INTERESTING TIMES

NEUROSYPHILIS
progressive loss of mental and physical fx
Treponema pallidum, spirochete, invades CNS
four stages, if you will:
1) asymptomatic (painless chancre, condyloma lata, urethral discharge green)
2) meningovascular (perivascular inflam presents as stroke of MCA or basilar branch in young person, these vessels being in the base of the skull, may result in cranial nerve palsies)
3) paretic (20-30 years, progressive: spirochetes invade parenchymal tissue-->inflam kills brain cells-->chronic perivascular and meningeal inflammatory changes-->brain atrophy)
4) tabes dorsalis (present with loss of pain sensation, bladder incontinence, loss of peripheral reflexes, impairment of vibration sense and proprioception, progressive ataxia dt demyelination of posterior column, inflam and fibrosis of dorsal sensory nerve roots-->ataxia, loss of pain and proprioception-->demetia-->vegetative-->death)(Argyl-Robertson pupil does not react to direct light but is consensually reactive and accomodative)

What's MCA?
( part 2, Miller notes: neurosyphilis, JC virus, measles (rubeola), polio, rabies, HIV, slow viruses (prions), and Reye's syndrome for good measure )

OK, here's the best overview of the current pandemic threat/media blitz that I have seen yet. Dr Mercola puts it all in perspective with science, and the history of previous disease threats and outcomes. The comments below the article discuss a bit about how people who went to "alternative" hospitals had the best survival rates of the flu of 1918.

--a swine flu
--not known where it began
--currently all over Mexico (including near the US border) and inside the US (CA)
--known outbreak began in mid March, this is very late in flu season
--they're calling it "entirely new". Is that H1N5? Or??
--affects young adults the most (possibly because older adults are more likely to have been exposed to a previous similar flu and to be immune)
--schools and events in Mexico City are closed
--in Mexico so far: 60 deaths and 1000 infected
--authorities are working to determine what kind of flu it is and come up with a vaccine
--athorities all over the world are working furiously on their prevention plans
--a "cure" is said to be possible if the flu is detected and treated early

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8017000/8017958.stm

This is old news, but new to me. A vaccine called TA-CD has been developed that is made of a combination of cocaine and deactivated cholera toxin. By injecting both into a person at the same time, an immune reaction is induced by which the body makes antibodies against the cocaine itself. The body remembers cocaine as an "invader" and produces massive amounts of antibodies anytime cocaine is detected.

( more )

A legitimate indication for giving pneumovax is sickle cell anemia, because the destruction of the spleen causes increased susceptibility to encapsulated organisms including Strep, H. flu and Salmonella. One must administer the vaccine before the spleen is fibrosed, to give the individual ample opportunity to develop an effective immune response to these organisms. Sickle cell patients are more likely to suffer from salmonella osteomyelitis, which can result in avascular necrosis, esp of the femoral head.

What can be called pneumonia that is not caused by infection?
( the answer )

Africans are more susceptible to HIV because of an adaptation to malaria. It happened by evolution: the Africans who didn't have a certain surface protein on their red blood cells didn't get malaria, because the parasite couldn't get into the RBC's. The particular kind of malaria died out, after everyone that was left was no longer susceptible to it.

That same adaptation that allowed the Africans to survive that strain of malaria also resulted in a change in the genetic makeup of the entire population... and now that change is causing them to be more susceptible to HIV. And estimated 90% of Africans and 60% of African Americans are up to 40% more vulnerable to infection by HIV.

There "has always been this myth that people in sub-Saharan Africa were more likely to get HIV because of differences in their sexual behavior, or that they are more promiscuous" (Dr. Ade Fakoya of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance on BBCnews.com)... but now we have a good reason, aside from promiscuity, for the high infection rates in Africa.

In immunology we were taught that the European populations who are descended from survivors of bubonic plague are less likely to get HIV. So it turns out that your genetic makeup makes a big difference in your susceptibility to HIV, and that probably HIV/AIDS will cause a new layer of evolution in our species. Natural Selection is still operating in humans.

When it gets hot, I like to go jump in the river. The Oregonians think the river is too dangerous, too polluted. I was repeating this viewpoint minutes ago, while sitting in a kiddy pool in my back yard with one of the young reporters who lives downstairs. She told me that in late July there was a toxic algae bloom in the Tualatin River. The Tualatin flows into the Willamette at Lake Oswego.

Public Health officials advised boaters and swimmers to stay away from it, and put up signs to warn people to keep out and keep their animals away. The USGS reports that 8-9 dogs/year die of drinking blue-green algae infested water.
( the toxins they aren't reporting about because they are so scarey )

Undead microbes on the sea floor could comprise 10% of total biomass.
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/seafloor-microb.html