E. coli outbreak - Professor Pennington makes it clear: Children under five should not be allowed to touch animals at petting farms

BBC News reports Professor Hugh Pennington, the microbiologist, as saying that children under five should not be allowed to touch animals at petting farms because they are the "most likely to touch the animals" and "the most difficult part of the population to get to wash their hands".

This is his recommendation following the recent cases of E. coli infections in young children who have visited petting farms (i.e. farms where touching and stroking the animals is allowed). E. coli is a very nasty infection, especially in young children, some of whom have had to be hospitalised. Kidney damage is one of the serious consequences of this illness.

Extract from the BBC report: "Nine children are among those with Godstone Farm-linked infections; one is due to be allowed home later on Saturday, with the others remaining in a stable condition, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

Earlier this week, the HPA apologised for delays in its handling of the Godstone Farm outbreak and announced that an external investigation would be carried out."

Investigation into Health Protection Agency's delay in ordering the closure of Godstone Farm, because of the E.coli outbreak

It is reported in the Telegraph that there will be an investigation into the Health Protection Agency's delay in ordering the closure of Godstone Farm, because of E.coli outbreak.

The Health Protection Agency should have closed down visits to Godstone Farm earlier. E.coli is too serious an illness to take risks with.

BBC News reports on the very serious E.coli outbreak linked to Godstone Farm in Surrey.

The Health Protection Agency doesn't seem to be much good at protecting health, does it? It should have erred on the side of caution. I wonder why it didn't? It's foresight they should be using in that sort of job, not hindsight. In my view, their delay in closing down visits to the farm is indefensible and they bear a heavy share of responsibility for the grave illness of some little children.

Extract from the BBC report:

"Tracy Mock, 39, from Paddock Wood, Kent, said her two-year-old twin boys were taken ill after visiting the farm on 31 August.

"If they had just shut the place down to investigate, my sons would not be in hospital on kidney dialysis machines," she said."

Concerns about safety of swine flu vaccine

I have copied and pasted the following from Dr Rath's newsletter.

Health officials have warned doctors of possible similarities between the new swine flu vaccine and a jab linked to 25 deaths in America in the 1970s. The government’s Health Protection Agency (HPA), said in a letter to neurologists that they needed to look out for increases in cases of a brain disorder that might follow the launch of the immunisation programme. The letter has been sent because of concerns sparked by studying of the swine flu vaccination campaign in America.
Read article in the Sunday Times (UK)
Comment: Several hundred cases of a lethal paralysing neurological disease called Guillain-Barré syndrome were reported in the United States following a mass immunisation programme against a swine flu outbreak in 1976. Mindful of this, the World Health Organisation recently admitted that “adverse events directly caused by the vaccine may also occur” from the new swine flu vaccine and that these “cannot be predicted in advance”.

Health Protection Agency and LACORS report poor egg handling practices in UK restaurants and takeaways

WorldPoultrynet article on poor hygiene in UK restaurants and takeaways when handling eggmixes, as revealed in new report from the Health Protection Agency and LACORS (Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services).

Measles cases have reached a 13-year high prompting fears of a new epidemic.

Measles cases reach a 13-year-high prompting epidemic fears
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"In 2008 there were 1,348 cases of measles in England and Wales, an increase of more than a third on the 990 the previous year.

The number of cases, which are predominantly in children under 18, is the highest since the current method of data collecting was introduced in 1995 and the figures were described as "very worrying" by experts.

This is the result of low uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine for the last decade.

Despite research linking the MMR jab to bowel disorders and autism having been debunked and uptake of the vaccine increasing for toddlers, groups of older children who were not immunised remain.

These children are now at school age where it is easier to spread infections and measles is circulating freely.

Catch-up campaigns have been launched to offer the vaccine to children up to the age of 18 but this has yet to have an effect on measles cases.

Dr Mary Ramsay, an immunisation expert at the Health Protection Agency, said: "The year on year increase of measles across England and Wales is very worrying. Last year saw the highest number of cases since the current method of monitoring the disease was introduced in 1995.

"What is so alarming is that the majority of these cases could have been prevented as most were in children who were not fully protected with MMR.

"There are still many children out there who were not vaccinated as toddlers over the past decade and remain unprotected. Unfortunately this means that measles, which is highly infectious, is spreading easily among these unvaccinated children."

An investigation into the safety of MRI scanners is to be carried out amid health fears over the effects of the scans on staff who work the machinery.

MRI scanners to be examined for cancer link

Extract from the Telegraph:

"The scans, which provide detailed pictures of the inside of the body, use strong magnetic fields that experts fear can interrupt normal body functions.

The Health Protection Agency will set up a working group to investigate the long-term effects on those who operate MRI scanners.

Advisers have called for research into death rates and the number of cancer cases in staff who work with the machinery.

The babies of mothers who operated MRI machines while pregnant should also be studied, they claim. Particular attention should also be paid to whether exposure alters heart rhythms in those with cardiovascular disease or a pacemaker."

A new superbug, acinetobacter, is causing concern because of its high resistance to antibiotics.

Pandemic fear over resistant superbug

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"Doctors have warned that if a superbug which is known to be even more resistant to antibiotics than clostridium difficile and MRSA takes hold in hospitals, the country could face a pandemic.

The acinetobacter bug is being treated with older antibiotics because newer ones do not work. There are fears that injured soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have passed the infection on in civilian hospitals.

Prof Matthew Falagas, an expert in hospital-acquired infections, said: "In some cases, we have simply run out of treatments and we could be facing a pandemic with public health implications.""

"There are more than 1,000 reports of acinetobacter infections every year in the UK, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA). Some strains can cause death through blood poisoning and pneumonia."

You can boost your immune system by cutting out salt and salty food.

Should schools think twice about installing Wi-Fi systems?

Schools 'should wait for official report' before installing Wi-Fi - Independent on Sunday

Extract:

"Schools should think twice about installing Wi-Fi systems while an official investigation into their safety is carried out, teachers' leaders said yesterday.

Philip Parkin, general secretary of the Professional Association of Teachers, said that the investigation – announced late last week by the Health Protection Agency – suggested that there was "no smoke without fire". He added that schools should consider more carefully whether they should introduce them into the classroom.

The £300,000 investigation marks something of a victory for The Independent on Sunday, which for five months has been calling for one, and will be the first of its kind. The agency says it can find only one peer-reviewed study in the scientific literature on radiation received from Wi-Fi, even though it is now to be found in half of all primary schools and four-fifths of secondary schools in Britain, and is being extended to cover vast areas of cities such as Norwich, Brighton, Manchester and London.

The agency says: "Wi-Fi is becoming increasingly widely used... However, there has not been extensive research into what people's exposures actually are to this new technology and that is why we are initiating this new programme of research and analyses."

It plans to spend at least a year "on a systematic programme of research" measuring radiation emissions from a wide range of Wi-Fi equipment and laptop computers, and calculating the doses received by adults and children using them."


Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Children and Obesity

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

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Key questions about the foot and mouth outbreak

Key questions about foot and mouth - Telegraph

Extract:

"Are the Legionnaires' and foot and mouth outbreaks linked?

Only by the fact that both centre on the Government's Institute for Animal Health (IAH) at the Pirbright complex in Surrey and both investigations involve testing water samples that can harbour the conditions, thus raising questions about the site's drainage systems. The Legionnaires' investigation began in June and the victim had already recovered by the time the first case of foot and mouth was recorded.

How damaging is the Legionnaires' outbreak to Pirbright?

Very. The Government, which licenses and inspects the research site, has been forced to fend off severe criticism about conditions there and health and safety concerns are resurfacing. The Health and Safety Executive has already pointed to drainage systems at the private Merial laboratory - which shares the Pirbright complex - as being a possible cause for the foot and mouth outbreak. Further tests are ongoing. The Health Protection Agency also took water samples from the site, the results of which are not yet known, after they found small samples of the Legionella bacteria in the IAH building."

Bizarre and very unfortunate coincidence: a Pirbright worker has contracted Legionnaires' Disease

Pirbright worker contracts legionnaires' disease - Guardian

Extract:

"A worker at the government research facility in Pirbright that is at the centre of the foot and mouth outbreak has contracted legionnaires' disease, with officials saying the lab is a possible source of contamination, Guardian Unlimited can reveal.

The Health Protection Agency confirmed there had been a reported case of legionnaires' disease "with alleged links to the Institute of Animal Health at Pirbright, in Surrey".

Environmental health inspectors took water samples from the facility today. At this stage, it is unclear whether the IAH employee contracted legionnaires' disease at the lab."

Health risks ahead in Britain as some flood waters begin to recede.

What lies beneath the floods - Independent

Extracts:

"As the filthy flood waters begin to subside, they are revealing a scene of devastated homes. Now there are warnings of a mounting health risk from toxic chemicals and fatal bugs left behind in the wake of the deluge."

"The filthy brown flood waters may have been subsiding yesterday but the tide of human misery they have left in their wake was relentlessly swelling.

Few aspects of everyday life across huge swathes of central England have been unaffected by the unprecedented deluge of last weekend. It will be many weeks before normality returns.

The grim task of sifting through possessions was already under way yesterday. A steadily mounting pile of soaked and soiled items seemed to stand guard at every front door, waiting to come under the calculating eye of the insurance loss adjustor.

For more than 350,000 people in Gloucestershire the most pressing issue was not the loss of possessions, many of them prized. The biggest problem remains the lack of clean water after the county's main treatment plant was knocked out.

And it emerged last night that in the event of the flooding of Walham power station ­ which escaped being hit by waters from the Severn by two inches in the early hours of yesterday ­ ministers had drawn up plans to carry out evacuations inn Cheltenham and Gloucester.

Yesterday in communities which only a few days ago were coping with little more than the inconvenience of the wretched British summer, residents were told it could be up to two weeks before they are reconnected to the mains water supply.

In the meantime they must queue for bottled water or fill containers at 900 bowsers in Gloucester, Cheltenham and Stroud. The council also issued an urgent plea for portable lavatories.

There were warnings of a mounting health risk from thousands of gallons of sewage and toxic chemicals that have spilled into homes, gardens and streets in recent days. The Health Protection Agency urged people to keep out of the water to avoid contact with potentially fatal microbes such as E.coli. The agency also warned of a sharp rise in stress-related illnesses as a result of the flooding. "

Cases of MRSA down, but many more cases of C Diff in NHS hospitals

NHS urged to redouble efforts as MRSA infections show decline - Guardian

Extract:

"The government today calls on all NHS trusts to redouble their efforts against hospital infections which can kill fragile patients, as official figures reveal that MRSA appears to be slowly retreating but Clostridium difficile continues to rise.

Health minister Ann Keen warned trusts that patients must be treated in a clean and safe environment. "We know that cleanliness and infection control are of great concern to patients," she said.

The Health Protection Agency's statistics, published today, show a fall of 6.4% over the last quarter to March in the number of bloodstream infections of MRSA - the so-called superbug, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Compared with the same quarter last year this is a drop of 28%. Over the whole year, April 2006 to March 2007, MRSA cases have fallen 10% from 7,096 to 6,378.

But C difficile affects more people and is proving hard to tackle. There were 15,592 cases in English hospitals between January and March, an increase of 22% over the last quarter."


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and Associated health conditions

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free...

Many pre-packaged salads contain bacteria which can cause potentially deadly food poisoning.

One in 10 salads has poisonous bacteria - Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Food safety experts are calling for stricter production controls on ready-to-eat salads after tests revealed that many contain bacteria which can cause potentially deadly food poisoning.

A report compiled by the government's Health Protection Agency (HPA), found that one in 10 pre-packaged salads containing meat or seafood was contaminated with the listeria bacteria. Evidence of E. coli and salmonella was found in some bags of salad.
The HPA report, which involved testing more than 2,600 ready-to-eat salads, concluded that the control of bacteria in food manufacturing and in shops was essential to minimise the potential for hazardous food contamination."


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and Associated health conditions

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free...

Survey by EU found people believe radiation from mobile phones and their masts has damaged their health.

Two in three believe radiation from phones damaged their health - Independent on Sunday

Extract:

"Two-thirds of Britons believe radiation from mobile phones and their masts has affected their health, a startling official survey shows. And huge majorities are dissatisfied with government assurances about the potential threat.

The survey is the result of a giant European Union exercise that polled more than 27,000 people across the continent, 1,375 of them in Britain. It shows that concern about the radiation is far greater than even the most ardent campaigners had dared to believe, and that official attempts to downplay the issue have backfired.

It also goes some way to explain the overwhelming public response received by The Independent on Sunday since we started raising questions about the effect of the radiation on people and wildlife in April.

This month, two councils - Haringey in London and Carmarthenshire in Wales - will be considering whether to allow Wi-Fi in their schools, after concern expressed by Sir William Stewart, the chairman of the Health Protection Agency. Sir William told the BBC's Panorama, "I believe that there is a need for a review of the Wi-Fi and other areas ... I think it's timely for it to be done now.""


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free...(o:

Cadbury Schweppes faces unlimited fines after pleading guilty to charges in connection to last summer's 'salmonella in chocolate' scare

Cadbury faces unlimited salmonella fines - Telegraph

Extract:

"Chocolate and confectionery giant Cadbury Schweppes faces unlimited fines after pleading guilty to charges in connection to last summer's salmonella scare.

Around a million bars of Cadbury's chocolate were recalled from supermarket shelves last June after the company discovered that a leaking tap had contaminated batches of chocolate in one of its factories with a strain of salmonella.

The group confirmed today that it will be pleading guilty to the three charges brought by Birmingham City Council.

Following a nine-month inquiry, Birmingham City Council announced in April that Cadbury would be prosecuted for putting "unsafe" chocolate in the shops and failing to "immediately inform" the authorities.

Cadbury also faces a third offence of failing to "identify hazards" from chocolate bars contaminated with salmonella and of failing to identify "corrective actions."

Each of the three offences carries an unlimited fine.

The Health Protection Agency said Cadbury's chocolate was the most likely cause of the outbreak that affected more than 30 people."


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Dirty NHS hospitals will be pressed to improve.

Superbug ultimatum to dirty hospitals - Telegraph

Extract:

"Hospitals will be served with "improvement notices" if they fail to tackle MRSA and Clostridium difficile, the health watchdog announced today.

Experts from the Healthcare Commission will make "spot checks" on 120 NHS trusts in England over the next year.

Those that are not up to scratch could be served with an improvement notice or be put in special measures.

The crackdown comes after figures showed that C.diff is still on the rise.

Health Protection Agency statistics released in April identified 55,681 cases of the potentially fatal bug in patients aged 65 and over in England in 2006. That figure was up eight per cent on reported cases in 2005."


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Wi-Fi: Children at risk in schools from using wireless communication networks

Wi-Fi: Children at risk from 'electronic smog' - The Independent

Extracts:

"Britain's top health protection watchdog is pressing for a formal investigation into the hazards of using wireless communication networks in schools amid mounting concern that they may be damaging children's health, 'The Independent on Sunday' can reveal.

Sir William Stewart, the chairman of the Health Protection Agency, wants pupils to be monitored for ill effects from the networks - known as Wi-Fi - which emit radiation and are being installed in classrooms across the nation.

Sir William - who is a former chief scientific adviser to the Government, and has chaired two official inquiries into the hazards of mobile phones - is adding his weight to growing pressure for a similar examination of Wi-Fi, which some scientists fear could cause cancer and premature senility.

Wi-Fi - described by the Department of Education and Skills as a "magical" system that means computers do not have to be connected to telephone lines - is rapidly being taken up inschools, with estimates that more than half of primary schools - and four-fifths of secondary schools - have installed it .

But several European provincial governments have already taken action to ban, or limit, its use in the classroom, and Stowe School has partially removed it after a teacher became ill.

This week the Professional Association of Teachers, which represents 35,000 staff across the country, will write to Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Education, to demand an official inquiry. Virtually no studies have been carried out into Wi-Fi's effects on pupils, but it gives off radiation similar to emissions from mobile phones and phone masts."

"Professor Olle Johansson, of Sweden's prestigious Karolinska Institute, who is deeply concerned about the spread of Wi-Fi, says there are "thousands" of articles in scientific literature demonstrating "adverse health effects". He adds: "Do we not know enough already to say, 'Stop!'?"

For the past 16 months, the provincial government of Salzburg in Austria has been advising schools not to install Wi-Fi, and is considering a ban. Dr Gerd Oberfeld, its head of environmental health and medicine, calls the technology "dangerous"."

See also Danger on the airwaves: Is the Wi-Fi revolution a health time bomb? - The Independent

Extracts:

"So far only a few, faint warnings have been raised, mainly by people who are so sensitised to the electromagnetic radiation emitted by mobiles, their masts and Wi-Fi that they become ill in its presence. The World Health Organisation estimates that up to three out of every hundred people are "electrosensitive" to some extent. But scientists and doctors - and some European governments - are adding their voices to the alarm as it becomes clear that the almost universal use of mobile phones may be storing up medical catastrophe for the future.

A recent authoritative Finnish study has found that people who have used mobiles for more than ten years are 40 per cent more likely to get a brain tumour on the same side of the head as they hold their handset; Swedish research suggests that the risk is almost four times as great. And further research from Sweden claims that the radiation kills off brain cells, which could lead to today's younger generation going senile in their forties and fifties.

Professor Lawrie Challis, who heads the Government's official mobile safety research, this year said that the mobile could turn out to be "the cigarette of the 21st century"."

"Prof Leif Salford, of Lund University - who showed that the radiation kills off brain cells - is also deeply worried about wi-fi's addition to "electronic smog".

There is particular concern about children partly because they are more vulnerable - as their skulls are thinner and their nervous systems are still developing - and because they will be exposed to more of the radiation during their lives."

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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'Biosecurity lapse' responsible for H5N1, admits David Miliband.

'Biosecurity lapse' responsible for H5N1

Extracts:

"A recent outbreak of the deadly strain of bird flu H5N1 was caused by poor biosecurity, the environment secretary has stated.

David Miliband said that it is likely that the outbreak is connected to a similar one in Hungary.

The deadly strain of the flu was found in a Bernard Mathews turkey farm in Suffolk, which then culled its entire population of the birds."

"The Food Standards Agency and the Health Protection Agency are currently working with Hungarian officials and with Bernard Mathews, Mr Miliband added."