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MONDAY, OCTOBER 15,2012
HEALTH
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Shawn Lockhart looks at the meningitis-causing fungus Exserohilum rostratum at the mycotic lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last Friday in Atlanta. The staff and technicians have been working around the clock to confirm cases and inform the public regarding the multi-state meningitis outbreak that has resulted in 14 deaths. The fungal outbreak is believed to have started at New England Compounding Center where a steroid injection shipment was contaminated with the fungus.
US experiences fungus outbreak
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA — Scattered across the carefully landscaped main campus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are the staff on the front lines fighting a rare outbreak of fungal meningitis: A scientist in a white lab coat coers through a microscope at fungi on a glass slide. In another room, another researcher uses what looks like a long, pointed eye dropper to suck up DNA samples that will be tested for the suspect fungus.
Not far away in another building is the emergency operations center, which is essentially the war room. There's a low hum of voices as employees work the phones, talking to health officials, doctors and patients who received potentially contaminated pain injections believed to be at the root of the outbreak. Workers sit at rows of computers, gathering data, advising doctors and reaching out to thousands of people who may have been exposed. Overall, dozens of people are working day and night to bring the outbreak under control. More
than 200 people in 14 states have been sickened, including 15 who have died.
There is a sense of urgency — people are dying, and lives could be saved if those who are sickened get treated in time. But it's not a race against a fast-fasting illness like avian flu or SARS — or even the fictional virus the CDC fails to unravel in the popular TV series "The Walking Dead." Unlike those outbreaks, this strain of meningitis isn't contagious and doesn't spread between people. It is likely isolated to the contaminated steroid, produced by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass.
"This is a very unusual infection," said Dr. John Jernigan, a CDC medical epidemiologist who is leading the clinical investigation team for the outbreak response. "So, treatment recommendations, diagnostic recommendations are all going to be new, and we're learning as we go on this one."
Meningitis, an inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord, is not uncommon. But it is usually caused by
bacteria, and it is very unusual to see it in patients with normal immune systems, Jernigan said. This strain is caused by a fungus that is common in dirt and grasses — people routinely come into contact with it without getting sick — but it has never before been identified as the cause of meningitis.
By Friday morning, officials believed they had reached about 90 percent of those who were potentially affected, Jernigan said. They planned to continue trying to reach every person to see if they've had problems and to warn them to be on the lookout for symptoms, which can include severe headache, nausea, dizziness and fever. The CDC says many of the cases have been mild, but some people had strokes.
A meeting is held each morning to review overnight developments and plot a course of action for the day, and another at the end of the day summarizes the day's developments and looks ahead to the next day.
SPIDERS FROM PAGE 1A
Iyer and his roommate have dealt with the problem by themselves so far.
more."
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
"I've never really complained about it," lyer said. "But if it becomes a bigger problem, then maybe I will."
PEST CONTROL
Mehmedovic recently visited the home of 82-year-old Lawrence resident Barbara Haverty, who saw two brown recluse spiders and called pest control.
Inside, Mehmedovic sprayed a human-safe insecticide along the baseboards in every room of the house.
"They like to hide in the baseboards," Methmedovic said. "Anywhere there are bugs, spiders will follow"
Mehmedovic said brown recluse spiders like areas that aren't moved, changed or trafficked by people, like untouched closets, attics and storage rooms. They also like to hide in rough material with crevices like newspapers and cardboard. Spiders and other bugs often enter homes through small spaces between drainage
pipes and walls.
In Haverty's home.
In Haverty's home,
Mehmedovic found four of the venomous spiders underneath an old sign that covered a sewage hole in an unfinished storage room. He also sprayed two spiders hiding underneath an unrolled water hose.
CRIME
"Usually I don't see them out like this." Mehmedovic said.
Haverty has lived at her house for 30 years and calls pest control every other year. "We've had squirrels in the attic," Haverty said. "But this is the first for the brown spiders."
Edited by Christy Khamphilay
Search for murder victim put on hold
DOVER, N.H. — A prosecutor says the search for the body of a 19-year-old University of New Hampshire student has been suspended ahead of the arraignment for an actor and martial arts instructor who's been charged in her death.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Jane Young says a ground and water search on and around Portsmouth's Peirce Island was put on hold Sunday, and that officials will decide Monday what the next step should be.
Twenty-nine-year-old Seth Mazzaglia of Dover was charged Saturday with second-degree murder in the death of Elizabeth "Lizzi" Marriott. Marriott was
from Westborough, Mass., and had been living with an aunt in Chester, N.H., and commuting to the university in Durham.
Young said Mazzaglia and Marriott knew each other, but she wouldn't elaborate. Mazzaglia's arraignment is Monday.
CRIME
Associated Press
Police review shooting at campaign office
DENVER — Denver police are reviewing video footage from city surveillance cameras after a shot was fireed through the window of President Barack Obama's campaign office.
Police spokeswoman Raquel Lopez says cameras are in the area of the campaign office on West Ninth Avenue near Acoma Street near Denver's downtown, and investigators are poring over the tapes for any leads. She did not release any other information, citing an "active, ongoing investigation."
Lopez says people were inside the office when the shooting happened Friday afternoon, but no one was injured. A large panel of glass was left shattered at the office.
Lopez says she isn't aware of previous threats against the campaign office.
The secret service referred questions about the shooting to Denver police, and an Obama campaign spokeswoman declined to comment.
Associated Press
ASSSOCIATED PRESS
Jason Payseno, 39, of EAP Inc. Glass Service, replaces a window shot out at the Obama for America headquarters near 9th Avenue and Acoma Street in Denver on Friday.