Swine flu fears Part 2
In annoyance of misinformation I keep seeing about cancelled flights and so on here is what the World Health Organisation said:
"The situation continues to evolve rapidly. As of 06:00 GMT, 1 May 2009, 11 countries have officially reported 331 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection.
The United States Government has reported 109 laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death. Mexico has reported 156 confirmed human cases of infection, including nine deaths.
The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths - Austria (1), Canada (34), Germany (3), Israel (2), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (3), Spain (13), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (8)."
I might regret saying this, but at this point I'd be more scared of TB which kills over a million people each year than of swine flu which has killed 10!!
Labels: illness, infectious diseases, interesting fact
Celebrate World TB Day
In case you've never heard of
World TB Day it's about
publicising the lives and stories of any patient who has been given treatment for TB.
It also memorialises those people who have contributed towards the world wide fight against TB (
ie nurses, community workers, or researchers).
If you'd like more info or what to help by giving a donation, feel free to
click here
In the mean time you can just enjoy these multi-lingual slogans I found on their website!
Labels: infectious diseases, TB
You might like to wash your hands NOW!
This info comes from,
here.
The further north you go, the more likely you are to have faecal bacteria on your hands, especially if you are a man, according to a preliminary study conducted by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. But women living in the South and Wales have little to feel smug about. In London, they are three times as likely as their men folk to have dirty hands, and in Cardiff, twice as likely. The men of London registered the most impressive score among all those surveyed, with a mere 6% found to have faecal bugs on their hands. Overall more than one on four commuters have bacteria which come from faeces on their hands. The Dirty Hands Study was conducted in order to provide a snapshot of the nation's hand hygiene habits, as part of the world's first Global Handwashing Day today. Commuters' hands were swabbed at bus stops outside five train stations around the UK (Newcastle, Liverpool, Birmingham, Euston and Cardiff). The results indicated that commuters in Newcastle were up to three times more likely than those in London to have faecal bacteria on their hands (44% compared to 13%) while those in Birmingham and Cardiff were roughly equal in the hand hygiene stakes (23% and 24% respectively). Commuters in Liverpool also registered a high score for faecal bacteria, with a contamination rate of 34%. In Newcastle and Liverpool, men were more likely than women to show contamination (53% of men compared to 30% of women in Newcastle, and 36% of men compared to 31% of women in Liverpool), although in the other three centres, the women's hands were dirtier. Almost twice as many women than men in Cardiff were found to have contamination (29% compared to 15 %) while in Euston, they were more than three times likelier than the men to have faecal bacteria on their hands (the men here registered an impressive 6%, compared to a rate of 21% in the women). In Birmingham, the rate for women was slightly higher than the men (26% compared to 21%). The bacteria that were found are all from the gut, and do not necessarily always cause disease, although they do indicate that hands have not been washed properly. Dr Val Curtis, Director of the Hygiene Centre at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, comments: 'We were flabbergasted by the finding that so many people had faecal bugs on their hands. The figures were far higher than we had anticipated, and suggest that there is a real problem with people washing their hands in the UK. If any of these people had been suffering from a diarrhoeal disease, the potential for it to be passed around would be greatly increased by their failure to wash their hands after going to the toilet'. Labels: infectious diseases, interesting fact
Europe's TB capital
Some of you may have guessed it from the title, but I'm referring to the wonderful city I live in, London, England, named the TB capital of Europe, now who wouldn't be proud to have that title?!?!?!
Luckily researchers over at Imperial College (where all of my FLUs currently are -
if you don't understand that email personally & I'll let you in, but for obvious reasons I cannot write it out on the blog) have come up with a new
faster TB test, check it out
here. Currently the way to test for TB is long and invasive procedure, consisting of 3 days in hospital, procedures to get sputum samples, and then growing the TB bacteria in the lab - that's what they currently call the "gold-standard" test . . . doesn't seem so gold standard to me, but I guess when it's the best you can get it's gold.
This new test will look for interferon gamma proteins being produced from immune cells from infection &
not vaccination (remember until only a few months ago the UK gave the BCG vaccination to all children) which the
Mantoux test (aka PPD test) cannot do.
For those of you not in the know about the TB vaccination, BCG, here is a bit more info than you actually ever wanted to know.
Bacille
Calmette-
Guérin (
Albert Calmette a French bacteriologist and Camille Guérin a French vet) is the attenuated (
aka weakened but still live) bovine tuberculosis bacillus. It has lost its virulence in humans due to years of culturing in an artificial medium. It was first given to humans in 1921 and depending on geographical location and time post vaccination it can be up to 80% effective in preventing tuberculosis. It has been shown to be efficacious against tuberculous meningitis in children, but much less so against pulmonary tuberculosis. Another interesting tidbit, should you ever be in London & fancy a chat with
Mr Paul Fine about it's efficacy, be sure to plan a few hours, he LOVES this topic!!
So today I'm thankful for this discovery & the fact that it's Friday :)
Labels: bcg, infectious diseases, London, march challenge, news, TB
re-posting since it's a good cause!
Once again LSHTM is hosting
World Swim Against Malaria and again I'm not swimming, but my mate Quintin is, every year he dresses up as a sperm (or some would say a malaria sporozoite) & swims, this is his third year particiapting!!
PLEASE help by sponsoring him here.Did you know (info from the website):
- 1 - 3 million people die of malaria each year
- 70% of them are children under 5
- The children that will die today from malaria would fill 7 jumbo jets
- Malaria is the world's single largest killer of children and pregnant mothers.
- The single most effective means of prevention is a mosquito net
- Each long lasting insecticidal net costs just $ 5
- For each US$100 raised, 20 nets will endup over heads and beds and save one child's life
- Malaria is entirely preventable and treatable - 1-3 million people need not die each year.
Labels: donations, fundraiser, infectious diseases, world swim against malaria
World Swim Against Malaria
Once again LSHTM is hosting "
World Swim Against Malaria" and once again I'm not swimming, but my mate Quentin is, every year he dresses up as a sperm & swims, this is his third year particiapting!!
PLEASE help by sponsoring him
here on his website.
Did you know (info from the website):
- 1 - 3 million - million -people die of malaria each year
- 70% of themare children under 5
- The children that will die today from malaria would fill 7 jumbo jets
- Malaria is the world's single largest killer of children and pregnant mothers.
- The single most effective means of prevention is a mosquito net
- Each long lasting insecticidal net (LLIN)– the net of choice -costs just $ 5
- For each US$100 raised, 20 nets will endup over heads and beds and save one child's life
- Malaria is entirely preventable and treatable - 1-3 million people need not die each year.
Labels: donations, fundraiser, infectious diseases, malaria, world swim against malaria
