Brucellosis

Milan Šatník, Peter Freestone, photo: ČTK/Michal Krumphanzl Peter Freestone was a close friend of Freddie Mercury, and his personal assistant for a dozen years before the singer died of AIDS in 1991. A decade later, the Englishman moved to the Czech Republic, where he has worked on various projects for young people that centre around music. Seven years ago, Mr Freestone teamed up with local singer and Queen fanatic Milan Šatník on a project to educate schoolchildren about HIV and AIDS named in Freddie Mercury’s honour, called the “Titanic Freddie AIDS” project. Mr Freestone says the move to revisit Czech schools and take the project global was long in the works. The release of the film “Bohemian Rhapsody” – for which he was a consultant – was a most welcome, fortuitous development, he says. “We originally did it seven years ago and covered all of the students in the schools – so, you have to give it a break to get new students in, so that it has some effect. Nobody dreamt that the ...

Sundance Cold Case Hammarskjöld wound up being the last film I saw at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and, surprisingly (for me, anyway) it will be the one I leave thinking about the most. (Meaning, I only saw this because people I trust said, “This is good,” and it also fit in to my schedule.) This is the type of documentary that, while watching, it’s surreal because I kept wondering to myself, “Why am I in the mountains of Utah learning this information? Shouldn’t this be in the news right now ?” The revelations in this film, if true (and, boy, they sure do seem true), would change how a lot of us look at the world. I debated if I would write about these revelations because they would be considered “spoilery” I suppose, but I feel like they are too important not to mention. Cold Case Hammarskjöld might just set the world on fire. Mads Brügger’s film starts as, theoretically, a (strangely) meta investigation into the mysterious 1961 plane crash that killed then-U.N. general s...

Based on a cooperation agreement concluded last year, in the 1st quarter of 2019 JSC Olainfarm will be delivering its PAS- sodium anti-tuberculosis medicine, to the World Health Organisation (WHO) for a total of more than 1 million U.S. dollars. PAS-sodium is a widely known tuberculosis treatment drug that has proven its effectiveness globally, and the WHO is using it to treat tuberculosis in developing countries throughout Asia and Africa.      Oļegs Grigorjevs, Chairman of the Board, notes that cooperation with the WHO has been ongoing since 2011 when Olainfarm got qualified as a trusted WHO partner for the anti-tuberculosis programme; it has since regularly engaged in WHO procurement tenders. “Global competition within this segment is extremely fierce, and we are glad to see that Olainfarm meets the most stringent WHO quality requirements for partners delivering these drugs; we are a proud long-standing partner for the anti-tuberculosis programme”, the head of ...

A few miles outside of Farmington on Highway AA in Ste. Genevieve County is an unusual sight that draws the attention of motorists as they drive by. Several elk graze placidly in a pasture along the road surrounded by eight foot tall fencing. This stands out to local hunters — especially compared to the much smaller whitetail deer. Kevin Hinkebein has been breeding elk for the antlers and meat on his ranch for almost three decades. “I started raising elk in the fall of 1990,” he said. “[I] purchased a pair of elk from Rush Johnson, the founding father of the North American Elk Breeders Association. I joined the association in 1990, the year it was formed.” This was the beginning of the Hinkebein Elk Ranch, and it has been thriving ever since. His operation has grown to 58 head of elk on roughly 20 acres of fenced in pasture. In the Farmington area, many people remember Hinkebein when he was working for the USDA Rural Development writing loans and grants as a program sp...

When the Department of Conservation tallied the number of feral hogs eliminated from January through December 2018, the final count resulted in 9,365 feral hogs removed from the state’s landscape by the Department, partner agencies and private landowners. In 2017, 6,561 feral hogs were removed. MDC and partners have implemented a new strategy to feral hog elimination, dividing the areas where feral hogs are present into elimination areas 1 through 6. Trapping is currently ongoing in each zone. Zone one, near the Harry S. Truman Reservoir and Stockton Lake, is benefiting from a significantly reduced population of feral hogs. The goal continues to be complete elimination of feral hogs from Missouri. Mark McLain, feral hog elimination team leader, said the Department is partnering with many agricultural and conservation groups and hundreds of private landowners, all committed to eliminating feral hogs from Missouri. Landowners and the public are a crucial element of this effort, especi...

(SAN ANTONIO) — A groundbreaking procedure performed on a young bottlenose dolphin being housed at SeaWorld San Antonio has helped to secure its future as marine officials search for its forever home. A female bottlenose dolphin named Rimmy, who was rescued in 2017 after becoming stranded at the Sea Rim State Park in Texas off the Gulf of Mexico, underwent the first-ever spinal tap performed on a dolphin in early December of 2018, Dr. Hendrik Nollens, vice president of SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment’s veterinary services, told ABC News. Rimmy, estimated to be around 3 or 4 years old, was treated for 14 months for multiple ailments, including pneumonia and nasal parasites at the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network’s Galveston center after she was first rescued, according to SeaWorld. Before the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration could find a permanent home for Rimmy at a facility with other dolphins, veterinarians had to rule out a bacterial infection in her centr...

Thursday Jan 31, 2019 at 11:31 AM Jan 31, 2019 at 11:34 AM Officials have found disease-causing bacteria contaminating raw milk from a Dutchess County dairy, the state Department of Agriculture and Markets announced Wednesday. The state has not had any reports of illness caused by the milk. Ag and Markets Commissioner Richard Ball warned consumers that a sample taken Jan. 25 from Shunpike Dairy in Millbrook tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes, the bacterium that causes listeriosis. Further testing confirmed the contamination on Jan, 30. The state has prohibited the producer from selling raw milk until further testing shows their product is free of harmful bacteria. Officials said anyone who bought raw milk from Shunpike Dairy should discard it immediately. Listeriosis is a serious infection which causes short-term flu-like symptoms such as high fever, severe headaches, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea in h...

Adding azithromycin to malaria chemoprevention did not reduce incidence of death or hospitalization among African children compared with placebo, a randomized trial found. In an intent-to-treat analysis, there were 250 deaths or hospital admissions among the azithromycin group versus 238 in the placebo group (IRR 1.1, 95% CI 0.88-1.3), reported Daniel Chandramohan, PhD, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and colleagues. However, those in the azithromycin group had less frequent rates of gastrointestinal infections, upper respiratory tract infections, and non-malarial febrile illnesses, the authors wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine These findings were also presented at the World Health Organization executive board meeting currently being held in Geneva. Mass administration of azithromycin has helped with trachoma control, the authors said, as well as reductions in skin, GI, and upper respiratory infection. But they noted the "surprising" r...

Artemisinin is derived from the leaves and flowers of the annual mugwort ( Artemisia annua ) and has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries. The effectiveness was investigated by the Chinese researcher Tu Youyou. Her research was 2015 rewarded with the Nobel Prize. Artemisinin and its semi-synthetic derivatives -- collectively known as artemisinins -- are used to treat the tropical infectious disease malaria. In addition, these molecules also influence multiple cellular processes in humans. For example, artemisinins are able to activate the immune system against several types of cancer or to regulate the differentiation of pancreatic T-cells, which could potentially be useful in the therapy of diabetes. Molecular Mechanisms so far unknown "Although this clinically-approved drug class is well established and has been used in some extent for centuries, it was unclear which molecular mechanisms underlie the corresponding cellular activities, such as target protein...

S cientists have extracted the DNA from one tiny mosquito for the first time, heralding an “enormous breakthrough” in the fight against malaria . The procedure required taking DNA from just one mosquito, which has not previously been possible because of how small the insects are. Traditional DNA models are taken from a patchwork of dozens of mosquitoes.  The advance will enable scientists to create a full, high quality picture of its genetic sequence, allowing researchers to study how the insects spread disease, adapt to insecticides and reproduce.  This could have significant implications  in the stalling battle to eradicate malaria , which still kills roughly 435,000 people each year. The World Health Organization estimated there were 219 million cases of the disease in 2017, rising from 216 million the year before. The new genetic sequencing technology will give researchers a better understanding of the mosquitoes themsel...

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Recent drug-resistant Brucella incidents are behind CDC's latest HAN warning    Food Safety News The new national public health warning about the risk of exposure to drug-resistant Brucella from raw milk is over three incidents dating back to 2017, acc. http://bit.ly/2MNvurn

A new guideline on the management of gonorrhea has been issued by the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV. The 2019 guideline introduced changes made to the 2011 guideline including: removing the recommendation for dual therapy with azithromycin, increasing the dose of ceftriaxone, recommending the use of ciprofloxacin in certain cases, and adding extra-genital testing in cases of known or suspected antimicrobial resistance. “These new guidelines set out the latest evidence-based recommendations for the management and treatment of gonorrhea,” said Olwen Williams, FRCP, FLSW, President of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH). Olwen added that updating the guidelines has been a “major priority for BASHH in recent months” due to the concerning spread of antibiotic-resistant strains of gonorrhea (GC). There has been a growing awareness across Europe of antibiotic-resistant strains of gonorrhea. In September 2018, the European Center for Disease Prevention ...

THERE have been more people getting chlamydia in Limerick than the flu and winter vomiting bug combined, according to new HSE figures. Statistics published by the director of public health Mid-West this week show that there were 1,746 cases of chlamydia trachomatis in Limerick between 2013 and 2017. The figures have also shown an increase in detections in Limerick since 2013. In 2013, there were 334 cases, which has risen to 410 in 2017. Chlamydia is a notified infectious disease on the HSE radar. While there is an increase in recorded chlamydia cases, this could mean more patients presenting to clinics, coupled with more tests being conducted. There were 1,054 cases of genital warts since 2013, though there has been a significant decrease in detections over the four-year period. In 2013, there were 303 cases, which dipped to 168 in 2017. In the same four years, there were 905 cases of the flu and 303 detections of norovirus, also known as the winter vomiting bug. The most commo...

No association was found between age advancement and ethnicity, sexual orientation or lifestyle factors. Associations were observed between an increased age advancement and CMV, chronic HBV, CD4 cell count, CD8 cell count and the CD4/CD8 ratio. Among the HIV-positive participants, the parameters found to be positively correlated to biological age advancement were the time since HIV diagnosis, the duration of anti-HIV treatment and a nadir CD4 cell count below 200/mm 3 . There were correlations between age advancement and exposure to antiretrovirals, saquinavir in particular, for which each additional year of exposure represented a 1.39 years increase in age advancement. A multivariable analysis (which controls for other factors that could influence the results) was conducted of all HIV-parameters, antiretroviral exposures, chronic HBV, total CMV IgG antibodies and CD8 T-cell count. It confirmed the significance of associations between age advancement and only: Cumulative exposure ...

“You can only buy online or over the phone via a specialist,” says Christian Gormsen, CEO of Eargo. “We have professional audiologists on staff who support clients all over the nation.” Eargo hearing aids, Gormsen adds, will never be sold at a drugstore or big box store, where you might expect to find over-the-counter hearing aids in late 2020. Sound World Solutions offers a direct-to-consumer hearing aid, too. Over the phone or online, buyers give specialists the same medical information that they would in an audiologist’s office and say they understand that this is a medical device and not suited for people under 18. Direct-to-consumer hearing aids come with factory presets for hearing loss, ranging from mild to severe. Audiologists who sell hearing aids in their clinics say factory presets aren’t good enough. “A hearing aid that’s fit by a professional is fit to a prescriptive target based on scientific research so that the volume is set to how someone hears at those exact freq...

CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — A family of three has been displaced after the Charlottetown townhouse they rent flooded from burst water pipes. Volunteers with the Canadian Red Cross have arranged emergency lodging, food, clothing purchases and other help for the woman and her two daughters who moved to Canada from the Central African Republic a couple of years ago. It is expected to take a couple of days for repairs and cleanup in the half-duplex at 53 Eden Street. http://bit.ly/2Uw3wD4

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko on Wednesday secured Sh500m donor funding from an international NGO to help fight against HIV-Aids in Kenya. The funds from the Elton John Foundation will go towards the provision of self-testing kits in a programme aimed at stopping new HIV infections by 2030. “I’m delighted with the new initiative by the Elton John Foundation that will boost our efforts in the fight against the scourge that was declared a national disaster by the government,” Sonko said. Speaking in London during the Aids-free cities global forum, Sonko said his administration is committed to eliminating the spread of the disease. During the global forum, the Nairobi City County Government also joined two other cities, London and Atlanta, to sign a commitment to accelerate the 2014 Paris declaration aimed at stopping new HIV infections by 2030. Read: Kenya receives Sh38bn from Global Fund for fight against HIV, TB and Malaria “There is political goodwill coupled with good budgetary ...

Here is why you should follow a vegan diet - Aids weight loss, control diabetes and other benefits  | &nbspPhoto Credit:&nbspGetty Images New Delhi: First things first, for anyone who is unaware about the difference between a vegan and a vegetarian diet, here it is spelt out for you – vegan is when you do not eat animals and also products received from them like dairy, honey, etc. while vegetarianism is simply not eating eggs or meat. Now that the difference is out of the way, here are the benefits of the vegan diet for you, and some motivation for you to follow it. According to a study published in the journal called Nutrients, it was recorded that a vegan diet can improve gut hormone which can make you feel full and hence aid weight loss and also control blood sugar. Here is how it leads to these two healthy results. READ - Want a flat belly? Avoid THIS breakfast mistake for fast weight loss- here's how many calories you should eat Reduced calories According...

Min Deng, 1 Xiao-Dong Lv, 2 Zhi-Xian Fang, 2 Xin-Sheng Xie, 1 Wen-Yu Chen 2 1 Department of Infectious Diseases, The First Hospital of Jiaxing, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University, Jiaxing 314000, China; 2 Department of Respiration, The First Hospital of Jiaxing, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University, Jiaxing 314000, China Background: Although the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) has dropped substantially, it still is a serious threat to human health. And in recent years, the emergence of resistant bacilli and inadequate disease control and prevention has led to a significant rise in the global TB epidemic. It is known that the cause of TB is Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. But it is not clear why some infected patients are active while others are latent. Methods: We analyzed the blood gene expression profiles of 69 latent TB patients and 54 active pulmonary TB patients from GEO (Transcript Expression Omnibus) database. Results: By applyin...

Students and faculty at Wilson Central High School were possibly exposed to tuberculosis after an individual at the school tested positive for active TB. In a letter sent out to parents Jan. 22, Principal Travis Mayfield said the school district is working with experts to determine next steps and to ensure students and staff are properly tested for TB and treated with antibiotics if necessary. “It’s important to note that, while TB can be contagious, it is primarily spread to individuals who have close personal contact with an infected patient on a regular basis,” Mayfield wrote in the letter. The person diagnosed with active TB was not identified in the letter sent out to parents. The letter also states that a group of approximately 450 students and staff at the school will need to be tested by the state health department this week. Separate letters were sent out to those who were identified in the group about the need for testing. Students who did not receive the additional notif...

The Missouri Dept. of Conservation had nearly 3,000 more feral hogs killed in 2018 than the year before. (Missouri Dept. of Conservation) JEFFERSON CITY —  Conservationists made huge strides in 2018 to decreasing the impact of a pest to Missouri agriculture. The Missouri Department of Conservation reported 9,365 feral hogs were eliminated from the state’s landscape by MDC in 2018, a major increase from the 6,561 feral hogs removed in 2017. Conservation agents stated a key to ridding the state of these animals is the process of elimination: trapping a sounder of hogs instead of killing them one by one. “We’ve been very strategic in our efforts, focusing on removal of whole groups of feral hogs at a time, before moving onto another area,” said Mark McLain, MDC’s feral hog elimination team leader, in a release. “This strategic approach is important because if we leave even a few feral hogs behind in an area, they can reproduce quickly and put us back where we started.” MD...

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Malaria vaccination one step closer thanks to Griffith University’s trial on humans    Gold Coast Bulletin GRIFFITH Universitys malaria vaccine trial has reached another milestone. http://bit.ly/2SdDYgf

[KAMPALA] Fake and poor-quality antimalarials account for up to 43 per cent of annual economic cost of malaria in children under five years in Sub-Saharan Africa , two simulation studies suggest.   The WHO estimates that fake and poor-quality antimalarials contribute to 31,000–116,000 additional deaths annually in the region, with children under five years being the most affected. But researchers say that estimates of country-level health and economic impacts of fake and poor quality antimalarials are scarce in the region.   “When we looked at how prevalent poor-quality medicines are, and the negative health effects they can cause, we wanted to provide data and estimates that policymakers could use to understand the scale of the issue and act upon it,” says   Sachiko Ozawa, lead author of the two studies.   Ozawa, an associate professor at the US-based University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy, and collaborators developed a model, and...

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Matibabu: A Rapid Malaria Test [Video]    Yahoo Finance Malaria tests take too much time, equipment, and expertise; Matibabu presents a simple, fast, noninvasive malaria diagnostic kit. https://yhoo.it/2SdDWF9

Allen County again saw increases in gonorrhea and chlamydia cases in 2018, according to statistics from the Fort Wayne-Allen County Health Department. Combined, the county recorded 3,545 cases of the sexually transmitted diseases last year – about 300 more than in 2017. It's the third straight year the number has increased. “We continue to see the sustained increase in gonorrhea and chlamydia,” said Kathy Thorson, the health department's director of HIV and STD prevention. The problem mirrors a national trend. There were almost 2.3 million cases of the diseases in the U.S. in 2017 – a record – according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Chlamydia is the most commonly reported STD in the country, according to the CDC. Nearly 2,500 chlamydia cases were recorded locally in 2018, compared with 2,264 the year before. In 2016, 2,215 cases were reported. There were 1,049 cases of gonorrhea last year, an increase of about 100 from 2017. The statistics were pres...

A powerful South Africa-based mercenary group intentionally tried to spread AIDS in southern Africa in the 1980s and 1990s, a former member of the group has claimed in a new documentary. Alexander Jones said he spent years working as an intelligence officer with the group, the South African Institute for Maritime Research (SAIMR) , three decades ago, The Guardian reported. “It was clandestine operations. We were involved in coups, taking over countries for other leaders,” Jones said in the documentary that premiered this weekend at the Sundance film festival. More about this The mercenary group came to light in 1998 when it was accused of being behind the mysterious 1961 plane crash that killed UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld and 15 other people. The existence of the group was questioned at the time but the information in the recent documentary, “Cold Case Hammarskjöld”, confirms that the group existed and that it played a crucial role in the crash. SAIMR worked from a ...

SINGAPORE - The revelation that the personal information of 14,200 people with HIV was leaked has stunned people living with the virus here. People like 45-year-old Mr G. Chew told The Straits Times on Monday (Jan 28) that the leak has risked both his personal and professional reputation. "My company is of course aware that I have HIV, and I am fairly open about it to well-meaning friends who ask me about my illness out of genuine concern," said Mr Chew, an administrative officer who has been contacted by the Ministry of Health (MOH) that he was affected by the data leak. "However, I definitely fear that all this personal information might be publicly available to people at my workplace and beyond to scrutinise. Also, it's the Internet - once it's up there and shared over and over, it's inerasable. "There is still a great stigma against people who have HIV. Information that I have HIV is definitely not something I want online. It's not like...

click to enlarge Orange County is getting a $10 million federal grant to enhance HIV/AIDS medical care and critical support services for local residents. The award was announced last week by Central Florida Democratic U.S. Reps. Val Demings, Stephanie Murphy and Darren Soto. The grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' emergency relief program provides direct financial assistance to metropolitan areas that have been the most severely affected by the HIV epidemic. The Orlando metropolitan area jumped to second place among U.S. cities for the highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in 2017 with 718 new cases, according to a November 2018 report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2015, the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford metro area ranked sixth behind other Southern cities with 25.7 new HIV cases per 100,000 people, for a total of 614 new diagnoses. In 2017, Central Florida's rate increased to 28.6 new HIV diagnoses per 100,000 people, ...