Here are some links on infestations, contagions, and controls from around the web. Have more? Add them in the comments.
In shutdown news:
Although the shutdown finally ended this week, we’ll continue to feel its impact for some time. Because two-thirds of CDC employees were furloughed, the government hasn’t been tracking influenza outbreaks, which is important for making next year’s batch of flu vaccines.
Maryn McKenna has a Q&A with CDC director Thomas Frieden up at her Wired blog on the impact of the shutdown on the organization. Even with the shutdown ending, I imagine it’ll take awhile to get this and other agencies back up and running.
In infectious disease news:
Amy Maxmen has a nice piece in Al Jazeera America on typhus and other neglected diseases surfacing in Texas.
Phil Plait wrote about the importance of influenza and pertussis vaccines for Slate.
Science News says there is new evidence that the MERS virus shares a long evolutionary history with bats.
Nature reports that one in 2,000 people in the UK may carry infectious protein prions that cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is the human version of mad cow disease. So, don’t go eating strangers’ brains over there. Scratch that: don’t eat anyone’s brains.
Speaking of brains, Walking Dead fans will enjoy BoingBoing’s explanation on how bacteria and other critters would make short work of zombies in an actual zombie apocalypse.
And finally, be terrified by David Quammen’s opinion piece on the next big spillover event in the New York Times
In clever control news:
Nature reports on a new technique to catch bacterial infections in the body by using fluorescent antibodies.
Nature also has a video up describing how x-ray crystallography and other technologies can reveal new targets for antibiotics and other drugs.
And Jeneen Interlandi has a feature in Nautilus on how we can trick bacteria to self-destruct in order to fight antibiotic resistance.
In actual plague news:
The British Library just published a book called How to Cure the Plague and Other Curious Remedies, and has a fun story describing some of the old medical practices in the book. My favorites are the references to Bald’s Leechbook and Leechbook III, which beg the question: what happened to Leechbook II?
In crop pest news:
Nathanael Johnson has the second part of his Grist series on how genetically engineered plants have (so far) impacted the environment. While Bt corn seems to have decreased chemical pesticide use, it looks like herbicide-resistant plants are cause for concern.
And ICYMI, here is my post on the impacts the shutdown may have on crop and insect research.
In creepy crawly news:
The flesh-eating bacteria Vibrio vulnificus are hanging out at Florida beaches.
Quartz has a piece on how to defend against those terrifying giant Asian hornets.
Inspectors allegedly found “10 suckling rat pups” in the business class section of an airplane in Fujian Province, China.
And finally, read the squirm-inducing story of the scientist who found a nematode living in his mouth by Deborah Blum at Wired. But don’t read it during lunch.
