FLESH EATING DISEASE INFECTS YOUNG WOMAN & LOSES LIMB & FINGERS

On a Tuesday, Aimee Copeland fell from a zip line and cut her leg.

By Friday her limb had been amputated and she was fighting for life.

The 24-year-old US university student is battling a rare flesh-eating bacterial infection called necrotising fasciitis, which destroys tissue and muscle while the surface of the wound appears to be healing.

Ms Copeland was kayaking near the Little Tallapoosa River in Georgia on May 1, and went for a ride on a homemade zip line, otherwise known as a flying fox, which snapped, the LA Times reported.

Her father Andy Copeland wrote on a blog that his daughter got 22 staples in her left calf and was still in terrible pain the next day.

The pain got worse until she was diagnosed with the infection, forcing surgeons to amputate her leg and remove infected tissue from her abdomen.

Victim of a flesh-eating infection … Paige Copeland cries as her father Andy Copeland speaks about her sister Aimee. Photo: AP

“We take so much for granted in life, but I never imagined that one of my daughters would face this most unlikely of situations,” Mr Copeland wrote.

Dr William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University Medical School told Reuters the infection was often quite subtle in its early stages.

“These bacteria lodge in the deeper layers of the wound. The organism is deep in the tissues, and that’s where it’s causing its mischief.”

Ms Copeland was in critical condition in the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital in Augusta yesterday, a hospital spokeswoman told AP.

She will also lose her fingers, but doctors hope to save the palms of her hands so she can use prosthetics one day.

Her family have not yet told her about the exact extent of her injuries, her father wrote.

“She will learn about the loss of her beautiful leg. She will discover that her hands lack the dexterity and tactile response she has known all her life,” he wrote.

“How would you respond in such a situation? I think that moment will be one of horror and depression for Aimee.”

In more recent days Mr Copeland has updated his blog, describing his daughter’s progress as a miracle.

“The words I hear from the medical professionals to describe Aimee’s continued recovery are ‘astonishing’, ‘incredible’, ‘confounding’, ‘mind boggling’ and ‘unbelievable’.

“All those are fitting words. My favourite word is ‘miracle’.

Her parents have learnt to read lips to communicate with their daughter, who cannot speak because of a breathing tube in her throat.

Speaking on NBC’s Today show overnight, Mr Copeland said she told them she was thirsty, and that ice cream was the first thing she wants when she’s able to eat on her own.

“We just take it each day at a time,” he said.

“My daughter’s strong, she really is.”

smh.com.au with AP

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MAGNETIC NANO COATING ATTRACTS BACTERIA & KILLS IT

Scientists at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have created a “magnetic-like” coating that traps and destroys 99 percent of the bacteria and fungi that it encounters. The antibacterial coating has been shown to be effective against superbugs like Staphylococcus aureus and is already being used in the manufacture of contact lenses. As well as finding numerous biomedical and household applications, the research could lead to new wound treatments and even be used to target bacterial infections inside the body without the use of conventional antibiotics.

Developed by NTU’s School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Professor Mary Chan, the coating made from Dimethyldecylammonium Chitosan methacrylate holds a positive charge that snares and ruptures bacteria cells which have a negative charge on their cell walls.

The nanoporous coating is said to be effective against “superbugs” including Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus as well as fungi that can cause corneal infections – hence the use in contact lenses.

“The coating can also be applied on biomedical objects, such as catheters and implants to prevent bacterial infections, which is a serious cause of concern as many bacteria are now developing resistance to antibiotics – currently our main source of treatment for infections,” Prof Chan said.

“By developing novel materials which uses physical interaction to kill bacteria cells, we envisage this can be an alternative form of treatment for bacterial infections in the near future.”

The initial work has led Prof Chan and doctoral student Li Peng to the successful development of a liquid antimicrobial solution that’s highly selective, meaning it’s effective at killing bacteria and fungi but doesn’t harm human cells. Because it attacks cell walls, it’s also difficult for bacteria to develop resistance.

This liquid material, which is based on cationic antimicrobial peptidopolysaccharide, will be developed over the next five years with a view to creating a lotion to treat chronic wounds and also as a means of treating infections internally.

“Our long term goal is to develop this into an ingestible form, so it can effectively treat bacterial infections within the body, such as pneumonia and meningitis, replacing antibiotics as the standard treatment.” says Prof Chan.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

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CATCHING A COLIFORM BACTERIA INFECTION WHEN SWIMMING IS NOT PLEASANT

Nothing can put a dampener on a summer holiday like a coliform bacteria outbreak. But even worse than being told to keep out of the water in the event of an outbreak is not being told to keep out of the water in the event of an outbreak and ending up paying the price. Researchers at McMaster University have now developed a paper strip test that is cheap to produce, extremely portable, simple to use, and detects E. coli in water in 30 minutes.

While many popular recreational waters are regularly tested for coliform outbreaks, the methods used are generally slow and cumbersome, with samples often having to be sent to a lab for amplification before testing. The new paper strips developed at McMaster overcome all these problems. They work quickly, they are portable, they are simple to use, and they are cheap and easy to produce.

Using inkjet-printing technology, the paper strips are coated with chemicals that change color in the presence of E. coli. Concentrations of the bacteria are indicated by different colors on the strip. While the strips can quickly indicate if water is safe for swimming, they aren’t sensitive enough to identify if it is safe for drinking – a standard that is hundreds of times tighter than for safe swimming water.

However, the McMaster team, led by chemistry professor John Brennan, is planning to conduct field-testing on the prototype strips to help in their refinement that may lead to the development of strips capable of testing the safety of drinking water.

The test strips have been validated by scientists from the Sentinel Bioactive Paper Network, which receives funding from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The NSERC is now funding the next stage of pre-commercial development of the strips, with a possibility the final product will become commercially available in two to three years.

The team’s research is detailed in a paper appearing online in the journal Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

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New Virus Engineered

to only Kill Cancer Cells

A new virus that has been specifically engineered to kill cancer cells has been found to be a medical first because of its effectiveness. The virus has been engineered by medical researchers to target only cancer cells throughout the human body.

The virus is very special because it only attacks cancerous tumours and leaves healthy tissue fully intact.  The virus has been trialled on humans but so far the trials have only been quite small (23 people have only been trialled so far).

If the research goes to plan then the treatment could give cancer therapies a real transformation.

Viruses have been used before to kill cancer but they have always been injected direct into the tumour in order to avoid killing the healthy cells. This new virus will without doubt make the treatment much much easier and possibly more effective.

The new virus has been developed by scientists who modified the vaccinia virus. The vaccinia virus is more commonly used usually as a smallpox vaccine. The new form of this virus is known as JX-594.

The research was guided & inspired by a team of scientists from the University of Ottawa in the United States.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

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AIRPORT screenings can give you a sexually transmitted disease

You could pick up a sex disease on your next trip – and you don’t even have to visit a hooker in a foreign city to get it.

Just a visit to the airport will do, because the perverted American government is spreading germs as it forces passengers to spread for its new “enhanced security screenings.”

You’ve probably heard a bit about these government-sanctioned gropings. One TV news producer singled out for a special pat down said the agent stuck a hand inside her pants and even felt around inside her panties.

“It was basically worse than going to the gynecologist,” she said. “It was embarrassing. It was demeaning. It was inappropriate.”

It’s also a very real public health threat.

The TV news producer didn’t mention the rubber gloves worn by the screeners, but there have been multiple reports of Transportation Security Admininstration (TSA) workers using the same gloves from one passenger to the next.

And that means every visit with a TSA worker could be like a quick dip in a Tijuana whorehouse – because these guys could be passing out everything from herpes to the crabs all day and night.

That’s a bigger threat to passenger safety than any wannabe terrorist!

A breast cancer survivor was forced to remove her prosthetic breast. A bladder cancer survivor was left covered in his own urine when TSA workers caused his urostomy bag to burst. Children have been screaming through some very personal lessons in “bad touch.”

And in one case, a nursing mother who complained to the TSA after agents X-rayed bottles of pumped breast milk was singled out for retaliatory extra screening during her next trip.

Watch her 90-minute ordeal here.

Expect more stories like these, assuming people are still allowed to talk about them – because Uncle Sam has finally succeeded. He’s groped passenger rights away – and we might never get them back.

Happy New Year!

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

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STD linked to skin cancer

Well, well, well – it looks like the mainstream has accidentally stumbled upon the truth that skin cancer might be caused by something other than the sun. Researchers have found that some strains of HPV, a common sexually acquired virus, can dramatically increase your skin cancer risk.
Read the full story.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

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Sexually Transmitted Diseases

The Cancer-Causing Sex Virus

Matthew Herper, 07.21.10, 04:15 PM EDT

HPV–known for causing cervical cancer–is

emerging as the leading cause of throat cancer in

men. Should they get the vaccine too?

Nine Things You Need To Know About HPV

Martin Duffy, a Boston consultant and economist, thought he just had a sore throat. When it persisted for months, he went to the doctor and learned there was a tumor on his tonsils.

Duffy, now 70, had none of the traditional risk factors for throat cancer. He doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink and has run 40 Boston marathons. Instead, his cancer was caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is sexually transmitted and a common cause of throat and mouth cancer.

HPV tumors have a better prognosis than those caused by too many years of booze and cigarettes. But Duffy “is in the unlucky 20%” whose cancer comes back–despite rounds of chemotherapy and radiation that melted 20 more pounds off a lean 150-pound frame. Now the cancer has spread throughout his throat, making eating and talking difficult. “I made my living as a public speaker,” he says. “Now I sound like Daffy Duck.” Duffy believes he has only a few months left. “How do you tell the people you love you love them?” he asks.

Nine Things You Need To Know About HPV

//

Most strains of the HPV virus are harmless, but persistent infections with two HPV strains cause 70% of the 12,000 cases of cervical cancers diagnosed annually in the U.S. Other forms of the sexually transmitted virus can cause penile and anal cancer, and genital warts. The HPV throat cancer connection has emerged in just the last few years and is so new that the government doesn’t track its incidence. Researchers believe it is transmitted via oral sex. But top researchers estimate that there are 11,300 HPV throat cancers each year in the U.S.–and the numbers are growing fast as people have been having more sexual partners since the 1960s. By 2015 there could be 20,000 cases. For more surprising discoveries about HPV, read here.

These big numbers have some top researchers arguing that drug makers should test whether HPV vaccines now used to prevent cervical cancer in women can also prevent throat infections in boys. Two vaccines, Gardasil from Merck ( MRK – news – people ) and Cervarix from GlaxoSmithKline ( GSK – news – people ), are approved for preventing cervical cancer. Gardasil is approved for use in boys only to prevent genital warts.

// Vaccinating boys could stop this meteoric increase in throat cancer. “Clearly, boys need to be vaccinated,” says Marshall Posner, the incoming medical director of head and neck cancer at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York. “I want my kids to be vaccinated. I don’t see a downside to these vaccines.”

There’s only one problem: The vaccine manufacturers aren’t terribly hot on the idea. GlaxoSmithKline says it has no plans to study throat cancer. It adds that it is “committed to providing a vaccine specifically designed to protect against cervical cancer in girls and young women.”

Merck, the maker of Gardasil, seemed more interested a couple of years ago. In 2008 it funded Maura Gillison, the Ohio State University researcher who established the HPV-throat-cancer link in 2000, to do a pilot study to show that test could reliably detect HPV infection in the throat. The pilot study was successful. By early 2009 Gillison says that a larger study of the vaccine in throat cancer looked close to being green lit.

But after Merck agreed to buy rival Schering-Plough ( SGP – news – people ) for $41 billion in March 2009, interest in a big study seemed to evaporate, Gillison says. In a statement, Merck says that “due to competing research and business priorities, we decided not to move ahead with an efficacy study at this time.”

The drug makers’ reticence probably stems from a fear that a throat-cancer vaccine would be hard to get approved. Papilloma viruses usually cause cancer slowly, causing pre-cancerous lesions that take many years to blossom into full-fledged malignant tumors. Papilloma viruses cause the horn-like growths in rabbits that probably gave rise to myths of “jackalopes” in the American West. In the cervix, early abnormal growths can be picked up with a diagnostic test, the Pap smear. Clinical trials of Gardasil and Cervarix took advantage of this, measuring the number of pre-cancerous growths prevented by the vaccines.

But there are no easy-to-detect pre-cancers in the throat. Adolescent boys would have to be followed for decades to to see if the vaccine prevented throat cancer, an unlikely scenario. Short of this, studies could only look at the prevention of HPV throat infections, not cancer or cancer precursors directly. Approving a vaccine for wide use based on this type of short-term data would require a leap of faith that the Food and Drug Administration might not be willing to take.

Top researchers say the federal government needs to step in and fund the long study if drug companies cannot be persuaded to do it themselves. “I’m sorry Merck decided not to do it,” says Posner. “But in the end, this is a federal responsibility. It’s a public health issue.”

For his part, Martin Duffy thinks that drug companies’ complacent attitude toward throat cancer would be different if more of their employees were in his situation. “It will change real fast,” he says, “if one of their executives comes down with this disease.”

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

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Common virus ‘kills cancer’

Cancer Diseases WASHINGTON — A common virus that is harmless to people can destroy cancerous cells in the body and might be developed into a new cancer therapy, US researchers said.

The virus, called adeno-associated virus type 2, or AAV-2, infects an estimated 80 percent of the population.

“Our results suggest that adeno-associated virus type 2, which infects the majority of the population but has no known ill effects, kills multiple types of cancer cells yet has no effect on healthy cells,” said Craig Meyers, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Penn State College of Medicine in Pennsylvania.

“We believe that AAV-2 recognizes that the cancer cells are abnormal and destroys them. This suggests that AAV-2 has great potential to be developed as an anti-cancer agent,” Meyers said in a statement.

He said at a meeting of the American Society for Virology that studies have shown women infected with AAV-2 who are also infected with a cancer-causing wart virus called HPV develop cervical cancer less frequently than uninfected women do.

AAV-2 is a small virus that cannot replicate itself without the help of another virus.

But with the help of a second virus it kills cells.

For their study, Meyers and colleagues first infected a batch of human cells with HPV, some strains of which cause cervical cancer. They then infected these cells and normal cells with AAV-2.

After six days, all the HPV-infected cells died.

The same thing happened with cervical, breast, prostate and squamous cell tumor cells.

All are cancers of the epithelial cells, which include skin cells and other cells that line the insides and outsides of organs.

“One of the most compelling findings is that AAV-2 appears to have no pathologic effects on healthy cells,” Meyers said.

“So many cancer therapies are as poisonous to healthy cells as they are to cancer cells. A therapy that is able to distinguish between healthy and cancer cells could be less difficult to endure for those with cancer.”

AAV-2 is being studied intensively as a gene therapy vector — a virus modified to carry disease-correcting genes into the body.

Gene therapy researchers favor it because it does not seem to cause disease or immune system reaction on its own.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 27th April 2010

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