Daily Science Dose

As I have been busy in the garden, digging up a patch for my sunflowers as part of the Great Sunflower Project, honeybees are not far from my mind or the mind of many a gardener/farmer. I’ve noticed a few bumble bees, but nary a honeybee. Maybe it’s too early, but I’ve got blossoms-a-rama in my strawberry patch, so what up, bees?

Scientists in Spain may have made a bee-line in the fight to save the honeybees. One possible reason for the devastating Colony Collapse Disorder is a really, really small parasite called Nosema ceranae. It is not totally agreed on in the scientific community what indeed has or is causing CCD in the honeybee populations in Europe and the US, but more data and more testing is showing evidence of an Asian parasite-strain, the Nosema ceranae, jumped from the Apis cerana, or the Asian Honeybee, to Apis mellifera, otherwise known as the Western Honeybee.

However, the CCD and nosema ceranae relationship is not altogether understood, as the bees are usually not analyzed until after the colony has collapsed. It may very well be that pesticides or mites or something else is causing the deaths, and maybe the nosema ceranae are only moving in once the bees are weakened.

But Spanish scientists have found a way to treat this microscopic pest, and they did is successfully in two colonies that losing their numbers.

They found no evidence of any other cause of the disease (such as the Varroa destructor, IAPV or pesticides) other than infection with Nosema ceranae. The researchers then treated the infected surviving under-populated colonies with the antibiotic drug, flumagillin and demonstrated complete recovery of all infected colonies. –Compute Scotland

Is it wrong of me to still want to blame pesticides?

honeybees, colony collapse disorder, CCD, Spain, nosema ceranae, Western honeybees, Asiatic honeybee, parasite, pesticides, Apis cerana, Apis mellifera

Did you know that bats hibernate during the winter and that it is called hibernacula. Like Dr-acula? Come on. I may be having fun with that, but there is nothing fun about what is happening to bats in the eastern United States. They are dying of what biologists are calling white-nose syndrome.

And so far, no one knows what is causing it. Huh, kinda like the honeybees…

Anyway, the US Fish and Wildlife Service is advising to suspend all caving activity in the Eastern US in hopes of stopping the spread of the mysterious syndrome that is killing 90 to 100 percent of all bats affected by it. This is very sad news, and can affect the eastern states in terms of insect control and pollenation provided by bats in agriculture. Bats are a very important part of the ecosystem, so to see such decimation in numbers is worrying. White-Nose Syndrome has killed 75% of the bat populations in the affected areas in the US. See map below.

The FWS provides this information about the symptoms.

While they are in the hibernaculum, affected bats often have white fungus on their muzzles and other parts of their bodies. They may have low body fat. These bats often move to cold parts of the hibernacula, fly during the day and during cold winter weather when the insects they feed upon are not available, and exhibit other uncharacteristic behavior.

I’m going to play armchair scientist and offer a theory. This white-nose syndrome is a fungal attack on the skin of the bats. The areas most affected are the nose. The bat’s shove those noses into all sorts of places, like flowers that may have been treated with some sort of pesticide, herbicide, fertilizer, or whatnot. Not only that, but bats also consume things that other pesticides are meant to kill and maybe part of the meal for the unsuspecting bat. Maybe there is a link between the bats and the honeybees. Both are major players in the our agriculture, and maybe our newfangled way of growing stuff is killing them.

United States, bats, white nose syndrome, fungal, disease, die off, caves, deaths, wildlife, insects, pesticide, honeybee, agriculture, farming, colony collapse disorder, US Fish and Wildlife Service, FWS, advisory

Finally, the internet and wireless phones can be put to work on the side of good rather than just porn.

A test run of a new software suite called INSTEDD in Southeast Asia holds a world of promise when it comes to coordinating information across multiple users and agencies, locations, database configurations. Think of it as social networking among emergency and crisis workers and the people locally by anything from disease outbreaks to natural disasters.

I think everyone can agree that recent disasters like the Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina has shown everyone that communication can be an effective key to mitigating the most profound effects of emergency situations. And as our methods of communication have expanded beyond telephones and telegraphs, so too must our tools for responding to disasters and epidemics.

As an example, the “test run” in Stung Treng Province, Cambodia was meant to simulate an outbreak of a disease scattered among many small villages throughout the region. Text messages, emails, and even blogs are useful tools to communicate, but with this new suite of three programs, INSTEDD can coordinate all methods of communication and can turn all that info into useful data for government agencies, relief workers, local residents, health officials, and anyone else who would be involved in relief efforts.

The INSTEDD suite consists of GeoChat, which “enables team members to communicate their position and important information using text messages, email or a web browser, with data instantly synchronized on every team members’ mobile phone or laptops.” The second component of the suite is Mesh4X, which translates all the different software among different agencies (stuff like which database software they use) among all the users. Finally, INSTEDD gives us Evolve, a tool that mines data and then provides vizualization tools like maps and charts to better understand all that information that is coming in now that all forms of communicating are linked up, with no software compatibility issues.

INSTEDD comes from a Palo Alto, California non-profit of the same acronym, which stands for Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters. INSTEDD has received money from Google, so it’s no surprise that Google Maps and Google Earth are part of the visualization tools.

natural disasters, emergency, relief, disease, outbreak, epidemic, Indian Ocean Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, Innovative Support to Emergencies Diseases and Disasters, INSTEDD, Google, Google Maps, Google Earth

A new study, one being praised for its thoroughness, shows that heavy red-meat eaters are at a higher risk of death from pretty much everything.

The National Cancer Institute looked at the cases of 500,000 patients and in particular questionaires they filled out detailing their intake of red meat and processed meats, as well as other factors like smoking, exercise, fondness for vegetables and fruits, how much they ate, yada, yada, yada. They split the respondents into five groups and the group you were in related to how much red and processed meat you ate. Level 1 the lowest, level five the highest.

It seems that over the years from 1995 to 2005, about 48,000 of the men in the study died, as well as almost 24,000 women. And guess what? A larger percentage of those heavy meat consumers died than the level 1’s.

The quintile who ate the most red meat had a higher risk for overall death, death from heart disease and cancer than the men and women who ate the least red meat.

The researchers said thousands of deaths could be prevented if people simply ate less meat.

“For overall mortality, 11 percent of deaths in men and 16 percent of deaths in women could be prevented if people decreased their red meat consumption to the level of intake in the first quintile,” [Rashmi] Sinha’s team wrote. –Reuters via Planet Ark

Well, what do you know… Red meat is bad for your health. I’m sure cows would agree with me here.

Not only does beef cost a hefty price in terms of your health, but do you know how bad the beef and meat industry is for the larger world? Pollution, water usage, crop diversion to animal feed, the flatulence…cows and pigs are dirty creatures. Chickens and turkeys are, too. Especially the way we raise them.

Not only that, but in the US, we consume far too much meat, due to our relative affluence and a snappy campaign from the Beef Industry to the tune of Aaron Copeland. There’s a lot of people in this world are vegetarians not by choice, but by necessity.

But in this land of meat and potatoes, and heart attacks, obesity, high cholesterol, hyper-tension, diabetes, cancer…when will we stop believing the ad campaigns? Just say no.

And I love the response from the American Meat Institute, an industry front.

But American Meat Institute executive president, James Hodges, said: “Meat products are part of a healthy, balanced diet and studies show they actually provide a sense of satisfaction and fullness that can help with weight control. Proper body weight contributes to good health overall.” –ibid.

Brilliant. I wonder how many of those heavy red meat consumers are achieving “proper body weight.”

red meat, processed meat, beef industry, National Cancer Institute, death, obesity, heart disease, cancer, pollution, water, Americans, health, food, agriculture

After reading this next study, I am kind of wondering as to why looking at toenail clippings would be the preferred method for measuring the level of arsenic in a human body. Is it because it is easy and non-intrusive, cheap, and a part of the body that is ripe for the study of bioaccumulation? Or is it some foot fetish’s odd way of getting his jollies? I’m hoping it’s the first reason.

Anyway, without further ado, today’s dose is about toenails and arsenic and England. England was the original hotbed for environmental degradation back in the earlier years of the Industrial Revolution — you know, lots of mining and no consideration of producing and disposing of rather nasty waste by-products. Well, some of that nasty stuff was arsenic, and in addition to that, there were arsenic mines that also lead to a issue of arsenic pollution in Great Britain.

Scientists from the University of Leicester, Notthingham Trent University, and the British Geological Survey have developed a relatively easy and painless (although perhaps a little gross) way to measure environmental arsenic in a person’s body — toenails. Toenails grow slowly, building matter and along the way picking up chemicals and in this case, elements that accumulate in our bodies. Add a little acid to those nails, let them dissolve and a little “inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry” and you’ve got yourself a good way of finding out how much arsenic that person has been exposed to over long periods of time.

Mark Button [of the University of Leicester] added: “This preliminary research indicates that people living close to a former arsenic mine have elevated levels of arsenic in their toenails. However, the potential health risks in this case, if any, are not yet clear and no arsenic related health issues have been reported. A large-scale and more detailed biomonitoring study is required to confirm these initial results.”

Dr Jenkin, lecturer in Applied Geology at the University of Leicester said: “This is the first time that the chemical form of the arsenic in the toenails has been measured - that can tell us something about how it got in there and possible risk factors. — SPX via TerraDaily

The only problem with the testing is that as of yet, the researchers are not quite sure how “concentrated” the amount of arsenic in a toenail is and how that affects the measurement of said arsenic. It could be that the human toenail concentrates arsenic and makes it look as though there are high levels, when in fact it’s very low levels over a longer period of time. That makes it harder to determine how it relates to harmful effects that can occur from exposure to arsenic, like cancer of the lungs or kidneys.

But it’s a start…

arsenic, toenails, bioaccumulation, chemicals, mining, waste, England, Industrial Revolution, Leicester, Nottingham Trent, University, British Geological Survey, cancer

In a very creepy Children of Men kind of way, this recent development in the state of our world’s water resources could be the first step to lower fecundity in humans, which yes, in an extreme case like the world of 2027 in Children of Men, could lead to diminished birth rates.

Guess I’ll stop worrying about overpopulation…

A British joint-research project finds that increasing numbers of new chemicals such as those used in pharmaceuticals and fertilizers — the very things that make life worth living, am I right? — are showing up in our water supplies. These chemicals may have a rather harmful and decidedly less fruitful side effect on a man’s reproductive system.

And on a fish’s reproductive system. Studies in the past have shown that male fish are being “feminized” due to female hormones in the water supply. Certain hormones in the water are turning the fish into girl fish, kind of in some cases and literally in others. These estrogens are making it through the water treatment process after passing through women taking birth-control pills. To be fair, chemicals that act like estrogen also have the same effect on fish, and those chemicals are coming from industrial manufacturing.

Now, researchers are finding new chemicals they are calling “anti-androgens.” These are acting much like the estrogen and faux-estrogen. Androgens are male hormones like testosterone, and serve to support sperm production.

In fact, the researchers says they really don’t know where some of these chemicals are coming from.

“We have identified a new group of chemicals in our study on fish, but do not know where they are coming from. A principal aim of our work is now to identify the source of these pollutants and work with regulators and relevant industry to test the effects of a mixture of these chemicals and the already known environmental estrogens and help protect environmental health.” [quote from Lead author on the research paper, Dr Susan Jobling at Brunel University's Institute for the Environment]

Senior author Professor Charles Tyler of the University of Exeter said: “Our research shows that a much wider range of chemicals than we previously thought is leading to hormone disruption in fish. This means that the pollutants causing these problems are likely to be coming from a wide variety of sources.

“Our findings also strengthen the argument for the cocktail of chemicals in our water leading to hormone disruption in fish, and contributing to the rise in male reproductive problems. There are likely to be many reasons behind the rise in male fertility problems in humans, but these findings could reveal one, previously unknown, factor.”–SPX via TerraDaily

These anti-androgens are known to cause a condition called testicular dysgenesis syndrome. Even the name tells us what is going on — dys means “ill” and genesis means “birth“. The anti-androgens can cause developmental damage to the reproductive system in embryos and the syndrome is becoming more and more common unfortunately.

We are what we drink. The ultimate anti-androgens, Women.

Yet more bad news for our water supply.

fertility, reproductive health, men, mens health, water, water pollution, androgens, anti-androgens, fish, feminizing, fecundity, Children of Men, overpopulation, sperm, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, hormones, estrogen, testosterone, manufacturing, chemicals, water treatment, testicular dysgenesis syndrome, embryos, developmental damage

Just when you did not think that the healthcare crisis in the United States could get any worse, some disturbing new information has been released by the National Institutes of Health could mean just that. Increased and better testing for Diabetes is showing that more and more Americans are at risk for this disease.

For a system that is already stressed and underfunded, diabetes is already a huge burden on the nation’s health. Putting more diabetes patients into a system that can hardly handle what patients it already has may prove to be disastrous for our current system.

Type 2 Diabetes is one of those diseases that preventative care could prevent. The idea behind preventative care is simple — educate people and teach them to care for their bodies in ways that will help to prevent certain lifestyle diseases. Of course, some people will get Diabetes no matter what, but in most cases of Type 2, healthy changes in lifestyle can be a game changer.

Let’s look at some numbers. The new survey looked at two studies which tested people in two ways. The Fasting Blood Glucose (FBG) test is the standard way to test for diabetes. It’s cheap and it’s quick, but it is not the most accurate test. The Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) is the newer diabetes test and it is more accurate and better at diagnosing diabetes in older patients as well as diagnosing a pre-diabetic condition that may or may not become diabetes (but usually does because most people don’t realize they are pre-diabetic and therefore do nothing to change their ways and prevent the onset of actual diabetes).

The survey says that 13% of adult Americans have Diabetes, but 40% of those people do not know it yet. The highest number is in the elderly and minority populations. Additionally, 30% of adults have pre-diabetes.

“We’re facing a diabetes epidemic that shows no signs of abating, judging from the number of individuals with pre-diabetes,” said lead author Catherine Cowie, Ph.D., of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), a part of the NIH. “For years, diabetes prevalence estimates have been based mainly on data that included a fasting glucose test but not an OGTT. The 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES, is the first national survey in 15 years to include the OGTT. The addition of the OGTT gives us greater confidence that we’re seeing the true burden of diabetes and pre-diabetes in a representative sample of the U.S. population.” — NIH News

So, if these numbers are even kind of accurate, the percentage of American adults who could have Diabetes in the next decade or two could be 43%. That is crazy epidemic numbers. There is obviously something very, very wrong with our American lifestyle (which we are more than happy to export to everywhere).

Diabetes, healthcare, United States, National Institutes of Health, testing, type 2, health, disease, epidemic, pre-diabetes, Americans, lifestyle

Setting: Kruger National Park Wildlife Reserve, South Africa along the Mozambique border

Three dead crocodiles were found within the park. The victims suffered a painful death. The fat within their bodies hardened into a rubber-like state. The victims were rendered powerless to move. The crocodiles could not move to eat or drink, and soon they died of either starvation, thirst or exposure.

That was last May. Now, over 170 crocodiles have perished in much the same way within Kruger National Park, a showcase national park that hosts a good number of top predators like lions and leopards in addition to other large mammals like elephants, hippos and rhinos.

The science has come back on what is killing these huge crocs, the Nile variety of crocodile. Pansteatitis or “Yellow Fat Disease” is not a pretty disease and it affects other animals as well as the crocodiles. Domestic cats have been found to suffer from the disease, and also birds and fresh water turtles may become afflicted with this mysterious disease.

The condition attacks fat stores, depleting anti-oxidants and inflaming the fat in a process that scientists believe is very painful.

“There was a big concern that other species could be affected,” Jan Myburgh, veterinarian specialising in toxicology, told AFP.

The chief worry was for lions — seen feeding on the dead crocodiles — and other cat species, based on the susceptibility of domestic cats, but no dead or sick felines have been found, he said.– TerraDaily

The real problem is that no one can figure out how or why this disease strikes. Most of the scientists working on the case (as well as similar cases over the years) are pointing to strained river resources in the area. The rivers within the Park include the Olifants, the Timbavati, and the Sabie.

The Kruger deaths occurred in a remote gorge which has faced increased siltation from a dam in neighbouring Mozambique, and is fed by one of South Africa’s hardest working rivers which supports various heavy industries.

Clues are now being sought by a multi-pronged programme looking at the entire river system to get a better understanding of the cause and effect links around the deaths.

So, this could be any number of reasons that these Nile crocodiles, which can grow up to 5 meters or 15 feet long and weigh up to 500 pounds, are dying off in such a disturbing way. Not enough fresh water, warmer water, polluted water, diseases spreading in from upriver, a decline in the general health of big carnivores or scavengers willing to eat their own kind.

Disturbing all the same.

crocodiles, South Africa, Kruger National Park, disease, yellow fat disease, pansteatitis, rubber, muscle, health, wildlife, predators, Africa, Mozambique, rivers, water resources

That has to be one of the more literal titles I’ve used in a while…

Back in high school, I had a friend that smoked and lived with parents that smoked. She stank — so much so that my dad would ask her to remove her ubiquitous suede jacket (can’t fault her for being stylish) before coming into our house and leave it outside in the garage. I gave my dad sh*t about it, but secretly, I thanked him.

Seems Fritz was bringing in toxic substances with that coat — and probably her hair, her shirt, her shoes. Scientists are finally giving a name to that toxic residue from cigarettes.

Third-Hand Smoke

And it is just as dangerous as first- or second-hand smoke. That smell that lingers after your morning drag is toxic, and it clings to clothes, walls, furniture, carpets. The children that parents think they are protecting by not smoking around them may still be sucking on that cigarette when they crawl around the house, gum a toy, or sit in the car.

Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician who heads the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said the phrase third-hand smoke is a brand-new term that has implications for behavior.

“The central message here is that simply closing the kitchen door to take a smoke is not protecting the kids from the effects of that smoke,” he said. “There are carcinogens in this third-hand smoke, and they are a cancer risk for anybody of any age who comes into contact with them.” — NY Times

Researchers from Mass General’s Children’s Hospital did a phone survey to see how many people knew about the dangers of third-hand smoke and how they smoked around their kids.

“Everyone knows that second-hand smoke is bad, but they don’t know about this,” said Dr. Jonathan P. Winickoff, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

“When their kids are out of the house, they might smoke. Or they smoke in the car. Or they strap the kid in the car seat in the back and crack the window and smoke, and they think it’s okay because the second-hand smoke isn’t getting to their kids,” Dr. Winickoff continued. “We needed a term to describe these tobacco toxins that aren’t visible.”

Third-hand smoke is what one smells when a smoker gets in an elevator after going outside for a cigarette, he said, or in a hotel room where people were smoking. “Your nose isn’t lying,” he said. “The stuff is so toxic that your brain is telling you: ’Get away.’” — NY Times (again)

The study found that 65% of non-smokers and only 43% of smokers believed that “‘breathing air in a room today where people smoked yesterday can harm the health of infants and children.’” It’s scary that more than half of all smokers questioned didn’t think that cigarette residue would pose a health danger to their children. Children take in more air than adults, percentage-wise, and therefore usually feel the effects of environmental contaminants more profoundly.

And we wonder why so many kids have asthma?

Here’s a short list of the the many, many chemicals and toxic substances that can be found in cigarette residue.

arsenic

lead

carbon monoxide

butane

hydrogen cyanide

toulene

polonium-210 (which is radioactive)

Gee, and I was worried about flame retardants…

cigarettes, smoke, second-hand smoke, third-hand smoke, children, health, danger, toxic substances, arsenic, lead, carbon monoxide, butane, hydrogen cyanide, toulene, polonium-210, asthma, carcinogens, flame retardants, environmental contaminants

In the past month, reports from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Phillipines are detailing the troubling accounts of a resurgence of the Ebola Virus.

First, the Congo…

Nine people have died so far out of 21 people infected with the deadly Ebola virus, according to the Health Ministry in the DR Congo. Doctors without Borders has a higher estimate of 33 people infected That may not seem like such a big deal, except that Ebola tends to kill 90% of those infected. This is hardly the first time that Ebola has struck the West African nation.

Ebola was first documented in 1976 in Zaire, which was what the DR Congo at that time. The disease also afflicted people in the Sudan. Ebola is named after the Ebola River, which is very near the site where the disease was found. Below is a chart 2003 showing the number of people in red infected versus the number of deaths in black, appropriately enough.

If you have been paying attention to the news, you may have heard that some pigs in the Phillipines have also tested positively for Ebola. This needs some clarifying, as the pigs, or hogs, are infected with the Ebola-Reston Virus.

Ebola-Reston may be a subtype of Ebola, but so far, that is still to be definitely determined by researchers. Ebola-Reston gets its name from its similarity to Ebola, obviously, as it is a filovirus as is Ebola. Filoviruses are particularly nasty diseases in which long, slender RNA viruses attack the host’s blood vessels, causing them to rupture and at the same time prevent coagulation, which means that the victim will not stop bleeding.

Ebola-Reston gets the “Reston” from a Reston, Virginia lab where researchers first isolated the filovirus. So far, Ebola-Reston Virus has not caused serious illness in humans, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t. Previous to the recent outbreak, Ebola-Reston was thought only to infect monkeys. The virus’ move into the porcine world could be a normal move of the disease of which little is still known, or it could point to the much-sought “reservoir” of the disease, which has yet to be discovered.

The UN is beginning to investigate the Ebola-Reston virus in pigs…stay tuned.

Ebola, Ebola-Reston, virus, fliovirus, Congo, DR Congo, Zaire, Reston, Virginia

While I was watching NOVA last night, which was called “Ocean Animal Emergency” and truly saddening, I was struck by a small seal pup that had facial tumors growing out of its mouth. The tumors were found to be inoperable, and the poor, little Harbor seal had to be euthanized.

The moment I saw the seal’s tumors I was reminded of another creature that has become afflicted with grotesque facial tumors, the Tasmanian Devil.

Are the facial tumors afflicting the harbor seal on NOVA and Tasmanian Devil related? Could there be something more to this? What is it that is causing these odd, devastating growths? In January 2008, reports came out detailing that Tasmanian Devils have elevated levels of chemicals used as flame retardants in their blood stream. Could these chemicals be causing this kind of growth? Or are the chemicals just enabling this kind of cancer, making some animals more susceptible to disease?

The science is still out on the Tasmanian Devil, but as more than 60% of the wild population has died in the last decade since this facial cancer was first discovered, there may not be much time for scientists to figure it out.

The facial growth I saw on the harbor seal did not look quite as gruesome as that which I have seen in pictures of tasmanian devils. The harbor seal’s tumors looked more like big “toes” sticking out of its mouth. The seal didn’t look bothered by them, so it is unsure if the tumors were causing pain of any kind. I have to wonder if there is some correlation between the toxins we keep dumping in the ocean and this poor seal’s face.

NOVA explained that the seal and sea lions that are euthanized at the Marine Mammal Center are given a post-mortum examination, and blood and tissue samples are collected. I have to wonder what the MMC will find, if anything. Of course, it may simply be a birth defect, and I am worrying over nothing. But as seals are higher up on the food chain and consume other marine creatures, they could be the front line when it comes to realizing the effects of the many, many substances we allow to flow into our waters.

The MMC and other marine researchers are finding that another toxin, domoic acid, is killing sea lions and the numbers are only increasing. The domoic acid is a toxin released by the Pseudo-nitzschia algae, an algae that needs sunlight and nutrient-rich water, which are usually not the same water. However, with increasing amounts of nutrients in the form of fertilizers running into our near-shore waters, like Southern California where many sea lions are dying, algae blooms are becoming common in the spring and early summer.

seals, NOVA, pbs, ocean, animals, marine, mammal, tumors, growths, flame retardants, chemicals, toxins, cancer, tasmanian devil, water, pollution, algae, bloom, California, Marine Mammal Center, sea lions, domoic acid, Pseudo-nitzschia, harbor seal

There is nothing I find more oxymoronic than the term “political science.” More often than not, politics and science are locked in battle, with politics trumping science.

When Good Science Is Ignored

With the upcoming election, it is hard not to be thinking of politics lately, and if you have read some of my previous posts, you will notice that I tend to think in political terms often when it comes to science. For example, what can the new President and Congress do to compensate for 8 years of bad science by way of the Bush Administration? Do you remember those days, less than 2 years ago, when Bush and his “scientists” claimed that global warming was a hoax, the science was bad, it wasn’t man-made, there wasn’t a consensus among scientists on the issue, it was the fault of alarmist environmentalists, etc, etc, etc…

Seems like global warming isn’t the only crisis that is worsening due to politics trumping good science. I ran across this article recently, and despite our nation’s growing (excuse the pun) obesity problem, it seems that the food industry is trying its hardest to undermine science. And why, you ask? Money, profits, returns to shareholders, call it what you want, I call it greed.

All that processed food Americans eat come from major corporations that all form a, shall we say, club. That club then goes to Congressional leaders asking them to let them market their products, however unhealthy, to kids. And by way of thanks, those corporations have employees that give lots of money to that same Congressional leader that is letting them sell their processed, sugary, salty, so-good-but-oh-so-bad foods. If you don’t think that your favorite snack food is from a major corporation, check out the website. Look around for the parent company, usually at the bottom of the page, next to a year and a copyright symbol or trademark. Better yet, go to the corporate websites for Kraft, Nabisco, or even Kelloggs. You will see how many brands are owned by the same company. Even seemingly competing brands, like the so-called healthy brands like Snackwells and the far-from-healthy Oreos, are being marketed by the same company (in this case, Nabisco) or for another example, Hormel not only sells Hormel Chili, but also Stagg Chili. For goodness sake, look at the cola wars. Coke and Pepsi are great examples of corporate-power-gone-wrong.

I remember in high school when a soda vending machine was installed in our cafeteria. And then I read that soda machines went into elementary schools. Soda? Soda is so far-from-healthy that no one should drink it, much less little kids.

Now, don’t get me wrong, every little kid wants soda, and it is not going to kill anybody sparingly or at least in moderation, but we are seeing the effects of children and processed, sugary foods. This nation is fat and our kids are going to suffer for it. And rather than reign in the companies that are pitching their goods at little kids, the Government is putting its head in the sand.

Kind of like with global warming. Will an 8 year absence of reason be too long to rectify when saner heads prevail in our nation’s capital? Will saner heads ever prevail in Washington, or will we, as a people, reject the constant bombardment of advertising at our kids and show that rejection by passing on the high fructrose corn syrup?

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You may have heard of a strain of encephalitis: the West Nile Virus, with West Nile encephalitis being the most severe form. West Nile is actually a form of Japanese Encephalitis, a mosquito-borne disease that causes inflammation of the brain. There are other strains of encephalitis including Saint Louis (named for the American city where it was first diagnosed in 1933), La Crosse, Western and Eastern Equine, and tick-borne encephalitis.

The danger with encephalitis is that with other “vector-borne” or mosquito-borne diseases is that mosquito populations are generally held in check by cold winters around the world. Most mosquito-spread illnesses are mitigated by climate, but as we see the world warming up, tropical zones spreading into previously temperate areas, and winters becoming milder and wetter, mosquitoes that carry diseases are finding favorable conditions in more and more places.

Mosquito babies love stagnant water.

As far as the individual strains of vector-borne encephalitis go, they are all quite similar, as the virus is spread from an infected bird or mammal, and the animal’s blood carried by a mosquito will enter the bloodstream of the mosquito’s next victim, possibly a human. The virus, a flavivirus much like Malaria, will then enter the human’s bloodstream, and start to cause all sorts of damage if the disease becomes severe enough. Many times, the human host will not experience severe symptoms, maybe a headache with a fever. Severe symptoms can include neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma and convulsions. Some cases result in death, up to 60% for Japanese encephalitis, but usually death occurs in older people and children. St. Louis encephalitis has a possible death rate of 5 to 30%.

Treatment for encephalitis is important, despite there being no specific medication to treat the disease. Severe cases are hospitalized, and support treatment is given. There is no vaccine currently approved by such health organizations as the Centers for Disease Control.

Another problem with some strains of encephalitis, like the La Crosse Strain, is that people are moving into areas that were previously left unpopulated, such as rural and wilderness areas in the Great Lakes region of the United States and into the hardwood forests of Midwest. Luckily, the La Crosse strain is still considered rare, but in areas of the world where growing populations are requiring more and more space, like Asia, encephalitis is more common.

The range of Japanese Encephalitis

Historical data of occurences of St Louis Encephalitis in the US from 1964.

West Nile cases in the US during 2008.

With a warming world, mosquitoes can be expected to not only survive winters, but find more favorable habitats. With global warming, precipitation increases. With more rain, both in quantity and incidence of storms, water will pool up and most likely not have the time to dry up. This water is like an invitation to mosquitoes. In the grand scheme of things, usually the same watering holes that host mosquito families will host frogs and other creatures that eat the mosquitoes. But mosquitoes can find a home in much smaller pools of standing water, and frogs need water that is more established as their life cycles take longer to move from tadpole to frog. More rain means more mosquitoes without the necessary increase in frogs. And don’t forget…the research lately has been showing that frogs are experiencing their own set of problems and a decrease in their numbers around the globe.

As with most arboviruses (arthopod-borne), it is important to avoid mosquito bites. Wear insect repellant, build bat boxes around your yard, wear long sleeves and pants when outside, avoid having standing water around your house and yard (even birdbaths and little ponds). Check out the CDC website for more information.

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We have been looking at the danger posed by once-tropical diseases spreading into more temperate zones as the world warms. Hey, that may be a good idea for a new soap opera, As the World Warms. Just remember, you heard it her first.

First we looked at Malaria and Dengue Fever, and today’s topic is our not-so-friendly stomach flora, Cholera.

The yellow areas are local cholera outbreaks, and the black dots represent imported reported cases. I believe Alaska is only colored yellow due to it being part of the US.

Cholera is a water-borne and food-borne (as water is a major component in food production) disease that is spread by the Vibrio cholerae bacterium. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), cholera has not been present in the industrialized nations in 100 years, other than the rare case of a traveler returning to a non-cholera country from a nation where cholera is common, for instance India and Sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, cholera is currently at “pandemic” status in the poorer parts of the world

The major problem with getting cholera is that the bacterium causes an intestinal infection which leads to diarrhea. The problem with diarrhea is of course dehydration. If your body er, uh, ejects too much fluid before that fluid can be replenished, you can die. Remember in high school US history classes, when you were studying any of the major wars, and it would come up that not every casualty was due to violence, but that some soldiers died from things like dysentery. Dysentery is a severe intestinal infection that also causes rather horrible diarrhea…a terrible way to die.

Cholera is easily treated, but that treatment is important to get in the first few hours if the infection is bad enough. But what is bad enough, and how do I know if I get it, you may be asking. Hopefully, you will never have to worry about cholera — at least not in the industrialized world. Effective sewer systems and water treatment processes have for the most part eliminated the presence of cholera in the US and Europe, although the bacterium can exist in these areas. Some people get cholera from eating raw seafood from the Gulf of Mexico, but the chances for that are fairly low, so I don’t want you to panic. I write about cholera because of the relationship between cholera (and other tropical diseases) and a warmer world.

Cholera is commonly associated with higher sea temperatures.

From the Environmental Protection Agency’s page on climate change:

…algal blooms could occur more frequently as temperatures warm — particularly in areas with polluted waters — in which case diseases (such as cholera) that tend to accompany algal blooms could become more frequent.

Also, warmer waters accompany rising sea levels, which could flood areas and contaminate water meant for agricultural uses and drinking water. Higher need for potable water due to increased population may also strain sewer systems and treatment plants efficacy. I promise I am not trying to scare you, but a warmer climate can change the playing field when it comes to combating pandemics like cholera.

Here is a cute little rule of thumb when choosing water and food when traveling, or when the US turns tropical.

Boil it, cook it, peel it, or forget it.

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This is post is part of a series that is looking at the impending danger of tropical diseases moving into temperate areas. The cause of this migration is the actual movement or rather expansion of the tropics themselves, thanks to global warming and climate change.

Dengue Fever

Dengue fever is also spread by a mosquito, much like malaria. In dengue fever’s case it is the Aedes mosquito that transmits the four different strains of the flavivirus. For the most part, dengue is not super-serial, er, i mean super serious (accidental channeling of the South Park version of Al Gore, sorry), but can become serious in two ways. Dengue is more than capable of *ahem* going viral (goodness, I am full of mischief today), that is becoming an epidemic or even worse, a pendemic; or it may become a more dangerous case of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever. The ‘hemorr-’ prefix is not usually a good one, referring to hemorraging blood.

Dengue symptoms include severe headaches, severe muscle and joint pain, and a red rash that can cover the entire body. Sometimes there can be gastrointestinal distress (I love that phrase) as well. If the fever gets bad enough, that is when the hemorraging starts, and finally you die. Ok, that was glib, but death does occur in about 5% of untreated cases, one percent for those who do receive proper medical care.

Dengue fever breaks out in most places, and is endemic to the United States, mostly in the South. Epidemics break out here and there in tropical countries every so often, being recorded as far back at the late 1700’s. And why the 1700’s? Because that’s when Europeans colonized the tropics, and our history is Euro-centric, obviously, because I will bet you dollars to doughnuts that dengue has been around a long, long time. No matter here as I am not letting myself continue on my diatribe about “history.” Moving on…

Dengue Fever breaks out enough to affect 50 to 100 million people around the world. Only a few hundred thousand get dengue hemorrhagic fever. Usually these cases happen in the tropics, or maybe among travelers that had visited tropical climates. However, the tropical bands that circle this planet between what had traditional been the two “Tropics” of Cancer and Capricorn are spreading north and south into sub-tropical regions and those subtropical regions are likewise spreading up into temperate zones. This may not seem like a big deal to you there in Minnesota, and will hopefully never be a big deal, but just think about how much hotter and wetter your summers have been in the last twenty years? Wetter and hotter means more mosquitoes. No, but seriously, it may not be a big deal for those of you living above the 35th parallel (or south of it in the Southern Hemisphere), but things only seem to be getting hotter…

I’ll break it down for you. If it doesn’t freeze in the winter, the terrori– mosquitoes win.

By the way, the Centers for Disease Control think that dengue is pretty dengue serious. Oh my, what is wrong with me today?

In 2005, dengue is the most important mosquito-borne viral disease affecting humans; its global distribution is comparable to that of malaria, and an estimated 2.5 billion people live in areas at risk for epidemic transmission (Figure 4). Each year, tens of millions of cases of DF occur and, depending on the year, up to hundreds of thousands of cases of DHF. The case-fatality rate of DHF in most countries is about 5%, but this can be reduced to less than 1% with proper treatment. Most fatal cases are among children and young adults.

Many more cases probably go unreported each year because surveillance in the United States is passive and relies on physicians to recognize the disease, inquire about the patient’s travel history, obtain proper diagnostic samples, and report the case. These data suggest that states in southern and southeastern United States, where Ae. aegypti is found, are at risk for dengue transmission and sporadic outbreaks.

Here’s Figure 4.

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