This may be of interest.
A type of bacteria that's resistant to many widely used antibiotics is unusually common among people in Houston, new research reveals.http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/rare-superbug-strain-found-in-us-city/ar-BBBdypa?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=U348DHP
I did a report on superbugs in my Intro to Public Speaking class a few years ago. These strains arose in hospitals in India and have been spreading worldwide. Pretty scary that they’ve reached one of the most populated cities in the U.S. This is another piece of evidence that high intelligence is not necessarily a good long-term survival strategy. We’re finding many ways to destroy ourselves.
This is another piece of evidence that high intelligence is not necessarily a good long-term survival strategy. We're finding many ways to destroy ourselves.This is an excellent point which doesn't get stressed enough - the stupidity of intelligence. Thread relevant - we should institute a moratorium on air travel to limit sudden transmission of these bugs.
This is another piece of evidence that high intelligence is not necessarily a good long-term survival strategy. We're finding many ways to destroy ourselves.This is an excellent point which doesn't get stressed enough - the stupidity of intelligence. Thread relevant - we should institute a moratorium on air travel to limit sudden transmission of these bugs. Yes, stop them at the border, demand their papers and do a strip search. That should solve the problem. Lois
This is another piece of evidence that high intelligence is not necessarily a good long-term survival strategy. We're finding many ways to destroy ourselves.This is an excellent point which doesn't get stressed enough - the stupidity of intelligence. Thread relevant - we should institute a moratorium on air travel to limit sudden transmission of these bugs. Yes, stop them at the border, demand their papers and do a strip search. That should solve the problem. LoisNo need for all that, we can just stop ferrying them to the border.
@ Beltane,
You underestimate the ability of diseases to spread. Take Malaria, spread by mosquitos. How are you going to stop them?
Suppose a mosquito drank the blood of an infected person and passing it on to another person 10 miles from point of infection (across the border), or a fly, they feed on feces.
We need to know how it can be passed on as well as what it does not like (a chemical aversion) which could be used to discourage an epidemic.
@ Beltane, You underestimate the ability of diseases to spread. Take Malaria, spread by mosquitos. How are you going to stop them? Suppose a mosquito drank the blood of an infected person and passing it on to another person 10 miles from point of infection (across the border), or a fly, they feed on feces. We need to know how it can be passed on as well as what it does not like (a chemical aversion) which could be used to discourage an epidemic.With people moving around the world as they do today, it's almost impossible to stop the spread of a disease or slow it considerably without a vaccine. Lois
@ Beltane, You underestimate the ability of diseases to spread. Take Malaria, spread by mosquitos. How are you going to stop them? Suppose a mosquito drank the blood of an infected person and passing it on to another person 10 miles from point of infection (across the border), or a fly, they feed on feces. We need to know how it can be passed on as well as what it does not like (a chemical aversion) which could be used to discourage an epidemic.With people moving around the world as they do today, it's almost impossible to stop the spread of a disease or slow it considerably without a vaccine. Lois That's the point of the post. Diseases are evolving. Vaccines don't kill all the bugs that infect us, and the ones left behind are resistant to our vaccines, making them harder and harder to control.
@ Beltane, You underestimate the ability of diseases to spread. Take Malaria, spread by mosquitos. How are you going to stop them? Suppose a mosquito drank the blood of an infected person and passing it on to another person 10 miles from point of infection (across the border), or a fly, they feed on feces. We need to know how it can be passed on as well as what it does not like (a chemical aversion) which could be used to discourage an epidemic.We know how to stop Malaria, we've eradicated it from a few areas of the world. I'm talking about the unknown foreign pathogens that we risk exposing ourselves to with nonstop global travel. Better to discover them through small, containable outbreaks far away instead of sudden appearances in one of the biggest cities in the country.
Beltane said, We know how to stop Malaria, we've eradicated it from a few areas of the world.We are making progress, but malaria is by no means eradicated or even contained.
The World Health Organization estimates that in 2012, there were 207 million cases of malaria. That year, the disease is estimated to have killed between 473,000 and 789,000 people, many of whom were children in Africa.
I'm talking about the unknown foreign pathogens that we risk exposing ourselves to with nonstop global travel. Better to discover them through small, containable outbreaks far away instead of sudden appearances in one of the biggest cities in the country.I agree, but it is impossible to stop trade or humans touching. Moreover, it is not an unknown foreign pathogen. It lives in our intestines and perhaps because of that very environment, it seems to have become immune to every antibiotic we have thrown at it.
@ Beltane, You underestimate the ability of diseases to spread. Take Malaria, spread by mosquitos. How are you going to stop them? Suppose a mosquito drank the blood of an infected person and passing it on to another person 10 miles from point of infection (across the border), or a fly, they feed on feces. We need to know how it can be passed on as well as what it does not like (a chemical aversion) which could be used to discourage an epidemic.With people moving around the world as they do today, it's almost impossible to stop the spread of a disease or slow it considerably without a vaccine. Lois That's the point of the post. Diseases are evolving. Vaccines don't kill all the bugs that infect us, and the ones left behind are resistant to our vaccines, making them harder and harder to control. That's true, but vaccines are the best we have, so far. Most of them do work and continue to work. Of course there will be failures, but we have to work with what we have. When's the last time you heard of anyone with small pox, diphtheria or even polio? At one time those diseases swept the land in regular epidemics. I remember the polio epidemics very well. Several of my classmates were crippled for life from polio. I, myself had a slight case when I was 2 years old and I suffer today from its after-effects. There have been extremely few cases of polio in the US for years and it is on the verge of being wiped out completely. There is no cure for polio. Vaccine is all we've got.
This is another piece of evidence that high intelligence is not necessarily a good long-term survival strategy. We're finding many ways to destroy ourselves.This is an excellent point which doesn't get stressed enough - the stupidity of intelligence. Thread relevant - we should institute a moratorium on air travel to limit sudden transmission of these bugs. You do realze that that would cause the collapse of the US economy, don't you? Besides that, too many wealthy people would be against it. That would put the kibosh on it before it got started.
This is another piece of evidence that high intelligence is not necessarily a good long-term survival strategy. We're finding many ways to destroy ourselves.This is an excellent point which doesn't get stressed enough - the stupidity of intelligence. Thread relevant - we should institute a moratorium on air travel to limit sudden transmission of these bugs. You do realze that that would cause the collapse of the US economy, don't you? Besides that, too many wealthy people would be against it. That would put the kibosh on it before it got started. U.S. economy? It would collapse the world economy. When I first read Beltane's post I thought he was joking, but then realized he was serious. He apparently did not put any thought into that idea.
I'm talking about the unknown foreign pathogens that we risk exposing ourselves to with nonstop global travel.But wait there's more,
Should Alaskans fear diseases frozen in the permafrost? By Zoë Sobel, Alaska's Energy Desk - Unalaska - http://www.alaskapublic.org/2016/08/30/should-alaskans-fear-diseases-frozen-in-the-permafrost/ ...“This release of these dangerous microorganisms could actually be spread very easily from the north, because we have lots of birds who are migrating all kind of places in the world," he said. “So this problem could be not just local problem. It could be global problem."...Beltane, ain't it amazing all the different ways global warming is impacting our planet, right now, not to tomorrow. :smirk: Interesting article, give it a read. :cheese:
We've eradicated Malaria from USA and Europe; and we don't need to stop trade, just slow it down.Beltane said, We know how to stop Malaria, we've eradicated it from a few areas of the world.We are making progress, but malaria is by no means eradicated or even contained.The World Health Organization estimates that in 2012, there were 207 million cases of malaria. That year, the disease is estimated to have killed between 473,000 and 789,000 people, many of whom were children in Africa.I'm talking about the unknown foreign pathogens that we risk exposing ourselves to with nonstop global travel. Better to discover them through small, containable outbreaks far away instead of sudden appearances in one of the biggest cities in the country.I agree, but it is impossible to stop trade or humans touching.
Moreover, it is not an unknown foreign pathogen. It lives in our intestines and perhaps because of that very environment, it seems to have become immune to every antibiotic we have thrown at it.Good point.
This is another piece of evidence that high intelligence is not necessarily a good long-term survival strategy. We're finding many ways to destroy ourselves.This is an excellent point which doesn't get stressed enough - the stupidity of intelligence. Thread relevant - we should institute a moratorium on air travel to limit sudden transmission of these bugs. You do realze that that would cause the collapse of the US economy, don't you? Besides that, too many wealthy people would be against it. That would put the kibosh on it before it got started.More like a slowed down economy, not collapsed. That would be bearable and much more preferable to mass infection. As far as the wealthy being against it - possibly, though not likely to influence policy in a worst-case scenario. The wealthy often travel privately, afaik, and they usually don't go slumming in foreign hot zones.
I'm talking about the unknown foreign pathogens that we risk exposing ourselves to with nonstop global travel.But wait there's more,
Should Alaskans fear diseases frozen in the permafrost? By Zoë Sobel, Alaska's Energy Desk - Unalaska - http://www.alaskapublic.org/2016/08/30/should-alaskans-fear-diseases-frozen-in-the-permafrost/ ...“This release of these dangerous microorganisms could actually be spread very easily from the north, because we have lots of birds who are migrating all kind of places in the world," he said. “So this problem could be not just local problem. It could be global problem."...Beltane, ain't it amazing all the different ways global warming is impacting our planet, right now, not to tomorrow. :smirk: Interesting article, give it a read. :cheese:I heard about that a few yrs ago. Could be bad, could be minor threat. We'll have to see.
I hope they perfect the new synthetic RNA which is able to alter DNA. If we could build and selectively deliver a dedicated and catastrophic error in cell division of a bacterium, we may eventually be able to combat pandemics.
Anyone familiar with the current state of research in this area?
I did a report on superbugs in my Intro to Public Speaking class a few years ago. These strains arose in hospitals in India and have been spreading worldwide. Pretty scary that they've reached one of the most populated cities in the U.S. This is another piece of evidence that high intelligence is not necessarily a good long-term survival strategy. We're finding many ways to destroy ourselves.I guess you're safe then, Darron. ;-P
I did a report on superbugs in my Intro to Public Speaking class a few years ago. These strains arose in hospitals in India and have been spreading worldwide. Pretty scary that they've reached one of the most populated cities in the U.S. This is another piece of evidence that high intelligence is not necessarily a good long-term survival strategy. We're finding many ways to destroy ourselves.I guess you're safe then, Darron. ;-P Hey! I've been insulted! :bug: