emerging viruses & plague

[ramseycat]

If I were a man I would be very hesitant to stick it in a hole like that. WTF. You don't know what's on the other side, you only think you do.

This reminds me of a joke that goes something like:

This salesman is overseas staying in a fancy hotel.
There in a room off the lobby, are a bunch of coin operated machines.

One machine says insert your shirt to have it laundered, deposit $5.00 He did, he got back a washed & ironed shirt. He was happy.

Another machine says to shine shoes, place shoes under machine, deposit $5.00, he did, they came out shining like a mirror. He was happy.

There were several other such type machines.

Finally, the last machine said: For the faithful duties of a wife, deposit $20.00 and to stick his rod in the slot located conveniently on the machine.

Happily he did, and after only 10 seconds, he pulled it out screaming in excruciating pain, it had a button sewed on the end!

a button sewn on the end!

[Lady Cop]

got mice or rats?



(CNN) -- Four more cases of hantavirus have been reported among people who visited Yosemite National Park in California, bringing the total number of cases to six, the California Department of Public Health said Thursday. Two of the six people infected have died.

The health department is "working closely with the National Park Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to further investigate the cluster of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome cases in Yosemite and reduce the risk of other visitors becoming ill from this virus," said Dr. Ron Chapman, health department director.

Those infected visited the park between early June and mid-July, the health department said. Most stayed at the park's popular Curry Village "tent cabins." Yosemite closed the tent cabins indefinitely on Tuesday.

In the United States, the carriers of hantavirus are deer mice, cotton rats, rice rats and white-footed mice.

The virus can be present in the rodents' urine, droppings and saliva, and it is spread to people when they breathe in air contaminated with the virus, the CDC says.

[Lady Cop]

holy crap, BUBONIC PLAGUE??

The parents of 7-year-old Sierra Jane Downing thought she had the flu when she felt sick days after camping in southwest Colorado.

It wasn't until she had a seizure that her father knew something was seriously wrong and rushed her to a hospital in their town of Pagosa Springs. She had a 107-degree fever, and doctors were baffled by the cause.

"I didn't know what was going on. I just reacted," Sean Downing said. "I thought she died."

The Downings eventually learned their daughter was ill with one of the last things they would've thought: bubonic plague, the Black Death, a disease that wiped out one-third of Europe in the 14^th century but is now exceedingly rare -- it hasn't been confirmed in Colorado since 2006 -- and treatable if caught early.

Federal health officials say they are aware of two other confirmed and one probable case of plague in the U.S. so far this year -- an average year. The other confirmed cases were in New Mexico and Oregon, and the probable case also was in Oregon. None were fatal.

Plague is generally transmitted to humans through the bites of infected fleas but also can be transmitted by direct contact with infected animals, including rodents, rabbits and pets.

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged that a series of frightening illnesses linked to insects and pests have been surfacing lately across the country, including mosquito-borne West Nile virus outbreaks in Texas and other states, deadly hantavirus cases linked to Yosemite National Park, and some scattered plague cases.