We on the path of most of the cases of measles in a decade

ATLANTA - the United States seems to be on track to have measles cases more than the year in more than a decade, with virtually all cases related to other countries, including Europe where there is a large epidemic.

There are already 89 cases reported so far. The United States is normally only about 50 cases of measles in a year through immunization.

Health authorities are reluctant to make predictions, but recognize that the pace of the reports is unusually hot.

"It is difficult to say, but we get certainly much, stated Dr. Greg Wallace, who leads the measles, mumps, rubella and polio team to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.".

Europe, including the France, was hit by measles, with more than 6,500 cases reported in 33 countries. International health authorities are attributing the failure to vaccinate all children.

Almost all U.S. outbreaks have been triggered by people bring here from other countries. This week, international health officials posted a passenger alert urging everywhere to get the recommended two doses of vaccine before flight overseas.

"The risk of infection is very high," said Dr. Cuauhtemoc Ruiz Matus, an expert of immunization with the Pan American Health Organization.

The United States, the worst year for measles in the past decade was 2008, when 140 cases have been reported. No there was no measles deaths this year, but health officials warn that the disease can be dangerous.

Measles is a highly contagious and up to 90% people exposed to an infected person, experts get disease. The virus spreads easily through the air, and in closed rooms, infected droplets may persist up to two hours after the ill person leaves.

"Measles is really the most contagious vaccine-preventable diseases." "She has a talent for finding those that have not been vaccinated," said Wallace.

The most common symptoms of the disease include fever, runny nose, cough, inflammation of the eye and a rash on the body. It takes about two weeks for the rash to appear from the time of the first infection, and people are contagious from four days before an eruption in four days after.

A small fraction of people get much sicker, develop pneumonia or even encephalitis. For every 1,000 children who get measles in developed countries, one or two will die.

Not since 2003, no deaths related to measles reported to the United States, where children have been get vaccinated against the virus for nearly 50 years. Before the vaccine, almost all the children received measles by their 15th birthday and epidemics cycled through the nation every two or three years - reaching usually late winter or spring.

In these days, approximately 450 to 500 Americans died from measles each year, on average. Vaccination campaigns greatly reduces the toll, and today, about 90% of U.S. children are protected against measles, after studies of adolescents.

Two doses of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine are routinely recommended for all children, including a first dose given on first anniversary of the child and a second dose at the preschool. These vaccines are considered last for life.

Children from the age of six months can obtain a first dose if they go in a country where they are at high risk of exposure, say health officials.

"Unfortunately, is not always done." Parents often report to their doctors that they take their child in one international travel, ", said Dr. Harry Keyserling, a specialist in pediatric infectious disease at Emory University School of Medicine."

A single dose is considered to be 95% efficient, two doses even better. But health officials recognize it is not perfect and some people who are fully vaccinated will still get sick.

Of the 89 cases reported through the end of last week, 79 have been those which have been vaccinated or who had no documentation of it, Wallace said.

Outbreaks so far this year have included:

_In Florida, five cases related to international trade helicopter show held in Orlando last month and another three case in an outbreak in the Gainesville area dates back to a traveller who had been in India.

_Nine in Utah, reported last month. They were linked to a person who has apparently been infected in Poland.

_Twenty-a case in Minnesota, for the first time in February. Diseases have been drawn to a child of Minneapolis - areas which developed symptoms after returning from a trip to the Kenya.

Case of _Six in Pennsylvania, for the first time in January, unknown origin.

Alaska said cases of sexually transmitted diseases increases

ANCHORAGE, Alaska  - Alaska a nation the highest rate of infection chlamydia and gonorrhea rate ranked second as sexually transmitted diseases spread in rural areas, according to the Division of public health of Alaska.

A case 6,026 total bacterial disease chlamydia infection have been reported in Alaska in 2010, an increase of 13% in the previous year. The rate of 849 per 100,000 inhabitants of Alaska is more than twice the national rate of 417, said the Department.

Reported cases of gonorrhea were $ 1,273 in 2010, an increase of 23% and the counter to a national trend of reduced gonococcal infection, said the State. Rate of Alaska was 179 per 100,000 population, compared to a national rate of 99.

Rates partly reflect the demographics of Alaska, according to the program Coordinator Susan Jones, HIV and sexually transmitted diseases in the State.

"The burden of chlamydia and gonorrhea is in the young population," said Jones. "Alaska on average has a population of young compared to most States."

Diseases are also common among ethnic minorities. Rural areas of the State with the worst rates of infection were in large part of the indigenous peoples of Alaska, she said.

No treatment in a timely manner in these rural areas adds to the problem, said Jones.

The Medical Council of Alaska has recently adopted a change of rule allowing physicians to prescribe medicine for sexual partners of infected patients, even if these partners are not examined, she said.

Chlamydia infections increase nationwide, but not as dramatically as in Alaska, Jones said, because the symptoms are less alarming or noticeable to those infected.

"Probably 85 percent of people who have chlamydia will know never it," said Jones.

Even without symptoms, chlamydia can have serious consequences, including pelvic inflammatory disease leading to infertility in women, Jones, said.

"It is not a benign infection," she said.

DNA tests link South of leprosy cases of Armadillo (AP)

LOS ANGELES--with some genetic research, scientists have rights a likely culprit in the spread of leprosy in the South of the United States: nine-banded Armadillo.

DNA tests show a match in the strain of leprosy among some patients and these prehistoric creatures for research - a scientific connection was suspected but until now could not identify.

"Now, we have the link," said James Krahenbuhl, who runs a program of leprosy of Government that led the new study.

Only about 150 cases of leprosy occur each year in the United States, mainly among travellers in places like the India, the Brazil and Angola where it is more common. The risk of contracting leprosy of an Armadillo is low because most people which is presentations will fall ill with the ancient plague, known as Hansen's disease medically and curable treatment so quickly.

Armadillos are mammals with very few bacteria that cause disease sometimes disfiguring, appearing first as a unusual lumpy skin lesion.

Researchers at programs in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) National Hansen's disease, has led an international team of scientists who published their results in New England Journal of Medicine Thursday. They believe that it requires frequent handling of armadillos or eat their meat for leprosy to spread.

DNA samples were taken from 33 wild armadillos in Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, where they are sometimes called "hillbilly humps" because they are often crushed by cars.

Scientists also took some skin biopsies of 50 patients with leprosy being treated at a clinic in Baton Rouge. Three-quarters had never been foreign exposure, but lived in the southern States, where they could have been exposed to and armadillos.

An analysis found that samples of patients and armadillos were genetically similar to each other and were different strains of leprosy found elsewhere in the world. The single strain was found in 28 armadillos and 25 patients.

15 Patients for which researchers had information, seven said they had no contact with the armadillos. eight said that they did, including one who systematically hunted and ate the.

While labour document not for a direct transmission from animal to human, "the evidence is pretty convincing that sometimes,", said Dr. Brian Currie, an expert in infectious diseases at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York, which had no role in the study.

Leprosy remains a problem in tropical hot spots in the world with about 250 000 new cases of infection reported each year. As tuberculosis, it can remain dormant for years before attacking the skin and nerves.

While the disease is contagious, it is difficult to catch. People most at risk are family members who are constantly in contact with a person not processed. Leprosy cannot be spread through casual contact such as communication protocol, or sexual intercourse.

The disease has long been poorly understood and those who acquired were often avoided it. Fear of spreading has led some countries to approximately 40 people. False stories on the fingers and toes fall added to stigma.

The disease is curable with rapid treatment of complications before antibiotics in. The drugs usually kill bacteria in the days and make it non-contagious. It takes usually a year or two to completely erase the germ of the body.

Untreated, leprosy can cause nerve damage if serious people to lose feeling in their fingers and toes, leading to the deformation and disability.

While the germ attacks skin, hands and feet of humans, it tends to infect the liver, the spleen and the lymph node of armadillos.

"Let the animals," informed the principal investigator Richard Truman Hansen National disease programs.

"I would not be toying with armadillos,", said Dr. Warwick Britton, of the University of Sydney, Australia, who had no connection with the study.

For Ymelda Beauchamp, how it is infected in decades remains a mystery.

When she was 15 years old, she noticed lumps on his skin and felt numbness in hands and feet. His left hand began levies to the Interior.

After graduating from high school, she decided to ask a former sugar plantation Carville (Louisiana), which has been transformed into a clinic for patients with leprosy treatment. He y once when the pain was so excruciating, she said that she did not want to wake up.

Today, the 59 year-old Beauchamp is free from disease and works as a defender with the Missions of American leprosy, a group of Christian who contributed to funding the study with other groups in support of leprosy and the National Institutes of Health.

Still, it has no feeling in his hands and his feet and has be careful do not burn or cut itself in baking.

"It is not difficult, but it is not easy," said. "You you get enough for it."