infectious disease
tsmith | June 3, 2006More interesting stuff I didn't get to...
First, outbreak news that I've not had a chance to write about. A huge cholera outbreak is ongoing in Angola; meanwhile, a small measles outbreak has been reported in Boston.
Invasive bullfrogs may be spreading around the deadly chytrid fungus that has been implicated in mass amphibian deaths around the world.
The FDA has approved a new shingles vaccine for adults who had chickenpox.
New studies show that the time to get kids interested in science is when they're young.
And something I keep meaning to mention...BlogHer. Not familiar? Read all…
tsmith | June 2, 2006I forgot to mention this before it aired, but earlier this week PBS aired a two-part documentary on HIV, The Age of AIDS. It's very good, and according to the website, you can watch it online beginning at 5PM EST today. There's also a lot of information, interviews, etc. on the PBS website linked above.
tsmith | June 2, 2006John Hawks highlights a new article in today's Science, Metagenomic Analysis of the Human Distal Gut Microbiome. This goes nicely with the posts here recently on the topic of how our microbes affect our health and weight (part I; part II). A bit of discussion of the new article below...
First, I want to briefly mention what "metagenomics" means. There's a nice overview of it here on wikipedia. Basically, instead of sequencing and assembling a genome one at a time, you take a raw sample (such as dental plaque, sea water, soil, or fecal material, in this case), isolate the DNA, sequence it…
tsmith | June 2, 2006Color me shocked: Teens who promise to wait for marriage more likely to deny sexual history
Teenagers who take pledges to remain virgins until marriage are likely to deny having taken the pledge if they later become sexually active. Conversely, those who were sexual active before taking the pledge frequency deny their sexual history, according to new study findings.
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The research paper is published in this month's American Journal of Public Health (which is a special issue devoted to HIV/AIDS); the article is here. The meat from the abstract:
Among wave 1 virginity pledgers…
tsmith | May 31, 2006 It can't be said often enough that "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." Moving from physical characteristics--color, bone shape, the form of bacterial cells--to genetic characteristics in order to classify organisms--and infer phylogenies--was a giant advance. That the molecular characteristics confirmed what was known using physical characteristics was a breakthrough, and allowed for more sophisticated analyses of organisms that don't have bones or other easily-observable physical features that allow for simple classification into groups: microbes. I've…
tsmith | May 30, 2006Leftover from last week's zoonotic diseases course: I do sometimes get away from the hind end of animals.
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tsmith | May 26, 2006As pointed out yesterday, flu blogging has been light this month, even though there have been interesting developments. As such, to catch up a bit, I'm posting an overview of the current Indonesian cluster and some other thoughts below the jump...
As always, I point anyone who wants to keep up-to-date on the latest news over to Effect Measure for excellent analysis of what it all means, or to H5N1 for news from around the world on the topic. Obviously, the biggest news of the moment is the Indonesian family cluster, which appears to not only be an example of human-to-human transmission, but…
tsmith | May 26, 2006Species of the bacterium Clostridium have long been a scourge of humans. They are gram-positive, spore-forming bacteria that can be found in the soil around all of us. The spores then germinate when exposed to anaerobic conditions.
Clostridium botulinum is the cause of botulism, a serious and potentially fatal paralytic illness often caused by ingestion of contaminated foods. More recently, the bacterium has been used as the source of that anti-wrinkle miracle, BoTox: botulinum toxin type A, allowing all of Hollywood to smile without a wrinkly forehead (ah, the wonders of nature!).…
tsmith | May 25, 2006I write a lot on here about evolution, and more about epidemiology. A recent article in Emerging Infectious Diseases discusses a unique combination of the two: 2,500-year Evolution of the Term Epidemic. I've said before that I'm about the farthest thing from a language scholar you can find, but it's an interesting article tracking how the usage of the term has changed since the time of the ancient Greeks.
tsmith | May 25, 2006I feel a bit guilty. I still get occasional comments on this post about the outbreak of chikungunya on several islands in the Indian Ocean. Since I'm obviously not involved in the actual outbreak investigation, all I have to offer is news reported elsewhere--and it's not exactly been a landslide of information. However, Nature does have some news to offer, based largely on a new paper published in PLoS Medicine (summary here).
Previously, the complete genomes of three isolates of the virus had been determined. Two were from strains isolated in 1952 during the first known Chikungunya…
tsmith | May 24, 2006Are we always sticking swabs up animals' asses? Why, yes we are.
(More below the fold)
My colleagues teach a summer course on zoonotic diseases. Since influenza is something we study, today we watched (and a few participated in) some wildfowl swabbing and banding. Above is the former: taking a cloacal swab from a duck. Though these were just for demonstration, this is one way to collect circulating avian influenza viruses.
We also headed out to some marshes to round up and band geese.
This one had 4 adults and I think there were 8 juveniles. We surrounded the pond; the goal…
tsmith | May 22, 2006 Razib mentioned here an article in the Boston Globe "which profiles researchers who suggest that variation in gut flora (the mix of bacteria) might be the cause of differences in body weight." The comments are somewhat skeptical, and I started to write a comment on the topic but it became a bit unweildly--so I've added it below instead.
As I've discussed previously, figuring out the relative contributions of environment versus genetics in obesity isn't an easy feat. As with so many human diseases/conditions, the "cause" is certainly multi-factorial. It's pretty clear that the genetics…
tsmith | May 21, 2006Or Saturday roundup, belated. Some interesting stories I didn't have time to cover:
The HPV vaccine, aimed at reducing the incidence of cervical cancer, has moved a step closer to approval.
The Institute of Medicine calls for more research into and oversight of vitamin supplements.
Continuing debate over "The Hobbit."
New research might eventually bring breathalyzers to your doctor's office. Not necessarily for alcohol.
An interesting study of experimental evolution: selecting for heat-tolerant bacteria over 1500 generations.
Yet another use for bacteriophage: diagnosis of…
tsmith | May 18, 2006Welcome to the new edition of Animalcules!
First, a few housekeeping notes. If you note the schedule, I've not yet extended it beyond June 1st. I think that, at least for the summer months, Animalcules will be a once-monthly carnival, rather than every other week. If things pick up after that, I'll change it back to the current set-up, but that will be dependent not only on entries but also on additional hosts. So, if you'd like to host in July, August, or September, drop me a line (aetiology AT gmail DOT com) an I'll get you on the schedule.
Okay...on to the entries!
We have a few…
tsmith | May 17, 2006Blogger reveals China's migratory goose farms near site of flu outbreak
The hypothesis that migratory birds are responsible for spreading avian flu over long distances has taken another knock. Last year, an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain in thousands of migratory birds at Qinghai Lake in western China provided what seemed the first firm evidence for the idea. Because the lake is so remote, experts assumed infected birds had flown up from southern China.
But it has now emerged that, since 2003, one of the key migratory species affected, the bar-headed goose, has been artificially reared…
tsmith | May 17, 2006When I was in school, I was taught about the 5 kingdoms of life: Monera (all bacteria), and the eukaryotes: Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia. Since that time, there's been a bit of a change in the organization. This is largely due to investigation of the Archaea (sometimes still referred to as "archaebacteria"). It was recognized that these organisms were so unlike bacteria (and of course, unlike the eukaryotes) that they deserved their own grouping. Therefore, the most common strategy currently employs 3 domains of cellular life at a level above the kingdom: Bacteria,…
tsmith | May 16, 2006 On a recent episode of the drama House, the medical team finds that a patient improves from his illness when he's infected with a particular species of bacteria, Legionella pneumophila. Though mysterious at the time because the cause of the patient's illness was unknown, it was later determined that the patient was infected with naegleria, an amoeba. Legionella is an intracellular bacterium that just happens to naturally live in amoeba. Therefore, when the patient was co-infected with the amoeba and Legionella, the Legionella killed off the amoeba--using one microbe to attack another.…
tsmith | May 13, 2006More topics I'd have liked to discuss, given the time...
The Vigil after Dover. A free public forum, May 17, 2006 8 PM EST at The Florida State University College of Medicine Auditorium. Featuring Eugenie Scott, Michael Ruse, John Haught, Robert Pennock, and others, it will apparently be broadcast live as well.
An article on "Europe's unknown viral nasties", discussing the importance of surveillance (especially at the animal-human interface) to help detect emerging infectious agents.
Discussion of a new study that chipmunks and acorns hold the key to forecasting Lyme disease:
The…
tsmith | May 6, 2006Just a few things that have either been sitting in my drafts box and I know I won't have a chance to get to, or stuff I saw elsewhere that deserves a mention.
Check out this excellent (and hilarious) post by Skip Evans on creationists and boobies.
I've posted previously here about our eagles here in Iowa. Phil at the Bad Astronomy Blog gives links to 2 webcams, where you can watch the nests of eagles or peregrine falcons (another favorite bird of mine). They've shut down the eagle one because the eggs didn't hatch and the parents left the nest, but there's a fluffy white falcon chick (…
tsmith | May 4, 2006Cheyenne shelter dogs to be euthanized
All 70 to 80 dogs at the Cheyenne Animal Shelter will be euthanized because of an outbreak of canine influenza that has closed the shelter for more than two weeks, shelter officials announced.
Shelter officials said there was no way to test for the virus quickly and thus no way to tell which dogs were infected. Shelter director Alan Cohen said that unless all the dogs were killed, he couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't re-infect themselves and other animals.
"If I do not euthanize these animals, how can I let them loose knowing they might spread it to…