Scott McPherson's Web Presence

It was with great sadness that I read an article off the Drudge report this morning.  A young Arizona child died from a very rare (although getting less and less rare) lake-borne amoeba that attaches itself to the brain stem and literally eats away the tissue until the victim dies. The article states, in part:

According to the CDC, the amoeba called Naegleria fowleri (nuh-GLEER- ee-uh FOWL'-erh-eye) killed 23 people in the United States, from 1995 to 2004. This year health officials noticed a spike with six cases—three in Florida, two in Texas and one in Arizona. The CDC knows of only several hundred cases worldwide since its discovery in Australia in the 1960s.

Six cases, six deaths, 100% CFR.  The article can be found at: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8RUKBMG0&show_article=1 .

This brings me to the Article of the Month -- a National Geographic article on emerging pathogens that we all should read and absorb.  Besides an excellent map showing the spread of H5N1 across the globe, it illustrates the huge problems confronting public health professionals as they try to discover, diagnose, and destroy these pathogens before they can make a permanent species jump to man.

I had never heard of Hendra virus, named for the location in Australia that spawned equine and human death in 1994.  The article does a great job of introducing readers to monkeypox, Ebola, and other killers.  Be sure to read the article, and better yet, go pick up a copy of this month's NG.  The article can be found at:

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2007-10/infectious-animals/quammen-text.html .