NOTE: Thank you to Vaccinations News and Dr. Y for allowing us to excerpt this post. Read more at Vaccination News. By F. Edward Yazbak MD On December 13, 2001, I published “Autism 2001: The Silent Epidemic”. It was the third yearly investigation I had published and to my knowledge, the first time anyone had ever described Autism as a “Silent Epidemic.” It is with sadness and trepidation that I use again, some 14 + years later, the same term to describe the latest significant and possibly inadvertently created iatrogenic epidemic. The May 2016 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care was a Special Issue totally devoted to Hepatitis C Viral Infections. According to M. Caffrey who reviewed the publication on May 4, 2016, the CDC has reported that: Some 20,000 individuals died from hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and complications in 2014, more than in any other prior year Because of poor reporting, it is likely that the death toll from the HCV infections was actually higher
Estimated cases of HCV disease doubled between 2010 and 2014 HCV infections - related complications had become the top cause of death among all 60 listed infectious diseases, including HIV and tuberculosis. It is likely that most of us in the United States were bombarded with more reports about two cases of Ebola, a couple of hundred cases of measles and Zero case of Zika microcephaly in the last 3 years than about the thousands of cases of Hepatitis C that, for reasons unknown, seemed to receive as much attention from the media as the autism disaster we have been battling for years. Nationwide, discussion of HCV disease has been mostly focused on new therapies, their availability and their exorbitant run-away prices but not on what really caused the spectacular increase in the number of patients with the disease. The focus of this presentation is the discussion of what may have suddenly caused this second “Silent Epidemic.” We are presently being repeatedly warned about shingles and how 1 out 3 individuals will suffer from that painful disease.
The message from Merck is that if you had chickenpox, the virus remains dormant in your body for years before it shows up as a very ugly and painful rash. This is usually followed by a gentle admonition to see your doctor or your pharmacist to discuss the available vaccine. The TV commercial does not mention that shingles was previously less common because after recovering from chickenpox, individuals who were constantly re-exposed to the disease in the community received frequent and substantial boosting of their own good and strong cellular mediated Varicella – Zoster Virus (VZV) immunity, thus preventing shingles except rarely in older individuals. In the past, pediatricians were convinced and told parents that chickenpox provided “lifetime immunity”. What many did not realize was that the life-long immunity was not only the result of the acute illness but also of the constant boosting of that immunity through recurrent exposures. This all changed when VARIVAX ®, a chickenpox vaccine was developed, approved in 1995 and administered to every child in the United States, quickly preventing chickenpox nationwide and in all likelihood contributing to the increased shingles incidence in spectacular fashion.
That in turn created a need for a shingles vaccine and ZOSTAVAX®, a concentrated chickenpox vaccine, was promptly developed. The vaccine was licensed in May 2006 and vigorously marketed. The vaccine’s overall efficacy in preventing shingles has been ~ 51%. ***Read the full article at Vaccination News.Centers for Disease Control and PreventionExserohilum, a type of black mold, has killed most of the victims in an outbreak of fungal meningitis.She had a history of pain, the 51-year-old woman who showed up at a Maryland emergency room with a headache so bad it made her face hurt. Within 10 days she was dead, one of the first victims of an outbreak of fungal meningitis that has killed at least 20 people and made nearly 260 sick. Follow us on Facebook Follow me on Twitter The case is the first to be described in medical detail, and shows that doctors need to act quickly if someone shows up with symptoms after having been given an injection that may have been contaminated with fungus.
She’d been treated for neck pain and a chronic condition called fibromyalgia that is defined by aches and pains all over the body and general weakness and fatigue. She had decided to try a new treatment, an injection in her neck of a steroid to help stop the pain there. It works in some patients – studies show it provides relief about half the time.It should have been an in-and-out procedure. The steroid injections are considered very safe. The woman had no risk factors, Dr. Jennifer Lyons of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reported. “She had not received injections previously, had no history of immune compromise or trauma, and was not taking any long-term medications,” they wrote in the report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.A week later, she developed the severe headache – so bad it drove her to the ER. Now, of course, doctors know that anyone who has had a steroid injection and shows up with symptoms like a severe headache should be checked for infection.
But this woman was one of the first affected, before word got out.Headaches are a common side-effect of any injection to the spinal cord. The ER staff did a CT scan to make sure she wasn’t having a stroke or perhaps suffering from a brain tumor and she was sent home.But she was back the next day, suffering from double vision and nausea. She was dizzy and off-balance – all classic symptoms of meningitis. But she didn’t have a fever and her blood looked normal: no evidence of the immune system reaction seen when meningitis is caused by bacteria or viruses. An MRI didn’t show anything amiss.All this time, the fungus must have been spreading through the patient’s brain and spine. (She hasn’t been identified in the report to protect her privacy and that of her family). State and federal investigators have found three different types of mold in samples of steroid taken from the New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts and from spinal fluid taken from some of the victims.The meningitis outbreak tied to steroid epidurals has killed five people so far, and originated from a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts.
NBC's Brian Williams reports.Fungal meningitis is rare, and most of the cases have been caused by a mold called Exhiloserum that had never been known to cause meningitis before. Doctors have reported that the mold seems to grow very slowly and cause very subtle symptoms at first.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes that quick treatment will help, and with the Food and Drug Administration has put out a call for doctors to proactively check with patients who have been treated with any product from NECC – especially injections.In the case of the 51-year-old woman, the steroid injection mainlined mold right into the fluid that bathes the brain and the spine.Her doctors didn’t suspect this, although they did an MRI and checked for viruses or bacteria. As she deteriorated, losing her ability to speak and breathe on her own, they dosed her with antivirals and antibiotics, as well as steroids. When they first checked her spinal fluid, it didn’t look that bad. Now doctors know that even small signs of inflammation might mean a patient is infected with these particular molds, and they should start immediate treatment with antifungals.
When she continued to worsen, mystified doctors transferred the patient to Johns Hopkins, where Lyons and a large team of colleagues took over.There tested her for herpes, shingles, Epstein-Barr virus, West Nile and another virus called cytomegalovirus. They even checked for fungus – a type of yeast called cryptococcus and one called histoplasma that is found in animal droppings and that can cause an alarming type of pneumonia. It would not have occurred to them to test for a black mold more commonly known for infecting grains, and the tests probably would not have shown it, anyway.By now the infection was showing up in her brain, and there was swelling at the place on her neck where she had been injected. By the ninth day she was in a coma and they started an antifungal drug, liposomal amphotericin B. But she was brain-dead the next day. Finally, tests revealed the Exserohilum black mold that had killed her.An autopsy showed it had ravaged her brainstem and eaten into blood vessels and her spinal cord.