Word: bacterium
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...about 40% of people with active tuberculosis, the disease results from new infections rather than reactivated ones, according to two studies. Doctors previously believed that up to 90% of patients with active TB had contracted the disease-causing bacterium years earlier. The findings have prompted researchers to emphasize the need for better detection and treatment...
...short answer, say doctors: no way. While the streptococcus bacterium is very common -- it causes the strep throat that everyone catches sooner or later -- the publicized cases involve a deadly variant of the germ that is rare. Up to 15,000 people come down with invasive Group A strep every year, and perhaps 3,000 die. The infection is easily treatable, though, if caught early. Moreover, the microbe has been around for years, and no one thinks it will suddenly cause a pandemic...
Until that point, antibiotics can easily wipe it out. What makes severe, invasive strep A different is that the microbe itself is "ill," infected with a virus. The virus tricks the bacterium into pumping out a highly toxic chemical. Among the possible effects: a catastrophic drop in blood pressure (which contributed to the death of Muppetmeister Jim Henson in 1990); scarlet fever; or, as the recent news reports point out, "necrotizing fasciitis," an illness that can eat away fat and muscle at the astounding rate of up to one inch an hour. If that last process starts, the only treatments...
...question is whether killer strep is on the rise. Some experts think it's not. But even those who say the bacterium is spreading believe this is part of a recurring biological cycle, not a new phenomenon. The scarlet fever epidemics of the 1930s and '40s were caused by invasive strep A, and there were reports at the time of necrotizing fasciitis. After a deadly run through the population, the bacterium subsided; most victims had either died or developed immunity. The big difference this time is better treatment. While some strains of strep are showing resistance to some antibiotics...
...bacterium that had alarmed Britain flares...