A new study at Johns Hopkins says a virus that infects human brains has been discovered and the virus lowers human intelligence.
The algae virus impacts cognitive functions including visual process and special awareness according to a report in the Independent UK newspaper.
The study by scientists at Johns Hopkins and the University of Nebraska started completely by accident during an investigation into throat microbes. The DNA of virus that infects green algae was found in the throats of healthy individuals.
“This is a striking example showing that the ‘innocuous’ microorganisms we carry can affect behavior and cognition,” Dr. Robert Yolken told the Independent.
In the study, 40 people in 90 tested positive for the algae virus. All 40 of the positive subjects scored lower on tests to measure speed and accuracy of visual processing. They also had lower attention spans.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Doctors say a new disorder related to sitting too long at work could be as fatal as smoking.
Dr. Eric Tepper says that sitting for hours can lead to all kinds of chronic diseases no matter how old the patient.
“There’s a lot of research on what exactly is the pathology but it does increase mortality, it increase the risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes,” Tepper told CBS.
Tepper said that sitting hampers muscle strength, weakens metabolic strength and also cause problems with circulation. He said those who work in offices and other places where they are sitting need to stand up and walk around on a regular basis.
“You’re getting more circulation going through your legs, you’re actually using muscles to balance yourself, it’s almost impossible to stand perfectly still we’re always moving when you’re standing whereas sitting, you really are perfectly still,” Tepper said.
Tepper said that going to a gym to work out after work for an hour doesn’t help the problems with sitting at work. He says that every person should get up and walk around for at least 10 minutes an hour to offset the damage that can be done by sitting.
A new study shows vaccines that come from human fetal cell lines can contribute to autism.
The study uses data from the U.S., U.K., Denmark and Australia. It was complied by the Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute.
“Not only are the human fetal contaminated vaccines associated with autistic disorder throughout the world, but also with epidemic childhood leukemia and lymphomas,” said Dr. Theresa Deisher of SCPI.
The study showed that in most cases, the amount of fetal DNA in the vaccines was significantly above the levels considered safe. No more than 10ng should be in a dose, yet in some cases the levels were as high at 2000ng per dose.
“There are a large number of publications about the presence of HERV (human endogenous retrovirus – the only re-activatable endogenous retrovirus) and its association with childhood lymphoma,” noted Dr Deisher. “The MMR II and chickenpox vaccines and indeed all vaccines that were propagated or manufactured using the fetal cell line WI-38 are contaminated with this retrovirus. And both parents and physicians have a right to know this!”
The report comes on the heels of a CDC report that was withheld showing an increase among African American boys and autism when vaccinated prior to 36 months.
A new study on the Ebola virus says that if temperatures are close to freezing such as in the winter months the virus can live for two months outside of the body.
The study showed the virus lived over seven weeks on glass surfaces at temperatures around 39 degrees. The UK’s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory found the Zaire strain of the virus could live 50 days on glass surfaces.
The tests were reportedly carried out before the current outbreak, in 2010, but the results had not been released to the public.
‘This study has demonstrated that filoviruses are able to survive and remain infectious, for extended periods when suspended within liquid and dried onto surfaces,’ explained the researchers to the Daily Mail. ‘Data from this study extend the knowledge on the survival of filoviruses under different conditions and provide a basis with which to inform risk assessments and manage exposure.’
The CDC has said the virus can live for hours on doorknobs or other dry surfaces and they reiterated the importance of using an alcohol based hand sanitizer and to not touch any surface that may have come in contact with someone who has Ebola.
A Dallas County Sheriff’s Deputy who was exhibiting signs of Ebola has been taken into isolation at a Dallas area hospital.
The deputy began to show signs of illness Wednesday morning and went to an urgent care center in Frisco, Texas. The patient said while he didn’t have direct contact with the now-deceased Thomas Eric Duncan, he was in the apartment and had contact with the family and possessions of the “Ebola patient zero.”
The patient has been identified as Sgt. Michael Monnig. He had been monitoring his temperature for the last week as a precaution and went to seek medical help when he had a fever, stomach pain and fatigue.
“We don’t want to cause a panic,” Logan Monnig told The Dallas Morning News. “There is almost no chance my dad would have Ebola. He spent very little time in the apartment, and he did not come in contact with Mr. Duncan or any bodily fluids.”
Doctors say Monnig is a “low risk” Ebola case and that it’s unlikely he or anyone else could have been infected from his visit to the urgent care center.
Concerns about the health care system in Dallas is coming into question following reports that the confirmed Ebola patient was sent home initially from the hospital and was seen throwing up outside all over a common area of the apartment complex where he had been staying.
“His whole family was screaming. He got outside and he was throwing up all over the place,” resident Mesud Osmanovic, 21, said on Wednesday to Reuters.
The man, who has been identified by a family friend as Thomas Eric Duncan, reportedly helped transport a pregnant woman who suffered from Ebola to a hospital in Liberia before boarding a flight to the United States. The woman was turned away from the hospital due to lack of space and Duncan transported her back to the family home where she died.
Texas health officials initially said 18 people had contact with the man but now reports say as many as 80 are under observation because of possible contact.
Hospital officials admitted when the man first came into a hospital on Thursday and was then sent home with antibiotics he had told a nurse that he had traveled to West Africa.
“Regretfully, that information was not fully communicated throughout the full teams. As a result, the full import of that information wasn’t factored into the full decision making,” Texas hospital official Mark Lester said.
The situation the President described as “unlikely” and officials at the CDC doubted would happen has come true.
The first American case of Ebola has been confirmed.
“We received in our laboratory today specimens from the individual, tested them and they tested positive for Ebola,” Dr. Tom Frieden of the CDC said. “The State of Texas also operates a laboratory that found the same results.”
The Centers for Disease Control has confirmed that a Liberian man who came to the United States to visit relatives tested positive for the virus. He arrived in the U.S. on September 20th but did not show symptoms until four days later. He went to a hospital on Friday and was admitted on Sunday.
Dr. Frieden said that he is certain there will be no major outbreak.
“It does not spread from someone who doesn’t have fever and other symptoms,” Frieden outlined. “So, it’s only someone who is sick with Ebola who can spread the disease. I have no doubt that we will control or contain this case of Ebola so it does not spread throughout the country.”
The mysterious viral illness that has been striking children has now spread to 38 states.
The Centers for Disease Control has confirmed 226 cases of enterovirus 68. However, the CDC admits that many other children have likely been infected with the virus and was not severe enough to seek medical attention at a hospital.
Doctors say the reports of the CDC are the “tip of the iceberg” for the mysterious virus.
University of Chicago’s Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital has been forced to divert ambulances to other hospitals because the emergency room was filled with children suffering from severe respiratory illness. It was the first time in 10 years the hospital had to divert ambulances.
Doctors say that while enteroviruses are common illnesses, enterovirus 68 is rare.
“Parents would love to know why this virus is causing severe disease and why there are more cases,” Rafal Tokarz, an associate research scientist at Columbia University who has studied the virus, told the New York Times, “but we won’t be able to answer that until a lot more research is done.”
An American doctor who became infected with the Ebola virus while working at an OB/GYN clinic in Liberia has been flown to Nebraska for treatment.
Dr. Rick Sacra, 51, is going to be held in a special isolation unit on the seven floor of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. The unit is the largest of four such units in the United States.
Dr. Sacra is from the Boston area and went to Liberia after the two other American medical missionaries became ill from the virus. He worked with the Christian charity SIM, the same group that infected nurse Nancy Writebol had served with before her infection with the virus.
The media was screened from Dr. Sacra as he was brought to the hospital about 40 minutes after leading at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha.
A team of 35 doctors, nurses and medical staff will be providing Dr. Sacra with substantive care including keeping him hydrated and vital signs stable.
Because the experimental drug ZMapp is not available, there are discussions about using blood serum from one of the other Americans who has recovered from the virus in an attempt to introduce antibodies in the system.
Relatives of Kenneth Bae, an American missionary who is wrongfully imprisoned in North Korea, say that his health is failing and that North Korean authorities are endangering his life.
Bae has been suffering from liver problems and the North Korean government has not been providing him with adequate health care. The authorities continue to send Bae to hard labor camps instead of hospitals where American officials have been told he will be transferred.
His family and friends say that the North Korean government has still not shown any evidence to back up their claims he was committing “hostile acts to bring down the government.” An associate says the only possible thing that happened in Bae took pictures of something he shouldn’t have seen.
“The most plausible scenario I can think of is that he took some picture of orphans and the North Korean authorities considered that an act of anti-north Korean propaganda,” Do Hee-youn of the Citizens Coalition for Human Rights of North Korean Refugees told Christian News.
The State Department says they continue to be “gravely concerned” about Bae’s health.