March 3rd, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in News
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A Canadian news story piqued my interest today – apparently, a man living near Edmonton, Alberta was bitten by a bat during his sleep. Curiosity got the better of me as I tried to recreate the scenario in my head. First of all, “vampire bats” (the kind that feed on the blood of livestock) don’t live in Canada, so this little guy was probably a generic “brown bat.” Brown bats are shy creatures who live on insects primarily, so we know that this bat was in a pretty wacky frame of mind to boldly mistake a sleeping human for a beetle.
Stranger than the behavior of this culinarily confused little mammal, was the behavior of the sleeping victim. Apparently he was unconcerned by the bite and went back to sleep afterwards, never seeking medical attention. I don’t know about you, but if I woke up in the middle of the night with any wild animal sinking its teeth into my flesh, I’d probably not shrug and roll over.
Anyway, the sad news is that this man didn’t get his life-saving rabies shots. Rabies is a very serious condition with a 50% mortality rate! The rabies virus (transmitted through infected animal saliva) wreaks havoc on the brain and nerves. The CDC describes it:
Early symptoms of rabies in humans are nonspecific, consisting of fever, headache, and general malaise. As the disease progresses, neurological symptoms appear and may include insomnia, anxiety, confusion, slight or partial paralysis, excitation, hallucinations, agitation, hypersalivation, difficulty swallowing, and hydrophobia (fear of water). Death usually occurs within days of the onset of symptoms.
Isn’t it strange that “fear of water” is part of the rabies syndrome? I’d like to get an explanation of that one from a neurologist…
Anyway, human cases of rabies are quite rare (about 7000 cases/year in the US) and are usually caused by raccoon or skunk attacks. So if you come face to face with a raccoon or skunk “gone wild” my advice is to run away. But if you do get bitten, please go to the hospital immediately and get your rabies shots. You can prevent progression of the disease.
Now, if you’re curious to see if you’re in a rabies “hot zone” check out the CDC’s skunk and raccoon tracking maps (can you believe that someone’s job is to create these?)
And for a good spoof of dangerous animals – check out Dr. Rob’s recent warnings against the common goat. You can tell that he must enjoy Monty Python style humor.
Are you an animal lover? Know of some funny websites or links about animal antics? Do share!
This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
February 22nd, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in News
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Recent research suggested that circumcision may reduce the rate of HIV transmission by 50% (foreskin cells are particularly vulnerable to infection with the virus). In response to this news, adult men in Uganda and Kenya have been undergoing the procedure in the hope of reducing their risk of HIV infection.
Some young boys in Kenya were actually expelled from school for not being circumcised. Their parents were asked to bring them back to school once the deed was done.
HIV rates have decreased in Uganda from 15% to 5% after aggressive public health initiatives raised awareness of the importance of safe sexual practices. This is an incredibly positive achievement.
One would hope, however, that circumcision in infancy would become the preferred target age for future procedures.
This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
February 21st, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in News
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Malaria is caused by a crafty little parasite that has become resistant to many medicines. But now researchers at Northwestern University have discovered a chink in its armor – a blood pressure medicine called propranolol. Who knew that a common beta-blocker used to treat hypertension might provide the death blow to such a scourge?
Usually, malarial parasites infect their host’s blood stream through a mosquito bite, and then congregate in the liver and pounce on red blood cells as they pass by. They have a way of adhering to the red blood cells via certain surface receptors (beta 2 adrenergic receptors linked to Gs proteins). They latch on to the red cells and then burrow into the cell and hijack it in order to reproduce inside it. Then, like the horror movie Alien, once they’re fully grown (into “schizonts”) they burst out of the cells and roam free to repeat the process all over again.
Now propranolol happens to block the Gs proteins, which effectively makes it impossible for the parasites to attach themselves to the red blood cells (which they need to use to reproduce themselves).
So what’s the caveat to of all this? Well, folks don’t know they have been infected with malaria until they have symptoms, and the symptoms include high fevers and low blood pressure… so giving someone a medicine that lowers their blood pressure even further might not be a good idea.
The other caveat is that propranolol works like a charm in the test tube, and in mice, but we haven’t yet tried it out in humans who have malaria.
Still, it seems to me that a little bit of propranolol might go a long way to preventing malarial infections in at risk populations. I’ll be interested to see what further studies show!
And if you’re interested, I’ll create a few more blog posts about parasites and other creepy crawly human invaders… Just let me know if you can handle more of this!
This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
February 17th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in News
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Microbiologist Charles Gerba has made a career out of scaring people with news of how dirty seemingly innocent surfaces can be. Dr. Gerba has taken media on germ tours of kitchens, bathrooms, and offices, and now in his new research study he finds that office desks have 400x more bacterial colonies than toilet seats. Moreover, he found that women’s desks generally have 4x more bacteria than men’s. He attributes this to women having more makeup and food products in their desks, as well as having greater contact with small children.
Well, before we all become totally grossed out and paranoid, lets think for a minute about this. If there are so many bacteria all around us (even on our desks) and we’re generally not sick, then I guess we shouldn’t all rush out to buy bleach and sanitizers. Other studies suggest that sanitizers disrupt the natural ecosystem around us, creating resistant organisms that are harder to kill.
Personally, I think that precautions should be taken to reduce transmission of viruses and bacterial infections (especially in the hospital environment) but that it is unreasonable, and perhaps even harmful, to wage an indescriminate war on all bacteria everywhere.
If your loved ones are sick, minimize your exposure to their droplets, wash your hands frequently, and sanitize surfaces that they are in direct contact with. Otherwise, if you’re feeling well, I wouldn’t worry too much about bleaching your desk surface.
As one microbiology lab says,
“Support bacteria. It’s the only culture some people have.”This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
January 18th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in News
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In 1918, a man died of a vicious strain of “Spanish Flu” and was buried in the Alaskan tundra. Almost a century later, scientists found his well preserved body poking through some permafrost and decided to take tissue samples to a Canadian laboratory to thaw out the virus that killed the man.
Sounds like the beginning of a made-for-TV, horror movie, doesn’t it? Well, I wish it were fiction. This is a true story.
So why did the scientists revive this infectious menace? To see what it would do to modern day macaque monkeys, of course.
The BBC news reports:
“Symptoms appeared within 24 hours of exposure to the virus, and the subsequent destruction of lung tissue was so widespread that, had the monkeys not been put to sleep a few days later, they would literally have drowned in their own blood.”
Um… gross?
The scientists say,
“This research provides an important piece in the puzzle of the 1918 virus, helping us to better understand influenza viruses and their potential to cause pandemics.”
The BBC continues:
“Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-M) revealed that a key component of the immune system, a gene called RIG-1 appeared to be involved.
Levels of the protein produced by the gene were lower in tissue infected with the 1918 virus, suggesting it had a method of switching it off, causing immune defenses to run wild. This ability to alter the body’s immune response is shared with the most recent candidate for mutation into a pandemic strain, the H5N1 avian flu.”
There is a final word from Dr. Jim Robertson, a British virologist:
“Many influenza virologists remain nervous about creating and experimenting with a reconstructed 1918 Spanish flu virus.”
Yeah, I’m nervous too.
This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
