Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to the Coffeyville Star, the online social platform for Montgomery County, KS residents and friends. We are a failed, prehistoric, underground, independent clandestine, news media of the future in a grayish, make-believe world that exists solely to hide the seedy undertakings of an insane, self-proclaimed preeminent, supreme, intergalactic, super-villain.

You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. Don't bother with Registration because it's probably complicated, slow, and very expensive.

Be fair warned and just go away!

Join our community!

If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:



Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Mosquito-Borne Diseases
Topic Started: Jul 18 2011, 04:28 AM (922 Views)
Entity
Member Avatar
Publisher

Posted ImageA Mosquito Leaves Woman paralyzed

'A mosquito bite left me paralyzed': Woman, 23, left unable to move from the neck down during Australian holiday

Natasha Porter developed Guillain-Barre syndrome while travelling
The condition causes the body to attack its own immune system
She was in a wheelchair for four months and paralysed for three weeks
Was warned she might die if her diaphragm also became paralysed
It was six months before she was fully recovered and able to go back work

By Emma Innes

A woman bitten by a mosquito while on holiday in Australia was left paralysed from the neck down.


Natasha Porter was confined to a wheelchair for four months and was unable to move anything below her neck for three weeks after suffering the bite.


Ms Porter was two weeks into the holiday of a lifetime in Australia when she developed Guillain-Barre syndrome - a disease which causes the body attacks its own nervous system.

She first noticed numbness in one toe, but within four days she could barely walk.


Doctors told her the fast-moving paralysis could freeze her diaphragm within hours and that there was a chance she could die.


Ms Porter watched helplessly as she lost control of her entire body within hours. She was unable to feel her hands, feet or legs - or move anything below her neck.


‘Every time I went to sleep at night I wondered if I might not wake up,’ said Ms Porter, from Crawley, West Sussex.


‘All I could think was I'm 23 - I don't want to die.’


Ms Porter flew to Western Australia in March 2012 and spent seven months working in a cafe to save up for a trip down the country’s east coast.


However, she began to notice numbness in her toe two weeks after arriving in Cairns. The paralysis then moved to her hands two days later.


Ms Porter visited a pharmacist who dismissed her symptoms as an allergic reaction and prescribed antihistamines.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2335644/A-mosquito-bite-left-paralysed-Woman-23-nearly-died-bitten-holiday-Australia.html#ixzz2VuJoM1Nt
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Entity
Member Avatar
Publisher

The Genetically-Modified Mosquito Bite
A few million mutant insects could slow the spread of dengue and chikungunya in the United States, but some people are wary of tampering with nature.

Thanks to warming climates, two debilitating tropical diseases have taken hold in America’s southern shore. The first is dengue, commonly called “break-bone fever,” which infects more than 50 million people a year with muscle aches. Its counterpart, chikungunya, causes joint pain and agonizing contortions. Both are transmitted by mosquitoes, which have been driven northward into the Florida Keys. As insecticides have proven useless, a promising new plan involving genetically-modified mosquitoes may stop the scourge, but only if it can get approval from the public and the Food and Drug Administration first.

The black, tiger-striped mosquitoes that spread the two diseases are called Aedes aegypti, and they are resistant to four of six insecticides designed to destroy them. If left unchecked, these blood-suckers could travel into the Florida mainland and onward throughout the continental U.S., potentially spreading deadly diseases through welts and bites. Since 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued travel warnings for Americans venturing to the Caribbean for this very reason. The Keys’ communities have tried many preventative measures, including fumigating areas of standing water where the insects breed. But a British biotech company called Oxitec has its own plans to combat the insects: have the species destroy itself.

Oxitec has bred mutant mosquitoes that carry a genetic “kill switch.” When these insects mate with the native population, they drastically reduce the insect’s birthrate. The company inserted protein fragments from coral, cabbage, the herpes virus, and E.coli bacteria into the insects, which they call OX513A. The protein potpourri creates a lethal gene, which male mosquitoes pass down to their offspring. When a modified male mates with a regular female, this gene kills the fertilized eggs. Oxitec plans to have their insects overwhelm the mosquitoes in the Florida Keys and wipe out the population.

“This mosquito is Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, plain and simple,’’ Helen Wallace, a British environmentalist with the organization GeneWatch, told The New Yorker in 2012. “To open a box and let these man-made creatures fly free is a risk with dangers we haven’t even begun to contemplate.” But since 2012, Oxitec has used its mutants in several residential neighborhoods, and after releasing 3.3 million of them in the Cayman Islands, more than 96 percent of the native mosquitos were suppressed, the company said. The plan achieved similar success in a town in Brazil as well.

Critics argue that despite the programs’ successes in Brazil and the Cayman Islands, Oxitec did not properly inform residents nor obtain their consent. While Oxitec plans to only release male, non-biting mosquitoes, some females may sneak through during the sorting process. These females can and do bite, potentially inserting their modified DNA into people. So far, the firm has said that it has released more than 70 million mutant mosquitoes without receiving reports of any side effects from mosquito bites. Still, more than 135,000 community members in the Florida Keys have signed a petition to prevent the operation. “I think the science is fine, they definitely can kill mosquitoes, but the GMO issue still sticks as something of a thorny issue for the general public,” Phil Lounibos, a Florida entomologist, said. The FDA has yet to determine if the experimental eradication will get the go-ahead in the U.S. Oxitec has already built a lab in the town of Marathon, Florida with strict safety regulations.

The company is doing its best to convince residents of the program’s safety. “One of the most effective ways of demonstrating that is to go with a big cage of males, stick your arm in there, and say, 'Look, they’re not biting.’” Andrew McKemey, Oxitec's head of field research, told Motherboard. Still, even with safety demonstrations, Florida Key residents like Marilyn Smith are wary. She told the AP that she was not persuaded by Oxitec’s efforts to fight mosquito with mosquito. “Why are we being used as the experiment, the guinea pigs, just to see what happens?” To her and her neighbors, deadly diseases are less scary than a bite from the unknown. -source
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Entity
Member Avatar
Publisher

Zika Virus – What They Are Not Telling You?

http://www.oye.global/health/zika-virus-not-telling/
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Entity
Member Avatar
Publisher

Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency today in the four counties where people have been diagnosed with the Zika virus.

There have been nine people in total who have been diagnosed with the Zika virus in Florida, though health officials believe that all of them contracted the disease while outside of the U.S.

Scott said he wanted the state to be prepared for the chance that the virus could start to be spread from mosquito to person within the state. The Aedes aegypti mosquito that is the primary vector of Zika virus infections is present in the southeast portion of the country, including Florida, though in winter the mosquito populations are low.

"Although Florida’s current nine Zika cases were travel-related, we have to ensure Florida is prepared and stays ahead of the spread of the Zika virus in our state," Scott said in a statement today. "Our Department of Health will continue to be in constant communication with all county health offices, hospitals and the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We know that we must be prepared for the worst even as we hope for the best.”

There have been no reports of the virus is being transmitted from mosquitoes to people in the U.S., though officials are concerned that small outbreaks could happen as the weather warms. A rare case of sexually transmitted Zika virus was reported in Dallas on Tuesday by the local health department.

Scott's executive order requires the state health officer to "take any action necessary to protect public health" and allows the commissioner of agriculture to issue a "mosquito declaration" in the affected counties to reduce populations of the insects that can spread the disease.

The Zika virus usually results in mild symptoms including fever, rash and fatigue that last up to a week. However, the virus has also been associated with the rise of a dangerous birth defect in Brazil called microcephaly, characterized by an abnormally small head and brain. -http://abcnews.go.com/Health/florida-gov-declares-state-emergency-counties-zika-virus/story?id=36696887
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Free Forums with no limits on posts or members.
« Previous Topic · Social · Next Topic »
Add Reply

Group icons by ButtonGenerator.com
Copyright © 2011 Graveside Enterprise