Researcher Dies After Studying Plague Bacteria 143
Malcolm J. Casadaban, a molecular genetics professor at the University of Chicago, died last Sunday, seemingly from an infection of a weakened form of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes the plague. "Because this form of the bacteria is not known to cause problems in healthy people, special safety procedures are not required to handle it, said Dr. Kenneth Alexander, a virologist and chief of pediatric infections at the U. of C. Medical Center. Lab researchers who work with the bacteria would typically wear gloves, a lab coat and protective goggles, and the bacteria would be disposed of in a biohazard bag and heated for about two hours, Alexander said. Two key questions in Casadaban's death will be whether there was anything different about the strain of bacteria he was handling and whether Casadaban had any underlying conditions that may have made him more susceptible to infection."
We're screwed (Score:3, Funny)
Man, we're so screwed now. This is like a movie. Who knows who he had contact with? It probably morphed in some way and now it's going to sweep the globe wiping out most of the population. :(
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:We're screwed (Score:5, Informative)
Fleas->Rats ->Fleas->Humans
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Fleas->Rats ->Fleas->Humans
Human Flees Rats
As the owner of a dog and two cats... (Score:2)
My pets had the most awful flea infestation ever this year, that would not yeild to poison of any kind!!! If there had been plague going around then it would have killed all my pets and probably my whole family ( if there were not antibiotics ).
I would give the animals flea shampoos ( which is not easy for cats! ) every three days. I also bought flea powders, flea coat sprays, Frontline, and other brands of flea drops that are supposed to work for thirty days. Let me tell
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
If I understand correctly, the plague wasn't transmitted from human to human, but rather from lice to humans. Since lice are nowhere near as prevalent as they used to be, you don't normally have to fear an outbreak.
Not necessarily. [amazon.com]
The author makes a convincing argument that the Black Death was actually spread by droplet based transmission.
Re:We're screwed (Score:5, Informative)
If I understand correctly, the plague wasn't transmitted from human to human, but rather from lice to humans. Since lice are nowhere near as prevalent as they used to be, you don't normally have to fear an outbreak.
Not necessarily. [amazon.com]
The author makes a convincing argument that the Black Death was actually spread by droplet based transmission.
The plague never went away. Even after the last pandemic, people still have been contracting the plague. Yersinia pestis is still endemic among rodents in Europe, Asia and the USA. Small outbreaks, with the exact same symptoms still occur today from time to time. The history of this disease is extremely well documented, and not at all controversial.
When the infection reaches the lungs it's called Pneumonic plague, it spreads via droplets and is extremely contageous. When it infects the lymph nodes, it's called Bubonic plague. It's the same disease, just in a different organ. When the infection reaches the blood, it's called Septic Plague.
It's not as dangerous now, because we don't commonly share our homes with rodents and lice anymore, and with prompt treatment with antibiotics, the prognosis is decent.
Now I haven't read that book that you linked to, so I don't know what arguments they make, but a hypothesis that states that the black death was a different disease with the exact same symptoms as a very well known and documented disease that still occurs today seems needlessly complicated to me.
Re:We're screwed (Score:5, Interesting)
That's true. In fact, most public campgrounds here in California have signs warning of plague danger and advising people to keep their distance from ground squirrels, which are known carriers of the yersinia pestis bacterium.
Re:We're screwed (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)
"seems needlessly complicated to me."
Occam, is that you? I still want my razor back!! I didn't GIVE it to you, I only LOANED IT!! Why does the whole world think that it's YOUR RAZOR?????
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The key is antibiotic as much as anything.
Middle ages folks had very little concept of contagion prevention.. germs weren't even discovered for a few hundred more years. I'd think that perhaps the middle ages plague was a combination of nasty things.. remember, it wasn't one "great plague" but a series of famines and pandemics over 50-75 years, peaking every 10-15 years killing 25%-50% of towns. The ones that survived benefited two-fold. First they passed on natural immunity to our generations that helps
Re: (Score:2)
... and second they were suffering effects of extreme overpopulation...
The parallel between Malthusian limit and the plague is very vague. To simply assume that the deaths of millions of Europeans caused by a disease spread from central Asia is due to overpopulation is a prime example of fallacy of the single cause [wikipedia.org].
While I don't disagree entirely with the concept of Malthusian limit, I do however strongly doubt that it is related to this.
Re: (Score:2)
First they passed on natural immunity to our generations that helps slow the spread...
Wait, acquired characteristics aren't passed on to offspring. I don't see how this could be.
Re: (Score:2)
It is not acquired, it is just that if some of the people have this immunity, it is more likely they will have kids.
Re: (Score:2)
Not necessarily immunity, but resistance. Some factor that helps the person live long enough to produce offspring.
Also, antibodies are passed through breastmilk, so some acquired traits can be passed directly to the next generation.
Re: (Score:2)
it's called natural selection bitches. It's not "acquired" it was already there and chance happens that some people resist the disease because of a certain gene and the weaker ones are "culled" from the herd.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
it's genetic... just like breeding LOL cats with spots instead of stripes. Some gene make people just a "little bit more" resistant to some germ meaning they don't die when somebody else does.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Now I haven't read that book that you linked to, so I don't know what arguments they make, but a hypothesis that states that the black death was a different disease with the exact same symptoms as a very well known and documented disease that still occurs today seems needlessly complicated to me.
"Needlessly complicated"? Remember, you're talking to a bunch of people who recently thought spending an entire weekend compiling Gentoo was perfectly normal behavior.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Sales of Rid and Nix, which increase every fall with the new school year starting up and winter coming, disagree. Lice are still plentiful.
Re: (Score:2)
Lice are still plentiful.
They may be as plentiful but they shower more, so less of those pesky bacteria things.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You say that as if it's a bad thing...
Re: (Score:1, Redundant)
third key question (Score:5, Funny)
Re:third key question (Score:4, Funny)
Re:third key question (Score:4, Funny)
Re:third key question (Score:4, Informative)
*sigh*
Silly boy. We want to make sure some poor bastard isn't buried alive, so we drain ALL of his blood!! Even vampires don't walk again once we've flushed their radiators with Drano!!
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's why we embalm or cremate folks now. That whole rising from the dead thing causes nothing but problems, however it manifests itself.
Just make sure to not embalm people with Worcestershire sauce [wikipedia.org].
Re: (Score:1)
Embalming is used to BE SURE you are dead. We cannot have any last minute recoveries.
Uncle is a Mortician.
Re: (Score:1)
I'm sure chopping their heads off would work too ?
Re: (Score:2)
because once they drain the vital fluids (so you don't rot so quickly) you're dead for sure, even if you weren't before!
Although that doesn't really seem to be zombie/vampire protection though. The ancient Egyptians had it right to scramble the brains and remove them.
Re:third key question (Score:4, Funny)
That's why we embalm or cremate folks now. That whole rising from the dead thing causes nothing but problems
Clearly someone has not seen the Mummy etc.
Re: (Score:1, Funny)
That's why we embalm or cremate folks now. That whole rising from the dead thing causes nothing but problems, however it manifests itself.
Seemed to turn out pretty well for that Jesus dude.
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
But not it seems for the hundred of thousands who have died in his name since.
Re:third key question (Score:4, Funny)
Seemed to turn out pretty well for that Jesus dude.
Bah. Three days to respawn? He must've done some serious TKing or something.
Re:third key question (Score:5, Funny)
Since he was walking on clipped tiles and handing out more objects than could possibly fit in his inventory, there was justified suspicion of some form of cheating. I think the server has been patched now, though, since that doesn't seem to happen as often.
Re: (Score:2)
Suspicion of? Apparently he was given sudo power because his old man is root on the server, but it was revoked. And like all sons he was fired upwards to sit at the CEO's right hand, they even made one helluva PR stunt out of it. Dying isn't quite the sacrifice it used to be when you don't stay dead and get an eternity in heaven, I'm fairly sure many would take that severance package, even if the crucifiction is somewhat naster than being escorted out by the security guard.
Re: (Score:2)
Bah. Three days to respawn? He must've done some serious TKing or something.
Perhaps his mum wouldn't let him log back on until he'd cleaned his room and taken out the trash, or perhaps there were griefers camping his cave until they got bored. Lets not jump to conclusions here.
A brief rememberence of Prof. Casadaban (Score:5, Interesting)
I took a lab class from him on genetic engineering in the late 90s. Though he was a little eccentric at times, and spoke with an incredibly soft voice, I remember him as a professor who would spend countless hours with the undergraduate students, teaching them to learn the basics of molecular biology - the U of C will be worse off without this devotion, without him. He even wrote me a recommendation letter for graduate school, but I've lost touch with him since then, now, to my infinite regret. May he rest in piece.
Re: (Score:1, Informative)
May he rest in piece.
Ultimately we ALL will rest in piece.
I suspect you meant peace.
Re:A brief rememberence of Prof. Casadaban (Score:4, Funny)
Ultimately we ALL will rest in piece.
Unless you get hit by a grenade. Then it's pieces.
Re:A brief rememberence of Prof. Casadaban (Score:5, Insightful)
Ultimately we ALL will rest in piece.
Unless you get hit by a grenade. Then it's pieces.
I imagine it depends on whether the person throwing the grenade pulled the pin first, otherwise you'd just have a nasty bruise. ;)
Re: (Score:2)
Even worse, you wouldn't have rest either...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
I imagine it depends on whether the person throwing the grenade pulled the pin first
Ahh, but that is why one should first consult the Book of Armaments.
Re:A brief rememberence of Prof. Casadaban (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
If what killed him was a mutated version of the plague, you may be a little less regretful.
Re: (Score:2)
E
Oh good (Score:3, Funny)
Now my outfits [wikipedia.org] will finally come back in style, and I can get all the chicks instead of lots of stares and police harassment.
Re: (Score:2)
People are so unfair!
Re: (Score:2)
Cause of Death? (Score:5, Interesting)
"An initial autopsy showed that Casadaban "showed no obvious cause of death"", the report goes on to state that the found the bacteria in his bloodstream.
What was his white cell count? Were cytokines present in his bloodstream? Was his lymphatic system showing signs of duress (engorged, trapped glands; cell death)?
I'm also a bit wary of the fact that the report was released from the University Medical Center where the man worked, not the local Medical Examiner's office. I'd love to see a second conclusion, and not have to fear that the University is doing this as a publicity stunt for their research programme.
Going to be a real embarassment if we find out he died of a cheeseburger, or embollism, or insulin-related shock.
If I get out of my car and promptly drop dead, you're not going to say that driving my car was the cause of death.
Re: (Score:1)
You would hope that any research university that wishes to maintain credibility would not pull a stunt like you proposed.
However, I agree that it would be interesting to see what the city/county/state/federal medical examiner would think of this. Plague is plague if you ask me and should be treated seriously.
Re:Cause of Death? (Score:5, Funny)
Guess it all depends on who you cut off...
Re: (Score:2)
That might depend a lot on the condition of the car in question at the time of your death. If you catch my drift.
Re: (Score:2)
That might depend a lot on the condition of the car in question at the time of your death. If you catch my drift.
Are you talking about exhaust leaks, or "headlights staring at each other"?
Great. (Score:1, Funny)
First Swine Flu, and now this shit?
May we all pray the remaining survivors (Steve Jobs, Chuck Norris, Richard Stallman and Cowboy Neal) start a new civilization.
Re: (Score:1, Redundant)
Except they're all dudes. Where the females at? Need some chicks to do repopulating.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I have no idea why, but I immediately thought of 7 of 9 for the job.
Re: (Score:2)
movie plot (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Not the least of which is "The Darwin Awards [imdb.com]."
--
Toro
Molecular genetics is tricky, dangerous work (Score:2)
Plague bacteria? (Score:1, Redundant)
Oh rats.
My building (Score:5, Interesting)
So I work in the same building as this lab, use the same elevators, touch the same door handles etc. I'm not too worried, but plenty of people are and have been since they started working with your *more dangerous than ecoli* varieties. What really pissed me off is that if I had not heard about this from a PI down the hall yeasterday I would have found out about this through /. I can understand why the UoC doesnt send out alerts like this via email to everyone, but some people do need to know. The PI down the hall basically said "shit shit, god damn it, shit, the cdc will be here to deal with and who knows if we'll be allowed to stay," probably a slight over-reaction, but as my mother the md mph said "this is one of those NEVER things." Anyway, I was very sorry to hear about this, also as TFA says, we really dont know if this was a opportunistic infection that was able to get in because he was already sick or what.
Re: (Score:2)
What biosafety level (if any) is the lab?
How quickly can they retrofit it to be the next level up?
Re: (Score:2)
From TFA: "Lab researchers who work with the bacteria would typically wear gloves, a lab coat and protective goggles, and the bacteria would be disposed of in a biohazard bag and heated for about two hours, Alexander said."
So, BSL1, the "Maybe don't keep it in the same fridge as your lunch" level.
Apparently you only need BSL2 to work with (unmodified) Y. pestis, though (CDC link [state.or.us]), so it's not exactly "special procedures", either.
Speaking of Movies (Score:1, Redundant)
Plague. Death. Otherwise healthy individuals.
'Toxic Skies'.
The only difference is there's no mention of chemtrails in the Sun-Times article. Of course, there wouldn't be, would there.
Plague != Plaque (Score:1)
Ah, whew. I misread the summary; I was afraid that not brushing my teeth was going to kill me one of these days.
Re: (Score:2)
Jumping the Gun (Score:4, Insightful)
The autopsy showed "showed no obvious cause of death" except for the presence of the weakened strain of the plague bacteria Yersinia pestis in his blood, the U. of C. Medical Center said in a statement."
That is far from conclusive, especially given that there aren't any reports that he developed the symptoms of the infection before dying. Chances are we'll get some more conclusive information as they continue to review the case and the data from the autopsy along with tissue samples and toxicology tests. However, there is the possibility that the cause of death will not be known. There are a number of deaths each year in otherwise healthy people which can't be conclusively proven to be caused by a single cause.
penicillin? (Score:2)
Don't they have penicillin in Chicago? really? This guy died from studying the plague and it didn't occur to him to get some antibiotics?
You! (Score:3, Funny)
And if you gaze for long into an abyss, (Score:3, Insightful)
3rd question (Score:2)
what if he transmitted it to others?
Re: (Score:2)
They'll probably never get sick and should even have immunity to the pathogenic strains.
Similar to the story of Karen Wetterhahn (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:The safety measures are wholly inadequate. (Score:4, Insightful)
Because we don't know who ELSE has stocks of the disease and might want to turn it into a weapon. Plus the more we learn about infectious disease in general the better we can fight it. Anyway how does that link have anything to do with it? The more they vaccinate people, the less likely smallpox will come back. Manufacturing vaccines has NOTHING to do with having live, viable stocks of the actual disease. Which do exist, but that's a totally different issue.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Smallpox is still out in the wild. Vaccines are a calculated risk. You have to figure you will injure or kill XX number of people with the vaccine, versus the number of people that will die as a result of another epidemic. I believe the numbers recently flip-flopped and the risk of harm from the vaccine has become worse than the risk of contracting the disease and many areas are no longer requiring it. The whole controversy over mercury in the vaccines causing autism is still hotly debated, though.
Re: (Score:2)
Smallpox is still out in the wild
The WHO certified its eradication in 1979 [who.int] so if you know something that the WHO doesn't, I'd like to see a reference that can substantiate your claim.
Re: (Score:2)
By "in the wild", I meant that there are samples of the virus that are not in direct control of someone we trust. My point was that we are weighing the risk of an epidemic (quite likely if smallpox is used as a weapon) against the harm that will happen to a small percentage of the population as a side effect of mass vaccinations.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
True, but take note there are 2 issues here:
Re: (Score:2)
Do you want to buy a bridge?
Re: (Score:2)
The whole controversy over mercury in the vaccines causing autism is still hotly debated, though.
I don't define mindless morons spouting drivel that has been disproved in scientific study after study as debate. Mercury containing timersol has never been linked to autism or any autistic spectrum disorder in any study that has withstood peer review. Vaccines in general have never been linked to autism or any autistic spectrum disorder in any study that has withstood peer review. Most people and organizations who "still hotly debate" the issue either have direct financial incentive or some other secondar
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed, some of the studies actually showed increase mental capacity in the groups associated with ethylmercury exposure from thimerasol in vaccines. http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/acip/downloads/min-oct07.pdf [cdc.gov]
Re:The safety measures are wholly inadequate. (Score:5, Insightful)
You would think plagues and other horrible diseases should be eradicated not preserved to experiment with later. Take small pox it was supposed to be eradicated but they just won't let it die [bio-medicine.org]. But curing diseases would be a bad business model and lead to their eventual unemployment.
Smallpox was a virus that could only infect humans. With most humans immunized, it has nowhere else to go and it disappeared. Yersinia pestis can't be eradicated. It's a bacterium that is endemic among rodents. You would have to exterminate rodents from the wild in most of Eurasia and North America and still not completely eradicate it.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, exterminating the rodents is not the cure. Sprinkle malathion or parathion on cotton balls and scatter them around where the kids and pets cannot get them. Rodents gather them up and use them in their nests. The stuff kills off all the riders the rodents have on them. and walaa, no more mites, lice, fleas, etc. This has been tried and is effective for wiping out the deer tick - mouse vector for lyme disease in whole counties for years. I do not understand why it is not used more commonly. I guess
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
But curing diseases would be a bad business model and lead to their eventual unemployment.
Oddly, people like you are the ones who think this way, whereas the medical profession and makers of vaccines seem to prefer eradication. Hence the current status of smallpox, polio, malaria, measles, etc. (in the U.S.).
However, as noted elsewhere, the Y. pestis plague cannot be effectively eradicated, as it uses rodents as a reservoir. Eliminating such diseases is very difficult.
Re: (Score:2)
But curing diseases would be a bad business model.
I think this attitude is present in the pharmaceutical industry and drives some of their research priorities. I don't think its present in the general medical research as those guys honestly want to understand and cure a disease as their first priority, and second if it can't be cured at least manage it.
Re: (Score:2)
That would make it something of a challenging business model on the smaller scale, since it's general medical practitioners who end up prescribing your drugs. The company that produces the drug that cures the disease is going to get substantially more sales than the one that simply alleviates the symptoms.
On the larger scale, disease eradication isn't exactly simply a matter of pharmaceutical research -- it's very difficult. Still, if a pharmaceutical company developed a product that could be reasonably use
Re: (Score:2)
I'm annoyed that the pharmaceutical companies are developing drugs to treat symptoms and then heavily marketing directly to the end users. Got heartburn? Instead of simply altering your diet, go out and buy the over the counter medication xyz! Or worse, ask you doctor as you may have a serious condition that can only be treated by drug zyx.
A case in point is the flood of drugs to lower HDL cholesterol levels, even though there is scant evidence to show that artificially lowering those levels has any long
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
2012 is Y2K for hippies.