- Helldivers 2 Patch Makes Weapon Shrapnel Your Deadliest Enemy Kotaku
- Helldivers 2 Dev to Patch the Eruptor After Community Investigation Reveals Ricochet and Shrapnel Issue IGN
- Massive ‘Helldivers 2’ Patch Notes: Stratagem, Weapon, Enemy Nerfs And Buffs Forbes
- Arrowhead confirms Helldivers 2 players aren’t being insta-killed by ricocheting rockets – shrapnel is the culprit, and it’s being patched out alongside a weapon buff Gamesradar
- Helldivers 2 devs explain why solo missions have more patrols, now: ‘the intention is that one player has 1/4th of the patrols … they had 1/6th’ PC Gamer
Tag Archives: deadliest
Breakthrough in fight against world’s deadliest cancer – new drug shrunk up to 70% of pancreatic tumors in lab – Daily Mail
- Breakthrough in fight against world’s deadliest cancer – new drug shrunk up to 70% of pancreatic tumors in lab Daily Mail
- Concurrent inhibition of oncogenic and wild-type RAS-GTP for cancer therapy Nature.com
- Investigational therapeutic shows promise in preclinical pancreatic cancer model Medical Xpress
- New treatment for pancreatic cancer patients now available in the Upstate WSPA 7News
- Revolution Medicines Announces Publications on the Discovery and Preclinical Profile of Representative of a New Class of RAS(ON) Multi-Selective Inhibitors Designed to Block Full Spectrum of Oncogenic RAS(ON) Proteins GlobeNewswire
‘Deadliest’ disease in world sweeping UK and victims are ‘symptomless’ – Birmingham Live
- ‘Deadliest’ disease in world sweeping UK and victims are ‘symptomless’ Birmingham Live
- ‘World’s deadliest infection’ may be silently infecting Brits as symptom-less victims spread Victorian dise… The Sun
- Study finds no persistent cough in four out of five individuals with tuberculosis in Africa and Asia Medical Xpress
- Mtb bacteria detected in exhaled breath of 90% of individuals presenting with suspected tuberculosis News-Medical.Net
- Tuberculosis can simply transmit by breathing: Scientists warn | TB can be picked up just by breathing | Inshorts Inshorts
Gaza sees ‘most deadliest night yet’ as Israeli barrage kills 400 people in 24 hours – Al Jazeera English
- Gaza sees ‘most deadliest night yet’ as Israeli barrage kills 400 people in 24 hours Al Jazeera English
- Bodies pile up in central Gaza as Israel steps up strikes FRANCE 24 English
- Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza reaches 4,651 Anadolu Agency | English
- Israel-Hamas war: ‘Heavy bombardments’ in Gaza, hospitals at risk | Israel-Palestine conflict News Al Jazeera English
- 4,651 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, over 14,245 wounded, since October 7: Gaza health ministry Deccan Herald
- View Full Coverage on Google News
‘Deadliest Catch’ stars reflect on facing ‘violent’ Bering Sea in new season: ‘It’s a younger person’s game’ – Fox News
- ‘Deadliest Catch’ stars reflect on facing ‘violent’ Bering Sea in new season: ‘It’s a younger person’s game’ Fox News
- WA deckhand joins ‘Deadliest Catch’s’ 19th season The Seattle Times
- ‘Deadliest Catch’ Season 19: Meet The New Cast Members & Everything Else To Know HollywoodLife
- Captain Andy Hillstrand: ‘Deadliest Catch’ star lives low-key life after Season 13 exit MEAWW
- Who Is New ‘Deadliest Catch’ Cast Member Sophia Nielsen? Distractify
- View Full Coverage on Google News
As egg prices soar, the deadliest bird flu outbreak in US history drags on
Enlarge / Chicken eggs are disposed of at a quarantined farm in Israel’s northern Moshav (village) of Margaliot on January 3, 2022.
The ongoing bird flu outbreak in the US is now the longest and deadliest on record. More than 57 million birds have been killed by the virus or culled since a year ago, and the deadly disruption has helped propel skyrocketing egg prices and a spike in egg smuggling.
Since highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) was first detected in US birds in January 2022, the price of a carton of a dozen eggs has shot up from an average of about $1.79 in December 2021 to $4.25 in December 2022, a 137 percent increase, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Although inflation and supply chain issues partly explain the rise, eggs saw the largest percentage increase of any specific food, according to the consumer price index.
And the steep pricing is leading some at the US-Mexico border to try to smuggle in illegal cartons, which is prohibited. A US Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told NPR this week that people in El Paso, Texas, are buying eggs in Juárez, Mexico, because they are “significantly less expensive.” Meanwhile, a customs official in San Diego tweeted a reminder amid a rise in egg interceptions that failure to declare such agriculture items at a port of entry can result in penalties up to $10,000.
Foul effects
Still, America’s pain in grocery store dairy aisles likely pales compared to some of the devastation being reaped on poultry farms. HPAI A(H5N1) has been detected in wild birds in all 50 states, and 47 have reported outbreaks on poultry farms. So far, 731 outbreaks across 371 counties. At the end of last month, two outbreaks in Weakley County, Tennessee, affected 62,600 chickens.
With the outbreak at the one-year mark, it is the longest bird flu outbreak on US record. And with 57 million birds dead across 47 states, it’s also the deadliest, surpassing the previous record set in 2015 of 50.5 million birds in 21 states.
Although the virus is highly contagious to birds—and often fatal—the risk to humans is low. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that the avian influenza Type A viruses (aka bird flu viruses) generally don’t infect humans, though they occasionally can when people have close or lengthy unprotected contact with infected birds. Once in a human, it’s even rarer for the virus to jump from human to human.
In the current outbreak, the CDC has tracked more than 5,000 people who have had contact with infected birds, but only found one single case of bird flu in a human. The reported case in Colorado came from a person who worked directly with infected birds and was involved with a cull. The person had mild symptoms and recovered.
Flu fears
Although the current data is comforting, virologists and epidemiologists still fear the potential for flu viruses, such as bird flu, to mutate and recombine into a human-infecting virus with pandemic potential. A report published in the journal Eurosurveillance on January 19 highlighted the concern. Researchers in Spain documented an outbreak of avian flu among farmed mink on the northwestern coast during October of last year. The mink were likely infected via wild seabirds, which had a coinciding wave of infection with H5N1 viruses at the time. Over the course of October, more and more mink fell ill, suggesting mink-to-mink transmission, which led to the culling of the entire colony of nearly 52,000 animals starting in late October.
Notably, the H5N1 virus infecting the mink had an uncommon mutation that may have enabled it to spread to and among the mink. Mammal-to-mammal transmission of an avian virus alone is noteworthy, but it’s particularly concerning in mink, which can act as viral blenders. As the authors of the Spanish report note:
Experimental and field evidence have demonstrated that minks are susceptible and permissive to both avian and human influenza A viruses, leading to the theory that this species could serve as a potential mixing vessel for the interspecies transmission among birds, mammals and human.
As such, the authors say it is necessary to “strengthen the culture of biosafety and biosecurity in this farming system and promote the implementation of ad hoc surveillance programs for influenza A viruses and other zoonotic pathogens at a global level.”
None of the workers on the mink farm became infected with the H5N1 virus, the authors report. However, they note that using face masks was compulsory for all mink farm workers in Spain following concerns over the spread of SARS-CoV-2. And upon the first detection of an illness at the farm, the workers there took precautions in case it was SARS-CoV-2, which included using disposable overalls, face shields, face mask changing twice per day, and frequent hand washing, all beginning on October 4.
Nepal finds black boxes of aircraft after deadliest crash in 30 years
KATHMANDU, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Searchers found the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder on Monday from a passenger flight that crashed, killing at least 70 people in Nepal’s worst plane accident for 30 years, officials said.
The data on the recorders may help investigators determine what caused the Yeti Airlines ATR 72 aircraft, carrying 72 people, to go down in clear weather on Sunday just before landing in the tourist city of Pokhara.
Both recorders were in good shape and will be sent for analysis based on the recommendation of the manufacturer, Teknath Sitaula, a Kathmandu airport official, told Reuters.
Under international aviation rules, the crash investigation agency of the country where the plane was designed and built is automatically part of the inquiry.
ATR is based in France and the plane’s engines were manufactured in Canada by Pratt & Whitney Canada (RTX.N).
Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority has inspected all ATR 72 and ATR 42 aircraft operating in the country since the crash and found no technical faults in them, it said in a statement on Monday.
There are currently 16 ATR 72 aircraft and three ATR 42s with multiple airlines in the country, an aviation authority official said.
Rescuers battled cloudy weather and poor visibility on Monday as they scoured a river gorge for passengers who are unaccounted for, more than 24 hours after the crash.
Two more bodies were recovered on Monday, taking the death toll to 70, said Navin Acharya, an official at the rescue coordination centre at Kathmandu airport. The search was called off for the remaining two missing people as darkness descended and will resume on Tuesday, he said.
Pokhara police official Ajay K.C. said all bodies had been sent to a hospital.
In the capital Kathmandu around 100 people lit candles at a gathering in memory of the crash victims and called on the government to ensure proper safety standards, witnesses said.
Condolences poured in from around the world, including the Vatican.
“His Holiness Pope Francis sends his condolences to you and to all affected by this tragedy, together with his prayers for those involved in the recovery efforts,” Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said in a message to Nepal’s president.
[1/7] A rescue team recovers the body of a victim from the site of the plane crash of a Yeti Airlines operated aircraft, in Pokhara, Nepal January 16, 2023. REUTERS/Rohit Giri
Reuters footage from the crash site showed rescuers looking at the charred remains of the plane near a mountain gorge.
The plane, on a scheduled flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara, gateway to the scenic Annapurna mountain range, was carrying 57 Nepalis, five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one person each from Argentina, Ireland, Australia and France.
Minutes before the aircraft was to land on Sunday, the pilot asked for a change of runway, a spokesperson for Pokhara airport said on Monday. “The permission was granted. “We don’t ask (why), whenever a pilot asks we give permission to change approach,” spokesperson Anup Joshi said.
Sunday’s crash underlined the need for the government to break up the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), which both regulates airlines and manages airports, experts said.
“The government must immediately separate the regulatory body and service provider by splitting the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) which is doing both works now,” K.B. Limbu, an aviation expert and a retired pilot, told Reuters.
“This leads to a conflict of interests.”
Asked for comment, Sitaula, the Kathmandu airport official, denied there was any such conflict in the functioning of CAAN.
“The regulatory and service provider (airport management) officials are separate and there is no cross-movement between the two bodies operating under the same organisation,” he said, referring to the CAAN.
There are nine domestic airlines in Nepal, including Yeti Airlines and its unit Tara Air. Yeti and Tara plane crashes have killed at least 165 people in Nepal since 2000 out of a total of 359 dead from aviation accidents, according to data from CAAN.
An additional 75 people have died in helicopter crashes this century in Nepal, which is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest, and where sudden weather changes can make for hazardous conditions.
Experts say air accidents are usually caused by a combination of factors, and investigations can take months or longer.
Anju Khatiwada, the co-pilot of Sunday’s ill-fated aircraft, lost her husband Dipak Pokhrel in a similar crash in 2006. Khatiwada’s remains have not been identified but she is feared dead.
Nepal observed a day of national mourning on Monday and set up a panel to investigate the disaster and suggest measures to avoid such incidents in future.
Reporting by Gopal Sharma, writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Shivam Patel; Editing by Gerry Doyle, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Mark Heinrich
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
One of The Deadliest Human Diseases Is Far Older Than We Ever Realized : ScienceAlert
Smallpox has left an unmistakable mark on human history, killing at least 300 million people in the 20th century alone. In spite of its notoriety, the virus’s origins still remain elusive.
Now, a team of scientists in Italy has pushed our best estimates for the emergence of smallpox back by another 2,000 years, verifying historical sources that suggested the disease has plagued human societies since ancient times, back when pharaohs ruled.
Advances in genetic sequencing technologies have enabled researchers to undertake increasingly detailed analyses on fragments of ancient viral DNA in recent years, inching them closer to knowing where and when smallpox emerged.
Thanks to a lucky find in Lithuania in 2016, scientists traced smallpox as far back as the 1500s using viral DNA lifted from the remains of a young boy. In 2020, viral DNA from Viking Age skeletons pushed genetic evidence for the latest emergence of smallpox back another few years, to some time before 1050 CE.
However, historical records have suggested something like smallpox plagued ancient societies even earlier than this. Descriptions of symptoms resembling those of the disease have been found in 4th-century texts from China, and Egyptian mummies with pockmark scarring also suggest smallpox was circulating some 3,000 to 4,000 years ago.
But definitive genetic evidence – akin to the molecular fingerprint of a virus – to support this theory has been hard to find.
Scientists can still infer a lot about a virus’s past and its evolutionary history when they have enough samples to compare. They can see how a virus has changed over time and work out how fast or slow a virus picks up genetic mutations. From there, scientists can wind the ‘molecular clock’ back to estimate when an ancestral version of the virus likely existed.
In the case of smallpox, the disease is caused by the variola virus or VARV. In this new study, bioinformatician Diego Forni of the Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Healthcare (IRCCS) in Italy led a team into taking another look at the genetic sequences of 54 VARV samples, retrieved from previously published works or a research database.
This included four ancient VARV genomes from the Viking Age and two historic VARV genomes from the 17th and 18th centuries, along with 48 modern VARV sequences from before smallpox was eradicated in 1980.
Using this set of viral sequences, the researchers reconstructed the evolutionary history of the smallpox virus, showing how it branched out from a single common ancestor into different strains that either spread around the world, or petered out.
In their models, they adjusted for the way the rate of viral evolution appears to slow down when looking at longer time spans and speed up over shorter time periods. The most recent common ancestor of all the VARV genomes, they found, dates back to around 3,800 years ago or earlier.
Comparing the VARV sequences to those of two related orthopoxviruses – taterapox (which infects gerbils) and camelpox – the analysis also showed that the smallpox virus ancestor split off from its relatives around 7,700 years ago.
That still leaves a pretty wide window for when smallpox may have spilled over into humans, somewhere roughly between 8,000 and 4,000 years ago, the researchers say. But even so, it adds to evidence suggesting smallpox has been with us for millennia longer than previous analyses of viral DNA samples had suggested.
“Variola virus may be much, much older than we thought,” says Forni. “This is important because it confirms the historical hypothesis that smallpox existed in ancient societies.”
While these new dating estimates put smallpox in the right timeframe to match historical accounts of Egyptian pharaohs bearing smallpox scars, some skepticism remains as to whether the disease was widespread back then, as contemporary written documents contain few mentions of smallpox-like symptoms.
“A number of other infectious diseases cause a rash similar to smallpox and only the sequencing of archaeological specimens will provide information on which ancient societies were affected by the disease,” Forni and colleagues conclude in their paper.
The study was published in Microbial Genomics.
Statins lower the risk of one of the deadliest kinds of strokes, study finds
CNN
—
Doctors know that drugs called statins lower a person’s risk of a stroke due to a blood clot. But a new study shows that the inexpensive medications can also decrease the risk of a first stroke as a result of an intracerebral hemorrhage, the deadliest kind.
An intracerebral hemorrhage is when blood from an artery suddenly begins to bleed into the brain. It’s the second most common cause of a stroke after a blood clot, which is called an ischemic stroke.
Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in the US, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Many can be prevented through lifestyle changes such as eating healthy, getting exercise and quitting smoking.
Statins are another powerful tool for stroke prevention. They work by reducing fatty deposits in the arteries and keeping them from building up to cut off blood to the brain. Globally, hundreds of millions of people take them to prevent heart problems or stroke.
There has been conflicting research on whether a statin can reduce a person’s risk of a first intracerebral hemorrhage. The new study, published Wednesday in the journal Neurology, seems to put a cap on some of that debate.
The researchers used prescription data and the health records of more than 88,000 people in Denmark who did not have a history of stroke. During the study period, 989 people (with an average age of 76) had a first bleeding stroke in the lobe area of the brain, and 1,175 (with an average age of 75) had one in the other parts of the brain.
The researchers distinguished between lobar vs. nonlobar strokes so they could look for differences in strokes in different parts of the brain; nonlobar strokes are often caused by high blood pressure.
The research was partially funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk makes drugs for the treatment of stroke, but the foundation was not involved in the study design or interpretation of the data, the researchers say.
People in the study who used statins for any period of time had a 17% lower risk of a stroke in the lobe areas of the brain and a 16% lower risk of a stroke in the non-lobe areas of the brain. When they used a statin for more than five years, they had a 33% lower risk of a bleeding stroke in the lobe areas and a 38% lower risk in the non-lobe areas.
“It’s reassuring news for people taking statins that these medications seem to reduce the risk of bleeding stroke as well as the risk of stroke from blood clots,” said study co-author Dr. David Gaist, a professor of the University of Southern Denmark in Odense.
The study has some limitations, however. It lacked data on potentially important underlying conditions that could lead to a stroke and other information about behaviors that could raise a person’s risk, such as smoking or alcohol use. There would also need to be additional research to determine whether the results would be the same in non-European populations.
A large ongoing trial funded by the US National Institutes of Health is trying to determine whether people who have been on statins and are admitted to a hospital with a hemorrhagic stroke should keep using the drug or stop taking it.
Some research has suggested that people who have a history of stroke due to a blood clot, called an ischemic stroke, may have a higher risk of a hemorrhagic stroke if they take a statin.
“There were these small exploratory studies off of randomized trials that suggested the possibility there was an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke if there had been a history of ischemic stroke. So that’s thrown us off a bit,” said Dr. Pooja Khatri, a professor and division chief of neurology and rehabilitation medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. She works regularly with people who have had strokes and was not involved in the new research.
She said this study shows what biologically makes sense: Taking statins and keeping fatty deposits from building up in the arteries makes hemorrhagic strokes less likely.
“Studies like this latest one sort of put the nail in the coffin because they’re larger and they’re so comprehensive and population-based. This study tells me that if a patient has never had a stroke and they have indications, a statin is definitely a good idea,” Khatri said. “It makes us think that we are right to be certain that overall, patients are better off on statins.”
WHO Ranks The Deadliest Pathogens, Including The Mysterious ‘Disease X’ : ScienceAlert
The World Health Organization said on Monday it was thrashing out a new list of priority pathogens that risk sparking pandemics or outbreaks and should be kept under close observation.
The WHO said the aim was to update a list used to guide global research and development (R&D) and investment, especially in vaccines, tests, and treatments.
As part of that process, which started on Friday, the United Nations’ health agency is convening over 300 scientists to consider evidence on more than 25 virus families and bacteria.
They will also consider the so-called “Disease X” – an unknown pathogen that could cause a serious international epidemic.
“Targeting priority pathogens and virus families for research and development of countermeasures is essential for a fast and effective epidemic and pandemic response,” said WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan.
“Without significant R&D investments prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it would not have been possible to have safe and effective vaccines developed in record time.”
The list was first published in 2017.
It currently includes COVID-19, Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus disease, Lassa fever, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Nipah, Zika, and Disease X.
For each pathogen identified as a priority, experts will pinpoint knowledge gaps and research priorities.
Desired specifications for vaccines, treatments, and diagnostic tests can then be drawn up.
Efforts are also made to facilitate clinical trials to develop such tools, while efforts to strengthen regulatory and ethics oversight are also considered.
The revised list is expected to be published before April 2023.
Pandemic treaty
The pathogen threat sessions come as the WHO prepares for the next round of talks towards a pandemic treaty.
An intergovernmental negotiating body is paving the way towards a global agreement that could eventually regulate how nations prepare for and respond to future pandemic threats.
They are due to meet in Geneva from December 5 to 7 for a third meeting to draft and negotiate a WHO convention or other kind of international agreement on pandemic preparedness and response.
A progress report will be presented to WHO member states next year, with the final outcome presented for their consideration in 2024.
An initial draft text for the December meeting emerged last week.
The Panel for a Global Public Health Convention, an independent coalition of statespersons and health leaders, said the draft did not go far enough, despite its bright spots.
The panel said Monday that more should be done to establish accountability and clear timelines for alert and response to avoid damaging consequences when an outbreak emerges.
“Once an outbreak is detected, there are often a few critical hours to report, assess and act to stop the spread of a disease before it becomes virtually unstoppable,” the panel said in a statement.
“The current draft does not go far enough to call out the urgency needed to either prepare for disease X or known pathogens, or to respond at the early stage,” it said.
“From December 2019 when information about the new coronavirus was suppressed, to multiple countries taking a ‘wait and see’ approach when COVID-19 cases were first reported… we’ve seen the damaging consequences of inaction at the onset.”
© Agence France-Presse