
14 comments
Bush's pledge to fight AIDS in Africa comes with some strings attached, it turns out. Bush is
limiting the funds that clinics which perform abortions can receive. Is it moral to politicize an epidemic?
posted by hipnerd
on Feb 17, 2003 -
93 comments
Some numbers. 3.1 million in 2002 comes out to some 8,500 a day, 354 an hour, and almost 6 a minute. Each minute. Each hour. Each day. Deaths. Of AIDS.
posted by mattpfeff
on Dec 1, 2002 -
0 comments
"China's catastrophic mismanagement of its AIDS crisis has come to this: Xie Yan is trying to give away her son. Ms. Xie's husband died last year of AIDS, and she has the virus as well. They are the victims of government-backed blood-selling schemes that have left about one million people infected here in Henan Province in central China. Multiply Ms. Xie's heartache a millionfold, and you understand the cost of the Chinese government's cover-up of its AIDS crisis. If China continues to be more concerned with hiding the tragedy than confronting it, then today's Chinese leaders could kill millions of people over the next two decades. We in the West must exert strong pressure on China to act quickly to address the AIDS challenge."
posted by homunculus
on Dec 1, 2002 -
1 comment
The Demon in the Freezer An article by the author of
The Hot Zone. " The water contained the
whole molecules of life from variola, a parasite that had colonized us thousands
of years ago. We had almost freed ourselves of it, but we found we had
developed a strong affinity for smallpox. Some of us had made it into a
weapon, and now we couldn't get rid of it. I wondered if we ever would, for the
story of our entanglement with smallpox is not yet ended".
posted by Mack Twain
on Sep 30, 2002 -
10 comments
Is this the big one? With some 18,000 sick and over 700 people having died of the flu in a country the size of France over the past couple of months, I find it odd that the media seems obsesessed with the US / Iraq thing and missing children.
The 1918 flu epidemic killed some 675,00 Americans alone, with a global tally in excess of 20 MILLION killed. Some of the photos taken back then
are pretty grim. It seems the power of influenza is that it (ahhem)
mutates and thats why it could once again be a big killer. Cynical as it might sound, as a race maybe we
need something like this to teach us that we've got a lot more in common with each other than skin colour and religion might otherwise lead us to believe.
ObDisclaimer: I'm unemployed right now, have maybe six months of canned goods in the flat; if this hits London, I ain't opening my door to nobody.
posted by Mutant
on Aug 30, 2002 -
22 comments
From NPR (The MetaFilter giveth, the MetaFilter taketh away...)
Remembering Tuskegee
600 low-income African-American males, 400 infected with syphilis are monitored for 40 years. Even though a proven cure (penicillin) became available in the 1950s, the study continues until 1972 with participants denied treatment. Perhaps as many as 100 died of syphilis during the study (Allen, 1978).
Additional resources.Thirty years ago is not that long a time.
posted by y2karl
on Jul 25, 2002 -
27 comments
Chlamydia seems to be on the rise. Working in a hospital lab I've seen an increase in tests for
HPV,
Herpes and
Gonorrhea. It's enough to make one wonder if sex is worth the risk.
posted by Apoch
on Mar 20, 2002 -
13 comments
AIDS Timeline:1926-Present with comprehensive links, thanks to Sister Mary Elizabeth of the Sisters of St. Elizabeth of Hungary and
AEGIS (AIDS Education Global Information System), "...a service the Centers for Disease Control calls 'the best of its kind'..." (See How Aegis Began) People making a difference.
posted by Voyageman
on Dec 1, 2001 -
1 comment
Déja vu "A mysterious epidemic, hitherto unknown, which had struck terror into all hearts by the rapidity of its spread, the ravages it made, and the apparent helplessness of the physicians to cure it." — on syphillis, in the 16th centruy.
Highlights from the CBC's 1996 Ideas shows on AIDS in historical perspective, available in real audio for downloading or streaming. I remember stopping the car and listening to the whole thing four years ago: "The programs underline how a whole series of biological, psychological and social factors shape the public's perception of disease, and society's response to it. The strengths and limits of past approaches to detecting sexually transmitted diseases are explored, in order to shed light on approaches that could be used to control AIDS today."
posted by sylloge
on Dec 1, 2000 -
0 comments
AIDS Project Los Angeles can help you observe World AIDS Day
and get a start on those pesky holiday cards. For $5 each, APLA will personalize and send your choice of holiday cards to friends, family or clients! Cards are also available in sets of ten for $25 to be mailed by you.
posted by CrazyUncleJoe
on Dec 1, 2000 -
0 comments
Four out of 10 people mistakenly believe it is possible to get HIV by sharing a drinking glass or being coughed or sneezed on by an infected person. The survey, released Thursday, was conducted by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "It's scary that so many people are still so ignorant of what
causes HIV-AIDS," said Marty Algaze, a spokesman for
the Gay Men's Health Crisis. "Almost 20 years into this
epidemic, it's disturbing that people think you could still
get it from casual contact."
posted by jhiggy
on Dec 1, 2000 -
3 comments
Circumcision as a way to slow the spread of HIV. I'm posting this here mostly 'cause I want to see some people's opinions on it. I'm against the operation for any reason other than religious, myself. I think a far better way to slow HIV would be to get people to stop sleeping around, but like
that's gonna happen, eh?
posted by CrayDrygu
on Jun 9, 2000 -
10 comments
