September 2005

By Gary Rethford January 2000
A growing problem of potentially devastating proportions
JoAnn Burkholder went to the lab as she had so many mornings before. Little did she know this time it would be very different. Burkholder, a research scientist at North Carolina State University, had recently discovered the algae-like parasite responsible for killing millions of fish in North Carolina’s estuaries. As she worked over the tank of dying fish, the fumes began to cause her thinking and motor skills to diminish.
Unaware of her sluggishness, she worked four more hours until, barely able to walk, her colleagues almost had to carry her from the lab. The scientist had inadvertently exposed herself to Pfiesteria, the name she had given to the parasite that caused her illness. She suffered stomach cramps, labored breathing and acute short-term memory loss for eight days before recovering somewhat. Since then she has been hospitalized with pneumonia eight times, and cannot exercise without triggering some sort of respiratory illness. Two other researchers working on the case suffered similar symptoms.Continue Reading The Coming Plague

Original Article:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?id=DS00397&dsection=1
Overview
Hepatitis A is a highly contagious liver infection caused by the hepatitis A virus (HAV). Although not usually as serious as other types of viral hepatitis, hepatitis A causes inflammation that affects your liver’s ability to function.
You’re most likely to contract hepatitis A from contaminated food or water or from close contact with someone who’s already infected — even if that person doesn’t appear sick. Some people who are infected never develop signs and symptoms, but others may feel as if they have a severe flu.
Mild cases of hepatitis A don’t require treatment, and most people who are infected recover completely with no permanent liver damage. Unlike hepatitis B and C, hepatitis A doesn’t develop into chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis — both potentially fatal conditions.Continue Reading Hepatitis A

The Monitor
http://www.themonitor.com/
September 12, 2005
Rose Ybarra
The Monitor
Clean hands often translates to staying healthy.
On any given school day, children are exposed to millions of germs. Classroom door knobs alone have the hand residues of about 20 students and two or more teachers and these germs can live for a long time.
“Viruses can live six hours on an inanimate object, such as a door knob,” said Martin Garza, M.D., who practices at DLC Pediatrics in Edinburg. “Those viruses are transferred when a student turns a door knob and then later touches the face.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that nearly 22 million school days are lost every year due to the common cold and one of the most ways to catch colds is by rubbing their noses and eyes after touching something or someone that is contaminated.Continue Reading Washing Up

Sep 1, 2005
SAN ANDREAS — The Calaveras County Public Health Department is urging anyone who may have eaten at a popular tourist destination in Murphys to get immunized for hepatitis A after it was learned that an employee there was infected with the virus.
Anyone who bought drinks or food from the deli at Ironstone Vineyards from Aug. 18-21, Aug. 24 and from Aug. 26-28 may have been exposed to hepatitis A, according to a statement issued by the county Health Department on Wednesday.
The deli worker at Ironstone also supervised children at the Sonora Parent Nursery Preschool twice during a three-week period when the virus could have been spread to others, the health department said.Continue Reading Murphys restaurant disease warning

Wednesday, September 07, 2005 – 04:05 PM
Sabrina Sabbagh
News Anchor
Murphys, CA — The Health Department is continuing its investigation of persons who may have been exposed to hepatitis A due to an infected food handler who worked at the deli at Ironstone Vineyards in August.
Calaveras County Public Health Director Colleen Tracy says…

Published: September 1, 2005
By ALISHA WYMAN
A Tuolumne County woman has come down with hepatitis A, which has health officials working to immunize anyone possibly exposed to the disease.
Hepatitis A is a viral infection that can be spread through an infected person’s bodily fluids or through contaminated food. It results in liver inflammation, but is only deadly in one of 400 cases.Continue Reading Hepatitis A case found in county

Thursday, September 01, 2005
Eric Nelson
News Director
San Andreas, CA — Health officials in Tuolumne and Calaveras Counties are warning residents of a possible Hepatitis A threat.
Officials say they were informed this week that a Tuolumne County resident contracted the viral contagious infection which results in liver inflammation.
The infected individual reportedly supervised children at the Sonora Parent Nursery Preschool twice during a potentially infectious three week period. The person also worked as a food handler at Ironstone Vineyards in Murphys.Continue Reading County Health Officials Warn Of Possible Hepatitis A Infection

By Neil Osterweil, Senior Associate Editor, MedPage Today
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
August 31, 2005
Review
ATLANTA, Aug. 31-An outbreak of hepatitis A that killed three patrons of a Pennsylvania restaurant and sent at least 124 others to the hospital was caused by contaminated green onions (scallions) from Mexico.
Even though the restaurant appeared to follow hygienic practices and none of the employees was found to be the source of the outbreak, about 527 people who ate or worked at the restaurant in November of 2003 contracted hepatitis A.
Many of those infected had eaten a mild salsa containing the contaminated vegetable, reported CDC researchers in the Sept. 1 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.Continue Reading Lethal Hepatitis A Outbreak Traced to Mexican Scallions

Karina Ioffee
Record Staff Writer
Published Thursday, Sep 1, 2005
SAN ANDREAS — The Calaveras County Public Health Department is urging anyone who may have eaten at a popular tourist destination in Murphys to get immunized for hepatitis A after it was learned that an employee there was infected with the virus.
Anyone who bought drinks or food from the deli at Ironstone Vineyards from Aug. 18-21, Aug. 24 and from Aug. 26-28 may have been exposed to hepatitis A, according to a statement issued by the county Health Department on Wednesday.
The deli worker at Ironstone also supervised children at the Sonora Parent Nursery Preschool twice during a three-week period when the virus could have been spread to others, the health department said.Continue Reading Murphys restaurant disease warning

Thursday, September 01, 2005
By Byron Spice, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
An editorial to be published tomorrow in the New England Journal of Medicine calls for vaccinating all children against hepatitis A, citing the outbreak that sickened 600 patrons of a Beaver County Chi-Chi’s restaurant two years ago as evidence of the need.
Incidence of the liver disease has reached historic lows within the United States and vaccination now is recommended only for people considered at high risk.
But Drs. Jules Dienstag and Loriana Di Giammarino of the Harvard Medical School argue in their editorial that the low incidence of hepatitis A paradoxically leaves most Americans vulnerable to sporadic foodborne outbreaks, such as the Chi-Chi’s incident.Continue Reading Harvard doctors call for hepatitis A vaccinations for kids