Black Death is back

[Ardesco]

You missed a trick... what about HIV?

HIV is not the death sentance it once was if you have access to the latest medication (Something people in africa generally don't have where HIV is a major problem).

They can keep you alive for a good 30-40 years now while filling you full of drugs and the chances are we will have a cure in 40 years time. They have already identified a mutant gene that makes you immune to it, if they can work out how to mutate genes in the body safely in the next 40 years job done.

[Troll]

You missed a trick... what about HIV?

HIV is a bit passé...

A deadly strain of the superbug MRSA which can lead to a flesh-eating form of pneumonia has emerged.
Research suggests it may be more prevalent among the gay community - the gay San Francisco district of Castro appears to have been hardest hit.

So far only two cases of the new form of the USA300 strain of the bug have been recorded in the UK.

It is not usually contracted in hospitals, but in the community - often by casual contact.

The new strain is resistant to treatment by many front-line antibiotics.

It causes large boils on the skin, and in severe cases can lead to fatal blood poisoning or necrotising pneumonia, which eats away at the lungs.

Researchers say the bug has so far been 13 times more prevalent in gay men in San Francisco than in other people.

In the Castro district - where more gay people live than anywhere else in the US - about one in 588 people are carrying the bug.

In the general San Francisco community the figure was around one in 3,800.

Researcher Dr Binh Diep, from San Francisco General Hospital Medical Centre, said: "These multi-drug resistant infections often affect gay men at body sites in which skin-to-skin contact occurs during sexual activities.

Dr Diep said the best way to avoid transmission was probably to wash thoroughly with soap and water, especially after sexual activities.

The study, reported in Annals of Internal Medicine, was based on a review of medical records from outpatient clinics and medical centres in San Francisco and Boston.

Professor Mark Enright, from Imperial College and St Mary's Hospital, London, Britain's leading authority on MRSA, said: "It's quite surprising that the figures are so high.


"The main reservoir for this infection is gay men, drug users, and those involved in contact sports, like wrestling. Having lots of sexual partners and making skin contact with a large number of different people helps the infection to spread

[Ardesco]

No - because inoculation stopped years ago.

That is because we had virtually eradicated the disease in the UK. However large scale immigration from countries where it was not erradicated and did not have a innoculation programme means that invariably some people brought it across.

Add this to the fact that we are no longer innoculated against it and it starts to rear its ugly head again.

(And not this is not a rant against immigrants, it is just fact)

[Troll]

No - because inoculation stopped years ago.

Why did it stop? .... and then why might we want to restart it

[BrowneIssue]

also on the increase in this country- dare I say- as the result of migration

No - because inoculation stopped years ago.

[Troll]

More than likely due to migration. The black death in medieval times was only an epidemic (apart from the fact that they didn't know how to cure or prevent it) because people already carrying the problem fled the infected areas into untouched areas and therefore spreading the problem. Not possible these days with the stricter medical screening going on I wouldn't have thought.

Was talking about TB there!

[KathyWoolfe]

also on the increase in this country- dare I say- as the result of migration

More than likely due to migration. The black death in medieval times was only an epidemic (apart from the fact that they didn't know how to cure or prevent it) because people already carrying the problem fled the infected areas into untouched areas and therefore spreading the problem. Not possible these days with the stricter medical screening going on I wouldn't have thought.

[Troll]

It's the same with Tuberculosis (consumption in Victorian times). Still with us but far less of a problem than it used to be.

also on the increase in this country- dare I say- as the result of migration

[KathyWoolfe]

It has never gone away. Inter alia, it occurs a couple of dozen times every summer in SW states of the US.

The only reason that people think it has gone away is that it causes far fewer deaths than it used to.

It's the same with Tuberculosis (consumption in Victorian times). Still with us but far less of a problem than it used to be.

[Ardesco]

It has never gone away. Inter alia, it occurs a couple of dozen times every summer in SW states of the US.

It also attacks the body in the same way that HIV does, if I remember right from a documentry I saw a couple of years ago. They found a genetic marker which made people immune, or semi immune to the bubonic plague by digging up the bones of people known to survive it and found a mutated gene. They then did the same test to some american guy who seems to be immune to aids and he had the same mutated gene. Considering how long ago this program was on i'm surprised they haven't said more about it, mind you finding out a mutation makes you immune to it and trying to make the mutation in somebody through gene threpy is a whole different ball game....

If anything you could say that HIV is an evolution of bubonic plague.

[expat]

Link

The bubonic plague, which killed millions of people in medieval England, is making a return in the world, an ecology expert in Liverpool claims.
Research by Professor Michael Begon at the University of Liverpool revealed the deadly disease, also known as the Black Death, has re-emerged.

It has never gone away. Inter alia, it occurs a couple of dozen times every summer in SW states of the US.

[NotAllThere]

It's never been away.

[Troll]

Link

The bubonic plague, which killed millions of people in medieval England, is making a return in the world, an ecology expert in Liverpool claims.
Research by Professor Michael Begon at the University of Liverpool revealed the deadly disease, also known as the Black Death, has re-emerged.