Potential Herpes Treatment Deemed Ineffective

From Forbes:

"Quigley Corp. said Thursday its herpes treatment was not effective in treating infections of the eye in an animal model, but that the drug maker's Quigley Pharma unit will pursue other uses for the treatment. The company said animal tests to gauge the effectiveness of QR-435 against Herpes Keratitis, when the herpes simplex virus infects the eye, showed that the treatment did not remain in the eye long enough to penetrate the cells to get to the virus. The treatment has eliminated the virus on direct contact in other studies."

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Good news for me, though! I've always secretly wanted to get herpes of the eye so I could wear an eyepatch and look badass like James Joyce. Of course, it would only be fun in one eye, total blindness isn't very badass. I suppose I should be careful for what I wish for...

On another personal note, my family had a one-eyed cat for about 6 years (we named him Jack, of course). He was a black long-haired Himalayan who had Herpes Keratitis, we rescued him from the shelter. Unfortunately about two years ago it finally came back and hit his other eye. Cats, unlike dogs, can't live very well blind. They generally just sit in one place and eventually die of starvation if you don't force feed them. We had him put down; he was the kind of cat who owned the neighborhood and took down both prey and rivals with impunity. We knew that the life of a blind cat was no life for him and knew he did not want that misery. Poor guy.


PS: There's still no major news source reporting the test results of the Vietnamese family... The source I cited might be fake news...

Vietnamese Family Tests Negative for H5N1

From Daily News and Analysis:

"HANOI: A Vietnamese family has tested negative for bird flu, a health official said on Sunday, after their hospital admission with respiratory ailments had sparked fears of a resurgence in human infections.

The mother and her three children fell ill a week earlier after eating a chicken that had died on their farm in Ca Mau, one of three southern provinces where the H5N1 strain of the virus has killed poultry this month.

But tests at Ho Chi Minh City's Pasteur Institute found that the family was not infected with the avian influenza virus, which between 2003 and 2005 killed 42 people in Vietnam, said the institute's Dr Phan Van Tu.

"All four people, the mother and her three children from Ca Mau province, on Saturday tested negative for the H5N1 virus," Tu said.

"They were suffering normal pneumonia."

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A whole family comes down with pneumonia at the same time? How cold do those Vietnamese winters get? I have a feeling they'll be redoing the tests if the family's condition worsens.

I'm hoping the tests are true, though, and that the hospitals in Ca Mau are warm and dry.


INVESTIGATIVE EDIT: The high temperature yesterday in Cau Mau, Vietnam was a frosty 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Perfect conditions for a chest cold to settle in and grow nasty, right??

Vietnamese Family May Have Bird Flu

From Gulfnews:

"Hanoi: Four members of a Vietnamese family have been hospitalized with symptoms of bird flu after eating sick chickens in the country's south, where the disease re-emerged in poultry earlier this month.

If confirmed, they would be the first reported human infections from the H5N1 bird flu virus in Vietnam since late 2005.

The mother and her three children, aged between 3 and 13, all suffered from high fever, coughing and lung infection. They are being treated at Nam Can Hospital in the southern province of Ca Mau.

"Their samples have been sent for bird flu tests in Ho Chi Minh City and results should be available soon," an official at the Ca Mau Provincial Animal Health Department said yesterday.

Bird flu has killed 42 of the 93 people infected in Vietnam."

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Either this family is really really stupid, or really really poor. I'm thinking its the latter. If I was one meal away from starving to death I'd risk eating sick chicken. A 50% chance of dying from bird flu is still better odds than the 100% chance of dying of hunger.

Bioterror Suspect Caught by Store Camera

From the Cincinnati Post:

"DAYTON, Ohio - A man accused of putting envelopes containing a white powder inside about 30 residential mailboxes was identified from an image taken by a grocery store security camera.

Brian Beeson, 25, of Centerville, made his first court appearance Tuesday on federal charges of threatening to use a biological weapon and threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Federal agents have accused Beeson of placing the envelopes in residential roadside mailboxes last week in Centerville, Miami Township and Washington Township.

The outside of the envelopes said "Merry Christmas," "Happy Holidays," "You're a winner," and "Just for you," while greeting cards inside contained the powder and messages such as "Now you are sick," "Enough to infect you" and "You're infected," the FBI said.

One of the envelopes was found at the home of Beeson's mother, Yevetta Castiglione, FBI Special Agent Michael Wiggins said in the affidavit for search and arrest warrants filed in federal court.

Tests on the powder determined it was not dangerous, the FBI said.

The greeting cards, made by Hallmark, could be purchased at several stores in the Dayton area. A customer at a Kroger in Centerville bought two packages of the greeting cards and a pack of 10 disposable gloves Dec. 18, the day before the first card was found in a mailbox, Wiggins said in the affidavit.

U.S. attorneys said they will ask for a mental examination of Beeson, who faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted."

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Wow... Brian Beeson. Sounds like a real nice guy! I hope he gets at least some prison time for such a mean-spirited and cruel stunt.

Which reminds me about the main intent of terrorists, to terrorize. If baking powder will do the trick why spend the money on real anthrax?

The question is, why did he buy the gloves? Did he think he had the real deal? If so he certainly is in a whole heap of trouble.

Human Bird Flu Deaths in 2006 Exceed Prior Three Years Combined

Report from Bloomberg:

"Bird flu killed three members of a family in Egypt, pushing the number of fatalities worldwide this year to 79, more than reported in the previous three years combined.

The Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population confirmed that the H5N1 strain of avian influenza had infected the three, who belong to an extended family in Gharbiyah province, 80 kilometers (50 miles), northwest of the capital, Cairo, the World Health Organization said in a statement yesterday.

The patients had all been in contact with sick ducks, WHO said. Egypt has struggled to control H5N1 outbreaks in poultry, first reported in February, leading to at least 18 human cases, including 10 deaths.

Diseased birds increase the opportunities for human infection and provide chances for H5N1 to mutate into a form more dangerous to people. Millions could die if H5N1 becomes easily transmissible between people, sparking a lethal pandemic.

The H5N1 virus is known to have infected 261 people in 10 countries in the past three years, killing 157 of them, WHO said yesterday. Last year, 42 fatalities were confirmed, after 32 in 2004 and four in 2003. Six of every 10 reported cases have been fatal and a majority of cases has occurred among children and young adults.

Since July, 26 human cases have been reported in four countries, compared with 88 infections in eight countries in the first half of the year.

"In the second half of 2006, there was a steep decline in the number of case reports, although similar declines occurred in 2004 and 2005, but were then followed by resurgences," the influenza team at the European Centre for Disease Surveillance and Control in Stockholm wrote in a Dec. 21 report in Eurosurveillance Weekly.

Females are over-represented among H5N1 patients aged 10-29 years, possibly because it is usually young people and women who look after domestic poultry, the influenza team said.

Indonesia, with 74 human H5N1 cases to date, including 57 fatalities, is the country worst affected by the virus. Outside Asia, Egypt has the most cases."

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Yep. Counting up all three years H5N1 has been active in human populations we get a global mortality rate of ~60%.

In Egypt the mortality rate is around 44%, and Indonesia has a rate sitting around 77%.

It's quite clear to me that this is something to be worried about. I don't know how anyone can spin this situation in any way other than "god-damned frightening."

Egyptian Man's Death Another H5N1 Fatality

From Reuters:

"CAIRO (Reuters) - A 26-year-old Egyptian man died of bird flu on Wednesday, the third member of his extended family to die of the virus, a World Health Organization (WHO) official told Reuters.

Brick factory worker Rida Farid Abdel Halim from the Nile Delta province of Gharbia had been in hospital for 10 days, Hassan el-Bushra, WHO regional adviser for communicable diseases surveillance, said. The province is some 80 km (50 miles) north of Cairo.

It was the 10th death from bird flu in Egypt since an outbreak of the virus started in February. Bushra said Egypt had no other bird flu patients receiving treatment. Eight Egyptians had contracted the disease and recovered.

A 15-year-old girl from the factory worker's family died on Monday and a female relative died the day before, raising concerns about the possibility of human-to-human transmission.

The man showed symptoms of the disease on December 14 and was admitted to a rural hospital three days later. He started receiving Tamiflu treatment on December 20 after a second case appeared in his family and the medical staff learned that he may have come into contact with poultry, Bushra said."

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Tamiflu's not working in Egypt or Indonesia.

Bird Flu Deaths in Egypt and likely H2H Transmission

From Bloomberg:

"Dec. 26 -- Bird flu killed a woman in northern Egypt as authorities attempt to eradicate the lethal virus that infected two other members of the woman's family. The infection killed a teenage girl in Cairo, Agence France-Presse reported.

The woman from Zifta, in the northern province of Gharbia, had been in contact with infected poultry, Egypt's Ministry of Health said in a statement on its Web site today. Fowl kept by the family and neighbors have been culled, and people in contact with the birds are being tested, the ministry said in a separate statement on Dec. 24.

A 15-year-old girl died from the H5N1 strain of avian flu in a Cairo hospital, AFP reported yesterday. She was transferred from a hospital in the Nile delta province of Garbiya, where she was admitted Dec. 20, AFP said.

World health experts are trying to control the H5N1 virus, which risks infecting humans and mutating to become more contagious. A virus that spreads among people as easily as seasonal flu could spark a deadly pandemic capable of killing millions of people, health authorities have said.

The H5N1 strain is known to have infected 258 people in 10 countries during the past three years, killing 154 of them, the World Health Organization said on Nov. 29, when it reported the last fatality.

Avian flu has infected 19 people in Egypt -- including the four cases recorded during the past week -- killing nine of them. Infections in Egyptian poultry were reported for the first time in February.

All of the nine fatalities in Egypt have been female, suggesting women are more at risk of avian flu than men, the United Nations' Integrated Regional Information Network reported yesterday."

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It seems more likely that it the sexual disparity is due to women being more likely to handle the families dead poultry than men. At least here in the states I know that chicken slaughter is usually done by the female head of the household.

I must confess, however, I don't know much about gender roles in domestic animal slaughter in Egypt.

Anthax Attacks on Congress an "Inside Job"

Here's some more hot hot Prof. Boyle allegations, from OpEdNews:

"The perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax attack on Congress likely was a government scientist employed at the Army's Ft. Detrick, Md., bioterrorism lab having access to a "moonsuit" that made it possible to safely process and manufacture super-weapons-grade anthrax, a bioterrorism authority says.

Although only a "handful" of scientists had the ability to perpetrate the crime, the culprit, or culprits, among them may never be identified as the FBI ordered the destruction of the anthrax culture collection at Ames, Ia., from which the Ft. Detrick lab got its pathogens, the authority said.

This action made it impossible "to pin-point precisely where, when, and from whom these bio-agents had originated," said Dr. Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois at Champaign. It was Boyle who drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, the implementing legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention.

Boyle says destruction of the Ames anthrax "appears to be a cover-up orchestrated by the FBI."

Calls for comment to two FBI press offices in Washington, D.C., on this charge were not returned. Members of the Senate have been pressing the FBI for additional information on its investigation, thought to be ongoing.

If impartial scientists could have performed genetic reconstruction of the anthrax found in letters mailed to Senators Daschle(D-S.D.) and Patrick Leahy, (D -Vt.), "the trail of genetic evidence would have led directly back to a secret but officially-sponsored U.S. government biowarfare program that was illegal and criminal" in violation of biological weapons conventions and U.S. laws, Boyle said.

"I believe the FBI knows exactly who was behind these terrorist anthrax attacks upon the United States Congress in the Fall of 2001, and that the culprits were U.S. government-related scientists involved in a criminal U.S. government biowarfare program," Boyle said."

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Ok, Boyle's conspiracy is lost on me. Sure, "Weapons-grade Anthrax" was born in America (or Germany, by some accounts). But seriously, it's the Soviet SKS of the bioweapons world. I'd imagine any nation or terrorist organization with access to bioweapons has in it's arsenal some anthrax of the variety originally perfected by the American Dr. William Hagan, dubbed "Hagan's Best" (as if it were a prized strain of pipe tobacco...).

It's just not that hard to get a hold of weapons-grade anthrax, and there's no need for a terrorist organization to produce some itself. Whether or not Ft. Detrick is still producing the stuff, I seriously doubt a DOD attack on congress would consist of powder mailed via envelope. That's really really simplistic and points directly to an, albeit professional, non-national terrorist organization.

I think Boyle's passion for exposing America's "secret" bioweapons program is clouding his history; powdered deadly anthrax was all over the place post WWII and even more so during the cold war. The stuff sent to congress really could have come from anywhere.