Nearing a Cure for Hepatitis C

In the contest to get a creative name, few pathogens have done worse than hepatitis C. In the 1970s there were two known viruses that caused hepatitis – liver inflammation. You might have already guessed that these two viruses were called hepatitis A and hepatitis B. It was known at that time that people sometimes developed hepatitis after blood transfusions and that the majority of those patients tested negative for hepatitis A and B. A new pathogen was hypothesized and called non-A-non-B h...
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Return of the Spirochete

"Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other." – Edmund Burke

Syphilis has been around at least since Europeans arrived in the Western Hemisphere. It’s a sexually transmitted disease caused by Treponema pallidum, a member of a group of corkscrew-shaped bacteria called spirochetes. Sometimes it causes no symptoms at all, but typically it initially causes a painless sore on the mouth or genitals. Later it can cause a rash. Untrea...
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Ebola Outbreak in West Africa Worries Health Officials

In 1976 a new virus entered the pantheon of lethal human pathogens – Ebola virus. That year outbreaks in Zaire and Sudan sickened 284 people and killed about half of them. Ebola virus causes an illness that initially resembles a typical intestinal virus, with fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, vomiting and diarrhea. Most patients quickly worsen and develop a rash, easy bleeding, and liver and kidney failure. About two thirds of the people who are infected die. Ebola is transmitted from...
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Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus: the latest lethal germ

In 2003 a brand new virus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) caused an outbreak of serious illness in Asia. The outbreak sickened over 8,000 people and killed over 700. Many of the infected were healthcare workers. In February of last year a similar but distinct virus was identified in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Since that time about 200 people have been sickened by MERS, all linked to six countries in or near the...
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Meningitis Outbreaks Strike Two Campuses

Those of us who believe in the unvarying beneficence of Mother Nature have yet to contemplate Neisseria meningitidis. N. meningitidis is a bacterium that can live harmlessly in the throats of healthy people. But about 500 times a year in the US it causes bacterial meningitis, a life-threatening infection in which the membranes lining the brain and spinal cord become inflamed. Bacterial meningitis is treatable with antibiotics but even with treatment patients sometime suffer...
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A Polio Outbreak in China in 2011

Two weeks ago I wrote about the reemergence of polio in Syria and the Herculean task the World Health Organization faces to eradicate the disease – the vaccination over a million children in the Middle East, some of whom live in a war zone. (See that post for a review of the symptoms of polio and the history of polio eradication in the West.) This week’s post is about another polio outbreak which was managed very differentl...
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Polio Outbreak in Syria

If you remember the 1950s you probably remember the terror of polio. Polio, short for poliomyelitis, is a disease caused by a virus which can cause severe inflammation of the spinal cord. Though most infected people have no symptoms, a small fraction of patients are left with permanent paralysis and deformities. The disease is sometimes fatal. In the US, the 1952 polio epidemic killed over 3,000 people and left over 20,000 with some paralysis. The isolation of the polio virus and the deve...
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Cyclosporiasis Outbreak Sickens Hundreds

Cyclosporiasis is the name of the intestinal illness caused by the single-celled microscopic parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis. It is spread through ingestion of food or water contaminated by stool. (Oh, sorry. I hope you’re not reading this over lunch.) In the US, outbreaks of cyclosporiasis have usually been linked to contaminated imported fresh produce. It is not spread directly through contact from person to person. The onset of the illness occurs about seven days after ingest...
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Hepatitis A Outbreak Linked to Frozen Berry and Pomegranate Mix

Hepatitis A is an illness which affects the liver and is caused by a virus. (You’ll be shocked to learn it's called the hepatitis A virus.) It is usually transmitted through food and water contaminated by human feces, even in microscopic amounts. In the US outbreaks have frequently been linked to food workers who have hepatitis A and contaminate food with their hands. The disease typically causes fatigue, abdominal pain, jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes), and dark urine. Patients typ...
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