The altruistic arm of Internet search engine pioneer Google, Inc. this week said it had given grants of more than $14 million to support physicians working in Southeast Asia and Africa to prevent the next pandemic.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google.org’s Predict and Prevent initiative is supporting efforts to identify “hot spots” where infectious diseases may emerge, discover new pathogens in animal and human populations, and react to outbreaks before they become global crises.

New lethal infectious diseases crop up every year, Google said, including variants of HIV/AIDS, bird flu and SARS, as well as drug-resistant strains of ancient scourges malaria and tuberculosis.

Google said three-quarters of new diseases are “zoonoses, meaning they’ve jumped from animals to humans.”

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director, and Nancy Bruening, Executive Editor

Posted: October 21st, 2008 under Avian Flu, Clostridium difficile, Developing Diseases, EV71, Ebola Virus, Flesh-Eating Bacteria, HPV, Hendra Virus, Impaired Immunity, Legionnaires' Disease, MRSA, SARS, West Nile Virus.
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Doctors from an assisted living facility in Rochester, N.Y.  indicated they have discovered an isolated case of legionnaire’s disease. The disease has been discovered at the Heather Heights facility on West Jefferson Road in Pittsford, according to news reports.

Since the resident had recently been outside the facility, officials are not sure if the legionnaire’s was acquired in the facility or in the community.

The health department is reviewing the case, but so far no special restrictions have been implemented at Heather Heights.

The patient who has legionnaire’s has been hospitalized since Wednesday.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

Legionnaire’s disease.

Posted: August 29th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, Legionnaires' Disease.
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Health officials have confirmed a fourth case of Legionnaires’ disease among residents at Edward Flannery apartments in Elmira, N.Y.

The county and state health departments are investigating the source of the disease, which is caused by the legionella bacteria. The disease and the bacterium were discovered following an outbreak traced to a 1976 Legionnaires’ convention in Philadelphia.

Law requires health care professionals to report any diagnosed cases of Legionnaires’ disease to local and state health authorities.

The bacteria is primarily found in warm water environments and people get infected by breathing in droplets or water vapor in which legionella is present. The disease is not passed directly from person-to-person, health officials said. Doctors are still in the early stages of trying to trace where the contamination came from. It is hard to contain, for legionella is a naturally-occurring substance, they said.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

Posted: August 13th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, Legionnaires' Disease.
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Another patient has been infected with the potentially deadly Legionnaires’ disease in upstate New York,  and public health officials there are saying that the bacteria which causes the deadly respiratory ailment has been found at a second site, a Syracuse nursing home.

Scientists searching for the source of the outbreak discovered the “Legionella bacteria that causes the illness in the water system of the 526-bed Van Duyn Home and Hospital,” said Gary Sauda, the Onondaga County director of environmental health.

The disease is a frightful form of pneumonia. Patients become infected by inhaling airborne water droplets that contain the bacteria. In epidemics of this disease, people up to two miles away from the source can be infected. The nursing home and hospital are located less than a half mile apart.

Thu far one person has died since the outbreak began June 30, and another 12 have been infected.

Investigators suspect the outbreak was caused by Legionella bacteria discovered in one of the air conditioning cooling towers at Community General Hospital of Syracuse, N.Y. but they have not yet definitively proven that hypothesis. Six of 13 people infected by the bacteria were Community General patients.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, MA, Editorial Director

Nursing home patients at risk of infection by Legionella bacteria.

Posted: July 17th, 2008 under Droplet Precautions, Hand Hygiene, Impaired Immunity, Legionnaires' Disease, Masks Control Transmission.
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