Category Archives: Disease

Millions of Americans have tropical diseases they’re unaware of

MacKenzie, D. December 14, 2013. America’s hidden epidemic. NewScientist. Increasing climate change and poverty are likely to increase the numbers of people with these diseases. An estimated 330,000 US citizens, and possibly as many as a million, carry the parasite … Continue reading

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Global warming spreads disease in the arctic

[ A summary of the spread of disease in the Arctic  in the August 2014 issue of Scientific American follows ] Pathogens moving northward: Aleutian Islands, Alaska. A distemper virus that infects seals in the North Atlantic ocean now attacks … Continue reading

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Livestock diseases, Science Mag Review of “Arresting Contagion”

Science 17 April 2015: Vol. 348 no. 6232 p. 294 DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa7672 The fever on the farm Arresting Contagion Science, Policy, and Conflicts over Animal Disease Control Alan L. Olmstead and Paul W. Rhode Harvard University Press, 2015. 477 pp. … Continue reading

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Tuberculosis

The fear is that a fast-spreading, anti-biotic resistant strain will spread via mutation or bioterrorism. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that two billion people — one third of the world’s population — are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. 25 January … Continue reading

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Algal blooms more toxic due to climate change and crop fertilizer runoff

Paerl, H.W. et al. October 25, 2013. Blooms Bite the Hand That Feeds Them. Science Vol. 342 no. 6157 pp. 433-434  Eutrophication from climate change, dams, higher carbon dioxide concentrations, drought, and nutrients from farm and urban runoff is increasing … Continue reading

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Pandemics

As declining energy leads to lower farm yields, malnutrition and starvation will make people far more vulnerable to diseases.  A lack of anti-biotics, and little transportation to get to medical facilities at some point down the oil depletion curve is … Continue reading

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Gonorrhea could soon be untreatable according to World Health Organization

Science 15 June 2012: Vol. 336 no. 6087 pp. 1364-1365 WHO Warns of Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that gonorrhea, which infects 106 million people in the world each year, could soon become untreatable. In its Global … Continue reading

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China the epicenter of bacteria resistant to all antibiotics

Mara Hyistendahl  Science 18 May 2012: Vol. 336 no. 6083 p. 795 China Takes Aim at Rampant Antibiotic Resistance Bacteria that cannot be stopped by common drugs are proliferating around the world (Science, 18 July 2008, p. 356). But a … Continue reading

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Disease

Bird Flu H5N1 MacKenzie, D. 31 Aug 2011. Bird flu flies back into the news. NewScientist. Cholera 18 Aug 2011. Famine-struck Somalia faces cholera outbreak. New Scientist. 9 Feb 2011 Detecting Cholera Rampaging in 40 countries. ScienceDaily. Tick borne Illnesses … Continue reading

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