Word: toxin
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...infection and intestinal disorder, and when doctors analyzed the bug behind the illness, they found that it was all but indistinguishable from ordinary E. coli, with but a small exception: this breed of the bacterium contained a few strands of genetic reweaving that cause it to produce a powerful toxin its less potent...
When this fortified E. coli, which researchers dubbed the O157:H7 strain, takes hold in the body, it behaves savagely. Doctors believe the bacterial toxin first destroys blood vessels in the intestines, which accounts for the bloody diarrhea that is the signature symptom of the infection. The toxin then passes into the bloodstream, where it probably damages vessels throughout the body. This produces gummy clots that clog organs like the kidneys. Up to 5% of all people with O157 infection develop a kidney condition known as hemolytic uremic syndrome; up to 5% of all HUS cases are fatal. The clotting...
...survive if they are kept hydrated and, in some cases, hospitalized. But up to 1% do die--mostly children, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems. In all cases, antibiotics are not only useless but may actually make things worse, causing the bacteria to rupture and spill their toxin even more widely throughout the gut. Says Nancy Donley, a safe-food activist whose son died of E. coli infection: "We're not talking about minor gastrointestinal distress. It is a brutally ugly death...
...less publicized wonders of modern medicine that the planet's most lethal toxin--the one that causes botulism in badly canned vegetables and can make a capable germ-warfare agent--now offers hope for the vain. A less messy alternative to face-lifts and chemical peels, Botox was first approved by the FDA in 1989 for the treatment of spastic eye muscles. It didn't take long, however, for doctors to discover its "off-label" cosmetic applications. Last year, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, more than 65,000 Botox procedures were performed--mostly on women...
Injecting a deadly toxin into your face may sound ill advised, but the doses are slight--usually 15 to 60 units, vs. the 3,000 required to kill somebody. In addition to smoothing worry lines, Botox is used to erase crow's feet and furrows between the eyebrows. While results are relatively short-lived (four to six months), any unintended side effects--a droopy eyelid, say--eventually go away too. This is good for doctors as well as patients. "By the time somebody consults a lawyer," says Dr. Monte Keen of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City...