The Spanish Influenza Outbreak of 1918 650,000 American Died

[image:National Museum of Health and Medicine]
by Mondoreb & Little Baby Ginn

The "Super Bug" MRSA is all the talk of TV and print media this week. School officials nationwide are taking steps to calm fears that schoolchildren may be at risk.

MRSA can be beaten simply by washing your hands. But back in 1918, there was another Super Bug--one that killed over 50 million people worldwide. A look back at the Spanish Influenza outbreak that terrified not just school boards, but the entire world.

The disease claimed well over a half million lives in the U.S. The Baltimore Sun has a series of articles from nearly 90 years ago that examines the Spanish Influenza outbreak here in the United States. From the Baltimore Sun:

In 1918, a virus spread across the planet -- unstoppable, incurable. In Baltimore, the impact was shocking. And as World War I was coming to an end, a new battle was shaping up in homes, schools and neighborhoods. By the end of October the virus had claimed more than 3,000 Baltimoreans. By spring it had killed an estimated 50 million people -- 650,000 of them Americans. Nearly a century later, the people who lived through it and the victims' families still recall their experiences with the flu.

With all the coverage that Asian Bird Flu gathered and the money expended against it, it was nothing like the Spanish Influenza. Such a disease today would paralyze the planet, one thinks.




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May Exceed AIDS Death TollSuper Bug Now in U.S. 90,000 Potential Victims

[photo:CNN]
Estimated to Kill More Than AIDS

by Mondoreb

Last week, Death by 1000 Papercuts reported on a "super bug" that's been killing hospital patients in the U.K. Now, news of the Super Bug's spread to the U.S.

From CNN:

More than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly infections each year from a drug-resistant staph "superbug," the government reported Tuesday in its first overall estimate of invasive disease caused by the germ.

Deaths tied to these infections may exceed those caused by AIDS, said one public health expert commenting on the new study. The report shows just how far one form of the staph germ has spread beyond its traditional hospital setting.

The overall incidence rate was about 32 invasive infections per 100,000 people. That's an "astounding" figure, said an editorial in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, which published the study.

As we observed last week, Super Bug's not as catchy as the "brain-eating microbes" found in the Arizona lake last month, but it's starting to get our attention.



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MASTURBATION CUTS CANCER RISKJust As In Cards:You Don't Need A Partner If You Have A Good Hand

by Mondoreb and Little Baby Ginn

The situation is well in hand.

From the BBC.
Men could reduce their risk of developing prostate cancer through regular masturbation, researchers suggest.
They say cancer-causing chemicals could build up in the prostate if men do not ejaculate regularly.

And they say sexual intercourse may not have the same protective effect because of the possibility of contracting a sexually transmitted infection, which could increase men's cancer risk.

Young men, the world over, when confronted by the question, "What's taking you so long in there?" will proudly wave their Playboys and respond:

Leave me alone. I'm trying to stay healthy in here.
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STRANGE NEW DISEASE: Doctors, Researchers Don't Have a Clue

by Little Baby Ginn

Just when you thought that the only thing to worry about was nuclear holocaust, the War in Iraq and the falling dollar.

There exists in our world today, a disease, so unusual, that after 5 years of research by various groups, not a single person has, to this date, been able to figure out what it is.
We need the help of concerned citizens, caring health care professionals, interested media and government agencies to help us help ourselves understand what this unknown skin disease (Fiber Disease Syndrome) is, where it came from and how we can work together to eradicate it before it becomes an epidemic.
Unknown Disease.com

Doctors and researchers seem concerned that it's spreading and they don't have the foggiest notion of what it is or how to fight it. In fact, those who have contracted it have sometimes been labeled "delusional".

Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences
Center for the Investigation of Morgellons Disease
Morgellons is a multi-system disease of unknown etiology
Morgellons disease is discounted by many public health officials and physicians
Physical and neurological symptoms are often dismissed or ignored
Sufferers are labeled with delusions of parasites or neurotic excoriations
OSU-CHS physicians/researchers have physical evidence of Morgellons Disease
Morgellons is not psychiatric in origin
Morgellons is an emergent disease.
More info here.

It's now after lunchtime on the East coast, so I figured this was as good a time to bring everyone up to speed on this new addition to the Human Disease Fraternity.
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