Infectious Disease Research in and Around New Orleans

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Infectious Disease Research in and Around New Orleans
http://www.thememoryblog.org/archives/000588.html
Summary: At the very least, there are two Level-3 biolabs in New Orleans and a cluster of three in nearby Covington. They have been working with anthrax, mousepox, HIV, plague, etc. There are surely other labs in the city.

Yes, and I am pretty sure they have research on diseases like this all around the country. Last time I checked, San Francisco had a huge HIV/AIDS research going at UCSF. But at least they aren't researching smallpox anymore that much, even though it's possible that it could be used as a bioterrorist weapon. And it would be ideal as one, too (kills approximately 1/3 of its patients, very few people have any immunity due to its eradication in the 70s).

But I'm wondering why they're working with plague. Unless it is pneumonic plague, it cannot spread easily from person to person and there have not been many cases of it in the past few years. Many, if not all of the cases, if caught early, are treatable with antibiotics. I would be more interested in researching West Nile virus or the Avian Flu virus, both of which could potentially cause problems in the next 10 years or so.

If it was just the biotech stuff, that would be disasterous enough, but it seems the large corporations with toxic waste on site are being allowed to self police. No survey of how their waste has been spread/contained.
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/090905HA.shtml

Keeping with the whole infectious disease topic, I heard this morning that there is avian influenza in Indonesia now. Wonder how long it'll take to spread to a global epidemic.

Brd flu does look like it will be something to watch for. Maybe a temporary ban on travel to Indonesia might be in order? Apart from that, I'd be worried about the potential for an airborne or insect borne mutation of HIV, or more likely, Ebola, Smallpox, Haunta, and Anthrax, or having SARS turn up again- and that was just a mutation of a cold.

The media's been all hyped up about this. If bird flu can only transfer directly from poultry to humans, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. It will probably be pretty nasty if it ends up transmitting from person to person, though. I'm still trying to remain aware of what's happening, though.

Ebola is pretty nasty and kills between 80 and 95% of the people who contract it in any given outbreak. Smallpox shouldn't be too much of a problem because it was eradicated in the 1970s sometime. The only real reason to worry about it would be bioterrorism.