Saturday, April 24, 2010

Earth Changes: A Fungus Among Us!

I'm not quite sure how I got into the "Earth Changes" mode, but it seems I keep bumping into articles that relate to them. The one I am addressing at this time is as significant as any, as it relates to a fungus known as C. gattii, that somehow got into North America near the end of the last century, and may be as lethal to human life, and other life forms, as any volcanic eruption, earthquake, tsunami, et cetera.

As a Health.Com article relates, "The fungus hails from the tropics and may have been brought to North America on imported plants or trees. It is believed to have first emerged on this continent in 1999, on Vancouver Island off the coast of British Columbia. It ultimately infected more than 200 people, killing nearly 9 percent of them."

Symptoms of this fungal infection have been found to include chest pain, persistent cough, shortness of breath, fever, and weight loss. The fungus has also been found to cause meningitis, or inflammation of the membranes lining the brain. The infection may be treated with antifungal drugs. C. gattii is found in soil and trees, but experts haven't as yet determined how humans contract it.

Researchers have found a new strain, that is likely to move into Northern California and other neighboring regions. Other strains of the fungus have been found in people in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and in a bottlenose dolphin as far south as San Diego. It seems the fungus is on the move.

This new strain "...seems to have mutated relatively recently, and has appeared in humans as well as in cats, dogs, and other animals. (In animals, symptoms include a runny nose and breathing problems, and other strains have been seen in ferrets and llamas too.)"

"The mutation '...is causing major illness in the region, and it's different from what's causing disease on Vancouver Island,' says Christina Hull, PhD, an assistant professor of medical microbiology and immunology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, in Madison."

Edmond Byrnes III, a doctoral student in molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke University says, "There are no real precautions you can take, because it's hard to tell which areas would be more infected or where levels of C. gattii could be higher."

I found the following comment by Philip Alcabes, Ph.D., an infectious diseases epidemiologist at Hunter College, in New York City, who says "...genetic changes such as those described by Byrnes (re: the fungus) are 'a pretty normal, expectable evolutionary event in nature that has a slight amount of human fallout.'" In my opinion, whatever "human fallout" there is, is too much, and says a "lot" about Dr. Alcabes.

So, there we have it, another disease that has manifested and reared its ugly head, along with all the other earth changes that are occurring. After reading and thinking about this blog, it becomes obvious there are many things that people can do to correct some of the diseases, or planetary events, that we are experiencing these days.

In regards to infectious diseases, people can simply start by improving their personal hygiene! People are known to be excellent spreaders of disease! Simply having good hygiene is a step in the right direction. Maybe one day people won't need a sign in the lavatory that says: Please Wash Hands Before Leaving!
Source: CNN/Health.com http://tinyurl.com/3ajszoq

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