Word: outbreaks
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
King's Creek is one of three Chesapeake Bay tributaries Maryland has closed in the wake of an alarming outbreak of deadly waterborne bacteria. Along with thousands of fish killed and infected, as many as 28 people who have come into contact with the water have developed symptoms including skin rashes, respiratory problems and memory loss. The culprit appears to be an obscure microbe called Pfiesteria piscicida, which under certain circumstances turns toxic. Though the precise trigger remains unclear, suspicion has fallen on agricultural runoffs, particularly from the region's numerous chicken farms. In addition to closing waterways, Governor Parris...
Other states faced with recent Pfiesteria outbreaks have been less aggressive than Maryland. When 14 million fish died in North Carolina in 1995, some state officials publicly mocked the scientist who discovered the bacteria, and the state has resisted adopting major reforms. Across the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia is seeing lesion rates as high as 75% in its Rappahannock River but has decided to keep it open. Glendening says each state must make its own decisions, but that for Maryland the recent outbreak requires stern action. "The Chesapeake Bay is a fundamental part of what Maryland is," he says...
...medical community has reason to be skittish about the disease. The last encephalitis outbreak in Florida occurred in 1990, and during that brief epidemic, 230 people were infected, 11 fatally. The strain of the virus then--as now--was St. Louis encephalitis, a nasty pathogen that at first causes nothing more serious than flulike symptoms but that eventually may cause fever, coma and occasionally death. The New York strain is the rarer but more dangerous Eastern equine encephalitis, a disease that begins with fever, neck stiffness and headaches and may culminate in a swelling of the brain that claims...
...only two people are known to have contracted the disease. In New York, there are still no reported cases. Yet where there's viral smoke, there may be fire, and doctors fear trouble. Said Dr. Jahangir Moini, a Florida epidemiologist: "We predict we're going to have an outbreak...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Shortly after the Hudson Foods E. coli scare sparked a major outbreak of bad-burger paranoia, University of Wisconsin researchers have taken a major step towards the worry-free barbecue. After sifting through E. coli DNA, scientists from the school's Madison campus announced Thursday that they've successfully sequenced and mapped all 4,288 of the organism's genes. Although the decoded strain is different from the deadly E. coli bacterium which caused 25 million pounds of potentially tainted beef to be recalled last month, TIME science correspondent Madeleine Nash says the discovery is nonetheless a major...