Swine Flu Mutation Concerns Norwegian Scientists

As with the story yesterday from the Ukraine, this is something to keep an eye on. The primary concern over Swine Flu is it’s potential  to mutate into a much more serious disease.

Scientists in Norway have identified a mutated form of the swine flu virus that is raising concern because it was found in two patients who died of the flu and a third who was severely ill with the disease, officials announced Friday.

In a statement, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said the mutation “could possibly make the virus more prone to infect deeper in the airways and thus cause more severe disease,” such as pneumonia.

Scientists have analyzed about 70 viruses from confirmed Norwegian swine flu cases and found the mutation in only those three patients, Geir Stene-Larsen, the institute’s director general, said in the statement.

“Based on what we know so far, it seems that the mutated virus does not circulate in the population, but might be a result of spontaneous changes which have occurred in these three patients,” the statement said.

The institute has been analyzing H1N1 virus from “a number of patients as part of the surveillance of the pandemic flu virus,” and has detected several mutations, the statement said. While the existence of mutations is normal, and most “will probably have little or no importance . . . one mutation has caught special interest.”

The two patients who had the mutation and died were the first swine flu fatalities in Norway. The third patient found to have the mutated form of the virus also became severely ill.

via Read Full Article.

How To Survive A Nuclear Attack

The face of nuclear terror has changed since the Cold War, but disaster-medicine expert Irwin Redlener reminds us the threat is still real. He looks at some of history’s farcical countermeasures and offers practical advice on how to survive an attack.

Dr. Irwin Redlener spends his days imagining the worst: He studies how humanity might survive natural or human-made disasters of unthinkable severity.

After 9/11, Irwin Redlener emerged as a powerful voice in disaster medicine — the discipline of medical care following natural and human-made catastrophes. He was a leading face of the relief effort after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and is the author of Americans at Risk: Why We Are Not Prepared for Megadisasters and What We Can Do Now. He’s the associate dean, professor of Clinical Public Health and director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.

Watch More Videos On Our New Community Network Site

2 Mice Carrying Plague Disappear From NJ Lab, FBI Says No Public Health Risk

The frozen remains of two mice injected with the organism that causes plague have not been accounted for seven weeks after being discovered missing at a University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey facility in Newark, the university said Friday.

The FBI investigated and determined there was no risk to public health or any indication of the terrorist link.

It wasn’t the first time plague-infected mice have disappeared from the New Jersey facility. Four years ago, in September 2005, three live mice infected with bubonic plague bacteria disappeared from various cages. Officials later said they believed the rodents had died.

UMDNJ’s Public Health Research Institute issued a four-paragraph statement about the December incident late Friday saying it believes the red hazardous waste bag containing the dead mice was sterilized and incinerated along with another bag.

“Although the mice in the missing bag were used in vaccine experiments involving the bacteria Yersinia pestis, the organism that causes plague, UMDNJ has no reason to believe that this situation poses a risk to the safety or health of UMDNJ staff or the community at large,” the university said in its prepared statement.

University spokesman Jerry Carey said he did not know why UMDNJ waited seven weeks to disclose the missing mice.

via FOXNews.com – 2 Mice Carrying Plague Disappear From New Jersey Lab, FBI Says No Public Health Risk – Health News | Current Health News | Medical News.

Terrorists Could Use Insect-based Biological Terror Weapon

Terrorists would find it “relatively easy” to launch a devastating attack using swarms of insects to spread a deadly disease, an academic has warned.

Jeffrey Lockwood, professor of entomology at Wyoming University and author of Six-legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War, said such Rift Valley Fever or other diseases could be transported into a country by a terrorist with a suitcase.

Lockwood said, “I think a small terrorist cell could very easily develop an insect-based weapon.”

He said it would “probably be much easier” than developing a nuclear or chemical weapon, arguing: “The raw material is in the back yard.”

He continued: “It would be a relatively easy and simple process.

“A few hundred dollars and a plane ticket and you could have a pretty good stab at it.”

Governments, he advised, needed to have robust “pest management infrastructure that’s able to absorb and respond to an introduction” of infected insects, he said.

Trying to stop everything coming in at the border would not work, he said.

Rift Valley Fever is an east African disease which “can cause severe disease in both animals and humans, leading to high rates of disease and death” according to the World Health Organisation.

However, WHO says that “the vast majority of human infections result from direct or indirect contact with the blood or organs of infected animals.”

Source – Telegraph.

Acid Bombs Dropped From Building Injure Shoppers In Hong Kong

Dozens of people in Hong Kong were hurt after two bottles containing an acidic liquid were dropped from a building into a busy commercial district.
The 750ml bottles containing an acidic and corrosive liquid exploded on impact causing injuries and burns to 46 people, some of whom had to be treated in hospital.

“After an initial investigation, we’ve determined two bottles containing a corrosive liquid were dropped from above,” said Leona Leung at the Hong Kong Police Department. “The matter is under investigation. So far nobody has been arrested.”

An unidentified man who witnessed the scene said people affected covered their eyes in pain. Other victims had holes in their clothing and backpacks, according to the South China Morning Post.

The incident happened on Saturday in a bustling shopping district on Kowloon, usually popular with tourists.

Fires Ravage California Southern California

While this is obviously not a terror related event, in the interest of serving our readers and online community we will continue to monitor this situation and provide links to the latest news and information.

UPDATE: Chaotic, gusting winds fanned wildfires all over Southern California on Saturday. Live links are listed below.

UPDATE: A wildfire fanned by hurricane-force wind ripped through northwestern Los Angeles foothills on Saturday, forcing some 10,000 people to flee their homes and threatening the power supply of California’s largest city.

A separate fire burned a second day in the celebrity enclave of Montecito, where 111 homes have been destroyed.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the fire in the foothills near Sylmar had already destroyed dozens of structures — more than any other in the past decade — and that the flames could take down power lines feeding the city.

“The fire is threatening the power of the city of Los Angeles,” Villaraigosa told a news conference. “We may have to move to rolling blackouts.”

Source

—–

A massive brush fire in Sylmar has burned at least five homes and 2600 acres, forcing evacuations as strong winds are quickly spreading the flames. The flames jumped the 210 Freeway causing L.A. Fire Department to close the roadway.

Winds were gusting up to about 50 mph at 2 a.m. as several homes along Dronefield Avenue burned. The fire jumped the 210 freeway near Cobalt Street, and the freeway was closed shortly after midnight.

As many as a dozen homes burned since the fire started about 10:30 p.m. Friday. An estimated 1,500 acres were blackened in the foothills, mostly north of the freeway.

Officials at Olive View Medical Center, which was without electricity, were working to evacuate some 200 patients to Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills. The most critical patients and babies were moved first.

Some storage buildings on the hospital campus burned.

Just one injury was reported — a 40-year-old man who suffered serious burns, according to broadcast reports.

Evacuations were ordered north of the freeway. Police were helping firefighters get disabled people out of their homes. As many as 5,000 people were sent to shelters.

Live Video Coverage – CBS 2

California Fire News

Live Video Coverage

Live ABC News

Follow Fire on Twitter LAFD