Effects Bitten Spider Strikes: Ear Rot & Nearly Blind

Although small, some kinds of spiders have a can or a deadly poison. A student in Texas who was bit by a spider, ears to rot and even almost blind because his eyes were swollen up to 2 times normal.

Nikki Perez (21 years), Texas Christian University student suffered bite was on 20 September 2011 when she was picking her boyfriend, Eric Amarillo airport. Feeling something was not right, Nikki picked up the spider to brought to the doctor.

Based on the literature he had read Nikki, a spider that has a sign on his back like a violin is Brown Recluse spider (Loxosceles reclusa). Spiders of North American origin is so deadly, so Nikki decided to seek help.

On the way to the nearest clinic, Nikki felt the bite marks around his left ear started to swell. His skin was hardened and heat, indicating that the bite was not of ordinary spider and quite possibly be very serious.

Arriving at the clinic, the doctor just gave him anti-inflammatory steroids and Nikki asked to observe the development of the bite was over the next 2 weeks. But it was only in the car, Nikki felt her face began to swell, especially on the left side around the eyes.

"After a long time my eyes widened to the other. I'm going blind, it was terrible. Swelling spread to the entire head, although somewhat ease the pain that originally centered behind the ear," Nikki said as quoted from Dailymail, Wednesday (14 / 3/2012).

Nikki eventually had to be hospitalized because of the skin around the bite or necrosis hardens like rotting tissue. He was hospitalized for 5 days and 4 nights, and given steroids to address the inflammation that almost blinded him.

Some ear skin also had to be discarded because rot, so Nikki had to wear a bandage on his head until the next 3 weeks. After recovering, then Nikki could undergo surgery to repair a rotted ears.

Brown Recluse spiders are deadly in fact living in North America, but climate change makes it migrate to other areas in the vicinity. In 2020, this spider will easily be found in a number of states in the United States, including New York.

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Spider bites can be caused deaths

giant spiders spread panic in a remote area in Tinsukia, Northeast India. The problem is, this spider stings have caused at least two deaths. However, the local medical authorities worry the death was not due to toxins from spiders before, but because of the way the treatment is more dangerous than the poison of spiders earlier.

AP news agency on Tuesday (06/05/2012) reported that two people died in Tinsukia district following a sting by a giant spider in there. Only two deaths after previous treatment and spider bitten use razor blade to cut the sting wound. Assess the medical community, this shock treatment with a razor that is not sterilized can be the cause of death was.

Hairy spiders during this month hit Tinsukia district, the area of ​​forest in the northern plains and the Brahmaputra River, Northeast India. This spider is attacking the locals who leads many of them need to be treated. Spider attack caused panic in there, after all these people who stung the spider had fallen ill.

But so far, the death of two people after being stung the spider was still controversial whether by poison or by way of treatment using a razor blade or knife to bleed poisonous spider. Local officials, Kishore Thakuria said so far been difficult to prove whether the death of two people is because toxins or infection used razor cut wound stings.

According Thakuria, the death toll was immediately autopsied so far died. Though it can be dioptosi whether the cause of death due to toxins or infected unsterilized razor. Because so far, seven victims stung by this spider was still alive because the antibiotic treatment that uses a razor blade to remove poison spiders earlier.

Doctor Anil Phapowali of a local hospital in Sadiya confirmed, they are still alive because of the antibiotic survived that fight infection caused by a knife or razor blade cut the wound stung by this spider earlier. Spider stings cause panic, for allegedly spreading a deadly poison in Tinsukia, even thought how treatment with non-sterile razor blade into the cause of death was.

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Drinking From The Twitter Fire Hose

 

 

# 6387

 

 

Every day I weed through literally hundreds of news stories, press releases, journal articles, and blog posts looking for items that interest me, and I hope, will interest my readers.  

 

I have an RSS feed system that polls 266 different news sources every 20 minutes, and pipes new items to my desktop based on a variety of key words. I rely heavily on the newshounds on FluTrackers and The Flu Wiki, and of course items that come across my Twitter feed.

 

It’s a lot to keep track of, and even with RSS tools and the able assistance of the newshounds on the flu forums, it is easy to miss items. 

 

Luckily, over the past couple of years specialized daily newspapers – with news gleaned from twitter feeds – have sprung up, and they increasingly provide another very useful conduit of internet news.

 

In early 2011 I wrote about some of these internet papers in Getting My Daily Twitter Fix. At the time, I highlighted about a half dozen papers I followed, including:

 

The Emergency Management (EM) Daily 

The microbiology Daily

The Sciencemob Daily

The MicrobiologyBytes Daily

 

Since then, the number of papers I follow has increased, and now includes:

 

The DRJ Digest (Disaster Recovery)

The Business Continuity Daily

The bravethestorm.com Daily

The Healthcare Daily

#Publichealth Daily

And the newest entry, started recently by one of my first twitter contacts going back to 2008 - Andrew Wilson - whom I was lucky enough to meet in Washington D.C. a couple of years ago.

 

Health and Human Services News

 

 

These genre-based newspapers are a terrific way to quickly scan the enormous content published online each day – usually in very specific fields. Each daily edition usually has dozens of linked stories, easily arranged into 6 to 8 broad categories for quick viewing.

 

You can search for newspapers that cover topics you may be interested in at http://paper.li/, and yes, you can create your own online newspaper as well.

 

If you are looking for a better way to keep track of the avalanche of information that flows continually across the twitterverse, pick a couple of papers that cater to your interests, and give it a go.

 

Just as with your Twitter feed, the quality and reliability of the information in these newspapers will depend upon the quality and reliability of the people they follow.  

 

So examine the list of each paper’s daily contributors, and choose your Daily Newspapers wisely. 

 

And as always, Caveat Lector.

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Getting My Daily Twitter Fix

 

 

 

#5291

 

For those of us who remember the single-line BBS (bulletin board systems) of the early 1980s, back when MS-DOS 2.11 was king, and a 1200 baud modem was an upgrade, today’s instant communications on the Internet seems almost miraculous.

 

Email didn’t exist back then.

 

But you could leave a message for someone else who used the same BBS system, disconnect, and check back in a day or two for a reply.

 

Times have certainly changed.   Today, between email and Twitter, we can get real-time updates from hundreds of friends in a continual flow of information across our desktops.

 

The problem is, keeping up. 

 

Particularly with Twitter, which can easily send you thousands of `tweets’ in a single day.  

 

I  use a small app (Echofon) added into my Firefox browser that handles tweets very well, holding them in a queue until I choose to view them.

 

While that helps enormously, I still miss out on a lot of valuable content that streams from those that I follow.  Articles and blogs that I really would like to follow up and read, but haven’t the time to click and read as they come across my twitter app. 

 

A couple of months ago I mentioned the Emergency Management (EM) Daily, a `twitter newspaper’ created using paper.li.

 

Every 24 hours this paper is electronically published, with highlights and links to the best content `tweeted’ by those followed by @AllHandsDotNet, which is the twitter  account for http://www.all-hands.net.

 

 

Each edition is apt to have a couple of hundred linked articles, easily arranged into 8 or 9 broad categories for quick viewing.

 

This twitter newspaper has been a godsend, enabling me to go back and pick up on information I had missed. I’ve since added 5 more daily Twitter newspapers to my reading list, and hope to discover more over time.

 

These genre based newspapers are a terrific way to quickly scan the wealth of content published online over the previous 24 hours. 

 

In addition to The EM Daily, I also read:

 

The microbiology Daily

As shared by 93 people on Cesar Sanchez’s Twitter list

 

The Sciencemob Daily

As shared by 118 people on Liz Ditz’s Twitter list

 

 

The MicrobiologyBytes Daily

As shared by MicrobiologyBytes + 33 followed people on Twitter

 

 

The Daily Ren

As shared by Rene F. Najera, MPH + 77 followed people on Twitter

 

 

Food & Agriculture Spotlight

As shared by 212 people on FAO Media Centre’s Twitter list

 

 

You can search for newspapers that cover topics you may be interested in at http://paper.li/, and yes, you can create your own online newspaper as well.

 

 

 

If you are looking for a better way to keep track of the avalanche of information that flows continually across the twitterverse, pick a couple of papers that cater to your interests, and give it a go.

 

Just as with your Twitter feed, the quality and reliability of the information in these newspapers will depend upon the quality and reliability of the people they follow.  

 

So examine the list of each paper’s daily contributors, and choose your Daily Newspapers wisely. 

 

And as always, Caveat Lector.

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Drinking From The Fire hose

 

 

# 3882

 

With flu season in the northern hemisphere upon us, and cooler weather bringing the likelihood of new H5N1 bird flu reports as well, the newshounds that work the flu forums are looking at six very busy months ahead.

 

Newshounds are volunteers who spend hours each day searching in the hundreds of online English and Foreign language news sources for information pertaining to pandemic influenza, avian flu, and other emerging infectious diseases.  

 

Their efforts appear on flu forums like Flutrackers, the Flu Wiki, Plan For Pandemic, CurEvents and PFI or in blogs such as Crofsblog,  Chen Qi or Pandemic Information News .

 

Much of what I do in this blog is dependent upon their labors.  While I still do a fair amount of news hounding myself, at least half of the stories I blog about come by way of these hardworking news analysts.

 

I’ve highlighted their efforts a number of times, and always try to hat tip them whenever I use one of their links, but perhaps the best introduction to how they work can be found in an essay entitled:

 

Newshounds: They Cover The Pandemic Front

 

While I select the 3 or 4 (or sometimes more – yesterday I did 10) stories that interest or intrigue me to blog about each day, that doesn’t come close to covering the territory that the newshounds traverse each day. 

 

Their work thankfully is archived on the flu forums, where it is discussed, analyzed, and becomes part of the historical record.  The flu forums have essentially become repositories of flu and infectious disease information, that function like real-time libraries.

 

While there are a half dozen flu forums - all with hard working members - with just 24 hours in a day, I tend to focus my attention on two; Flu Wiki and FluTrackers.   

 

Crof over at Crofsblog quite accurately says that trying to keep up with the flow of information is like trying to drink from a fire hose.  These forums make that task – if not easy – at least a bit less daunting.

 

Both FluTrackers and The Flu Wiki  produce a daily summary of news items, which helps make it easier to pluck out individual news stories from the onslaught of posts. 

 

The Flu Wiki summary is updated in real time, during the day, at the top of each day’s news thread.  Each item has a corresponding link to take you to the original source material (news article, journal article, etc.).   

 

(Unsourced news items are not allowed on the news threads, and are generally frowned upon in Flublogia)

 

Excerpts of the story, and comments, can found below the summary in the body of the news thread.

 

This is what the Flu Wiki Daily Summary looked like yesterday.

 

Australia
•  Teen swine flu victim's muscles 'melted' (Link)

Canada
•  One more death in Ontario, total for province now 28 (Link)
•  Alberta confirms another death, total now 9 (Link)

Indonesia
•  Health Minister Promises International Cooperation (translated) (Link)

Ireland
•  Youth is Ireland's ninth flu death (Link)
•  "Unprecedented" numbers sick with H1N1 (Link)

United Kingdom
•  Swine flu vaccine: drugs regulator casts doubt on one dose schedule (Link)
•  Two more swine flu deaths in Wales (Link)
•  Sir Elton cancels arena concert (Link)
•  Cheerleader in flu jab horror (Link)

 

United States
•  AL: Nursing students get vaccinated as two more H1N1 deaths reported (Link)
•  DE: Delaware death of 15 yr old ruled H1N1-related(Link)
•  KY: two more deaths in Kentucky last week, total now 10(Link)

•  MI: First death confirmed in Kalamazoo, Michigan (Link)

•  MN: Martin County Officials React To H1N1 Deaths (Link)
•  MN: Minnesota Mom Says Swine Flu Led to Son's Death (Link)
•  MO: Health director suspends flu vaccine law (Link)
•  NC: Brunswick County confirmed 1st death, new mom (Link)
•  OR: 800 turned away from Multnomah County swine flu shot site (Link)
•  OR: Josephine County has its first H1N1 death (Link)
•  OR: 2 S. Oregon swine flu patients in critical condition (Link)
•  OR: Josephine County to declare State of Emergency - H1N1 (Link)
•  SC: Joe Wilson's wife diagnosed with swine flu (Link)
•  TX: New Flu Deaths in Dallas & Tarrant (Link)
•  TX: Local Health District Offers Drive-Through FluMist Clinic Friday (Link)

•  WI: Second death in Winnebago County (Link)

 

General
•  Swine flu may protect against bird flu (Link)
•  Human transmits H1N1 flu to ferret(Link)
•  Nearly 5,000 H1N1 Flu Deaths Reported World-Wide (Link)
•  Washing hands won't stop a respiratory virus (Link)
•  GSK's flu vaccine delivers strong response in children with one shot(Link)

 

     *       *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *

FluTrackers takes  a slightly different approach, posting a summary at slightly irregular intervals, but generally every 24 to 36 hours. 

 

The links provided in this case take you to the thread, or post, dealing with that story.  From there you will find links to the original source material.

 

You’ll find the latest summary linked on the front page atop the right hand PANDEMIC FLU HELP column.

 

The FluTrackers summary tends to run a bit larger, and so I’ve only reproduced excerpts below.   These snippets of the Oct 23rd summary represent about half of that summary.

 

 

 

 

China - Hong Kong - Tamiflu-resistant swine flu strain detected

A high-tech, rotating bed already saving lives at Indiana hospitals could be critical in the fight against the H1N1 flu.

U.S. Doctors Answer Flu Questions on New Website

Tracking World Wide Virulence of Swine Flu

Paper - The 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza and indigenous populations of the Americas and the Pacific

Novel H1N1 Vaccine Availabilty

• Algérie - Le vaccin contre la grippe A/H1N1 sera réceptionné à la fin du mois, selon Saïd Barkat - Muscade
• Canada - British Columbia - Novel H1N1 Vaccine Availability
• Canada - Ile-du-Prince-Edouard - Campagne de vaccination - Muscade
• Canada - Quebec - Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean: Un plan qui se précise - Muscade
• Canada - Quebec - H1N1 vaccinations start Monday in Quebec - Pathfinder     

      <SNIP>

• USA - Texas - Novel H1N1 Vaccine Availability - Pathfinder
• USA - Retard dans la livraison de vaccins aux États-Unis - Muscade

Novel H1N1 outbreaks

• Canada - Alberta - La grippe porcine balaie les Territoires du Nord-Ouest (25 communautés sur 33 - 65% des échantillons positifs) - Muscade
• Canada - Alberta - Absentéisme record dans les écoles - Muscade
• Canada - Quebec - Identification des écoles touchées - Muscade
• Canada - Quebec - Trois cas diagnostiqués dans une école de Granby - Muscade

      <SNIP>

• UK - Deaths rise to 128 as A/H1N1 claims younger victims - Shiloh
• USA - California - California Death Toll from H1N1 Swine Flu Virus Grows - Americas hit Hardest - Chuck
• USA - Florida - Swine flu claims life of Seminole County girl - JimO
• USA - Florida - 11 New Deaths Reported in Florida last week – JimO

     <SNIP>

• Vietnam - Swine flu continued to take its toll in Vietnam, as two children in central Danang City and southern Ben Tre Province
  succumbed to the virus. - Dutchy
• ECDC Update - Ironorehopper

Pneumonia and Influenza Like Illnesses (ILI)

• USA - ACHA Pandemic Influenza Surveillance Influenza Like Illness (ILI) in Colleges and Universities - Missouriwatcher
• USA - Massachusetts %ILI week 41 - RNboston

H5N1 outbreaks

• Indonésie - Sumatra Nord - Lubuk Pakam - Cas suspect - forte fièvre + poulets morts - Muscade

Other news

• Transcript of WHO Virtual Press Conference of 6 August 2009 with Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, Director of Initiative for Vaccine Research at WHO Headquarters and Gregory Hartl, Spokesperson for H1N1 - Pathfinder
• Major Nurses Strike and Picket Looms October 30 As RNs to Protest Hospital Gaps in Swine Flu Safety – Chuck

      <SNIP>

• USA - Swine flu vaccine shipments to Massachusetts are running three weeks behind schedule, forcing the state to direct local health departments to cancel vaccine clinics scheduled for next month. - Commonground

Studies

• N Engl J Med. Use of Ribavirin to Treat Influenza - Ironorehopper
• Les virus influenza A pourraient échapper au système immunitaire - Lili
• N Engl J Med. A Novel Influenza A (H1N1) Vaccine in Various Age Groups - Ironorehopper
• Novel Influenza A (H1N1) Outbreak at the U.S. Air Force Academy: Epidemiology and Viral Shedding Duration - Ironorehopper
• Early transmission characteristics of influenza A(H1N1)v in Australia: Victorian state, 16 May – 3 June 2009 - Ironorehopper

Commentaries

• Adjuvants and Cytokines - the Curious Case of IL-6 - SusanC, Snowy Owl
• Why CDC says this year's flu season is "very sobering" - Revere
• Human swine flu in pigs – Revere

 

     *       *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *

 

All of this, as you might imagine, takes an incredible amount of work and dedication.  Scores of these folks work on the forums without pay, and far too often without recognition.   Their work, by the way, is freely shared between forums and with the world.  

 

The expertise of many of these newshounds is remarkable, with some becoming quite adept at translating articles, and knowledgeable about local customs and idioms in places like Indonesia and China. 

 

The various flu forums, while certainly overlapping in some areas, each have found their own niche and style.   Many of us belong to more than one forum, finding different things to value in each venue.  

 

I’d hate to have to choose just one.

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Nieman Foundation Launches Guide For Covering Pandemic Flu

 

# 3880

 

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard today announced the launch of a web-based guide for journalists covering pandemic flu.  

 

This is a feature rich and valuable resource, and I’m looking forward to exploring it further.   I’ve placed a link to it in my side bar under Resources & Toolkits.

 

Update:  After spending less than an hour exploring this site, I’ve come away even more impressed. This is a great resource for anyone wanting to know more about pandemic influenza, not just for journalists.   

 

The contributors are a `who’s who’ of science based journalism, and they provide sorely needed context for complex issues.

Based on everything I’ve seen so far, this is highly recommended.

 

 

Excerpts from the press release are below.

 

 

Nieman Foundation Launches Guide to Covering Pandemic Flu

Cambridge, Mass. – The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard today is launching a comprehensive online guide to covering pandemic flu. Written by and for journalists, www.coveringflu.org is a one-stop resource designed to help reporters, editors, producers and other media professionals understand the complexities of the flu story. It also offers guidance and best practices for reporting on the topic.

 

Journalists using the Nieman guide can quickly access essential elements of the flu story and learn from veteran reporters and editors who have covered outbreaks such as SARS, avian influenza, and the first wave of H1N1 in spring 2009. They also can discover how to maintain their independence and continue to exercise rigorous journalistic inquiry when called on by the government and/or public health officials to share messages with the public in times of crisis.

 

As misconceptions about the flu, the H1N1 vaccine, government preparedness and other issues continue to swirl and confuse the public, careful, well researched reporting on the topic is more important than ever. And with both seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccination campaigns and other response measures coming into full swing this fall and winter, coverage that neither sensationalizes nor sugarcoats the news is crucial.

 

(Continue . . .)

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CIDRAP: FDA Weighs Peramivir & Headlines

 

 

 

# 3840

 

Tonight CIDRAP has a report by News Editor Robert Roos on recent calls to license the emergency use of Peramivir, an injectable antiviral created by BioCryst, along with a half dozen other news briefs.

 

 

 

FDA faces decision about use of peramivir for H1N1

 

Robert Roos News Editor

Oct 15, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – In response to questions from citizens at a meeting yesterday, a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official said the agency would make a decision "fairly soon" about permitting emergency use of the experimental antiviral drug peramivir to help patients severely ill with pandemic H1N1 influenza.

 

The FDA has been reviewing a possible emergency use authorization (EUA) for peramivir, which, like the licensed drugs oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza), is a neuraminidase inhibitor. Peramivir can be given intravenously (IV) or intramuscularly (IM), whereas oseltamivir is taken orally and zanamivir is inhaled as a powder.

 

During a public teleconference of the National Biodefense Science Board (NBSB) yesterday, Aubrey Miller of the FDA Office of Counterterrorism was asked to comment on the status of the FDA's review of an EUA for peramivir for H1N1 patients. The NBSB is an advisory board to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

 

"There should be information or decisions being made fairly soon. That amongst other medical countermeasures are currently being evaluated by the agency," Miller said. "I don't have a specific time frame at this time, because things are under review."

(Continue . . . )

 

Other CIDRAP news stories tonight include:

 

Flu up slightly on US campuses

Hospital uses triage tents for flood of patients

Ill county workers who stay on job could be fired

Massachusetts prioritizes high-risk prisoners for vaccine

Kentucky district targets college students for vaccine

China plans vaccine for hajj pilgrims

 

 

And CIDRAP’s Novel H1N1Influenza Overview page is updated almost continually with the latest information on the virus.   It is a resource that I go to often, and I highly recommend it.

 

 

Novel H1N1 Influenza (Swine Flu)

Last updated October 9, 2009

Agent
Swine Influenza in Pigs
Swine-Origin Influenza in Humans: Historic Perspective
2009 Pandemic: Case Counts and Clinical Features
Pandemic Perspective
Laboratory Testing for the Novel H1N1 Virus in Humans
Community Mitigation Measures
Recommendations for Use of Influenza A H1N1 2009 Monovalent Vaccine
Vaccine Development
Use of Antiviral Agents
Infection Control Considerations
Food Safety Issues
References

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