Timeline of Microbiology
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Web site: http://www.microbeworld.org/htm/aboutmicro/timeline/tmln_4.htm
At least 800 types of bacteria
live in the human gut. The collective genome of these organisms
contains 100 times as many genes as the human genome itself.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.78)
220Mil BC
Bacteria and single-celled animals and plants from this period became
encased in tree resin on the northern edge of the Tethys Ocean.
Scientists in 2006 studied the organisms in amber of this time from a
town in the Italian Dolomites. Ciliates and amoeba in the amber
appeared identical to modern examples.
(Econ, 12/16/06, p.84)
10000BC The 1st known outbreaks of smallpox occurred
about this time among agricultural settlements in northeastern Africa.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)
8000BC In 1958 anthropologist Frank Livingstone
proposed that Plasmodium falciprum, the deadliest of 4or 5 parasites
that cause human malaria, hopped from chimps to humans about this time
and human hunter-gatherers began settling on farms.
(Econ, 8/8/09, p.69)
1350BCE The 1st recorded smallpox epidemic took place
during an Egyptian-Hittite war. Hittite warriors caught the disease
from Egyptian prisoners. The king and heir were fatally infected and
the empire fell apart.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)(NW, 10/14/02, p.46)
430BC-410BC A mysterious disease
killed one-third of the Athenian population. Thucydides, who was
stricken but recovered, described the plague in Athens (likely an
outbreak of typhus fever) in Book 2 of his History of the Peloponnesian
War.
(NH, 6/97, p.11)(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.P8)
180CE A smallpox epidemic hit Rome
and killed 3.5 to 7 million people including Emp. Marcus Aurelius. It
was dubbed the Plague of Antonine.
(NW, 10/14/02, p.46)
910 Rhazes, an Arab physician,
wrote the 1st account of smallpox and proposed the earliest theory of
immunity.
(NW, 10/14/02, p.46)
1017 In China a hermit introduced
the prime minister to “variolation,” an inoculation using germs from
smallpox survivors.
(NW, 10/14/02, p.47)
1347 Oct, Sailors from Genoa
arrived in Messina, Sicily. Plague had broken out earlier among the
troops of the Kipchak Khan, who was besieging the Black Sea port of
Kaffa. He catapulted dead bodies over the city walls. When Italian
trading vessels in the harbor returned to Genoa, the carried the plague
to Europe. The plague, an infectious fever caused by the bacillus
Yersinia pestis, appears in several varieties: bubonic (which involves
swelling of the lymph glands), pneumonic (which involves the lungs) and
septicemia (which involves severe infection in the bloodstream).
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.31)(HNQ, 1/20/01)(SSFC, 3/6/05,
p.B4)
1439 Jul 16, Kissing was banned in
England in order to stop germs from spreading.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1348 The population of Siena,
Italy, dropped from 97,000 to 45,000 in a few months due to the Black
Plague. Bernardo Tolomei, nearly blind founder of the Benedictine
Congregation of Santa Maria di Monte Oliveto in the 1340s, died along
with 82 of his monks after leaving the safety of his monastery to tend
to plague victims in Siena. In 2009 the Vatican declared him a saint.
(SSFC, 3/6/05, p.B1)(AP, 4/26/09)
1519 Mar 13, The Spaniards under
Cortez landed at Veracruz. Cortez landed in Mexico with 10 stallions, 5
mares and a foal. Smallpox was carried to America in the party of
Hernando Cortes.
(SFEC,11/9/97, p.T5)(SFC, 9/2/96, p.A3)(HN,
3/13/98)(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)
1534 The King of Siam died of
smallpox.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)
1576 An epidemic of plague Venice.
In 2006 a well-preserved skeleton was found on the Lazzaretto Nuovo
island, north of the lagoon city, amid other corpses buried in a mass
grave. Experts said the remains of a woman with a brick stuck
between her jaws indicated that she was believed to be a vampire.
(AP, 3/14/09)
1604 Agustino Salumbrino, a Jesuit
monk, left Rome for Peru, where he studied native plants for their
healing powers, especially the bark of the cinchona tree used by the
Incas to treat shivering. By 1630 quinine entered the literature as a
treatment. In 2003 Fiammetta Rocco authored "The Miraculous Fever Tree:
Malaria and the Quest for a Cure That Changed the World."
(WUD, 1994, p.1245)(SFEC,10/26/97, BR p.8)(WSJ,
8/26/03, p.D5)
1616-1619 An epidemic, possibly viral hepatitis from
contact with Europeans, ravaged the Wampanoag confederacy in
Massachusetts. This helped to make possible the Pilgrim settlement in
1620.
(Econ, 8/11/07, p.49)
1623 The 1st case of smallpox in
Russia was reported.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)
1665 In London at least 68,000
people died of the plague this year. In 1722 Daniel Defoe published his
novel “A Journal of the Plague Year.” The novel posed as a historical
document covering the London plague. The Lord Mayor of London
exterminated all the city’s cats and dogs, which allowed the rats, the
real transmitters of the disease, to increase exponentially.
(NG, 5/88, p.684)(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.P8)(WSJ, 10/21/06,
p.P8)
1720 May 25, "Le Grand St.
Antoine" reached Marseille, plague killed 80,000.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1721 Apr 26, The smallpox
vaccination was 1st administrated. Lady Mary Wortley Montegu had
returned to England following a stay in Turkey with her ambassador
husband. She had learned of a procedure to inoculate against smallpox
and began a campaign to have the procedure established.
(ON, 9/01, p.1)(MC, 4/26/02)
1721 Jun 26, Dr. Zabdiel Boylston
gave the 1st smallpox inoculation in Boston. The epidemic had arrived
by ship from Barbados.
(ON, 3/05, p.4)
1721 Jul 21, Doctors in Boston
raised objections to a new practice of using live smallpox to inoculate
patients against the disease. A smallpox epidemic had recently broken
out in Boston and Cotton Mather (58), following some study, encouraged
the inoculation technique to prevent death from the disease.
(ON, 3/05, p.4)
1721 Oct 6, Deaths from smallpox
in Boston reached 203 with 2,757 people infected.
(ON, 3/05, p.5)
1722 Cotton Mather authored “An
Account of the Method and Success of Inoculating the Small-Pox…” This
followed work in support of inoculation trials in Boston.
(WSJ, 11/22/08, p.W11)
1723 Aug 26, Anton van Leeuwenhoek
(b.1632), Dutch biologist, inventor (microscope), died in Delft,
Netherlands. [some sources say Aug 30]
(http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog/Files/leewnhok.html)
1730 Smallpox returned to Boston,
but by this time inoculation was recognized as a viable means of
preventing death from the disease.
(ON, 3/05, p.5)
1749 May 17, Edward Jenner,
physician, discoverer of vaccination, was born.
(HN, 5/17/98)
1753 Smallpox hit North America
and a 38% infection rate was recorded in Boston. Benjamin Franklin
lobbied for variolation.
(NW, 10/14/02, p.47)
1763 British forces, under orders
from Sir Jeffrey Amherst, distributed smallpox-infected blankets among
American Indians in the 1st known case of its use as a biological
weapon.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)(NW, 10/14/02, p.50)
1789 Smallpox was introduced to
Australia and caused devastation among the aborigines.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)
1793 There was a yellow fever
epidemic in Philadelphia. Stephen Girard risked his life and fortune in
stopping the epidemic.
(WSJ, 1/2/97, p.6)
1796 May 14, English physician
Edward Jenner administered the first vaccination against smallpox to
his gardener's son, James Phipps (8). A single blister rose up on the
spot, but James later demonstrated immunity to smallpox. Jenner
actually used vaccinia, a close viral relation to smallpox. [see July
21, 1721]
(Econ, 11/22/03, p.77)(AP, 5/14/08)
1800 Jul 8, Dr. Benjamin
Waterhouse gave the 1st cowpox vaccination to his son to prevent
smallpox. [see May 14, 1796]
(MC, 7/8/02)
1806 Napoleon ordered that all
French citizens be vaccinated against smallpox.
(NW, 10/14/02, p.50)
1813 Mar 15, John Snow (d.1858),
obstetrician, was born in York, England. He worked on the epidemiology
of cholera.
(ON, 5/05,
p.8)(www.johnsnowsociety.org/johnsnow/facts.html)
1824 Jan 26, Edward Jenner,
discoverer of vaccination, died.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1831 A cholera epidemic broke out
in London.
(ON, 5/05, p.8)
1832 Feb 6, There was an
appearance of cholera at Edinburgh, Scotland.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1832 Feb, A cholera epidemic ended
in Great Britain. Some 800 people died of the disease in London. Dr.
John Snow eventually traced the London epidemic to a water pump on
Broad Street. [see 1849] In 2006 Steven Johnson authored “The Ghost
Map,” a history of London’s cholera outbreak.
(www.mernick.co.uk/thhol/1832chol.html)(WSJ,
10/21/06, p.P8)
1832 Aug, In Pennsylvania 57 Irish
immigrants died of cholera after traveling there to build a railroad.
In 2009 their bones were found at a woodsy site known as Duffy's Cut,
named after Philip Duffy, who hired the immigrants from Donegal, Tyrone
and Derry to help build the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad.
(AP, 3/25/09)
1841-1912 Gerard H. Hansen, Norwegian physician. He
discovered the leprosy-causing Mycobacterium leprae (aka Hansen’s
disease).
(WUD, 1994, p.644)
1843 Dec 11, Robert Koch (d.1910),
German physician, bacteriologist, and medical researcher, was born. He
won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1905.
(http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1905/koch-bio.html)
1848 A new cholera epidemic struck
in London.
(ON, 5/05, p.8)
1849 John Snow (1813-1858),
English obstetrician, authored his 39-page pamphlet “On the Mode of
Communication of Cholera.” He presented evidence that the disease was
spread through contaminated water.
(ON, 5/05,
p.8)(www.johnsnowsociety.org/johnsnow/facts.html)
1853 A smallpox epidemic hit
Hawaii and 5-6000 people died.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)
1854 Mar 14, Paul Ehrlich, German
bacteriologist, was born. He later received the Nobel Prize for
medicine.
(HN, 3/14/99)
1854 Italian anatomist Fillipo
Pacini discovered the cholera bacillus, but did not prove that it
caused cholera. His work remained obscure and was not translated to
English.
(ON, 5/05, p.10)
1854 Cholera broke out in London
again. Dr. John Snow traced it to cesspool near a public water pump on
Broad Street.
(ON, 5/05, p.9)
1855 Yellow Fever broke out in
Norfolk, Va., after a steamship carrying mosquitoes in its cisterns
docked from the West Indies.
(SSFC, 5/22/05, Par p.4)
1857 May 13, Ronald Ross,
bacteriologist, was born.
(HN, 5/13/01)
1858 Jun 16, Dr. John Snow
(b.1813), English obstetrician, died of a stroke. He is considered the
father of epidemiology for his efforts in documenting the spread of
cholera in London epidemics.
(ON, 5/05, p.10)
1865 Sep 1, Joseph Lister
performed his 1st antiseptic surgery.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1866 Jul 21, A cholera-epidemic
killed hundreds in London.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1867 There was a yellow-fever
epidemic in the US.
(SSFC, 2/25/01, BR p.5)
1870 Aug 17, Frederick Russell,
developed 1st successful typhoid fever vaccine, was born.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1876 The gladiolus rust, Uromyces
trasversalis, was discovered in South Africa. Some 90 years later it
turned up in the Mediterranean region then spread to Europe, South
America, and Australia. In 2006 it was detected in the US.
(SSFC, 8/9/09, p.L2)
1877 Arthur Downes and Thomas P.
Blunt of Shrewsbury proved the bactericidal action of light. Blunt was
offered a British knighthood for his achievements in research, but
humbly declined. His partner in research, Arthur Downes, accepted the
title.
(http://members.shaw.ca/TPBLUNT/)
1878 Jul 12, A Yellow Fever
epidemic began in New Orleans. It killed 4,500.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1879 Aug 30, John Bell Hood
(b.1831), former confederate general, died of yellow fever in a New
Orleans epidemic.
(AH, 10/02,
p.46)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bell_Hood)
1880 Dec 11, Louis Pasteur (57),
French scientist, began an experiment to identify the microbe that
causes rabies.
(ON, 6/08, p.4)
1881 Aug 6, Alexander Fleming
(d.1955), Scottish bacteriologist who discovered penicillin (1928), was
born. He won the Nobel Prize in 1954. Fleming first observed the
antibiotic properties of the mold that makes penicillin, but it was
Ernst Boris Chain and Howard Walter Florey who developed it into a
useful treatment.
(AHD, 1971,
p.501)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Fleming)
1882 Mar 24, German scientist
Robert Koch announced in Berlin that he had discovered the bacillus
responsible for tuberculosis.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1884 Robert Koch, German
microbiologist, rediscovered, isolated and cultured the cholera
bacillus, Vibrio cholerae. Italian anatomist Fillipo Pacini discovered
the bacillus in 1854, but did not prove that it caused cholera.
(ON, 5/05, p.10)
1885 Mar, In Loganville, Pa., Dr.
George E. Holtzapple (22) saved Fred Gable (16), who was suffering from
pneumonia, by supplying the boy with pure oxygen. Oxygen therapy became
the only effective treatment for pneumonia until antibiotics became
available in the 1940s.
(ON, 4/07, p.10)
1885 Jul 6, French scientist Louis
Pasteur (1822-1895) successfully tested an anti-rabies vaccine on a boy
bitten by an infected dog. Thanks to his vaccine the death rate from
rabies dropped to almost zero by 1888.
(AP, 7/6/97)(ON, 6/08, p.6)
1887 Feb 21, The 1st US
bacteriology laboratory opened in Brooklyn.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1890 The tuberculin skin test (TST
or Mantoux) was developed.
(SFC, 3/24/04, p.B9)
1892 Mar 3, 1st cattle
tuberculosis test in US was made at Villa Nova, PA.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1892 Aug 30, The Moravia, a
passenger ship arriving from Germany, brought cholera to the United
States.
(HN, 8/30/98)
1895 Sep 28, Louis Pasteur
(b.1822), French chemist (Pasteurization), died at 72. In 1995 Gerald
Geison (d.2001) authored “The Private Science of Louis Pasteur.
(SFC, 7/13/01, p.D6)(MC, 9/28/01)
1895 Prof. Emile Pierre van
Ermengem of Belgium identified the bacterium Bacillus botulinus.
(NW, 5/13/02, p.54)
1898 Jun 2, Dr. Paul-Louis Simond
discovered the connections between rats, fleas and humans in the
transmittance of the Plague in Bombay, India.
(NG, 5/88, p.678)
1899 Mar 6, Aspirin was patented
following Felix Hoffman’s discoveries about the properties of
acetylsalicylic acid.
(HN, 3/6/01)
1900 May 30, It was reported that
9 deaths in Chinatown were caused by Bubonic plague, the Yersinia
pestis bacterium, and that 159 policemen had set up a quarantine. In
2003 Marilyn Chase authored “The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in
Victorian San Francisco.”
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W2)(SSFC, 1/12/03, p.M2)(WSJ,
3/25/03, p.D10)
1900 Jun 26, A commission that
included Dr. Walter Reed began the fight against the deadly disease
yellow fever. Walter Reed (1851-1902), U.S. Army doctor, went to Cuba
and verified that yellow fever was caused by a mosquito.
(HN, 9/13/98)(WSJ, 10/22/99, p.B1)(AP, 6/26/97)
1901 Feb 20, Rene Dubos, French-US
microbiologist who developed the first commercial antibiotic, was born
in France. He authored “Health & Disease.”
(HN, 2/20/01)(MC, 2/20/02)
1901 Aug 27, In Havana, Cuba, U.S.
Army physician James Carroll allowed an infected mosquito to feed on
him in an attempt to isolate the means of transmission of yellow fever.
Days later, Carroll developed a severe case of yellow fever, helping
his colleague, Army Walter Reed, prove that mosquitoes can transmit the
sometimes deadly disease.
(MC, 8/27/02)(ON, 10/01, p.8)
1902 Ronald Ross (1857-1932), an
English physician, won the Nobel Prize for his work on malaria. His
story is part of the 1997 novel "The Calcutta Chromosome: A Novel of
Fevers, Delirium and Discovery" by Amitav Ghosh. In 2003 Fiammetta
Rocco authored "The Miraculous Fever Tree: Malaria and the Quest for a
Cure That Changed the World."
(WUD, 1994, p.1245)(SFEC,10/26/97, BR p.8)(WSJ,
8/26/03, p.D5)
1903 Apr 14, Dr. Harry Plotz in
NYC discovered a vaccine against typhoid.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1903 Walter Sutton, American
cytologist, suggested that the Mendelian elements of heredity lay on
the chromosomes.
(NH, 6/01, p.32)
1904 May 29, Robert Knox,
bacteriologist, was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1905 Nettie Stevens, geneticist,
showed that sex was associated with the X chromosome.
(NH, 6/01, p.32)
1906 Aug 26, Albert Bruce Sabin,
U.S. virologist, born in Poland. In 1955, he developed an oral vaccine
against polio.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1907 May 27, Bubonic Plague broke
out in San Francisco.
(HN, 5/27/98)
1909 May 19, San Francisco Mayor
Edward Taylor wrote a letter to Pres. Taft testifying to the valuable
aid of the federal government in the city’s recent campaign against
bubonic plague.
(SSFC, 5/31/09, DB p.50)
1909 Konstantin S. Merezhovsky,
biologist, argued that the chloroplasts in plant cells evolved from
symbionts of foreign origin and coined the term “symbiogenesis” to
describe the merger of different kinds of life forms into new species.
(NH, 6/01, p.40)
1909 Carlos Chagas (1879-1934), a
Brazilian doctor, described how a fatal infection, that became known as
Chagas disease, was transmitted as a single cell parasite, Trypanosoma
cruzi, carried by insects that typically bite their sleeping victims on
the face. In 1921 Chagas won the Nobel Prize in Medicine. In 2010
scientists at UC San Francisco reported the development of a protease
inhibitor, K777, which appeared to kill the parasite.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Chagas)(Econ,
4/11/09, p.36)(SSFC, 2/14/10, p.A20)
1910 Feb 19, Mary Mallon (aka
Typhoid Mary) was released from 4 years of quarantine on New York’s
North Brother Island. In 1914 she caused a typhus outbreak in the
Sloane Maternity Hospital. She was again arrested and returned to North
Brother Island where she died Nov 11, 1938.
(ON, 7/01, p.12)
1910 May 27, Robert Koch (b.1843),
German bacteriologist (TB, Cholera, Nobel), died.
(http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1905/koch-bio.html)
1910 Jun 22, German bacteriologist
Paul Ehrlich announced a definitive cure for syphilis.
(AP, 6/22/01)
1912 Feb 10, Dr. Joseph Lister,
founder of sterile technique in surgical practice, died at age 85. In
1917 Sir Rickman John Godlee authored “Lord Lister.”
(ON, 7/00, p.9)
1913 The US Virus Serum Toxin Act
gave the USDA authority to ensure that veterinary diagnostic kits are
safe and accurate and to decide where cattle can be tested and for what.
(WSJ, 3/904, p.A8)(SFC, 4/10/04, p.A3)
1913 New York state passed “the
eight foot sheet law” to ensure that the upper sheet in a hotel was of
sufficient length to cover the face so “that the inhalation by the
occupant of bacteria &c, may be prevented.”
(WSJ, 10/4/08, p.W8)
1913 Bela Schick devised the
"Schick test," which had a dramatic effect on the incidence of
diphtheria. The skin test determined a patient’s susceptibility to
diphtheria. Mass surveys followed by immunization of Schick-positive
children with inactive toxin resulted in a drastic decrease in the
incidence of the disease.
(HNQ, 6/8/99)
1915 Sep 19, Elizabeth Stern,
Canadian pathologist, was born. She first published a case report
linking a specific virus to a specific cancer.
(HN, 9/19/00)
1916 Anton Dilger (1884-1918), an
American educated as a surgeon in Germany, set up a basement laboratory
in Washington DC for cultivating anthrax bacteria and Pseudomonas
mallei to infect horses and cattle destined to supply Allied armies.
German saboteurs disseminated the bacteria. Dilger later moved to
Mexico to help goad Mexico into attacking the US. He died of the
Spanish flu in Madrid. In 2007 Robert Koenig authored “The Fourth
Horseman: One Man’s Mission to Wage the Great War in America.”
(SSFC, 1/14/07, p.M2)
1918 Mar, The flu epidemic began
at Fort Riley, Kansas, where 48 men died. It was carried by recruits to
Europe where it mutated and returned with a vengeance. [see May, 1918]
The Spanish flu was later found to have been caused by a genetic fusion
of pig and human viruses. In 1997 Dr. Johan Hultin recovered tissue in
Brevig Mission, Alaska, with frozen virus and submitted it for gene
sequencing.
(WSJ, 2/9/98, p.A16)(HNPD, 7/21/98)(SFC, 2/26/01,
p.A9)(WSJ, 9/7/01, p.A1)(SFCM, 2/17/02, p.8)
1918 Oct 17, Anton Dilger
(B.1884), an American saboteur educated as a surgeon in Germany, died
of Spanish flu in Spain. [see 1916] In 2007 Robert Koenig authored “The
Fourth Horseman: One Man’s Mission to Wage the Great War in America.”
(SSFC, 1/14/07, p.M2)
1919 Mar 19, A typhoid epidemic
raged in Petrograd, Russia, killing 200 daily.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1922 Nov 15, It was announced that
Dr. Alexis Carrel discovered white corpuscles.
(HN, 11/15/00)
1925 Dr. Albert C. Barnes
(1872-1951) built a mansion to house his collection of French
impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces in Merion,
Pennsylvania. The collection grew to some 2,500 objects and their setup
and access was highly restricted by Dr. Barnes’ trust indenture. Barnes
had made his fortune with a pediatric antibiotic called Argyrol. By
2000 his foundation was broke. In 2003 John Anderson authored ""Art
Held Hostage," an account of the Barnes collection.
(WSJ, 11/28/95, p.A-12)(WSJ, 7/18/03, p.W18)
1925 In debates over the Geneva
Protocol opponents touted poison gas as a "decisive offensive weapon."
A ban on chemical and biological weapons was signed by most nations,
but not the US until much later. The Geneva Convention outlawed the use
of biological warfare, but did not prohibit nations from continuing the
production of biological agents.
(SFC,11/12/97, p.C2)(NH, 10/98, p.18)(AH, 6/03, p.46)
1928 Sep 3, Scottish
bacteriologist Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) discovered, by accident,
that the mold penicillin has an antibiotic effect.
(V.D.-H.K.p.354)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Fleming)
1930 A computer study in 2000
suggested that the AIDS virus was introduced to the human population
from chimp and monkey variants about this time.
(SFC, 2/2/00, p.A19)(SFC, 1/15/01, p.A11)
1930 Minoru Shirota, a Japanese
researcher, discovered Lactobacillus casei shirota.
(Econ Sp, 12/13/03, p.11)
1932 Apr 28, A yellow fever
vaccine for humans was announced.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1932 Aug 18, Luc Montagnier,
virologist, was born. He discovered the human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV).
(HN, 8/18/00)
1934 Hans Zinsser, Harvard
bacteriologist, wrote "Rats, Lice and History," a biography of the
virus behind typhoid fever.
(NH, 9/98, p.9)(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.P8)
1935 The vollum strain of anthrax
was 1st isolated from a cow in Oxfordshire, U.K. This was the strain
later used on Gruinard Island tests. Hundreds of Bacillus anthracis
strains exist. Other common strains named were Ames, Sterne and
Michigan. The Ames strain was named after a sick cow in Ames, Iowa.
(WSJ, 10/18/01, p.A8)(WSJ, 11/8/01, p.A1)
1937 The West Nile virus was 1st
identified in the West Nile District of Uganda. It was able to cause
fatal encephalitis in humans.
(SFC, 9/15/00, p.D6)
1940 Japanese warplanes dropped
plague-infected fleas over southwest China. In 2001 Chinese doctors
testified in a Tokyo trial and said at least 109 people died as a
result. In 2002 a symposium of historians reported that the Japanese
killed at least 440,000 Chinese in the 1930s and 1940s by dropping
disease carrying fleas and cholera-coated flies from planes.
(WSJ, 1/25/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/22/07, p.B12)
1941 Jul 4, Howard Florey &
Norman Heatley met for 1st time, 11 days later they successfully
recreated penicillin.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1941 Jul 15, Florey and Heatley
presented freeze dried mold cultures (Penicillin).
(MC, 7/15/02)
1941 George Beadle, geneticist,
and Edward Tatum, chemist, identified genetic mutations that disabled
specific steps in the synthesis of a complex molecule. They thus showed
that a gene was a thing on a chromosome that specified an enzyme.
(NH, 6/01, p.33)
1941 Prof. William Reeves
(1916-2004) and William M. Hammon isolated the 2 viruses that caused
western equine and St. Louis encephalitis and proved that they were
carried by a mosquito named Culex tarsalis.
(SFC, 9/21/04, p.B7)
1942 Jul, Dr. Paul Fildes led a
British test of anthrax in a bomb on Gruinard Island in northwest
Scotland. The island became contaminated from tests and Britain
acquired it for £500. Cleanup was undertaken in 1986 and the
island was returned to its original owners in 1990.
(WSJ, 10/18/01, p.A23)(Econ, 5/8/04, p.78)
1942 Sep, More than 400 villagers
died of bubonic plague in China’s eastern Zhejiang province after
Japanese warplanes of medical Unit 731 dropped germ bombs. Unit 731 was
stationed on the outskirts of Harbin, China, until the Soviet Union
entered the war. The unit deposited typhus into the water supply
flowing into Manchuria. In 2000 Yoshio Shinozuka testified to seeing
men infected with the plague and then being dissected while still
alive. Harbin had 26 affiliates across China and its germ bombs
(anthrax, cholera, typhus and bubonic plague) killed an estimated
270,000 people. Biological warfare activities of Unit 731 were unknown
to most Japanese citizens until 1981, when author Seiichi Morimura
exposed its dark history in a book, "The Devil's Gluttony".
(SFEC, 12/8/96, p.C8)(SFC, 8/30/97, p.A12)(SFC,
8/15/98, p.A12)(SFC, 12/22/00, p.D6)(SFC, 6/12/01, p.A8)(AP, 8/27/02)
1942 Dec 10, George W. Merck,
former president of Merck Pharmaceutical and head of the War Research
Service, requested the Chemical Warfare Service to develop a biological
warfare program.
(AH, 6/03, p.46)
1942 Dec, Dr. Ira Baldwin
(1896-1999), plant bacteriologist at the Univ. of Wisconsin, was
selected to head US biological warfare.
(AH, 6/03, p.46)
1943 Oct 9, Alexander Fleming
reported in Lancet the 1st successful treatment of streptococcal
meningitis with intramuscular and intrathecal (directly into the spinal
fluid) injections of the just-purified penicillin.
(WSJ, 10/17/02, p.A19)
1943-1965 Members of the Special Operations Division
from Maryland’s Fort Detrick biological weapons program conducted over
200 tests during this period on the effectiveness of aerially dispersed
pathogens. At least 4 men died during the years of the project. Some
658,039 animals were killed, including sheep, ferrets, cats, pigs,
white mice and guinea pigs.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, p.A11)(AH, 6/03, p.46)
1943-1986 Building E5625, the “Pilot Plant,” at the
US Army Aberdeen Proving Ground was built and used for experiments and
production of agents in chemical and biological warfare. In 1977 public
knowledge of the pathogen experiments caused citizen outrage.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, p.A11)
1944 Apr 27, Dr. H. Corwin Hinshaw
(d.2000) first treated 4 tuberculosis-infected guinea pigs with the
newly developed streptomycin antibiotic. The animals were cured.
Hinshaw was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1952 but the prize went to
Dr. Selman a. Waksman of Rutgers, who discovered streptomycin.
(SFC, 1/11/01, p.C16)
1945 Sir Alexander Fleming was
awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his co-discovery of penicillin
along with Ernst B. Chain (b.1908), German chemist, bacteriologist, and
Dr. Howard Florey, who found Fleming's paper in 1938 and began clinical
trials.
(WUD, 1994, p.542)(SFC, 1/19/04, p.B4)
1947 The 1st penicillin resistant
strains of Staphylococcus aureus were reported.
(NG, 11/04, p.21)
1949 Lillian Barber died in Texas
in the last reported US case of smallpox.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)(NW, 10/14/02, p.51)
1950 Sep, A secret US Army and
Navy experiment spread Serratia marcescens bacteria, because of its red
pigment, and Bacillus globigii, because of its formed spores similar to
anthrax, off the coast of San Francisco Bay from a mine laying ship for
6 days. The bacteria was thought to be harmless, but the germs sent 11
people to hospitals and killed one person. Edward J. Nevin, from a
heart infection. In 1977 Senate subcommittee hearings the Army revealed
that it had staged the mock biological attack.
(SFC, 2/21/98, p.A15)(WSJ, 10/22/01, p.A1)(AH, 6/03,
p.49)
1951 Dr. Esther Lederberg
(1922-2006) of the Univ. of Wisconsin discovered the lambda phage, a
virus that infects other bacteria with the ability to transfer genes
among them.
(SFC, 11/28/06, p.B7)
1953 Mar 26, Dr. Jonas Salk of the
University of Pittsburgh announced that a vaccine against polio had
been successfully tested in a small group of adults and children. By
April 1955, the vaccine had undergone further testing and gained
federal approval for public use. Salk’s polio vaccine was so successful
that by 1961 the incidence of polio had decreased by 95 percent. Dr.
Joseph Melnick (d.2001 at 86) was among the first to have discovered
that the polio virus belonged to the larger enterovirus group and were
chiefly transmitted by fecal contamination.
(HNPD, 3/26/99)(SFC, 1/23/01, p.C2)
1953 Nov 11, The Polio virus was
identified and photographed for the first time in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
(HN, 11/11/98)
1953 Helenor Foerster (d.1998 at
103) was named "Woman of the Year for Science" by the Women’s National
Press Club. She co-authored the "Atlas and Textbook of Ophthalmic
Pathology," and discovered that toxoplasma was the cause of a widely
spread eye disease that led to blindness.
(SFC, 9/23/98, p.C2)
1954 Feb 23, The first mass
inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine began in
Pittsburgh. Jonas Salk created the Salk vaccine against polio. It used
a killed virus to induce immunization. Poliomyelitis is a viral attack
of the central nervous system and can cause paralysis and death by
asphyxiation. [see Apr 26] In 2005 David M. Oshinsky authored
“Polio: An American Story – The Crusade That Mobilized the Nation
Against the 20th Century’s Most Feared Disease.”
(SFC, 6/21/96, p.A10)(HN, 2/23/98)(AP,
2/23/98)(Econ, 6/18/05, p.79)
1954 Apr 26, Nationwide test of
Salk anti-polio vaccine began. [see Feb 23]
(MC, 4/26/02)
1954 Jun 7, The 1st microbiology
laboratory was dedicated in New Brunswick, NJ.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1955 Mar 11, Alexander Fleming
(73), English bacteriologist (penicillin), died.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1955 Apr 12, The Salk Vaccine was
declared safe and effective. Salk vaccine shots for polio began to be
given out to school kids. The March of Dimes accomplished its mission
within 20 years. Research led by Dr. Jonas Salk and supported by funds
(those marching little dimes) raised annually by thousands of
volunteers, resulted in the announcement that the Salk polio vaccine
was "safe, potent and effective." The foundation also supported the
research that led to the Sabin oral vaccine, another safe, effective
polio preventative discovered by Dr. Albert B. Sabin. Following the
victory over infantile paralysis, the March of Dimes turned its
attention to conquering the largest killer and crippler of children:
the mental and physical problems that are present at birth. Some 100
million people were given the vaccine during the 1950s and 1960s which
was later found to be contaminated with the SV40 simian virus, a
possible carcinogen.
(AP, 4/12/97)(440 Int'l, 1/3/99)(SSFC, 7/15/01,
p.A16,17)
1955 Apr 25, The 1st cases of
polio in children who received a vaccine were reported. It was later
found that 2 batches of vaccine made by Cutter Laboratories of
Berkeley, Ca., contained live polio virus.
(SFC, 4/25/05, p.A1)
1956 Apr 12, Henrique da
Rocha-Lima (b.1879), Brazilian scientist, died. Working in Germany, he
with Stanislaus von Prowazek (1875-1915) discovered Rickettsia
prowazekii, the pathogen of endemic typhus, which he named after the
German zoologist.
(www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/3185.html)
1957 Dr. Hilary Koprowski of the
Wistar Institute in Philadelphia developed an oral polio vaccine and
tested it in Africa (Congo). The Wister polio vaccine was given to some
300,000 people in the Belgian Congo from 1957-1960. A later theory held
that reuse of needles during the immunization program caused AIDS via
“serial passage” that transformed the SIV virus into HIV. In 1999
Edward Hooper authored “The River,” a detailed hypothesis for the
origin of AIDS in Africa. Hooper suspected that the Wister polio
vaccine, produced from monkey kidney cells, contained SIV virus. In
2000 a computerized study indicated that the AIDS virus was introduced
to humans about 1930.
(SFC, 2/2/00, p.A19)(SFC, 1/15/01, p.A11)(SFC,
4/13/05, p.A5)(www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/gen-info/pandemics.htm)
1958 Dr. Samuel L. Katz of Duke
Univ. co-developed the Edmonston B vaccine against measles.
(SFC, 11/16/00, p.A19)
1958 The rapid development of
penicillin-resistance by staphylococci led to the compound 05865 (later
known as vancomycin) being fast-tracked for approval by the
FDA. It became the best weapon against bacteria that were no
longer vulnerable to other drugs. In 1988 bacteria resistant to
vancomycin began to be detected.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancomycin)(SFEC,
9/14/97, p.C1,4)
1958 Monkeypox was first described
in Denmark when several monkey imports developed lesions. The disease
emerged in the Congo in 1970 with sporadic outbreaks over the years,
primarily in Central and West Africa. Ten percent of those infected can
die, and there is evidence of person-to-person transmission.
(AP, 11/29/06)
1958 David Carr, a British printer
and former sailor for the Royal Navy, was struck with mysterious
symptoms and died a year later. In 1990 his cells tested positive for
AIDS. He had returned to England in 1957 before Wister polio vaccine
was administered in the Belgian Congo. In 1995 it was reported that his
tissue samples had been contaminated.
(SSFC, 1/14/01, p.A14,15)
1959 Researchers in 1998 found the
HIV virus of AIDS in a blood specimen from a Bantu man who died in
Leopoldville, Belgian Congo, later Kinshasa, Congo. This became the
oldest known case and researchers believed that incidents could go back
to the 1940s. Blood specimen ZR59 from the Belgian Congo of this time,
was found in 1998 to be positive for the AIDS HIV virus.
(SFC, 2/4/98,
p.A5)(www.aidsorigins.com/content/view/165/2/)
1960 The new antibiotic
methicillin was introduced. In 1961 strains of Staphylococcus aureus
resistant to Methicillin (MRSA) were first reported.
(SFC, 5/29/97,
p.A4)(www.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTX026108.html)
1961 Strains of Staphylococcus
aureus resistant to Methicillin (MRSA) were first reported. The
antibiotic methicillin had only become available in 1960.
(Econ, 11/5/05,
p.87)(www.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTX026108.html)
1962-1973 In 2001 the Pentagon began to publicly
release details on the existence of Project SHAD and its umbrella
program, Project 112, which involved distribution of nonlethal bacteria
and occasionally real chemical or biological weapons. In 2008 the US
Defense Department said 6,440 service members took part in 50 tests
under Project 112 during this period, including open-air tests above a
half-dozen US states. Defense officials essentially closed the books on
Project 112 in 2003.
(AP, 6/12/08)
1963 A vaccine for measles became
available. In the previous decade some 450,000 cases were reported in
the US with about 450 deaths per year.
(SFC, 12/22/06, p.A18)
1964-1968 The Pentagon reported on May 23, 2002, that
the Defense Dept. sprayed live nerve and biological agents over Navy
ships in 6 six tests between 1964-1968. The Project shipboard Hazard
and Defense (SHAD) experiments included the use of sarin and VX nerve
gases and the staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB).
(SFC, 5/24/02, p.A7)
1965 Paul De Kruif authored
Microbe Hunters.
(ON, 3/03, p.9)
1965 Chinese military researchers
isolated artemisinin, a compound based on sweet wormwood, and found to
be very effective against malaria.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A5)(Econ, 11/20/04, p.81)
1966 In 2007 researchers said HIV
was brought to Haiti by an infected person from central Africa, and
then came to the United States in about 1969. The researchers think an
unknown single infected Haitian immigrant arrived in a large city like
Miami or New York, and the virus circulated for years, first in the US
population and then to other nations.
(AP, 10/30/07)
1967 Jan 14, NY Times reported
that the US Army was conducting secret germ warfare experiments.
(www.economicexpert.com/a/1967.htm)
1967 In Marburg, Germany, a
disease believed to be caused from African monkeys infected 31 people
in a laboratory. The virus came to be called the Marburg virus. Seven
people died in Germany and Yugoslavia from the virus. It was traced to
infected vervet monkeys from Uganda cut up for polio research.
(SFC, 5/7/99, p.D2)(Econ, 8/18/07, p.40)
1968 In Venezuela researchers,
Napoleon Chagnon and James V. Neel, reportedly inoculated thousands of
Yanomami Indians with a measles vaccine. Chagnon published
"Yanomamö: The Fierce People," a summation of his 30 years in the
Amazon forest. In 2000 the controversial book "Darkness in El Dorado"
Patrick Tierney blamed the researchers for a major epidemic that killed
hundreds of Indians. At least 30 Indians died from a measles epidemic
that hit Yanomani villages at least one year before researchers
administered the Edmonston B vaccine [see 1967].
(SFC, 11/10/00, p.A4)(SFC, 11/16/00, p.A19)(NH, Jul,
p.28)(WSJ, 2/23/08, p.W8)
1969 Nov 25, Pres. Nixon announced
an unconditional renunciation of biological weapons.
(SFC, 2/19/00, p.A14)(http://tinyurl.com/9yy6bc)
1969 Benjamin Volcani (1915-1999),
Palestine-born microbiologist, was the fist to show that silicon is
essential for DNA synthesis in diatoms. He was also the first to find
microorganisms in the Dead Sea in 1936.
(SFC, 2/12/99,
p.D4)(www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/kurenets/k_pages/volcani.html)
1969 In Egypt the construction on
the Aswan High Dam, which expanded irrigation, had led to an increase
in bilharzia infection. In this year the government began to channel
its bilharzia interventions into more comprehensive and organized
control programs and projects. During the 1970’s and 1980s a campaign
of multiple drug injections to combat the parasitic disease led to a
massive spread of hepatitis c.
(Econ, 11/4/06, p.54)(http://tinyurl.com/wuwmx)
1971 The 1st vaccine against
meningitis was developed.
(SFC, 4/20/01, p.A19)
1971 Managua, Nicaragua, was
struck by a polio epidemic.
(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.F4)
1971 A Soviet field test of
weaponized smallpox caused an outbreak that killed 2 young children and
a woman at the port of Aralsk in the Kazak Republic. This was not made
public until 2002.
(SFC, 6/15/02, p.A8)
1971 The US ended routine
vaccination against smallpox.
(SSFC, 9/2/07, p.A5)
1972 Jul 25, US health officials
conceded that blacks were used as guinea pigs in the 40 year Tuskegee
Syphilis Study in Macon County, Ala. By this time 28 participants had
died of syphilis, 100 were dead of related complications, at least 40
wives had been infected and 19 children had contracted the disease at
birth [see 1932].
(SC, 7/25/02)(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.A27)
1973 Jeff Schell (1935-2003),
Belgian microbiologist, succeeded in altering the genetic structure of
the Agrobacterium. He deleted the genes that governed tumor production.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.A20)
1974 A US moratorium on genetic
research ended. It had been feared that such research would lead to
dangerous breeds of microbes.
(SFEC, 9/17/00, p.A16)
1974 In Brazil a meningitis
outbreak killed 4,000 people in a few weeks. 90 million people were
soon inoculated by a new vaccine created by the French Merieux
laboratory.
(SFC, 1/27/01, p.A24)
1975 Smallpox was eradicated in
India and Bangladesh.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)
1976 Feb, Swine flu broke out at a
US Army base in New Jersey. Pres. Ford announced a National Swine Flu
Immunization Program a month after the virus was identified. In 1982
Richard E. Neustadt and Harvey V. Fineberg authored “The Epidemic That
Never Was.”
(WSJ, 11/28/05, p.B1)
1976 Jul 21, "Legionnaire's
Disease" struck in Philadelphia, Pa. 29 people died from the disease.
The disease was first identified after an outbreak at the Bellevue
Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. It was identified as Legionella
pneumophila and found to infest water systems in general and the hotel
ventilation system in this case.
(OGA, 11/24/98)(SFC, 4/13/96, p.A-17)
1976 Jul 27, Air Force veteran Ray
Brennan became the first person to die of so-called "Legionnaire’s
Disease" following an American Legion convention in Philadelphia.
(AP, 7/27/00)
1976 Dec 16, The US government
halted its swine flu vaccination program following reports of paralysis
apparently linked to the vaccine.
(AP, 12/16/01)
1976 William H. McNeill authored
“Plagues and Peoples,” a history of human society with microscopic
agents of disease as the main protagonists.
(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.P8)
1976 Whooping cough, caused by
Bordatella pertussis, reached an all-time low of 1,010 in the US
following universal childhood vaccination programs.
(SFC, 12/15/05, p.B5)
1976 In Zaire (later Congo) the
Ebola virus was discovered and named after a river there. The Ebola
virus was 1st identified in western Sudan and the nearby region of
Congo. The virus can stop blood from clotting causing patients to
bleed. An outbreak of the Ebola virus killed 280 people, most of whom
were infected by reused syringes and needles.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.A5)(SFC, 1/8/02, p.A6)
1977 Mar 8, The U.S. Army
announced that they had conducted 239 open-air tests of germ warfare.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1977 Dr. Elizabeth Williams of
Fort Collins classified the endemic chronic wasting disease of local
deer as a spongiform disease. It was found to be infectious 2 years
later and then spread across to 8 states and Canada. Research later
suggested that it could infect people.
(WSJ, 5/24/02, p.A1)
1977 The viral disease smallpox
was declared eradicated by the World Health Organization (WHO). The
last case of smallpox, spread by variola virus, was reported in
Somalia. Int’l. immunization ceased by 1978 in most countries. In 1997
the related Monkey virus broke out in Zaire.
(SFC, 4/1/97, p.A12)(WSJ, 10/19/01, p.A9)
1978 Jan 18, Center for Disease
Control (CDC) isolated the cause of Legionnaire's disease.
(HN, 1/18/99)
1978 Feb 9, In Tanzania cholera
broke out and killed 300 people.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Nov 7, By this date the CDC
had confirmed 496 sporadic cases associated with outbreaks of
Legionnaire's disease in the US.
(http://tinyurl.com/35af6s)
1979 Mar 30, Anthrax spores leaked
from a secret germ-warfare plant and spread over Sverdlovsk
(Yekaterinburg), Russia. Over the course of 2 months at least 105
people died of anthrax poisoning. [see Apr 2] Reports did not emerge
until October.
(WSJ, 10/11/01,
p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverdlovsk_Anthrax_leak)
1979 Apr 2, Anthrax was found to
have leaked from the secret lab of Compound 19 in Sverdlovsk (later
renamed Yekaterinburg) in the Ural Mountains. It caused a local
epidemic that killed at least 64/66 people. Pres. Yeltsin acknowledged
the leak in 1992 and allowed a team of researchers to investigate the
site. In 2000 Jeanne Guillemin authored "Anthrax: The Investigation of
a Deadly Outbreak." [see Mar 30]
(SFC, 2/19/00, p.A14)(SFEC, 8/13/00, BR p.7)(WSJ,
9/18/01, p.B1)
1979 Dr. J. Robert Warren first
observed an apparent bacterium in the lower part of stomach biopsies.
In 1982 Dr. Barry Marshall managed to grow the slow-growing
Helicobacter pylori bacterium in a culture. In 2005 the Australian
researchers won a Nobel Prize for their work.
(SFC, 8/7/97, p.A11)
1979 AIDS was diagnosed for the
first time. When the first cases of AIDS erupted in 1979 the most
important sign was the occurrence of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), the
so-called "gay cancer" appearing on the bodies of some homosexuals
dying of the disease.
(V.D.-H.K.p.354)(www.konformist.com/1999/aids/cantwell2.htm)
1980 May 8, The World Health
Organization (WHO) announced that smallpox had been eradicated from the
wild.
(www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dm79sp.html)
1980 The US Supreme Court ruled
that "live human-made microorganism is patentable matter." This led to
a rush by Genentech, Biogen and others to commercialize biotechnology.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1981 Jun 5, The US Federal Centers
for Disease Control published the first report of a mysterious outbreak
of a sometimes fatal pneumonia among gay men. Dr. Michael Gottlieb of
UCLA and Dr. Joel Weisman (1943-2009) reported 5 cases of a rare
pneumonia among gay men in LA. The disease was initially called gay
related immune deficiency (GRID). The syndrome was named Acquired
Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in 1982. Within 10 years the disease
killed 110,000 Americans. People infected with HIV came to be defined
as having AIDS when their immune system became so weak that they got
one of 26 specific illnesses including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,
pneumonia, brain infections and some other cancers.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.B2)(AP, 6/5/02)(SSFC, 6/4/06,
p.A1)(Econ, 6/3/06, p.24)(SFC, 7/24/09, p.D5)
1981 Aug 28, The US national
Centers for Disease Control, noting a high incidence of Kaposi's
sarcoma and pneumocystis in homosexual men, announced a medical task
force had been formed to find out why. It was later determined the
increased number of illnesses was caused by AIDS.
(AP, 8/28/01)
1982 Marc Lappe (1942-2004),
toxics expert, authored “Germs That Won’t Die: Medical Consequences of
the Misuse of Antibiotics.”
(SFC, 5/18/05, p.B7)
1982 The bacteria E. coli O157:H7,
a renegade strain of the normally harmless group, was first identified.
People in Michigan and Oregon were sickened by the bacteria that caused
bloody diarrhea and devastating kidney failure. The organism attacks
the lining of the colon, exposing blood vessels and causing them to
bleed. It is believed to reside normally in the stomachs of cattle. It
kills an estimated 61 American each year.
(WSJ, 7/15/96, p.B1)(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A4)(SFC,
10/15/03, p.A25)
1982-1989 Marian Elliott Koshland (d.1997 at 76) held
the UC Berkeley chair in the Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology. She
had discovered variations in the amino acid composition of antibodies
that explained how they recognized invading organisms or other foreign
material.
(SFC,10/29/97, p.A21)
1983 Bayer, a German drug maker,
patented the active ingredient of the antibiotic Cipro.
(SSFC, 1/20/08, p.A10)
1984 Feb 22, A 12-year-old Houston
boy known publicly only as "David," died 15 days after being removed
from the bubble for a bone-marrow transplant. He had spent most his
life in a plastic bubble because he had no immunity to disease.
(AP, 2/22/04)
1984 Apr 22, The US Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) said French researchers had discovered that a
virus causes AIDS. Scientists identified a retrovirus named human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the cause of AIDS.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A20)(www.avert.org/his81_86.htm)
1984 Apr 23, US Health Secretary
Margaret Heckler said the AIDS-virus was identified as the cause of
acquired immune deficiency syndrome. [see Apr 21]
(http://tinyurl.com/yuvyv6)
(AP, 3/26/07)
1984 Oct 25, The genetic
organization of the Hepatitis B virus was published.
(www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=320225)
1984 In Oregon members of the
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh cult sprinkled Salmonella typhimurium bacteria
in supermarkets, salad bars and restaurant coffee creamers near
Portland. Over 750 people were sickened.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A9)(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.R1)
1984 Rabbit Calicivirus Disease
was 1st discovered among rabbits in China. It appeared in the US for
the 1st time in 2000.
(WSJ, 7/3/02, p.A1)
1985 Nov, The US FDA approved
imipenem, a penicillin-like drug.
(SSFC, 1/20/08, p.A10)(http://tinyurl.com/2px4jy)
1985 Listeria monocytogenes became
a major health concern during a contamination of Mexican-style cheese
made by Jalisco Mexican Products. It causes listeriosis, which produces
flu-like symptoms that can be deadly to fetuses, and patients with
compromised immune systems.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.A17)
1985 Researchers isolated SIV, the
simian immunodeficiency virus.
(SSFC, 1/14/01, p.A14)
1986 The Univ. of Baghdad
purchased anthrax along with other strains of bacteria that cause
botulism and brucellosis from the American Type Culture Collection of
Manassas, Va.
(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.A6)
1987 Oct, The US FDA approved
Cipro, marketed by Bayer, as an antibiotic.
(www.prescriptionaccess.org/press/pressreleases?id=0014)(SSFC, 1/20/08,
p.A10)
1987 Some 13,000 people fell ill
in Carrollton, Ga., from the cryptosporidium parasite in contaminated
tap water.
(SFC, 6/24/98, Z1 p.5)
1988 May 26, The New England
Journal of Medicine reported that the 1st NYC cases of Rocky Mountain
Spotted Fever struck 4 people between May and July of 1987.
{NYC, Medical}
(http://tinyurl.com/nsejy)
1988 Vancomycin-resistant
enterococcus (VRE) was first detected in Europe. The vancomycin
antibiotic was developed in 1958.
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.C1,4)
1989 The Group O AIDS virus was
identified in West Africa. It had marked genetic differences from the
more common Group M strains that were responsible for a worldwide
pandemic.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.A5)
1989 The Hepatitis C virus was
first isolated. It causes an infection of the liver that is usually
lifelong and incurable. Scientists in 1999 found evidence of the virus
in frozen blood samples from 1948.
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A4)(SFC, 5/21/99, p.A3)
1989 Merck Corp. announced the
discovery of the 3-dimensional structure of the enzyme protease. It was
seen as a promising target for attacking the virus that causes AIDS.
(WSJ, 11/5/96, p.A1)
1989 There was an outbreak of the
deadly Ebola virus among 450 primates in Reston, Va.
(FB, 9/12/96, Neighbors p.1)
1990 Apr, The Aum Shinri Kyo cult
sent three trucks into central Tokyo to spray poisonous botulin mists.
The convoy then attacked US bases at Yokohama and Yokosuka. The botulin
did not work and the cult turned to use anthrax.
(SFC, 5/27/98, p.A12)
1990 The amoeba Balamuthia
mandrillaris was first discovered in a mandrill baboon. In 2001 it was
reported to have destroyed the brain of a 3-year-old girl in the SF Bay
area.
(SFC, 4/20/01, p.A1)(SFC, 4/21/01, p.A1)
1992 May 1, It was reported in the
WSJ that a new study indicated that peptic ulcers were caused by a
bacterium called Helicobacter pylori.
(WSJ, 10/24/05, p.A15)
1993 Mar, Drinking water in
Milwaukee became contaminated with the cryptosporidium bacterium and
more than 100 people died and some 400,000 got sick.
(SFC, 6/26/96, p.A6)(SFC, 6/24/98, Z1 p.5)(SFC,
8/1/98, p.A11)
1993 Jun, In Japan the Aum Shinri
Kyo cult pumped a slurry of liquid anthrax into a sprayer and created a
cloud that would settle on victims, but it didn’t work.
(SFC, 5/27/98, p.A12)
1993 Jul, The Aum Shinri Kyo cult
again pumped a slurry of liquid anthrax into a sprayer and shot it near
the Imperial Palace and around central Tokyo without success.
(SFC, 5/27/98, p.A12)
1994 Sudden oak disease was first
reported in California. The specific pathogen responsible was
identified in 2000 as the fungus-like Phytophthora ramorum microbe.
Experts believed that it arrived in the state via the nursery trade. By
2008 it was the world’s most quarantined plant pathogen.
(SFC, 4/17/08, p.A1)
1994 The Hendra virus was first
discovered and named for the Australian suburb where it was found in an
outbreak that killed a horse trainer and 13 horses. It causes flulike
symptoms that can lead to pneumonia or encephalitis. It is believed to
originate in fruit bats in Australia and mainly infects horses.
(AP, 9/2/09)
1995 Mar 17, The federal
government approved the nation's first chicken pox vaccine, Varivax by
Merck & Co.
(AP, 3/17/00)
1995 May 9, Kinshasa, capital of
Zaire, was placed under quarantine after an outbreak of the Ebola virus.
(AP, 5/9/00)
1995 Jul, The Ebola virus killed
244 people in Kikwit, Zaire.
(WSJ, 12/11/95, p.A-1)(SFC, 5/5/99, p.A11)
1995-2004 The amoeba called Naegleria fowleri killed
23 people in the United States during this period. In 2007 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. the killer
amoeba living in lakes enters the body through the nose and attacks the
brain where it feeds until you die.
(AP, 9/29/07)
1996 May 9, Bacterial meningitis
has infected more than 100,000 people in West Africa over the last 3
months and more than 10,000 have died. The epidemic has been most
intense in the region just south of the Sahara known as the Sahel. The
1996 epidemic resulted in some 20,000 deaths. The “meningitis belt”
swept from Senegal to Ethiopia about every 10 years.
(SFC, 5/9/96, p.C-5)(WSJ, 3/17/03, p.B4)
1996 Jun 27, A report from the
World Health Organization said that South Africa has the worst
tuberculosis problem in the world and that drug-resistant forms
(XDR-TB) of the disease were spreading rapidly.
(SFC, 6/27/96, p.A12)(Econ, 2/24/07, p.58)
1996 Aug 8, Food poisoning due to
E. coli bacteria in the city of Sakai, Japan, was attributed to radish
sprouts.
(WSJ, 7/8/96,p.A1)
1996 Aug 21, Today’s issue of
Science reported the 1,738 gene sequence of the organism Methanococcus
jannaschii that oceanographers in 1982 found in an undersea volcanic
vent and later classified as Archaea, distinct from Prokarya and
Eukarya.
(SFC, 8/23/96, p.A21)
1996 Congress tightened rules on
the distribution of pathogens following a frightening record by the
American Type Culture Collection of Manassas, Va., of selling dangerous
germs.
(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.A6)
1996 Scientists discovered
bacteria living in a tank of nuclear waste. The bacteria, later called
extremophiles, had adapted to 15 times the dose that would kill a human
being.
(WSJ, 11/16/04, p.A1)
1997 May 9, In Hong Kong a
3-year-old boy became ill with the flu. He died May 21 and the flu was
identified as subtype H5N1, a bird flu.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.A9)
1997 May 13, In Burundi an
outbreak of Typhus was reported. Some 20,000 cases in 3 northwest
provinces were reported by March, mostly in Hutu regroupment camps set
up by the Tutsi-led military.
(WSJ, 5/13/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 5, It was reported that a
Yale Univ. research team led by Sidney Altman discovered a way to turn
off genes that make bacteria resistant to antibiotic drugs. Human
testing was thought to be 5 years away.
(SFC, 8/5/97, p.A3)(WSJ, 8/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 6, It was reported that
scientists had created the genetic blueprint for Helicobacter pylori, a
bacterium responsible for stomach ulcers.
(SFC, 8/7/97, p.A11)
1997 Aug 21, A hamburger recall
was extended to cover some 25 million pounds. The Hudson Foods Inc., of
Rogers, Ark., closed its Nebraska beef-processing facility under a
"non-negotiable" recommendation by Agricultural Sec. Dan Glickman due
to E. coli poisonings in Colorado.
(SFC, 8/22/97, p.A3)(AP, 8/21/98)
1997 Nov 22, From Venezuela it was
reported that 18,000 people were infected in an epidemic of dengue
haemorrhagic fever (DHF) and that 34 had died this year. Heavy rains
allowed Aedes aegypti, the mosquito which carries anyone of 4 dengue
viruses, to breed in water containers left out in the open. In 2006
over 500,000 cases of dengue were reported in Latin America including
14,000 cases of DHF.
(SFC,11/22/97, p.A9)(Econ, 4/21/07, p.42)(Econ,
7/14/07, p.46)
1997 Dec 26, It was reported that
the US Centers for Disease Control had begun work on a “Bird Flu”
vaccine in response to the 9 confirmed cases and 4 deaths in Hong Kong.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.D1)
1997 Dec 29, In Hong Kong the
government planned to start killing over 1.4 million chickens to combat
the new strain of avian flu. Four people had already died of the
illness.
(SFC, 12/29/97, p.A1)(AP, 12/29/98)
1997 Dec, In north-eastern
Kenya large numbers of cattle, goats and sheep began dying in the
Garissa district. A month later people began dying as the Rift Valley
Fever infected some 90,000 people. Hundreds died in 5 countries.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.83)
1997 A British team discovered
that pig viruses can infect human cells.
(WSJ, 8/28/00, p.B1)
1997 In Malaysia a virus struck
the village of Nipah and killed 105 people, most of whom were involved
in the hog-farming industry. Some 1.2 million hogs were destroyed and
the Nipah virus epidemic ran its course over 7 months. The epidemic was
later related to burning rain forests and bats seeking new food sources
that passed the virus to pigs that passed it to humans. Most animals
recovered but it was lethal to 40% of humans.
(SFC, 9/28/99, p.A9)(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A4)(WSJ,
6/19/03, p.A1)
1998 Feb 19, In Henderson federal
officials arrested Larry Wayne Harris and William Job Leavitt for
possession of suspected anthrax bacterium. Harris had earlier published
the 131-page book: “Bacteriological Warfare: A Major Threat to North
America.” The substance turned out to be a harmless veterinary vaccine.
Harris was later given an additional 6 months probation.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A1,8)(SFEC, 2/22/98, p.A11)(SFC,
3/25/98, p.A3)
1998 Mar 10, U.S. Air Force and
Navy personnel in the Persian Gulf received vaccinations against
anthrax. In 2004 a federal judge ordered a halt to anthrax vaccinations
and ruled that the FDA had violated its own rules by approving the
vaccine in 2003.
(AP, 3/10/99)(SFC, 10/28/04, p.A4)
1998 Mar 19, A new product was
approved by the FDA to reduce salmonella in chickens. Preempt or CF-3
was a mixture of beneficial microbes that would be sprayed onto newly
hatched chicks, and then ingested by the chicks to prevent salmonella
growth.
(SFC, 3/20/98, p.A4)
1998 Mar, The US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention said sexual diseases such as chlamydia
were epidemic in the US and launched a campaign to raise public
awareness. 4 million new cases a year were being reported.
(SFC, 8/12/98, p.C16)
1998 May 29, I t was reported that
a salmonella strain impervious to 5 antibiotics was rampant in Britain.
Chickens were reported sold in Minnesota that were contaminated with
campylobacter resistant to a powerful antibiotic. The high use of
antibiotics by farmers was adding to the problem of an increasing
number of drug-resistant germs.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A8)
1998 May 15, Oysters from Tomales
Bay, Ca., were removed from market shelves due to an unknown agent
causing illness. the symptoms were similar to the Norwalk virus that
caused illnesses around New Orleans during the winter of 1996-1997,
that was traced to human sewage.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.A7)
1998 Jun 4, In Taiwan it was
reported that an airborne virus had killed 26 children in the last 6
weeks. Another 132 were hospitalized and as many as 9,000 were
infected. Efforts to fight the disease were being centralized.
(WSJ, 6/5/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 10, It was reported that
scientists had decoded the DNA sequence for Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
(SFC, 6/11/98, p.A2)
1998 Jun 23, In Chicago some 4,500
got sick from an outbreak of E. coli possibly due to contaminated
potato salad at Iwan’s Deli in Orland Park.
(SFC, 6/24/98, p.A9)
1998 Jun 23, In Georgia a virulent
E. coli, O157:H7, sickened at least 6 children after playing in a
Marietta water park.
(SFC, 6/24/98, p.A9)
1998 Jul 29-30, In Australia
giardia and cryptosporidium were found throughout the water supply of
Sydney. PM John Howard called the crises an international embarrassment.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 23, Researchers reported
the complete genetic sequence of the bacteria chlamydia trachomatis.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A3)
1998 Oct 29, An Oscar Mayer meat
packing plant in Michigan sliced and packaged products that later
killed 9 people and caused 3 stillbirths due to listeria contamination.
(SFC, 1/16/99, p.A4)
1998 Dec 17, The CDC reported a
food-poisoning outbreak due to the listeria bacteria that killed 4
people and sickened 35. Hot dogs and cold cuts were suspected.
(WSJ, 12/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 22, The Bil Mar meat
packing plant in Michigan recalled 35 million pounds of hot dogs and
lunch meats following the deaths of 16 people due to the bacteria
Listeria monocytogenes. In Jan. another 30 million pounds were recalled
from the Thorn Apple Valley plant in Arkansas.
(SFC, 2/11/99, p.A7)
1998 In Uganda plant breeder
William Wagoira found stem rust on his crops. The fungal wheat rust
(Puccinia graminis) had not been seen since the Green Revolution. By
2010 the fungus had spread as far as Iran and South Africa and
scientists feared further spread.
(Econ, 7/3/10, p.57)
1999 Mar 26, In Uganda it was
reported that wheat stem-rust fungus had appeared on a crop. The fungus
killed nearly half the world's crop before the green revolution of the
1950s. The black rust disease was named Ug99 and by 2007 had jumped to
Yemen. In 2008 it was confirmed in Iran. In 2008 Cornell Univ. received
a $26.8 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to
help combat the new strains of rust disease.
(WSJ, 3/26/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/3/08, p.A16)
1999 Sep 9, In NYC it was reported
that 3 people had died from mosquito-borne St. Louis encephalitis in
the last few weeks. The virus was later identified as the West Nile
Virus, never before reported in the Western Hemisphere. 3 years later
the virus reached California.
(SFC, 9/10/99, p.A3)(SFC, 9/28/99, p.A9)(Econ,
8/2/08, p.34)
1999 Sep 30, It was reported that
the Western oak beetle, P. pubipennis, and the oak ambrosia beetle, M.
scutellare, were decimating black, tan and coast live oak trees across
northern California. Sudden Oak Death was later attributed to a fungus
of the genus Phytophthora. The pathogen was later reported to be
related to a fungus that was destroying Port Orford cedars in the
Pacific Northwest.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.A21,26)(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A17)(SFC,
8/1/00, p.A13)(SFC, 9/23/00, p.A1)
1999 Nov 27, It was reported that
at least 26 people had died recently in Phrae province, Thailand, from
leptospirosis, a disease transmitted by rat urine. Farmers not wearing
boots and gloves in their fields were vulnerable.
(SFC, 11/27/99, p.A17)
1999 Jared Diamond authored “Guns,
Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies.”
(www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/0393317552)
1999 Hepatitis C virus was
believed to have infected some 170 million people worldwide.
(Econ, 11/1/03, p.75)
1999 Researchers began introducing
phorid species in Texas in 1999. As many as 23 phorid species with
pathogens attack fire ants to keep their population and movements under
control. Fire ants cost the Texas economy about $1 billion annually by
damaging circuit breakers and other electrical equipment.
(http://tinyurl.com/ob57v2)
1999 The fungus Cryptococcus
gattii, normally found in Australia and other tropical zones, was
discovered on Vancouver Island, Canada. By 2007 at least 8 people had
died from infection and another 163 sickened.
(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.A11)
2000 Mar, Health Canada
quarantined the country’s sperm banks after a woman contracted
chlamydia from a donor sample.
(SSFC, 3/25/01, p.C4)
2000 Jun 9, It was reported that
some 5 dozen intravenous drug users in Scotland, Ireland and England
had died since April from a mysterious illness not yet identified. The
culprit was later identified as Clostridium novyi Type A.
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.D3)(SFC, 6/15/00, p.A19)
2000 Jul 28, The US FDA approved
Cipro for inhalational anthrax.
(www.lewrockwell.com/orig/sardi8.html)
2000 Aug 3, It was reported that
scientists had developed the genetic blueprint of the cholera bacterium.
(SFC, 8/3/00, p.A10)
2000 Aug 31, It was reported that
malaria researchers had identified the mechanism by which the parasite
feeds on blood cells.
(WSJ, 8/31/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug, 78 4-man teams in the
Eco-Challenge Sabah encountered flooded rivers over a 2-week race in
Malaysian Borneo. A number later found themselves infected with
leptospirosis.
(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A12)
2000 Sep 19, Researchers reported
for the 1st time that a new vaccine was effective against staph
infections.
(WSJ, 9/20/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 14, In Uganda it was
reported that at least 30 people had died in recent weeks of a
hemorrhagic fever possibly caused by the Ebola or Marburg virus.
(SFC, 10/14/00, p.A16)
2000 Oct 22, Death from the Ebola
fever climbed to 54 In Uganda as health officials continued a village
by village search for people with contact to the virus.
(SFC, 10/23/00, p.A12)
2000 Oct 26, The US FDA planned to
ban 2 fluoroquinolone antibiotics used by poultry farmers due to fears
that humans might become infected with germs that resist treatment.
(SFC, 10/27/00, p.A3)
2000 Nov 12, Uganda confirmed a
new case of Ebola in Masindi, the 3rd district to confirm the deadly
virus.
(SFC, 11/13/00, p.A14)
2000 Dec 5, Uganda Dr. Matthew
Lokwiya, who diagnosed the Ebola outbreak 2 months earlier, died from
the disease.
(WSJ, 12/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 8, The Uganda victims
with Ebola reached 400 including 160 dead.
(SFC, 12/9/00, p.A18)
2000 Wyeth introduced Prevnar, a
vaccine to protect children against 7 strains of bacteria that can
cause ear infections, pneumonia and meningitis. In 2007 researchers
found a strain of bacteria that can cause ear infections, serotype 19A,
that was resistance to all antibiotics approved for children.
(WSJ, 10/17/07, p.D8)
2001 Jan 20, Dr. Charles Merieux,
virologist and founder of the Merieux Laboratory, died at age 94 in
Lyon, France. He helped produce the Salk vaccine cultivated in minced
monkey kidney tissue. He also produced a vaccine against a meningitis
strain that killed 4,000 people in Brazil in 1974.
(SFC, 1/27/01, p.A24)
2001 May 6, It was reported that 1
in every 1000 Russians has tuberculosis.
(SSFC, 5/6/01, p.A15)
2001 May 21, Joerg C. Tiller of
MIT said a new polymer, called hexyl-PVP, could be used as a surface
coating and was able to kill common disease-causing organisms.
(SFC, 5/22/01, p.A6)
2001 May 29, Epidural cortisone
shots at the Sierra SurgiCenter in Walnut Creek, Ca., caused 2 deaths
from contamination that led to meningitis. A batch of betamethasone
steroid was contaminated with serratia bacteria.
(SFC, 6/8/01, p.A1)(SFC, 6/9/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 18, Letters postmarked in
Trenton, N.J., and later tested positive for anthrax, were sent to the
New York Post and NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw.
(AP, 9/18/02)
2001 Sep 28, Dr. Kenneth M. Berry
of Pittsburgh filed a patent application for a system responsive to
bioterrorism attacks. In 2004 the FBI probed him in relation to
investigations on letters containing anthrax.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.A9)
2001 Oct 5, Bob Stevens (63),
photo editor for the Sun tabloid, died of anthrax. Anthrax spores were
later found on his computer keyboard in Lantana. This was the 1st of a
series of cases in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Washington.
(SFC, 10/8/01, p.A10)(SFC, 12/30/01, p.D7)(AP,
10/5/02)
2001 Oct 8, A 2nd case of anthrax
was reported in Ernesto Blanco (73), a co-worker of the man who died
Oct 5 in Florida.
(SFC, 10/9/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 9, Letters postmarked in
Trenton, N.J., were sent to Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy; the
letters later tested positive for anthrax.
(AP, 10/9/02)
2001 Oct 9, The 2 anthrax cases in
Florida were reported to probably have been caused by an intentional
release of the deadly bacteria.
(SFC, 10/10/01, p.A4)
2001 Oct 10, In Florida a 3rd case
of anthrax was identified in a 35-year-old woman who worked in the same
office as Robert Stevens. The strain was reported to match one from
Iowa in the 1950s commonly used by lab researchers.
(SFC, 10/11/01, p.A4,5)
2001 Oct 12, NBC announced that an
assistant to anchorman Tom Brokaw had contracted the skin form of
anthrax after opening a "threatening" letter to her boss that contained
a suspicious powder.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A1)(AP, 10/12/02)
2001 Oct 13, Anthrax was confirmed
in 3 US states. In Florida 5 more employees tested positive; in Nevada
a letter sent to a Microsoft office tested positive; and in NYC a
letter sent to NBC News tested positive.
(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 15, Anthrax in a letter
to a Reno Microsoft office was reported to be from Malaysia. 2
anthrax-tainted letters were reported to have been mailed from Trenton,
New Jersey and 2 postal employees there showed symptoms. Anthrax spores
were in a letter deliver to a Senate office. Officials announced that a
letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle had tested positive
for anthrax, and that the infant son of an ABC News producer in New
York had developed skin anthrax.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.A1)(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A16)(AP,
10/15/02)
2001 Oct 16, A wing of the US
Senate building was closed following confirmation that a letter to Sen.
Tom Daschle, D-S.D., carried anthrax. It was later found that the
anthrax contained the additive bentonite to enhance suspension in air.
12 Senate offices were closed as hundreds of staffers underwent anthrax
tests.
(SFC, 10/17/01, p.A1)(SFC, 10/25/01, p.A1)(WSJ,
10/26/01, p.A1)(AP, 10/16/02)
2001 Oct 17, Federal officials
reported that the anthrax strains in New York and Florida appeared to
be identical. The House and 6 congressional office buildings were
closed for tests after over 30 Senate staff members tested positive for
exposure to spores.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/18/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 18, CBS News announced
that an employee in Dan Rather's office had tested positive for skin
anthrax.
(AP, 10/18/02)
2001 Oct 18, Two new cases of
anthrax were reported in New Jersey.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 18, The FBI and Postal
Service announced a $1 million reward for information leading to the
arrest of anthrax mailings.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A16)
2001 Oct 19, The FBI identified
the Trenton, NJ, mailbox from which the anthrax letters were sent to
NYC and Washington. Two more people were reported to be infected
bringing the total to 8.
(SFC, 10/20/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 20, Traces of anthrax
were found in a US House of Representatives mail room. This became the
3rd Capital Hill building infected.
(SSFC, 10/21/01, p.A3)(AP, 10/20/02)
2001 Oct 21, Thomas L. Morris Jr.
(55), a DC postal worker diagnosed with the deadly inhalation form of
anthrax, died. Officials began testing thousands of postal employees.
(SFC, 10/23/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/24/01, p.A1)(AP,
10/22/06)
2001 Oct 22, A second Washington
DC postal worker, Joseph P. Curseen (47), died of inhalation anthrax.
(SFC, 10/23/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/24/01, p.A1)(AP,
10/22/02)
2001 Oct 23, President Bush
announced he had authorized money for improved post office security
following the deaths of two postal workers from inhalation anthrax.
(AP, 10/23/02)
2001 Oct 23, Traces of anthrax
were found at an off-site facility that handled mail for the White
House.
(SFC, 10/24/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 24, The US government
arranged to buy 100 million Cipro tablets from Bayer for 95 cents each.
The tablets were for anthrax. US Postmaster General John Potter told
Americans “There are no guaranties that mail is safe.” He warned people
to wash their hands after handling mail.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.D1)(SSFC, 9/10/06, p.E4)
2001 Oct 25, A State Dept. mail
worker in Virginia was diagnosed with the inhalational form of anthrax.
(SFC, 10/26/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 26, Anthrax was found in
the offices of 3 lawmakers in the Longworth House Office building on
Capital Hill. The Supreme Court was shut down to test for anthrax
spores.
(SFC, 10/27/01, p.A8)
2001 Oct 27, In Washington, the
search for deadly anthrax widened to thousands of businesses and 30
mail distribution centers.
(AP, 10/27/02)
2001 Oct 28, The CDC reported a
13th case of anthrax in a New Jersey postal worker. Spores were found
at the mail center in Landover, Md.
(SFC, 10/29/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 29, A hospital worker in
NY and a woman who handled mail in New Jersey were found to have
anthrax. Since Oct 4 a total of 37 people have tested positive for
exposure and 15 have contracted the disease.
(SFC, 10/30/01, p.A8)
2001 Oct 31, The US Consulate in
Lahore, Pakistan, received a letter that was later confirmed to contain
anthrax.
(SFC, 11/7/01, p.A10)
2001 Oct 31, Kathy Nguyen (61), a
NYC hospital worker, died of anthrax. She was the 4th person to perish
in a spreading wave of bioterrorism. The source of infection remained a
mystery.
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.A1)(AP, 10/31/02)
2001 Nov 1, Anthrax spores were
found in 4 mailrooms in Rockville, Md., a postal facility in Kansas
City, 3 new locations in a Manhattan processing center and a 6th postal
facility in Florida.
(WSJ, 11/2/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 2, A 17th case of anthrax
was reported in a NY Post employee.
(SFC, 11/3/01, p.A3)
2001 Nov 4, It was reported that
the French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur cited bin Laden as possibly
possessing an arsenal of biochemical weapons. US intelligence sources
were cited that bin Laden purchased laboratories from the former
Yugoslavia, Ebola virus from former Soviet stockpiles, botulism from
the Czech Republic, anthrax from North Korea and the assistance of
chemists and biologists from the Ukraine.
(SSFC, 11/4/01, p.A25)
2001 Nov 5, Baxter said its
dialysis filters appear to have played a role in the deaths of 53
patients in Texas, Nebraska, and 6 countries in Europe, south America
and Asia.
(WSJ, 11/6/01, p.A3)
2001 Nov 10, Traces of anthrax
were reported in offices of the Hart and Longworth government buildings
in Washington DC.
(SSFC, 11/11/01, p.A7)
2001 Nov 11, A Pakistani newspaper
(Ausaf) published the second part of an interview in which Osama bin
Laden was quoted as saying he had nothing to do with the anthrax
attacks in the United States, and declared he would never allow himself
to be captured.
(AP, 11/11/02)
2001 Nov 11-2001 Nov 16, In St.
Cloud, Minn., three healthy men died following knee surgeries from
infections of Clostridium sordellii.
(SFC, 11/28/01, p.A5)
2001 Nov 13, An anthrax tainted
letter was received by a pediatrician in Santiago. It was postmarked
from Switzerland and marked for return to Florida. It was actually
mailed from NY through a NY-based subsidiary of the Swiss Post office.
The letter was later believed to have been contaminated in a lab.
(SFC, 11/23/01, p.A4)(SFC, 11/24/01, p.A9)(WSJ,
11/28/01, p.A4)(WSJ, 11/29/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 15, Investigators in
Florida said anthrax was found throughout the 68,000-square-foot
America Media building in Boca Raton, where the 1st case was identified.
(SFC, 11/16/01, p.A17)
2001 Nov 16, An anthrax laced
letter was found in quarantined congressional mail addressed to Sen.
Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). It was found to contain billions of spores,
enough to kill 100,000 people.
(SFC, 11/17/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/21/01, p.A8)(SFC,
11/26/01, p.A5)
2001 Nov 21, Ottilie W. Lundgren
(94) of Oxford, Conn., died of inhalational anthrax in a case that
baffled investigators.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A10)(AP, 11/21/02)
2001 Dec 2, An outbreak of Ebola
virus hit Gabon with the 1st death in Ekata, about 5 miles from the
Congo border. Within weeks at least 15 people died. The virus spread to
Congo and movement in the area was restricted.
(SFC, 12/21/01, p.A5)
2001 Dec 5, The FBI arrested
escaped fugitive Clayton Lee Waagner in St. Louis. Waagner was
suspected of mailing as many as 550 anthrax hoax letters to abortion
clinics. He was also wanted for bank robbery and other offenses. In
2002 Waagner was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A13)(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A1)(SFC,
1/26/02, p.A10)
2001 Dec 6, Anthrax tainted mail
turned up at a sorting site outside the Federal building in Washington
DC. It had been received Dec 5.
(WSJ, 12/7/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 16, It was reported that
all the anthrax spores mailed to Capital Hill were identical to stocks
from the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at
Fort Detrick, Md. (USAMRIID), maintained since 1980.
(SSFC, 12/16/01, p.A9)
2001 Dec 17, The Bush
administration announced that the anthrax attacks most likely
originated from a domestic source.
(SFC, 12/18/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 18, It was reported that
malaria scientists have engineered mice that produce vaccine in their
milk.
(WSJ, 12/18/01, p.A1)
2001 The metapneumovirus was
discovered by researchers in Rotterdam. The calculated that every child
catches the virus by age 5.
(SFC, 9/17/03, p.A7)
2002 Feb 14, It was reported that
scientists at NIH had developed the 1st vaccine effective against staph
bacteria.
(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A4)
2002 Feb 23, It was reported that
5 people were confirmed with plague in Himachal Pradesh, India.
(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A24)
2002 Feb, Dr Wakefield and
Professor O'Leary published a paper in the journal Molecular Pathology
which suggested a possible link between the measles virus and bowel
disease in children with developmental disorders. The study set out to
investigate whether children with developmental disorders such as
autism and a bowel disorder also had the measles virus in their gut. It
found traces of the virus in the guts of 75 children out of 91 with
bowel disease, but in only five out of 70 healthy children. The
researchers theorized that the virus may act as a trigger, leading to
problems with the immune system. Dr Wakefield said most of the children
in the study had had MMR, though a few had had the single vaccine. He
and his colleague emphasized that it would be wrong to jump to any
hasty conclusions about MMR causing either bowel disease or
developmental disorders such as autism. In 2010 Dr. Wakefield was
banned from practicing medicine in Britain.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1808956.stm)(SFC,
5/25/10, p.A2)
2002 Feb, A team from the
Royal Free Hospital - where Dr Wakefield carried out his initial
research - published a study on the British Medical Journal website
saying there is no link between MMR and autism. The team looked at
almost 500 children with autism born between 1979 and 1998. It found
the proportion of children with developmental regression (autism) or
bowel disorders did not change significantly over that time.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1808956.stm)
2002 Feb, The W135 strain of
meningitis from the Middle East was identified for the 1st time in
Africa in Burkina Faso and by Sep some 12,000 people were infected with
1,500 deaths.
(SFC, 9/20/02, p.A12)
2002 Mar 5, It was reported that
Cipro resistant gonorrhea had turned up on the West Coast of the US.
(WSJ, 3/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 18, Researchers in
Pittsburgh reported a strain of Group A streptococci resistant to
erythromycin (the macrolide class of antibiotics).
(SFC, 4/18/02, p.A4)(WSJ, 4/18/02, p.A1)
2002 May 6, It was reported that
German researchers had found a new class of ultra-tiny microbes: a
nano-size hyperthermophilic archeon, tinier than mycoplasma but larger
than viruses.
(SFC, 5/6/02, p.A4)
2002 May 7, It was reported that
strain of Gonorrhea resistant to antibiotics had reached the mainland
US after migrating from Hawaii and Asia.
(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A5)
2002 Jun 15, In the Republic of
Congo it was reported that 5 people had died from an outbreak of ebola,
the 2nd outbreak in the region this year.
(SFC, 6/15/02, p.C10)
2002 Jul 11, US scientists
financed by the Pentagon announced that they had synthesized a virus
from scratch for the 1st time. They built a polio virus relying only on
genetic sequence information publicly available.
(SFC, 7/12/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 2, In Louisiana Gov. Mike
Foster declared a state of emergency after West Nile virus killed 4
residents and infected another 58.
(SFC, 8/3/02, p.A3)
2002 Aug 11, Dr. Steven J.
Hatfill, a bioweapons expert under scrutiny for anthrax-laced letters,
fiercely denied any involvement and said he had cooperated with the
investigation. He was eventually exonerated and given a $5.8 million
settlement from the US government after years of their harassing him.
Investigators on June 27, 2008, announced that the anthrax attacks had
been carried out by another government scientist, Bruce Edwards Ivins,
whom they concluded had acted alone.
(AP,
8/11/03)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Hatfill)
2002 Aug 22, Researchers reported
a new enzyme to treat victims of an anthrax attack and to help detect
the spores.
(SFC, 8/22/02, p.A1)
2002 Sep 14, In Congo DRC it was
reported that some 1,200 people had died from a cholera epidemic and
that another 18,000 were infected.
(SFC, 9/14/02, p.A20)
2002 Oct 15, It was reported that
duct tape is effective in removing warts when worn over the wart for a
number of days.
(SFC, 10/15/02, p.A2)
2002 Oct 15, A listeria outbreak
blamed for at east 7 deaths in the northeast was traced to a Wampler
Foods plant in Franconia, Pa.
(SFC, 10/16/02, p.A5)
2002 Oct 21, Scientists reported a
new immunoassay for mad cow disease that takes about a year for results.
(SFC, 10/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 24, It was reported that
over 8,000 backyard poultry had been killed in southern California to
stop the spread of Exotic Newcastle disease. The deadly avian infection
last surfaced in California the 1970s when some 12 million birds were
destroyed.
(SFC, 10/24/02, p.G2)(SFC, 10/26/02, p.A3)
2002 Nov 19, It was reported that
the Holland America cruise ship Amsterdam was in its 4th week of
battling the Norwalk gastrointestinal virus.
(WSJ, 11/19/02, p.B1)
2002 Nov 21, Intensive cleaning
began aboard the cruise ship Disney Magic after over 100 passengers
fell sick from an unknown stomach virus.
(SFC, 11/23/02, p.A2)
2002 Nov 21, Merck published a
study of vaccine that prevents cervical cancers caused by human
papilloma virus (HPV) that could be available by 2006.
(WSJ, 11/21/02, p.A1)(SFC, 11/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Vancomycin resistant strains
of Staphylococcus aureus emerged.
(NG, 11/04, p.21)
2003 Jan 24, The Bush
administration’s smallpox vaccine program was launched in Connecticut
with 4 doctors getting shots.
(SFC, 1/25/03, p.A4)(WSJ, 1/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Feb 9, In China Xinhua’s
first SARS report was issued for leaders’ eyes only. By this time there
were already some 300 cases and 5 deaths dating back to November 2002.
(Econ, 6/19/10, p.43)
2003 Mar 19, Doctors in Hong Kong
reportedly identified the deadly pneumonia virus as belonging to the
paramyxoviridae family. The severe acute respiratory illness (SARS) had
killed at least 11 people and left hundreds ill. The outbreak is
believed to have began in southern China in November. Later reports
held that it could be a coronavirus, part of a group that cause the
common cold. Many people treated with corticosteroids later developed
an irreversible bone disease called avascular necrosis. By July 12,
2003, SARS killed 812 people worldwide.
(SFC, 3/15/03, p.A8)(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A4)(WSJ,
4/3/03, p.B1)(WSJ, 12/23/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 22, Scientists believe
they have found the virus responsible for the mystery SARS virus and
announced a test to diagnose it.
(AP, 3/23/03)
2003 Mar 23, A Maryland nurse died
5 days after being vaccinated for smallpox.
(SFC, 3/26/03, p.A6)
2003 Mar 27, It was reported that
the SARS disease had killed 50 people and infected some 1,300 in 13
countries.
(WSJ, 3/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 29, Italian Dr. Carlo
Urbani (46), a WHO expert on communicable diseases, died of SARS in
Thailand, where he was being treated after becoming infected while
working in Vietnam. Urbani was the 1st doctor to identify SARS.
(AP, 3/29/03)(SSFC, 3/30/03, p.A6)
2003 Mar 31, Hong Kong authorities
quarantined more than 200 other residents in an apartment block in an
effort to contain the SARS virus.
(AP, 3/31/03)
2003 Apr 4, It was reported that
Oxford Univ. scientists had developed a new test for TB that looked for
the activation of T-cells.
(SFC, 4/4/03, p.A15)
2003 Apr 4, Chinese experts in
hard-hit Guangdong province told the scientists they have found a rare
form of airborne chlamydia in some of their SARS patients, raising the
possibility that more than one germ may be involved. Other Chinese
cases suggest the disease might be passed by touching something tainted
by a sick person's mucous or saliva.
(AP, 4/5/03)
2003 Apr 17, A Dutch veterinarian
(57) died from avian influenza 2 days after working on a farm where
animals were infected with the bird flu. He was believed to be the 1st
victim of the current epidemic.
(WSJ, 4/21/03, p.A10)
2003 Apr 26, It was reported that
a methillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) had begun infecting
healthy people through skin contact.
(SFC, 4/26/03, B8)
2003 Apr 29, California biologists
reported that some 92 southern sea otters had died since the beginning
of the year between Point Conception and Half Moon Bay. A cat parasite,
Toxoplasma gondii, was cited as one factor weakening the animals.
(SFC, 4/30/03, A1)(SFC, 5/7/03, p.A1)
2003 May 4, New lab studies
reported that the SARS virus can survive outside an infected body for
hours to days.
(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.A1)
2003 May 21, Taiwan reported 35
new cases of SARS for a total of 418 with 52 deaths.
(SFC, 5/22/03, p.A3)
2003 May 23, Researchers from
China and Hong Kong identified a coronavirus in 3 wild mammals, palm
civets, a raccoon dog and a ferret badger, sold in the live-animal food
markets of South China.
(SFC, 5/24/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 13, Wisconsin state
officials reported that probable 18 cases of monkeypox all came from
one prairie dog.
(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A6)
2003 Jun 20, In China Guangdong
health officials reported 211 encephalitis cases with 18 children
killed. 100,000 children were vaccinated as a precaution.
(SFC, 6/21/03, p.A5)
2003 Jul 5, The WHO removed Taiwan
from its list of SARS-infected areas and declared a provisional victory
over the epidemic, which had killed 812 people over 5 continents. The
economic losses from SARS was later estimated at about $200 billion.
SARS was later classified as one of a number of zoonoses, i.e. diseases
that come from animals.
(SSFC, 7/6/03, p.A3)(Econ, 11/19/05, p.84)
2003 Jul 7, The CDC confirmed the
year's 1st case of West Nile Virus, which killed 284 in the US in 2002.
(SFC, 7/8/03, p.A6)
2003 Aug 7, Scientists reported a
new vaccine that was successful against the Ebola virus in monkeys.
(WSJ, 8/7/03, p.D6)
2003 Sep 8, Singapore health
officials confirmed that a local patient has tested positive for severe
acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, the 1st new case of the disease in
over 5 months.
(AP, 9/8/03)
2003 Sep 29, In Japan a
23-month-old bull tested positive for new strain of mad cow disease. A
quarantined of 604 cows followed to prevent the spread of the
disease.
(AP, 10/8/03)
2003 Oct 24, Nigerian health
workers began an emergency drive to immunize some 15 million children
against polio. Some 192 cases were currently active.
(SFC, 10/24/03, p.A3)
2003 Nov 3, Spanish authorities
closed the border with the British colony of Gibraltar before the
arrival of a virus-stricken cruise ship carrying some 2,000 passengers.
More than 400 passengers on the ship fell ill with a norovirus after
the ship left Southampton, England, for a Mediterranean voyage on Oct.
20.
(AP, 11/3/03)
2003 Nov 14, In Pittsburgh, Pa., a
3rd person died from an outbreak of hepatitis A that infected over 500
people. They all had recently eaten at a Chi-Chi's Mexican mall
restaurant.
(SFC, 11/15/03, p.A3)(AP, 11/16/03)
2003 Dec 4, In Kisumu, Kenya,
Tommy Thompson, US Sec. of Health and Human Services, dedicated a new
$6.4 million field laboratory to be operated by the CDC. It was the
largest of its kind in Africa. The local TB and malaria rates were
among the highest in the world.
(SFC, 12/5/03, p.A5)
2003 Dec 27, China announced its
first suspected SARS case since July.
(AP, 12/27/03)
2003 The ViroChip, invented by Dr.
Joseph DeRisi (33) of UC San Francisco, gained attention when it
spotted the virus that causes the epidemic form of pneumonia called
SARS.
(SFC, 9/10/08, p.B4)
2003 Myanmar reported 42% of the
world’s official malaria deaths. WHO statistics were not very accurate
as half of Africa’s countries did not submit any data.
(Econ, 12/9/06, p.86)
2003 In Sudan a study indicated
that AIDS had infected about 1.6% of the population. By 2009 the number
was estimated to be approaching 3%.
(Econ, 7/4/09, p.42)
2004 Jan 5, China confirmed its
first SARS case since an outbreak of the disease was contained in July
and authorities ordered the emergency slaughter of some 10,000 civet
cats and related species after tests linked a virus found in the
animals to the patient.
(AP, 1/5/04)
2004 Jan 5, Norman Heatley (92), a
scientist whose pioneering work on penicillin production helped save
countless lives, died in Oxford, England. It was Heatley and his Oxford
University colleagues who produced enough for the first clinical tests
on humans.
(AP, 1/17/04)(SFC, 1/19/04, p.B4)
2004 Jan 21, Hong Kong officials
reported that Avian influenza was detected near 2 chicken farms. 5
people in Vietnam had already died from the recent outbreak.
(SFC, 1/22/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 26, Pakistan joined the
list of countries affected by the bird flu disease that has sparked
mass chicken culls across the region.
(AP, 1/26/04)
2004 Jan 26, A 6-year-old Thai boy
became Asia's seventh confirmed bird flu fatality.
(AP, 1/26/04)
2004 Jan 27, Global health
officials listed 6 countries with confirmed cases of H5N1 avian flu.
These included Cambodia, China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and
Vietnam.
(WSJ, 1/28/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 1, China reported 5 more
cases of the avian influenza virus.
(SFC, 2/2/04, p.A4)
2004 Feb 10, NYC said nearly 4% of
men age 40-49 in the city have AIDS or are infected with HIV.
(WSJ, 2/11/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 14, It was reported that
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had donated $82.9 million to the
Areas Global TB Vaccine Foundation for the development of a
tuberculosis vaccine.
(SFC, 2/13/04, p.A3)
2004 Feb 20, In Texas a strain of
avian flu was reported in Gonzales County. Further checks revealed that
it was highly pathogenic, but posed little risk to humans.
(SFC, 2/24/04, p.A3)
2004 Feb 26, It was reported that
scientists had identified a protein, TRIM5-alpha, that shields rhesus
monkeys from the AIDS virus.
(WSJ, 2/26/04, p.D4)
2004 Mar 24, World TB Day. TB
killed and estimated 2-3 million people per year.
(SFC, 3/24/04, p.B9)
2004 May 24, The WHO confirmed an
outbreak of the deadly ebola virus has killed four people in south
Sudan.
(AFP, 5/24/04)
2004 Jul 8, It was reported that a
strain of syphilis has proved resistant to azithromycin.
(WSJ, 7/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 21, In Ohio health
officials said cases of gastrointestinal illness had risen to 510 from
people in the Put-in-Bay resort area.
(SSFC, 8/22/04, p.A3)
2004 Sep 8, In Thailand a young
man died from bird flu and increased fears of a avian influenza
pandemic. Asian deaths from bird flu for the year totaled 28.
(WSJ, 9/10/04, p.A2)
2004 Sep 17, Officials in
Singapore reported that a soil-borne bacterial infection called
melioidosis has killed 24 people there this year, making it more deadly
than SARS or bird flu. The illness, also known as Whitmore's Disease,
is listed by the U.S. government as a potential biological weapon but
Singapore government officials said there was no sign it had been
spread intentionally.
(Reuters, 9/17/04)
2004 Sep 27, In Thailand officials
announced that a case of avian-flu was possibly caused by
human-to-human transmission.
(SFC, 9/28/04, p.A3)
2004 Oct 5, Britain pulled the
license of a Liverpool factory responsible for manufacturing half of
Chiron Corp.’s US flu vaccine supply due to contamination by the
bacteria serratia.
(SFC, 10/6/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/7/04, p.B6)
2004 Oct 19, A Thailand tiger zoo
housing hundreds of the big cats was shut down as bird flu tests
confirmed 23 tigers had died of the virus since Oct 14, and another 30
had fallen ill. They caught the flu from feeding on chicken carcasses.
(AFP, 10/20/04)(Econ, 4/16/05, p.36)
2004 Oct 27, Nigeria's state-owned
news agency reported that an outbreak of measles in a remote Nigerian
village had killed a dozen people. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for
500,000 deaths from measles every year.
(AP, 10/27/04)
2004 Nov 9, It was reported that
repeated injections of paromomycin, a low cost antibiotic, could cure
the parasitic disease black fever, also known as visceral leishmaniasis.
(SFC, 11/9/04, p.A6)
2004 Nov 18, US Army doctors said
some 100 soldiers wounded in the Mideast and Afghanistan had come down
with rare, treatment resistant blood infections.
(WSJ, 11/19/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 20, SF officials warned
that the sexually transmitted disease lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV)
had begun to turn up locally. The disease was a form of chlamydia and
required a 3-week course of antibiotics for cure.
(SFC, 12/21/04, p.B4)
2005 Jan 5, It was reported that
PolyMedix, a research firm in Philadelphia, was targeting bacteria with
synthetic molecules that prevented the development of resistance.
(WSJ, 1/5/05, p.B2A)
2005 Jan 25, The Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation pledged $750 million over 10 years to support the
Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.
(WSJ, 1/25/05, p.D6)
2005 Feb 10, Saudi Arabia
confirmed a 2nd case of polio from 2004 and feared pilgrims to Mecca
might spread the disease.
(SFC, 2/11/05, p.A13)
2005 Feb 11, Health officials in
NYC issued a nationwide alert over a new AIDS HIV strain that is immune
to just about all antiretroviral drugs.
(SFC, 2/12/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 21, It was reported that
measles in Nigeria had killed 529 people this year.
(WSJ, 3/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 22, Officials from the
ministry of health and the World Health Organization (WHO) said a
deadly haemorrhagic fever that has claimed the lives of 96 people,
mainly children, in Angola's northern Uige province has been identified
as the rare Marburg virus.
(www.meritcare.com/news/world/viewarticle.asp?id=18843)
2005 Apr 8, Angola’s death toll
from the Marburg virus, which has no effective treatment, rose to 181
with no signs of abating. Doctors without Borders urged the government
to close the regional hospital at Uige to help contain the spread.
Suspected cases have been identified in 7 provinces.
(SFC, 4/9/05, p.A8)(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.A5)
2005 Apr 11, Maurice Hilleman
(85), US pioneer vaccine research scientist, died of cancer in New
Jersey. He helped develop vaccines for mumps, measles, chicken pox and
other childhood scourges.
(SFC, 4/12/05, p.B5)
2005 Apr 14, It was reported that
the bird flu virus was found in some 70% of a random sample of ducks
and geese in Vietnam’s southern Mekong Delta, and in 21% of sampled
chickens.
(WSJ, 4/14/05, p.A14)
2005 Apr 16, It was reported that
Laszlo Kish and Maria King of Texas A&M had devised a new technique
for identifying small quantities of bacteria in minutes using a
combination of virology ad microelectronics.
(Econ, 4/16/05, p.70)
2005 May 4, In China 178 birds
were found dead at Bird Island in Qinghai province in a lake that
served as a major area for research on migratory water fowl. They were
killed by the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus. The number of dead
birds was later raised to 1,500 with bar-headed geese among the most
dead.
(WSJ, 5/23/05, p.A11)(SFC, 7/7/05, p.A5)
2005 May 4, Chinese authorities
confined residents in Yanqing, 50 miles north of Beijing, to their
homes following the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in cattle.
Numerous farms were put under quarantine.
(WSJ, 5/24/05, p.A10)
2005 May 13, Indonesia reported
that researchers had found a strain of bird flu in pigs on Java, and
feared the virus could spread to humans.
(SSFC, 5/15/05, p.A14)
2005 May 21, China ordered
emergency measures to prevent an outbreak of avian flu after
investigators said migratory birds found dead in a western province
this month were killed by the virus.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 26, China’s Xinhua news
agency reported that China has developed vaccines that block the spread
of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu among birds and mammals.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 30, Indonesia's first
polio outbreak in a decade widened with two new cases reported, as the
government kicked off a massive eradication campaign that aims to
vaccinate 6.4 million children in one day.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 Jun 6, Scientists reported
success with monkeys in using vaccines to fend off the Ebola and
Marburg viruses.
(SFC, 6/6/05, p.A2)
2005 Jun 11, US officials said a
cow had tested positive for mad cow disease in November, opening the
door to possible changes in testing procedures in the US beef industry.
The cow was later identified as being calved in Texas in 1993.
(AP, 6/11/05)(WSJ, 6/30/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 15, Indonesia reported
its 1st human case of bird flu.
(SFC, 6/16/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 15, Vietnam reported 6
new cases of bird flu in the past week.
(WSJ, 6/15/05, p.A15)
2005 Jun 20, In Vietnam officials
said 2 more people from northern Vietnam have been sickened with bird
flu, and thousands of chickens have dropped dead in the south.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 21, US researchers said a
common virus that is harmless to people can destroy cancerous cells in
the body and might be developed into a new cancer therapy. The
adeno-associated virus type 2, or AAV-2, infects an estimated 80
percent of the population.
(Reuters, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 21, Austria’s Health
Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat announced a cow in an alpine farm Austria
has been found to be infected with mad cow disease.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 25, Taiwan reimposed a
ban on imports of American beef after the US confirmed its second case
of mad cow disease.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun 30, A Cambodia doctor
reported that 2 infants have died in Cambodia from influenza, part of
an outbreak that has hospitalized more than 1,000 children. He said the
illness appears to be a form of human flu, not the avian influenza.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun, NYC doctors reported
outbreaks of imipenem resistant Klebsiella.
(SSFC, 1/20/08, p.A10)
2005 Jul 5, It was reported that
French and South African researchers had found that circumcision
reduces the risk of AIDS by 70%.
(WSJ, 7/5/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 26, Chinese health
officials reported that over the last 4 weeks an unidentified illness
has killed 19 farmers and sickened 80 in southwestern China after they
butchered sick pigs or sheep. The pigs in question were infected with
streptococcus bacteria, a common pathogen in humans and domestic
animals.
(AP, 7/26/05)
2005 Jul 30, The death toll in
China from a mysterious pig-borne disease continued to rise, with
several more cities affected. Sichuan province in southwestern China
has launched a campaign to educate poor, illiterate farmers not to
slaughter sick pigs or eat their meat after an outbreak of swine flu
hit about 100 villages and killed at least 34 people.
(Reuters, AFP, 7/30/05)
2005 Jul 30, A Russia newspaper
reported that a strain of bird flu harmful to humans has been found in
an outbreak of the disease in Siberia.
(AP, 7/30/05)
2005 Nov 15, Data was published
indicating that Mosquitrix by GlaxoSmithKline of Belgium, an
experimental vaccine against malaria given to children in Mozambique in
2003, cut clinical cases by 35%.
(Econ, 11/19/05, p.85)
2005 Nov 19, It was reported that
the Nipah virus, naturally found in bats, had moved to Malaysian pigs.
It killed about 40% of the 265 people it had infected.
(Econ, 11/19/05, p.85)
2005 The vaccine Menactra, to
prevent meningococcal meningitis, was licensed in the US. It was
manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur, a unit of Sanofi-Aventis.
(WSJ, 8/4/08, p.D1)
2005 There was a measles outbreak
among school children in Indiana. In 2006 the CDC attributed it to
home-schooled children whose parents avoided vaccinations out of safety
concern. The outbreak was later traced to a 17-year-old girl who had
traveled to Romania without getting vaccinated.
(WSJ, 8/3/06, p.A1)(SFC, 12/22/06, p.A18)
2006 May 12, US Federal
authorities said the number of confirmed cases of a rare fungal eye
infection that can cause blindness has climbed to 122, most of them
contact-lens wearers who reported using Bausch & Lomb Inc.'s newest
lens cleaner. In Oct, 2007, Bausch & Lomb was acquired by private
equity firm Warburg Pincus for $3.67 billion. Chief Executive Ronald
Zarrella said the deal would allow the company "to pursue the growth
path we were on ... without a lot of outside distraction." Zarrella
retired in 2008. As of 2009 away from the glare of public scrutiny, the
optical products company quietly settled nearly 600 fungal-infection
lawsuits with dozens more individual claims yet to be resolved. The
cost so far: Upward of $250 million.
(AP, 5/12/06)(AP, 6/1/09)
2006 May 25, Researchers confirmed
that the human AIDS virus originated in a corner of Cameroon in wild
chimpanzees. The first known human to be infected with HIV was a man
from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1959.
(SFC, 5/26/06, p.A2)(WSJ, 5/26/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 7, Medical experts said a
killer strain of drug-resistant tuberculosis has been found in at least
28 hospitals across South Africa and that it jeopardized efforts to
deal with AIDS.
(SFC, 9/8/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 14, The Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation awarded $68.2 million to fight parasitic diseases that
included leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis and hookworm. The new money
will support efficacy trials in India and Africa.
(WSJ, 9/14/06, p.A11)
2006 Sep 14, US federal health
officials said an outbreak a deadly strain of E. coli (0157:H7) had
left at least one person dead in Wisconsin over 100 others sick and
warned consumers not to eat bagged fresh spinach. The outbreak in 8
states soon extended to 25. 2 more deaths were suspected and the number
sickened rose to 173. Most of the spinach crop at this time of the year
comes from California. A special effort was under way in the Salinas
Valley of California, a major leafy-vegetable growing region, to look
for any possible source of contamination there. The outbreak was traced
to California’s Natural Selection Foods, which recalled all suspect
products. This was the same deadly strain that in 1982 had sickened at
least 47 people in Oregon and Michigan who ate McDonald’s burgers. A
surveillance system setup after a 1993 outbreak at the Jack-in-the-Box
fast food chain helped single out spinach as the likely source of this
outbreak.
(AP, 9/14/06)(WSJ, 9/18/06, p.A1)(SFC, 9/23/06,
p.A9)(WSJ, 9/25/06, p.A4)
2006 Sep 28, The US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention warned that travelers to parts of Africa
and Asia are returning with a new mosquito-borne virus. Some people
returning to Europe, the US, Canada, Martinique and French Guyana
reported cases of Chikungunya fever (CHIKV). The virus first emerged in
Tanzania in 1953.
(Reuters 9/28/06)
2006 Oct 31, Scientists reported
that the Fujian-strain of H5N1 avian influenza has become dominant in
southern China.
(SFC, 10/31/06, p.A2)
2006 Nov 21, The UN said an
estimated 4.3 million people were infected with HIV, the virus that
causes AIDS, in the last 12 months. The UNAIDS report estimated that
the total number of people infected with HIV stood between 34-47
million.
(http://tinyurl.com/tajka)(Econ, 11/25/06, p.84)
2006 Dec 7, Researchers said the
Ebola virus may have killed more than 5,000 gorillas in West Africa
(Congo-Gabon), enough to send them into extinction if people continue
to hunt them.
(Reuters, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 16, Indian health
officials said nearly 30 children have died this month of
mosquito-borne encephalitis in northern India, taking the toll since
July to 401.
(AP, 12/16/06)
2006 Dec 27, A 26-year-old
Egyptian man died of bird flu, the third member of his extended family
to die of the virus.
(AP, 12/27/06)
2006 In California an epidemic of
valley fever, clinically known as coccidioidomycosis, resulted in over
5,500 cases and 33 deaths. The cases included 514 among inmates at
Pleasant Valley State Prison. The disease was endemic in the southwest
US and was triggered by spores rising from disturbed soil.
(SFC, 12/29/07, p.A3)
2006 The WHO estimated that
malaria infected up to 500 million people per year. Malaria killed
nearly one million people worldwide this year with children under five
and African countries bearing the brunt, according to a 2008 WHO
report. Later in 2008 WHO halved its estimate of world-wide malaria
cases to 247 million.
(Econ, 2/4/06, p.71)(AFP, 9/18/08)(WSJ, 9/19/08,
p.A1)
2007 Jan 7, A senior Kenyan health
official said about 75 people have died of Rift Valley fever
(hemorrhagic fever) during the past three weeks and another 183 are
infected with it. The last outbreak of the disease in East Africa was
between 1997-1998, when 478 people died in Somalia and Kenya. Currently
there was no human vaccine.
(AP, 1/8/07)(WSJ, 1/9/06, p.A1)
2007 Feb 15, Government scientists
struggled to pinpoint the source of the first US salmonella outbreak
linked to peanut butter. Nearly 300 people in 39 states have fallen ill
since August, and federal health investigators said they strongly
suspect Peter Pan peanut butter and certain batches of Wal-Mart's Great
Value house brand, both manufactured by ConAgra Foods.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 15, Nadia Abdel Hafez, an
Egyptian woman (37), died of bird flu in a Cairo hospital and a boy, 5,
became the 22nd Egyptian to test positive for the deadly disease.
(Reuters, 2/16/07)
2007 Apr 7, It was reported that
injections of Mycobacterium vaccae into mice caused their immune
systems to produce serotonin. This neurotransmitter, when low in
humans, was known to be related to depression.
(Econ, 4/7/07, p.79)
2007 Apr 25, UCSF biochemist Joe
DeRisi said he found genes of the single-celled, spore producing
parasite Nosema ceranae in dead bees. Researchers in Spain had recently
shown that the parasite is capable of wiping out a beehive.
(SFC, 4/26/07, p.A1)
2007 May 7, Hong Kong newspapers
reported that an unidentified animal illness has spread in two southern
Chinese cities, infecting at least 1,300 pigs and killing more than
300. The diseased pigs began dying in Gaoyao and Yunfu in Guangdong
province following Chinese New Year celebrations in February. The
illness, which killed at least 300 pigs, was soon identified as a
strain of blue ear disease. Blue ear disease, also called porcine
reproductive and respiratory syndrome, was first identified in the
United States in 1987.
(AP, 5/8/07)(SFC, 5/8/07, p.A17)(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 29, Andrew Speaker (31),
a lawyer from Atlanta with a rare and dangerous form of tuberculosis,
ignored doctors' advice and took two trans-Atlantic flights, leading to
the first US government-ordered quarantine since 1963. Italian
officials said they were tracing the movements of Speaker, who
honeymooned in Rome for two days despite being told to turn himself in
to health authorities.
(AP, 5/29/07)(AP, 5/30/07)(Reuters, 6/1/07)
2007 Jun 7, It was reported that
UCSF researchers had identified a new species of bacteria, Bartonella
rochalimae, in an American tourist who was sickened after spending 3
weeks trekking in Peru. It was named after Henrique da Rocha-Lima, a
Brazilian scientist who decades ago identified the bacterium that
causes typhus.
(SFC, 6/7/07, p.B1)
2007 Jul 14, A miner (29) died in
western Uganda from the deadly Marburg virus, first discovered in 1967.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.40)
2007 Jul 24, Jolee Mohr (36) died
in Chicago just weeks after beginning an experimental gene therapy
treatment from Targeted Genetics to ease the pain the rheumatoid
arthritis in her knee. Doctors later suspected an infection of
Histoplasma capsulatum.
(SSFC, 9/16/07, p.A21)(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 7, Scientists reported
that a widespread die-off of frogs, toads and salamanders is primarily
due to the chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Global
climate change was believed to encourage the spread of the fungus.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 7, The US FDA approved a
new drug to help patients with AIDS. Pfizer’s Selzentry is the first
anti-AIDS drug that blocks the CCR5 receptor, often used by the HIV
virus to enter white blood cells.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A4)
2007 Aug 16, It was reported that
a highly infectious swine virus, blue pork disease, had spread to 25 of
China’s 33 provinces, prompting pork shortages and an 85% increase in
pork prices over the last year.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.A15)
2007 Aug 20, In China Jia Youling,
chief veterinary officer, said that the Porcine Reproductive and
Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), aka as blue-ear pig disease, head been
brought under control. He said 257,000 pigs in 26 provinces had been
infected. 68,000 had died from the disease and 175,000 were destroyed.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.41)
2007 Aug, In Italy over a hundred
people became ill in Castiglione di Cervia, near Ravenna, with a
disease that was later identified as chikungunya, a tropical disease
spread by the tiger mosquito. This was the first such outbreak in
modern Europe.
(SSFC, 12/23/07, p.A22)
2007 Sep 1, The World Health
Organization (WHO) confirmed five human bird flu cases in Vietnam, four
of them fatal. The four, including two women, died between June 21 and
August 3 while a fifth person, a 29-year-old man, had recovered.
(Reuters, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 6, Scientists reported
that the Israeli acute paralysis virus, first identified in the Middle
East in 2004, is associated with the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD),
which was wreaking havoc on commercial bees in the US.
(SFC, 9/7/07, p.A8)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.83)
2007 Sep 14, In Martinique health
officials declared a dengue epidemic following the report of over 1,000
suspected cases in the last month.
(SFC, 9/17/07, p.A3)
2007 Sep 18, It was reported that
cranberry juice combats a wide range of bacteria, including those that
cause stomach ulcers, gum disease and food-borne illnesses as well as
urinary tract infections. Recent research suggested that astringent
compounds, called proanthocyanidins, in the berry may work to prevent
infection-causing bacteria from adhering to cells in the urinary tract.
(WSJ, 9/18/07, p.D6)
2007 Sep 25, The World Health
Organization said 8 more cases of Ebola have been identified in Congo,
raising to 17 the number of people confirmed to have contracted the
deadly illness.
(AP, 9/25/07)
2007 Sep 28, Britain’s deputy
chief veterinarian said bluetongue disease is circulating in Britain
after being reported in a cow at the weekend in southern England.
(AP, 9/28/07)
2007 Sep 28, Japan suspended
poultry imports from Canada after the H7N3 strain of avian influenza
was found on a Saskatchewan chicken farm.
(Reuters, 9/28/07)
2007 Sep 29, The Topps Meat Co.
expanded its recall of frozen hamburger patties to include 21.7 million
pounds of ground beef that may be contaminated with E. coli bacteria
that sickened more than a dozen people in eight US states.
(AP, 9/30/07)
2007 Sep 30, So far this year,
according to the Pan American Health Organization, 630,356 dengue cases
have been reported in the Americas, most in Brazil, Venezuela, or
Colombia, with 12,147 cases of hemorrhagic fever and 183 deaths. The
Dominican Republic has reported 25 deaths, while Puerto Rico claimed
5,592 suspected cases and three deaths.
(AP, 9/30/07)\
2007 Oct 11, A World Health
Organization official said 69 children in northern Nigeria contracted
polio following vaccination against the disease. Peter Eriki indicated
that around 10 percent of the Nigerian population has dodged the
vaccination campaign.
(AFP, 10/12/07)
2007 Nov 13, Britain’s government
said an outbreak of bird flu in eastern England is the deadly H5N1
strain of the disease. A two-mile protection zone and a six-mile
surveillance zone were created around the infected farm in Suffolk.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 20, Researchers said they
have decoded the gene map of a strain of extensively drug-resistant
tuberculosis and that their work has identified mutations that may help
develop better treatments.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 29, In Uganda a senior
Ministry of Health official said an Ebola outbreak has killed at least
16 people out of 51 confirmed cases. The first case was reported Nov.
10 in Bundibugyo district, 210 miles west of the capital, Kampala.
Uganda last had an outbreak of Ebola in October 2000, when 173 people
died. A new form of the Ebola virus was detected in the outbreak. The
death toll soon climbed to 21, including 8 doctors and health workers.
(AP, 11/29/07)(AP, 11/30/07)(Reuters, 12/1/07)(SFC,
12/8/07, p.B6)
2007 Dec 7, The World Health
Organization confirmed that the father of a Chinese man who died of
bird flu has been infected with the virus that causes the disease,
saying it could not rule out the possibility of human-to-human
infection.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 15, Pakistan's Health
Ministry issuing a statement saying six people had initially tested
positive for the virus last month, while the WHO said eight had been
reported. International health experts were dispatched to Pakistan to
help investigate the cause of South Asia's first outbreak of bird flu
in people and determine if the virus could have been transmitted
through human contact.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 12-2007 Dec 14, In South
Africa 49 patients, all with multidrug resistant (MDR) and extremely
drug resistant (XDR) TB, escaped through holes they had cut through the
perimeter fences of Jose Pearson Hospital in Port Elizabeth.
(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,317354,00.html)
2008 Jan 2, Becton, Dickinson and
Co said it received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration for
a test to identify the presence of two deadly healthcare-associated
infections: Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
(Reuters, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 24, Researchers at the J.
Craig Venter Institute of Rockville, Md., reported that they have built
from scratch a synthetic chromosome containing all the genetic material
needed to produce the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium, the tiniest
bacteria ever found.
(SFC, 1/25/08, p.A1)(Econ, 1/26/08, p.76)
2008 Jan 26, It was reported that
some 15,000 birds had died over the last month around Utah’s Great Salt
Lake due to avian cholera, caused by the bacterium Pasteurella
multocida. The disease was introduced into the wild during the 1940s
from US domestic poultry.
(SFC, 1/26/08, p.B6)
2008 Feb 14, Brazil flew 50,000
doses of yellow fever vaccine to Paraguay following an outbreak there,
the first in 34 years.
(SFC, 2/15/08, p.A4)
2008 Feb 23, It was reported that
Dr. Nathan Wolfe, a virologist at UCLA, was pushing for the creation of
the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative, a planet-wide network to
forecast epidemics before they happen.
(Econ, 2/23/08, p.97)
2008 Feb 27, The WHO confirmed the
first urban cases of yellow fever in Latin America in 60 years.
(WSJ, 2/28/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 11, The US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention said 26% of US teen girls are infected
with at least one sexually transmitted disease. The rate was highest
among blacks.
(AP, 3/11/08)(WSJ, 3/12/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 20, Brazilian officials
said an outbreak of dengue in Rio de Janeiro state has killed at least
47 people this year.
(SFC, 3/21/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 24, The WHO said polio
transmission has been stopped in Somalia.
(WSJ, 3/25/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 28, South Africa launched
a four million dollar program to track down tuberculosis patients who
have defaulted treatment, leading to resistant strains of the illness.
(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Apr 4, A South Korean
official said quarantine workers have destroyed more than 100,000
chickens following the first outbreak of a deadly strain of bird flu in
the country in more than a year.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 May 4, China's Health
Ministry issued a nationwide alert after the enterovirus 71 virus, or
EV-71, which causes hand, foot and mouth disease, infected more than
4,500 children in central Anhui province. The outbreak was centered
around Fuyang city, where 22 deaths have occurred.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 5, In China, state media
said a deadly viral outbreak that preys on children has appeared in
Beijing, and the number of infections in China has grown to more than
8,000. Enterovirus 71 was blamed and went on to kill at least 43 people
with over 24,000 sickened.
(AP, 5/5/08)(SFC, 5/24/08, p.A8)
2008 May 7, China’s state media
said the number of infections of hand, foot and mouth disease has grown
to more than 15,000 with 28 deaths.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 22, Bangladesh reported
its first confirmed case of human bird flu, but said the 16-month-old
victim had now recovered from the virus.
(AFP, 5/22/08)
2008 Jun 3, The Good Friends, a
Seoul-based humanitarian group, said that a highly contagious disease
has sparked a health alert with an estimated five or six children dying
every day since April 27 in North Korea’s city of Hoeryong. A doctor
said hand-foot-mouth disease could be spreading from China, where it
has killed several dozen children.
(AFP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 7, In Hong Kong a routine
inspection found chickens infected with H5N1 bird flu in a poultry
market. Authorities slaughtered 2,700 birds and banned live poultry
imports from China.
(WSJ, 6/9/08, p.A12)
2008 Jun 11, Hong Kong officials
found bird-flu virus at three more food markets and ordered the
slaughter of some 3,500 birds at retail outlets.
(WSJ, 6/12/08, p.A13)
2008 Jun 12, US health officials
said there were some 228 reported cases in 23 states of people falling
ill from salmonella-tainted tomatoes. The 1st patient had become sick
on April 10.
(WSJ, 6/12/08, p.A1)(SFC, 6/13/08, p.A2)(WSJ,
7/10/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 18, US food safety
officials said 383 people in 30 states have fallen ill in a Salmonella
outbreak linked to certain types of tomatoes.
(Reuters, 6/19/08)
2008 Jun 20, The widening
Salmonella outbreak sickened more than 550 people. US food safety
inspectors planned trips to Florida and Mexico this weekend to examine
tomato farms and distribution chains, hoping to pinpoint the source of
the outbreak.
(Reuters, 6/20/08)
2008 Jun 26, US government
officials confirmed 756 illnesses from salmonella tainted tomatoes.
(SFC, 6/27/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 27, The US CDC said at
least 810 Americans have been sickened by the strain Salmonella
Saintpaul in tomatoes. The source of the tomatoes was made difficult
due to the process of repacking tomatoes at distribution centers. As
the number sickened reached nearly 1000 CDC officials began to look at
other possibilities for the outbreak, including cilantro and jalapeno
and Serrano peppers.
(SFC, 6/28/08, p.B1)(WSJ, 7/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 27, Settlement documents
were filed for Steven Hatfill, a former Fort Detrick, Md., Army
scientist. He had been named in 2002 as a person of interest in the
2001 anthrax attacks. He will receive $5.8 million to settle his
lawsuit against the Justice Department. Hatfill claimed the Justice
Department violated his privacy rights by speaking with reporters about
the case.
(AP, 6/28/08)(SFC, 6/28/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 29, US researchers
reported that a drug called lodamin, developed using nanotechnology and
a fungus that contaminated a lab experiment, may be broadly effective
against a range of cancers.
(Reuters, 6/30/08)
2008 Jul 11, In the Netherlands
health authorities announced a Dutch woman, infected during a holiday
to Uganda by the contagious Marburg virus, had died overnight. The
Marburg virus is similar to Ebola and causes heavy bleeding. About 100
people who may have had contact with the woman were under surveillance.
(AFP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 17, The US government
lifted a salmonella warning on tomatoes, but still warned caution on
fresh jalapeno and serrano peppers.
(SFC, 7/18/08, p.A6)
2008 Jul 29, US Army scientist
Bruce E. Ivins died at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Maryland. Federal
prosecutors investigating the 2001 anthrax attacks were planning to
indict and seek the death penalty against Ivins in connection with
anthrax mailings that killed five people. Ivins, who was developing a
vaccine against the deadly toxin, committed suicide. On Feb 19, 2010,
the FBI formally closed his case concluding that Ivins acted alone in
the 2001 anthrax mailings.
(AP, 8/1/08)(AP, 2/20/10)
2008 Aug 2, The US Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) said that due to new tracking methods 40% more
people are infected by the HIV virus than was previosly believed.
(SSFC, 8/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 9, Morocco said it would
start vaccinating all livestock after the outbreak of Peste des Petits
Ruminants, a deadly viral disease, ahead of the Eid festival when
millions of animals are sacrificed.
(AFP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 9, Togo’s Health Ministry
said an outbreak of bird flu has been confirmed for the first time
since last year.
(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 11, Zimbabwe's health
minister said a cholera outbreak in a Harare suburb has killed at least
11 people.
(AP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 13, The Albert and Mary
Lasker Foundation announced Stanley Falkow (74), Stanford
microbiologist, was the winner of a $300,000 Lasker award for Special
Achievement in medical Science. His work helped to explain how
pathogens cause human diseases.
(SSFC, 9/14/08, p.B2)
2008 Sep 25, Iraq's Health
Ministry reported that a total of 327 cholera cases had been confirmed
in central and southern Iraq since an outbreak of the disease last
month.
(AP, 9/25/08)
2008 Sep, In China hepatitis C
infections were discovered after a patient who had received a
transfusion during an operation in Pingtang tested positive for the
disease. In 2009 police detained the director of the hospital, where at
least 64 people were infected with the potentially deadly liver disease
after receiving transfusions from blood collected illegally.
(AP, 4/2/09)
2008 Oct 1, Berhe Gebreegziabher,
the head of Ethiopia’s animal health in the agriculture ministry, said
an outbreak of African horse sickness has killed more than 2,000
horses, mules and donkeys in Ethiopia since March.
(AFP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 7, Zambia's ambassador
said Zambia and the World Health Organization (WHO) have joined the
hunt for a mystery illness that has killed four people in South Africa.
A South Africa, health official said the mystery disease may be
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever.
(AFP, 10/7/08)(Reuters, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 14, Chinese state media
reported that a ginseng injection contaminated by bacteria caused the
deaths of three people using the medicine to treat thrombosis and heart
disease.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Nov 5, In Mozambique a
medical officer said at least 50 people have died of cholera and more
than 100 have been taken to hospital since the disease broke out last
week in northern Manica province.
(AFP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 9, Doctors struggled to
contain an outbreak of cholera in a sprawling refugee camp near Congo's
eastern provincial capital of Goma, as new fighting ignited fears that
infected patients could scatter and launch an epidemic.
(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 12, Indonesian health
officials said test results from two laboratories in the capital came
back positive confirming that a girl (15) died of bird flu last week.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 19, Philippine health
officials said at least two people have died and more than 1,500 are in
hospital following a suspected outbreak of cholera in the southern
Philippines.
(AFP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 20, The US ambassador to
Harare, James McGee, said that a total of 294 people have been
confirmed dead from cholera in Zimbabwe, amid some 1,200 cases of the
water-borne disease.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 28, Zimbabwe’s opposition
said it has agreed on a draft constitutional amendment to allow the
formation of a power-sharing government, but obstacles still remain to
setting it up. The UN warned that cholera has killed 389 people in
Zimbabwe to date and that the disease is also spreading into
neighbouring Botswana and South Africa.
(AFP, 11/28/08)(Reuters, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 30, Zimbabwe's health
minister insisted that the country's crumbling medical system was
taking all necessary measures to combat a cholera epidemic, even as
more than 1,000 new cases were reported.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Dec 2, Zimbabwe slipped
deeper into crisis as the death toll from a cholera epidemic neared 500
and members of President Robert Mugabe's armed forces were accused of
taking part in a looting spree.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 9, Hong Kong health
authorities said more than 80,000 chickens will be slaughtered after
bird flu was found on a poultry farm, the first outbreak at a farm here
in nearly six years.
(AFP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 11, Hong Kong's
government confirmed that the deadly H5N1 virus was found at a poultry
farm, the first outbreak on a farm here in nearly six years.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 11, President Robert
Mugabe declared that Zimbabwe's cholera crisis was over, even as the UN
raised the death toll from the epidemic to 783.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 16, Chinese agricultural
officials ordered the slaughter of some 377,000 chickens after finding
the H5N1 bird flu virus in two areas of Jiangsu province.
(WSJ, 12/17/08, p.A14)
2008 Dec 23, Bangladeshi
authorities said a new outbreak of bird flu had been detected at a
village in the north of the country as they struggled to contain the
disease.
(AP, 12/23/08)
2008 Dec 30, Congo’s health
minister said An Ebola virus outbreak has killed 11 people in western
Congo. Caritas, a Catholic charity, reported that over 400 people have
been killed in northeaster Congo since Christmas day.
(AP, 12/30/08)(SFC, 12/31/08, p.A3)
2009 Jan 5, A Chinese woman (19)
died from bird flu in a Beijing hospital, but the World Health
Organization said the case did not appear to signal a new public health
threat.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 6, The WHO said at least
1,732 people have died in Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic and the number of
cases diagnosed has risen to 34,306.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 7, US health officials
said an outbreak of salmonella food poisoning has made 388 people sick
across 42 states, sending 18 percent of them to the hospital.
(Reuters, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 12, Minnesota officials
said lab tests had confirmed salmonella bacteria in a five pound
container of King Nut brand peanut butter. King Nut of Solon, Ohio, had
recalled the product on January 10. At least 6 people had been killed
and over 470 sickened nationwide in 43 states.
(WSJ, 1/13/09, p.A2)(SFC, 1/20/09, p.A12)
2009 Jan 13, The WHO said
Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic has killed more than 2,000 people and
almost 40,000 have contracted the normally preventable disease in
Africa's worst outbreak in nearly a decade.
(Reuters, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 14, South Africa’s health
ministry said the death toll from a cholera outbreak has risen to 15,
with more than 2,100 cases registered in a spillover from Zimbabwe's
epidemic. The UN said the death toll from Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak
has risen to 2,106.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 16, Kellogg Co. of Battle
Creek, Mich., recalled 16 products containing peanut butter due to
possible salmonella contamination as federal officials confirmed
contamination at a Georgia facility that ships peanut products to 85
food companies. On Jan 21 federal health authorities confirmed that
peanut butter and paste made by a Virginia company were the sole
sources of the outbreak. The Blakely, Ga., facility was owned by Peanut
Corp. of America, based in Lynchburg, Va.
(SFC, 1/17/09, p.A2)(WSJ, 1/22/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 20, In central China a
16-year-old boy infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus died, the
country's third fatality from the disease this month.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 21, Indonesia’s Health
Ministry said 2 people have died of bird flu, apparently after contact
with sick chickens, raising the country's death toll to 115.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 24, Mariana Bridi (20),
Brazilian model, died from complications related to a generalized
infection caused by the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The bacteria
is known to be resistant to multiple kinds of antibiotics. The
infection reduced the flow of oxygen to her limbs, causing her feet to
be amputated last week and her hands this week.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, China announced the
death of a 31-year-old woman from bird flu, its fourth human victim
this year, sparking fears of an outbreak during the country's main
festive season.
(AFP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 26, China’s state media
reported that an 18-year-old man has died from bird flu in southern
China, the fifth human death from the virus in the country this year.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 28, Peanut Corp. expanded
its recall to all peanut products produced at its Blakely, Ga., plant
since Jan 1, 2007, due to a salmonella outbreak.
(SFC, 1/29/09, p.A3)
2009 Feb 25, Kenya announced its
first polio infection in 20 years, after a 4-year-old girl was
diagnosed with the disease along the country's remote border with Sudan.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 27, The UN Children's
Fund said 53 million children are being targeted by a mass immunization
drive against polio in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger,
Nigeria, and Togo. Some 844 polio cases were reported in the 8
countries in 2008, 95% of them in Nigeria.
(AFP, 2/27/09)
2009 Mar 3, An official said 4
Indonesians have died of bird flu over the last 2 months, bringing the
death toll in the country over the past several years to 119.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 5, In Zimbabwe PM Morgan
Tsvangirai said more than 4,000 people have died in the cholera
epidemic that has hit at least 85,000 people, warning the figures were
likely an underestimate.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 24, Cepheid, a Sunnyvale,
Ca., gene-based test developer, said it has devised a rapid, sensitive
diagnostic test for tuberculosis and will make it available at reduced
cost in developing countries. The new automated test gives results in 2
hours.
(SFC, 3/25/09, p.C1)
2009 Mar 24, The WHO's annual
report on TB, presented in Rio, indicated that there were 1.37 million
cases of people with both TB and HIV in 2007, the latest year for which
statistics are available. About 700,000 people were infected with both
in 2006.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Mar 24, Indonesia's
controversial Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said she wants to
end vaccinating children against meningitis, mumps and some other
diseases because she fears foreign drug companies are using the country
as a testing ground.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Mar 26, Chinese health
officials said that hand, foot and mouth disease has sickened 41,000
people across the country and killed 18 children so far this year.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 12, In Germany a
scientist accidentally pricked her finger with a needle used to inject
the deadly Ebola virus into lab mice. Within 48 hours of the accident,
the at-risk scientist, a woman (45) whose identity has not been
revealed, was injected with an experimental vaccine from Canada.
After 2 weeks the woman appeared to be healthy. At the time of the
accident, she was wearing three layers of protective gloves, and though
the needle stuck her, the plunger of the syringe was not pushed so it's
not certain the virus entered her bloodstream.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 28, An Egyptian health
ministry spokesman said a two-year-old girl has contracted bird flu,
the 60th reported case since the first outbreak of the disease in the
country in 2006.
(AP, 3/28/09)
2009 Mar 30, Argentina’s health
minister acknowledged that the country was in the middle of a dengue
fever epidemic with nearly 8,000 people infected. Neighboring Bolivia
had about 51,000 cases reported, while Brazil counted some 40,000 cases.
(http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46371)(SSFC,
4/19/09, p.G3)
2009 Apr 7, In Texas Jon Dale
Jones (46), a former Army hospitcal nurse, pleaded guilty to assault
and theft. He was accused of infecting 15 patients with hepatitis C.
Jones was arrested on federal charges in March of 2008 for using dirty
needles to administer anesthesia, and accused of stealing painkillers
for himself.
(SFC, 4/8/09, p.A5)(www.mahalo.com/Jon_Dale_Jones)
2009 Apr 8, The international Red
Cross said a polio outbreak, that now affects 15 African countries,
threatens efforts to eradicate the disease.
(AFP, 4/8/09)
2009 Apr 17, In Norway a $225
million fund to provide low-price anti-malaria medicine around the
world was launched in Oslo to fight a disease that kills 2,000 children
a day.
(AP, 4/18/09)
2009 Apr 18, In Egypt the
state-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported that an Egyptian woman has
contracted bird flu in the second case in the country in as many days.
(AFP, 4/18/09)
2009 Apr 23, The US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention reported that 7 people have been
diagnosed with a new kind of swine flu in California and Texas.
(Reuters, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 24, Mexico’s Health
Secretary Jose Cordova said private and public schools in Mexico city
have been ordered to remain closed due to a flue epidemic. At least 20
people have died nationwide from the flu in the last three weeks.
(AP, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 24, In Egypt a woman (33)
died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the third death from the disease
in Egypt this week.
(AFP, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 25, Mexico City suspended
all public events for 10 days as officials tried to contain an outbreak
of a deadly new swine flu. Tests showed 20 people have died of the
swine flu, and 48 other deaths were probably due to the same strain.
(AP, 4/25/09)
2009 Apr 25, The World Health
Organization called an emergency meeting of experts to consider
declaring an international public health emergency over the swine flu
outbreak believed to have killed dozens of people in Mexico and
sickened at least seven in the US.
(AP, 4/25/09)
2009 Apr 26, New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg said that the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention has confirmed that students at a city high school were
infected with swine flu. About 100 students complained of flu-like
symptoms at the school. Some students went to Cancun on a spring break
trip two weeks ago. The flu has spread beyond Mexico's borders with
confirmed cases in the US and suspected cases as far away as New
Zealand.
(AP, 4/26/09)
2009 Apr 26, Canada reported its
first confirmed cases of swine flu at opposite ends of the country,
with two cases in the western province of British Columbia and four in
the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia.
(Reuters, 4/26/09)
2009 Apr 27, US cases of the
deadly new flu strain rose to 40. Governments around the world acted to
stem a possible flu pandemic, as a virus that has killed 149 people in
Mexico and spread to North America was confirmed to have reached
Europe. Spain's Health Ministry confirmed the country's first case of
swine flu and said another 20 people are suspected of having the
disease.
(Reuters, 4/27/09)(AP, 4/27/09)(WSJ, 4/28/09, p.A1)
2009 Apr 28, World health
officials raised a global alert to an unprecedented level as swine flu
was blamed for more deaths in Mexico and the epidemic crossed new
borders, with the first cases confirmed in the Middle East and the
Asia-Pacific regions.
(AP, 4/28/09)
2009 Apr 29, The WHO raised its
alert for swine flu from level 4 to level 5, its 2nd highest alert
level. Austria and Germany confirmed cases of swine flu, becoming the
third and fourth European countries hit by the disease. US health
officials reported that a 23-month-old child in Texas has died from the
disease. The World Health Organization called an emergency meeting to
consider its pandemic alert level.
(AP, 4/29/09)(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A8)
2009 Apr 30, The Iraqi government
decided to kill three wild boars at the Baghdad Zoo amid worldwide
fears of swine flu. No date was set for their killing. Two US Marines
and a sailor were killed during combat operations in Anbar province.
(AP, 5/1/09)(SFC, 5/2/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 30, Mexican health
authorities said they confirmed 300 swine flu cases and 12 deaths due
to the virus among a total of 679 people tested so far.
(AP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 1, US cases of the H1N1
flu rose to 155, based on federal and state tallies. State laboratory
operators believe the number is higher because they are not testing all
suspected cases. Mexico raised its confirmed swine flu death toll from
15 to 16, adding that the total number of confirmed cases of the virus
had risen to 397. Worldwide, the total confirmed cases were 653, with
the real number also believed to be much larger.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, Canadian health
officials said a traveler has carried the new H1N1 virus from Mexico to
Canada, infecting his family and a herd of swine.
(Reuters, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, India's biggest drug
maker Ranbaxy announced the recall of an antibiotic, on sale in the US,
because of manufacturing problems, marking a new setback for the
company. The Japanese-controlled company said it was voluntarily
recalling all lots of nitrofurantoin capsules, an antibiotic used in
the treatment of urinary tract infections.
(AFP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, Mexico said it had no
confirmed deaths from HINI swine flu overnight, even as its confirmed
caseload grew to 443.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 3, Swine flu extended its
reach through Europe and Latin America, with at least five countries
reporting new cases. Health experts were investigating a case of the
virus jumping from a person to pigs, trying to determine if the disease
was reaching a new stage.
(AP, 5/3/09)
2009 May 3, Egyptian police fired
tear gas and clashed with irate pig farmers, leaving 12 people injured
as owners resisted the government's attempt to slaughter all the
nation's pigs to guard against swine flu.
(AP, 5/3/09)
2009 May 4, Mexico's health
secretary said most businesses will reopen May 6 nationwide, citing ebb
in the swine flu outbreak. The World Health Organization chief warned
that swine flu could return with a vengeance despite Pres. Felipe
Calderon insisting his country has contained the epidemic.
(AP, 5/4/09)(AFP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 6, New H1N1 flu cases
across Europe and a second US death kept health officials on alert
despite signs Mexico's epidemic had passed its peak. Mexican health
officials said that testing of backlogged cases has increased the
confirmed swine flu death toll from 31 to 42, including three new
deaths in the past two days.
(Reuters, 5/6/09)(AP, 5/6/09)
2009 May 7, Argentina and Brazil
confirmed five swine flu cases within their borders as the virus
affects more nations in South America.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 7, In Mexico high schools
and universities closed by the swine flu epidemic reopened as teachers
and parents carefully checked returning students for flu symptoms. The
death toll due to the HINI flu was raised to 44. Mexico City says all
businesses can reopen including sports arenas, museums, bars.
(AP, 5/7/09)
2009 May 8, In Canada a provincial
medical official said a woman from Alberta has died from the H1N1 flu
virus, making her the first Canadian to die from the virus.
(Reuters, 5/8/09)
2009 May 9, Australia and Japan
joined the ranks of affected countries with confirmed H1N1 swine flu.
New Zealand, the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to confirm
cases, reported two more for a total of seven.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 9, Costa Rica reported
the first swine flu death outside North America and the US announced
its third death from the virus, while Mexico delayed the reopening of
primary schools in some states.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 14, The World Health
Organization (WHO) said the number of confirmed cases of the new
Influenza A (H1N1) flu has climbed to 6,497, including 65 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/14/09)
2009 May 15, In Egypt a
three-year-old boy from north Egypt tested positive for the deadly H5N1
strain of bird flu in the second such case in two days. This brought to
71 the number of bird flu infections in Egypt.
(AFP, 5/16/09)
2009 May 16, Japan said 8 high
school students had tested positive for swine flu amid fears the virus
was spreading in at least two cities where scores of students said they
felt ill.
(AP, 5/16/09)
2009 May 17, In NYC Mitchell
Wiener, an assistant principal at a middle school, became the first
death linked to the H1N1 flu virus.
(SFC, 5/18/09, p.A3)
2009 May 17, Chile confirmed its
first two cases of swine flu in two women who arrived from the
Dominican Republic.
(AP, 5/17/09)
2009 May 18, In Japan health
officials said a wave of new confirmations sent the number of H1N1 flu
cases soaring to more than 120, prompting the government to order the
closure of schools and the cancellation of community events.
(AP, 5/17/09)
2009 May 18, In Egypt a 4-year-old
girl died of bird flu, making her the country's 27th death from the
virus since 2006.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 19, Inmates at a Mexico
City prison rioted over restrictions on visits due to swine flu, as the
country reported two more confirmed deaths, raising the toll to 74
nationwide.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 21, Japan’s PM Taro Aso
again urged the public to stay calm as a total of 292 swine flu cases
were reported, including the third in greater Tokyo, the world's
largest urban area.
(AFP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 23, It was reported that
millions of bats in at least 7 US states (Connecticut, New York,
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia) have
died from white-nose syndrome, a fungal diseases.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.36)
2009 May 26, The Red Cross said
the number of cholera cases in Zimbabwe is expected to cross the
100,000 mark in the coming days, warning that the epidemic was Africa's
worst in 15 years.
(AFP, 5/26/09)
2009 May 28, It was reported that
scientists have identified a lethal new virus in Africa that causes
bleeding like the dreaded Ebola virus. The so-called "Lujo" virus
infected five people in Zambia and South Africa last fall. Four of them
died, but a fifth survived, perhaps helped by a medicine recommended by
the scientists.
(AP, 5/28/09)
2009 May 23, Chikungunya, a
mosquito-born virus endemic to propical Africa and Asia, was reported
to have arrived in Albania and Italy.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.83)
2009 Jun 1, Chilean plumber,
Fernando Vera, died of swine flu, making him South America's first
swine-flu death.
(AP, 6/2/09)
2009 Jun 6, It was reported that
in South Africa HIV-AIDS continued to claim some 3,000 lives a week.
(Econ, 6/6/09, p.48)
2009 Jun 9, South African health
activist Thembi Ngubane (24) died of tuberculosis leaving behind a
daughter (4). Her radio diaries of her struggle against the AIDS virus
won her audiences and admiration around the world. Ngubane was 19 when
she was given a tape recorder to make an audio diary about living with
HIV in a country where nearly one third of young women are infected
with the virus.
(AP, 6/12/09)
2009 Jun 11, The World Health
Organization held an emergency swine flu meeting and declared the first
flu pandemic in 41 years as infections climbed in the United States,
Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere.
(AP, 6/11/09)
2009 Jun 12, Swiss pharmaceuticals
company Novartis AG said it has successfully produced a first batch of
swine flu vaccine weeks ahead of expectations.
(AP, 6/12/09)
2009 Jun 14, Thai PM Abhisit
Vejjajiva urged the country not to panic about swine flu, after the
number of cases grew nine-fold in four days and a cluster emerged in a
key tourist hub. Health authorities reported that confirmed cases of
the A(H1N1) virus soared to 150, compared with just 16 on June 10,
including a number of foreigners.
(AFP, 6/14/09)
2009 Jun 17, The number of
Nebraska cattle herds quarantined because of bovine tuberculosis
concerns jumped to 42 and Colorado and South Dakota were warned the
disease may have already spread there.
(AP, 6/17/09)
2009 Jun 20, It was reported that
that the H1N1 swine flu virus has spread to at least 76 countries and
caused over 160 deaths, and that Brazilian researchers have identified
a new strain of the virus.
(SFC, 6/20/09, p.D12)
2009 Jun 28, The US Agriculture
Department said a Colorado meat company is expanding a recall of beef
due to possible contamination by E.coli O157:H7 bacteria after an
investigation found 18 illnesses may be linked to the meat.
(Reuters, 6/28/09)
2009 Jun 30, Authorities in
Argentina's capital and Buenos Aires province declared health
emergencies and extended school vacations as the nation's swine flu
death toll surged to 35.
(AP, 6/30/09)
2009 Jul 5, It was reported that
Libya suffering an outbreak of bubonic plague and that
neighboring countries, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, were acting
to prevent its spread across the borders.
(SSFC, 7/5/09, p.M3)
2009 Jul 7, Canadian officials
said they had identified yet another new flu virus, this one a mixture
of human and swine influenzas, in two farm workers in Western Canada.
(Reuters, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 10, A US plant scientists
said late blight, which caused the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and
1850s, is killing potato and tomato plants in home gardens from Maine
to Ohio and threatening commercial and organic farms.
(Reuters, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 10, Millions of
Argentines stayed home from work, churches in Bolivia canceled Mass and
Ecuador announced its first fatalities from swine flu, as the virus
continued its spread during the South American winter season.
(AP, 7/11/09)
2009 Jul 12, Thailand's swine flu
death toll rose to 18 as the government confirmed three more fatalities
and opened a vaccine plant to prevent tens of thousands of infections
across the country.
(AFP, 7/12/09)
2009 Jul 20, In Australia
Adelaide-based Vaxine began swine flu vaccine trials with 300 subjects.
Melbourne's CSL had 240 people in its seven-month trial, which started
Jul 22. The companies said their trials are the first tests of a swine
flu vaccine on humans.
(AP, 7/22/09)
2009 Jul 21, The WHO said
that deaths from the H1N1 swine flu virus have double in the past
3 weeks to over 700.
(SFC, 7/22/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 23, Arab health ministers
decided to ban children, the elderly and those with chronic medical
conditions from attending the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia
this year in effort to slow the spread of swine flu.
(AP, 7/23/09)
2009 Jul 30, Zimbabwe's health
minister said a cholera epidemic has ended, after more than 4,200
deaths and 100,000 cases since last August, but warned new outbreaks
remain a threat.
(AP, 7/30/09)
2009 Aug 1, China’s Ziketan town
in Qinghai province was put under collective quarantine when laboratory
tests showed it had been struck by the highly virulent disease. 2 of
its residents had recently died from pneumonic plague, which spreads
through the air, making it easier to contract than bubonic plague,
which requires that a person is bitten by an infected flea. Its
fatality rate was up to 100% if left untreated, compared with 60% for
bubonic plague.
(AFP, 8/2/09)
2009 Aug 11, In Indonesia UNAIDS
regional director Prasada Rao cited a new report saying more than 1.5
million women living with HIV in Asia were infected by their partners
and 50 million more are at risk of infection. Rao spoke on the
sidelines of the ninth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the
Pacific (ICAAP), which is being held on the Indonesian resort island of
Bali.
(AFP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 21, Chile's health
ministry said it ordered a quarantine for two turkey farms outside the
port city of Valparaiso after genetic tests confirmed sick birds were
afflicted with the same swine flu virus circulating in humans.
(AP, 8/21/09)
2009 Sep 6, In Ecuador Lt. Col.
John Merino, President Rafael Correa's chief of security, died of swine
flu. Ecuador has reported 36 confirmed deaths from swine flu as of last
week, along with 1,382 infected.
(AP, 9/7/09)
2009 Sep 13, The Afghan health
ministry said it has so far recorded 673 cases of cholera countrywide
in almost a third of the country's 34 provinces, including Kabul. No
deaths have been reported. A British soldier was killed in an attack on
a foot patrol in Helmand province. A 2nd NATO service member died in a
bomb blast in the south.
(AFP, 9/13/09)(AP, 9/14/09)
2009 Sep 18, It was reported that
some 20-50 thousands birds have died along the shore of Utah’s Great
Salt Lake so far this year from avian botulism.
(SFC, 9/18/09, p.A21)
2009 Sep 18, Australia approved a
vaccine against swine flu and said it would start administering the
medicine this month to its most at-risk citizens, including medical
staff, pregnant women and the chronically ill. Regulators approved CSL
Ltd.'s vaccine for people above age 10, but the Therapeutic Drug
Administration was awaiting the results of more clinical trials before
approving it for younger children.
(AP, 9/18/09)
2009 Sep 23, The 20-member African
Leaders Malaria alliance began a campaign to stop malaria from killing
an estimated 1 million people in Africa each year.
(SFC, 9/24/09, p.A2)
2009 Oct 1, A Nigerian official
said 9 people died and several others were hospitalized this week
following a cholera outbreak in northern Taraba State, bringing the
death toll in the region to 97 over the last few weeks.
(AFP, 10/2/09)
2009 Oct 8, Leaders of the
Dominican Republic and Haiti agreed to cooperate in a campaign aimed at
eradicating the last vestiges of malaria from the islands of the
Caribbean by 2020.
(AP, 10/8/09)
2009 Oct 16, In northern Nigeria
the toll in a cholera outbreak rose to 149 with 52 more deaths
recorded. The disease was first reported on September 10 in Gwoza local
government on the border with Cameroon from where it spread to six
other districts.
(AFP, 10/16/09)
2009 Oct 22, In the Philippines
outbreaks of leptospirosis, spread by water contaminated with the urine
of rats, dogs and other animals, have compounded the problems faced
after back-to-back storms since late last month killed more than 900
people. The WHO said it will send an emergency team to help fight a
bacterial disease outbreak that has killed at least 148 people and
sickened nearly 2,000 in and around the flood-hit capital.
(AP, 10/22/09)
2009 Oct 23, The World Health
Organization said nearly 5,000 people have reportedly died from swine
flu since it emerged this year and developed into a global epidemic.
(AP, 10/23/09)
2009 Oct 23, President Barack
Obama signed a declaration making the swine flu outbreak a national
emergency, giving his health chief the power to let hospitals move
emergency rooms offsite to speed treatment and protect noninfected
patients.
(AP, 10/25/09)
2009 Oct, Researchers found that a
bug named xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV)
occurred in 67% of patients suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome
(CFS). The bug had already been implicated in prostate cancer, breast
cancer and lymphoma.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.80)
2009 Nov 4, The US Dept. of
Agriculture said pigs in a commercial herd in Indiana have tested
positive for swine flu, making it the first time the virus has been
found in such hogs.
(SFC, 11/5/09, p.A9)
2009 Nov 4, A Nigerian senior
health official said a fresh cholera outbreak has killed 20 people and
left 200 others infected in northern Adamawa State in the past week.
(AFP, 11/4/09)
2009 Nov 4, The London-based
indigenous rights group Survival International said Swine flu has
appeared among the Yanomami Indians of Venezuela, one of the largest
isolated indigenous groups in the Amazon. A local doctor and that the
virus is suspected in seven deaths, including six infants.
(AP, 11/4/09)
2009 Nov 6, The aid agency
Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) warned that Southern
Sudan is facing a "serious outbreak" of the deadly kala azar tropical
disease. Kala azar, or visceral leishmaniasis, is a neglected tropical
disease contracted by the bite of a sand fly, endemic in some parts of
southern Sudan. Without treatment, almost all victims die within one to
four months. If treatment is received on time, some 95% can recover.
(AFP, 11/6/09)
2009 Nov 9, The Afghan Ministry of
Public Health said that 710 of the 779 cases of H1N1 reported since
early July have been among Afghan, US and Italian troops. The 11 people
who have died from the virus were all Afghans, including one soldier.
(AP, 11/9/09)
2009 Nov 21, Saudi health
officials announced the first deaths from swine flu of this year's
annual pilgrimage to Mecca, as four pilgrims succumbed to the disease
soon after arriving in Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2009 Nov 25, A Chinese health
official said eight cases of swine flu mutation have been detected amid
longstanding concerns among scientists that the virus could change into
a more dangerous form.
(AP, 11/25/09)
2009 Nov 29, Saudi officials said
5 people died from swine flu during the hajj, a relatively small number
considering the event is the largest annual gathering in the world and
was seen as an ideal incubator for the virus.
(AP, 11/29/09)
2009 Nov 30, An Algerian health
organization (AnisS) warned that thousands of its people are
unknowingly infected with the AIDS virus and called for more testing
and prevention efforts.
(AFP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, In South Africa Pres.
Zuma said on World AIDS Day that all HIV-positive babies will be
treated and testing expanded, a dramatic and eagerly awaited shift in a
country that has more people living with HIV than any other.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 4, Kenyan health
officials said a cholera epidemic was sweeping across the country with
4,700 cases reported in the past month along with 119 deaths.
(SFC, 12/5/09, p.A2)
2009 Dec 10, The US Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) reported that nearly 10,000 people have died from
H1N1 influenza through Nov 14. Over 200,000 people were reported to
have been hospitalized since the beginning of the pandemic 7 months
earlier. 50 million America were estimated to have contacted the
disease.
(SFC, 12/11/09, p.A21)
2009 Dec 14, The World Health
Organization (WHO) said polio has re-emerged in several African
countries where it had been eradicated, at the start of a conference on
child immunization in Zimbabwe.
(AP, 12/14/09)
2009 Dec 18, South Korean trucks
crossed into North Korea delivering enough doses of antiviral drugs for
500,000 North Koreans. An estimated 50 people in North Korea have died
of swine flu since November. Han Su Chol, a North Korean health
minister, expressed thanks.
(SFC, 12/19/09, p.A4)
2009 Dec 14, Dr. Walter Stamm
(b.1945), a pioneer in the treatment of urinary tract infections, died
in Seattle. He demonstrated that many cases of PID are caused by
Chlamydia trachomatis and developed a test for the organism.
(SSFC, 12/27/09, p.C8)
2009 Chinese researchers announced
that they had reduced schistosomiasis infection rates in 2 villages
near Poyang lake by replacing water buffaloes, a parasite host, with
tractors and improved sanitation. The parasitic worm Schistosoma
japonicum, carried by tiny snails, caused schistosomiasis, which stood
as the world’s 2nd most prevalent disease.
(Econ, 6/20/09, p.43)
2009 In the Netherlands 6 people
died this year from Q-fever. Some 2,300 had become infected by Coxiella
burnetti, the infectious bug responsible for the disease. The bug is
released into the air during birthing or miscarriages by infected
goats. 40,000 pregnant goats were slated to be destroyedin early 2010.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.52)
2010 Jan 18, US officials said on
some 390 tons of ground beef produced by a California meat packer, some
of it nearly two years ago, is being recalled for fear of potentially
deadly E. coli bacterium tainting.
(Reuters, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 28, US researchers
reported the development of a prototype vaccine that protects monkeys
and mice against the emerging chikungunya virus. The mosquito-borne
virus first appeared on Reunion Island in 2005 and has spread to more
than 18 countries.
(SFC, 1/29/10, p.A13)
2010 Jan 30, In the Marshall
Islands the government considered invoking special powers of quarantine
as an outbreak of drug-resistant tuberculosis has been declared a
public health emergency.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Feb 12, The WHO said a
cholera outbreak on Papua New Guinea has killed at least 40 people over
the last several months.
(SFC, 2/13/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 25, Mozambique's health
minister, Leonardo Chavane, said 36 people have died this year from a
cholera outbreak in the northern and central parts of the southern
African country. he said the situation is worrying because new cases
are being reported daily and are complicated by rumors that health
staff are spreading cholera rather than fighting it.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 26, Health officials in
Puerto Rico declared an epidemic of dengue fever. Health Secretary
Lorenzo Gonzalez says 210 cases have been confirmed for January, more
than triple the number in the same month of 2007.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Mar 4, Brazil’s National
Health Surveillance Agency, Anvisa, ordered all 1,987 passengers and
765 crew to remain aboard the "Vision of the Seas" anchored at Buzios,
while teams of doctors treat the 195 passengers suffering vomiting and
diarrhea and determine the cause of their illness.
(AFP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 13, Mozambique's health
ministry spokesman said the country's cholera outbreak has now killed
42 people in the northern and central parts of the southern African
country.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 19, Polish authorities
said a herd of some 300 bison in southeastern Poland is at risk from
tuberculosis after one recently died of the disease.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 22, US scientist Rita
Colwell (76) won the $150,000 Stockholm Water Prize for her research on
the prevention of cholera and other waterborne diseases.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Apr 22, In Burkina Faso
Health Minister Seydou Bouda said a strain of meningitis, called X, has
killed 718 people out of 5,118 cases in the West African country since
January.
(AP, 4/23/10)
2010 Apr 22, The UN World Health
Organization and UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) asked for funds for
vaccinations saying almost 200 children have died of measles in 16
African countries in the first three months of this year.
(AFP, 4/22/10)
2010 Jun 3, In Geneva WHO
Director-General Margaret Chan said swine flu is still a pandemic, even
though the most activity appears to have passed. Last week WHO
confirmed 18,114 deaths from swine flu worldwide since that start of
the outbreak in April, 2009.
(SFC, 6/4/10, p.A2)
2010 Jun 18, The UN said a recent
measles outbreak in eastern and southern Africa has killed more than
700 people, threatening to reverse gains made over several years to
stem the disease.
(AP, 6/18/10)
2010 Jun 29, The government of
Mexico lifted the alert for swine flu, officially ending the health
emergency in the country where the illness first appeared 14 months ago.
(AP, 6/29/10)
2010 Jul 8, US federal researchers
said that they have identified a pair of naturally occurring antibodies
that are able to kill more than 90% of all strains of the AIDS virus.
(SFC, 7/8/10, p.A6)
2010 Jul 8, Dr. Thomas Peebles
(b.1921), measles researcher, died at his home in Port Charlotte, Fla.
His work in the 1950s enabled researchers to develop a vaccine against
measles.
(SFC, 8/6/10, p.C5)
2010 Jul 29, Ugandan officials
said an anthrax outbreak has killed 82 hippos in the last month and a
half.
(AP, 7/29/10)
2010 Aug 11, Researchers reported
that plastic surgery patients have carried a new class of superbugs
resistant to almost all antibiotics from South Asia to Britain and they
could spread worldwide. This so-called NDM-1 gene was first identified
last year by Cardiff University's Timothy Walsh in two types of
bacteria, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli, in a Swedish
patient admitted to hospital in India.
(AFP, 8/11/10)
2010 Aug 12, In Nigeria a senior
official said a cholera outbreak has killed 40 people while 115 others
have been infected in northern Nigeria's Borno State in the past week.
(AFP, 8/13/10)
2010 Aug 13, A Belgian man died
from a drug-resistant "superbug" originating in South Asia, the first
reported death from the bacteria. The superbug -- a bacterial gene
called New Delhi metallo-lactamase-1 (NDM-1) -- was first identified
last year in a Swedish patient admitted to hospital in India.
(AFP, 8/13/10)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Microbiology
Working list of organisms:
Bordatella pertussis causes whooping cough.
(SFC, 12/15/05, p.B5)
Campylobacteriosis is caused by campylobacter jejuni, a bacterium
common to poultry that causes acute intestinal disorders in people.
(SFEC,11/23/97, p.A1)
Clostridium difficile causes virulent diarrhea in the elderly. In 2004
2 Canadian hospitals reported over 100 deaths due to this bacterium
over the last 18 months. C. difficile makes poison-forming spores that
become reservoirs of infection. The rod-shaped bacteria tends to become
active in the human colon when antibiotics knock out beneficial
organisms.
(SFC, 8/9/04, p.A5)(Econ, 5/27/06, p.75)
Clostridium sordellii produces a potentially fatal toxin when swallowed
or introduced to a wound.
(SFC, 11/28/01, p.A5)
Cryptococcus gattii, a fungus normally found in Australia and other
tropical zones, was discovered on Vancouver Island, Canada, in 1999. By
2007 at least 8 people had died from infection and another 163 sickened.
(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.A11)
Enterobacter sakazakii infected a Portagen powdered infant formula in
2001.
(SFC, 4/13/02, p.A6)
Halobacterium, archaea kingdom, thrives in the saltiest bodies of water.
(NH, 6/01, p.56)
Leishmaniasis is a parasitic infection, often fatal, that is
transmitted by sand flies. In 2005 the antibiotic paromomycin was shown
to be effective against visceral leishmaniasis.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.C2)(Econ, 4/16/05, p.69)(SFC,
11/9/04, p.A6)
Leprosy now known as Hansen’s disease is caused by the mycobacterium m.
leprae bacillus.
(SFC,11/22/97, p.A11)
Mycobacterium fortuitum, a single-celled bacterium, rarely caused
infection in humans but can invade open wounds. Some 80 women in Santa
Cruz county came down with purple boils and lesions following pedicures
at a local nail salon in Watsonville.
(SFEC, 10/15/00, p.D10)
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the world’s #1 infectious killer. It hides
out in white blood cells and may enter a state of latency for years. It
seems to slow or stop replicating when nitric oxide levels are high.
(NH, 6/01, p.54)
Necrotizing fasciitis results from a tissue-dissolving bacterial
infection common to junkies.
(SSFC, 11/30/03, p.A1)
Prochlorococcus marinus, a cyanobacterium. The most abundant
photosynthetic microbe on Earth.
(NH, 6/01, p.52)
Rickettsia prowazekii, the typhus causing pathogen. It can survive only
within other cells.
(NH, 6/01, p.57)
Salmonella typhi, the cause of typhoid fever.
(ON, 7/01, p.11)
Serratia, a common bacteria found in soil, water, plants and animals.
(WSJ, 10/7/04, p.B6)
Trypanosoma cruzi, a protozoan carried by kissing bugs (barbeiros),
caused Chagas disease.
(WSJ, 4/11/07, p.A1)
Vibrio cholerae, a bacillus responsible for cholera.
(ON, 5/05, p.10)
Vibrio parahaemolyticus bacteria is carried by shellfish and can cause
diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, headache and fever
especially in people with weakened immune systems.
(SFC, 8/23/00, p.A20)
Vibrio vulnificus, a saltwater bacteria, is common in the Gulf and most
prevalent in coastal and bay waters in warmer months. The bacteria can
be ingested in contaminated seafood or absorbed through skin wounds.
(AP, 8/14/04)
Yersinia pestis bacteria causes plague and is spread by fleas carried
by rodents.
End of file