ATS.F: The Soficrow Radio Show. "Bird Flu: Why Worry Now?"

PODcast: The Soficrow Radio Show. "Bird Flu: Why Worry Now?"
Scientists have been warning us about the Super Plague for 50 years. But the Super Plague never came. So why should we listen now?

length: 21:02
file: atsfpod_849.mp3
size: 3611k
feed: atsf
status: live (at time of posting)

Here are the draft notes for my script, with a partial list of references. Also - I had to sacrifice a lot of sound quality to get the length. ...Any feedback on that?


Bird Flu: Why Worry Now?

Scientists have been warning us about the Super Plague for 50 years. But the Super Plague never came. So why should we listen now?

Scientists discover deadly bird flu began in Scotland

"Scientists tracing the history of the H5N1 virus have traced its first recorded episode to an Aberdeen farm. ...A scientist identified only as Dr JE Wilson, of the Veterinary Laboratory in Lasswade, outside Edinburgh, is recorded as having worked on the case - sending the chicken to Addlestone, where the strain was medically isolated so it could be used in experiments. The Scottish H5N1 has been used in experiments, named "chicken/Scotland/1959".

No medical agency in Scotland or England was able to give many details - except to say that the disease has become heartier and deadlier since it was found in Scotland. There is also no sign of Dr Wilson. The Moredun Research Institute at Penicuik said that it had no record of him and that he was likely to have passed away."

***

"Since the 1980s, the list of diseases that have hitchhiked directly from animals to people has grown rapidly - hantavirus, SARS, monkeypox and, most recently, avian influenza, commonly called bird flu."

The critical point occurred in 1997. This point would be called "Self-Organized Criticality" in complexity theory. This biological point of "Self-Organized Criticality" - that occurred in 1997 - is the one that microbiologists and other scientists have been warning us about for the 50 years.

In 1997 - two long predicted events finally happened - two very scary new diseases appeared:

1. H5N1 "bird" flu infected humans in Hong Kong in 1997. H5N1's claim to fame is that it jumps species without requiring species-specific genetic material. H5N1 is a Type A influenza - so it infects birds, people, whales, seals, cats, horses, dogs, ferrets - almost any animal. Sometimes it's deadly; sometimes it's not. If it's not fatal, the infected victim might become a carrier.

The thing is, birds and whales migrate. And H5N1 was first discovered in Scotland, in 1959. Which means H5N1 has been spreading around the world, and mutating, for 46 years, at least.

Which also means H5N1 has been spreading around the world for at least 8 years in a form that infects people. Because don't forget, people can fly half way around the world in a few hours.

Sure, the lethal form was contained. But what about the non-lethal strains?

2. The second new disease that appeared in 1997 was just as scary as H5N1.

"At a press conference on May 23rd 1997 in scientists finally acknowledged the arrival of the untreatable bacteria they'd feared for years. The scientists reports were grim:

...Today superbugs look triumphant. They are bacteria that resist our antibiotics. The drugs which have kept us safe for 50 years are beginning to fail. ...This is a serious situation. Over the last 5 years we've clearly seen a change in our ability to treat what should have been easily treatable infections because the bacteria have developed the ability of resisting the antibiotics. ...And the more antibiotics we use, the more resistant bacteria become. Every year more than 5 million people die from infections that don't respond to antibiotics."

So now we've got diseases that bypass the immune system, and medical technology too.

Much has happened, biologically, in the 8 years since 1997. For example, Super Bugs are now an everyday reality. In March of 2005, the chief of infectious diseases at Montreal's Jewish General Hospital, Dr. Mark Miller, had this to say:

"Something happened 18 to 24 months ago, ...Now it seems any antibiotic can bring on the disease."

"Super Bugs" are highly contagious and lethal bacteria. They can't be treated with antibiotics.

In fact, antibiotics now cause previously benign bacteria to mutate into lethal forms. Most "Super Bugs" mutate into highly contagious and lethal forms on exposure to antibiotics inside the host's body.

By the end of 2004, five lethal and virulent super bugs were recognized in North America - Clostridium difficile, methycillin resistant staph (MRSA), VRE, flesh eating disease (necrotizing fasciitis), and ESBL-producing bacteria. In addition, several common chronic debilitating infections fall under the VRE and ESBL categories. These diseases once were strictly hospital infections, but no more. Now they are out in the world.

Many, many more super bugs exist that are not fatal - they cause chronic debilitation and disability - but they are not talked about publicly, to prevent "panic," and protect the economy.


So why is this happening? Where do all these new diseases come from?

Industrial activity, medicines, and other human actions altered our planet's chemistry and biology, and life's genetic structures.
We have changed the stuff our world is made of - at a fundamental level. Now, we are just beginning to recognize the effects.

Industry introduced over 80,000 synthetic chemicals into our environment - and these chemicals can come together to form an infinite number of never-before-seen chemical compounds. The human body is not equipped to deal with these new compounds. And neither is any other lifeform on earth.

We isolated radiation, concentrated it, and released it - into our bodies with medical tests, and into the atmosphere with nuclear tests. Radiation doesn't just make cells mutate - it causes genetic mutations.

We take medicine, drugs, that change our body's internal environment - at the protein level, which is about as fundamental as you can get - then we excrete our biologically contaminated waste into sewage systems that dump it into waterways, and flow to the oceans, and contaminate groundwater and soil too.

And we have done much, much more to change our world.

Life has no choice but to change along with the planet. The choice is clear - adapt or die.

And life DOES find a way.

Microbes are mutating - some reproduce every 9 minutes. Fish, frogs, and other amphibians are changing - birds are adapting - mammals are mutating - from polar bears to whales and people too. The list of new "diseases" is growing daily. And all of these new diseases jump directly between animals and people.


Is industry really responsible for all our problems? Isn't there more to the story?

That's an interesting question. The human body - any lifeform - is a complex system that exists within a larger complex system - and interracts with it, and with all the other complex systems that exist. So we all are a 'relationship' as much as we are an individual - and everything, including disease, is multifactorial. The idea that we can find one single cause for an isolated effect is just illusion. There always are a multitude of different factors involved in any dynamic - including the dynamic of disease.

But yes. There is an idea that something additional, and unseen, is driving our evolutionary crisis.

That idea is that we are under biological attack. And have been for nearly a century.

Many biowarfare experts believe the attacks are coming from corporate industry - the mega-corporations that operate internationally. There was a huge debate about this on the InterNet at the end of the 1990's. Most of the papers have disappeared down the MemoryHole, but at least one good paper still remains.

In 2000, a microbiologist named Dr. Mark Wheelis published a paper called Agricultural Biowarfare and Bioterrorism through the Edmonds Institute. Wheelis is with the University of California at Berkeley.

From Agricultural Biowarfare and Bioterrorism:

"Anti-agricultural biowarfare and bioterrorism differ significantly from the same activities directed against humans; for instance, there exist a variety of possibilities for economic gain for perpetrators, and the list of possible perpetrators includes corporations, which may have state-of-the-art technical expertise. Furthermore, attacks are substantially easier to do: the agents aren’t necessarily hazardous to humans; delivery systems are readily available and unsophisticated; maximum effect may only require a few cases; delivery from outside the target country is possible; and an effective attack can be constructed to appear natural. This constellation of characteristics makes biological attack on the agricultural sector of at least some countries a very real threat, perhaps more so than attack on the civilian population.

Agricultural corporations, including producers, processors, and shippers, could benefit immensely from the economic impacts, market share changes, and financial market effects of a successful biological attack. Many also employ expert plant pathologists or veterinarians and have large collections of pathogens. The combination of motivation, expertise, and materials within a single, closed organization is worrisome."

And of course - bioweapons that attack agriculture
WILL affect humans. They did. They do. Someone opened Pandora's Box, and now, it's out of control.

Infected animals excrete contamination into soil and groundwater. Contaminated water can infect the people and animals that drink it, and the fish that swim in it. Contaminated soil affects the plants that grow in it. Plant diseases can infect the animals that eat them. And the circle goes round and round.

Can't we just find cures? Vaccines? Can't we just make these diseases go away?

What are these new diseases, really?

Disease is evidence of change, adaptation, mutation, and evolution. All these new "diseases" are proof that we are in a period of rapidly escalating biological change - an evolutionary crisis.

So is the Super Plague really going to come, this time?

The Super Plague is already here. It has many faces, many forms, and many different names. For example, bird flu is not really bird flu.


Bird flu infects a huge variety of animals, not just birds - people, whales, ferrets, cats, horses, dogs, leopards. H5N1 bird flu jumps back and forth between species - and it's already been jumping back and forth between species for a good 45 years.

The real problem with bird flu - and all the other Super Plagues - is not the fatality rate. The crisis is not the number of people expected to die. It's the number of people who survive.

The most dangerous strains of the Super Plague are not lethal - the most dangerous forms cause chronic disease. And the greatest danger chronic disease presents is social, and economic.

Overall, the situation has worsened considerably over the past 8 years, on every front - in public health, and peoples' social and financial lives.

Today, chronic disease is epidemic world wide. Over 400 million people are expected to die from chronic disease in the next 10 years, according to reports from the World Bank, and the World Health Organization. Nations are facing bankruptcy, because survivors living with chronic disease cost money to support, and don't contribute to the economic system.

We are in a crisis. Only the mushrooms don't know about it.

The fact that we were facing an evolutionary crisis was scientifically evident 50 years ago. The critical point was reached in 1997 - the point of Self-Organizing Criticality. By 2001, the scientific proof was absolutely undeniable.

And scientists knew animals transmit these new diseases to humans in new ways, ways never before thought possible. They knew these new diseases were "zoonotic." And they knew the whole world had to work together to prevent an evolutionary crisis. Simply because birds and whales migrate, and carry zoonotic diseases around the world.

Europe responded and built up their EDEN project - Emerging Diseases in a changing European Environment: to identify and catalogue European ecosystems and environmental conditions that influence human disease. The EDEN project integrates 48 leading institutes from 24 countries.

Poorer continents and nations could not afford a system like EDEN, so they relied on the World Health Organization, who relies on wealthier nations for funding - and didn't get the money.

North America did nothing.

The USA silenced US scientists, and made it an act of treason for American scientists to talk about prions for example, with a presidential amendment to Executive Order 12958.

No new monitoring, surveillance, or prevention strategies were implemented in North America.

Instead, the "war on terrorism" became the hot budget priority in the USA. Health budgets and Veterans benefits were slashed to ribbons.

Hmmm. Do you think maybe the "War on Terror" was created to hide the real crisis?


Chronic diseases now are epidemic worldwide - especially in North America. Today, the preferred solution is not prevention - it's assisted suicide.

All these diseases could be prevented if they're caught early enough - but insurance policies don't cover early diagnosis OR prevention. In fact, medical insurance specifically disallows early diagnosis and preventive treatments. So even if you have insurance, you're only covered for late-stage effects - when disease becomes life threatening.

And now, it looks like assisted suicide is about to become the treatment of choice. For those who can't afford the cutting edge medical miracles they paid for with their taxes.


All the injustice aside - we still are in an evolutionary crisis.

The thing is, contamination, pollution, radiation, diseases don't just affect our systems, cells, and organs. They affect our genes - and change us at a genetic level. It's already happening.

Just as microbes adapt, mutate, and evolve - so do humans. And "disease" is part of our evolutionary process.

Disease is necessary. It's essential if we are to adapt to live in this new world we have created.

Human disease is evidence of adaptation, mutation, and evolution. And we need to evolve - or else, we will become extinct.

Humans have become "mixing vessels" for H5N1 bird flu, and other microbes. Every infection any person has is an opportunity for the human species to figure out exactly how to adapt, to learn what mutation is required to ensure survival of the speies.

We can't start killing people off. We don't know who carries the mutation that will save humanity - and prevent human extinction.


We need to accept the fact that disease is part of our evolutionary process. If we don't, we are accepting the corporate solution.

What's the corporate solution?

The corporate solution is assisted suicide. Euthanasia. Population control and reduction.

The big international corporations only want useful people in the world. People they can use, to profit. The plan is to kill off all the "useless eaters" - and treat or clone the workers that they need.

The corporate solution is to modify humanity, on their terms - and turn the human species into a genetically modified product.


What can I do?

Get some information. Change your way of thinking. Fight to protect humanity.


END
positive - paradigm shift
accept reality of evolution - not just microbes, people and animals too
ALTERNATIVE - worker clones; people as GM products

science turned upside down - genetics -
mystery - how could
effects industrial contamination - synthetic chemicals (ref EHP) - radiation - radioactive fallout - medical testing big one
teratogens, mutagens known - BUT - more to the story


REFERENCES

Mad Cow and AIDS

This 1986 paper describes how "proteinaceous capsids" (prions) use viruses as vehicles of transmission...
* "Viral influences on aflatoxin formation by Aspergillus flavus." Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 24:248-252. Schmidt FR, Lemke PA, Esser K (1986)

"Epidemiological observations indicate that a microbial vector is responsible for the transmission of natural prion disease in sheep and goats … ...It is proposed that many microbial proteins may be capable of replicating themselves in mammalian cells eliciting and sustaining thereby degenerative and/or autoimmune reactions subsequent to infections with microorganisms."
* Med Hypotheses. 1999 Aug;53(2):91-102. Is the pathogen of prion disease a microbial protein? Fuzi M. Budapest Institute of National Public Health and Medical Officer Service, Hungary. PMID: 10532698

* Dangerous liaisons between a microbe and the prion protein. J Exp Med. 2003 Jul 7;198(1):1-4. Aguzzi A, Hardt WD. PMID: 12847133


ats - Silencing Scientists

H5N1 was first discovered in Scotland, in 1959. Which means H5N1 has been spreading around the world, and mutating, for 26 years, at least.

A scientist identified only as Dr JE Wilson, of the Veterinary Laboratory in Lasswade, outside Edinburgh, is recorded as having worked on the case - sending the chicken to Addlestone, where the strain was medically isolated so it could be used in experiments. The Scottish H5N1 has been used in experiments, named "chicken/Scotland/1959". ...No medical agency in Scotland or England was able to give many details - except to say that the disease has become heartier and deadlier since it was found in Scotland. There is no sign of Dr Wilson. The Moredun Research Institute at Penicuik said that it had no record of him and that he was likely to have passed away.



Officials say c. difficile virtually impossible to eradicate.

www.cbc.ca...]Hospital Infections


"Bird" Flu Overview:
"Viruses are masters of interspecies navigation. Mutating rapidly and often grabbing the genetic material of other viruses, they can jump from animals to humans with a quick flick of their DNA. Sometimes, as in West Nile fever, the transfer occurs through an intermediate host such as a mosquito. But viruses can also make the leap directly.

Since the 1980s, the list of diseases that have hitchhiked directly from animals to people has grown rapidly - hantavirus, SARS, monkeypox and, most recently, avian influenza, commonly called bird flu. With the exception of HIV/AIDS, perhaps none of these illnesses has more potential to create widespread harm than bird flu does. ...type A influenza infects both people and animals, including birds, pigs, horses, whales and seals."

CDC: Influenza type A viruses can infect people, birds, pigs, horses, seals, whales, and other animals, but wild birds are the natural hosts for these viruses.

Mayo Clinic: ...type A influenza infects both people and animals, including birds, pigs, horses, whales and seals.



EDEN-Emerging Diseases in a changing European Environment: EDEN is an Integrated Project of the European Commission that aims to identify and catalogue those European ecosystems and environmental conditions which can influence the spatial and temporal distribution and dynamics of human pathogenic agents. The project develops and co-coordinates a set of generic methods, tools and skills such as predictive models, early warning and monitoring tools which can be used by decision makers for risk assessment, decision support for intervention and public health policies.

EDEN integrates research in 48 leading institutes from 24 countries. The eco-geographical diversity of the project area covers all relevant European eco-systems from the polar circle in the North to the Mediterranean basin and its link with West Africa in the South, and from Portugal in the West to the Danube delta in the East. EDEN is organised into a series of vertical Sub-Projects linked toge Integrative Activities that include biodiversity monitoring, environmental change detection, disease modelling, remote sensing and image interpretation, information and communication.


ZOONOTIC DISEASES

Zoonoses: a social and economic burden
Prevention and control of major zoonoses depend on the firm decision of national authorities to face these diseases and on their capabilities to mobilize resources in different sectors, to establish coordination of activities, promote much needed intersectoral cooperation, especially between national veterinary and public health services in association with public health education campaigns and community involvement. Only comprehensive national approaches supported by inter national technical collaboration will alleviate or eliminate the public health and economic impact of zoonotic diseases.

The Prevention and Control of Zoonoses: Conference Topics and Papers (pdf)

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control: The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is a EU agency that has been created to help strengthen Europe’s defences against infectious diseases, such as influenza, SARS and HIV/AIDS.

EDEN-Emerging Diseases in a changing European Environment: EDEN is an Integrated Project of the European Commission that aims to identify and catalogue those European ecosystems and environmental conditions which can influence the spatial and temporal distribution and dynamics of human pathogenic agents. The project develops and co-coordinates a set of generic methods, tools and skills such as predictive models, early warning and monitoring tools which can be used by decision makers for risk assessment, decision support for intervention and public health policies.

The Society for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventitive Medicine: The Society for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (SVEPM) is a widely recognised society of scientific experts. Presentations on some aspect of zoonotic diseases are often given at their conferences.

MED-VET-NET: This is the site for the Network for Prevention and Control of Zoonoses. It is a network of excellence for the integration of veterinary, medical and food sciences - for the prevention and control of zoonoses and food borne diseases.

BIOME: This site is a guide to internet resources in the Health and Life Sciences. It can be searched for sites concerned with zoonoses.

Health Protection Agency (Zoonoses): This site contains information on a variety of zoonoses.

Advisory Committee on Zoonoses: The Advisory Committee advises the Director of the Health Protection Agency on all matters relating to microbiology, surveillance, public health, prevention and control of zoonoses.

UCSB: ZOONOTIC DISEASES: This USA site has information on zoonotic diseases listed by their animal reservoir and by the disease.

Animal Health, Emerging Animal Disease: AHEAD is a project of The Federation of American Scientists which aims to address the problems of disease in wild and farmed animals in the context of food production, international trade, species conservation and protection of developing economies.

Agro-terrorism: ...More and more it has become evident that it will be wise to amend the focus on the investigative elements of surveillance disease forensics and detective work to include the "eyewitness" the first person always at the scene of the crime the people who day by day have the most contact with the potential targets of agro-terrorism and economic sabotage. Teaching these farmers and facility employees, and rewarding in some way their participation as sentinels, might make the difference in addressing the threat of agro-terrorism and economic sabotage.

OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health): The OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health) is an intergovernmental organisation concerned with animal disease, veterinary scientific information, provision of expertise and control of the international trade in animals and animal products.

CDC Atlanta: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recognized as the lead federal agency (USA) for protecting the health and safety of people.


Agricultural Biowarfare and Bioterrorism



NORTH AMERICAN RESPONSE

* Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002
www.aphis.usda.gov...
* Executive Order 12958 [Prion Gag Order] www.whitehouse.gov...
* Interesting testimony before the Judiciary Committee:
commdocs.house.gov...
* Bill Summary and status:
www.congress.gov...:H.R.339
* Current text:
www.congress.gov...:4:./temp/~c108KV7HDS

“Mad cow as bioterrorism? Scientists worry that US gov't classification of BSE prions as ‘select agents’ could hinder research”
www.biomedcentral.com...

“US blocking prion research”
www.biomedcentral.com...

“US amends ‘select agent’ regs,” The Scientist, November 10, 2003. J.M. Perkel,
www.biomedcentral.com...


Rigorous Intuition: What you don't know can't hurt them.

The Council for National Policy (CNP): Part II - The British Eugenics Establishment

I'm about half way through the PODcast right now. Excellent podcast as always
All the voice changes were very interesting. It almost felt like this was a production from different people.
Thanks for posting source and related links too .
I hope the PODpeople outside of ATS get to listen to this.

Excellent information! Great PODcast. Way Above!

As regards sound quality, I don't know if that's the issue or if it was a purposeful sound effect (the breathy sound throughout), but it does interfere with my personal listening enjoyment. I would have done 2 or even 3 PODcasts (at a bit rate of 64 or even 32) for such an important and serious topic.

But I listened in headphones and it was easier to pick out the vocals.

Love the inserted reminders! "The Corporate Strategy" and so on.

[edit on 10-11-2005 by Benevolent Heretic]

Thanks Umbrax.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
Excellent information! Great PODcast. Way Above!

Thanks BH.

As regards sound quality, I don't know if that's the issue or if it was a purposeful sound effect (the breathy sound throughout), but it does interfere with my personal listening enjoyment.

I recorded most of it at 64 or 32 - mixed - then dropped down to 16 to bring it under 4 megs. Next time, I will record at 16 - apparently just the conversion loses quality and you're better off starting low than converting down.

Will let you know if that's true.

...I delete pauses and breath sounds - I think you're hearing a kind of feedback thing. The original recordings were fairly clean, but the feedback happens when I change pitch or speed separately. Haven't figured out how to get around that yet.

I would have done 2 or even 3 PODcasts (at a bit rate of 64 or even 32) for such an important and serious topic.

Maybe next time - BUT - the info is so heavy, I don't want to stop before the 'good' news. Straight out, it's very depressing, and I don't want to leave listeners hanging. ...? Any thoughts on that one?


.

[edit on 10-11-2005 by soficrow]

Originally posted by soficrow
I think you're hearing a kind of feedback thing. The original recordings were fairly clean, but the feedback happens when I change pitch or speed separately. Haven't figured out how to get around that yet.

I think it was from taking it down to 16. It doesn't matter what bit rate you record it at. When you save it at 16, it loses quality, just as if you had recorded it at 16.

Maybe next time - BUT - the info is so heavy, I don't want to stop before the 'good' news. Straight out, it's very depressing, and I don't want to leave listeners hanging. ...? Any thoughts on that one?

I still would have made 2. There's no way that I would have stopped after listening to the first one. That was great info and, as usual, your style was wonderful.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic

Originally posted by soficrow
I think you're hearing a kind of feedback thing. The original recordings were fairly clean, but the feedback happens when I change pitch or speed separately. Haven't figured out how to get around that yet.

I think it was from taking it down to 16. It doesn't matter what bit rate you record it at. When you save it at 16, it loses quality, just as if you had recorded it at 16.

...The problem appears before that. ...To create a 'character,' I need to change the pitch - if I change the pitch without altering speed, it creates a "buzz." I don't have that problem if I change pitch and speed together, but then all the voices sound the same. ...The buzz isn't as bad at 32, but it's still there.

I still would have made 2. There's no way that I would have stopped after listening to the first one. That was great info and, as usual, your style was wonderful.

Thanks. A whole new world. Another series.

Well, darn. I have another (well several) conspiracy pods in the works, but it looks like I'm out of time.

PLEASE:

CONSIDER THIS MY ENTRY

FOR THE CONSPIRACY PODCAST CONTEST.



thanks, sofi

[edit on 14-11-2005 by soficrow]

Awesome Pod Sofi.

Content fascinating - delivery mezmorizing!

Sofi you make you POD so good they are mesmerizing, great topic and a very needed one.

Thanks relentless and marg. I am so glad you two jumped in too. Can hardly wait to hear more from you.

I do have a good time with making podcasts. I've always worked in visual arts and copy, never sound - but I watched. And I like to experiment. Plus I've had a lot of help here - first Majic, and then everyone's little pointers.

Please, please - click twice if this does not play the first time.

...This is my entry for the conspiracy podcast contest. The reference links above are part of the package.

Wow. Awesome. It's scary due to the voices, even in spite of the material, which is chilling. How many people's voices are in it? It's truly amazing work soficrow. You get my vote for best podcast I've heard so far. Scary, artistic and informative. Worth listening to repeatedly.

Originally posted by smallpeeps
Wow. Awesome. It's scary due to the voices, even in spite of the material, which is chilling. How many people's voices are in it? It's truly amazing work soficrow. You get my vote for best podcast I've heard so far. Scary, artistic and informative. Worth listening to repeatedly.

Thanks smallpeeps.

I use quotes from print media, and read them myself - so they're all my voice. Still working on quality, and have heard lots of criticisms about the approach. IMO - it's more effective to have "different" voices - people are more likely to keep listening.


NOTE to ALL: If the whole podcast doesn't load, PLEASE - try again. For some reason, all my podcasts seem to need one or two hits before they load properly.

And oh yeah - Vote for me.

Thanks.

Is that a Scottish accent? If so then this broadcast fits right into all the other interesting things such as cloning that go on in those rolling green hills

Originally posted by IntelRetard
Is that a Scottish accent? If so then this broadcast fits right into all the other interesting things such as cloning that go on in those rolling green hills

Aye. But Scotland is only #8 & 10 on this list, even though Dr. Ian Wilmut and his team at the Roslin Institute are credited with cloning the first mammal (Dolly the sheep).


COMPANIES INVOVED IN RESEARCH AND CLONING

1. Advanced Cell Technologies (ACT).One Innovation Drive, Biotech Three, Worcester, MA

2. L'Alliance Boviteq (LAB) 1425, grand rang Saint-Fran ois,

3.Genetic Savings and Clone 3312 Longmire Dr., College Station, TX

4.Geron Corporation Menlo Park, CA

5.Infigen 1825 Infinity Drive, DeForest, WI

6.Lazaron BioTechnologies LLC. Louisiana Business & Technology Center, South Stadium Drive, Baton Rouge LA

7.Nexia Biotechnologies 21,025 Trans-Canada Highway Ste. Anne de Bellevue, QC H9X 3R2, Canada

8.PPL Therapeutics Scotland,U.K.

9.ProBio Level 50 120 Collins Street Melbourne Victoria 3000, Australia.

10.The Roslin Institute Scotland, U.K



oops

[edit on 29-11-2005 by soficrow]

Reports of new superbugs circulate in medical journals but don't usually make it to the popular press. And C. difficile just keeps getting scarier and scarier.

Clostridium difficile has been a familiar nosocomial pathogen for decades, but its well-known disease patterns are changing: Studies are finding unusual frequency and severity of hospital-acquired disease and unexpected cases of community-acquired disease. ...Researchers studied 187 isolates of C. difficile collected from patients at eight healthcare facilities in six states where outbreaks of C. difficile-associated disease (CDAD) had occurred. About half of the isolates proved to be the strain associated with recent hospital outbreaks. This strain has a unique toxin profile thought to represent increased virulence and also has more extensive quinolone resistance than most other strains.

In 2005, Pennsylvania health authorities identified two cases of severe community-based CDAD. A 31-year-old woman pregnant with twins developed severe colitis that evolved into toxic megacolon; both the patient and the fetuses died. The patient's only antibiotic exposure was to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, prescribed for a urinary tract infection about 3 months before the illness. A 10-year-old girl with no antibiotic exposure developed severe CDAD requiring hospitalization. She might have been infected by a younger brother, who had a febrile diarrheal illness that resolved without treatment; he also had no recent antibiotic exposure. Ten additional reports of peripartum CDAD and 23 of community-acquired CDAD were obtained from nearby states. Eight of the 33 patients reported no antibiotic use within 3 months of illness. Two isolates available for analysis had some of the virulence features identified in the epidemic hospital strain described above.

These reports read like the rumble of distant thunder, announcing trouble ahead. More surveillance is needed to characterize the prevalence and virulence of this new strain of C. difficile and to determine if person-to-person transmission is now occurring in the community as well as in hospitals. The only remedy at this point is what editorialists concisely describe as "antibiotic stewardship," especially in limiting unnecessary use of quinolones, which are a specific risk factor for this new strain.

Abstract: A New, More Virulent Strain of C. difficile
Original Source: McDonald LC et al. An epidemic, toxin gene-variant strain of Clostridium difficile. N Engl J Med 2005 Dec 8; 353:2433-41.

Iraqi girl who died in Kurd region had bird flu

Jan. 30, 2006
Iraqi and U.N. health officials said Monday a 15-year-old girl who died this month was a victim of the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, the first confirmed case of the disease in the Middle East.

Tests were under way to determine if the girl’s 50-year-old uncle, who lived in the same house, also died of the virus. Shangen Abdul Qader died Jan. 17, just 10 days before her uncle, Hamasour Mustapha, who died of symptoms similar to bird flu, Iraqi health officials said.

Iraqi health authorities began killing domestic birds in northern Iraq, which borders Turkey, where at least 21 cases of the deadly virus have been detected. Turkey and Iraq also lie on a migratory path for numerous species of birds.

Sofi:

I may be wrong, but it is my understanding that people who "subscribe" to a podthread only get the podcasts, not the written responses.

If you have new info to add to what was begun as a Podcast, I think you should Pod it, especially if you think it's important.

If I am wrong about this someone please clarify.