DISEASE THREATS





11/14/07 -
An outbreak of bird flu in eastern England is the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease, the government said Tuesday.

RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Del Rey Tortilleria is recalling its flour tortilla products. Included in the recall are flour tortillas of all sizes with the name "Del Rey" on the label. Illinois state officials believe there is a connection between the tortillas and recent illnesses in Racine, Wisconsin schools, in which students experienced vomiting, nausea and abdominal cramps. Del Rey is not certain that its products caused the reported symptoms, but is recalling the product nevertheless as a precaution while its investigation continues.
-RECALLED - NapaStyle of Napa, California is recalling their Romano Pitchers and Tumblers, because they may contain high levels of leachable lead.

AUSTRALIA - Experts say deaths from anaphylactic shock are likely to become more common because Australia was experiencing a "tsunami" of potentially-deadly food allergies. A young woman died at her work Christmas party in Brisbane this week, after suffering a severe allergic reaction to seafood. The 25-year-old woman went into shock after eating a dim sim at the Wellington Point Hotel. Scientists are unsure why people die of anaphylactic shock. Environmental triggers are involved, not just genetic factors. Anaphylaxis symptoms include breathing difficulties, mouth and throat swelling, itching and unconsciousness

11/13/07 -
BRITAIN - About 6,500 birds are being slaughtered after avian flu was confirmed in turkeys on a Suffolk farm. 10% of birds in one shed died over one night. The H5 strain was found in turkeys at Redgrave Park Farm near Diss. All birds on the farm, which include ducks and geese, are to be slaughtered. A 3km protection zone and a 10km surveillance zone have been set up. The government could not yet confirm if the birds had the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain. "Obviously this is another huge blow to the farming industry, which is still dealing with the effects of bluetongue and foot-and-mouth." The risk of bird flu spreading is increased during the autumn months because of wild bird migration.

The aggressive antibiotic-resistant staph infection responsible for thousands of recent illnesses in the United States undermines the body's defences by causing germ-fighting cells to explode. The methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, infection long has been associated with health-care facilities, where it attacks people with weakened immune systems. But many recent cases involve an aggressive strain, community-associated MRSA, or CA-MRSA. It can cause severe infections and even death in otherwise healthy people outside of health care settings.

11/4/07 -
GROUND BEF - Cargill Inc. is voluntarily recalling more than 840,000 pounds of ground beef patties distributed at Sam's Club stores nationwide after four Minnesota children who ate the food developed E. coli illness.

MEAT FROM CANADA - U.S. regulators have tightened restrictions on meat and poultry products from Canada because of concerns about testing practices at a Canadian firm that was believed to be the source of bacteria-contaminated meat that sickened 40 people in eight states.

11/2/07 -
Frozen pizza suspected in 10-state E coli outbreak - General Mills recalled about 414,000 cases of frozen pizza after health officials said it could be linked to an Escherichia coli outbreak that has sickened 21 people in 10 states. The recalled products are Totino's and Jeno's pizzas that contain pepperoni topping, which could be contaminated with E coli. Victims have been from Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Virginia. The earliest case reported to health officials occurred on July 20 and the latest case on October 10. The company has distributed more than 120 million pizzas since July 1.

10/26/07 -
Continuing destruction of the natural world is affecting the health, wealth and well-being of people around the globe, according to a major UN report. The Global Environment Outlook says most trends are going the wrong way. It lists degradation of farmland, loss of forest cover, pollution, dwindling fresh water supplies and overfishing among society's environmental ills. There is a "remarkable lack of urgency" to reverse these trends. "There continue to be persistent and intractable problems unresolved and unaddressed. This assault on the global environment risks undermining the many advances human society has made. Past issues remain and new ones are emerging, from the rapid rise of oxygen 'dead zones' in the oceans to the resurgence of new and old diseases linked in part with environmental degradation." The well-being of millions of people in the developing world is put at risk by failure to remedy problems which have been tackled in richer societies. "This assault on the global environment risks undermining the many advances human society has made in recent decades. It is undercutting our fight against poverty. It could even come to jeopardise international peace and security."

A new report warns that the H5N1 strain of bird flu has recently mutated to a form that is more easily able to infect humans, but researchers say the virus still does not have the ability to cause a global pandemic. "We have identified a specific change that could make bird flu grow in the upper respiratory tract of humans." Recent samples of the avian influenza virus taken from birds in Africa and Europe all contained the mutation. The H5N1 strain, which has killed or caused the slaughter of millions of birds, has infected 329 people in 12 countries since 2003, killing 201 of them. It has only rarely been passed from human to human, but the wrong combination of mutations could give it the ability to spread into a global epidemic.

10/18/07 -
BANANAS - AUSTRALIA - banana plantations in the Northern Territory are being destroyed by an exotic fungus threatening to wipe out the industry. The soil-based Panama disease - which dries out and kills Cavenish banana trees - is forcing the territory's largest producer to close its entire operation. The Borsato Company, which supplies two-thirds of the NT market, is warning that bananas will have to be imported from north Queensland next year because of a shortage of local fruit. "The disease just devastated the plantation and you can't get rid of it and you can't plant back into the soil.'' Panama was first detected at Berry Springs in the territory ten years ago, although strains of it have been identified in Australia over the past three decades. "This is a worldwide problem. We have been fighting this for ten years and we have watched all the other major growers in the territory close ... just about everyone has it." The Government is hoping the industry can still be saved by developing resistant strains of crops. Panama causes banana trees to effectively kill themselves. "The plant shuts itself down trying to keep the fungus at bay. It starves itself trying to keep Panama out and stop it from spreading."

10/17/07 -
Drug-resistant bugs growing - A new study warns that potentially lethal drug-resistant staph infections are becoming more common, and not just in hospitals where growth has already been documented. Nearly 19,000 people died in the United States in 2005 after being infected with virulent drug-resistant bacteria that have spread rampantly through hospitals and nursing homes.

10/10/07 -
POT PIES - Health officials said Tuesday that Banquet turkey and chicken pot pies might be linked to 139 cases of salmonella in 30 states, and ConAgra Foods Inc. voluntarily stopped production at the Missouri plant that makes the pot pies. The largest numbers of salmonella cases had been reported in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Missouri.

Spike in E coli–related beef recalls alarms officials - A Wisconsin meat producer recently recalled about 845,000 pounds of frozen ground beef because of possible contamination with Escherichia coli O157:H7, only a day after the Topps Meat Co., a leading producer of frozen hamburgers, announced it was going out of business because it couldn't bear the cost of a recent massive recall. The two events are the latest in a string of ground beef recalls this year related to E coli contamination. The rising number of incidents worries health and industry officials, because it could represent an erosion of safety gains the industry had achieved since 2002, when a massive E coli outbreak linked to ground beef from ConAgra sickened at least 46 people in 16 states. E coli contamination has prompted 11 ground beef recalls so far this year. Six were prompted by routine sampling by the company or the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service and were not linked to any illnesses. However, the other five recalls, including ones by Topps and Cargill, were touched off by illness reports.

9/30/07 -
HAMBURGER RECALL - The Topps Meat Company on Saturday vastly expanded its recall of frozen hamburger patties that may be contaminated with E. coli, after federal inspectors discovered inadequate safety measures at its plant.

9/27/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - "Queso Cincho de Guerrero" produced by "Quesos Sabrosos Mexicanos" because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. Queso Cincho de Guerrero was distributed in Indiana, Michigan, Georgia, Texas, and Illinois in retail stores. The dry hard Mexican cheese comes in wheels of 35# to 40#, and is labeled as "Quesos Sabrosos Mexicanos".
-RECALL WIDENED - Quong Hop & Co. of South San Francisco, California is expanding their recall of tofu because it has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

BLUETONGUE VIRUS - Over the weekend the mysterious bluetongue virus simultaneously appeared in parts of England and Southeastern Montana. On Sunday, the BBC reported the first case of bluetongue, also called catarrhal fever, which most likely traveled from Europe in a swarm of infected midges. The small gnat-like insects can travel up to 124 miles a day, and just one midge bite is enough to infect an animal. Meanwhile, bluetongue has been confirmed in eight flocks in six Montana counties this month. A quarantine is now in effect for sixteen eastern Montana counties, which will prevent ranchers from transporting animals at a time when lambs are usually shipped to feedlots. While news of recent e-coli contamination in lettuce (similar to last year’s spinach scare) dominates food news, the seasonal appearance of bluetongue in the United States and the new emergence of the disease in the United Kingdom, mark the increasing pressures and concerns that farmers and ranchers face around the world. Unlike e-coli, bluetongue will not infect humans who come in contact with the disease or consume it. Bluetongue occurs most often in sheep, but also affects cattle, goats, buffalo, deer and antelope. The disease causes ulcers in the mouth and nose, and breaks down capillary walls, causing an animal to internally bleed to death. Just this month bluetongue infected animals in Britain for the first time. For 25 years, the presence of bluetongue in the United States has blocked export of cattle, sheep and goats to markets in Australia, New Zealand, and the European Union. On September 13th, Montana’s Fish Wildlife & Parks Department released an alert that the virus had been seen in big game populations in southeastern Montana.

A Japanese dairy company has produced a super-premium milk for stressed-out adults - at the price of $US43 ($49) for less than a litre. The price of a bottle is nearly 30 times as expensive as ordinary milk. The milk is taken from cows once a week at the break of dawn as they discharge a lot of a stress-relieving hormone called melatonin during the night. It is said to contain three to four times as much melatonin as usual milk.

A cholera outbreak in Iraq is spreading, with new cases confirmed in Baghdad, Basra and, for the first time, three northern districts.

9/25/07 -
Bacteria 'more dangerous in space' - Salmonella food bacteria flown on a 12-day space shuttle flight became more virulent in their weightless surroundings. When Salmonella typhimurium food bugs were flown in special flasks on the shuttle, they were found to alter the way they expressed 167 genes. The bacteria were almost three times as likely to kill infected mice compared with standard samples held on Earth. "Wherever humans go, microbes go; you can't sterilise humans. Wherever we go, under the oceans or orbiting the Earth, the microbes go with us, and it's important that we understand... how they're going to change." Currently, no vaccine exists for Salmonella food-borne infections in humans.

9/20/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Quong Hop & Co. of South San Francisco, California is recalling all SOY DELI brand tofu and certain varieties of SOY DELI and QUONG HOP brand tofu because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The products are distributed in the Midwest and West coast throughout supermarkets and natural food stores.
-RECALLED - Bravo! announced a recall of select tubes of three of its frozen, raw poultry products for cats and dogs. The pet food is being recalled because two of the products have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes, while the other product has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The recalled products are distributed nationwide to distributors, retail stores, internet sales and directly to consumers.

9/19/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Dole Fresh Vegetables is recalling (due to E. coli contamination) all salad bearing the label "Dole Hearts Delight" sold in the U.S. and Canada with a "best if used by" date of September 19, 2007. The salad was sold in plastic bags of 227 grams in Canada and one-half pound in the U.S. This product was sold in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime Provinces in Canada and in Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and neighboring states in the U.S.
-RECALLED - B. Braun Medical Inc., Bethlehem, PA, announced on July 30, 2007 a nationwide recall of Normal Saline Flush syringes due to an increase in customer complaints for particulate matter in the saline. The introduction of particulate matter into the blood stream may result in phlebitis and / or damage to vital organs such as the brain, kidneys, heart and lungs. To a less likely extent, there is a potential for the development of pulmonary embolism or silicone embolism syndrome, which could cause severe injury and / or death. Symptoms would generally be expected to develop quickly. However, the risk associated with use of this product is cumulative and increases with each additional exposure.

VACCINATIONS will be created for each of the "big three" killers - HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria - within the next decade, a world health crusader says.

9/18/07 -
Global Bird Flu Breaking News - updated every 10 minutes.
Avian flu has struck ducks near Hong Kong.

WEST NILE VIRUS - New numbers show Canada is experiencing its worst year for West Nile virus, and as strange as it sounds, one reason could be the lack of a certain type of mosquito.

PET TREATS - Several brands of made-in-China jerky treats are making pets ill, though investigators say melamine, the industrial chemical that spurred an extensive recall earlier this year, has been ruled out as a contaminant.

9/12/07 -
Deadly Ebola resurfaces in Congo - An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed at least five people. Blood samples from the southern province of Kasai were sent to laboratories specialising in haemorrhagic fever. More than 100 people have died and many more have fallen sick in a recent fever epidemic in central DR Congo. Scientists say some deaths could have been from a bacterium called Shigella. Three months ago, people started falling sick from a mystery virus in several villages around Kananga, the capital of West Kasai region. Ebola is untreatable and almost always fatal. DR Congo's last major Ebola outbreak killed more than 200 people in 1995 in Kikwit, about 400km (249 miles) west of the current outbreak. The last major incidence of the disease was in Uganda in 2001 when more than 400 cases were reported and more than half of the patients died.

Cholera - Iraqi authorties are dealing with an "epidemic" of nearly 7000 suspected cholera cases in three northeastern provinces.

Wireless micro-chips - Millions of animals and even a few thousand people have had wireless identification tags planted under their skin - but a number of studies suggest they may cause cancer.

9/11/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Jensen's Old Fashioned Smokehouse Inc. of Seattle, WA is recalling tubs of Jensen's Seattle Style Wild Smoked Salmon Spread Lemon Dill and Onion and tubs of PCC brand Smoked Salmon Spread all-natural, because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
-RECALLED - The California Department of Food and Agriculture has issued an order to Organic Pastures Dairy Company to withdraw from retail distribution Grade A raw cream manufactured at their facility in Fresno, due to detection of Listeria monocytogenes bacteria.

The number of deaths and serious adverse side-effects related to prescription drugs more than doubled in the U.S. between 1997 and 2005.

9/10/07 -
PENNSYLVANIA - Hunters fear an illness that has killed hundreds of whitetail deer in Greene Township is decimating one of Beaver County's prime hunting areas. A "couple hundred" deer have died in the woods surrounding Hookstown and Georgetown in recent weeks. The deer kill is consistent with epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD, a virus blamed in a similar run of deer deaths recently in Washington and Greene counties. Deer in Allegheny County have also died mysteriously in recent weeks. EHD is spread by insects known as "biting midges" and cannot be transmitted to humans or pets. The virus causes capillaries in the major organs of deer to burst, resulting in massive hemorrhaging and death within five to seven days. Officials have not confirmed that EHD is responsible for the Allegheny and Beaver county deer kills, but they say it is the likely culprit. Outbreaks of EHD are common in southern states but RARE in Pennsylvania. Biologists think that wind may be responsible for blowing infected insects to Pennsylvania. The current Pennsylvania outbreak, which now includes Beaver, Allegheny, Washington and Greene counties, should end with the onset of cold weather.

9/7/07 -
A debilitating tropical virus carried by mosquitoes has become established in Europe for the first time. The Ministry of Health in Italy has confirmed about 160 cases of chikungunya in the Ravenna region in northern Italy. Travellers have been advised to protect themselves against mosquito bites. The Italian outbreak is A 'WORLD FIRST' OUTSIDE THE TROPICS. The extension of the virus beyond its Indian Ocean origins is "worrying without being alarming". "The mosquito vectors (carriers) of this disease have been in Italy for several years. All we know is that increased temperatures and humidity make the climate more tropical and favour the proliferation of mosquitoes." Chikungunya gets its name from a Swahili word meaning "that which bends up" because of the arthritic-type symptoms that leave victims stooped. Symptoms usually appear between four to seven days after being bitten and can persist for several weeks. There is no vaccine against chikungunya.

9/5/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - The Ohio Department of Agriculture in conjunction with The Kroger Co. advises consumers not to consume Kroger brand Mustard or Southern-Style potato salad with a "Best If Used By" date of Sept. 5, 2007, because it may contain E. coli O157:H7.
-RECALLED - American Pie, LLC, Woodbury, NY, is recalling Marie Callender Turtle Pies because the product was inadvertently shipped prior to the company obtaining satisfactory microbial test results. The product was shipped to the following locations - Kroger Supermarkets: Columbus, OH; Houston, TX; Roanoke, VA; Dallas, TX; Atlanta, GA; Memphis, TN; Shelbyville, TN; Louisville, KY; Giant Eagle Supermarkets: Akron, Canton, Lake, Cleveland, Columbus, Erie, Toledo, Johnston (all in Ohio); also New Castle, MD; Pittsburgh, PA; and Youngstown, WV; Hy-Vee Supermarkets: Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Maryland, Nebraska, and South Dakota.
-RECALLED - Everlasting Distributors, Inc. of Bayonne, NJ, is recalling its Blue Ocean Smoked Indian Sardine Tamban 8oz. packaged frozen products because it has the potential to be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum. Blue Ocean Smoked Indian Sardine Tamban was distributed in New York and New Jersey areas.
-RECALLED - Stirrings LLC, of Fall River, Massachusetts is recalling its 3.5 oz packages of Rimmer Brand Mojito Cocktail Garnish which was distributed nationwide, because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.

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8/31/07 -
About 140 million people, mainly in developing countries, are being poisoned by arsenic in their drinking water. This will lead to higher rates of cancer in the future. South and East Asia account for more than half of the known cases globally. Eating large amounts of rice grown in affected areas could also be a health risk. It's a global problem, present in 70 countries, probably more. Arsenic consumption leads to higher rates of some cancers, including tumours of the lung, bladder and skin, and other lung conditions. Some of these effects show up decades after the first exposure. "In the long term, one in every 10 people with high concentrations of arsenic in their water will die from it. This is the highest known increase in mortality from any environmental exposure." The metal is present naturally in soil, and leaches into groundwater, with bacteria thought to play a role.

8/30/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Metz Fresh is voluntarily recalling bagged spinach as a result of a positive test for Salmonella found during routine company testing. It was distributed in the continental United States and Canada.

8/29/07 -
World 'dodged bullet' in bird flu spread - A mathematical analysis has confirmed that H5N1 avian influenza spread from person to person in Indonesia in April, US researchers reported today. They said they had developed a tool to run quick tests on disease outbreaks to see if dangerous epidemics or pandemics may be developing. Health officials around the world agree an influenza pandemic is overdue, and are most worried by the H5N1 strain of avian influenza that has been spreading through flocks from Asia to Africa. It rarely passes to humans, but since 2003 it has infected 322 people and killed 195 of them. Most have been infected directly by birds. But a few clusters of cases have been seen and officials worry most about the possibility that the virus has acquired the ability to pass easily and directly from one person to another. That would spark a pandemic. "We find statistical evidence of human-to-human transmission in Sumatra, but not in Turkey. This does not mean that no low-level human-to-human spread occurred in this outbreak, only that we lack statistical evidence of such spread." In Sumatra, one of Indonesia's islands, a 37-year-old woman appears to have infected her 10-year-old nephew, who infected his father. DNA tests confirmed that the strain the father died of was very similar to the virus found in the boy's body. "It went two generations and then just stopped, but it could have gotten out of control. The world really may have dodged a bullet with that one, and the next time, we might not be so lucky." The researchers estimated the secondary-attack rate, which is the risk that one person will infect another, was 20 per cent. This is similar to what is seen for regular, seasonal influenza A in the United States.

8/28/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALL EXPANDS - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to eat raw oysters harvested from an additional part (growing area 5) of the southern tip of Hood Canal in Washington state due to a foodborne illness outbreak caused by Vibrio parahaemolyticus bacteria. This follows an earlier outbreak and August 10 warning about oysters harvested from growing area 6 of Hood Canal. Raw oysters harvested from growing area 5 in Hood Canal from July 31 through August 20, 2007 have caused at least six people to become ill in Washington state. To date, records indicate that raw oysters from the area were distributed to Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington state, British Columbia (Canada), Bali (Indonesia), Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand.

8/26/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Mars Petcare US, based in Franklin, Tennessee, is voluntarily recalling five-pound bags of Krasdale Gravy dry dog food sold in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, and 50-pound bags of Red Flannel Large Breed Adult Formula dry food sold in Pennsylvania because of the potential contamination with Salmonella Schwarzengrund.

AUSTRALIA - racing in all mainland states has been shut down as a result of the equine influenza scare which has halted all horse movement in NSW. 16 horses have now been confirmed as initially testing positive for equine influenza at two Sydney locations and another six are showing signs of the virus. All harness racing tracks in NSW have been closed and the sport's trials, gymkhanas and race meetings cancelled until further notice in the wake of the equine influenza scare. 5000 thoroughbreds are currently in training around NSW and 40,000 more are also at risk of the disease. Also under threat are horses under the command of NSW Police Force. People who have come in contact with the horses are not at risk of infection but can easily spread the disease. "In a lot of cases these people have gone into multiple places. Its a massive problem for the horse industry." It is highly likely the current restrictions would last at least two weeks and the effect would be substantial as the racing industry approaches its high season.

Norovirus outbreaks in the United States appear to have increased sharply since the beginning of last year, probably fueled by two new strains of the gastrointestinal pathogen.

8/24/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Los Angeles Salad Company, located in City of Industry, CA is recalling its "Genuine Sweet Baby Carrots" ("Trader Joe's Genuine Sweet Baby Carrots" and "Los Angeles Salad Genuine Sweet Baby Carrots") because the product may be contaminated with the bacteria Shigella. The same product sold in Canada was discovered to be contaminated with Shigella earlier this week.

WEST NILE - The number of West Nile virus cases in the Canadian Prairies has exploded, and some experts warn the worst is yet to come. The latest figures show at least 386 Canadians have been infected.

8/23/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
- RECALLED - Mars Petcare US, Inc. announced a recall of select five pound bags of Krasdale Gravy dry dog food sold in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The pet food is being recalled because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.
- RECALLED - Acme Smoked Fish Corporation is recalling Smoked Salmon. This product was distributed to retail stores in the South Florida Region. The potential for contamination with Listeria monocytogenes was noted after routine testing.

Tests on two brands of dog treats sold at Wal-Mart stores in the U.S. have shown the pet food contains traces of melamine, the same industrial chemical that caused an earlier recall of pet food products across North America in March.

LEAD IN TOYS - About 66,000 spinning tops and 4,700 tin pails featuring Thomas and Friends and Curious George characters are being recalled from the marketplace because they contain high levels of lead.

Blankets made in China are being withdrawn from the marketplace in Australia and New Zealand after tests showed they contained high levels of formaldehyde, a chemical preservative.

Infectious diseases are spreading faster than ever before, the World Health Organization annual report says. With about 2.1 billion airline passengers flying each year, there is a high risk of another major epidemic such as Aids, Sars or Ebola fever. The WHO urges increased efforts to combat disease outbreaks, and sharing of virus data to help develop vaccines. Without this, it says, there could be devastating impacts on the global economy and international security. In the report, the WHO says NEW DISEASES ARE EMERGING AT THE "HISTORICALLY UNPRECEDENTED" RATE OF ONE PER YEAR. Since the 1970s, 39 new diseases have developed, and in the last five years alone, the WHO has identified more than 1,100 epidemics including cholera, polio and bird flu. Not only are diseases emerging more quickly around the globe and spreading faster, they are also becoming increasingly difficult to treat. Global efforts to control infectious diseases have already been "seriously jeopardised" by widespread drug resistance, a consequence of poor medical treatment and misuse of antibiotics. Although the H5N1 bird flu virus has not mutated into a form that passes easily between humans as many scientists had feared, the next influenza pandemic is "likely to be of an avian variety" and could affect some 1.5 billion people. "The question of a pandemic of influenza from this virus or another avian influenza virus is still a matter of when, not if."

8/19/07 -
People in Canada are being warned not to eat a brand of baby carrots from Mexico because the product may be contaminated with shigella bacteria. The item, Los Angeles Salad Company Genuine Sweet Baby Carrots, was sold in 672-gram plastic bags in Costco stores in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland.

AUSTRALIA - the influenza outbreak sweeping Australia has now claimed nine victims, including a 33-year-old Queensland woman who died just two days after showing the first symptoms. Her symptoms were of the deadly strain of influenza A - fever, lethargy and coughing. The other flu victims include a 48-year-old South Australian woman who died early on Tuesday within hours of being admitted to hospital.

SAUDI ARABIA - Hundreds of camels have died in Saudi Arabia this week from a mystery ailment. 232 camels died in the space of four days in the Dawasir Valley, 400km south of Riyadh. Owners say the real number of deaths is far higher. Agriculture ministry officials have denied an infectious disease caused the deaths and blamed them on animal feed supplied by food storage authorities. Camels are big business in the desert kingdom and are traded by Bedouin tribes for thousands of dollars each. The animals are used for racing and their meat is also prized. Authorities have been on the lookout for signs of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu over the last year. The virus was found in birds in two instances, in March and last year.

8/17/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Ocean King Enterprises Inc. of Philadelphia, PA is recalling Ready-to-Eat Seafood Dip, because it has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The brand name is Regal King Gourmet Seafood. The flavors are Premium Krab Dip, Cajun Krab Dip, Shrimp Dip, and Smoked Salmon Dip.

8/16/07 -
Vietnam and France have reported more H5N1 in their birds.
An analysis of historical records in 43 U.S. cities indicates that the early use of nonpharmaceutical measures, such as isolating the sick and banning public gatherings, saved lives in the influenza pandemic of 1918-19.
A recently published survey of Europeans and Asians showed that, when faced with an influenza pandemic, most would avoid mass transit and limit shopping to essentials, and many would avoid other public places, including restaurants, theaters, and the workplace.
The US Department of Health and Human Services said it has stockpiled enough H5N1 avian influenza vaccine to protect about 6 million people and that federal and state supplies contain enough antiviral medication to treat more than 48 million.

A Mayo Clinic study indicates that many hospitalized influenza patients shed flu virus for at least 7 days after they fall ill, suggesting that the current recommendation to use infection control precautions for 5 days may be inadequate.

TEXAS - Dengue fever is gaining a firmer foothold in southern Texas, putting residents at risk for the most dangerous form of the disease, dengue hemorrhagic fever.

The number of West Nile virus cases reported so far this season has dramatically outpaced the number reported at about this time last summer.

8/14/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Gilchrist & Soames, a provider of toiletry products for the hotel industry, has initiated a worldwide voluntary recall of its Gilchrist & Soames 0.65oz/18ml toothpaste manufactured in China after independent tests showed some samples of the toothpaste contained diethylene glycol, or DEG. Hotel guests, who may have received the recalled toothpaste from hotels in any of these countries: United States, Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, Barbados, Dominican Republic, Turks & Caicos, the U.K., Ireland, Spain, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland - should safely dispose of it.
-RECALLED - Krasniy Oktyabr Inc., located in New York is recalling packages of Herring of the Special Ambassador "7 Uzlov" because the product may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum. It is a product of Russia.

BALI - Bird flu has killed its first human victim on the Indonesian island of Bali.

8/10/07 -
The water at American beaches was unsafe for swimming a RECORD NUMBER OF DAYS last year, according to the 17th annual beach water quality report released by the Natural Resources Defense Council. Experts estimate that as many as 7 million Americans get sick every year from drinking or swimming in water contaminated with bacteria, viruses or parasites. Aging and poorly-designed sewage and storm-water systems hold much of the blame for beach water pollution. The problem was compounded by record rainfall, which added to the strain on already overloaded infrastructure. Beaches in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Rhode Island, and Minnesota ranked the worst for failing to meet national health standards.

8/8/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Donnamax Inc. of Brooklyn, NY, has initiated a recall of DentaPro brand Toothpaste and Bright Max Toothpaste. This recall has been initiated because the products may contain diethylene glycol (DEG), also known as "diglycol". The FDA is not aware of any U.S. reports of poisoning from toothpaste containing DEG. However, the agency is concerned about potential risks from chronic exposure to DEG in certain populations, such as children and individuals with kidney or liver disease. DEG in toothpaste has a low but meaningful risk of toxicity and injury to these populations.

8/7/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Cost Plus World Market, a leading retailer of casual home living and entertaining products, announced a recall of red, blue, green, and yellow speckleware beverage containers and glass water tank retro w/spout. These items are being recalled because the metal spigot used in these containers can leach lead into lemonade and other acidic beverages stored in them. This does not occur if water is used in the beverage containers. No illnesses have been reported to date. There were approximately 12,592 units sold at Cost Plus/World Market stores nationwide from May 2005 through July 2007.

8/6/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS

WASHINGTON - Two oyster-growing areas at the tip of Hood Canal have been closed after six people in California contracted an intestinal disease from oysters harvested there. The Department of Health closed shellfish beaches in Mason County from Miller Creek (north of Hoodsport) south and east to Sunset Beach and across to Stimson Creek. State officials are asking the shellfish industry to recall oysters from these growing areas. Consumers who may have purchased oysters from these areas should check with the place of purchase to see if they were harvested from the affected growing areas. The disease, called vibriosis, is caused by a naturally occurring bacterium, Vibrio parahaemolyticus. Symptoms include diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, headache, fever and chills, and usually appear about 12 hours after eating infected shellfish. The illness is usually mild to moderate and lasts for two to seven days, but can be life-threatening to people with immune dysfunction or chronic liver disease. Unseasonably warm temperatures and afternoon low tides are thought to be major contributors to this outbreak.

8/3/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
- RECALLED - Citing a continuing threat to public health, Castleberry's Food Company is urging retailers, food service operations, food banks, charitable organizations and consumers to be diligent in identifying and discarding canned products subject to Castleberry's national recall.
- RECALLED - Lakeside Foods of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, is initiating a voluntary recall of 15,000 cases of 14.5-ounce French Style Green Beans because some cans may have been under-processed and some cans may have leaked. While no illnesses have been reported these cans have the potential to be contaminated with harmful organisms including Clostridium botulinum. The product was distributed in the following 20 states: AL, AZ CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MO, MS, NC, NY, OH, OK, TN, TX, VA, WI and Canada. The product was sold with the following labels: ALBERTSON'S, HAPPY HARVEST, BEST CHOICE, FOOD CLUB, BOGOPA, VALU TIME, HILL COUNTRY FARE, HEB, LAURA LYNN, KROGER, NO NAME, NORTH PRIDE, SCHNUCKS, SHOP N SAVE, SHOPPERS VALU, CUB FOODS, DIERBERGS, FLAVORITE, IGA, BEST CHOICE AND THRIFTY MAID.

8/1/07 -
Gastro epidemic sweeping the globe - A gastroenteritis outbreak at a Newcastle, Australia, hospital is the latest case in an epidemic sweeping Australia and the world. So far this month, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania have experienced gastro outbreaks in hospitals, nursing homes and retirement villages. Yesterday, authorities banned family and friends from Newcastle's Calvary Mater Hospital, where 80 staff and patients have experienced complications associated with the airborne virus. The stomach cramps, vomiting, diarrhoea, nausea, fever and headaches associated with the norovirus, a virulent strain of gastroenteritis, are affecting people world-wide. Norovirus is extremely infectious but the effects usually last only 24-48 hours. The Australian outbreaks are the tip of the iceberg of the virus' prevalence in the wider community. "An international outbreak has led to an area of active research. The virus continues to migrate and mutate, it moves very efficiently all around the world. It sounds bad, but like influenza in unvaccinated people, it's likely norovirus will get us all in the end. Transmission is harder to prevent in places like hospitals and people who are frail or ill are more prone to it. But it can also come from restaurants where someone has vomited or even a hotel where someone has been previously sick." Doctors recommend good hand hygiene, isolation and the use of masks in high risk areas like hospitals and nursing homes. For the second time this year, there has been a major outbreak of the gastric illness in a Victorian nursing home. Thirty patients and 17 staff at San Carlo Home for the Aged in South Morang, north of Melbourne, have been hit by the bug since July 21, with one elderly man dying. Geelong's St John of God Hospital also isolated 35 patients and staff last week as a result of a gastroenteritis outbreak, while at Corumbene Nursing Home at New Norfolk, in Tasmania, 30 residents and 18 staff also came down with the virus over the past week.

7/31/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
ALERT - The California Department of Public Health warned consumers not to eat fresh ginger imported from China after they detected the presence of aldicarb sulfoxide in some batches of imported ginger. Aldicarb sulfoxide is a pesticide that is not approved for use on ginger.

The office printer could pose as much danger to our lungs as a drag on a cigarette, according to air quality tests by Australian scientists. An investigation of dozens of laser printers revealed that almost 30% emit potentially dangerous levels of particles into the air. These ultra-fine particles are capable of infiltrating the lungs and causing lasting damage on the scale of inhaled cigarette smoke. Printers emitted more particles when the toner cartridge was new, and when printing graphics and images as they required greater quantities of toner. Emission levels varied a lot between different machine makes, models, printer age, cartridge model and cartridge age.

7/30/07 -
AUSTRALIA - An elderly woman in the South Australian Riverland has died after contracting a rare fever originating from animals. She was one of five people from the Riverland town of Waikerie to contract Q fever over the past few months, the outbreak linked to a local goat abattoir. With the incubation period for the disease now passed, no further cases were expected from the current outbreak. The bacterial infection causes flu-like symptoms including fever, chills and sweats, and can be treated with antibiotics. People become infected by breathing in droppings of infected animals, or contaminated dust.

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS - Investigators have reported the biggest breakthrough in decades into the genetic drivers for multiple sclerosis (MS), identifying two genes that each boost the risk of developing this tragic disease by up to 30 per cent. In MS, the immune system attacks myelin, the fatty sheath that protects the cells of the central nervous system, rather like plastic insulation that protects electrical cables. As a result, "short circuits" occur in the body's messaging system, because nerve signals get slowed or blocked. "Our finding is very important, because the genetic factors that are already known to be associated with multiple sclerosis only explain less than half of the total genetic basis for the disease."

WEST NILE VIRUS - According to US health officials, the USA is facing the WORST WEST NILE VIRUS SEASON FOR YEARS. The number of cases reported so far this year are four times higher than the equivalent period in 2006. The good news is that the forecast for August and September is for colder than normal temperatures - this may significantly lower the number of cases.

7/29/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - True Leaf Farms, LLC is asking retailers to remove certain batches of spring mix and arugula from store shelves and preparation counters as a precautionary step. During a series of regular internal tests, one of the many samples taken indicated the possible presence of salmonella, a human pathogen that may pose a potential health risk.
-RECALLED - Sara Lee Food & Beverage is issuing a recall of selected whole wheat bread products produced at the company's Meridian, Miss. bakery and sold at grocery retailers in the following areas of the country: the entire states of Mississippi and Alabama, most of Arkansas, far southeastern Missouri, western Georgia, southwestern Tennessee, southeastern Louisiana and the panhandle of Florida. The affected products may contain small pieces of metal.

INDONESIA is investigating the deaths of 10 people from liver failure in the past week in a village on densely populated Java island. Twenty-one other people have been hospitalized with liver problems. Samples from the patients, as well as the 10 fatalities, have been sent to laboratories in Jakarta, but the cause of the liver failure remains a mystery. The illness is characterized by nausea, stomach pain and muscle spasms. Health officials have so far ruled out exposure to pesticides, heavy metals and poison, but are still looking into the possibility of a viral infection. Most of the dead are over 40. They came from a village on the outskirts of Magelang city in central Java province.

7/24/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALL EXPANDED - Castleberry's Food Company announced that it is taking extra steps to ensure public safety by voluntarily expanding its recall originally announced on July 18 due to the risk of botulinum toxin, a bacterium which can cause botulism. (big list of food products under many different names, also includes Natural Balance brand pet food)

7/22/07 -
-RECALLED - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expanding its July 18 warning to consumers. This expansion is for consumers regarding canned food products and for pet owners regarding dog food, produced by Castleberry Food Company of Augusta, Georgia, due to the risk of botulinum toxin.

7/20/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to eat 10 ounce cans of Castleberry's Hot Dog Chili Sauce, Austex Hot Dog Chili Sauce, Kroger Hot Dog Chili Sauce, Morton House Corned Beef Hash, Cattle Drive Chili with Beans, Southern Home Corned Beef Hash, Meijer Corned Beef Hash, Castleberry's Chili with Beans, Castleberry's Barbecue Pork, and Bunker Hill Chili No Beans due to possible botulism contamination. Botulism can be fatal.

AUSTRALIA - West Australian health authorities are desperately trying to find the cause of an illness that has killed four young children in Perth. A fourth child had died from a similar cause of illness as three who died two weeks ago. The three children who died earlier this month all had a combination of influenza A and a bacterial infection. The latest child did not have the flu but had contracted pneumococcal bacteria. "There isn't a single bacterial infection that links the four cases. At this point we are unable to say what the cause of death has been in these four children." It is "VERY UNCOMMON" for children to die with an infectious disease so quickly, but doctors stressed Perth did not have a epidemic on its hands. "We are desperately trying to get to the bottom of what's causing these illnesses." It appeared the four children had a bacterial infection in the respiratory tract. "It appears more that in these infections the bacteria either got very quickly into the blood without causing a real pneumonia, that would have given the parents more warning, or that they produced a toxin that got into the system and affected them. And that does mean that the course of the illness was quicker than we normally see with these bacterial infections."

7/17/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
- RECALLED - Dent Fresh U.S.A., Inc, Miami, Florida, is initiating a nationwide recall of the DentFresh Fluoride Mint Toothpaste made in China. This recall has been initiated because the products may contain the poisonous chemical diethylene glycol (DEG). DEG is used in antifreeze and as a solvent, and is a Central Nervous System depressant and potent kidney and liver toxin.
-RECALLED - Gerber Products Company, a division of Novartis Consumer Health, is voluntarily recalling all packages of Gerber ORGANIC Rice and ORGANIC Oatmeal Cereals due to a potential choking risk. A limited quantity of product may contain lumps of cereal, which do not dissolve in water or milk and pose a potential choking hazard.

7/11/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS

VIRGINIA - A flock of 54,000 turkeys exposed to a non-lethal strain of bird flu virus will be destroyed.
State officials hope to clip the wings of a possible avian flu outbreak in the Valley by canceling public events and sales involving live poultry, and prohibiting the application of poultry litter in 17 counties in Western Virginia until the end of the month. The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is calling for the measures in response to Friday’s discovery of avian flu antibodies in a flock of turkeys on an unidentified Shenandoah County farm. The antibodies were found in the birds, located on a farm west of Mount Jackson, during a "preslaughter" test. The scare has widespread implications in Rockingham County, which remains one of the top poultry producers in the nation. Neighboring West Virginia also has responded by suspending all poultry shows and sales for the next 30 days. Poultry farms are on "code red" security alerts.

SINGAPORE - Dengue levels at RECORD HIGH, with 432 cases reported last week. Recent spells of rain and warm weather have provided ideal breeding conditions for the Aedes mosquito.

7/9/07 -
WESTERN U.S. - Sweeping epidemics of a mystery illness have wiped out thousands of western bighorns over the last several decades, and biologists say the herds are not growing as fast as they should be. If mycoplasma bacteria are to blame, treating infected sheep may not be possible. Attempts to develop vaccines for the bacteria for domestic sheep have failed, and even if a working vaccine existed, administering it to wild bighorns would be difficult. Furthermore, biologists have not found that infected herds can build a resistance to the bacteria over successive generations. "All indications are that the domestic [sheep] are passing diseases and killing off the bighorns." Domestic sheep infected with mycoplasma bacteria typically survive.

7/6/07 -
GERMANY - authorities on Thursday raised the alert for bird flu from "moderate" to "high" after 38 more wild birds were tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain in eastern Germany.

FRANCE - Several farms were sealed off in eastern France and tighter rules were applied to poultry breeders yesterday after three dead swans tested positive for the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu. The first instance of bird flu in France since early 2006 followed the discovery of a case in eastern Germany on Tuesday. Wild birds in Bavaria and Saxony also died from the disease last month. Within the European Union bird flu has also been found this year in Hungary, Britain and the Czech Republic.

6/29/07 -
A popular snack food sold nationwide is being recalled because of concerns about contamination. All lots and sizes of Veggie Booty Snack Food are being recalled, the company said, following a report of 51 cases of salmonella poisoning.

The US has added farm-raised fish and shrimp to a growing list of Chinese products deemed unsafe for US consumers. The US Food and Drug Administration said it would block the import of farmed Chinese seafood until importers could prove the shipments were free of unsafe contaminants. Broad import control was imposed after regulators repeatedly found seafood shipments contaminated with antimicrobial agents that are not approved for use in the US. It affected all farm-raised catfish, basa, shrimp, dace (related to carp), and eel from China. China is the third largest exporter of seafood to the US, which imports about 80 percent of its seafood. The move comes just days after politicians urged a recall of up to 450,000 Chinese tires because of safety defects and weeks after thousands of cats and dogs died because of tainted Chinese pet food. Dangerous toys, fake drugs, toxin-coated cosmetics, illicit pesticide-laden mushrooms, errant fireworks, tainted toothpaste and other Chinese products have led to recalls and bans and potentially more stringent import and food safety laws. "I think we have reached a point unfortunately where 'made in China' is now a warning label in the United States."

6/26/07 -
DENMARK - An outbreak of distemper has killed at least 41 seal pups, whose carcasses have washed up on a Danish island. There are fears that thousands of seals could die if the virus spreads. A distemper outbreak in 2002 killed about 30% of seals off Denmark, but the virus killed nearly 60% of seals in the area in 1988. The virus causes laboured breathing, fever and neurological problems. It does not affect humans.

6/25/07 -
BIRD FLU -
TONGO confirmed its first H5N1 outbreak.

INDONESIA reported its 100th human H5N1 case.

CZECH REPUBLIC has reported its first poultry H5N1 outbreak.

GERMANY - The highly pathogenic bird flu virus H5N1 has been found in two dead swans in Germany.

EGYPT - A four-year-old Egyptian boy has tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus, becoming the 37th human case in the country.

6/17/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - MainStar America is initiating a nationwide recall of toothpaste made in China involving: Dr. Cool, Superdent, and Everfresh Smile2 Toothpaste. This recall has been initiated because the products may contain the poisonous chemical diethylene glycol (DEG). DEG is used in antifreeze and as a solvent, and is a Central Nervous System depressant and potent kidney and liver toxin.

VIETNAM confirmed its first human death from bird flu since 2005, as the latest flare-up of the virus ravaged poultry stocks. The death brought the country's toll to 43. Four other people were recently infected. Two have fully recovered. Bird flu outbreaks in poultry have been reported in 18 provinces since early May. The outbreak has killed or forced the slaughter of nearly 200,000 birds, nearly all ducks.

6/15/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - The Colgate-Palmolive Company today warned that counterfeit toothpaste falsely packaged as "Colgate" has been found in several dollar-type discount stores in four states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. There are indications that this product does not contain fluoride and may contain Diethylene Glycol. The product comes in a 5 ounce (100ml) package, made in South Africa is printed on the box. Colgate does not import toothpaste into the United States from South Africa. In addition, the counterfeit packages examined so far have several misspellings including: "isclinically" "SOUTH AFRLCA" "South African Dental Assoxiation".
-Urgent Nationwide RECALL of Toothpaste - Gold City Enterprise LLC is initiating a nationwide recall of SHIR FRESH MINT FLUORIDE toothpaste made in China. This recall has been initiated because the products may contain the poisonous chemical diethylene glycol (DEG). DEG is used in antifreeze and as a solvent, and is a Central Nervous System depressant and potent kidney and liver toxin.

One hundred leaders from the business, healthcare, faith, and civic communities met with US Department of Health and Human Services officials to discuss how to motivate individuals and families to prepare for an influenza pandemic. Personal preparedness "is a message that needs to surround everyone. They need to hear it from their pastors, from their employers, from their physicians, and from everyone in a position of responsibility. And they need to keep hearing it. In fact, they need to hear it even more after the news media loses interest." "Everything we do before a pandemic will seem alarmist. Everything we do after a pandemic will seem inadequate." It is critical for everyone to prepare for possible pandemic flu. People are encouraged to (1) store extra food and other daily supplies to make it easier to stay home for a prolonged period of time, (2) learn and practice proper hand-washing, (3) use safe cough and sneeze techniques to limit the spread of illnesses, and (4) stay home and avoid others during illness.

6/10/07 -
Western U.S. - For the third time in a week, a meat supplier has expanded a ground beef recall to include about 5.7 million pounds of fresh and frozen meat because they may be contaminated with E.coli. The recall was expanded to include products with sell-by dates from April 6-April 20. The beef was distributed by California-based United Food Group LLC. None of the latest batch of suspect beef is in stores now because the product would be well past its expiration date, but consumers may still have some of the meat at home. The meat has been blamed for an E. coli outbreak in the Western states that resulted in 14 illnesses, spanning April 25 through May 18. All the patients have recovered. The recalled products were shipped to stores in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. They were sold under the brand names Moran's All Natural, Miller Meat Company, Stater Bros., Trader Joes Butcher Shop, Inter-American Products, Inc., and Basha's.

6/8/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Action Labs, Inc. of Anaheim, CA, is recalling its Sentinel brand Shark Cartilage Capsules manufactured in 2005 because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. The Shark Cartilage Capsules were distributed to retail establishments in Southern California and internationally to Hong Kong.
-RECALLED - Doane Pet is recalling a specific single lot of 55 pound bonus bags of Ol' Roy Complete Nutrition dry dog food. This product was produced at one facility in Manassas, VA and was distributed exclusively by some Wal-Mart Stores. This recall is not related to the Menu Foods recall (and other recent recalls) of pet food due to tainted Chinese vegetable proteins. This product has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.

6/7/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Toby's Family Foods is recalling Toby's Lite Sour Crčme and Toby's Toasted Sesame Dressing because the products may be contaminated with Salmonella. The products were distributed primarily in Oregon, as well as Washington and California, through natural food and specialty retailers.

BIRD FLU - Officials from Indonesia's avian flu commission said Wednesday that the H5N1 avian influenza virus may have mutated in a way that makes it more transmissible from birds to humans, but a World Health Organization official said the WHO had seen no evidence of such a change. Indonesia's National Committee for Avian Influenza Control and Pandemic Influenza Preparedness told reporters that in the past, human infections required high-intensity and high-density exposure to the H5N1 virus. "There are now suspicions that this [infection] has become easier," although a mutation has not been confirmed yet. The suspicions are based on preliminary results of genetic tests at laboratories in Indonesia. The amino acid structure of poultry H5N1 samples is becoming increasingly similar to that seen in human H5N1 samples. WHO has received just three Indonesian H5N1 samples, gathered from two patients, this year. Indonesia withheld H5N1 samples from the WHO for about 5 months, starting last December, as a protest against the country's lack of access to pandemic vaccines and other pandemic medications. In mid-May, during the WHO's annual meeting in Geneva, the country's health minister announced that Indonesia had resumed sending samples to the agency. The suspected changes in the virus show how important it is for Indonesia to share its samples with the global community. "These must be confirmed and the world must be forewarned if there has been such an important change. If there is such a change, it would not only mean that the virus can jump more easily from bird to man, but from human to human, too."

6/6/07 -
Pine needles may have lead to a rare infection - The Wisconsin health department says a large pile of pine needles at a yard waste site is the likely source of a rare fungal infection that led to the death of a 16-year-old girl and sickened 20 others last year. It was likely the largest urban outbreak in the country. The teenaged girl died February 14th of last year from the fungal infection. She lived next door to the waste site. Thirteen of the people who got sick lived within a half-mile of the yard waste site and three others had almost daily exposure to it. 9 months of drought in early 2005 followed by rain in the fall might have created an environment for the fungus to grow in the pile of pine needles and release spores.

5/27/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
- RECALLED - all Maranatha Sesame Tahini because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.
-RECALLED - Whole Foods Market is recalling '365 Organic Everyday Value Sesame Tahini' 16-oz, with a Best By Date of 10/02/07 or earlier because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.
-RECALLED - Manischewitz Sparkling Concord Grape Juice & Manischewitz Sparkling Niagara Grape Juice. Several bottles have been found to be fermenting which will cause additional pressure in the bottle. This may lead to the popping of the cap or rupturing of the bottle.
-RECALLED - Complete MoisturePlus Multi Purpose Solution for contact lenses, manufactured by Advanced Medical Optics of Santa Ana, Ca. The company is taking this action as a precaution because of reports of a rare, but serious, eye infection, Acanthamoeba keratitis, caused by a parasite.

A Hong Kong butcher has become the third victim of the pig-borne disease Streptococcus suis in the territory in less than a month. All three cases in the territory were diagnosed within the past eight days and are believed to have been contracted locally. There have been no reported cases on the Chinese mainland since a deadly outbreak in 2005. The bacterial infection is rarely fatal in humans, but an unusually virulent strain killed more than 30 people in Sichuan province in 2005. Eight cases were reported last year in Hong Kong, with 13 - two of them fatal - in 2005. Pork prices have soared in mainland China after an outbreak of blue ear disease, or Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome which surfaced a year ago. Experts and industry sources have said it wiped out as many as a million pigs.

5/25/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
- ALERT - The Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to buy or eat imported fish labeled as monkfish, which actually may be puffer fish, containing a potentially deadly toxin called tetrodotoxin. Eating puffer fish that contain this potent toxin can result in serious illness or death. Two people in the Chicago area became ill after consuming homemade soup containing the fish. The product was imported and distributed by Hong Chang Corp., Santa Fe Springs, Calif.
-RECALLED - Diamond Pet Foods has recalled a limited quantity of Nutra Nuggets 40 Lb. Lamb Meal and Rice Formula because of confirmatory testing that indicates the product may include traces of melamine resulting from cross contamination during manufacturing.
- RECALLED - McCall Farms of Effingham, South Carolina, is voluntarily recalling more than 2,500 cases of canned Margaret Holmes Seasoned Turnip Greens after tests confirmed trace amounts of diesel fuel in product samples. The recalled product was distributed to retail stores in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

5/23/07 -
COLORADO - PLAGUE - Officials at Denver Zoo are taking precautions to avoid an outbreak of plague after a monkey at the zoo died of the disease. The zoo's 17 remaining capuchin monkeys have been put into an isolated cage and are being treated with antibiotics. Zoo officials suspect the monkey caught the disease from the carcass of an infected squirrel it may have eaten. Several squirrels and a rabbit have been found dead of the disease in recent weeks near the zoo. Veterinarians say there is little risk of the plague spreading to humans but visitors are being warned to avoid squirrels and rabbits. The disease is normally found in some wild animals in Colorado during the spring, but usually in rural areas. "We see it every year in wild rodents. But it's uncommon circulating in tree squirrels in urban neighbourhoods, including metro Denver."

5/20/07 -
COLORADO - SQUIRRELS - Residents of Denver, Colorado are being warned that a spate of squirrel deaths is being caused by "Black Death" the common name for Bubonic Plague, which killed millions of people in the 14th Century. So far, no humans have been infected. However, the plague is inside one of the city's most popular parks. Plague bacteria are carried by fleas that get on squirrels, rodents, pets and people and spread the disease by biting. This bout has killed 13 squirrels found in or near City Park, and two squirrels and a rabbit found in Denver suburbs. Usually the plague is confined to the foothills or remote areas of Colorado and it kills a few dozen rodents and pets every year. Residents are being instructed to take some common sense measures to avoid squirrels and don't feed them, keep pets away from squirrels and treat pets for fleas. Some 58 people in Colorado have contracted plague since 1957, with nine of them dying. One human case of Bubonic Plague has been reported this year, it was in New Mexico and the victim is recovering.

YELLOW FEVER - The UN is launching a multi-billion dollar initiative to combat the spread of yellow fever in Africa, as it warns of more uncontrollable outbreaks. Several countries, including Togo, have recently reported cases of the haemorrhagic illness, in spite of mass immunisation campaigns for children. The disease is spreading as population movements intensify. Yellow fever has no cure and causes some 30,000 deaths a year, but there is a good, affordable vaccine. In an outbreak of yellow fever in an under-immunised densely populated city, the disease could spread fast and claim many lives.

5/18/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - NBTY, Inc. of Bohemia, NY, is recalling 3 lots of Shark Cartilage Capsules manufactured in 2004 because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. The Shark Cartilage Capsules were distributed to consumers through mail orders, internet orders, and retail stores throughout the United States.
-RECALLED - IKEA wants customers who have purchased an IKEA FOOD labeled jar of marinated herring with a Best Before Date 13-02-2008 or earlier to return it to their local IKEA store for a full refund. IKEA has received two reports where customers have found a large piece of glass in their jars.

2007 -
BIRD FLU -
5/14/07 -
The city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, recently announced that it was stockpiling an herbal supplement (ginseng) in the hope of boosting the immunity of police, firefighters, and other essential workers during an influenza pandemic. The supplement, COLD-fX, is a proprietary extract of North American ginseng that contains what the company calls unique polysaccharide components. It is Canada's top-selling over-the-counter cold and flu remedy. The product has a 5-year shelf life. It is unclear from studies whether the remedy would be of value. "It appears safe and inexpensive, but it shows how little else people feel they have to turn to."

RESPIRATORS - The US Food and Drug Administration cleared the way for two N-95 respirator models to be marketed as devices that can reduce a user's risk of becoming ill during an influenza pandemic or other public health emergency. The respirators approved to carry the new labeling are made by 3M Co., based in St Paul. The models, numbered 8612F and 8670F, will be available to the public without a prescription. In the event of a flu pandemic, people who care for flu patients at home should consider wearing an N-95 respirator. The specialized masks are designed to fit tightly to the face and stop at least 95% of tiny airborne particles. N-95 respirators are among the personal protective equipment that the US Department of Health and Human Services is stockpiling for use by healthcare workers during a pandemic. Almost 100 million N-95 respirators have been stockpiled. The devices are for one-time use by one person and should be discarded afterward.

WILD BIRD TESTING - US government agencies said they will test fewer wild birds for the H5N1 avian influenza virus in the 2007 season than they did last season, while focusing on the highest-risk species and locations. They plan to collect about 77,000 bird samples for the 2007 season, about 32,000 fewer than in 2006. Based on information collected last season, the USDA's strategy for this year will focus on sick and dead birds from duck species believed to be the most likely carriers of H5N1: mallards, American wigeons, and northern pintails. Agencies will focus on the Pacific, Atlantic, Central, and Mississippi flyways, as well as Hawaii in the South Pacific. The largest number of samples will be taken from birds in Alaska.

VIETNAM - Bird flu has infected three duck farms in central Vietnam, the second infection detected in the region in less than a month. Tests found the H5 component of the H5N1 virus among the samples taken after a total of 1,298 ducks died in the farms in Nghe An province on May 9. The fowl had not been vaccinated against bird flu. Animal health workers have slaughtered the remaining 2,500 ducks in the farms, disinfected the area and banned poultry transport from the infected area. The H5N1 virus has killed 42 people in the Southeast Asian country since it re-surfaced in Asia in late 2003. Vietnam has had no human cases since November 2005. The virus emerged again among ducks and chickens in the south late last year and earlier this year. Nearly half of Vietnam's 64 provinces have completed the first of a two-phase vaccination campaign which targets up to 90 percent of the country's poultry stock this year.

BANGLADESH - authorities are struggling to combat the deadly bird flu as it spreads across farms in the impoverished country, with a leading expert warning the situation is "very grave." First detected at a farm in late March near the capital Dhaka, it has so far infected more than 40 farms in 11 districts, prompting authorities to cull 151,000 birds. The technical adviser to the Bangladesh Poultry Association said the situation was worse than the government described. "The situation is very grave and a disaster could happen any time. There have been a lot of unreported bird flu deaths in farms and cover-ups. The flu is no longer confined to farms. Recently it infected domestic birds and fowls and there's a real danger it could infect humans" in densely populated Bangladesh. The farmers are not reporting bird flu deaths to government authorities for fear of losses in their farms and pressure by adjoining farms. There is hardly any monitoring." A farm in the northern Nilphamari district was the latest to be infected with the deadly virus on Friday. More than 3,000 chickens and ducks were culled. "The whole situation lacks transparency and even though we have had the flu for about two months, the government still lacks doctors, technical people and the protection kits to combat the disease." Bangladesh is home to hundreds of thousands of poultry farms employing more than a million people.

INDIA - Farmworkers abandoned a poultry farm in eastern India after thousands of chickens there died, and a federal laboratory will test some of the dead birds for bird flu, a news report said May 8. More than 2,500 chickens died at a farm in the Darjeeling region in recent days. Health officials discovered the dead birds after neighbors complained of a stench coming from the farm. The farm workers had fled. India confirmed an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in the west last year, but declared itself bird flu free after culling hundreds of thousands of chickens. No human cases were reported.
UPDATE - The animal husbandry department has ruled out bird flu as the cause of death of 2,350 chicken at a poultry farm in Matigara near Siliguri on Tuesday. Post-mortem examination of the dead birds found that the birds died of Ranikhet and Newcastle diseases. The farm, where the deaths sparked a bird flu scare on Tuesday, has already been quarantined. Not taking any chances, especially because Matigara village is just 25 km from Bangladesh, which is reeling under an H5N1 bird flu outbreak having resulted in the culling of 132,000 chickens in 52 farms of 10 districts, two samples of the dead chicken have been sent to the high security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal for confirmation against avian influenza.

GHANA - Large quantities of poultry products continue to be destroyed in the country following the report of the third case of the deadly Avian influenza in Tema and an international confirmation of the disease in Ghana. Moments after earlier samples sent for testing in Italy had confirmed the H5N1 virus in the country, the third case in a week hit Adjei Kojo, near Ashaiman in the Tema municipality last Tuesday and occasioned the destruction of about 12,000 birds, 323 crates of eggs and 375 kilogrammes of feed. On May 2, the first case of the bird flu in the country was discovered at a farm near Tema. That led to the destruction of all birds on the farm, numbering 1,678, as well as those in adjoining houses. Also all carcasses were incinerated and the remains buried. The ministry thereby declared the Tema municipality an Avian influenza infested area, adding that there should be no movement of live birds within and out of the municipality until further notice. It said all live bird markets were immediately closed, while investigations continued for the detection of any further virus in other areas. The second outbreak of the bird flu occurred at a farm near where the third case was found at Adjei Kojo. [I don't advise going to this link as it sets off an unending profusion of pop-ups, but just it case you want it anyway, it is: http://www.graphicghana.info/article.asp?artid=16738]

EGYPT has emerged as one of two countries hardest-hit by bird flu, along with Indonesia. While the panic in Europe and the U.S. has abated, Egypt records as many as five new cases every week. In April, a 15-year-old girl died after contracting the disease from the birds that shared her home. 14 people have died out of 34 reported infections. Moreover, the North African nation lies directly on a major bird-migration route between Europe and Africa. The country of 76 million people is effectively an incubator for the virus, increasing the chances it will spread to other countries. "We are dealing with a society where chickens are part of the family." What complicates matters is the general reluctance among Egyptians to believe government warnings on the dangers of bird flu and sharing living space with poultry. Bird flu broke out at about the same time 1,033 people perished in the sea when a ferry owned by a member of parliament sank in the Red Sea. "The problem is people think we fabricated the whole bird flu thing to cover up the ferry disaster." As many as 5 million Egyptian households raise poultry in their backyards, both as a source of nutrition and income. "The government wants men to be impotent to control over-population. It invented the bird flu to force us to eat the hormone-pumped chickens that make us sterile." Another man said he would divorce his wife if she cooked farmed or frozen chicken. "In this country, you never know the truth, never. They would poison us if they can. Trust me."

CALIFORNIA - More than 8.2 million Californians – nearly a quarter the state population – fall ill; within weeks, 96,000 of them are dead. Hospital beds and life-saving medicines run out; businesses and transportation shut down, depriving the populace of money, food and their livelihoods. Such is the apocalyptic crisis California could face during a severe outbreak of avian influenza. Even the strongest response to a bird flu epidemic would only limit the impact rather than head it off. “We have the potential to lose 25 to 30 percent of the population. Biologists say the next pandemic will come, sooner or later.” The virus is capable of spreading undetected, via air travel by infected visitors, anywhere in the world within 24 hours. Even the ablest and quickest response to a rampaging virus is only a holding action, something to buy time in hopes that researchers can quickly detect the virus and concoct a vaccine. “Always wash your hands. And pray for an effective vaccine.”

5/15/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
- RECALLED - Royal Canin USA is recalling eight Sensible Choice dry dog food products and seven Kasco dry dog and cat food products. This announcement is based on the company's ongoing extensive review of its manufacturing and quality assurance testing procedures, which identified trace amounts of a melamine derivative from tainted Chinese rice protein concentrate provided to the company by domestic ingredient supplier Cereal Byproducts, headquartered in Illinois.
-RECALLED - Consumers who have purchased raw milk from Misty Meadow Farm in Bernville, Berks County, any time after April 16, 2007, should discard it immediately due to the risk of Listeria monocytogenes contamination.

CHINA - authorities are denying reports that at least 26 children have died from a mysterious illness in the east of the country while local media accuses the Government of covering up an epidemic. Newspaper and internet reports from Shandong province say that "many" children are dead and hundreds of others have fallen ill from a mysterious illness that has swept through Linyi city since late April. Medical authorities in Linyi said the deaths were caused by an outbreak of "hand-foot-mouth disease" which had infected up to 292 children in the city at that time. Hand-foot-mouth disease is a viral infection that usually begins in the throat. It is a relatively common infection caused by the Coxsackie virus. The Shanghai Morning Post blamed health officials for failing to inform the public of the disease leading to panic in the city. Parents were refusing to allow their children out of doors and avoiding the consumption of beef or lamb, believing the illness was linked to foot-and-mouth disease that affects livestock.

5/11/07 -
Apple iPods can cause cardiac implantable pacemakers to malfunction by interfering with the electromagnetic equipment monitoring the heart. A study tested the effect of the portable music devices on 100 patients, mean age 77, fitted with pacemakers. Electrical interference was detected half of the time when the iPod was held just five cm from the patient's chest for five to 10 seconds. In some cases, the iPods caused interference when held 45 cm from the chest. Interfering with the telemetry equipment caused the device to misread the heart's pacing and in one case caused the pacemaker to stop functioning altogether. "Most pacemaker patients are not iPod users." For that reason, it is unclear how often iPods cause misdiagnosis.

5/9/07 -
THE STATE OF FOOD IN THE U.S. - An excellent, useful blog article with a summary of all the food safety problems that have been appearing lately.

CYANURIC ACID - A second industrial chemical that regulators have found in contaminated pet food in the United States may have also been intentionally added to animal feed by producers seeking larger profits. Three Chinese chemical makers said that producers of animal feed often purchase or seek to purchase a chemical called cyanuric acid from their factories to blend into animal feed. Chemical producers said that it was common knowledge that for years cyanuric acid was used in animal and fish feed in China. In the United States, cyanuric acid is often used as a disinfectant in swimming pools. Two of the chemical makers said feed producers here used it because it was high in nitrogen, enabling feed producers to artificially increase the protein reading of the feed. The revelation is interesting not just because it is another indication that Chinese animal feed producers were intentionally doctoring the ingredients they sold but because the practice of using cyanuric acid may provide clues as to why the pet food in the United States became so poisonous. American regulators already suspect that Chinese companies mixed an industrial chemical called melamine into animal feed because it is high in nitrogen and can be used to artificially bolster protein levels. But scientists have had difficulty finding the precise cause of the deaths. Neither melamine nor cyanuric acid, which is a melamine-like compound, is thought to be particularly toxic. Now, however, scientists studying the pet food deaths say the combination of the two chemicals, mixed together with perhaps some other related compounds, may have created a toxic punch that formed crystals in the kidneys of pets and led to kidney failure. Contaminated batches of wheat gluten, corn protein and rice protein sold to pet food makers often contained a mixture of melamine and cyanuric acid. Melamine scrap or cyanuric acid scrap often costs one quarter of the price of pure melamine or cyanuric acid and is much cheaper per protein count than wheat or corn meal.

FOOD ADDITIVES - Parents in Britain are being advised by experts not to give their children food containing certain additives until the results of a new study are published. A team tested the additives tartrazine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red AC (E129) on both three-year olds and eight-to-nine year olds. Their results supported findings first made seven years ago, that linked the additives to behavioural problems such as temper tantrums, poor concentration, hyperactivity and allergic reactions. The removal of such colourings from childrens' diet would produce "significant changes" in behaviour and not just in those children already showing hyperactive behaviour. All the additives tested in the study are approved for use in the EU but some of the colours are banned in Scandinavian countries and the US. "We are very keen to promote fresh healthy home cooked food and if you get that sort of food you don't have to worry about additives."

PREPARATIONS - A recent survey sponsored by the American Public Health Association indicates that about a third of Americans have made no preparations for a public health emergency and nearly 90% have prepared less than they think they should. Thirty-two percent of the public have taken no special steps to prepare for a public health emergency that could leave them short of food, water, or medication. Forty percent of respondents said they had taken steps to prepare in the past, such as after the Sep 11 terrorist attacks, but had since let their plans lapse. More than a quarter (27%) said they were prepared for an emergency, but only about half (14%) had the 3-day supply of food, water, and medication currently recommended by the American Red Cross for general disaster planning. "No one can predict where the next natural disaster, major storm, or disease outbreak will strike, but when it does, it is likely to disrupt basic services, leaving people without electricity, water, food or needed medications." Though 63% of employees realized they might not be paid during a public health crisis, only 15% had saved enough money to provide for their families if such an event occurs. Only 18% of employers said they could continue paying their employees if business operations were interrupted. The survey results suggest that preparedness messages are getting through to the public, but that people are not following through with action.

5/8/07 -
PIG DEATHS - CHINA - A mysterious epidemic is killing pigs in southeastern China, but international and Hong Kong authorities say that the Chinese government is providing little information about it, or about the contaminated wheat gluten that has caused deaths and illnesses in other animals. Hong Kong television broadcasts and newspapers were full of lurid accounts Monday of pigs staggering around with blood pouring from their bodies in Gaoyao and neighboring Yunfu, both in Guangdong Province. The newspaper said that as many as 80% of the pigs in the area had died, that panicky farmers were selling ailing animals at deep discounts and that pig carcasses were floating in a river. The reports in Hong Kong said the disease began killing pigs after the Chinese New Year celebrations in February, and is now spreading. Because pigs can catch many of the same diseases as people, including bird flu, two U.N. agencies maintain global networks to track and investigate unexplained patterns of pig deaths. Medical experts said that the extent of the bleeding from the pigs, including reports of bloody skin lesions, did not sound like the usual symptoms of bird flu.

5/6/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Archer Farms Four Cheese Risotto, sold at Target stores, 6 oz., with "Best If Used By 16JUL2008AA", because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.
-RECALLED - SmartPak Canine - all lots of LiveSmart Adult Lamb and Brown Rice food. This product tested positive for presence of melamine. The LiveSmart Lamb formula is only sold in portion-paks shipped straight to the consumer's home each month, so there are no bags of potentially affected product on store shelves anywhere in the country.
-RECALLED - half-gallon packages of Galliker's Healthy Chekd Calcium Enriched Fat Free Milk because they are over-fortified with Vitamin A. Sold in Pennsylvania.
-RECALLED - half-gallon packages of Galliker's Acidophilus Plus Reduced Milk because they possibly contain under-processed milk.

SCOTLAND - Warm weather causing the HIHGEST SALMONELLA LEVELS IN 5 YEARS in Scotland. Warmer weather could be the reason why Scotland is experiencing a 70% increase in Salmonella cases – the highest figures since 2001. The UNUSUAL warm weather experienced over the last few weeks has meant that more people are having barbecues, which increased the risk of food not being properly cooked. "It's quite significant. It's usually the barbecue season when we see an increase, but it's a bit early in the year." When meat is cooked on a barbeque, the bacteria is mixed into the centre of the meat, and if it's undercooked it can cause disease.

BIRD FLU -
5/3/07 -
Financial markets not ready for a pandemic - A new report from Congress' Government Accountability Office says key organizations that are the backbone of the US financial industry need to do more to prepare for an influenza pandemic and urges federal regulators to set deadlines for them to complete pandemic plans. Pandemic planning is one component of the GAO report, which evaluates the overall preparedness of the financial markets for a range of events, from natural disasters to terrorist attacks. The report notes that the pandemic threat is different from other disasters because it could affect large numbers of people simultaneously and strike in waves that last for weeks at a time over several months. "If organizations fail to produce fully robust plans before an outbreak, which could begin at any time, they may have insufficient time and resources to adequately prepare their staffs and customers for changes in how the organizations will operate during a pandemic."

GHANA has reported its first H5N1 outbreak on a chicken farm, apparently making it the ninth African country to be hit by the virus. About 100 chickens had died each day for 3 or 4 days. About 1,700 birds have been destroyed to stop the outbreak. The eight other African countries that are facing or have faced H5N1 outbreaks in birds: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Niger, Nigeria, and Sudan. Human cases have occurred in Egypt (34), Djibouti (1), and Nigeria (1). The World Organization for Animal Health currently lists 57 countries that have had H5N1 outbreaks in birds in recent years. The OIE has not yet added Ghana to its list of affected countries. In other developments, the H5N1 virus was reported on four more chicken farms in Bangladesh. Indonesia stopped sending H5N1 samples to the WHO about 4 months ago out of concern that drug companies would use them to make vaccines that would be priced out of Indonesians' reach. At a meeting in late March, Indonesia agreed to resume sharing samples in return for a WHO promise not to turn samples over to drug companies without Indonesia's permission. But the country has not yet resumed sending samples. "Diplomatically, the guarantees have been made, but we want it in black over white, in writing."

5/2/07 -
Something is happening to the brain structure of the 1991 Gulf War veterans - especially among those soldiers who complain of multiple symptoms arising from duty performed in routing Iraqi troops that had occupied Kuwait. Researchers have discovered learning disabilities and smaller brain volumes in soldiers suffering from several health-related symptoms upon their return from the first Gulf War. According to preliminary results from a study probing the possible effects of chemical exposure during the Persian Gulf War, soldiers displaying multiple health-related symptoms upon their return from combat have decreased volume in two brain regions intimately linked to learning and memory. The average soldier reported five symptoms out of a possible 20, which included forgetfulness, headaches, fatigue, nausea, skin rash and joint pain. The soldiers were exposed to chemicals ranging from pesticides to nerve agents, like sarin.

‘Mockolate’ bars could be on the way - Would chocolate containing trans fats and sugar substitutes taste as sweet as the real thing? Hershey Co. and other candy makers say yes. The Chocolate Manufacturers Association, whose members include Hershey, Nestle SA and Archer Daniels Midland Co., has a petition before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to redefine what constitutes chocolate. They want to make it without the required ingredients of cocoa butter and cocoa solids, instead using artificial sweeteners, milk substitutes and vegetable fats such as hydrogenated and trans fats. A pound of chocolate contains roughly 25 percent cocoa butter at a cost of $2.30, while vegetable oils are as little as 70 cents a pound. “They are trying to pull one over on us...The process of this thing going through, it wasn’t transparent, and it needs to be brought out into the light.” “If the margarine manufacturers could call their product butter instead of being required to call it margarine, wouldn’t it strike the consumer as being odd?”

First it was pet food, then hogs and now the contamination has spread to poultry farms and consumers are becoming more skeptical about what FDA knows and how much the agency could be withholding from the public. The largest pet food recall in history began in mid-March when Menu Foods of Canada recalled nearly 100 brands of wet cat and dog food in cans and pouches, totaling 60 million containers. But the company has admitted waiting nearly three weeks before telling the public that pet food manufactured by them was causing the death and illness of thousands of cats and dogs. Since the first pet food recall six weeks ago, there have been dozens of recalls, with nine of them in a 24-hour period over the past weekend. Although for weeks FDA had maintained that the death toll of pets was at 16, late Monday the FDA finally acknowledged that they had received more than “17,000 consumer complaints relating to this outbreak and those complaints included deaths of approximately 1,950 deaths of cats and 2,200 death of dogs”. In a joint announcement Tuesday, FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture said they had learned that byproducts from pet food manufactured with contaminated wheat gluten imported from China have been used in chicken feed on some farms in the state of Indiana. Almost 3 million chickens may have eaten feed containing small amounts of pet food contaminated with melamine. This information came to light as part of the continuing investigation into imported rice protein concentrate and wheat gluten that have been found to contain melamine and melamine-related compounds. FDA and USDA anticipate that as the investigation continues additional farms will likely be identified that received contaminated feed. The FDA and USDA have also traced contaminated feed to swine farms in several states.

5/1/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Sierra Pet Products is initiating a nationwide recall of all canned dog foods, all canned cat food and all dog treats sold under its "Harmony Farms" brand. The Company is taking this voluntary action after learning that the FDA has confirmed the presence of melamine, a substance not approved for use in food, in rice protein concentrate used by the contract manufacturer in the production of some of these products. It should be noted the "Harmony Farms" canned dog and cat food products were not formulated or labeled to contain rice protein concentrate, and that the manufacturer, American Nutrition, Inc. added the rice protein concentrate to these products without Sierra Pet Products' knowledge or consent. For this reason, Sierra Pet Products is concerned that it can not have any faith in the integrity, or the accuracy of the ingredient labels of any of its products manufactured by American Nutrition. Therefore Sierra Pet Products is withdrawing all products manufactured by American Nutrition.
-RECALLED - Blue Buffalo Company is initiating a nationwide recall of all canned dog foods sold under its "Blue" dog food brand, all canned cat food sold under its "Blue Spa Select" cat food brand, and all dog treats sold under its "Blue" dog food brand. The Company is taking this voluntary action after learning that the FDA has confirmed the presence of melamine, a substance not approved for use in food, in rice protein concentrate used by the contract manufacturer in the production of some of these products. It should be noted the "Blue" canned dog and cat food products were not formulated or labeled to contain rice protein concentrate, and that the manufacturer, American Nutrition, Inc. added the rice protein concentrate to these products without Blue Buffalo Company's knowledge or consent.
-RECALLED - Ole Mexican Cheese - the Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner is urging consumers to check their refrigerators for Ole Mexican Foods' Verole Queso Fresco Authentic Mexican Crumbling Cheese and Ole Fresco Authentic Mexican Crumbling Cheese. The two products may be contaminated with E. coli bacteria.

4/29/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - A bunch of pet foods and treats from American Nutrition, Inc. - certain samples of rice protein shipped to its production facility have been contaminated with melamine, the industrial chemical used to make plastics and fertilizers.
-RECALLED - Diamond Pet Foods has announced it is withdrawing a limited number ofcanned products manufactured by American Nutrition. This action islimited to three specific canned products.
-RECALLED - Blue Buffalo Company pet foods. "We have just learned that American Nutrition Inc., the manufacturer of all our cans and biscuits, has been adding rice protein concentrate to our can formulas without our knowledge and without our approval. This is product tampering, and it apparently has been going on for some time. The can formulas that we developed, and trusted them to produce, never contained any rice protein concentrate. It appears that only an FDA investigation of ANI's rice protein concentrate supplies forced them to reveal this product tampering to us...while no BLUE or Spa Select canned product has tested positive for the presence of melamine, and there has been no reported illness due to any of our canned products, we simply cannot be sure of what ANI has been including in our formulas."
-RECALLED - Because of the pet food recall initiated by American Nutrition Inc., Natural Balance Pet Foods has announced it is issuing a nationwide recall of a number of canned products manufactured by American Nutrition. It should be noted that the products being recalled were not formulated or labeled to contain rice protein concentrate. While the FDA is investigating this, current information indicates this error is a result of a manufacturing deviation by American Nutrition.

Canada's food inspectors have issued border lookouts for vegetable proteins coming from China to prevent melamine from contaminating the human food chain. Inspectors will seize wheat gluten, soy proteins, corn glutens and rice proteins from China — ingredients already found to contain melamine and other contaminants in hundreds of pet-food products. "We will subject the shipments to testing and the shipment will be held until the results of the test clear it in terms of the absence of the contaminant." Vegetable proteins are impossible to avoid. They're found in everything from baby formula to pizza dough and wieners. The government doesn't know if ingredients contaminated with melamine have made it into human food before. Last July, the same Chinese company that supplied melamine-contaminated wheat gluten for pet food also shipped wheat gluten to a British Columbia feed mill, which turned it into food for fish farms, whose fish have since been consumed by people. It's unknown why melamine was ever in vegetable proteins, though American officials have speculated it was added deliberately. The presence of melamine makes it appear that the ingredient contains more protein than it actually does.

The same food safety net that couldn't catch poisoned pet food ingredients from China has a much bigger hole. Billions of dollars' worth of foreign ingredients that Americans eat in everything from salad dressing to ice cream get a pass from overwhelmed inspectors, despite a rising tide of imports from countries with spotty records. When U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors at ports and border checkpoints look, they find shipments that are filthy or otherwise contaminated. They rarely bother, however, in part because ingredients aren't a priority. Over the past five years, U.S. food makers prospecting for bargains more than doubled their business with low-cost countries such as Mexico, China and India. Those nations also have the most shipments that fail the limited number of checks the FDA makes. By its own latest accounting, the FDA had only enough inspectors to check about 1 percent of the 8.9 million imported food shipments in fiscal year 2006. Topping the list were products with past problems, such as seafood and produce. Unlike rotting fish or moldy vegetables, ingredient testing often requires a laboratory. Analyzing samples takes days and can irk importers.

4/26/07 -
BIRD FLU - In a paper in the May issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, an international team of researchers report the first ever large-scale sequencing of western genomes of the deadly avian influenza virus, H5N1. Their study of 36 genomes of the virus collected from wild birds in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Vietnam confirms not only that the virus has very recently spread west from Asia, but that two of the new western strains have already independently combined, or “reassorted,” to create a new strain. Several samples also contained the mutation associated with the form of the “bird flu” that caused several human deaths in 2006. "Our study shows that the virus is spreading west, and that there have been three separate introductions of H5N1 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.”

4/25/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - ResMed announced a worldwide recall of approximately 300,000 of its early production S8 flow generators used for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. In S8 devices manufactured between July 2004 and May 15, 2006, there is a remote potential for a short circuit in the power supply connector.
-RECALLED - LiveSmart Weight Management Chicken and Brown Rice Dog Food, due to rice protein concentrate likely contaminated with Melamine.

Some of the melamine contaminated pet food was sent as feed to hog farms in California, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and possibly Ohio. Urine of some of the hogs tested positive for melamine, according to the FDA. Officials said they do not know whether any hogs had entered the human food supply but were still investigating. "Food-borne illnesses and pet food contamination demonstrate serious flaws in our food safety net. With more and more of our food, fruits and vegetables being imported, there appears to be less and less government inspection or oversight."

Bird flu has largely flown off the radar of the Western world, but people are still dying from it nearly every week in Indonesia. Since the first case was reported two years ago, government officials have reported 74 deaths from the H5N1 strain in Indonesia - more than a third of the world's total. Indonesia has refused to share its samples of bird flu virus with the World Health Organization since January. Jakarta fears a vaccine produced from its specimens would be out of reach for its own citizens - too expensive and controlled by wealthy nations. Some global health officials have accused Indonesia of holding the virus hostage and keeping experts from monitoring whether the bug is mutating into a dangerous form that could potentially spark the next pandemic that kills millions.

As barbecue season gets underway, a new study suggests a class of toxic chemicals released by grilling, broiling and frying meat may increase the risk for life-threatening diseases.

4/22/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
- RECALLED - Vi-Jon, Inc. issued a nationwide consumer product recall of a single lot of 28 fluid ounce bottles of Alpine Xtreme Evergreen Forest Body Wash after determining the presence of a bacteria, Enterobacter gergoviae, in some of the product samples tested.
-RECALLED - The Blue Buffalo Company announced a voluntary recall of one production run of its Spa Select Kitten dry food due to melamine.
-RECALLED - Royal Canin Veterinary Diet (available only in veterinary clinics). Royal Canin USA has determined there is a melamine derivative in the rice protein concentrate in some of its dry pet food products.
Melamine, the industrial chemical imported from China has now been detected in a THIRD ingredient used to make pet foods, leading officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to speculate that the contamination may be intentional. Melamine was initially found in wheat gluten and in rice protein concentrate. Now, melamine has been detected in imported corn gluten in South Africa that has killed 30 dogs. Melamine can skew test results to make a product appear more protein-rich than it really is. That raises the possibility the contamination was deliberate. FDA investigators are waiting for visas that would allow them to visit the Chinese plants where the vegetable protein ingredients were produced.

4/19/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - FDA investigators and U.S. Marshals seized all implantable medical devices from Shelhigh, Inc., Union, N.J., after finding significant deficiencies in the company's manufacturing processes. The deficiencies may compromise the safety and effectiveness of the products, particularly their sterility. The products include pediatric heart valves and conduits (tube-like devices for blood flow), surgical patches, dural patches (to aid in tissue recovery after neurosurgery), annuloplasty rings (to help repair heart valves) and arterial grafts.
-RECALLED - Consumers who have purchased raw milk from Fisher's Dairy, Butler County, any time after April 9, 2007, should discard it immediately due to the risk of Listeria monocytogenes contamination.
-RECALLED - T.W. Enterprises of Ferndale, WA is recalling certain dog chews it markets because they may be contaminated with Salmonella. People handling these treats can become infected with Salmonella.
-PET FOOD RECALL - Menu Foods - One additional item has been added to the recall list. Two additional production dates of eight varieties of pet food have been added to the recall list. These eight varieties of pet food had previously been withdrawn from the market and should already be off the retailer shelves.
The industrial chemical that led to the nationwide recall of more than 100 brands of cat and dog food has turned up in a second pet food ingredient imported from China. The chemical, melamine, is believed to have contaminated rice protein concentrate used to make a variety of Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance Pet Foods products for dogs and cats. Previously, the chemical was found to contaminate wheat gluten used by at least six other pet food manufacturers. Both ingredients were imported from China, though by different companies and from different manufacturers. The discovery expands the recalls that started a month ago to include more brands and varieties of pet foods.

4/18/07 -
DIE-OFFS -

BEES - A wet fall, a long winter and an influx of invasive species are the usual suspects investigators have rounded up in search for clues to a malady crippling honeybee populations in southern Ontario and other parts of Canada. But so far Canadian apiarists aren't sure whether the hive losses in this country are connected with those in the United States and Europe, where a mystery illness is causing honeybee colonies to leave their hives and never return. Beekeepers from 24 U.S. states have reported losses of up to 90 per cent of their hives from the mystery ailment — called Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD — that investigators say is UNLIKE ANYTHING THEY HAVE ENCOUNTERED BEFORE. Leaving the hive to die is not uncommon for honeybees. But with CCD, pollen and honey are abundant in the hives and yet other bees are staying far away, suggesting something else is at work. It's a different situation in the Niagara region of southern Ontario, where there has been little pollen found in the abandoned hives. A wet fall may have led to a decrease in pollen and nectar production, which in turn led hives to produce a smaller brood. The smaller hives likely put greater stress on older, adult bees more susceptible to disease, and an unusually long winter added to the stress when the bees clustered over the winter. Another possibility is that there are some chemicals that may be causing bees to forget their way home. A German study this week offered another, less conventional, culprit: radiation from cellphones and cellphone towers. Honeybees play a role in pollinating a number of Canadian fruits, vegetables and crops, particularly cucumbers, melons, blueberries and cranberries and canola.

AMPHIBIANS & REPTILES - A decline in the amount of leaves on the ground could be behind the rapid demise of frog species, a study of a rainforest in Costa Rica has suggested. Until now, the prime suspect for the amphibians' population crash was a deadly fungal infection. Between 1970 and 2005, the number of amphibians declined by about 75%, which supported the idea that frogs were being wiped out by the chytrid fungus. However, the data also showed a similar fall in the area's reptiles, which were not susceptible to the fungus. Over the same period, the data showed that there had been a 75% reduction in the density of leaves falling to the ground from the rainforest's canopy. Leaf litter provides a vital habitat, offering food and shelter, for the amphibians and lizards. Shifts in the area's climate may have led to a decline in the habitat needed to sustain the creatures. "The increasingly warm and wet conditions of the past two decades could negatively influence standing litter mass by affecting rates of litterfall or litter decomposition."

4/18/07 -
Natural Balance Pet Foods is pulling two of its products from the marketplace after receiving complaints that pets were vomiting and suffering from kidney problems after eating it.

BANGLADESH - BIRD FLU - there has been a turn for the worse in the spread of bird flu in the country. Ever since the first detection of bird flu in some poultry farms at Savar, near Dhaka, two months ago, it was hoped that tough measures like culling of the poultry birds in these farms and quarantining the farms, would lead to a solution and the disease would not spread. But bird flu was subsequently detected in several places since then in Bangladesh in several different locations far away from Savar. Now, the news of the infection spreading to local species of poultry birds adds another dangerous dimension. The infection of local poultries is far more difficult to contain by culling because these have been traditionally reared around homesteads. The local poultry birds roam around freely and are not restricted in their movements like in poultry farms. It is very likely that bird flu came to Bangladesh from India. India is considered to be a heavily bird flu afflicted country. But infected poultry products from that country are still finding access to Bangladesh. Bangladesh, presently, appears to be inadequately prepared to cope with even a mild spread of human cases of the disease. Worldwide, the mainstream practice is to cull the poultry population on detection of the disease. The practice has led to ruination of poultry sectors in China, Thailand and some other countries where large scale culling was carried out. Therefore, Bangladesh will have to try the best preventive methods in the first place to stop its poultry farms from being affected by the H5N1 virus so that culling is not required. Italy experimented with vaccination of poultry birds against bird flu and it proved to be a big success.

4/13/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
- LISTERINE has announced a nationwide consumer recall of all lots of the GLACIER MINT and BUBBLE BLAST flavors of LISTERINE AGENT COOL BLUE Plaque-Detecting Rinse after the Company determined that the preservative system is not adequate against certain microorganisms.
-PET FOOD - the FDA is advising pet owners that recalled pet food may still be on the shelves in some retail establishments. To verify the effectiveness of the recall, FDA has conducted approximately 400 checks of retail stores across the country. Based on the checks, FDA believes most companies have removed the recalled product; however, some have not.
In related news, Menu Foods, Inc. expanded its recall on Tuesday, April 10, to cat food not previously subject to the recall. A complete list of MenuFoods' recalled products, including the new items, can be reviewed at www.menufoods.com .

The list of Chinese food exports rejected at U.S. ports reads like a chef's nightmare: pesticide-laden pea pods, drug-laced catfish, filthy plums and crawfish contaminated with salmonella. Yet it took a much more obscure item, contaminated wheat gluten, to focus U.S. public attention on a very real and frightening fact: China's chronic food safety woes are now an international concern: Pesticides and chemical fertilizers are used in excess to boost yields while harmful antibiotics are widely administered to control disease in seafood and livestock. Rampant industrial pollution risks introducing heavy metals into the food chain. Farmers have used cancer-causing industrial dye Sudan Red to boost the value of their eggs and fed an asthma medication to pigs to produce leaner meat. In a case that galvanized the public's and government's attention, shoddy infant formula with little or no nutritional value has been blamed for causing severe malnutrition in hundreds of babies and killing at least 12.

4/11/07 -
Couples who smoke when they conceive their child are almost twice as likely to get a baby girl, according to research which suggests tobacco "kills" boy foetuses.

4/6/07 -
The recall of contaminated pet food and treats is being widened to include dog biscuits and more Menu Foods products.

ConAgra Foods said Thursday that moisture from a leaky roof and faulty sprinkler was the cause of the salmonella bacteria that contaminated peanut butter at its Georgia plant last year, sickening more than 400 people nationwide.

4/4/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
Eight In One, Inc., a division of United Pet Group, Inc., is voluntarily recalling nationally all lots of Dingo(r) CHICK'N JERKY treats due to Company concerns that the jerky treats have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, which can cause serious infections in dogs and cats, and, if there is cross contamination, in people, especially children, the aged, and people with compromised immune systems. The products affected were sold at Target, PetSmart and other retailers.

The contaminated wheat gluten that prompted an extensive recall of pet food was not used in food for humans, the ingredient's importer confirmed on Tuesday.

BIRD FLU -
WEST VIRGINIA - More than 25,000 turkeys on a farm in Pendleton County, W.Va., are being destroyed after some of the birds tested positive for avian flu. State agriculture officials said the strain of the disease is not harmful to human beings. But the birds are being destroyed to prevent the virus from mutating and spreading. Poultry farmers in several counties along or close to the Virginia line were being told not to move the litter at their farms. Litter is the bedding material where the birds roost. It's sometimes used as fertilizer or thrown away. Preliminary tests indicated the turkeys had a low-pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza virus. USDA officials said they can say "for certain" it's not the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus that has spread through birds in Asia, Europe and Africa. This strain of avian flu is the same one that caused an outbreak in Virginia in 2002. Since then, routine tests have been done on flocks before they're slaughtered.
Bird flu is on the decline around the world, the United Nations food agency said on Monday, while warning that the potentially deadly disease is still spreading where containment is inadequate." "There have been fewer cases of the disease this year than last year at the same time, indicating that there is a reduction in overall viral load." Outbreaks were recorded in 17 countries as of March 15, 2007. Overall last year, a total of 53 countries had outbreaks of H5N1, which has killed at least 171 people worldwide since its appearance in 2003. "The risk of a pandemic will be with us for the foreseeable future. However, looking on the positive side, many countries have managed to control the disease."

Insulin produced by genetically modified plants - with a human gene added - could be on the market in three years, a Canadian company has claimed. Sembiosys said it has made scientific breakthroughs and found a shortcut through current drug regulations. If the firm can demonstrate that the plant-based insulin is identical with human insulin, it won't have to go through all the long and costly stages of full clinical trials. However, critics believe that these products pose greater environmental and health risks than GM food crops. Most insulin is now produced by genetically modified bacteria, inside sealed tanks. The new technique uses GM plants grown out in the open. The company is growing insulin in the seeds of safflower. The safflower is being grown on a trial basis in fields in Chile, the US and Canada. Their crop is grown counter-seasonally to reduce the risks of the insulin-producing genes crossing to other plants. A professor at the University of Cape Town has modified tobacco so it produces a vaccine for cervical cancer. Furthermore, there are plans to produce spider silk from potatoes and to make non-polluting engine lubricants in seed oil plants. A Danish company is even trying to create plants that will help clear minefields. The flowers of the modified thale cress would change from white to red if their roots absorb traces of explosives - showing where the landmines had been laid. There have already been contamination incidents with experimental pharmaceutical plants. One American company, Prodigene, was heavily fined for its mistakes in 2002. Similar problems have occurred recently with GM food crops.

4/3/07 -
The third pet food company since late last week has added its name to the pet food recall list, out of fear that contaminated wheat gluten may have tainted its products. San Francisco-based Del Monte Pet Products is voluntarily recalling Jerky Treats Beef Flavour Dog Snacks, Gravy Train Beef Sticks Dog Snacks and Pounce Meaty Morsels Moist Chicken Flavor Cat Treats. Del Monte's announcement immediately follows the weekend recall of one of the best-known brands of dog food, Purina. The company pulled its Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy product from U.S. store shelves. Both companies have said that the wheat gluten supplied to them from a Chinese plant contained melamine — a chemical used in fertilizers in Asia and to make plastics and laminates.

Many shipments of fish products from China and Vietnam had been refused entry into the U.S. because of contaminants found in the fish. As imported Chinese wheat gluten takes the blame for the recent deaths of dozens of American pets, new concerns have risen over the safety of Asian-grown foods imported to the United States for human consumption. "During the twelve months ending January 2007, forty-nine shipments of Chinese farmed catfish were refused by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, because they contained banned and potentially dangerous chemicals and antibiotics. In January 2007 alone, 10 shipments were refused entry, up from 2 refusals in January 2006."

AUSTRALIA - Residents of Esperance already worried about lead poisoning from rain water tanks have now been warned not to eat seafood caught off the West Australian port. People in the southern town have been undergoing blood tests and having their rain water tanks tested since discovering this month that 4000 MYSTERY BIRD DEATHES around the town were probably caused by lead poisoning. High lead and nickel levels have been found near the port but the WA Department of Environment and Conservation says the levels of most serious concern have been found at the port. However, testing of a few marine sediment samples had revealed nickel and lead levels nearly 130 times those considered safe.

BIRD FLU - Cities that quickly closed schools and discouraged public gatherings had about 50% fewer deaths from the great flu pandemic in 1918 than cities that did not. Decisive, immediate action can reduce the most acute effects of a pandemic, while allowing the population to build some natural immunity to the virus, the US government study found. The current US government flu plan calls for similar measures, including allowing employees to stay home for weeks or even months, telecommuting and closing schools and perhaps large office buildings. Experts agree that a pandemic of some virus, most likely influenza, is almost 100 percent certain. What is not certain is when it will strike and which virus it will be.

4/2/07 -
CHINA - A 16-year-old boy has died from the bird flu virus in China. There have been a total of 15 human deaths attributed to the bird flu virus in the country. Initial investigations failed to reveal that the teenager who died had had any "history of exposure to fowl that died because of illness." Animal health experts have failed to find signs of the virus among birds in the area. China has now reported a total of 24 human cases of H5N1 since 2003. The latest case brings total worldwide deaths from bird flu to 170, mostly in Vietnam and Indonesia.

A conference on bird flu has just ended in Indonesia, and the message that emerged is that the H5N1 virus remains mysterious and baffling. Indonesian scientists said they remained baffled by the “random” behaviour of the bird flu virus afflicting the country. Indonesia’s 69 bird flu deaths deaths came from 89 reported cases. Wide differences were seen in the patterns of human infections and development of various stages of the disease, making it difficult to predict. “There was no correlation found between (a patient’s) age, sex, genetics, and other (attributes). What is clear is the risk factors, such as contact with sick birds, sanitation, and so on, but this is very general. All we know is that patients died of multi-organ failure at the late stages of the illness.” For two years or more, we've known that multi-organ failure has been a hallmark of this disease, but we really don't know why. Influenza is primarily a disease of the lungs, and rarely attacks other organs. Less than 10 fatal cases worldwide and none of the victims died in Indonesia have undergone autopsies.

4/1/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-PET FOOD RECALL WIDENS AGAIN, THIS TIME TO DRY FOOD - The Hill's cat food now being recalled is labeled Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry food. Testing has detected melamine and melamine byproducts (used to make plastic) in wheat gluten received by the company to make dry cat food. The tainted wheat gluten has been traced to a supplier from China. The FDA is conducting an investigation into pet food products made with wheat gluten that contains melamine and their association with reports of injury and deaths in cats and dogs. FDA officials said scientists were no longer investigating any connection between the deaths and the rat poison aminopterin. The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals demanded earlier Friday that U.S. regulators expand a recall of nearly 100 brands of Menu Foods pet foods to also cover dry varieties. PETA members said they know of pet owners whose cats and dogs became sick after eating dry food. The Veterinary Information Network reported Tuesday that at least 471 cases of pet kidney failure have been reported since the recall, and more than 100 pets have died.
Alpo Added to Pet Food Recall - The popular dog food Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy is now being pulled from store shelves.

3/30/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Guida's Dairy of New Britain, Connecticut is voluntarily withdrawing Guida Label Lowfat Chocolate Milk Half-pints from the market. These products are being recalled because they may contain a presence of food grade sanitizer. These products were distributed in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.
-RECALLED - Nationwide recall of Cerignola, Nocellara and Castelvetrano Olives because they have the potential to be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium that can cause a life-threatening illness or death. Consumers are warned not to use the product even if it does not look or smell spoiled. Botulism, a potentially fatal form of food poisoning, can cause the following symptoms: general weakness, dizziness, double vision and trouble with speaking or swallowing. Difficulty in breathing, weakness of other muscles, abdominal distension and constipation may also be common symptoms. People experiencing these problems should seek immediate medical attention.

3/28/07 -
Men whose mothers ate a lot of beef during pregnancy have lower sperm counts. A Human Reproduction study found they were three times more likely to have a sperm count so low they could be classified as sub-fertile. The findings suggest that exposure to growth promoters contained in the beef eaten by the boys' mothers was to blame. This evidence suggests that Europe was right to ban the beef industry from using growth promoters to increase yield. A US study has linked use of the chemicals to damage to human sperm. Other possible causes, such as exposure to pesticides, or lifestyle factors, could not be ruled out.

AUSTRALIA - Almost one hundred people have now been affected by an outbreak of gastroenteritis linked to a bread shop in Sydney's west. Eighteen people have been hospitalised. All of the cases interviewed so far had eaten either pork rolls or chicken rolls from the French Golden hot bread shop in Homebush West.

3/27/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Woodridge Labs, Inc., has voluntarily recalled all lots of its DermaFreeze365(tm) Instant Line Relaxing Formula and DermaFreeze365 Neck & Chest products. This recall was a result of certain limited lots testing positive for the Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria. The organism, Pseudomonas aeruginosa may cause serious eye infections, urinary tract infections, respiratory system infections, dermatitis, soft tissue infections, bacteremia, bone and joint infections, gastrointestinal infections and a variety of systemic infections.

3/25/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
- RECALLED - The Food and Drug Administration is re-issuing its warning to consumers not to drink "Jermuk" brand mineral water due to the risk of exposure to arsenic, a toxic substance and a known cause of cancer in humans. The agency is providing this information again to consumers due to an expansion of the recall. "Jermuk" water is imported from Armenia and distributed under different labels in California.

PET FOOD RECALL - The pet food company is urging store owners in North America to remove ALL affected varieties of its recalled products from shelves, regardless of the date of manufacture, out of concern for pet safety.
Rat poison is said to be to blame for the pet food contamination.

BANGLADESH & SAUDI ARABIA - Agriculture officials in Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia have confirmed outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in birds, A FIRST FOR EACH COUNTRY. An H5N1 outbreak could devastate Bangladesh's poultry industry, which includes about 150,000 farms and does $750 million of business annually. The Saudi Press Agency said the outbreak there involved turkeys, parrots, peacocks, and ostriches on private land. The birds were destroyed and the site was sterilized. H5N1 avian flu has been reported in several countries near Saudi Arabia, including Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, and Sudan. Egypt has had 26 confirmed human cases since February 2006, half of them fatal. H5N1 has been found in birds in about 60 countries, not counting Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh. H5N1 has been found in crows in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Up to 70 dead crows were found in and around the city recently, and 2 of 8 birds tested were found infected. In Myanmar, about 38,000 birds have been destroyed as a result of five outbreaks in Yangon, the capital, over the past 3 weeks. "There are still three countries that are not capable of managing the situation: Indonesia, Egypt and Nigeria, which harbour reservoirs of the virus that can take off elsewhere."
Officials said they don't expect to see as many bird outbreaks of H5N1 this year as occurred last year. "On the medical level you see a reduction in terms of viral quantity. The presence of the disease in the population of wild birds is lower than last year when there was a surge in the virus." Wild birds may be growing more resistant to the virus, or the strain may be declining. But it would be unrealistic to think that the virus can be eradicated soon, as it "continues to circulate and can reappear at any time."

3/23/07 -
An influenza pandemic as severe as the great flu of 1918 could cost the United States $683 billion and plunge the American economy into the second-deepest recession since World War II, a nonprofit health advocacy group warned yesterday. If rates of illness and death matched those of 1918 — when one-third of the population fell ill and 2.5 % of those who were sickened died — US production of goods and services could shrink 5.5% in a year. But the pain would not be spread evenly across the country. States whose economies depend on tourism and entertainment would be hit hardest, with losses as large as 8% of their economic production. "Businesses, governments, schools and other sectors could all face serious disruptions." The consequences would ripple worldwide. "What we do know is that it is highly likely that during the peak of a pandemic, even if the mortality rate is low, you are going to have a lot of people not coming to work because they or family members are sick. This will lead to supply side disruptions."

Interpol official warns of bioterror threat - Interpol's top official said Monday that evidence collected from terrorists suggests that international law enforcement agencies should be ready to respond to chemical and biological attacks. Training materials recovered from Al Qaida investigations and information from captured operatives suggest that terrorist groups have had plans to launch bioterrorist attacks. Terrorists in Iraq recently perpetrated three chlorine bomb attacks, and "it is not difficult to imagine these attacks being extended from chemical to biological." The only restraint the terrorists face is the technical complexity of launching effective attacks. In January, British intelligence officials warned the country's laboratory officials that Islamic terrorists may try to steal deadly viruses to mount biological attacks. Labs that handle infectious disease pathogens such as polio, rabies, tuberculosis, and avian flu were told that their security measures would be reviewed by law enforcement. Britain's MI5 security service had warned government officials that al Qaida operatives were training in bioterrorism and that the group had apparently tried to recruit university students to gain access to labs.

The US Department of Agriculture said it would step up its antismuggling efforts and monitoring of live bird markets this year to protect the country from H5N1 avian influenza. The agency plans to more than double the number of special operations to seize banned poultry products and will expand the monitoring of live bird markets from 12 states to 29 or 30. They also announced a renewal of last year's hunt for the H5N1 virus in wild birds throughout the United States, among other steps. The deadly virus was not found in any of the more than 100,000 wild bird samples tested last year.

3/22/07 -
PET FOOD RECALL - the nationwide recall of tainted pet food widened Tuesday from a few store labels to 95 brands. The affected products include about 1% of all pet food sold in the U.S. The scandal has revealed the shameful secret of pet food manufacturers - the same stuff is repackaged, labeled as a premium brand and sold at a higher price.

A genetically-engineered mosquito resistant to malaria is better able to survive than disease-carrying insects. Each year malaria makes 300 million people ill and causes a million deaths around the world.

3/20/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
- RECALLED - selected lot codes of Coborn's, Cash Wise and Midwest Pride potato salad sold at stores in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan and Nebraska, due to concerns that the product may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes bacteria. Listeriosis is an uncommon but potentially serious disease marked by fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea. Store list

American eating fewer vegetables - A new report shows Americans are actually getting worse at eating their vegetables. Among U.S. adults fruit consumption is holding steady, but vegetable consumption is headed down - even if you count french fries. In addition, vegetable eaters appear to be in a bit of a rut. They tended to eat several servings of the same vegetable, showing little dietary diversity.

3/18/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - Menu Foods, based in Ontario, Canada, recalled 48 brands of dog food and 40 brands of cat food, all "cuts and gravy" styles sold in cans and foil pouches from Dec. 3 to March 6. Dry food is not affected. Among the brand names affected are Iams, Nutro and Eukanuba. There has been a small number of reported instances of cats and dogs in the United States (none in Canada) becoming sick from kidney failure after eating the affected products. Ten deaths, one dog and nine cats, have been reported at this time. The company has yet to determine what is causing the illnesses and deaths. The recall includes an extensive list of brand names and lot numbers. In order to determine whether cat and dog food is subject to recall, consumers should refer to the comprehensive list of products at www.menufoods.com/recall.

3/16/07 -
MRI DYE LINKED TO POTENTIALLY FATAL SKIN DISEASE - A liquid used in diagnostic imaging such as MRIs has been linked to a rare and potentially fatal skin disease, Health Canada says.

Phthalates, a class of chemicals used in some plastic food packaging and soaps, have been implicated in higher belly fat in men. Phthalates are used to make plastic flexible, and are found in plastic tubes, some children's toys, cosmetics, shampoos, soaps, lotions, lubricants, paint, pesticides, and other plastics. The chemicals have been implicated in reproductive problems in men such as low sperm counts and low testosterone levels, and subtle changes in the reproductive organs of baby boys. Low testosterone levels appear to cause abdominal obesity and pre-diabetes in men. "Substantial declines in testosterone levels and sperm quality have been observed in the United States and other countries over the last several decades - and it urgently requires explanation." More than 75 per cent of the U.S. population has measurable levels of several phthalates.

RECALLS & ALERTS:
3/14/07 -
- RECALLED - WinCo Foods announced that it is voluntarily recalling several bread products packaged under the Cascade Pride label and sold at its WinCo Foods stores in California and Nevada. The Cascade Pride products, manufactured for WinCo Foods by Safeway Inc., may contain wire fragments from production machinery.
-RECALLED - Safeway Inc. announced it is voluntarily recalling several of its private label bread products sold at Safeway and Pak 'n Save stores in Northern California and Northwest Nevada. The products may contain wire fragments from production machinery.

3/13/07 -
Weight-loss surgery can lead to neurological problems - Surgery that helps an obese patient lose weight can also reduce the body's ability to properly absorb certain nutrients, in particular vitamin B1. And that deficiency can lead to permanent brain damage if left untreated, researchers say.

Staying chained to your desk might place you at greater risk of potentially fatal blood clots in the legs. A study suggests that people develop clots in their legs from sitting three to four hours at a time. Deep-vein thrombosis is caused when a blood clot forms in leg veins and travels to the lungs, heart or brain days or weeks later, where it can lead to a heart attack or stroke. People should seek medical attention if they sit for a prolonged period and feel a severe cramp in the calf or pain higher up in their leg that doesn't go away. The clots are treated with blood thinning drugs, and the treatment can take months.

3/12/07 -
EYGPT reported its 24th person confirmed with bird flu since it appeared in the country last year.

BURMA reported bird flu outbreaks in two towns.

INDONESIA has recorded 85 bird flu cases, after a 20-year old woman was positively infected by avian influenza. The woman from East Java province had a history of contact with chickens. Indonesia has recorded 64 fatalities out of 85 people who contracted the disease. The number of bird flu cases in the country has increased recently after months of absence of new cases. Over 32 million families in Indonesia's vast archipelago have been raising chickens in back yards.

3/11/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - As a follow-up to the recent Salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is informing consumers that ConAgra has extended their recall of all Peter Pan peanutbutter, and all Great Value peanut butter beginning with product code 2111, including peanut butter toppings, back to October 2004.
-RECALLED - BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc. is recalling its 25-count packages of "Berkley & Jensen" Full-Cut Pig Ears dog treats with no lot number and only the expiration advisory "BEST IF USED BY 2009" because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism which can cause serious infections in dogs, and, if there is cross contamination, young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.
-RECALLED - Cibo Specialty Foods is voluntarily recalling a number of olive products sold under the "DAL RACCOLTO" brand. Immediately stop using the product. Testing of the products in question has revealed that specific products had pH and water activity that exceed the levels necessary to control botulism. Large packages, sold primarily to the foodservice trade.
-RECALLED - Flora Foods of Pompano Beach, Florida, is recalling its 25oz jars of "Cerignola Olives" because they have the potential to be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium which can cause life-threatening illness or death. The recalled "Cerignola" olives were distributed in Florida, Georgia and upstate New York in retail stores.

Research by Melbourne experts has found that frozen food may be the cause of a dramatic rise in immune disorders in children. Studies reveal a bacteria that thrives in freezing temperatures is present in almost half of Victoria's cases of childhood chronic inflammatory bowel disease. Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis is also found in cattle and it is the first time it has been linked to Crohn's disease in children. More than 45,000 Australians have been diagnosed with the incurable disease and the youngest patient is only two. The breakthrough research could relieve sufferers, who have difficulty eating and can have weight loss, diarrhoea, fatigue and stunted growth. “The worldwide increase in Crohn's disease far exceeds anything that can be explained by a genetic predisposition alone.”

3/9/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
- RECALLED: "Jermuk" brand Mineral Water. The Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to drink certain brands of mineral water imported from Armenia due to the risk of exposure to arsenic, a toxic substance. Some brands contain 50 to 60 times the allowed level of the toxin known to cause cancer in humans. Symptoms of acute arsenic exposure usually occur within several hours of consumption. The most likely effects include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach pain. Over the period of a few days to weeks, the kidneys, liver, skin, and cardiovascular and nervous systems could be affected. Extended exposure could lead to cancer and death.

3/8/07 -
ISRAEL - health officials are investigating a superbug outbreak in some of the country's hospitals that may have killed around 100 patients. Medical experts are unsure if the antibiotic-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae germ caused the deaths. The bacteria is harmless to healthy people, doctors say, but can infect people with weakened immune systems.

3/6/07 -
'Medicine rice' - Authorities in the United States have given preliminary approval to a plan to grow rice genetically modified to produce human proteins. Rice plants including human genes involved in producing breast milk would be grown in the state of Kansas. The company behind the proposal, Ventria Bioscience, says the plants could be developed into medicines for diarrhoea and dehydration in infants. Critics say parts of the rice plants could enter the food chain. The company says it would take precautions to ensure the seeds did not mix with other crops. But critics say that bad weather such as high winds or human error could lead to problems. "It hasn't gone through a drug review process. So we're dealing with an unknown here - something that could cause harm to human health." There are huge regulatory hurdles before food containing human DNA could actually be sold to consumers. The public has until the end of March to submit objections to the plan. If final permission is given, Ventria will begin planting rice in April or May.

3/5/07 -
Researchers in the U.S. believe they have found an easily-produced vaccine for the killer H5N1 bird flu. The vaccine would be "easy to produce, fast to produce and as broadly protective as possible". Tests on mice have shown the animals had produced the antibodies necessary to fight the disease. A doctor claims to have overcome the problem of manufacturing enough of the vaccine to get it out fast enough to halt a pandemic. The process involves copying genetic material from flu virus protein and combining it with antibodies to help stimulate the immune system. The technique could be easily applied to other forms of flu virus too.

3/4/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
- Simply Fresh Fruit Inc. is recalling Simply Fresh Fruit Fresh Cut Fruit trays dated with sell by date 022607 due to possible salmonella contamination of the cantaloupe. The cantaloupe was processed into trays of five-pound fresh cut fruit and distributed by Costco throughout Los Angeles metropolitan areas.
- Consumers who purchased raw milk from Stump Acres Dairy of New Salem, York County, Pennsylvania, are advised to immediately discard the raw milk due to the risk of contamination with salmonella. The customers of the dairy are known to be from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.
-The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating an outbreak of norovirus-associated illness linked to eating raw oysters harvested from San Antonio Bay, Texas. FDA advises consumers to avoid eating raw oysters harvested from this area, as a result of reports of illnesses in people who attended a Maryland event where these oysters were served.

With all the recent publicity about outbreaks of food-borne illness, consumers may be wondering whether anything is safe to eat anymore. Contaminants are cropping up in products that are supposedly wholesome: peanut butter, fresh spinach, even organic baby food. E. coli comes from fecal matter, so theoretically it should not be a problem with plant-based foods. But crops can become contaminated if they are adjacent to areas where livestock are kept. Without an overhaul of the agricultural system,it will be difficult to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Consumers should expect that any type of fresh produce carries the possibility of contamination. "We're eating more raw produce, so there's more exposure to foods that have a higher risk." Consumers need to take more responsibility for their own health, because there are fewer watchdogs to oversee the nation's food supply. An investigation by the Associated Press last month showed that FDA food safety inspections decreased 47 percent between 2003 and 2006, and safety tests on U.S.-produced food dropped by almost 75 percent. "Expect more outbreaks in the future, because the U.S. is importing more and more of its produce from countries that are far less sanitary than ours." The FDA inspects less than 1 percent of our imported food. If the trend continues, Americans may need to reassess their assumption that the food supply is safe. "When you travel to a developing country, the only way to avoid illness is to cook all food before eating it. If you are susceptible to illness, you might want to consider doing that even if you live in the United States."

The government is on track to approve a new antibiotic to treat a pneumonia-like disease in cattle, despite warnings from health groups and a majority of the agency's own expert advisers that the decision will be dangerous for people. The drug, called cefquinome, belongs to a class of highly potent antibiotics that are among medicine's last defenses against several serious human infections. Giving cefquinome to animals would probably speed the emergence of microbes resistant to that important class of antibiotics, as has happened with other drugs. Those super-microbes could then spread to people.

KUWAIT has found two new cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in chickens, raising to 48 the total number of infected birds in the Gulf Arab country this year.

LAOS - A second case of human bird flu is suspected in Laos, only a week after confirmation of the Southeast Asian country's first case.

3/2/07 -
As the investigation of salmonella-tainted peanut butter widens, the recall has spread to ice cream manufacturers and a wholesale retailer of a peanut butter dessert topping.

DENGUE FEVER - Paraguay has declared a 60-day state of emergency to deal with an outbreak of dengue fever which has killed at least 10 people in the past two months. Officials say 14,654 people have been diagnosed with dengue, but doctors say the figure is 10 times higher, and are worried about a new more virulent variant of the disease. Brazil and Bolivia have also seen a rise in cases of dengue, which is spread by mosquitoes and is endemic in much of the Americas. Dengue fever causes severe headaches, as well as muscle and joint pain. Doctors in Paraguay say that at least five of those who died were suffering from a particularly virulent variant of the disease called "gastric dengue", NEVER SEEN BEFORE IN THE COUNTRY. Gastric dengue attacks vital organs - such as the liver, heart, lungs or brain - and can cause death within hours. Experts have blamed the UNUSUALLY RAPID SPREAD of the disease on a higher rainfall and uncommonly warm weather, which have boosted the population of the aedes aegypti mosquito. More rains and high temperatures are forecast for the next two months, prompting fears that the number of cases will continue to rise.

February 2007 -
2/27/07 -
PAKISTAN - An outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed at least four peacocks and a goose in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Last March, H5N1 was found in north-west Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.
BRITAIN - Conservationists have insisted that it was impossible to blame the arrival of the H5N1 virus into commercial poultry on wild birds, when not one bird had been found with the disease in the UK or northern Europe. Now Bernard Matthews, Britain’s largest turkey producer (where the virus was found), is under investigation by the Government amid concerns that the company has imported poultry from inside an avian flu exclusion zone in Hungary. Under European regulations no birds should be moved in a 3km zone around infected farms and in the further 10km surveillance zone. But it has now emerged that 37 tonnes of partly processed turkeys have been arriving in Britain from Bernard Matthews Hungarian plants every week. A delivery arrived at the plant just a couple of days before January 27, when workers first spotted signs of illness in the eight-week-old chicks. The company is also being investigated for breaking EU hygiene regulations by leaving processed poultry outside sheds on its food processing site at Suffolk, where the lethal strain of bird flu was detected last week. Another three of the units of the 22 at the Bernard Matthews farm in Holton, Suffolk, have tested positive for H5N1, it emerged, raising fears that the virus was more entrenched than originally hoped. The Government has found that the strain of the virus in both countries may well be identical. Wildlife experts were privately delighted by the way that the Government was scrutinising the poultry industry. "Bernard Matthews have some very serious questions to answer about . . . the version of events they have told.”
2/26/07 -
AUSTRALIA - Drought and heat are being blamed for a doubling in food poisoning cases in 2007. Alarming health department statistics show more than 800 South Australians have suffered food poisoning in the first seven weeks of this year. This is more than double the year-to-date average of 379 for the past three years. The usual health authority reckoning is that the confirmed cases represent about 10 per cent of the number of people affected, which would mean more than 8000 victims. While the current E coli outbreak is troubling health investigators, campylobacter has been responsible for most of the latest illnesses. Since January 1, there have been 528 confirmed cases, compared with 222 for the same period last year. Salmonella cases are up from 99 to 155 and cryptosporidium from 41 to 105.
2/25/07 -
ALERTS:
RECALLED - "Wellsley Farms" Green Bean Casserole which was distributed nationwide in BJ's Wholesale Club retail stores. They have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
RECALLED - Castle Produce, a subsidiary of Tropical Produce, Inc., a wholesale importer of fresh fruit and vegetables announced the recall of cantaloupes in California due to potential health concerns. Some cantaloupes delivered on or after 2/16/2007 have tested positive for Salmonella.
2/23/07 -
PEANUT BUTTER RECALL - An elderly Chicago area man may be the second person to die after eating tainted peanut butter. So far, at least 300 cases of illnesses have been linked to the outbreak, although one attorney who had already filed a class action lawsuit claims to have been contacted by more than 2,000 alleged victims. The peanut butter, tainted with Salmonella, was marketed under the Peter Pan and generic Great Value brands and was sold after March 2006. The company says the suspect jars can be identified by a number on the jar lid that begins with the number 2111.
Other recent Salmonella outbreaks.
The Tasmanian devil may be just 10 years away from extinction as a hideous disease continues to threaten its survival. "The window of opportunity to avert this calamity is rapidly closing." One option is to establish colonies of healthy devils on islands off the Tasmanian coast to protect them from the disease. They are hoping to find a population resistant to facial tumour disease that could provide genetic clues towards preventing the spread of the tumour. "The extinction of the Tasmanian devil would alter our terrestrial ecosystems almost beyond recognition."
2/22/07 -
ALERT - BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc. announced the voluntary recall of pre-packaged Wellsley Farms brand fresh mushrooms purchased between February 11 and February 19, 2007 due to a potential health risk. Test results reported from a routine inspection of produce showed the possible presence of trace amounts of E. coli.

2/21/07 -
ALERTS -
-RECALLED: some flavors of Wild Kitty Cat Food All Natural, Frozen Cat Food, because they may be contaminated with Salmonella.
-RECALLED: Dole Fresh Fruit Company announced the recall of cantaloupes in the Eastern U.S. and Quebec due to potential health concerns; some have tested positive for Salmonella.
-ALLERGY ALERT: Vita Specialty Foods, Inc. of Martinsburg, West Virginia, is voluntarily recalling a number of their sauces (Jim Beam, Scorned Woman, Budweiser, IU Hoosiers Varsity, Virginia Tech) because their labels do not disclose that the products contain a flavor ingredient derived from milk. People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these products.

INDONESIA - Nearly 200,000 people are suffering from flood-related disease in the capital city of Indonesia after a week of rain - and the ensuing floodwaters - drove more than 400,000 people from their homes.

U.S. - Much of the United States – particularly in the Great Lakes and the Northeast – has combined sewer systems, in which sewage is carried to treatment facilities, but can overflow into rivers and lakes during storms. Add climate change to the recipe, which already has brought significantly higher rainfall to some parts of the country, and “This means more people in danger of getting sick, and likely more people are getting sick already.” In the summer of 2004, 1,450 people reported being ill in a resort community in northern Ohio with campylobacter, norovirus, giardia and salmonella. That summer was marked by rainfall that was 150 percent above the 50-year average. The difficult separation of drinking water and sewage may face more challenges than its aging infrastructure can withstand as unpredictable weather conditions produce floods that beset the nation. “Outbreaks of waterborne illness are like the plane crashes of the water industry. They’re the big events that get people’s attention. But there are other things going on. Beneath the big outbreak, we could have 5 percent of people getting sick and it wouldn’t even be reported." The nation needs better ways to monitor the safety of drinking water. The recipe for disaster is there, including intake points for drinking water are not consistently shielded from the sewage that periodically spills into surface waters; there is inadequate monitoring of the rivers, lakes and streams that provide drinking water and the quality of the treated drinking water; and there are signs that the water and sewer pipes are getting old.

2/20/07 -
BANGLADESH - The Sundarbans nature reserve in Bangladesh's south-west is one of the last untouched places on Earth. But the trees in the Sundarbans have suddenly started dying. And not just that: they have started DYING IN A WAY NOBODY HAS SEEN BEFORE, from the top down. Nobody is sure what the cause is, but the country's leading scientists think the trees are dying because, in recent years, the water has turned from fresh to salty. The Sundarbans is a massive mangrove swamp, and the sea has begun encroaching. What we are seeing may be one of the first casualties of rising sea levels caused by global warming. Farmers in coastal areas who used to grow rice have switched to farming prawns, after the water in their paddy fields got too salty. Then there were the deaths of thousands of fishermen off Bangladesh last summer. The Bay of Bengal was UNUSUALLY rough. Usually, the authorities only issue a storm warning to fishermen to stay at home once or twice a year. In 2006, four warnings were issued in the space of two months. Every warning meant the fishermen lost valuable days at sea. When the last warning came, they could not afford to stay ashore and went to sea anyway. The weather in Bangladesh is going crazy. Last week, a freak tornado struck. Tornadoes occur regularly in Bangladesh - but usually only in the tornado season, in April. A tornado in February is almost unheard of. Also, there were the strange events of 2004, when the tides in the estuaries of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers stopped ebbing and flowing. The water level just stayed at high tide. The same year, the capital, Dhaka, was hit by floods so severe the ground floors of most buildings were under water, and a catfish was caught in one of the government buildings. And in 2005, the country had no winter at all. Winter never came - with serious effects on the year's potato crop. This year, too, it has not been as cold as usual. "The direction of the monsoon has changed in the last few years. The depression that brings the rain used to advance north across Bangladesh. Now it is heading west." That could have devastating implications in the event of a tropical cyclone. The rainfall is also increasingly erratic. Bangladesh is particularly vulnerable to climate change. The entire country is basically one vast river delta, and that has always left it at the mercy of weather extremes. And this is in the most densely populated country in the world. "People always come to Bangladesh to talk about rising sea levels. Have you considered that London is the same height above sea level as most of Bangladesh? You have the Thames barrier, and we have our dykes. By the time Bangladesh is flooded, you will have lost London."

Canned tuna exceeds guidelines on mercury in Canadian tests - mercury is a dangerous contaminant that can affect the heart, brain and immune system. On average, six per cent of the albacore tuna it tests fails and is pulled before it gets to grocery stores. In the recent test, thirteen per cent of the tuna tested exceeded Health Canada guidelines. Studies have shown "white" tuna (albacore) is typically higher in mercury content than "light" tuna, because it's generally a larger, older fish that has accumulated more mercury. "Clearly these tuna should not be eaten on a regular basis." In the U.S., safe consumption advice ranges from no more than one can of albacore tuna a week in some jurisdictions to none at all in others.
2/19/07 -
Reports of peanut butter-borne illness on the increase - Peter Pan brand peanut butter and some batches of Wal-Mart's Great Value house brand were linked to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened at least 300 people nationwide since August. The number of those sickened is likely much higher than the official estimate. The affected jars of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter have a product code located on the lid of the jar that begins with the number "2111."

NORTH KOREA - A measles epidemic has hit North Korea, causing at least four deaths and infecting some 3000 people.

CANADA - A Vancouver child has succumbed to influenza, marking the first pediatric death in Canada during this UNUSUALLY LATE flu season.

A commonly used anaesthetic could cause changes in the brain linked to Alzheimer's, a US study suggests. The anaesthetic isoflurane is linked to cell death. The researchers said the findings from cell tests suggested caution was needed regarding the anaesthetic's use for the elderly.
A health alert has been declared in Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia after an outbreak of dengue fever. The authorities have blamed higher rainfall this season as a cause of the UNUSUALLY rapid spread of the disease. Experts also say the UNCOMMONLY WARM WEATHER has boosted the population of mosquitoes, which transmit the disease. Globally, it infects 50m people a year. It starts as a flu-like illness but without the proper help it can develop into a deadly fever.
2/18/07 -
TWO ALERTS:
-The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers not to use certain jars of Earth's Best Organic 2 Apple Peach Barley Wholesome Breakfast baby food because of the risk of contamination with Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium which can cause botulism, a life-threatening illness or death.
-The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has become aware that a number of Americans who placed orders for specific drug products over the Internet (Ambien, Xanax, Lexapro, and Ativan), instead received a product that, according to preliminary analysis, contains haloperidol, a powerful anti-psychotic drug. Reports show several consumers in the United States have sought emergency medical treatment for symptoms such as difficulty in breathing, muscle spasms and muscle stiffness after ingesting the suspect product. Haloperidol can cause muscle stiffness and spasms, agitation, and sedation. The origin of these tablets is unknown but the packages were postmarked in Greece. Identifying the vendors is difficult because of the deceptive practices of many commercial outlets on the Internet. (Photographs of the tablets in question and the shipping packages.)

2/15 -
ALERT - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers not to eat certain jars of Peter Pan peanut butter or Great Value peanut butter due to risk of contamination with Salmonella Tennessee (a bacterium that causes foodborne illness). The affected jars of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter have a product code located on the lid of the jar that begins with the number "2111." The outbreak appears to be ongoing and the first consumer may have become ill in August 2006! Consumers who have questions should contact ConAgra at 866-344-6970.

2/14 -
BIRD FLU - Nearly 90 per cent of the people who have been diagnosed so far with H5N1 strain of the avian flu virus were under age 40, a new analysis from the World Health Organization shows. That as-yet-unexplained phenomenon could be a clue that widespread immunity to infection by the virus may exist in people aged 35 and older.

2/13/07 -
More on the bee die-off - Scientists are reporting a dramatic loss of honeybee colonies. Some beekeepers say they're losing 20 percent of their bees, others say half, some say 80 percent. They open the hives to find the bees dead, or gone. When the bees get sick, they'll instinctively leave the hive to try and protect the others. More and more bees are doing just that, and no one is sure why. The die-off is UNPRECEDENTED. The normally resilient bees dissected showed traces of not one or two diseases, but nearly every disease known to affect them over the past century. They had ALL the diseases at once, a sign their immune systems have been compromised. "We are seeing something very similar in terms of bee AIDS here. The bees are immuno-compromised, being stressed somehow." Some of the stress could be related to travel, since the bees are being trucked or flown across the country every spring to pollinate different crops. Some could be related to the severe weather swings we've seen over the past few years. But many questions remain unanswered. Scientists working on the case don't think this is just a cyclical thing. It's UNCOMMON, UNUSUAL, and frightening to everyone associated with the industry. Bees are partially responsible for one out of every three bites of food the average American eats. Without the bees, crops such as almonds are misshapen, discolored, or unhealthy. The yield would be drastically reduced, less attractive, and more expensive. And this is a scenario that could play out later this year. You may see higher prices, and/or less fresh fruit and vegetables on the shelves.

A RARE strain of E.coli is baffling South Australian health authorities with 10 cases of the bacteria recorded in the past month. "It can be fatal and it has been fatal in the past." In the most recent wave of infections, three people have been confirmed with cases of the possibly deadly 0157 strain since the weekend. The cases have no common source of infection such as a supermarket or restaurant that has been identified. Each patient had been in good health and ate a wide variety of food. Six of the South Australian cases had been admitted to hospital but all had since been discharged. Up to 40 cases of E.coli infection are reported each year but only a small percentage of those are of the 0157 strain. "It is not common that we would find three confirmed cases that had been genetically matched. The fact that now, within a month, we've got a total of 10 cases makes it even more UNUSUAL."

2/11/07 -
SOUTH KOREA is culling thousands of chickens after its sixth bird flu outbreak in three months near the capital, Seoul. Chickens began dying on Tuesday at a poultry farm near Ansung, 80 km (50 miles) south of Seoul. It is not yet known whether it is the H5N1 strain of the virus, which is potentially fatal to humans. More than two million birds have been slaughtered in the country since bird flu reappeared there in November 2006. Officials are raising concerns that previous quarantine measures have failed to control the outbreak.

TURKEY announced Thursday that they had an H5N1 avian influenza outbreak at a farm in the southeastern part of the country.

2/9 -
BRITAIN - Conservationists have insisted that it was impossible to blame the arrival of the H5N1 virus into commercial poultry on wild birds, when not one bird had been found with the disease in the UK or northern Europe. Now Bernard Matthews, Britain’s largest turkey producer ( where the lethal strain of bird flu was detected last week) is under investigation by the Government amid concerns that the company has imported poultry from inside an avian flu exclusion zone in Hungary. Under European regulations no birds should be moved in a 3km zone around infected farms and in the further 10km surveillance zone. But it has now emerged that 37 tonnes of partly processed turkeys have been arriving in Britain from Bernard Matthews Hungarian plants every week. A delivery arrived at the plant just a couple of days before January 27, when workers first spotted signs of illness in the eight-week-old chicks. The Government has found that the strain of the virus in both Hugary and Britain may well be identical. The company is also being investigated for breaking EU hygiene regulations by leaving processed poultry outside sheds on its food processing site at Suffolk. This raises the possibility that other birds and rodents may have come into contact with infected poultry cast-offs. Another three of the units of the 22 at the Bernard Matthews farm have tested positive for H5N1, it emerged, raising fears that the virus was more entrenched than originally hoped. Wildlife experts were privately delighted by the way that the Government was scrutinising the poultry industry. "Bernard Matthews have some very serious questions to answer about . . . the version of events they have told.”

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December 2006 - January 2007 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
ENGLAND - The avian flu which killed 2,600 turkeys at a Suffolk farm has been confirmed as the H5N1 virus. The strain can be fatal if it is passed on to humans but experts said the outbreak was being contained and posed little danger to people. Vaccinations for poultry were not currently being considered. "There are a number of problems with vaccination in that it takes about three weeks to get immunity." "One good thing about this virus is that it's easily destroyed. You can kill it with a bit of detergent."
ENGLAND - As many as 160,000 birds could be culled following the discovery of avian flu in 2,600 turkeys at a Suffolk farm. The alarm was raised by the farmer after he noticed "significant mortality" among his flock. The birds from the farm in Holton have tested positive for H5. Further tests are under way to find out if it is the deadly H5N1 strain. There are 15 types of bird, or avian, flu. The most contagious strains, which are usually fatal in birds, are H5 and H7. There are nine different types of the H5 strain. The nine types take different forms - some are pathogenic, others are harmless. In May last year, more than 50,000 chickens were culled after an outbreak of the H7 bird flu in farms in the neighbouring county of Norfolk.
A vaccine appears to be safe and effective against the deadliest form of the bird flu virus, say researchers in Taiwan who tested the vaccine in animals. They hope to perform clinical tests on humans, and the vaccine may be ready for general use by next year. Several others countries are racing to develop a vaccine against H5N1 bird flu, which has killed more than 160 people worldwide. Meanwhile, another outbreak of H5N1 has been found on a poultry farm west of Tokyo, Japanese agricultural authorities said. There have been no reported cases of human infection from the H5N1 in the country. In Hungary, officials have began culling geese after authorities reported an outbreak in the southeast of the country. It is the first outbreak of H5N1 in the European Union since last summer.
Changing the coat of the 1981 flu virus stops its spread - By making 2 small key changes to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic virus, it is possible to stop it from spreading between animals, scientists have found.
NIGERIA - Nigeria's first human fatality from bird flu has been confirmed by the World Health Organisation. Tests in London confirmed that a 22-year-old woman who died on 17 January was infected with the deadly H5N1 strain. Nigeria reported several human cases last Wednesday and says measures are being taken to prevent a further spread among humans. More than 160 people are now known to have died of bird flu worldwide. Other cases have been reported in Egypt and Djibouti, which have suffered human deaths, and also in Cameroon, Djibouti, Niger, Ivory Coast, Sudan and Burkina Faso. Almost all have been poultry workers who have come into close contact with birds.
AVIAN influenza is now endemic in Indonesia because of past delays in dealing with H5N1 bird flu, with the virus now well established and a major concern in SouthEast Asia, says an Australian veterinary scientist. In recent weeks Indonesia reported the deaths of four more people from avian flu – taking its toll to over 60, from a global death total of 161 out of 267 confirmed cases. New flare-ups of avian flu were reported in China, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Nigeria, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. The recent outbreaks followed seasonal patterns and were not unexpected.
Japan is probably facing an outbreak of bird flu. Preliminary tests on chickens from a farm in Kyushu, the most southerly of the country's main islands, suggest 750 birds on the farm died from avian influenza. It's not certain which strain of the virus caused the deaths, although the chances that it was the virulent H5N1 form are "very high." Japan has only recorded one case of a human catching avian flu and no deaths. Humans are generally safe from the virus, apparently caught by handling diseased birds, but the H5N1 strain has killed 159 people around the world since 2003. Japan's last outbreak in birds occurred in 2004.
A woman in Indonesia died from the flu on Jan. 11. Indonesia has had the two human cases and the sole death so far this year. Vietnam reported outbreaks in poultry this week, and on Wednesday, Chinese state media reported a farmer who had caught the H5N1 strain had recovered completely. Indonesia and Vietnam have reported the most cases and deaths since 2003.
A global flu pandemic in 2007 could kill more people than the 1918 outbreak, health experts warn. A global flu pandemic could kill 62 million people. The world's poorest nations would be hardest hit, fuelled by factors such as HIV and malaria infections. Yet developing countries can least afford to prepare for a pandemic. Lethal global flu epidemics tend to occur three or four times a century.
EGYPT - Bird flu killed three members of a family in Egypt, pushing the number of fatalities worldwide this year to 79, more than reported in the previous three years combined.
Authorities have confirmed that a tenth person has died of H5N1 bird flu infection in Egypt. 3 family members became ill after slaughtering the ducks in an attempt to stem the spread of bird flu in the area. Last February Egypt experienced a wave of bird flu infections, which died down around May. Many thought the problem had gone. The current outbreak is a major setback for many people in the country who depend on backyard poultry for their sustenance. Egypt is in the flight path of several migratory birds. This could mean a greater risk of the H5N1 virus strain finding its way into other countries.
INDONESIA - Avian Influenza has infected tens of thousands of fowls in Aceh province, which was devastated by tsunami in December 2004. After infecting scores of chickens in one district in North Aceh regency at the end of December last year, the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus now has contracted tens of thousands of chickens in seven districts of the regency. The Indonesian health ministry has ordered to slaughter all poultry in radius of one kilometer and to vaccinate all of them in radius of three kilometers.
Vietnam confirms the death of some 6,000 domestic poultry from bird flu, after being free of human cases for a year.
The World Bank estimates it will cost between $1.2 and $1.5 billion to fight avian influenza over the next 2 to 3 years, a sizable increase since last January.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded four contracts worth $11.4 million in an effort to develop a 30-minute test for H5N1 avian influenza.
People infected with a deadly, virtually untreatable new form of tuberculosis should be isolated and confined - against their will, if necessary - to prevent a "potentially explosive international health crisis," according to a group of Canadian and African scientists. These harsh measures are justified given the "extreme risk" posed by an ongoing outbreak of extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) in South Africa, they argue. "We're not saying put people in leper colonies. But if voluntary measures fail, we need systems in place to contain the spread." The call for draconian restrictions on the movements of people infected with XDR-TB is not made lightly - it reflects the severity of the outbreak. TB is one of the oldest scourges known to humanity, and one-third of the world's population is believed to be infected. It is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is spread through coughing or sneezing. The disease can be easily cured with cheap antibiotics, but misuse has resulted in mutations that have rendered the drugs ineffective and made resistant TB a growing public health challenge. Last September there were 53 cases of XDR-TB in South Africa, of which 52 proved fatal, an UNPRECEDENTED RATE. In total, more than 300 cases of XDR-TB have been identified, including one case in Canada. This is a very, very bad situation. We're not even sure XDR-TB can be treated, but we are sure that it is spreading." The WHO said last year that XDR-TB poses as serious a threat to global health as either SARS or bird flu.

OTHER DISEASES -
The WHO head is calling for more resources for 'neglected' diseases - There are diseases affecting a billion people in the developing world that need much more attention from the international community, the head of the World Health Organization said.
With yet another report of an outbreak of norovirus, this time on a cruise ship, there are some disease experts who are wondering whether the virus affecting so many in Canada and the northeastern US is a new strain.
KENYA - Panic has gripped parts of Kenya after 53 people died in the past week of Rift Valley Fever, with the disease spreading to densely populated areas. 380 have been infected with the fever. Medical officials say 148 people have died since the outbreak began in December. Infections are now being confirmed in central Kenya. The fever is common in livestock but is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes and consuming infected animal products. The last epidemic in Kenya was reported during the El Nino floods in 1998.
CANADA - Public health officials in Quebec and New Brunswick are fighting what they call ONE OF THE WORST OUTBREAKS of viral gastroenteritis in years, which has dogged nearly three dozen institutions in both provinces.
Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or CA-MRSA, was previously confined to hospitals but epidemics are occurring in the U.S. and it's making inroads in Canada. The bacteria cause large boil-like infections, and can cause hemorrhagic pneumonia or flesh-eating disease in rare cases. The organism is an "old foe with new fangs: a pathogen combining virulence, resistance and an ability to disseminate at large." In the U.S., clusters of infections have been reported among professional baseball and football players, and toddlers in day care. Two fatalities in Canada have also been linked to the germ: a healthy 30-year-old Calgary man and a three-month-old infant in Toronto in 2005. The deaths resulted from necrotizing pneumonia, or lung abscesses. "We don't understand a whole lot. Why now, why here, why outside the hospital?" "Bacteria are more dangerous than terrorists," because people carry them without knowing it.
INDONESIAN health officials are investigating the deaths of 22 people from a mystery illness accompanied by high fever over the past two months in Jakarta.
An outbreak of viral fever in remote northeastern Kenya has killed 30 people and infected at least 70 others.
The World Health Organization (WHO) continues to be deeply concerned by the health situation of people living in the flood affected areas in the Horn of Africa. Since October, unusually heavy rains have caused major flooding in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. The flooding is expected to continue, putting people's health at major risk. A combination of displacement, living in crowding conditions, lack of clean, safe water and the destruction of sanitation systems, is putting between 1.5 to 1.8 million people at risk of infectious diseases, such as cholera, measles, malaria as well as nutrition deficiencies. "The floods are expected to continue until at least the end of December if not into early next year. We are already experiencing a serious situation where people are dying from diseases related to the water and sanitation situation. Malaria will become a very serious problem in the weeks to come." The water and sanitation systems are disrupted and normal water sources have become unsafe for drinking due to the impact of flood waters and other contaminants.
AUSTRALIA - The bunchy top banana disease has been discovered in Richmond Valley, north of Lismore, the most southerly the disease has been found. The Department of Primary Industries will destroy all plants within 20m of the infected plants and inspect nearby properties over the next couple of weeks. "This is THE MOST SOUTHERLY OUTBREAK OF BUNCHY TOP FOR DECADES and poses a threat to banana plantations in the Richmond valley, which has been free of bunchy top since the 1970s. Plants affected by bunchy top typically have shorter, narrower, bunched-up leaves that are often a bit yellow and turned up at the edges." Bunchy top is spread by plant-sucking insects and by planting material.
U.S. - At least 39 people in central New Jersey and on Long Island were infected, two of them critically, with E. coli bacteria in an outbreak of food poisoning last month that has been traced to Taco Bell. Taco Bell has closed four restaurants in New York as a precautionary measure after a suspected E.coli outbreak at one of its New Jersey outlets sickened nearly a dozen people. The company said health officials have indicated there was no immediate threat and no new cases since November 29. Taco Bell said it was sanitizing the restaurants and replacing all the food ingredients before reopening the fast-food outlets.
Iowa experiences a RECORD-BREAKING FLU SEASON. Health officials recently confirmed a record number of influenza strains in Iowa.
CHINA - Sewage in lard sparks health scare - China has arrested the manager of a factory which used grease from swill, sewage and recycled industrial oil to make edible lard, in the latest health scare to hit the country. Health officials also detected "toxic pesticide" in lard produced by the Fanchang Grease Factory in Taizhou, in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang. "They wholesaled the product to retailers across the country, and the retailers sold it to clients, including hotels and restaurants." Since opening in September 2005, the plant had bought more than 170 tonnes of recycled grease to produce an average of six tonnes of lard daily. A night-time raid found 37,600kg of raw materials and 5,300kg of lar. Billions of dollars worth of counterfeit and substandard goods, from fake liquor to luxury handbags, are produced every year in China. In 2004, a major health scandal erupted when China revealed that at least 13 babies had died from malnutrition in the country's impoverished eastern province of Anhui after being fed fake baby milk powder. Last week, several fish farms in eastern Shandong province breeding turbot, a popular type of flatfish, were fined and ordered to suspend sales after traces of cancer-causing chemicals including malachite green were detected in samples. Authorities in several cities last month found Sudan IV, a cancer-causing industrial dye, in "red-yolk" duck eggs sold to poultry farmers who had mixed it with feed. Red yolks are regarded as a sign of extra nutrition, thus making them more expensive.
People infected with a deadly, virtually untreatable new form of tuberculosis should be isolated and confined - against their will, if necessary - to prevent a "potentially explosive international health crisis," according to a group of Canadian and African scientists. These harsh measures are justified given the "extreme risk" posed by an ongoing outbreak of extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) in South Africa, they argue. "We're not saying put people in leper colonies. But if voluntary measures fail, we need systems in place to contain the spread." The call for draconian restrictions on the movements of people infected with XDR-TB is not made lightly - it reflects the severity of the outbreak. TB is one of the oldest scourges known to humanity, and one-third of the world's population is believed to be infected. It is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is spread through coughing or sneezing. The disease can be easily cured with cheap antibiotics, but misuse has resulted in mutations that have rendered the drugs ineffective and made resistant TB a growing public health challenge. Last September there were 53 cases of XDR-TB in South Africa, of which 52 proved fatal, an UNPRECEDENTED RATE. In total, more than 300 cases of XDR-TB have been identified, including one case in Canada. This is a very, very bad situation. We're not even sure XDR-TB can be treated, but we are sure that it is spreading." The WHO said last year that XDR-TB poses as serious a threat to global health as either SARS or bird flu.

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2006 -
November 2006 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
UNITED KINGDOM - Ministers are considering stockpiling more than three million body bags because of fears of an impending flu pandemic, a senior Government source has revealed. Experts have warned that a mass outbreak is 'overdue' - and when it arrives, 25 per cent of the population could be infected. There is particular concern that mortuaries would run out of space to store bodies - meaning bags could be ordered to be kept at hospitals or by councils. In the worst case scenario, body bags may have to be used twice. Another idea being discussed by ministers is for mass burials or pyres to burn corpses as quickly as possible. The prospect of 'common burial' would stir up images of the pits used for victims of the Great Plague in 1665. Flu pandemics usually occur around three times each century. Last century, there were outbreaks in 1918, 1957 and 1968, when millions died across the world. The WHO uses a series of six phases of pandemic alert as a system for informing the world of the seriousness of the threat. The level is currently at three.
A third of nations have not made plans for distributing treatment if there is a bird flu pandemic.
Most Americans willing to lie low in pandemic - Americans are overwhelmingly willing to cut back their activities to help cope with an influenza pandemic, but many worry that they would have money problems if they had to miss as few as 7 days of work.
South Korea has reported its first outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza in nearly 3 years, on a poultry farm in North Jeolla province, about 100 miles from Seoul.
SOUTH KOREA - began another mass cull after the bird flu outbreak spread to a second poultry farm, apparently via infected grain husks. Under South Korean quarantine guidelines, all poultry within 500 meters of the site of a bird flu outbreak is culled and buried in pits. 426 pigs, 6.8 million eggs and four dogs have also been culled over the past three days. Stray cats and mice will also be killed. International health experts have questioned the necessity of killing non-poultry species to prevent the spread of bird flu. But officials insist the decision to slaughter pigs and dogs was not unusual and that the step has been taken in other countries without public knowledge. "The reports of the outbreak, and graphic photos of masked men in white coveralls handling the cull, sent chicken consumption and prices plummeting." Consumption has fallen up to 40 percent.
Pigs and stray cats have been found infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus in Indonesia, adding to the few previous reports of such cases.
Two new reports on human cases of H5N1 avian influenza that occurred in Turkey and Indonesia last year show that the illness proved difficult to diagnose, with many tests yielding false-negative results.
Federal health officials say much of the H5N1 avian influenza vaccine bought for the US stockpile is losing potency, with the result that the number of people who could be vaccinated has dropped by about 1 million since July.
Mainly on the basis of reports from Japan, drug manufacturer Roche and US regulators are warning that influenza patients treated with oseltamivir (Tamiflu) may have an increased risk of self-injury and delirium.

OTHER DISEASES -
DIABETES - "We are dealing with the BIGGEST EPIDEMIC IN WORLD HISTORY. Without urgent action there certainly is a real risk of a major wipe-out of indigenous communities, if not total extinction, within this century. The world needs to act now if we are to deal with this problem, which threatens to consume world economies and bankrupt health systems.
The number of women being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in Canada is growing faster than the incidence among men, say researchers who suspect an environmental link.
The latest report on HIV/AIDS said that the global epidemic continues to grow and there were evidences that some countries were seeing a resurgence in new infection rates which were previously stably declining. 39.5 million are reported to have HIV.
Salmonella on the rise in chickens - Sampling by the US Department of Agriculture over the last 5 years has shown a fourfold increase in the number of broiler chicken carcasses contaminated with Salmonella enterica serotype enteritidis, a strain previously associated mainly with eggs.
U.S. - Forty-one states and the District of Columbia have reported a total of 3,830 cases of West Nile virus infection, including 119 deaths, so far this year.
NEW ZEALAND - Mystery bird deaths continue - More dead birds are turning up in areas around Havelock North, while the search for their mystery killer continues. Most of the birds picked up since last week have been from Anderson Park, but there have also been reported of dead birds in other areas, including Te Mata Peak. Mass bird deaths are not uncommon, but the Havelock North case is UNUSUAL in the range of species dying. Sparrows, blackbirds, starlings and a few magpies have all fallen victim to the mystery illness. At least four cats and a dog have died after coming into contact with carcasses of the birds.
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Weeks through 11/7 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
BIRD FLU VACCINE DELAYED - VaxGen Inc., which is developing a new anthrax vaccine for the US civilian stockpile, announced last week it was postponing the latest clinical trial because of potential problems with the vaccine's shelf life.
A new subtype of H5N1 avian influenza virus has become predominant in southern China over the past year, possibly through its resistance to vaccines used in poultry, and has been found in human H5N1 cases in China.
NEWS RELEASES WITHHELD - Because federal officials expect to keep finding low-pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses in wild birds, they recently announced a new procedure for reporting the findings: posting them online but not issuing news releases.
Wood ducks and laughing gulls are highly susceptible to H5N1 avian influenza, which suggests those two species could be sensitive indicators of the virus's presence in wild birds.
WHO SHOULD RECEIVE THE LIMITED VACCINES AVAILABLE? - The World Health Organization plans to issue a report in January on ethical issues raised by pandemic influenza planning, such as how to provide fair access to available drugs and vaccines.
Government researchers reported that they have developed a vaccine that protects mice from the deadly 1918 "Spanish flu" virus, demonstrating that immunization against it is possible.
IT'S TIME TO PREPARE - Prepare to "shelter-in-place" or "self-quarantine". The U.S. State Department is advising government employees overseas to stockpile enough food and water to last up to 12 weeks in preparation for the threat of a severe influenza pandemic. The statement said that overseas employees, like their stateside counterparts and private citizens, should maintain supplies of food and water for a possible pandemic. The advisory urges families to store nonperishable foods that don't require refrigeration, preparation, or cooking. Also, families are advised to store 1 gallon of water per person per day. Prepare for water supply disruptions if infrastructure breakdowns occur during an influenza pandemic. Suggested water purification techniques include boiling for at least 10 minutes and adding specified amounts of regular Clorox bleach. The recommendation that US citizens overseas stockpile 12 weeks' worth of food and water differs from the current federal recommendation for general pandemic preparedness. The government, on its pandemic planning Web site, recommends that US residents stockpile 2 weeks worth of food and water.

OTHER DISEASES -
Toxic chemicals may be causing a pandemic of brain disorders because of inadequate regulation, researchers say. One in six children worldwide has a development disability such as autism and cerebral palsy. Over 200 industrial chemicals, including metals, solvents and pesticides, which have potential to damage the brain. The scientists said they were likely to be the "tip of a very large iceberg". Studies have shown low-level exposure of some can lead to neurobehavioral defects in children. More than 1,000 chemicals are known to be neurotoxic in animals, and are also likely to be harmful to humans. Of the 100,000 chemicals registered for commercial use in the EU in 1981 and the 80,000 in the US, fewer than half had been subjected to even the most basic testing.
UK scientists have applied for permission to create embryos by fusing human DNA with cow eggs. The hybrid human-bovine embryos would be used for stem cell research and would not be allowed to develop for more than a few days. But critics say it is unethical and potentially dangerous. The resulting embryo would be 99.9% human; the only bovine element would be DNA outside the nucleus of the cell. It would, though, technically be a chimera - part-human, part-animal. "In this kind of procedure, you are mixing at a very intimate level animal eggs and human chromosomes, and you may begin to undermine the whole distinction between humans and animals."
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Week through 10/15 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
Egypt detects its first human case of the bird flu virus since May in a woman who raised ducks at home.
In a development that could complicate avian influenza control efforts, an Indonesian official said this week that some apparently healthy chickens showed evidence of H5N1 virus infection.
Airborne flu viruses threaten health workers, expert says. A microbiologist who reviewed the evidence about how influenza viruses spread says that some official guidelines, including the US pandemic influenza plan, may not go far enough in protecting healthcare workers who take care of flu patients.
OTHER DISEASES -
An outbreak of dengue fever in India has killed 42 more people and infected another 1000 over the past four days despite authorities' efforts to control the spread of the mosquito-borne disease, officials said. A total of 94 people have died and nearly 5000 dengue cases have been reported since late August.
An outbreak of pneumonic plague in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 42 people over the past two months, the World Health Organization reports. Field tests looking at more than 600 suspected cases confirmed the presence of the disease near Wamba, in the northern province of Oriental Suspected pneumonic plague killed 100 people in eastern DR Congo early this summer. Plague (spread by fleas) is endemic in many countries in Africa, in the former Soviet Union, the Americas and Asia, according to the WHO. If left untreated, it has a case-fatality ratio of 30%-60%.
New strains of tuberculosis are putting EU states at risk of a deadly outbreak, health officials warn.
Women who drink cola may be increasing their risk for low bone mineral density linked to osteoporosis, researchers say.
A third death linked to spinach tainted with a potentially deadly strain of E. coli has been confirmed in the United States, Nebraska health officials said Friday.
India - Panic attack in New Delhi, deluge at hospitals. If it is fever, it has to be dengue — that appears to be the perception ratcheting up panic levels in the city. The disease has claimed 25 lives in the city so far— the last death occurred on Thursday. "All fever cases are not dengue but such is the panic that everyone with fever rushes to a hospital asking to be admitted."
A mystery illness that has killed 21 people in Panama was caused by adulterated cough and anti-allergy syrups that were likely contaminated with a toxic chemical on purpose, officials have said.
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Weeks through 10/8 -
OTHER DISEASES -
A grilled chicken sandwich from a fast-food restaurant can cause cancer, a U.S. group of doctors charged in a lawsuit filed Thursday against seven fast-food chains including McDonald's and Burger King.
Scientists say they are developing an entirely new way of providing instant protection against flu. Warwick University researchers took a flu virus and genetically modified it. This, they say, created a "protecting virus" which slows down the rate of infection so much that the flu virus effectively becomes its own vaccine. That is to say, it works by giving the body time to mobilise its defences. Existing vaccination methods depend on stimulating the body's immune system, so that white blood cells produce antibodies that attach to the surface of the virus and start the process of killing it. This works well for many diseases, such as smallpox, polio and measles, but is much less effective with flu, as the coat of the flu virus is continually changing. Experiments so far show that a single dose of protecting virus can be given six weeks before, and 24 hours after an infection with flu virus and be effective. It may protect against future pandemic strains. Experts warned much more testing was required.
PANAMA'S health ministry declared a national epidemic alert after a mystery illness killed at least six people and left others suffering with fever, diarrhoea and partial paralysis. Another six people may have died from it in the past month. "These symptoms are COMPLETELY UNUSUAL and have not been detected before in our country." Ten more people had been stricken but survived.
PANAMA has withdrawn stocks of a medicine used by thousands to treat high blood pressure after investigations linked it to the mystery illness that has killed 19 people. Officials were recalling Lisinopril tablets from pharmacies, hospitals and private clinics across the Central American country as scientists tested the drug for toxic agents that may have poisoned 30 people. The death toll from the mystery illness – which starts with nausea, fever, diarrhea and weakness, and soon progresses to acute kidney failure, partial paralysis and death – rose by one to 19 on Friday. Another 11 people are sick.
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Week through 9/24 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
South Korea said last week that five workers who helped cull poultry nearly 3 years ago showed evidence of past infection with H5N1 avian influenza though they had never been ill.
The World Health Organization has retrospectively recognized Iraq's third human case of H5N1 avian influenza, involving a 3-year-old boy who was hospitalized with a mild illness in March and recovered.
OTHER DISEASES -
Nine more cases were found in the nationwide outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infections linked to fresh spinach, raising the total to 166 in 21 states, and two more deaths are suspected to be part of the outbreak.
Three people in Georgia recently contracted botulism after drinking contaminated carrot juice, prompting health officials to warn that carrot juice must be kept refrigerated.
West Nile cases nearing record - Forty-one states and the District of Columbia have reported 2,171 illnesses from West Nile virus so far this year, 74 of which have been fatal - setting the stage for a likely increase in new cases compared with 2005, federal health officials say. "There were 1,512 reported cases in 38 states - including 41 deaths - at that same point last year, and a total of 3,000 cases, including 119 deaths, by the close of 2005. "We predict we are going to exceed last year's [total case] figure by about 20 percent, which will make this the third-largest outbreak ever" in the United States." The two worst years were 2002 & 2003.
Severe flooding in Niger has sparked an outbreak of cholera that has already claimed 18 lives.
Earlier this summer a 62-year-old from Denmark was fishing with a friend in the Baltic Sea when a microscopic marine bug entered his system, probably through a cut or scrape. Within a week he was dead, one arm already amputated. His attacker: Vibrio vulnificus, a flesh-eating bacterium that normally makes its home in the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Was this a freak accident caused by a rogue organism? Maybe not. Some scientists argue that last summer’s soaring temperatures are part of a warming trend that is encouraging a slew of heat-loving organisms to extend their habitats into the once chillier North. Recent tests in Germany showed that Vibrio vulnificus was present in more than nine out of 10 samples of Baltic Sea water. Cattle herds in Northern Europe this summer came down with the region’s first cases of potentially fatal Blue Tongue disease, a midge-borne ailment previously associated only with the Mediterranean region. Scientists are beginning to agree that there is indeed an ominous pattern. “Is climate change really causing new public-health problems at the moment? The answer to that would almost certainly be yes.” Even the doomsayers have been surprised by how rapidly disease seems to be spreading northward. West Nile Virus, the mosquito-borne bligh, has killed more than 700 in North America since its appearance in 1999. “Our models were expecting this to happen but not until much later in the century.” Already cases are being reported at ever-higher altitudes in mountain areas once considered too cool for disease-carrying mosquitoes. “We are only at the beginning of a process that will play out over centuries and we don’t fully understand.” A hotter world won’t be a safer world, for any of us."
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Week through 9/17 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
A severe flu pandemic could cost the global economy up to US$2 trillion, or 4.8 percent of the world's gross domestic product. Over the past year, the avian flu has gone global - spreading beyond East Asia to Europe, Middle East and Africa. In the worst-case scenario of a flu pandemic, 70 million people - or 1 percent of those infected - could die from it. And the World Bank says developing countries would be worse hit - with mortality rates being double that of high-income countries. Fifty-five countries have reported H5N1 outbreaks, most since January this year. About 80 percent of the 240 human cases, and 141 deaths, happened in Asia.

OTHER DISEASES -
Spinach and E. coli - To date, 109 cases of illness due to E. coli infection have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including 16 cases of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome and one death. Illnesses continue to be reported to CDC. There are 19 confirmed states: California, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. FDA advises consumers to not eat fresh spinach or fresh spinach-containing products until further notice.
The arrival of flu season was delayed when air traffic stopped after the Sept. 11 attacks, a finding that suggests a ban on air travel could buy valuable time in the event of a pandemic.
YET ANOTHER MOSQUITO BORN DISEASE - Travellers to the Indian Ocean are being warned about an increased risk of the crippling Chikungunya virus. There were 93 cases in people from the UK by August this year, compared to an average of six in previous years. Cases of the mosquito-borne virus have been recorded on Indian Ocean islands and on the Indian mainland. Since March 2005 the number of cases of Chikungunya - Swahili for "that which bends up - have been increasing in the islands of the Indian Ocean, particularly the island of Reunion.
AUSTRALIA - Health authorities have warned of looming MOSQUITO SWARMS in Darwin and along the Northern Territory coast. With their breeding season underway, swarms of salt marsh mosquitoes were expected in Darwin and along the coast from September 18 for up to 10 days. Salt marsh mosquitoes can carry Ross River virus and Barham Forest virus. There is no vaccine for either disease.
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Week through 9/10 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
INDONESIA - The World Health Organization today recognized three more cases of H5N1 avian influenza in Indonesia, including one reported by the government on the 8th of September and two dating back to 2005.
Chinese bird flu vaccine shows best results yet - The H5N1 vaccine works at doses down to just one-third of those used in the most successful trials published to date, meaning more dose availability.
Researchers who tested 351 Cambodian villagers after they had extensive contact with avian influenza–infected poultry in 2005 found that none had antibodies to the H5N1 virus, suggesting that it doesn't easily spread to humans and that mild cases are rare.
Could blood from H5N1 flu survivors help others? A recent report about the use of blood products to treat patients in the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918 has sparked interest among those concerned about the threat of the next pandemic, but experts say it's far from clear whether the approach would be practicable in a pandemic today.
Advice for bird flu: 'Hit hard and early' - Avian flu kills in much the same way the 1918 flu did, by drowning victims in fluid produced in their own lungs, a new study has found. The study also suggests immediate treatment with antiviral drugs.
OTHER DISEASES -
(Seasonal) Influenza vaccine manufacturers expect to make and distribute more than 100 million doses in the next few months, millions more than in any previous flu season.
A "virtually untreatable" form of tuberculosis has emerged, according to the World Health Organization. Extreme drug resistant TB (XDR TB) has been seen worldwide, including in the US, Eastern Europe and Africa, although Western Europe has had no cases. Drug resistance is caused by poor TB control, through taking the wrong types of drugs for the incorrect duration. HIV positive people are at particular risk. "XDR TB is very serious - we are potentially getting close to a bacteria that we have no tools, no weapons against."
The trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals kills more people and causes more harm than the trade in illegal narcotics, and isn't a great deal less lucrative. In 2005, the US Food and Drug Administration estimated that worldwide sales of fake drugs exceeded $3.5 billion, but other estimates put the figure at 10 times that. This trade threatens to undermine global attempts to combat infectious diseases that kill 14 million people every year - 90% of them in developing countries. Unless it can be stopped, experts warn, there is little point in spending vast amounts of money developing new drugs, as they will only be immediately undermined by ineffective or toxic counterfeits.
PHILIPPINES - Dengue on rise - Health officials in Rizal province are worried about the rapidly increasing number of deaths from dengue. The province has registered 726 cases so far, the number rapidly increasing in the last three weeks. Especially worrisome was the “SUDDEN increase” in the number of deaths. Three of Rizal’s 13 towns have declared a state of calamity because of dengue, spread by mosquitos.
Climate change threatens Russia with African epidemics - Russia’s climate has been changing to such extent for the last few years that it has become quite welcoming for southern parasites causing fatal illnesses. The epidemics connected with climate change causes the deaths of about 154,000 people annually. Malaria kills the largest number of people, spread by mosquitos. Russia in the coming years will be threatened by epidemics of illnesses earlier spread only in Africa and Central Asia.
A severely brain-damaged woman in an unresponsive, vegetative state showed clear signs on brain imaging tests that she was aware of herself and her surroundings and was responsive to commands, as shown in her brain wave patterns.
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Week through 9/3 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
Avian flu experts in two of the countries with the most human H5N1 avian influenza cases to date - Vietnam and Thailand - are warning that the antiviral drug oseltamivir may mask the infection and complicate laboratory detection.
A dog in Thailand's central Suphan Buri province contracted avian influenza after eating infected ducks.
ALASKA - No highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus has turned up in any of the 13,000 wild migratory birds that federal and state officials have tested since Apr 26.
Final tests confirmed that two mute swans in Michigan had a mild strain of H5N1 avian influenza virus, not the lethal Asian variety.
OTHER DISEASES -
Canada has identified its eighth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, just a few weeks after the seventh case.
US health officials broke new ground last week by approving the use of a mixture of bacteriophages, or bacteria-killing viruses, to control the pathogen Listeria monocytogenes on ready-to-eat meat and poultry products.
Disease spreads as world warms - Climate change is exacerbating the spread of infectious diseases, new research suggests.
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Week through 8/27 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
INDONESIA - According to health officials in Indonesia no evidence has been found of human-to-human transmission of H5N1 bird flu in the remote villages of West Java which have witnessed the latest outbreak of the deadly virus. This has been confirmed by the World Health Organization. Two people have died and a third is still ill with the killer virus from villages in Cikelet in the Garut district. Investigations have also shown there was no "cluster" cases in the villages. To date there have been 18 suspected bird flu cases in Cikelet, and five other suspected cases died before swabs were taken to determine the cause of death. A total of 3,500 poultry had been culled in five areas within a one kilometer radius of Garut and tests have confirmed that half of the poultry were infected by H5N1. It seems many people hide their poultry when government officials come to their houses, despite officials explaining to village and community leaders the importance of the cull. People are now being offered some compensation for every bird culled and in future the police will accompany inspectors on their rounds.
As the autumnal migration of wild birds begins, governments such as Turkey and the Netherlands are warning their citizens that further avian influenza outbreaks are possible, and that care and diligence should be taken when dealing with dead birds. As of 8/23, the total number of cases across the world since 2003 are as follows:
Azerbaijan 8 cases and 6 deaths,
Cambodia 6 cases and 6 deaths,
China 21 cases and 14 deaths,
Djibouti 1 case,
Egypt 14 cases and 6 deaths,
Indonesia 60 cases and 46 deaths,
Iraq 2 cases and 2 deaths,
Thailand 24 cases and 16 deaths,
Turkey 12 cases and 4 deaths,
Vietnam 94 cases and 42 deaths.

VIETNAM, which has been free of human bird flu cases this year, has found the H5N1 virus on a small duck farm.
OTHER DISEASES -
AUSTRALIA - The skies around the Northern Territory town of Katherine have been clearer over the past 10 months, due to a mystery virus that is wiping out large numbers of native 'little red' flying foxes. While the mammal is considered a pest to farmers and townsfolk, the scientific community is concerned the ecological system will suffer from a 50 per cent reduction in flying fox numbers. No one knows what impact the fall in numbers will have. "There's possibly a roundworm and a virus, not knowing exactly what to pinpoint. Flying foxes are actually a huge ecological benefit to the bush around here as pollinaters and seed distributors and so the loss of those big mega colonies that we typically have, they can number up to hundreds of thousands, have disappeared at least from the Katherine region."
NEPAL - An epidemic of an unidentified disease has killed at least 14 people, including seven children, in Netini village development committee (VDC), a far eastern village of Nuwakot district, in the first two weeks of August. The disease, which was first detected in dogs and chickens in the last week of June, had started spreading to humans, reports The Kathmandu Post daily. Major symptoms of the disease are high fever together with bleeding from nose and mouth at the time of death.
BOTSWANA - Nine wild animals have died since an anthrax outbreak was reported in the Chobe area last week. Samples taken from the carcasses of two elephants for analysis proved positive. Elephants, zebras and buffaloes were found dead last week. The mortality rate was likely to rise as the disease was expected to spread before the rainy season. The first outbreak was in September 2004 and by December, a total of 848 mortalities were recorded, with buffaloes at 85 per cent and nine per cent for elephants. A lion, warthog and a honey badger were also recorded in that years outbreak. Anthrax is a bacterial disease caused by the sore forming bacillius anthracis. It is primarily a disease for herbivores but humans can be infected by anthrax if they come into contact with the infected animal, carcass or material.
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Week through 8/20 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
The World Health Organization changed the H5N1 avian influenza strains recommended for candidate vaccines, for the first time since 2004, causing some experts to question how far the virus has evolved.
The federal government announced that two swans in Michigan tested positive for both the H5 and N1 avian influenza subtypes, but initial genetic sequencing suggests that it is a low-pathogenic type rather than the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain spreading through birds in Asia, Europe, and Africa and causing deaths in humans.
Last week, the U.S.government expanded the bird-testing program to encompass the entire nation, after initial sampling mostly in Alaska. Twenty mute swans from a Monroe County, Mich., game area were among the first new batches of tests — because, coincidentally, they were part of a state program to lower overcrowding of the nonnative species. That testing found the possibility of H5N1 in two of the swans. Even low-pathogenic H5N1 requires monitoring, because it has the potential to mutate into the more virulent form.
CHINA - a 62-year-old Chinese man from the far northwestern province of Xinjiang who died Jul 12 had avian influenza.
OTHER DISEASES -
Man 'being eaten alive by maggots'- An elderly Hong Kong man is being treated in hospital after doctors found he was being eaten alive by maggots. The 67-year-old could have been gnawed to death by the parasites had he not been rushed into care. The grisly affliction is known as human myiasis, a rare disease that results from flies infesting wounds or sores. Usually a problem for older people who have trouble looking after themselves, the flies lay their eggs in fresh or weeping wounds and sometimes even in the mouth, nose and ears. The hatched larvae then feed from the rotting flesh, quickly spreading through the body. In the latest case in Hong Kong, the maggots infested a number of cuts on the man's face. Health officials urged carers and staff at homes for the elderly to be alert to signs of the disease, which has so far this year been detected in seven other people.
BRITAIN - The mother of a man believed to be Britain's first victim of rabbit flu has issued a warning about the potentially fatal disease. The farmer, from Aspall near Stowmarket in Suffolk, became infected with the bacteria pasteurella multocida after picking up a rabbit on his farm. His mother said he fell ill and died four days later on 5 August. "People should just be aware that there is this dreadful thing around and potentially it's lethal." There were only a handful of cases of humans being infected with pasteurella multocida each year, usually from dogs and cats, and deaths were very rare.
SCOTLAND - Man dies from 'rare anthrax bug' - A 50-year-old man is believed to have died from the first case of anthrax in Scotland for almost 20 years.
NETHERLANDS - The Dutch Government has banned all exports of live sheep, cattle and goats after a farm tested positive for the harmful bluetongue virus. Officials have also introduced movement restrictions covering a 170km radius around the affected farm in Kerkrade. It is the first time the insect-borne virus, which is normally found in Mediterranean regions, has been discovered in northern Europe. Health experts said the viral infection did not pose a risk to human health. All species of ruminants, which include goats and deer as well as cattle, can be infected. Sheep are the most susceptible, with up to 70% of an infected flock dying from the virus. Some scientists believe that climate change could be behind the northward spread of the virus. The warming temperatures have seen the midges gradually move into higher latitudes.
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Week through 8/13 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
The global death toll from H5N1 avian influenza grew by two when the World Health Organization (WHO) added a Chinese case dating back to 2003 and the Indonesian case involving a 16-year-old boy. Meanwhile, reports say another H5N1 death has occurred in Indonesia, this one in a teen girl.
Two national groups of infectious disease experts urged the White House to make the development of vaccines the most important element in the nation's pandemic influenza plan.
A swan tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza at a German zoo, signaling the virus's re-emergence in the country after a 3-month lull.
OTHER DISEASES -
CANADA - ANTHRAX outbreak in cattle on Prairies hits record - An anthrax outbreak has risen to RECORD LEVELS in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Epidemics can come after heavy rain, which brings spores to the surface.
TURKEY - The number of deaths in a Crimean-Congo HEMORRHAGIC FEVER (CCHF) outbreak in Turkey has increased to 20, with a total of 242 cases.
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Week through 8/6 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
Concern about H5N1 avian influenza intensified in Thailand and Vietnam as health officials reported more suspected human cases, but Indonesian officials said six people in two suspected case clusters in North Sumatra tested negative.
New bird flu fears in Indonesia - Seven people from the same village are hospitalised in Indonesia with suspected bird flu.
OTHER DISEASES -
CHINA - A second Chinese mass cull of 50,000 dogs is announced to fight a rabies outbreak, which has killed 16 people.
ANTIGUA - Almost silently, the members of at least three villages are dying from a common and fatal disease. Cancer is literally tearing through the communities of All Saints, Freemans Village, Sea View Farm and Lightfoot leaving in its dreadful wake distressed families and unanswered questions. Residents fear radiation as many in the community live in the shadows of huge towers, that several years ago were believed to be emitting Radio Frequency (RF) signals. The BBC Relay Station is no longer in operation, for several months now. Towers in populated areas are forbidden in the United States. Antigua has been dubbed the hottest country in the world, due to radiation, with the high concentration of cell phones and high tension wires strewn across the island.
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Week through 7/30 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
LAOS - Avian flu strikes again in Laos.
THAILAND has been struck by its first outbreak of the H5N1 avian influenza virus in eight months.
Pharmaceutical maker Roche has drawn sharp criticism for promoting the sale of its antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu) to businesses while governments stockpiling the drug for defense against a possible flu pandemic wait to receive their own supplies.
GlaxoSmithKline believes it has a vaccine for the deadly H5N1 bird flu that may be capable of mass production by 2007.
Duck hunters may face risk of avian flu infections.
OTHER DISEASES -
Oyster-related illnesses surge in Washington state - 60 people have become ill after eating raw oysters from the state's coastal waters in recent weeks, well above the normal reported total for a whole year.
Increasing numbers of people are vulnerable to POLIO because they have not been exposed to the disease, health experts warn.
Three international health agencies announced the launch of a joint early warning system to allow a quicker response to animal diseases that can spread to humans.
CANADA - The death toll for animals in ANTHRAX quarantines in northeast Saskatchewan has taken a sharp rise over the past week and now tops 270.
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Week through 7/23 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
Indonesia reports 54th avian flu case - Indonesian health officials are reporting that a 44-year-old man who died last week tested positive for the H5N1 avian influenza virus.
OTHER DISEASES -
MINNESOTA - A Minneapolis woman became the first person in the United States to die from the West Nile Virus this year. Her death comes in a year when cases of the disease in the U.S. have been rare, with only 15 reported nationwide. Number of cases peaked in Minnesota and South Dakota in 2003. Last year, they were down dramatically. But the virus is showing up early this year. "It's devastating and people just don't realize it."
CANADA - A man is being treated for cutaneous (skin) anthrax and 36 farms are under quarantine because of livestock deaths in the largest anthrax outbreak in the history of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. 149 animals have died.
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Week through 7/16 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
H5N1 mutated rapidly in the Indonesian cluster - Multiple mutations have been found in the H5N1 bird flu virus that killed seven family members in Indonesia although scientists are unsure of their significance. "The functional significance of the mutations isn't clear -- most of them seem unimportant," the journal Nature said in a report. An analysis of virus samples from six of the eight members of the family showed 32 mutations accumulated as it spread. The World Health Organisation (WHO), which has admitted that the cluster of cases was probably caused by human-to-human transmission, had said in May that there had been no significant mutations in the strain found the in family. "One of the mutations confers resistance to the antiviral drug amantadine", one of a number of facts released by WHO only to a closed meeting of animal and human health experts in Jakarta last month. Virologists said part of the reason the significance of the mutations is unclear is because withholding the information has hampered the study of the virus.
INDIA - The Indian Council of Agriculture Research says it has developed a vaccine against bird flu. It said the Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal developed the vaccine in a record time of four months.
OTHER DISEASES -
CANADA - The ANTHRAX outbreak east of Saskatoon is the WORST ON RECORD in Saskatchewan, with at least 28 herds now under quarantine and 113 suspicious animal deaths. The numbers of both are climbing and may continue to do so throughout the summer. "This is an area that doesn't typically see anthrax."
BRITAIN - Outdoor lovers have been warned of a sharp rise in hospitalisations and deaths from WASP, BEE and HORNET stings. 843 people were admitted for medical care for stings in 2004/5 compared to 369 in the previous year. Experts say the sudden increase could be due to a new invasive species of aggressive wasp from the Continent.
U.S. - the ranks of large-animal veterinarians are gradually thinning out as older practitioners retire and an increasing number of younger vets are drawn to careers treating household pets. The shortage could put additional strains on farmers who raise livestock, and may make the nation more vulnerable to outbreaks of animal-borne illnesses such as avian flu and mad-cow disease, some in the profession say. "What is a real concern is that when a foreign animal disease comes in, there may not be a veterinarian in that area to diagnosis it and stop it from spreading." A drastic shortage of large-animal veterinarians is forecast by 2016.
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Week through 7/9 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
Outbreaks of the H5N1 avian virus have been confirmed in 53 countries, with 16 announcing cases within three months of one another. In Indonesia, “on average, one person died of H5N1 every two and a half days in the month of May.” The world is in a race against a highly pathogenic virus and must prepare in every possible way against a potential pandemic.
AUSTRALIA - businesses are stockpiling anti-viral drugs and face masks as fears grow of an avian flu outbreak. Public companies such as Telstra and Bluescope Steel have pandemic risk committees meeting regularly and the Commonwealth Bank has appointed a pandemic planning project manager. With the number of global deaths exceeding 100, experts fear it is likely the disease will pass from human to human, creating a pandemic. Some researchers fear the H5N1 virus could develop a seasonal pattern in line with flu seasons. In Australia, mid-June through to the end of August is the worst time for influenza. International health experts predict bird flu has a 10 per cent chance of turning into a pandemic this financial year. Security companies may be in high demand if civil disobedience becomes an issue.
SPAIN - became the latest country to join the list of nations responding to outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza, as officials reported finding the virus in a wild bird.
DENMARK - a low-pathogenic strain of an H5 avian flu subtype infected fowl on a farm with 25,000 mallards, pheasants, ducks, geese and ornamental birds at Loevel in Viborg county. The outbreak began on July 5, almost a month after a low- pathogenic form of the virus was reported on June 2.
OTHER DISEASES -
Dengue fever in US travelers to tropical regions has registered a sharp upsurge, with as many cases in 2005 as in the previous 5 years combined.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency reports 76 suspicious cattle deaths within the past 10 days. 22 farms have been quarantined in the Melfort area in an anthrax outbreak.
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Week through 7/2 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
The First International Conference on Avian Influenza in Humans in Paris this week brought reports on a possible new treatment for avian flu symptoms, the potential global economic impact of a pandemic, and plans for a task force to coordinate Europe's response to the disease.
The H5N1 avian flu virus has exacted an alarmingly high death toll among adolescents and young adults - an eerie echo of the infamous Spanish flu, a new analysis of cumulative cases by the World Health Organization confirms.
OTHER DISEASES -
A brutal flu outbreak will hit Australia within the next couple of weeks and people are urged to get vaccinated, a group of influenza specialists say. New Zealand already has copped a dose of the flu and the Influenza Specialist Group believes Australia is next. The Australian flu season tends to follow New Zealand by between one and two weeks and the group has already reported sporadic outbreaks on this side of the Tasman. A cold start to the Australian winter has not helped with some hospitals reporting a spike in respiratory illness-related admissions.
AUSTRALIA - BAT colonies living in or near suburban areas throughout Queensland should be tested for potentially fatal diseases. The call follows a new case of the potentially deadly bat-borne Hendra virus on the Sunshine Coast, which caused the death of a pet horse two weeks ago. Two people, including the horse's owner and a veterinarian, are awaiting the results of tests to see if they have contracted the virus. In 1994-95, the virus appeared in Queensland, killing two people and 15 horses in two separate outbreaks. In January 1999, a single horse near Cairns died of the disease and in December 2004, Hendra virus was confirmed in a dead horse from the Townsville area. There is no cure for the virus. Other known bat-borne viruses found around the world include rabies, SARS, Ebola, Nipah and Marburg.
Pet treats may carry Salmonella - Federal health authorities are warning that people should be careful with pet treats in the wake of a series of human Salmonella infections linked with pet treats made from raw salmon and beef.
Sandstorms could be carrying close to 20 kinds of microbes that pose a health hazard, according to research released by the Environmental Protection Administration. Researchers found that when a sandstorm hit Taiwan earlier this year, the number of germs and funguses in the atmosphere rose by five to six times that of regular days. Some microbes, shrouded by sand grains from the ultraviolet solar rays that would otherwise kill them, could travel thousands of kilometers. Taiwan, Japan and Korea are on the pathway of sandstorms. The duration of such storms can last from merely a few hours to close to a week. The average size of the germs carried by the sandstorms ranges from 2.5 micrometers (one-millionth of a meter) to 10 micrometers, which are not easily filtered out by nose hairs.
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Week through 6/25 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
INDONESIA - A viral strain that caused the first lab-confirmed cluster of human-to-human transmission of bird flu was a genetic "dead end" that could not have caused a pandemic, the World Health Organisation said Friday. [this is a different conclusion of the cause than the one first released below]. Six members of the same family in Indonesia died after being in close proximity to a female relative who was infected with the H5N1 virus and who also died. The sick woman had stayed in the same room as the other members of her family, passing on the virus through coughing. But officials for the UN's health organisation insisted Friday that the viral strain had not mutated into a form that could go beyond this group and become a potential global killer. "This big cluster has been analysed top to bottom, and no sample has offered any evidence which would indicate that the virus has adapted to a human host. All its genes are purely those of avian flu." Even so, scientists are curious about two key differences in the Indonesian human cluster. One is its relatively large size compared with other instances found in Asia, where the virus spread directly from the initial victim to just a handful of other people. The other is the discovery through laboratory tests that the father was not infected directly by his sister, the initial victim, but one step further along the chain through a son who had caught the virus. "This is something we've never seen before either."
WHO finds no human transmission in bird flu cluster in Indonesia - The investigation conducted by a team of the World Health Organization (WHO) on the world's largest cluster death of bird flu in Indonesia's North Sumatra province found that the virus was transmitted from animal to human. "We are still wary, because of the cluster as large as that, and also the finding of other clusters." Many people in the country have refused to stamp out their animals, which are suspected of being infected by the avian influenza. Residents around the cluster have refused to stamp out their poultry.
CHINA - A 24-year-old Beijing man died of H5N1 avian influenza in November 2003, nearly two years before China reported any human H5N1 cases to the World Health Organization.
Avian flu vaccination programs in poultry that are widely but imperfectly instituted, like those in China and Indonesia, may impede detection of human cases.
OTHER DISEASES -
The U.S. emergency medical care system is woefully inadequate and unprepared for a pandemic, bioterrorist attack, natural disaster, or other national crisis, three recent reports from the Institute of Medicine conclude.
UNITED KINGDOM - MAD COW DISEASE - Exposure to BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in the UK has been widespread, although just 160 vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob) patients have been identified, leading scientists to investigate why more people have not been affected so far. Studies show that the disease may lurk in the body and 'may develop over 50 years'. Infection between different species typically takes longer to develop than one passed within the same species. The vCJD patients identified so far "could represent a distinct genetic subpopulation with unusually short incubation periods for BSE". "Recent estimates of the size of the vCJD epidemic based on uniform genetic susceptibility could be substantial underestimations...Any belief that vCJD incidence has peaked and that we are now through the worst of this sinister disease must now be treated with extreme scepticism."
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Week through 6/18 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
CANADA - A second farm on Prince Edward Island has been placed under quarantine as health officials continue to investigate the discovery of avian flu virus in a domestic goose in that province.
New evidence of cytokine storm in avian flu cases - Scientists in Hong Kong have reported new experimental evidence that avian influenza infections in human cells are more likely to trigger a destructive immune-system overreaction, or "cytokine storm," than human flu viruses are.
HONG KONG - China reports an avian flu case near Hong Kong.
OTHER DISEASES -
CONGO - PLAGUE - A suspected pneumonic plague has killed 100 people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to preliminary test results. Control measures have been hard to implement because of security concerns in the area. Nineteen of the reported deaths were in DR Congo's Ituri province - the area worst-affected by plague in the world. The outbreak began there in mid-May. Suspected cases of bubonic plague have also been reported, but the total number is not known. Both strains of plague are spread mostly by fleas, causing an infection in the lungs which slowly suffocates the victim. If treated promptly with antibiotics, the victim generally survives.
BRITAIN - BRAIN-WASTING DISEASE - More people in Britain may be at risk for contracting variant Creutzfeld-Jacob disease than previously thought.
BRITAIN - MEASLES - Numbers of measles cases in the UK have risen to their HIGHEST LEVEL IN NEARLY 20 YEARS. A boy's death from the disease in April was the first UK fatality in 14 years. In Doncaster alone there have been 100 reported cases, with as many as 80 further cases elsewhere in South Yorkshire.
U.S. - HANTAVIRUS - Nine human cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in five states were reported from January through March of 2006, which could signal an above-average risk of the disease this year.
U.S. - ANNUAL FLU SEASON WAS MILD - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the 2005-06 influenza season was milder than the previous several seasons and had an UNUSUALLY late peak.
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Week through 6/11 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
CHINA has confirmed a fresh outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus among poultry in the western region of Xinjiang.
INDONESIA - officials reported still another human case of H5N1 avian influenza on the basis of local tests, while the cause of the recent family cluster of cases in Sumatra continued to elude investigators.
WILD BIRDS have played and will continue to play a role in carrying the H5N1 strain of avian influenza over long distances, but the virus spreads mainly through poultry trade.
EUROPE - 741 cases of H5N1 avian influenza have been detected among about 60,000 wild birds tested in European Union states since February.
AZERBAIJAN - Experts who investigated two clusters of human cases of H5N1 avian influenza in Azerbaijan in March concluded that one cluster marked the first time humans probably contracted the disease from wild birds — in this case, dead swans.
TWO VACCINES protected chickens against Newcastle disease and avian influenza and may provide approaches for producing human vaccines against the H5N1 avian flu virus.
EPIDERMAL DNA FLU VACCINE - An experimental DNA-based flu vaccine that is propelled into the skin on tiny particles instead of injected showed promise in a phase 1 trial involving 36 adults. Vaccines were administered using a PowderJect XR-1 device, which employs pressurized helium to propel gold particles coated with plasmid DNA into the skin. No volunteer reported serious side effects. "The advantage of a DNA-based approach is that the vaccines can be manufactured very rapidly and in large quantities, while yielding an efficacious immune response at low doses." In addition, the vaccine is stable and does not need to be refrigerated, or even administered by a healthcare professional.
OTHER DISEASES -
NAMIBIA announced its first POLIO outbreak in over a decade, with seven deaths in recent weeks.
UNITED KINGDOM - An unusual strain of Escherichia coli O157 that standard laboratory culture methods cannot detect has been identified in a disease outbreak associated with a nursery in Scotland and in other cases in Scotland and England.
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Week through 6/4 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
Just $286 million has been spent to fight bird flu out of nearly $1.9 billion pledged in January by nations and organisations that said they wanted to make a "massive effort" tackling the virus. By April, only Japan, Switzerland and the Czech Republic had fully spent the money promised at a meeting of big donors in Beijing in January. The money is supposed to be used to upgrade veterinary systems, launch vaccination drives and help educate people about hygienic ways to raise animals. Commitments were the result of an agreement between the donor and recipient for the designated purposes and represented a firm decision that prevents the use of allocated amount for other purposes, while disbursements were actual budget fund transfers/releases to the recipient for the intended purpose. Since that meeting in January, the H5N1 avian influenza virus has spread out of Asia, across Europe and into Africa. Africa in particular needs more money. "Japan has fully committed its pledge in Beijing of $158 million to a range of countries and organisations at the regional and global level." Switzerland pledged and has spent $4.7 million while the Czech Republic promised and has spent $200,000. The US, which pledged and committed $334 million, has spent only $70.95 million. The World Bank, which promised $500 million in loans, committed just $113 million and sent out $1.97 million. Australia pledged and committed $55.9 million and disbursed $11.88 million. "The top recipients of committed support include Vietnam ($66 million), Indonesia ($55 million), Nigeria ($51 million), Turkey ($46 million), and Cambodia ($23 million)."

OTHER DISEASES -
A rare mosquito-borne virus that can cause an extremely painful, debilitating illness is making a comeback in parts of India and the southwest Indian Ocean.
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Week through 5/28 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
The biggest case yet of humans infecting others with bird flu prompted the World Health Organization to put the maker of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu on alert for possible shipment of the global stockpile for the first time, officials said. The emergency stockpile, which consists of 3 million treatment courses, is ready to be shipped wherever it is needed. Meanwhile, Indonesia confirmed three more bird flu deaths as the country grapples with a spike in human cases. Despite the cluster of deaths, the virus has not mutated into a form easily passed among humans, experts said. Scientists have seen examples of bird flu passing between family members in a handful of smaller cases. It has been suggested some people may have a genetic susceptibility to the disease. In all, WHO has recorded four family clusters of bird flu so far and only direct blood relatives - not spouses - have become ill.
Case for human spread of avian flu in Indonesia grows - All seven confirmed cases of H5N1 avian influenza in the family cluster in Indonesia involved "close and prolonged exposure" to another infected person, suggesting person-to-person transmission, no alternative source of infection has yet been found.
But tests show no evidence of a significant mutation in the bird flu strain that killed at least six blood relatives in the Indonesian village. The deaths in the village in the Karo district of North Sumatra sparked fears the virus is being transmitted from person to person. "The human viruses from this cluster are genetically similar to viruses isolated from poultry in North Sumatra during a previous outbreak." It's unlikely the cause of death of the first victim will ever be confirmed as no samples were taken during her illness or before her burial. Preliminary findings indicate that three of the confirmed cases stayed overnight in a small room with the initial case when she was symptomatic and coughing frequently. While the source of that outbreak hasn't been officially confirmed, investigators believe the victims were engaged in the practice of defeathering swans - an illegal activity which surviving family members may have tried to hide from authorities.
Researchers in Thailand recently reported that they isolated live H5N1 avian influenza virus from the blood of a 5-year-old boy, an unusual finding that raises concern about possible transmission of the virus via blood.
Romanian officials lifted quarantines that had sealed off more than 14,000 people in Bucharest over worries sparked by two outbreaks of avian influenza in birds, but one small area remained closed.
Eleven new outbreaks of avian influenza in birds were reported in Romania.
When vaccine supplies are limited, should children, young adults, or seniors move to the front of the line for shots? Is it appropriate to remove one person from a ventilator to put somebody else on the machine?

OTHER DISEASES -
UTAH - WEST NILE - Unseasonal temperatures last week combined with lots of water have brought out one of the worst summer villains early and in big numbers. The mosquito that has the potential of carrying West Nile is coming on strong. The weather warmed dramatically, unseasonably early, and adult Culex Tarsali mosquitoes have tripled and quadrupled in numbers in the past week. In Utah there were 52 human cases of West Nile hospitalized last summer.
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WEEK through 5/21 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
A small but vocal group of experts is suggesting the danger of a global influenza disaster has been greatly exaggerated. "When you put a billion dollars against something like this, it's disproportionate to the threat ." Smoking and lack of seat-belt use are far greater public-health issues. The skeptics stress that H5N1 bird flu first killed a human nine years ago this month - and still has not adapted itself for person-to-person transmission. "There really is not a good scientific basis for believing that we are in imminent danger of a severe pandemic." Infectious-disease specialists argue the world is overdue for a flu pandemic, which seems to occur every 10 to 40 years. But pandemics appear to be random events and "you're not overdue for a random event."
In Vietnam where almost 50 percent of the initial ird flu cases were reported, not a single human case or an outbreak of flu in poultry has occurred this year. Thailand, which was the second-hardest-hit nation, has also not seen a human case for over a year or a poultry outbreak for over six months. These positive signs are welcomed by health experts along with the fact that despite predictions, birds making the spring migration north from Africa have not brought the bird flu virus into Europe. To date this year China has reported only 10 cases as compared to 8 last year, whereas the situation in Cambodia and Laos remains vague, as no poultry outbreaks have been reported. The virus remains a threat in both Myanmar and Indonesia where the World Health Organization is presently investigating suspected bird flu infections in eight people in a large family where four have already died.

OTHER DISEASES -
Scientists say bacteria from soil in South Africa make a potent antibiotic that destroys some of the most dangerous superbugs - ones that kill 8,000 people each year in Canadian hospitals alone.
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WEEK through 5/14 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
The pariah state of North Korea is trying to weaponize the bird flu virus, making it the ideal threat for al-Qaida, the British intelligence agency MI6 has learned. The Bush administration has given briefings classified "Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information" to members of Congress and the Senate on the threat. In aerosol form it would be undetectable at all border crossings and a genetically engineered version of the virus would be far more lethal than any current threat from the virus. World ranking experts have said that it would be "the greatest threat al-Qaida could unleash." The decision to keep the briefing secret has led to fierce criticism from public health officials in the United States. North Korea's biological warfare program is now the largest in the world. Among its 300,000 scientists, technicians and laboratory assistants are some 800 scientists who worked on the Russian bio-warfare program.
Flocks of wild birds migrating from Africa to Europe aren't carrying the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu as was feared, wildlife specialists say.

OTHER DISEASES -
Global warming - with an accompanying rise in floods and droughts - is fueling the spread of epidemics in areas unprepared for the diseases, say many health experts worldwide. Mosquitoes, ticks, mice and other carriers are surviving warmer winters and expanding their range, bringing health threats with them. The World Health Organization has identified more than 30 new or resurgent diseases in the last three decades, the sort of explosion some experts say has not happened since the Industrial Revolution brought masses of people together in cities. "Things we projected to occur in 2080 are happening in 2006. What we didn't get is how fast and how big it is, and the degree to which the biological systems would respond. Our mistake was in underestimation."
CANADA - Seasonal allergies seem to be worse in much of the country this spring and allergists are blaming a milder-than-usual winter that caused a simultaneous explosion of tree pollens.
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WEEK through 5/7 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
A leading bird flu expert says H5N1 is the worst flu virus he's ever encountered, and that far too many gaps in planning and knowledge persist for the world to handle it in the event of a pandemic. The virus is a virulent killer in poultry, moving into the brain and destroying the respiratory tract, said Robert G. Webster, a virologist at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. "I've worked with flu all my life, and this is the worst influenza virus that I have ever seen. If that happens in humans, God help us." Webster predicted it would take at least 10 more mutations before the H5N1 virus could begin spreading between people, but said there's no way to know when - or if - that will ever happen. "All of those mutations are out there, but ... the virus hasn't succeeded in bringing it together." Webster also called for more vaccine to be stockpiled, calling current efforts "miserable." He said that autopsies have been done on only six of the 113 people killed by bird flu since the virus began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003. "The cultural ban in this region on autopsies has to be worked out somehow." Countries worldwide have been racing to stockpile Tamiflu in case of a pandemic. But little is known about drug resistance and how much Tamiflu should be given to an infected person.
The White House released a lengthy new plan describing how the government intends to cope with an influenza pandemic, but officials continued to stress their standard message that states and communities will have to rely mainly on themselves in that situation, with the federal government in an advisory role.
How prepared is Europe for pandemic influenza? Analysis of national plans.
A mild form of avian influenza virus found on three poultry farms in Britain has infected one farm worker and prompted culls on the farms.
The Ivory Coast government this week confirmed the presence of H5N1 avian influenza in birds, making it at least the sixth African country confronting the virus.
A Nobel laureate has devised a new way to make the anti-flu drug Tamiflu that is simpler and quicker than the process employed to produce it right now. Elias Corey's hope is that his novel approach will mean the drug is cheaper to manufacture and more plentiful.

OTHER DISEASES -
The story of wealth failing to translate into extra happiness is the story of the Western world. In almost every developed country happiness levels have remained largely static over the past 50 years - despite huge increases in income. Britain is less happy than in the 1950s - despite the fact that they are three times richer. The proportion of people saying they are "very happy" has fallen from 52% in 1957 to just 36% today. The opinion poll provides the first evidence that Britain's happiness levels are declining - a trend already well documented in the United States.
The first published report of a phase 1 clinical trial of a West Nile virus vaccine shows promise, with 41 of 42 inoculated volunteers (98%) developing antibodies to the virus.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is hunting for 14 cattle that might have shared feed with Canada's latest cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.
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WEEK through 4/30 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
Telephone and Internet services could be overwhelmed and shut down in the early stages of a bird flu pandemic as people panic and try to work from home. Large numbers of people will stay home from work, either because they are sick, caring for family members, because schools are closed or simply because they are afraid. Experts are predicting shut-downs after two to four days. The H5N1 avian influenza has spread to more than 40 countries, from Asia into Europe and across parts of Africa. Experts predict it will become permanently established in the world's bird population. "Governments will likely direct the general population to stay in their homes, and minimise social contact. Alternate facilities, such as schools and churches will need to become hospitals with the recovered filling vacant essential jobs. This will require individuals to receive a minimal level of training to perform critical functions." Companies may need provide essential employees with food and care. They would then have to decide which nonessential operations to shut down for the duration of the pandemic, which could last for more than a year, and how to retrain healthy employees to fill needed posts.
There is no practical way to clean disposable medical masks and N95 respirators to allow them to safely be reused if supplies run short in an influenza pandemic, a panel of experts at the Institute of Medicine has concluded.

OTHER DISEASES -
ANGOLA - CHOLERA has killed 900 people in Angola in the past 10 weeks with 25 dying in a single day this week. Some 20,000 people are infected in several provinces and measures to contain the epidemic are inadequate. Cholera is spread primarily by contact with contaminated water or food. This cholera outbreak is ONE OF THE WORST EVER SEEN IN ANGOLA.
MALARIA - Public health experts criticized the World Bank for failing to tackle malaria in hard-hit countries while millions of children have died. They said the bank, which has an annual budget of $20 billion, has concealed the amount of money it spends to fight the illness, funded ineffective treatment, reduced its expert staff and published false statistics about its efforts. Malaria, a parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes, kills more than a million people a year, mostly young children in Africa.
Food stores may soon be able to offer ground beef and other meat products treated with a mixture of harmless bacteria that reportedly can reduce common pathogens by 99% or more.
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WEEK through 4/23 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
Using the World Health Organizations own guidelines for determining pandemic level status, an independent research team has gathered enough factual H5N1 data to substantiate the need to declare a "Pandemic Level 4" response to Avian Flu. The effort focused on a three year period from 2003 to the 2006, listing 23 documented clusters of H2H. A family cluster in Thailand in 2004 is considered one of the most convincing cases of human-to-human transmission of H5N1 because the mother lived in an area which had no infected birds, but died after she was exposed to H5N1 when she visited her ill daughter (who did have exposure to sick chickens). "Evidence points to global organizations and world governments reacting in the same manner as in the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic which killed Tens of millions. Either for social, economic reasons, geographical differences, there is much foot dragging and under-reporting in areas like Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia." In this information age, using online resources of thousands of data bases, the team compiled its opinion. "We say facts are facts. We are declaring Pandemic level 4 for Avian Influenza."(up from level 3)
"H5N1 could pose a risk to a variety of wild birds and mammals. We need to be screening wild birds and mammals in those countries where the virus has been present for some time. We mustn't be totally anthropocentric in our focus on H5N1. It doesn't only kill humans and poultry; it also kills a wide variety of wild birds and carnivorous mammals." H5N1 has killed birds in at least 11 of the 27 avian orders, including gulls, storks, pigeons, eagles, cranes, pelicans, parrots and owls. It has also infected tigers, leopards and domestic cats fed contaminated meat, and ferrets and mice in laboratory studies.
Poultry deaths due to the H5N1 avian influenza virus are spreading in some parts of the world as cases decline elsewhere.
Four in 10 US health professionals will stay away from work in the event of a flu pandemic, a study says.
A major influenza pandemic would make it very difficult for the US healthcare system to maintain routine services, a reality that few Americans are aware of.
About half of Americans lack confidence in their government's ability to handle an outbreak of avian influenza in humans, but few have prepared for the threat.
A large majority of about 300 business officials at a conference in Minneapolis believe that an influenza pandemic would significantly affect their business, but only 18% of the companies have completed a preparedness plan.
Bush suggests military-enforced quarantines for avian flu.

OTHER DISEASES -
CALIFORNIA - A case of BUBONIC PLAGUE has been reported in the second largest US city, Los Angeles, for the first time in 22 years. An unidentified woman came down last week with symptoms of the disease, known as the Black Death, when it devastatingly swept across Europe in the 14th century.Health officials said they believed the infected woman, who remains in hospital, was exposed to fleas in the area around her house and stressed it was unlikely the rare disease would spread. The disease is not uncommon among animals such as squirrels but seldom spreads to humans. Plague symptoms include fever, muscle aches, nausea, headache, sore throat, fatigue and swollen, tender lymph nodes associated with the arm or leg that has flea bites. The disease is treatable with antibiotics.
AUSTRALIA - Sydney harbour fisherman and their families have toxic chemicals in their blood up to ten times higher than the average Australian. In these people you are getting high levels of the most toxic form of dioxin. Commercial fishing was banned in Sydney Harbour in January after tests revealed high levels of dioxin found in the marine life, but recreational fishing is still allowed.
Catching some rays this summer could be more dangerous than ever this year, warn health and environment experts. They advise people that it's especially important to avoid too much sun or to cover up when it's bright outside. Levels of harmful ultraviolet radiation are expected to rise four per cent this year as more radiation reaches land because the Earth's protective ozone layer is thinning. The rate of skin cancer has been rising three to five per cent annually in recent years.
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WEEK through 4/16 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
People living in areas where avian flu has been found in birds should keep their cats inside, European scientists say.
The Bush administration acknowledged last week that its $5.6 billion program to build a supply of medical countermeasures against biological weapons and other threats is struggling and needs help.
The spread of avian flu to the United States probably would not have as much impact as it has had in less developed countries, according to the US government's top infectious-disease official. [SITE OPINION - Well, they better hope that is true since the BioShield program is in such disarray.]
A mathematical modeling study suggests that an only modestly effective vaccine could keep an influenza pandemic from striking more than 10% of the US population, but only if large amounts of vaccine were distributed quickly and the virus was not too highly contagious.
Recognizing that an influenza pandemic may disproportionately affect refugees and internally displaced people, the World Health Organization has issued guidelines for humanitarian organizations working with such populations.
A UN official says bird flu has spread rapidly in Burma, with more than 100 outbreaks among the country's poultry.
Egypt and Indonesia each reported a new human case of avian influenza today, while the World Health Organization confirmed a suspected case in Azerbaijan.

OTHER DISEASES -
Pharmaceutical firms are inventing diseases to sell more drugs, researchers have warned.
IOWA - The mumps epidemic in Iowa continued to widen this week and reached 605 cases by Thursday. Although the highest concentration of cases remained in eastern Iowa, the virus that causes mumps has infected at least one person in half of the state's 99 counties. "I certainly would consider this a serious threat." The state has received about 50 reports of new infections a day, a level which has remained consistent for at least a week. As of Monday, Nebraska has 43 reported cases; Kansas, 33; Illinois, four; Missouri, four; Wisconsin, four; and Minnesota, one. Questions about how the epidemic started and why it has hit Iowa so hard have not yet been answered.
ALABAMA - The past few months have seen a dramatic rise in cases of hypertension, cystitis, rashes and skin eruptions, as well as depression and headaches on the University of Southern Alabama campus. The doctor there credits the campus-wide increase to the strange weather following Katrina, an extended influenza season, and simple stress. The increase in the amount of serious illness being reported is most alarming. Heart disease and psychiatric illness, such as eating disorders, self mutilation, and bipolar disease, are credited to a high stress level among students.
There are now at least 15,000 people with medical problems linked to dust fallout from the 9/11 attacks.
Decline in most foodborne illnesses - The incidence of most major foodborne diseases in 2005 changed little from the previous year and generally continued a slow decline from levels measured in the late 1990s.
AUSTRALIA - Superbug epidemic warning - community acquired methicillan resistant staphylococcus aureus, or CA-MRSA, is increasing for unknown reasons in some parts of Australia and particularly Western Australia. MRSA, or Golden Staph, has long plagued hospital patients but other virulent related strains are now infecting people who have had no hospital contact. "In the past when we've seen the resistant strains, we've seen them in hospitals and they've been resistant to many, many antibiotics. What we're seeing now is something completely different. These patients have had no contact with hospitals, have never acquired these organisms from hospital contact and when you look at the organism genetically, they are quite distinct from the hospital variety." "Our other concern is that some of these strains contain a toxin called Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL), and this toxin actually breaks down white blood cells." Symptoms of community-acquired MRSA could be sores that turned into large abscesses or carbuncles, or wound infections that did not respond to treatment.
A cholera outbreak in Angola that has killed more 150 people since February is spreading.
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WEEK through 4/9 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
Cooking poultry to a temperature of 165°F will ensure it is safe to eat, though higher heat may be desirable for the sake of taste or appearance, the US Department of Agriculture announced.
The human toll of avian influenza in Egypt has risen to 11 cases.
The deaths of four Egyptians have been laid at the door of avian influenza, the World Health Organization confirmed, while Egyptian officials' case tally has reached twice that number.
Deadly H5N1 avian influenza has infected a swan found on the coast of Scotland, the first time the virus has turned up in a wild bird in the British Isles.
The H5N1 virus has sneaked across another border, making Burkina Faso the fifth African nation to lose poultry to the virus.
Avian flu has resurfaced in two countries, killing a 12-year-old boy in Cambodia and sickening a little girl in Egypt.
Growing evidence of H5N1 avian influenza in cats suggests they may play a role in spreading the virus, signaling a need for new precautions.

OTHER DISEASES -
The annual flu is much more contagious than most people think, with the virus staying in the environment for up to eight hours after a person coughs or sneezes, experts have warned. The warning comes at the beginning of influenza season in the Southern Hemisphere, which starts this month and is set to peak between July and September. "More people died from annual seasonal influenza than in the three influenza pandemics." "Infected people can start spreading the disease before they start feeling ill."
The current epidemic of chikungunya in the Indian Ocean basin, which started at the beginning of 2005, is actually more serious than expected. Chikungunya, a rare mosquito-borne disease, has now struck a village in Perak, Malaysia, and 30 cases have been detected by the Health Department since 2 weeks ago. "This is the 1st time that we have detected a chikungunya outbreak in this country since 1999." The disease has been seriously plaguing the island nation of Reunion. Chikungunya is an urban disease resembling dengue and is a relatively rare form of viral fever caused by an alphavirus that is spread by mosquito bites. A stooped posture develops as a result of the arthritic symptoms of the disease.
AUSTRALIA - Tropical cyclone Glenda has resulted in the spread of a potentially fatal mosquito-borne virus in WA's Kimberley and Pilbara regions.

ANIMAL DISEASES -
A nationwide livestock identification system in the U.S. which will help in the investigation and control of animal disease outbreaks will be fully operational by 2009.
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WEEK through 4/2 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
BRITAIN - Plans for mass burials are being considered as part of Home Office preparations for a possible bird flu pandemic. A confidential report says a "prudent worst case" assessment suggested 320,000 could die there if the H5N1 virus mutated into a human form. It warns the prospect of "common burial" would stir up images of the mass pits used to bury victims of the Great Plague in 1665.
AN experimental vaccine against H5N1 bird flu only appears to work at the very highest doses, 12 times higher than a normal dose, meaning it will be harder than feared to protect people against a pandemic.
A second Egyptian has died of H5N1 avian influenza, and the virus may have infected a mink in Sweden, according to recent reports.

OTHER DISEASES -
Researchers have announced a new approach to making a vaccine for the foodborne illness listeriosis that may also bode well for fighting certain other infections, including salmonellosis and tuberculosis.
ETHIOPIA - children are facing an outbreak of lethal diseases, from diarrhoea to malaria, after short rain showers hit parts of the country's drought-stricken Oromia region. The showers have not been enough to undo the damage of two failed rainy seasons in the parched and remote lowland region on the border with Kenya. Child malnutrition levels are still at alarming levels and livestock deaths continue to climb. But the rain in some limited areas has been enough to form shallow pools near villages, pools that are potential breeding grounds for malaria. Rain water is also washing through the piles of dead animals that are forming outside most communities and flowing on to pollute the few remaining water sources. Long-range weather forecasters have been warning for the past months that the seasonal April rains are expected to fail this year. If this happens, the current acute emergency situation across the Horn of Africa will turn into a true humanitarian disaster.
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WEEK through 3/26 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
The H5N1 strain of bird flu in humans has evolved into two separate strains, US researchers reported, which could complicate developing a vaccine and preventing a pandemic. One strain, or clade, made people sick in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand in 2003 and 2004 and a second, a cousin of the first, caused the disease in people in Indonesia in 2004. Two clades may share the same ancestor but are distinct - as are different clades, or strains, of the AIDS virus. The pool of H5N1 candidates with the potential to cause a human influenza pandemic is getting more genetically diverse, which makes studying the virus more complex and heightens the need for increased surveillance.
Israel and Pakistan are the latest countries to join the lengthening list of nations dealing with outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in birds, while officials in Russia and Malaysia are worried about growing numbers of outbreaks.
RUSSIA - Russian officials report the country has a third major outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza. Thirty-thousand birds died in a 24-hour period in southern Russia - including almost 22,000 in the Krasnodar region with the rest in Daghestan. Officials say southern Russia is especially vulnerable to the disease because of the number of migrating birds that pass through the area. So far, more than 350,000 birds have died of disease or been culled in Krasnodar and 760,000 in Daghestan.
A new study suggests that the reason the H5N1 avian influenza virus infects humans relatively rarely and does not spread from person to person is that it lacks the right key to unlock many cells in the upper respiratory tract, and instead locks onto cells deeper in the lungs.

OTHER DISEASES -
CANADA - Two hospitals in British Columbia have closed wards after outbreaks of Norwalk virus left about 90 staff and patients with stomach cramps, nausea and diarrhea.
THAILAND - A serious disease outbreak in Thailand's northern province of Nan put weapon specialists and U.S. disease investigators on full alert on Monday. Almost 150 people in the province have been stricken by botulism, a rare yet lethal bacterial disease that could potentially be used as a biological weapon. Health authorities have sought international assistance treating the patients. Since March 4, 143 villagers in Nan's Ban Luang district have been diagnosed as suffering from botulism. All of the patients reportedly have eaten dishes containing preserved bamboo shoots from the same batch at a merit-making feast in their village last week. Fears of a biological attack arose because of the number of people falling ill at one time.
Worldwide cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, have declined about 50% per year over the last three years, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization announced.
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WEEK through 3/19 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
AFGHANISTAN & MYANMAR have joined the company of countries hit by H5N1 avian influenza with the confirmation of the virus in chickens in both countries.
ISRAEL - tested hundreds of dead turkeys that died on farms in the western Negev region for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.
DENMARK - Tests have shown that a wild buzzard found south of Copenhagen carried the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus.
A stray dog dies of bird flu in Azerbaijan - reportedly the first time the deadly virus has killed a dog.
Azerbaijan reports three human deaths from avian flu - the first such fatalities in the country.

OTHER DISEASES -
A cow in Alabama tests positive for BSE, bringing the number of "mad cow disease" cases in the US to three.
 There is mounting evidence of a link between antibiotic use in infancy and asthma in children, studies suggest. Those treated with antibiotics under the age of one are twice as likely to develop asthma in childhood. Additional courses of antibiotics in the first year of life increased asthma risk still further.
WASHINGTON - FLESH-EATING DISEASE - A Tacoma woman with a shaving cut on her leg apparently died of a flesh-eating bacteria infection. She went to the hospital emergency room last Wednesday with flu-like symptoms and abdominal pain. After tests, the hospital gave her painkillers and sent her home. She returned the next day and was put in intensive care. Her organs failed and she was rushed into surgery but later died.
Researchers using satellite data to track places on Earth where disease epidemics could get started. The team was able to link the outbreak of diseases in Africa with dryness and drought. By using data which focuses on a region's landscape – rainfall, vegetation, water bodies, elevation, dust mapping and temperature – researchers are able to pinpoint climatic conditions which are favourable for harbouring various epidemic hosts, indicating where people are at greatest risk.
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WEEK through 3/12 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
The human toll of H5N1 avian influenza mounted again with reports of the deaths of two young Indonesian patients, while authorities in Azerbaijan were investigating a cluster of 10 suspected human cases in one village.
BURMA has found the H5N1 bird flu virus in chickens in what was believed to be the country's first case of the deadly disease.
CAMEROON became the fourth African country to report an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu on and authorities in Burma tested scores of dead birds for the virus.
The dangerous H5N1 form of the bird flu virus could reach Canada and the rest of North America within six to 12 months, according to the United Nations' top avian flu preparedness official.
'Weasel' diagnosed with bird flu - A stone marten on the German island of Ruegen has been infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus. A member of the weasel family, it is the first animal of this species to be reported infected with the virus, which has also affected three cats on the same Baltic island. The cats are believed to have contracted the disease from eating the wild birds which brought the deadly H5N1 to Germany in mid-February.
AUSTRIA says it has detected the potentially lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu in several live cats.

OTHER DISEASES -
MADAGASCAR - has recorded the first cases of a mosquito-borne disease that has caused havoc and is linked to 93 deaths on Reunion Island, to the east. The African state did not release figures for the number of people affected by the chikungunya virus, but called it a sporadic outbreak. The symptoms of chikungunya include high fever, dehydration and severe pain - and there is no known cure. The crippling disease has afflicted 20% of Reunion Islanders in the past year. Other Indian Ocean islands, including Mayotte, Mauritius and the Seychelles, have also recorded cases, but its presence on Madagascar puts 18 million inhabitants at risk.
MEASLES - The number of people dying of measles across the world has fallen by almost half (48%), the latest figures show.
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WEEK through 3/5 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
A military-style surveillance network should be set up to identify early signs of a human flu pandemic, US doctors say.
 More than half of Americans are concerned about the threat of avian influenza reaching the United States, but few are "very concerned" and fewer still have looked into getting an antiviral drug to protect themselves.
The H5N1 avian influenza virus has spread to Niger and Bosnia-Herzegovina, media outlets said today, and testing is under way on birds found dead in Switzerland, Pakistan, and Kenya.
GERMAN officials have found a dead cat infected with a form of the H5N1 bird flu virus.
EUROPE braced for further spread of the H5N1 avian influenza virus in the wake of reports that the virus was suspected in the deaths of two wild ducks on Sweden's Baltic coast.
POLAND has its first case of H5N1, the most virulent strain of bird flu.

OTHER DISEASES -
Traces of a cancer-causing chemical have been found in British soft drinks at eight times the level permitted in drinking water. Benzene, which can cause certain cancers, is thought to be formed when two commonly used ingredients react. The results came in industry tests prompted by the FSA after the chemical was found in tests on drinks in the US.
It's the middle of cold and flu season, but Canada's public health agency reports flu cases are way down this year.
Mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus in the U.S. changed from feeding on birds to humans in the fall, resulting in more human cases, researchers say. Since West Nile virus was first detected in North America in 1999, it has become a major mosquito-borne disease on the continent. In Europe and Africa, human outbreaks have been more sporadic than in the U.S. The mosquito "shifted its feeding preferences from birds to humans by seven-fold during late summer and early fall, coinciding with the dispersal of its preferred host (American robins, Turdus migratorius)."
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WEEK through 2/26 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
BIRD flu was likely to cross over into people again and again if it even once acquired the ability to pass from human to human, experts have warned. In theory, the virus only has to mutate once, in one person, to spark a pandemic. But the researchers argue that this could happen again and again, in several places around the world. They said even if the pandemic killing birds passed, no one should breathe a sign of relief because the threat to people would not be gone. "At best, a containment policy will only postpone the emergence of a pandemic, 'buying time' to prepare for its effects." "Each containment effort would likely be more difficult than the last as manpower, antiviral stockpiles, and other scarce resources become depleted."
H5N1 avian influenza has infected birds in 14 more countries since the beginning of this month, and recent genetic changes in the virus may have something to do with its rapid spread in birds.
H5N1 virus has been found in wild birds in yet another European country, Slovakia, while tests of samples from 95 people in India have revealed no cases of avian influenza so far.
SWITZERLAND has confirmed its first avian flu case, but further tests are needed to determine if it is the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus. Switzerland has been high alert for a bird flu outbreak after the virus was reported in neighbours France, Germany, Austria and Italy. The country this month ordered all poultry be kept indoors for an indefinite period to lessen infection risks.
MORE wild birds found dead in eastern France were victims of the lethal strain of H5N1 bird flu and Hong Kong joined Japan in banning poultry imports from France. China has warned of possible widespread outbreaks of the flu during the coming spring bird migratory season and has announced two more human cases of the virus. The deadly form of bird flu appears to be taking hold in wild birds across Germany after more outbreaks in the north of the country and the first suspected cases in the region around the capital Berlin. Romania said the H5N1 strain of the virus has been found in the south-east - the country's 35th outbreak - but tests are continuing to determine whether it is the highly pathogenic variant. Human fatalities from the disease have been recorded in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Iraq, Turkey and Vietnam.
GEORGIA - Authorities in the former Soviet republic of Georgia reported finding H5N1 avian influenza in swans, making Georgia the 16th country to report its first case this month.
Influenza is naturally an aquatic migratory bird virus that is carried by ducks, geese and a small list of other waterfowl. Influenza infection is usually harmless to these world travelers, but can kill other types of birds, such as chickens, domestic ducks and swans. For at least a decade H5N1 has circulated among a small pool of migrating birds, mostly inside China, and occasionally broken out in other animals and people. Last May, however, more than 6,000 avian carcasses piled up along the shores of Lake Qinghai, in central China, one of the world's most important bird breeding sites. Most of the dead included species that hadn't previously evidenced influenza infection. The Lake Qinghai moment was the tipping point in the bird flu pandemic. The virus mutated, evidently becoming more contagious and deadly to a broader range of bird species. By June or July, if the biological imperatives continue to follow their course, H5N1 should turn up in eastern Siberia, and then Alaska, via the East Asia flyway. It might also at that time jump from Iceland, via Greenland, to northern Canada. Once in the Arctic zones of the Americas, H5N1 will be able to follow any, or all, of the four primary north/south flyways that span the Americas, from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego. It is in the realm of reasonable probability that H5N1 will reach the United States this summer or early autumn. Rather than waiting for a tide of H5N1 to wash over the world's birds, mutate, and then move in a tidal wave over humanity, we should create lines of defense that start with the wild animals, move next to protect poultry, and then rely on rapid screening of human beings to determine who is, and is not, infected with the virus. In the absence of these sound footings, everything else is just wasted billions of dollars. Despite the commitment of billions of dollars to the fight against pandemic influenza, the world may lose the battle against avian flu, for lack of an effective strategy.

OTHER DISEASES -
New infectious diseases are now emerging at an exceptional rate. Humans are accumulating new pathogens at a rate of one per year. This meant that agencies and governments would have to work harder than ever before to keep on top of the threat. Most of these new infectious diseases, such as avian influenza and HIV/Aids, are coming from other animals. "This accumulation of new pathogens has been going on for millennia - this is how we acquired TB, malaria, smallpox. But at the moment, this accumulation does seem to be happening very fast. We're going to have to run as fast as we can to stay in the same place. So it seems there is something special about modern times - these are good times for pathogens to be invading the human population."
As deforestation increases by 1% in Peru, the number of malaria-bearing mosquitoes increases by 8%. Diseases such as the Nipah virus and Dengue Fever, which were relatively rare only a few decades ago, have increased exponentially as forests have been cleared in Asia, Africa and South America and urbanisation allowed to run rampant. Indeed, as humanity has exploited nature more and more, previously unknown diseases have been unleashed.
ANTHRAX - A 44-year-old New York City man has inhalational anthrax — the first U.S. case since 2001 — possibly as a result of using African animal hides to make drums.
Preventable diseases kill 29,000 children under the age of five EVERY DAY around the world.
REUNION - A mosquito-borne disease in the Indian Ocean island of Reunion has hit 20% of the population.
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WEEK of 2/19 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
One expert's advice to leaders trying to prepare the world for an influenza pandemic: Don't be scared of scaring people. Fear is what motivates people to take sensible precautions in the face of a real threat. Leaders are often reluctant to tell the truth about dangers because they fear causing panic. "There's no way to get people to take precautions without frightening them." What is likely to lead to panic is giving false reassurance. "When you mislead people, when you overreassure people, they feel abandoned — because they are." That's what happened in the United States during the flu pandemic of 1918 and during the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in China in 2003. "People panicked because the government was telling them there was no SARS. People are much better able to handle a crisis when they are told the truth" and "treated as adults." "There's an unknown probability of a pandemic of very high magnitude." To say that a severe pandemic is inevitable is "dishonest," and it gives ammunition to those who argue that the threat is trivial.
If the next influenza pandemic imitates past ones and plays out in waves, the first wave might serve as a warning that gives the world a little time to prepare for the worst.
The latest key facts about the status of bird flu in Europe.
INDIA & FRANCE - Big poultry producers India and France confirmed their first cases of H5N1 bird flu as the deadly disease continued its geographical spread from Asia.
SLOVENIA became the latest European Union country to detect H5N1 bird flu as Iraq reported a second human death from the virus which an EU medical expert warned was likely to spread further.
Germany and Austria become the latest European countries to confirm cases of the virulent strain of bird flu.
BRITAIN is increasingly likely to be hit by bird flu.
EGYPT - The first cases of the deadly strain of avian flu in Egypt have been confirmed.

OTHER DISEASES -
REUNION - The toll in the Indian Ocean island of Reunion from the CHIKUNGUNYA VIRUS that causes crippling pain in the joints was likely to reach 100,000 by last week. The tally of cases in the island of Mayotte, a French overseas territory in the Comoros Indian Ocean archipelago, was expected to rise to more than 500. Reunion, a French department with a population of 776,000, first detected chikungunya in March 2005. It was BIGGEST EPIDEMIC OF CHIKUNGUNYA EVER RECORDED ANYWHERE. Chikungunya is caused by a virus spread by mosquito. It is not known to be fatal but can cause painful swelling of joints in the body, leaving victims stooped and limiting their movements. Symptoms eventually disappear over time. There is no vaccine.
Hospitals struggle with a serious new GUT MICROBE - A diarrhea-causing bacterium has developed new resistance to a widely used class of antibiotics and has recently become more transmissible and more deadly. About 3 years ago, "all of a sudden, we were having patients so sick that they needed the ICU [intensive-care unit]." The same illness was also sending patients to the morgue as never before. They weren't succumbing to the ailment that brought them to the hospital. Instead, they seemed to have gotten sick from their antibiotic treatment.

ANIMAL DISEASES -
ARGENTINA - FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE - The world's No. 3 beef exporter known for its succulent steaks made from pasture-fed cattle, Argentina last week confirmed an outbreak of the highly contagious disease in the northeastern province of Corrientes. Although the ailment does not generally harm humans, beef imports from there will be shunned in the world market.
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WEEK through 2/12 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
If estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prove accurate, a third of the U.S. population could be affected by a global bird flu epidemic, but emergency departments are not prepared to handle the onslaught of patients such a pandemic would.
CHINA - health authorities in northern China have placed 35 people under observation after 15,000 fowl died of bird flu on the farm where they were working.
GREECE - the Greek agriculture ministry said it had isolated an H5 avian flu virus strain in migratory swans found in the north of the country.
BULGARIA - veterinary authorities have detected two more cases of the H5 bird flu virus in swans in wetlands in northeastern Bulgaria.
The discovery of bird flu in Nigeria caps a devastating seven months in which the H5N1 virus had spread rapidly from South-East Asia into Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and now sub-Saharan Africa.
NIGERIA - will kill all poultry at farms where suspicious deaths have occurred in a bid to contain bird flu. Chickens started dying four weeks ago, leading to fears that the H5N1 bird flu strain may have already spread widely. An outbreak of bird flu could have devastating consequences in a country where millions of people rear chickens as a basic source of income. Farmers are rushing to sell dead chickens in markets before restrictions are imposed. Experts have long feared that if H5N1 reached Africa, it could quickly take hold and spread out of control.
NIGERIA confirmed Africa's first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu today and announced emergency measures after the virus killed more than 40,000 poultry on a single farm.
INDONESIA - Four more bird flu cases confirmed in Indonesia As the number of human cases of avian influenza in Indonesia continues to climb, the country is ramping up efforts to stem its spread.

OTHER DISEASES -
UNITED KINGDOM - A third person is confirmed to have developed vCJD following a contaminated blood transfusion.
DUTCH - health authorities were to begin carrying out a preventative cull of some 3500 pigs from 10 farms that bought animal feed which could contain high concentrations of cancer-causing dioxin.
Girls are reaching puberty 18 months earlier than their mothers, and almost two years earlier than their grandmothers. Girls currently start puberty at an average of 10.25 years of age. 'Precocious puberty' is a growing trend. "We have not really thought about the possibility that lifestyle factors might influence something so primitive and profound as the arrival of puberty, but it might very well be that they have an impact."

ANIMAL DISEASES -
Moose in Minnesota are dying faster than normal. Specifically, these moose are dying from parasites: brain worms and liver flukes. It appears the parasites "caused those individual moose to starve to death." That's "really contrary to what parasites are supposed to do." Parasites are not supposed to kill the animal. The moose are dying in greatest numbers within a year of a very hot summer. There were four-thousand moose here in the late eighties. Today there are 250. The rate of pregnancy here is also low now - half of what's normal.
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WEEK through 2/5 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
New bird flu scare in north Iraq - Twelve people suspected of having the H5N1 strain of bird flu are being treated in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Maintaining water and power may be job one in pandemic - Keeping the taps flowing, the lights glowing, and food on the shelves may be a higher priority than caring for the ill during an influenza pandemic, the United Nations' coordinator for avian and pandemic flu has said.
Iraq confirms human bird flu case, suspects more - Updated information on a teen-aged girl's death means that Iraq has joined the unenviable fraternity of nations hit by human cases of H5N1 influenza.
Pandemic planning handbook for individuals and families.

OTHER DISEASES -
A crippling mosquito-borne disease is spreading at an accelerating rate on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, health officials say. They say the number of cases of the viral illness, known as chikungunya, had risen to 50,000, an increase of 15,000 in the past week alone. The disease is not fatal, but those affected suffer high fever and severe pain. There is no cure or vaccine.
MALARIA - Scientists say they have developed a computer model that can tell them whether a malaria season will be mild or severe five months before it occurs. Experts say the information provided by the model gives public health officials in countries with limited resources time to prepare for a severe malaria outbreak. Controlling malaria is a top priority for international health officials. The mosquito-borne illness infects 500 million people worldwide each year, killing an estimated one million, most of them children. The problem is greatest in sub-Saharan Africa. Weather is one of the key factors in predicting outbreaks. Malaria epidemics usually follow wet rainy seasons. The 2006 malaria season should not be too bad.
Parasites that make their homes in the tropics are moving north. There is anecdotal data of malaria outbreaks at higher elevations. "You think about vacationing in Mexico and risking coming down with … diarrhea. Well, all those parasites endemic to tropical areas, they're moving northward as well. People are talking about dengue fever, cholera, malaria in higher frequencies and outside their normal ranges."

In Minnesota, cases of seasonal flu are way down, likely because of the unusually warm weather. This January there have been 30 cases statewide, while in 2005 there were 800 cases and in 2004 there were 900. Flu typically reaches its peak in mid-February.

ANIMAL DISEASES -
WISCONSIN - cows are getting sick with respiratory ailments because they are breathing in damp air. Cows are coughing, running fevers and some have even died because it's hard to keep fresh air circulating in dairy barns when the outside air is so clammy as it has been with the unusually warm winter weather.
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WEEK through 1/29 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
Bird Flu Fact Sheet.
CYPRUS - The deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu has been detected in a sample taken from a dead bird in northern Cyprus.
Avian flu deaths reported in Indonesia, China - A 22-year-old chicken seller in Indonesia died after testing positive for avian influenza, and a young Chinese woman whose case was reported previously also succumbed to the disease this week.
China says ill woman is 10th human bird flu case there. A 36-year-old Chinese woman was in critical condition in Chengdu City, suffering from what the Chinese authorities announced was the country's 10th human case of H5N1 avian flu.
WHO issues rapid-response plan for flu pandemic - The World Health Organization has released a draft plan for nipping a potential influenza pandemic in the bud, saying that even if such an attempt fails, it may buy precious time to make more vaccine and improve other preparations.
Scientists are looking for traces of a deadly avian flu virus in the wilderness of Alaska and the Yukon. Wild waterfowl or migrating shorebirds from Asia could introduce the H5N1 avian influenza to North America in Alaska.

OTHER DISEASES -
Doctors on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion are battling an epidemic of a crippling mosquito-borne disease that has no known cure. About 7,200 cases of "chikungunya" had been recorded, including 1,600 cases last week alone. Chikungunya is Swahili for "that which bends up" and refers to the stooped posture of those afflicted by the non-fatal disease for which there is no known vaccine or cure.
Canada reports its fourth BSE case. Canada today reported its fourth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, raising concern about the possibility of another US ban on Canadian beef and cattle.
Japan again bans US beef over BSE fears. Japan has again banned American beef following the discovery last week of cattle spine material in an imported shipment, a violation of the recent bilateral agreement designed to keep beef tainted with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) out of Japan.
Brain-wasting disease - The infectious proteins that cause brain-wasting disease have been found in the leg muscles of infected deer. There is no evidence people have caught the disease from infected deer. But the new findings suggest hunters could potentially be exposed from sick animals. Chronic wasting disease affects ranched elk and wild deer in Saskatchewan and Alberta. It is also found in deer and elk across the U.S. West and Midwest. Like BSE or mad cow disease, chronic wasting disease is a "transmissible spongiform encephalopathy."
Asthma rates among children in some parts of North America are four times higher than they were 20 years ago, says a new report that examined links between pollutants and the disease of the airways.
A group of Canadian doctors is warning that some toddlers are suffering strokes as a result of untreated ear infections and that the number of strokes may be on the increase.
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WEEK through 1/22 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
TURKISH authorities are optimistic that the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu could be brought under control, after two toddlers were discharged from an Ankara hospital and a third child was steadily improving from the lethal virus.
Second mutation in Turkey H5N1 virus suggests adaptation to humans . A new report in Nature cites more evidence that mutations detected in H5N1 avian influenza viruses recovered from patients in Turkey may better equip the viruses to infect humans.
'Bird flu secrecy' angers Turkey - Turkey says neighbouring countries are hampering its fight against bird flu by refusing to declare outbreaks of the virus.
A dead bird in Hong Kong has tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
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WEEKs through 1/16 -
BIRD FLU PANDEMIC -
Solving the Earth's environmental problems means addressing the size of its human population, says the head of the UK's Antarctic research agency. The current global population of six billion is unsustainably high. Population is the "Cinderella" issue of the environmental movement, but unless it is addressed, the welfare and quality of life of future generations will suffer. "If we believe that the size of the human [ecological] 'footprint' is a serious problem, and there is much evidence for this, then a rational view would be that along with a raft of measures to reduce the footprint per person, the issue of population management must be addressed." A number of studies suggest that humankind is consuming the Earth's resources at an unsustainably fast rate. Even so, the issue of population is hardly ever discussed at environmental summits or raised by green lobby groups. It is a thorny question, invoking the spectre of forced population control and even eugenics. He does not make suggestions about how the current upward trend, from the current six billion towards eight or nine billion by 2050, can be reversed.
Third 'bird flu' death in Turkey - An 11-year-old girl dies of bird flu in eastern Turkey, days after her brother and sister.
Bird flu found in China's Sichuan - A new outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus is reported in China's south-western province of Sichuan.
Officials fear avian flu may become endemic in Turkey - The rapid spread of avian influenza across Turkey in recent days has generated criticism of the country's response to the disease and concern that the virus may become too well-established to eradicate any time soon.
H5N1 virus change may ease jump from birds to humans - An H5N1 avian influenza virus recovered from a Turkish patient has a mutation that may enable the virus to spread more easily from birds to humans, though the finding's significance for human health is not yet clear.
Turkey has supplanted Southeast Asia as the hotbed of avian flu news over the past few days, with 14 human cases, three of them fatal, confirmed by the Ministry of Health there and cases in birds reported in 10 of the country's 81 provinces.
Five new human cases of bird flu have been confirmed in several Turkish provinces, pushing the number of people infected up to 14. The cases, identified as being of the deadly H5N1 strain, mean the virus is now present in the east, north and centre of the country. At least two Turkish children have died, and correspondents say fear is spreading rapidly across the country. Health experts say there is no sign the virus is passing from human to human. "There's no disease in urban areas, the only human cases are from people who've been in direct contact with poultry."
The number of cases of bird flu in humans may have been hugely under-reported, a study says. Swedish researchers interviewed nearly 46,000 people from Vietnam, where there have been 87 cases of bird flu. They found that more than 8,000 had had flu-like symptoms and up to 750 cases could have been down to sick birds.

OTHER DISEASES -
OREGON - While a half-dozen cases of meningococcal disease within a year in Oregon is not considered unusual,the concern is whether there is an upward trend in the current outbreak. Meningococcal disease symptoms can start out much like the flu, but the infection can spread quickly through the body, causing a tell-tale purple rash. If not treated quickly, victims can lose limbs to amputation or even die. What is ESPECIALLY UNUSUAL this year is that the cases of meningococcal disease are happening within just a matter of days of one another and are also happening in a relatively small area. Early symptoms include sudden fever, headache and a stiff neck. Nausea, vomiting and seizures often accompany those symptoms. After the disease has taken hold, a red or purple rash can appear. Once that rash appears, or the symptoms are unusually sudden or severe, you should see a doctor right away. Meningococcal disease usually occurs in late winter and early spring.
Warming 'to boost food bugs' - Climate change could lead to a dramatic rise in cases of food poisoning and water-borne disease.

ANIMALS -
TRINIDAD - Thousands of chickens have mysteriously dropped dead at several farms in Trinidad over the last four weeks but authorities ruled out the deadly bird flu virus as the cause. Officials believed the chickens in Trinidad were dying because of a fungal disease of the respiratory tract caused by Aspergillus fumigatus, a kind of mold.
Results of a new study provide the first clear proof that global warming is causing outbreaks of an infectious disease that is wiping out entire frog populations and driving many species to extinction. Warming may alter the dynamics of a skin fungus that is fatal to amphibians. The climate-driven fungal disease has hundreds of species around the world teetering on the brink of extinction or has already pushed them into the abyss. The Earth's rising temperatures enhance cloud cover on tropical mountains, leading to cooler days and warmer nights, both of which favor the chytrid fungus. The organism grows and reproduces best at temperatures between 63 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit (17 to 25 degrees centigrade). The fungus kills frogs mostly in cool highlands or during winter, implying that low temperatures make it more deadly. So the idea that it flourishes in warm years, which the evidence now supports, is new. "Disease is the bullet that's killing the frogs. But climate change is pulling the trigger. Global warming is wreaking havoc on amphibians, and soon will cause staggering losses of biodiversity." The message goes beyond amphibians: global warming and the accompanying emergence of infectious diseases are a real and immediate threat to biodiversity and a growing challenge for humankind.
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Page on Global Epidemic with articles from 2000