Goo-goo Melamine, Part V

Although China claims its milk is no longer contaminated with melamine, the scandal continues to spread. Melamine-contaminated products have been found in Siberia, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, and even Utah. The FDA has produced a safety/risk assessment for melamine. While unable to set a level for infants, they did provide one for adults:

In food products other than infant formula, the FDA concludes that levels of melamine and melamine-related compounds below 2.5 parts per million (ppm) do not raise concerns.

The BBC reports that several animals in a Chinese zoo near Shanghai were fed the contaminated milk powder for over a year:

Concerned keepers sent the animals for a check up after hearing about the milk contamination and have now stopped feeding with Sanlu milk.
The orang-utans and the lion are the only animals to have developed kidney stones and are being treated for the condition.
Officials at the Beijing Zoo and zoos in the other major cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xian said they had no cases of animals sickened from milk powder, the Associated Press reported.

Goo-goo Melamine, Part IV

Via ProMED-mail: Radio New Zealand reports that the melamine crisis in China has spread to 53,000 infants, 13,000 of whom are hospitalized. Rumors reach back to December 2007, and the UN wants an explanation:

The World Health Organisation has asked the Chinese authorities to explain why it took months for the tainted milk scandal to be made public.
The UN children's agency UNICEF has asked Chinese authorities to launch a full investigation into the matter.

Goo-Goo Melamine, Part III

Via ProMED-mail: The melamine death toll has risen to 4 Chinese infants (or possibly five, according to The Daily Yomiuri). Melamine has now been found by several countries in imported milk, yoghurt, coffee, and candy. Several African countries have banned Chinese milk.

A Japanese company has recalled some snacks manufactured in China, and the FDA has stepped up inspections:

Leon said the FDA is sampling bulk shipments of milk-derived products from Asia for possible contamination with melamine or other banned ingredients. The products being tested include whole milk powder, whey powder, milk concentrate, lactose, casein protein, and other milk derivatives.

Goo-goo Melamine, Part II

Via ProMED-mail: The New York Times reports that China's latest melamine scandal has spread to 6,244 infants and 22 dairy companies. Xinhua News Agency reports:

The State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said it had tested 491 batches of baby milk powder produced by all the 109 companies in the country in a special inspection move.
69 batches from 22 companies nationwide were found containing melamine, a chemical which had tainted Sanlu's baby formula and led to kidney stone illness of more than 1,200 infants across the country.
The number of companies with melamine-tainted milk accounted for 20.18 percent of the total of milk powder companies in China. And the number of tainted batches accounted for 14.05 percent of the total batches tested.
The melamine content in the Sanlu brand reached 2,563 mg per kg, the highest among all the samples. In other samples, the range was from 0.09 mg to 619 mg per kilogram.

Xinhua also reports that 10,000 tons of contaminated formula will be destroyed.

Goo-goo Melamine

Via ProMED-mail: the FDA has issued an advisory against infant formula from China. At least 14 Chinese infants became ill, and powdered formula produced by the dairy concern Sanlu was subsequently found to contain melamine.

In response to reports of contaminated milk-based infant formula manufactured in China, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today is issuing a Health Information Advisory. This is to assure the American public that there is no known threat of contamination in infant formula manufactured by companies that have met the requirements to sell infant formula in the United States. Although no Chinese manufacturers of infant formula have fulfilled the requirements to sell infant formula in the United States, FDA officials are investigating whether or not infant formula manufactured in China is being sold in specialty markets which serve the Asian community.
The FDA is advising caregivers not to feed infant formula manufactured in China to infants. This should be replaced with an appropriate infant formula manufactured in the United States as mentioned below.

The Xinhua News Agency reports that the smoking formula has been removed from the shelves in China:

Hundreds of Carrefour and Wal-Mart stores in China are pulling Sanlu milk powder off shelves.
The withdrawal came after both the health authority and Sanlu confirmed the milk to be contaminated with a toxic chemical.
Dong Yuguo, spokesman for Wal-Mart China, said on Friday the company received notices to stop selling the formula.
Xinhua's reporter did not find Sanlu milk powder on shelves in one of the Wal-Mart stores in the Xuanwu District, Beijing, Friday afternoon. The store staff said the brand was ordered to be withdrawn.
Wal-Mart now has 109 stores in China.

This is hardly the first melamine incident. I have added a melamine label for reader convenience, and am updating the China advisory to: PlagueBlog recommends avoiding any pharmaceuticals, infant formula, food, animal feed, or edible components thereof originating in China. And the inedible components, too.

A Potential Cure for Ebola

Via io9.com: PLoS reports on a potential cure for Ebola.

Here, we use a novel technology to measure penetration of Ebola virus into the cell in real time and show that Ebola virus stimulates phosphoinositide-3 kinase, a signaling molecule known to induce endocytosis. Importantly, drugs that interfere with this signaling inhibit infection by Ebola virus and block virus spread. This work provides a mechanistic insight into how Ebola virus manipulates the cell to start an infection, may explain part of virus induced pathogenesis, and provides a potential way to treat this deadly disease.

Pandemic Fiction

Via Futurismic: "Pandemic" by J. F. Bone is an old (1962) story from Analog about a pathologist working on a species-threatening pandemic with a new, grim (but still plucky) nurse. Copyright has apparently lapsed.

Generally, human beings don't do totally useless things consistently and widely. So--maybe there is something to it--
"We call it Thurston's Disease for two perfectly good reasons," Dr. Walter Kramer said. "He discovered it--and he was the first to die of it."

The Perils of Being a Disease Maven

Via ProMED-mail: The New York Times reports on the perils of being a bioterrorism expert--or even an amateur--when the FBI is on the prowl.

Another casualty was Kenneth M. Berry, an emergency room physician with a strong interest in bioterrorism threats. In August 2004, agents raided his colonial-style home and his former apartment in Wellsville, a village in western New York, as well as his parents’ beach house on the Jersey Shore.
In scenes replayed for days on local television stations, the authorities cordoned off streets as agents in protective suits emerged from the dwellings with computers and bags of papers, mail and books.
“He was devastated,” Dr. Berry’s lawyer at the time, Clifford E. Lazzaro, said in an interview. “They destroyed his marriage and destroyed him professionally for a time.”

Whole Foods and E. coli

Via Universal Hub: the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services reports that seven cases of E. coli in the state have been traced to ground beef from Whole Foods.

Officials from the supermarket chain have cooperated with staff from DPH during the agency’s investigation to determine the source of the contamination. Preliminary findings suggest that ground beef products that were previously identified as part of a nationwide recall may have entered the retail supply at Whole Foods during June and July.
Last month, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the extension of a national recall for ground beef produced by Nebraska Beef, Ltd. due to possible E. coli contamination. Nebraska Beef produces products under the Coleman brand name, and a review of records from Whole Foods indicates that some of the stores received product from the recall list. At this time, it is not known why the food listed under the USDA recall was sold to the public after the recall date.

The state recommends throwing away any ground beef purchased at Whole Foods between June 2nd and August 6th.

The Mother of All Parasites

Via The Anti-Toxo: Future Microbiology reports the discovery of a missing-link apicomplexan and its implications.

Symbiosis and parasitism are thus wide-spread in both the dinoflagellates and apicomplexans, suggesting that modern parasites like Plasmodium spp. and Toxoplasma likely started out as mutualistic symbionts that initially nourished their animal hosts before turning to parasitism. These symbiotic/parasitic relationships thus extend back in evolutionary time to the earliest origins of the animals, which means that either as parasites or symbionts, these protists have been interacting with the animal immune system since its inception. As a consequence of this protracted dance, malaria parasites are exquisitely well-equipped to evade our immune system: a sobering harbinger for malaria vaccine prospects.

Prions are Forever

Via ProMED-mail: in June ScienceDaily reported on prions surviving waste water treatment.

Until now, scientists did not know whether prions entering sewers and septic tanks from slaughterhouses, meatpacking facilities, or private game dressing, could survive and pass through conventional sewage treatment plants.
Joel Pedersen and colleagues used laboratory experiments with simulated wastewater treatment to show that prions can be recovered from wastewater sludge after 20 days, remaining in the "biosolids," a byproduct of sewage treatment sometimes used to fertilize farm fields.

I suppose if you can get prions from squirrels, you can get them anywhere.

Adjustable Glasses

Via plime: The World Bank reports on the bright prospects of cheap, adjustable corrective eyeglasses with oil-filled lenses.

For too many of the world’s poorest people, life is just a blur. WHO estimates that roughly a billion people—mostly in developing countries—need eyeglasses to read, write, work, and go about their daily lives. But they cannot find them, let alone afford the high price tag. It can take as much as three months’ wages or more to afford glasses in many African countries.
At least 10 % of this group is made up of youngsters of school age.
These vision problems could eventually be corrected on a large scale through use of cheap, self-correcting spectacles, invented by Oxford University physicist Josh Silver, and being made by a British NGO for between $5–$10, with the ultimate target price being about $1 a pair.

The Achilles' Heel of HIV

Via plime: The Daily Texan reports on progress towards an HIV vaccine.

Along with fellow researchers, Paul has identified one region on the surface of the virus that is mostly unchanging. He explained that this small region is critical for the virus to bind to cells; without this section, the virus would not be able to infect the cells.
The UT researchers call this small region the "Achilles heel" of HIV, which causes AIDS.
"We identified this region as a suitable target for antibodies," Paul said.

On the dissent front (not that they intended it that way) Discover reports on a connection between schistosomiasis and HIV:

Schistosomiasis, seen primarily in developing countries, is caused by tiny flatworms that live in snail-infested freshwater like rivers and lakes. When people wade, swim or bathe in contaminated water, worms bore through the skin and travel in the blood, causing anemia, diarrhea, internal bleeding, organ damage and death.

HIV sounds like the least of their problems.

Beware of Green Food

Via Universal Hub: the FDA advises against the consumption of tomalley from Maine lobsters due to the risk of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP).

The FDA advisory applies only to tomalley, the soft, green substance found in the body cavity of the lobster that functions as the liver and pancreas. Cooking does not eliminate the PSP toxins. However, studies have shown that, even when high levels of PSP toxins are present in lobster tomalley, lobster meat itself is typically unaffected.

Also on the green food watch, the CDC reports a couple of smoking jalapeños:

An FDA laboratory detected Salmonella Saintpaul with the outbreak strain fingerprint pattern in a sample of jalapeño pepper obtained from a distribution center in McAllen, Texas. The distributor is working with FDA to recall the contaminated product in the United States. The peppers were grown in Mexico; investigators are working to determine where they were contaminated.
The Laboratory Services Division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment detected Salmonella Saintpaul with the outbreak strain fingerprint pattern in a jalapeño pepper provided by an ill individual. The state health department is working with the FDA to determine the origin of the jalapeño pepper.

Plagueblog recommends eating locally-grown produce (unless you are local to Mexico) and ruminants. In no case should you be eating any part of an animal whose internal organs can be described as a "soft, green substance [...] that functions as both liver and pancreas."

Rapamycin

Via Technovelgy:

Rapamycin, a drug approved by the FDA to stop tissue rejection after organ transplants, has been found to reverse the brain dysfunction caused by a genetic disease - tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC).
"This is the first study to demonstrate that the drug rapamycin can repair learning deficits related to a genetic mutation that causes autism in humans. The same mutation in animals produces learning disorders, which we were able to eliminate in adult mice," explained principal investigator Dr. Alcino Silva, professor of neurobiology and psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "Our work and other recent studies suggest that some forms of mental retardation can be reversed, even in the adult brain."

See Science Daily for more details.

Marburg Death in the Netherlands

Via ProMED-mail: the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control reports a Marburg death in Leiden, the Netherlands, of a woman who had recently visited the Maramagambo forest in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda.

The patient died on July, 11.
ECDC’s initial assessment is that the threat to public health is limited and mainly focussed on the people who have been in close contact with the patient after the onset of her symptoms. People intending to travel to Uganda should be aware there may be a risk related to visiting caves in the Maramagambo forest.

PlagueBlog recommends New England as a safer travel destination than Uganda--as long as you keep out of the Muddy River.

A New Non-variant CJD

Via an unnamed source: the BBC reports the discovery of a new type of sporadic CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease).

Dr Pierluigi Gambetti, director of the US National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center, in Ohio, said that he believed the newly discovered type had probably "been around for years, unnoticed".
He suggested one interesting common factor was that the patients came from families with a history of dementia, suggesting a genetic cause, but did not carry the gene traditionally associated with a small number of sporadic CJD cases.

Tomato Doubts

Via ProMED-mail: USA Today reports that the ongoing salmonella outbreak has led to doubts about the tomato theory:

At a news conference Friday, representatives of the FDA and the CDC were more forceful in saying that they aren't sure tainted tomatoes caused the outbreak of salmonella saintpaul, a fairly rare strain. Previous statements had been more vague.
Over the weekend, the tide of opinion among epidemiologists, produce companies and food safety officials also began to turn in that direction.
Tomatoes couldn't have caused an outbreak that has stretched from early April to late June, says Jim Prevor, editor of Produce Business magazine. "There's not a field in the world" that produces that long, he says.

No new smoking vegetable has been implicated.

Salmonella hits Massachusetts

Via ProMED-mail: The CDC reports that the Saintpaul [sic] salmonella strain has now been reported in Massachusetts, with twelve people affected.

Among the 316 persons with information available, illnesses began between April 10 and June 13, 2008. Patients range in age from <1 to 99 years; 50% are female. At least 69 persons were hospitalized. No deaths have been officially attributed to this outbreak. However, a man in his sixties who died in Texas from cancer had an infection with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Saintpaul at the time of his death. The infection may have contributed to his death.
Only 3 persons infected with this strain of Salmonella Saintpaul were identified in the country during the same period in 2007. The previous rarity of this strain and the distribution of illnesses in all U.S. regions suggest that the implicated tomatoes are distributed throughout much of the country. Because of inherent delays in reporting and because many persons with Salmonella illness do not have a stool specimen tested, it is likely many more illnesses have occurred than those reported. Some of these unreported illnesses may be in states that are not on today’s map.

The FDA has specific information on what tomatoes are safe to eat.

Parasites Unleashed

Via Boardgame News: Zygote Games has finally released Parasites Unleashed, a card game.

Become one of life's ultimate insiders! In PARASITES UNLEASHED! you control a wily parasite, racing to complete your life cycle, mate, and lay eggs before your opponents. Do all the entertainingly gross things real parasites do -- bore into vital organs, hide inside a blood cell, hitch a ride inside a mosquito, even take over your host's brain! But beware, because your enemies can add stages to your life cycle, and zap you with medicine!