We're Really Fucked
mikethemadbiologist | June 16, 2008
I've been saying for a while now that the 'piggy MRSA*', known as ST398, is going to be a problem. Always listen to the Mad Biologist.
Last week, I was talking to someone who is monitoring MRSA in the New York area, and they've seen two cases of ST398 MRSA in hospitals. This really shouldn't come as a surprise since ST398 is sweeping through the swine population. The only question now is will ST398 simply replace the predominant MRSA strains, or will it add to the total number of MRSA infections and deaths.
Of course, those aren't mutually exclusive possibilities...
*MRSA is methicillin…
mikethemadbiologist | June 6, 2008
So while I was at the American Society for Microbiology meeting this week (and my talk went fine, thanks for asking), I saw a poster by one of ScienceBlogling Tara's students, Abby Harper, about MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) in pigs.
In the past, I've talked about how, in Europe, there is a strain of MRSA that is sweeping through pigs in Europe, ST398. Essentially, this is a silent epidemic sweeping through pigs (it doesn't seem to cause that much disease is pigs; it's primarily a commensal). In agricultural communities, it seems to be spreading from pigs to people.…
mikethemadbiologist | April 13, 2008I've never understood why so many liberals and progressives think the Democratic field is strong. Yes, the candidates aren't insane, but neither of them are particularly good on economic issues. There is nothing in either Clinton's or Obama's records or speeches that suggests that they will do anything significant to reduce income inequality, other than perhaps letting the Bush tax cuts expire (and Obama has even been waffling on that).
And keep in mind, that income inequality isn't just a matter of economically integrating more people into society. That's not some gushy, "it's not fair"…
mikethemadbiologist | April 10, 2008Several people have argued that if an influenza pandemic were to occur, it will rapidly evolve to become less virulent--that is less deadly. A recent paper explains why this might be wrong.
Basically, the flaw with the 'optimistic' argument is that it is assumes that the virus will be optimally fit given its environment (lots of fat, juicy hosts to kill). As it starts to kill off its hosts, its virulence (ability to make dead people or 'deadliness') and transmission rate (ability to infect new hosts) will decrease to another optimal point where the virus will be able to maximize its…
mikethemadbiologist | March 12, 2008I've written before about CTX-M-15 beta-lactamases which make bacteria resistant to most cephalosporin antibiotics--those antibiotics that begin with cef- (or ceph-) or end with -cillin. I've also discussed the role of clonal spread in the rise of antibiotic resistance: most (but obviously not all) resistant infections are not the result of a sensitive strain evolving resistance during the course of infections, but rather due to colonization by a previously resistant strain. A recent article in Emerging Infectious Diseases discusses the role of clonal spread in the dissemination of CTX-M-…
mikethemadbiologist | March 4, 2008I've written before about how the Collapse of the Jenga of Shit (aka the 'subprime' loan crisis) has raised the price of borrowing money--which is paid for with higher state and local taxes--due to the collapse of bond insurers and a liquidity crisis in municipal bonds. Now your property and sales taxes can take another hike courtesy of ratings agency like Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service, and Fitch Ratings. From the New York Times (italics mine):
If they are right, billions of taxpayers' dollars -- money that could be used to build schools, pave roads and repair bridges --…
mikethemadbiologist | February 5, 2008I think I was a little too optimistic about MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) in pigs staying in pigs and not spreading to humans. A recent study in the Netherlands found that people exposed to pigs were 1000 times (yes, one thousand) more likely to be MRSA carriers than the general population, and the MRSA strain was usually the 'pig' strain.
What does this mean? The authors conclude:
After introduction of the new MRSA risk category in a hospital [Mad Biologist: screening those in contact with farm animals], which is located in a region with a relatively high density of…
mikethemadbiologist | November 24, 2007Tom Engelhardt asks the question I've wondered about Atlanta's drought: what happens if there literally is no more water? Unfortunately, there don't appear to be any answers.
The politics of a 'dry' Atlanta, or more accurately, a failed response to a 'dry' Atlanta, could really crack up the Republican coalition. One of the bulwarks of the Southern Republican base is conservative, white suburbs (and exurbs). What happens when they don't have water? FEMA rides to the rescue?
[the Mad Biologist laughs himself silly]
This essentially would be Katrina without the storm--and it would keep…
mikethemadbiologist | November 8, 2007It's not like there's a quality control problem with Chinese manufacturing or anything:
Australian officials ordered a popular Chinese-made children's toy pulled from the shelves after scientists found it contained a chemical that converts into a powerful "date rape" drug when ingested.
Three children have been hospitalized over the past 10 days after swallowing beads from Bindeez, named Australia's toy of the year at an industry function earlier this year.
The beads in the toy, sold by Australia-based Moose Enterprises, are arranged into designs and fuse together when sprayed with water.…
mikethemadbiologist | October 20, 2007maha had a very interesting post about the eroding support among Corporate America for the Republican Party:
I want to go back to the notion that the Bushies are agents of corporate America, verses the "lethal amateurishness of these loyal Bushies" apparent now even to CEOs. I think the Bushies saw themselves as agents of corporate America, people who would "run the government like a business," to recall a popular phrase of the 1990s. When the Bush Administration began the Bushies were full of the conceit that they were so much more disciplined and business-like than the Clintons they could…
mikethemadbiologist | October 17, 2007According to the Boston Globe, a new study indicates that deaths from the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus ('staph infections') have exceeded AIDS/HIV deaths in the U.S (italics mine):
Deaths tied to these infections may exceed those caused by AIDS, said one public health expert commenting on the new study. The report shows just how far one form of the staph germ has spread beyond its traditional hospital setting.
The overall incidence rate was about 32 invasive infections per 100,000 people. That's an "astounding" figure, said an editorial in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical…
mikethemadbiologist | October 14, 2007Knute Berger relays the following email from Ed Lazowska, the former co-chair of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (italics mine):
The years of the [George W.] Bush administration have been a black time for science in this nation. I speak with the experience of having co-chaired the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee for Bush, and having chaired the Defense Department's DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] Information Science and Technology Study Group during his presidency. Funds for research, the seed corn of our future competitiveness…
mikethemadbiologist | October 10, 2007As if outing Valerie Plame, whose primary task was to monitor and contain WMD proliferation in the Middle East--including Iran, wasn't bad enough, the Bush Administration destroyed another intelligence gathering operation for political gain (italics mine):
A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had…
mikethemadbiologist | September 10, 2007This quote from Fred Kaplan's Slate article has left me gobsmacked:
At the same time, nearly all politicians, including most Democrats, have come out against a total withdrawal and have recognized that we will have some military presence in Iraq for a long time to come.
Hold that thought, because I want to remind you of some polling data I discussed a couple of weeks ago:
From Strategic Vision, a Republican polling firm:
4. Do you favor a withdrawal of all United States military from Iraq within the next six months? (Republicans Only)
Yes 51%
No 39%
Undecided 10%
Not beginning a withdrawal…
mikethemadbiologist | September 6, 2007General Petraeus is bringing new meaning to the phrase 'head count':
Intelligence analysts computing aggregate levels of violence against civilians for the NIE puzzled over how the military designated attacks as combat, sectarian or criminal, according to one senior intelligence official in Washington. "If a bullet went through the back of the head, it's sectarian," the official said. "If it went through the front, it's criminal."
Which led to this assessment:
"Depending on which numbers you pick," he said, "you get a different outcome."
Gee, do ya think?
So let's think about this 'metric'…
mikethemadbiologist | August 24, 2007This post by ScienceBlogling revere about the horrendous human cost of influenza is getting some serious exposure. This gives me an excuse to mention something I haven't in a long time:
Stop worrying about avian influenza. Get serious about 'ordinary' influenza.
Why? Last year, 'ordinary' influenza killed roughly 36,000 U.S. residents. That's about equal to breast cancer which kills 40,000 annually. Before the polio vaccine, the polio virus killed 3,000 people annually, and, even if you adjust for population increases, that number would be roughly 9,000 in today's terms. HIV/AIDS kills…
mikethemadbiologist | August 15, 2007By way of archcrone (via skippy), I came across this McClatchy article which discusses the massive inflation in food prices:
The Labor Department's most recent inflation data showed that U.S. food prices rose by 4.1 percent for the 12 months ending in June, but a deeper look at the numbers reveals that the price of milk, eggs and other essentials in the American diet are actually rising by double digits.
Already stung by a two-year rise in gasoline prices, American consumers now face sharply higher prices for foods they can't do without. This little-known fact may go a long way to explaining…
mikethemadbiologist | August 12, 2007From the back cover of The Wimp Factor is this illustration that explains so much about the rise of the modern conservative movement:
From hatred of gays to blowing the crap out of the wrong country to prove that we're not weak, it is remarkable how much of this stems from male insecurity. Couldn't these wimps have bought a red sports car or had an affair instead?
mikethemadbiologist | August 8, 2007MRSA is coming! Run for your lives!
....this little piggy had MRSA up its nose. A recent study from the Netherlands found that 39% of slaughtered pigs carried MRSA. This is particularly surprising since MRSA rates in hospitals in the Netherlands are remarkably low. Even in the U.S., the commensal MRSA frequency in humans is around 1.5%. What's up with the piggies? Here's the abstract; some additional comments afterwards:
Recently methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was isolated from pigs and pig farmers in The Netherlands. In order to assess the dissemination of MRSA in…
mikethemadbiologist | July 18, 2007Since I haven't discussed antibiotic resistance for a while, I want to put that health problem in context. The CDC estimates that every year, over 60,000 U.S. residents die from a hospital-acquired bacterial infection that is resistant to one or more commonly used antibiotics. Roughly 25,000 per year die from bacterial infections resistant to three or more antibiotics (e.g., MRSA). And that's just the infections you catch in the hospital. For a little perspective, HIV/AIDS kills under 18,000 U.S. residents per year. Antibiotic resistance is a serious, albeit neglected, problem.
Onto the…