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Deadly human MERS virus infects camels

Scientists have proved for the first time that the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) virus that has killed 71 people can also infect camels, strengthening suspicions the animals may be a source of the human outbreak.

Researchers from the Netherlands and Qatar used gene-sequencing techniques to show that three dromedary, or one-humped camels, on a farm in Qatar where two people had contracted the MERS coronavirus (CoV) were also infected. The study, published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal on Tuesday.  confirms preliminary findings released by Qatari health officials last month. Camels are used in the region for meat, milk, transport and racing.

But the researchers cautioned it is too early to say whether the camels were definitely the source of the two human cases – in a 61-year-old man and then in a 23-year-old male employee of the farm – and more research is needed.

“This is definitive proof that camels can be infected with MERS-CoV, but based on the current data we cannot conclude whether the humans on the farm were infected by the camels or vice versa,” said Bart Haagmans of Rotterdam’s Erasmus Medical Centre, who led the study with other Dutch and Qatari scientists.

He said a further possibility is that humans and camels could have been infected “from a third as yet unknown source”.
“The big unknown is the exact timing of infections, both in the persons and in the camels,” he added. Both the men infected in Qatar recovered.

Scientists around the world have been searching for the animal source, or reservoir, of MERS virus infections ever since the first human cases were confirmed in September 2012.

Globally to date, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says there have been 163 laboratory-confirmed human cases of MERS, including 71 deaths. The WHO is also aware of around a dozen other probable but unconfirmed MERS cases in people.

In humans, MERS cause coughing, fever and pneumonia, which can be fatal. Cases have so far been reported in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Tunisia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Britain.

British researchers who conducted some of the first genetic analyses on MERS last September said the virus, which is from the same family as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, is also related to a virus found in bats.

In the Qatar study, researchers collected clinical samples – including nasal swabs, blood and rectal swabs, as well as stool samples – from 14 dromedary camels living in a barn in Qatar where in the previous week, the 61-year-old owner of the barn had been diagnosed with MERS infection.

The samples were sent to laboratories in the Netherlands for genetic analysis and antibody testing, which confirmed the presence of MERS in three of the animals.

Researchers said the virus gene sequences were very similar – although not identical – to those identified in the two people from the same site.

They also noted that all 14 of the camels tested had antibodies to MERS, suggesting the virus might have been circulating among the animals for some time, allowing most of them to build up immune protection against infection.

Since they were not able to say definitely whether the virus had passed from the camels to humans, or the other way, the researchers stressed they also could not rule out that other common livestock species, like cattle, sheep and goats, or other animals, may be involved in the spread of MERS.

To help find more answers, they said, researchers should aim to plot detailed case histories of all human cases of MERS, including any exposure to animals or animal products as well as links with other infected people. Reuters
Source: the Nation

water from US fracking sites had levels of chemicals

The study, published on Endocrinology, analysed 39 water samples from Garfield County in Colorado, an area that has more than 10,000 drilling sites. It found that a number of them contained endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs).

According to the study, “Of the 39 unique water samples, 89%, 41%, 12%, and 46% exhibited estrogenic, anti-estrogenic, androgenic, and anti-androgenic activities, respectively. Our data suggest that natural gas drilling operations may result in elevated EDC activity in surface and ground water.”

The endocrine system regulates hormones in the organism, including those related to metabolism, mood, growth and sleep. A disruption of the system can have various consequences, including cancer, development and sexual disorders and even birth defects.
Susan Nagel, one of the authors from the University of Missouri, said, “More than 700 chemicals are used in the fracking process, and many of them disturb hormone function.

“With fracking on the rise, populations may face greater health risks from increased endocrine-disrupting chemical exposure.”
The process of extracting gas from shale rocks, known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking, has been often criticised for its possible consequences over water contamination.

However, it caused a drop of gas prices in the US and has been praised by the UK government as well, as a ‘transition fuel’ towards a cleaner energy system – as it emits less greenhouse gases than conventional fossil fuels.

The debate in the UK is still going on between those supporting it – including David Cameron, who recently wrote to the European Commission asking it not to oppose fracking developments – and those opposing it on environmental and economic grounds.

Source: blue and green tomorrow

Researchers Turn To Bears To Understand Obesity:


Although obesity statistics have somewhat leveled off in recent years, the global burden of this epidemic continues to rear its ugly head at adults and children. Scientists at the U.S. drug maker Amgen Inc. are experimenting with an unorthodox new study method that implores the help of an animal with one of nature’s biggest appetites: the grizzly bear. After watching Yogi Bear on TV, Dr. Kevin Corbit decided to uncover how the chubby cartoon character stayed healthy while gorging on food in preparation for hibernation.

The Washington State University Bear Center was established 27 years ago and served as one of the world’s only research facilities where grizzly bears can be thoroughly examined. Bears are either born at the university or taken from national parks where they were in danger of being euthanized due to close contact with humans. A research team headed up by Dr. Corbit is in the middle of two-year study in which they are drawing blood, running biopsies for fat deposit, and monitoring the heart of 12 grizzly bears.

Dr. Corbit and his colleagues were particularly interested in how a grizzly bear’s cholesterol and blood pressure spikes after they take in upward of 100 lbs. of fruit, nuts, and salmon, yet somehow remain healthy. Not only do grizzly bears lose this weight rapidly after hibernation, but they are also unaffected by the health conditions most obese humans experience such as a heart attack, stroke, or diabetes.

Findings revealed that each bear was able to adjust their hormone insulin sensitivity, which controls the amount of fat and sugars that are broken down and stored away for energy during hibernation. Grizzly bears experience high insulin sensitivity while preparing for hibernation; however, a few weeks into hibernation they completely shut off their insulin sensitivity. Dr. Corbit told The Wall Street Journal that sequencing the bear’s genome “would really accelerate the discovery research for bears.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity on a worldwide scale has doubled since 1980. Over 200 million men and 300 million women over the age of 20 were considered obese in 2008. Around 2.8 million adults die each year as the result of an obesity-related condition, making it the fifth leading cause of death around the world. Forty-four percent of obese people also develop diabetes, 23 percent suffer from heart disease, and between seven percent and 41 percent are affected by a certain type of cancer.

Source: medical daily

EU issues warning on potential health risk from insecticides

European health authorities warned on Tuesday that two insecticides, including a widely-used chemical made by Bayer, may affect the developing human brain and should be more tightly controlled to limit human exposure.

The products – acetamiprid and imidacloprid – belong to a popular class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, which have recently been in the spotlight due to links with plunging populations of bees. Imidacloprid is one of the most widely used insecticides in the world.

The European Union voted in April to ban three neonicotinoids – including imidacloprid which is primarily manufactured by Bayer – for two years amid safety and environmental concerns.

In Tuesday’s move, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recommended that guidance levels for exposure to the products be lowered while further research is carried out to provide more reliable data on so-called developmental neurotoxicity.

“Acetamiprid and imidacloprid may adversely affect the development of neurons and brain structures associated with functions such as learning and memory,” EFSA said in a statement from its Rome headquarters.

“Some current guidance levels for acceptable exposure to acetamiprid and imidacloprid may not be protective enough to safeguard against developmental neurotoxicity and should be reduced.”

A spokesman for the European Commission, which asked EFSA to carry out the assessment, said it would give Bayer and the makers of acetamiprid an opportunity to comment on the findings.

“In principle, the next step would then be to amend the reference values,” said Commission health spokesman Frederic Vincent, adding that EU government officials would begin the process at a meeting in March.

In response, Bayer’s CropScience division said it saw no link between imidacloprid and developmental neurotoxicity in humans, and said EFSA had based its concerns on an inconclusive 2012 study that used tests on rat cell cultures.

“EFSA itself recognizes the limitations of this publication. Bayer CropScience has also evaluated the publication and can confirm that few conclusions can be drawn from it,” the statement said.

Source: reuters

Superbug Strain of E. coli Endangers the Lives of Millions

New research shows how antibiotic-resistant strains of E. coli evolved from a single source.A single strain of Escherichia coli, or E. coli, is responsible for millions of bacterial infections in women and the elderly, according to new research released today.

The strain, H30-Rx, has the unprecedented ability to spread from the urinary tract into the blood, giving rise to sepsis, the most lethal form of infection.

The new report suggests that H30-Rx may be responsible for 1.5 million urinary tract infections (UTIs) and tens of thousands of deaths annually in the U.S. alone. Researchers say the strain poses a threat to more than 10 million Americans who suffer from UTIs.
The research, published in the American Society for Microbiology’s journal mBio, shows how this bacteria has evolved from a single strain, allowing it to get around the most potent antibiotics available.

Tracing the E. coli Family Tree
The research was led by Lance B. Price, a professor of environmental and occupational health at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. He’s also an associate professor in the Pathogen Genomics Division of the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix, Ariz.

He and fellow researchers James R. Johnson of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Minnesota, and Evgeni V. Sokurenko of the University of Washington School of Medicine, focused on the ST131 group of E. coli.

ST131 strains are a common cause of bacterial infections, but they have become untreatable with standard antibiotics.

The team used advancing genomic techniques to discover that bacteria in the ST131 strains are genetic clones that have all evolved from a single strain of E. coli. Using whole-genome sequencing—which spells out each molecule in a bacteria’s DNA—researchers analyzed samples of E. coli from patients and animals in five countries gathered between 1967 and 2011. They then created a family tree to trace how the antibiotic-resistant clones evolved.

“Astoundingly, we found that all of the resistance could be traced back to a single ancestor,” Price said in a statement. “Our research shows this superbug then took off, and now causes lots of drug-resistant infections.”
For example, researchers said that a strain known as H30 cloned itself into H30-R. This evolved to become fully resistant to the second-generation antibiotic ciprofloxacin, which was considered a wonder-drug when it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1987. From there, the clones evolved into H30-Rx, which is resistant to even third-generation antibiotics like cephalosporins.

“This strain of E. coli spreads from person to person and seems to be particularly virulent,” Johnson said in a release. “This study might help us develop better tools to identify, stop or prevent its spread by finding better ways to block the transmission of the superbug, or by finding a diagnostic test that would help doctors identify such an infection early on—before it might have the chance to turn lethal.”

Dr. William Schaffner, immediate past-president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a professor of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said the new research will change the way problematic strains of E. coli are handled.

“It’s fascinating that they’ve identified a dominant strain of resistant E. coli. We previously thought these strains became resistant independently,” Schaffner, who was not involved in the study, told Healthline. “Resistant E. coli are slowly yet surely becoming a problem for those of us who treat infections.”

Source: health line

Lundbeck hopes to launch new Alzheimer’s drug in 2017

Danish pharmaceutical group Lundbeck said on Monday that it hopes to launch a new Alzheimer’s medicine in 2017 in what would be the first new drug for the condition in more than a decade.

Dementia – of which Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form – already affects 44 million people worldwide and is set to reach 135 million by 2050, according to non-profit campaign group Alzheimer’s Disease International.

There is currently no treatment that can cure the disease or slow its progression, but Lundbeck’s new drug – known as Lu AE58054 – is designed to alleviate some of the symptoms and improve cognitive function.

As such, it would build on treatments currently on the market rather than competing with more ambitious projects under way at large drug companies, which aim to modify the biology of the disease.

“If the studies that we are currently running end well, then we wi

ll probably be the first company to launch a new Alzheimer’s drug in 10 to 15 years,” Lundbeck Chief Scientific Officer Anders Gersel Pedersen told Reuters.

The Danish company, together with its Japanese partner Otsuka, is currently testing its experimental Alzheimer’s drug in 3,000 patients in four final-stage Phase III clinical studies.

Pedersen said he expected the drug to have annual worldwide sales of considerably more than $1 billion, if it is approved.

“There is a huge market for this kind of medicine, until the day you cure the disease,” Pedersen said.

It is more than a decade since the last drug, Ebixa, also from Lundbeck, was approved to treat Alzheimer’s.

Although there is still no treatment that can effectively modify the disease or slow its progression, a number of companies – including Eli Lilly, Merck & Co, Roche and Johnson & Johnson – are pursuing a variety of approaches to get to the root of the memory-robbing disorder.

Health ministers from the Group of Eight countries last week set a goal of finding a cure or a disease-modifying therapy by 2025 – a target that is seen as ambitious given that scientists are still struggling to understand the fundamental biology of Alzheimer’s. (Editing by Simon Johnson and David Goodman)

Source: US web daily

Oakland girl declared brain dead three days after having tonsils removed

The family of Jahi McMath wants answers after the 13-year-old girl suffered complications soon after having her tonsils out. ‘She wasn’t able to talk, and she started to write notes to her mother saying I’m swallowing too much mucus, mom — am I OK? Mom — I feel like I’m choking,’ her uncle says. The family is hoping for a Christmas miracle by keeping Jahi on life support.

She was just supposed to have her tonsils out, and now her heartbroken family wants answers.
Jahi McMath, 13, was declared brain dead on Thursday, three days after undergoing surgery at Children’s Hospital Oakland. Despite the tragic development, the family is holding out hope and refusing to take Jahi off life support.
“It’s shock, it’s disbelief,” uncle Omari Sealey told the San Jose Mercury News. “You never think something like this will happen to you.”

Jahi, an eighth grader at E.C. Reems Academy of Technology and Arts in Oakland, underwent the tonsils procedure on Dec. 9 in order to improve her sleep apnea. After the surgery she asked for a popsicle and seemed OK, but just 30 minutes later she started choking on her own blood, NBC reported.
“She wasn’t able to talk, and she started to write notes to her mother saying I’m swallowing too much mucus, mom — am I OK? Mom — I feel like I’m choking,” Sealey told the Mercury News. “And she began to write these notes because she couldn’t talk because there was so much blood — it wasn’t mucus — it was blood. But my sister, the mother, was too afraid to let her know that it was blood and not mucus.”
Jahi went into cardiac arrest and was revived, but was declared brain dead two days later, family members told the Mercury News. They are urging the hospital to investigate what they believe to be shoddy emergency care.

‘here catch them with the cup so we can measure them,'” mom Nailah Winkfield told ABC.
Grandmother Sandra Chatman, a surgical nurse at a different hospital, was stunned by the lack of attention that Jahi received.
“I went in and I said ‘is this normal, do you guys find this to be normal?,'” Chatman told ABC. “And they said ‘I don’t really know,’ and I said ‘well then get a doctor.'”

Sealey told NBC that family members believe “an error was committed by the hospital, either before, during, or after surgery. I absolutely believe that somewhere along the way, there was a protocol that wasn’t followed, or there was a surgical error.”
Hospital spokeswoman Melinda Krigel said in a statement: “We’re very sad about this outcome, about what’s happened to her, but at this point I have no information on the details of the surgery. We will certainly investigate what happened. In any surgery there are risks and there can be unexpected, unanticipated complications.”

The family is hoping for a Christmas miracle by keeping Jahi on life support, even though doctors say she is brain dead.
“My little girl in there, my little niece, is in there with her own heartbeat, which lets me know that she is alive,” Sealey told NBC.

source: Daily news

Scientists develop new technique to diagnose autism in babies

Scientists have developed a new technique to diagnose autism in babies as young as 12 months.

Dr Josephine Barbaro from Australia’s La Trobe University has developed an accurate set of “red flag” markers of the condition, which include a failure by babies to make consistent eye contact, to smile, show their toys to others, to play social games, point and respond when their name is called

Barbaro is training medical experts around the globe in the use of her diagnostic method on children under two years of age.

“All typically developing babies are pre-wired to be social, look at other people’s faces, learn from them and copy what they’re doing. Children with autism are not doing this – and we can now accurately identify this at a much younger age and take action,” Barbaro said.

Barbaro and her team are training doctors in Tianjin in China, as part of an Australia-China Science and Research Fund Group Mission.

They have helped to train 300 doctors monitor children’s development using the early autism identification programme.

Based on these preliminary findings, the Tianjin government has agreed to conduct autism surveillance using Barbaro’s programme for every child born in the city for the next seven years.

The team is also training healthcare workers in Poland, Korea, Japan and Bangladesh.

Source: Times of India

How to Keep Your Kitchen Germ-Free

Most of us practically live in our kitchens, but if we’re not careful bacteria can take up residence there too, says cleaning pro Laura Dellutri, author of Speed Cleaning 101. “It’s the busiest germ factory in your house.” Here, how to fight back.Countertop

The problem: You bake a cake and spill some batter with raw egg in it, and don’t get it all wiped up. Later you make a turkey sandwich on the same spot.

Fix: Use a disinfecting wipe or spray after any food prep to kill lingering bacteria. To truly banish the yucky stuff, the cleanup-product label should say that it kills 99.9% of germs and bacteria, Dellutri says.

Faucet filter
The problem: You bump the dirty dishrag against the faucet as you’re rinsing it out, or dirty water or food splashes up on it. Bacteria can grow, and so can lime-scale residue if you have hard water.

Fix: Take out the filter and soak it in white vinegar overnight once a week.

Cutting board
The problem: It’s used for everything from chopping scallions to slicing roast beef.

Fix: After washing with hot soapy water and rinsing, spray the board with a mixture of one teaspoon of bleach to 16 ounces of water that you keep in a clearly labeled spray bottle. Then rinse the board with hot water or toss it in the dishwasher on high.

The “cleanest” boards? Dellutri says glass or plastic are best because they’re nonporous and most resistant to germs. If you love wood, choose the dishwasher-safe kind that’s been treated with Microban, an antimicrobial compound. Whatever the material, throw out your board if it’s very worn or has lots of knife-cut indentations on it; they can trap bacteria.

Dish towel
The problem: You rinse your pieces of chicken and wipe your hands on the towel before continuing to cook. Salmonella alert!

Fix: During food prep with raw meat, use paper towels (not cloth) and toss them. And wash hands immediately with soap and water.

Knife block
The problem: You use a knife to clean a piece of fish, then rinse it and return it—wet—to the knife block. That can cause mold, which can grow in just 24 to 48 hours.

Fix: Scrub your knives with dish-washing liquid and hot water, then wipe them thoroughly with a dry cloth before putting them into the knife block. Better yet, keep your knives in a drawer or on a magnet strip.

Sink
The problem: All the stuff you rinse in the sink—shrimp, the turkey—leave behind bacteria, juices, and blood.

Fix: Disinfect with bleach and water right after you’ve cooked with raw meat, eggs, or poultry.

Sponge
The problem: You use it to wipe up everything from crumbs to meat juices—and then put it back in a holder or on the edge of the sink.

Fix: Clean your sponges every few days by soaking them in a bowl of water with one teaspoon of bleach. Or zap the dirty sponge in the microwave (place it in a bowl and cover it with water) for two to three minutes. (Don’t do this if the sponge has a metal scrubber side).

Those leftovers
The problem: While you’re busy cleaning the kitchen, the leftovers sit out too long.

Fix: Stick ’em in the fridge right away. If they’re warm, leave the lid off to chill faster. Food that’s between 40 and 140 degrees F allows bacteria to grow much faster; the goal is to get leftovers below 40 degrees as quickly as possible. After reheating, stir, and use a thermometer to make sure they’re 165 degrees, the temp at which bacteria is killed
Source: Healthy Living

 

Heavy marijuana use may alter brain structure and harm memory

Teens who are heavy marijuana users show abnormal changes in their brain structures that are associated with having schizophrenia, a new study has found.

Researchers from the Northwestern University found that chronic smokers, those who smoked marijuana daily for about three years, showed changes in their brain structures related to working memory and performed poorly on memory tasks.

Researchers observed the brain abnormalities and memory problems during the individuals’ early twenties, two years after they stopped smoking marijuana, which could indicate the long-term effects of chronic use.

Memory-related structures in their brains appeared to shrink and collapse inward, possibly reflecting a decrease in neurons.

The study showed the marijuana-related brain abnormalities are correlated with a poor working memory performance and look similar to schizophrenia-related brain abnormalities.

Of the 15 marijuana smokers who had schizophrenia in the study, 90 per cent started heavily using the drug before they developed the mental disorder, researchers said.

Marijuana abuse has been linked to developing schizophrenia in prior research.

This is the first study to target key brain regions in the deep subcortical gray matter of chronic marijuana users with structural MRI and to correlate abnormalities in these regions with an impaired working memory.

Working memory is the ability to remember and process information in the moment and – if needed – transfer it to long-term memory.

The younger the individuals were when they started chronically using marijuana, the more abnormally their brain regions were shaped, the study found.

The findings suggest that these regions related to memory may be more susceptible to the effects of the drug if abuse starts at an earlier age.

“The study links the chronic use of marijuana to these concerning brain abnormalities that appear to last for at least a few years after people stop using it,” said lead study author Matthew Smith, an assistant research professor in psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Source: Indian Express