The associate director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told PBS that the age of antibiotics has come to an end.
Dr. Arjun Srinivasan told PBS’s series Frontline that humans and livestock have been so overmedicated that bacteria have simply become resistant to the antibiotics currently on the market.
‘For a long time, there have been newspaper stories and covers of magazines that talked about “The end of antibiotics, question mark?”‘ Dr.Srinivasan said. ‘Well, now I would say you can change the title to “The end of antibiotics, period.”’
Dr. Srinivasan said that hospitals are now having patients admitted with infections that could be easily treated with antibiotics five years ago who have no effective treatment available. He also mentioned the increase in infections among places that in the past were not common places. For example, MRSA recently broke out in the locker room of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Until about a decade ago, MRSA was mainly seen in hospitals.
The blame for the increase in antibiotic resistant bugs was attributed partially to overuse and abuse of antibiotics and drug manufacturers not creating new antibiotics because they are not a profitable line of research.
Two Chicago women’s shelters who were facing closure because of more than $30,000 in overdue bills have received a reprieve from an anonymous donor who paid the bills.
The charity’s owner Clara Kirk told the Chicago Sun-Times she was struggling to pay the utility bills for a South Side shelter and another nearby facility. The 72-year-old Kirk said the financial problems arose because the group is having difficulty securing new grants.
The anonymous donor stepped up Thursday and said they would cover the bills for the West Englewood United Organization.
Kirk said that she’s learned people care more than she thought they cared.
Peoples Gas had turned off gas to one of the shelters on October 16th but turned it back on the day after the donor paid the bill.
Iranian groups are planning a massive rally to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran called the “Grand Day of Death to America.”
A new government bureaucratic group called the Death to the U.S. Committee is reportedly organizing the rally according to Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri.
“The crimes of U.S. leaders and international Zionism in dealing with Iran’s great nation will never be erased from public memories and minds,” Jazayeri said.
The New York Times reports the event will include the awarding of the First Major International Award of ‘Down With America.’ The award will be given for the best anti-American picture, poster, song, video or caricature. The winner of the award could receive up to $4,000.
The rally by hard-liners is seen as a response to recent reports that new President Hassan Rouhani is taking a more moderate position with the United States.
The anti-Christian Military Religious Freedom Foundation has found another target in their quest to eliminate Christ and Christians from the armed forces.
The group filed a complaint at the Air Force Academy claiming the phrase “so help me God” in the Academy’s honor oath is hostile toward those who do not profess a faith in their personal life.
Fox News reports that the Honor Review Committee of the Academy is reviewing the oath and will make recommendations to Academy leaders. The Academy Superintendent will make the final decision.
The current oath reads: “We will not lie, steal or cheat nor tolerate among us anyone who does. Furthermore, I resolve to do my duty and live honorably, so help me God.”
The Colorado Springs Independent newspaper obtained a photo last week of a poster at the academy with the oath and forwarded to the anti-Christian group.
“Removing this voluntary affirmation expresses hostility toward religion,” Ron Crews of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty told Fox News. “Further, it removes the solemnity and gravity of the oath, particularly for the many cadets who come from a faith tradition.”
A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association says that a flu shot helps seniors lower their risk of heart attacks and strokes.
The study followed more than 6,000 patients with an average age of 67. More than a third of the people in the survey suffered from some form of heart disease. Those who had been given a flu shot had an almost 2% less risk of a heart attack or stroke than those who did not take the injection.
“The study is important because it reconfirms that there are benefits to getting the flu vaccination,” Dr. David Frid of the Cleveland Clinic told Fox News. “In people who have recently had a cardiac event…it reduces the likelihood of their having some type of cardiovascular complication if they do develop the flu.”
The study was conducted specifically involving those who contracted the influenza virus and not the common cold.
Dr. Frid said that getting the flu does not directly cause heart disease but that the body’s stress from being sick from the flu can raise blood pressure and cause other cardiac complications.
Two Colorado men whose farm shipped tainted cantaloupes across the nation have pleaded guilty to multiple charges related to a food poisoning outbreak.
Eric and Ryan Jensen faced charges of adulteration of a food. They face up to six years in prison and $1.5 million in fines.
Jensen Farms shipped at least six shipments of cantaloupes in 2011 that were not sterilized allowing them to become infected with the listeria bacteria. The fruit sickened people from California to Virginia resulting in 33 deaths.
“The defendants have now admitted that they failed to protect the public from deadly bacteria on their cantaloupe, in violation of the law and critical USDA requirements,” U.S. Attorney John Walsh said in a statement.
The USDA had found the brothers installed a system at their farm to sterilize melons with a chlorine spray. The system, that was designed to be used to sterilize potatoes, was never put into service by the farm.
Sentencing for the two men is in January.
President Obama held an event at the White House Monday to talk about the problems with the websites linked to his signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.
The President said the problems with the healthcare.gov website are “unacceptable” and pledged to take whatever steps were necessary to correct the website problems.
“There’s no sugarcoating it,” the President said. “The website has been too slow. People have been getting stuck during the application process. And I think it’s far to say that nobody is more frustrated by that than I am.”
Congress has been investigating the problems with the launch of Obamacare but have been struggling to get Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to appear. According to a Reuters report, the Secretary finally agreed to meet with the House Energy and Commerce Committee next Wednesday.
“Americans didn’t get any answers from the president today,” House Speaker John Boehner said, “but the House’s oversight of this failure is just beginning.”
The stepmother of a 14-year-old girl who was arrested on charges related to bullying another teen into suicide has been arrested on six counts related to abuse.
Vivian Vosburg, 30, is facing charges related to a video posted on Facebook showing her punching two teenage boys. The Polk County Florida Sheriff’s Office said Vosburg is charged with two counts of child abuse with bodily harm and four counts of child neglect with great harm.
Vosburg’s stepdaughter, 14-year-old Guadalupe Shaw, is charged along with a 12-year-old girl with felony aggravated stalking in the suicide death of 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick. The two girls reportedly harassed Sedwick in person and online because the girl had dated a boy that Shaw had once dated. Sedwick committed suicide by jumping from the top of a concrete silo on September 9th.
While the charges against Vosburg are not related to the bullying incident with Shaw, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd believes the environment created in Vosburg’s home contributed to the 14-year-old’s depraved mindset.
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” Judd said at a press conference.
The U.S. debt deal sparked relief around the world Thursday, but happiness was tempered by head-shaking that the world’s largest economy had nearly defaulted on its financial obligations, and President Obama said that the United States’ global standing had been damaged.
World leaders and investors have been puzzled for weeks about the showdown paralyzing Washington, and some had complained that U.S. politicians who lay claim to global leadership were doing little to safeguard international finances. On Thursday, officials and newspapers from Beijing to Madrid said the crisis raised fresh questions about the strength of the American political system.
Obama, meanwhile, said that the shutdown had done great harm. “It’s encouraged our enemies,” he said. “It’s emboldened our competitors. And it’s depressed our friends who look to us for steady leadership.”
World markets were largely lower Thursday after having risen earlier this week on expectations that a deal would be made.
Source: The Washington Post – The Washington Post: Around the globe, U.S. debt deal prompts relief, but also exasperation, worry for future
The end of the federal shutdown means boats will be back out on the Bering Sea to fish for king crab. Loggers are being allowed back into national forests in Oregon. And barriers keeping nature lovers out of national parks across the country have been removed.
Crews on about 80 boats have been sitting out the multimillion-dollar harvest of red king crab because federal managers who assign fishing quotas were among workers furloughed during the government’s partial shutdown. They’re relieved that they’ll soon be able to start their harvest, bringing back an industry that was one of many private sectors of the economy stalled around the country by the bickering in Washington.
“I’m glad the madness has ended,” said Capt. Keith Colburn, a regular on Discovery Channel’s popular reality show “Deadliest Catch.”
Source: Associated Press – Associated Press: From Crab Fishers To Office Staff, Nation Reboots