Dr Fungus

I know that there are probably more than a few of you who are, or intend to be, pre-med. For your interest and edification I direct you to Dr Fungus - an independent Web site dedicated to providing a wide range of scholarly peer-reviewed contemporary and historical information regarding fungi.

'We seek to promote an understanding of fungi and the ways that fungal diseases of humans, animals, and plants affect people living throughout the world. We provide information to both professionals and the public by making a broad range of mycology-related images and content instantly available via the World Wide Web.'

You can attempt a diagnosis of your fungal infection, read about sick building syndrome, learn about anti-fungal agents and check out their image library.

This time last year: Humongous Fungus
Also check out Campbell 7th, and As requested which are still relevant and, hopefully useful.

You say tomato

A report published just a few weeks ago revealed the results of a decade-long study evaluating organic versus conventionally grown tomatoes. The study showed that organic tomatoes increased in their concentration of three flavonoids studied over time whereas the levels of flavonoids did not vary significantly through time in conventional tomatoes. Mean values for quercetin and kaempferol in organic tomatoes were 79% and 97% higher than those in conventional tomatoes, respectively.

'Flavonoids are a class of bioactive plant compounds that help protect plants from UV-radiation, chemicals and other environmental stressors. In humans, flavonoids help protect cells against environmental insults that may contribute to chronic disease. Several population-based studies suggest that diets rich in flavonoids may help protect against cardiovascular disease, certain cancers and other age-related conditions, such as dementia. Maximizing the flavonoid content of fruits and vegetables could provide a public health benefit.'

The mechanism involved is suspected to be related to the availability of soil nitrogen. Plants with limited nitrogen accumulate more flavonoids than those that are well-supplied.

You can read a press report on the story or read the research report itself: Ten-Year Comparison of the Influence of Organic and Conventional Crop Management Practices on the Content of Flavonoids in Tomatoes

This time last year: Only you can prevent forests

Resistance is not so futile

I could probably post a new link about antibiotic resistance every day. Here's one I noticed today, a report by NPR that Chinese fish imports may contain fluoroquinolone antibiotics - a potentially serious problem since ciprofloxacin, currently often used a last resort, is a fluoroquinolone. You may remember ciprofloxacin, or Cipro, as the drug of choice during the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Some of you may have seen the press reports last week following a new survey of US hospitals that revealed much higher levels of antibiotic resistant bacteria than previously suspected.

Here's a previous post on this topic: Losing the Battle

This time last year: Heterozygote Advantage

and here's a post from approximately this time last year that someone was asking about. Are humans still evolving: Got Milk?

Losing the battle

According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released this Thursday hospitals need to step up efforts to prevent infections with drug-resistant "superbugs," which are becoming more and more of a threat to patients, the U.S.

The death toll from hospital acquired infections is larger than most people think. Infections caught in U.S. hospitals now kill 90,000 people a year. This is now more than mortality due to breast cancer (about 40,000 per year) and road accidents (also about 40,000 per year).

In a separate story wounded British troops returning from Iraq have been linked by government scientists to outbreaks of a rare strain of Acinetobacter baumannii, a bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics. At one hospital in Birmingham in 2003 the bacteria went on to infect 93 people, 91 of whom were civilians.

The bacteria is also a concern in the US army, where it has been identified in more than 240 military personnel since 2003, killing five.

Antibiotic resistance is a fine illustration of evolution in action and the conditions and speed under which resistance appears illustrates a number of important features of natural selection.

Pathogens Determined to Attack Inside the United States.

In June 1996, President Clinton issued a Presidential Decision Directive calling for a more focused US policy on infectious diseases. The intelligence community of the United States is responsible for assessing threats to the United States and in 1999, as part of the US Government's effort in response to the Presidential Directive, produced a report entitled 'The Global Infectious Disease Threat and its Implications for the United States.'

It examines the most lethal diseases globally and by region; develops alternative scenarios about their future course; examines national and international capacities to deal with them; and assesses their national and global social, economic, political, and security impact. It then assesses the infectious disease threat from international sources to the United States; to US military personnel overseas; and to regions in which the United States has or may develop significant equities.

The report was produced by members of the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center, the National Intelligence Council and included conclusions from a conference on infectious diseases held jointly with the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

You can find it at the CIA webpage as a pdf file but more easily accessible html versions are available.

The conclusions are not optimistic.

The Lost Children of Rockdale County

I'm pretty unshockable but I found the PBS show on an outbreak of syphilis in Georgia pretty amazing. Although the show was aired in 1999, thanks to good old PBS you can access a lot of information about it at a website dedicated to the show and even read a complete transcript.

The website will also give you access to details about the actual investigation of the outbreak, the techniques used and the results. For example this paper shows the complete network visualization of the outbreak I presented in class.