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Children’s Hospitals Overflowing With Respiratory Illness Patients

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Children with a specific respiratory illness have been overwhelming hospitals, mainly in the Southern and Northeastern areas of the United States.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported recent data showing Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) cases have spiked over the past month. RSV usually causes children to contract the usual mild-cold symptoms, but the impact could be much worse for those immunocompromised or with a heart defect. . .

Dr. Juan Salazar, the physician-in-chief of Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, told The Hill that cases began exponentially rising at the beginning of September, which he claims is something he has never seen before.

Young children with the virus have swamped the Hartford-based hospital, with staff debating whether to call in the U.S. National Guard and FEMA for support. (Read more from “Children’s Hospitals Overflowing With Respiratory Illness Patients” HERE)

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Teenager Mysteriously Loses Eyesight and Hearing — Doctors Cite a Bizarre Cause

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By The Blaze. A British teenager has been struck with a mystery illness and doctors believe it may be due to malnutrition stemming from years of his devouring the same junk food. . .

The boy had complained of fatigue when he was 14 years old. A doctor at the time advised him about his diet and gave him a B12 vitamin injection.

A year later he began to lose his hearing. He was sent to a specialist.

A year after that he began to lose his eyesight. . .

Doctors observed damage to the boy’s optic nerve, but could not identify a cause. The boy denied that he ingested tobacco, alcohol, or drugs, and then admitted. (Read more from “Teenager Mysteriously Loses Eyesight and Hearing — Doctors Cite a Bizarre Cause” HERE)

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Blinded by Junk Food: Teen Loses Eyesight from Yearslong Bad Diet, Report Says

By NBC News. A British teenager who had been a “fussy eater” since elementary school lost his vision and suffered significant hearing loss due to his yearslong diet of junk food, according to a case report published Monday. . .

“However, the patient confessed that, since elementary school, he would not eat certain textures of food,” the authors wrote. “He had a daily portion of fries from the local fish and chip shop and snacked on Pringles, white bread, processed ham slices and sausages.”

Nutritional deficiencies can contribute to vision and hearing problems, but in developed countries, “purely dietary causes” for such vision problems are rare, the authors wrote. In the teen’s case, nutritional deficiencies in several essential vitamins and minerals, including B vitamins and copper, probably played a role in his vision and hearing loss. . .

The doctors also referred the teen to mental health services, concluding that his dietary habits constituted an eating disorder. “‘Fussy eating’ that is restricted to junk foods and causes multiple nutritional deficiencies is an eating disorder,'” the report says. (Read more from “Blinded by Junk Food: Teen Loses Eyesight from Yearslong Bad Diet, Report Says” HERE)

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Shigella on the Rise, 150 Cases Confirmed in This U.S. City

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Medical professionals and the city health department are warning the public about a significant increase in Shigella; an illness that causes high fever and abdominal problems.

The Kansas City Health Department put out new numbers on Friday, explaining that the city normally sees 10 cases of Shigella a year. So far in 2015, there have already been 150 reported cases. From January 1 to July 1 this year, there were 16 reported cases. In the past two months, 134 additional cases. That total, 150, is 15-times the annual average.

Shigella is an infectious bacterial illness that causes high-spiking fever, upward of 104 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Doctors say Shigella can also cause seizures. Though adults are also susceptible, the majority of the patients are children. Many cases have been reported in daycares and elementary schools.

Doctors say symptoms include diarrhea, abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting, and fever. They say antibiotic treatment will help, though it requires culture testing to determine which kind of medicine is needed.

“We always develop resistance to different bacterial organisms so it’s really important that we are able to identify what type of Shigella it is and how to treat it best,” Scott Dattel, M.D., said. (Read more from “Shigella on the Rise, 150 Cases Confirmed in This U.S. City” HERE)

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Patient With Extreme Form of Tuberculosis Sent to National Institutes of Health [+video]

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By Maggie Fox. A female patient with an extremely hard-to-treat form of tuberculosis is being treated at the National Institutes of Health outside Washington D.C., and federal and state officials are now tracking down hundreds of people who may have been in contact with her.

The woman traveled to at least three states before she sought treatment from a U.S. doctor. While TB is not easily caught by casual contact, extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB is so dangerous that health officials will have to make a concerted effort to warn anyone who may be at risk.

“The patient is staying in an isolation room in the NIH Clinical Center specifically designed for handling patients with respiratory infections, including XDR-TB. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH, is providing care and treatment for the patient in connection with an existing NIH clinical protocol for treating TB, including XDR forms. NIAID has treated other XDR-TB patients in the past under this protocol,” the NIH said.

These special isolation rooms usually control air flow to prevent germs from escaping into the rest of the hospital or outside.

The patient, who isn’t being identified in any way, may face months or even years of treatment. Ordinary TB is hard to treat and requires, at a minimum, weeks of antibiotics. XDR-TB resists the effects of almost all the known TB drugs. Sometimes patients have to have pockets of infection surgically removed. (Read more from “Patient With Extreme Form of Tuberculosis Sent to National Institutes of Health” HERE)

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Tuberculosis Outbreak Brewing in Texas

By Merrill Hope. Initially, officials called it an isolated incident of tuberculosis (TB) in East Texas. One case of the contagious bacterial lung infection originated at a local community college. It since has multiplied into four new cases, the direct result of contact with “patient zero” and now, 60 more people are being screened as a precaution.

On May 29, the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) announced that the four new cases were being treated after individuals came into contact with patient zero, who was said to be a student at Kilgore College in Gregg County, by the Kilgore News Herald.

Officials also advised that an additional 60 people were being screened for TB who had possible contact with one of the infected individuals. Earlier in the month, the TDSHS began investigating that first TB case on campus.

“Many contacts who are currently being evaluated for TB will need to be re-evaluated in 8-10 weeks, depending on the last date of contact with the index (first) case,” said TDSHS spokeswoman Christine Mann, according to KTLV-TV.

Mann stated that if a contact is diagnosed with active TB disease, they will begin treatment immediately. However, if a contact is diagnosed with latent TB infection, which is not contagious, they will be offered treatment depending on their medical history and other risk factors. (Read more from this story HERE)

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What Force Is Torturing Residents of Kazakh ‘Village of the Damned’ Hit by Mysterious ‘Sleeping Sickness’? [+video]

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28185C3B00000578-0-image-a-30_1430219066368People living in Kazakhstan’s ‘Village of the Damned’ have spoken of the horrifying side effects of the mysterious sleeping sickness which can leave them unconscious for days – as others reveal they fear they are being poisoned to force them to make way for a gold mine.

When a photojournalist spent a night at the infamous village, she was told of how children have seen their mothers grow eyes on their foreheads and usually well-mannered pensioners denounce their nurses as ‘whores’ and ‘prostitutes’.

Meanwhile, men struggle with uncontrollable sexual desires after waking from the coma-like sleep in the village of Kalachi, in northern Kazakhstan.

It is the first time residents of the village, which has also been dubbed ‘Sleepy Hollow’, have spoken of the debilitating side effects.

The illness which sends people into a deep sleep without warning first struck four years ago, and is thought to have affected about a quarter of the population – about 160 people – at some time or another. . .

Baffled doctors have diagnosed the sufferers with encephalopathy, a disorder of the brain, of unclear origin. Scans have shown that many of the sufferers have excessive accumulation of fluid in their brains – known as oedema. (Read more from “What Force Is Torturing Residents of Kazakh ‘Village of the Damned’ Hit by Mysterious ‘Sleeping Sickness’?” HERE)

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