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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from
View By Scenario:
Species Collapse:(2)
Plague/Virus:(6)
Climate Chaos:(7)
Resource Depletion: ()
Biology Breach:(5)
Recovery:(5)
This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
global warming  ~ antibiotic resistance  ~ contamination  ~ capitalist greed  ~ economic myopia  ~ pandemic  ~ anthropogenic change  ~ ecosystem interrelationships  ~ climate impacts  ~ superbugs  ~ poverty  



ApocaDocuments (5) matching "pandemic" from this week
[see full week] ~ [see all stories tagged "pandemic"]
Mon, Jan 4, 2010
from Scripps Research Institute via ScienceDaily:
'Lifeless' Prions Capable of Evolutionary Change and Adaptation
Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have determined for the first time that prions, bits of infectious protein devoid of DNA or RNA that can cause fatal neurodegenerative disease, are capable of Darwinian evolution. The study from Scripps Florida in Jupiter shows that prions can develop large numbers of mutations at the protein level and, through natural selection, these mutations can eventually bring about such evolutionary adaptations as drug resistance, a phenomenon previously known to occur only in bacteria and viruses. These breakthrough findings also suggest that the normal prion protein -- which occurs naturally in human cells -- may prove to be a more effective therapeutic target than its abnormal toxic relation. ...


Holy mad cow!

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Thu, Dec 31, 2009
from Newcastle Journal:
Scientists fear life-saving drugs could soon be useless
DECADES of man-made pollution of the environment is leaving a legacy which could see disease-fighting drugs rendered increasingly ineffective, North East scientists fear. Soil studies by a Newcastle University team indicate a rising level of bacteria in nature with a gene which is resistant to the antibiotic drugs that have improved health dramatically over the last 50 years or so. A rising "background" level of resistance makes it more likely that pathogenic, or disease-causing bacteria, acquire the resistant gene....ears of pollution had placed pressure on organisms, many of which live naturally in the soil. Antibiotics pass into the environment from waste from humans and farm animals, which has seen organisms evolve to defend themselves. ...


As long as my painkillers are still effective, I'll be okay.

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Tue, Dec 29, 2009
from Agence France-Presse:
Cleaning agents may help superbugs grow
Disinfectants commonly used in homes and medical facilities can boost the resistance of some bacteria to life-saving antibiotics, according to a study released on Monday. The findings shed light on how at least one pathogen - Pseudomonas aeruginosa - spreads, and could apply to other hospital superbugs as well, the authors say... In laboratory experiments, researchers showed that the bug can rapidly mutate, building resistance to progressively higher doses of a disinfectant known as BSK, or benzalkonium chloride. ...


Not that's ironic!

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Tue, Dec 29, 2009
from Associated Press:
Malaria and other diseases coming back worldwide in new and more deadly forms
...Malaria is just one of the leading killer infectious diseases battling back in a new and more deadly form, the AP found in a six-month look at the soaring rates of drug resistance worldwide. After decades of the overuse and misuse of antibiotics, diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and staph have started to mutate. The result: The drugs are slowly dying. Already, The Associated Press found, resistance to malaria has spread faster and wider than previously documented. Dr. White said virtually every case of malaria he sees in western Cambodia is now resistant to drugs.... People generate drug resistant malaria when they take too little medicine, substandard medicine or -- as is all too often the case around O'treng -- counterfeit medicine with a pinch of the real stuff. Once established, the drug-resistant malaria is spread by mosquitoes. So one person's counterfeit medicine can eventually spawn widespread resistant disease. ...


That's a bit self-serving of those mosquitoes, don't you think?

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Mon, Dec 28, 2009
from Scientific American:
Bugs Inside: What Happens When the Microbes That Keep Us Healthy Disappear?
Bacteria, viruses and fungi have been primarily cast as the villains in the battle for better human health. But a growing community of researchers is sounding the warning that many of these microscopic guests are really ancient allies. Having evolved along with the human species, most of the miniscule beasties that live in and on us are actually helping to keep us healthy, just as our well-being promotes theirs... With rapid changes in sanitation, medicine and lifestyle in the past century, some of these indigenous species are facing decline, displacement and possibly even extinction.... ...


The plot twists here are breathtaking!

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