I just hear on the news that 10 people have already died from something called an adno-virus (spelling?). The symptoms are like a common cold, but it is deadly and there is no treatment. I know nothing about this. Has anyone heard of this before?

 

It's a common virus. This strain is a little more virulent.

Adenovirus is one of the common causes of non-bacterial "pink eye."

 

ABC News story:

Mutant Cold Virus from ABC News

 

Thanks Val. That was just what I was looking for. I couldn't find anything about the story when I googled Adno-virus and other spellings of the word. I was wondering if 10 people had dies over the last 10 years or the last 10 minutes. It is a tragedy either way, but it seems to me that the time over which the deaths occur is an important issue that the news broadcaster didn't mention last night.

 

The big news story around Atlanta lately has been MRSA. I guess there have been outbreaks in some of the schools.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRSA

 

yup. It's not just Atlanta. It spread in the NY Tri-state region as well. My sister is in highschool and 3 of their football players got it. Traced it to the locker rooms and now the gym is closed until further notice (my sister said 3 weeks+).

 

Down here in Miami-Dade county FL we had a few cases too, shut down a few schools after a achool bus driver contracted the bacteria.

 

Make sure to keep your hands or any open wounds clean. Those purell gels really do work (I tested them on several different bacteria in my microbiology lab including S. Aureus which is the SA in MRSA. HOWEVER it is not recommended to use on a daily basis. It kills the normal flora that are not doing anything but if you have a cut or had contact with anything dirty, use it by all means. Just rememeber to moisturize your hands after because these gels are dry out your hands and that creates cracks in your skin. Cracks = how bacteria get in.

 

MRSA has been big news here and one of our local teens died recently from it. Several area schools have been shut down due to outbreaks and the schools had to be disinfected before they could reopen. It is in the news every day. Sad, sad, sad.