A1A South

This is an interesting article, and you do not have to sign in to read the overview. One of the parts that I thought was most interesting was this:

In one quarter or more of patients with influenza A (H5N1) virus infection, the source of exposure is unclear, and environment-to-human transmission remains possible. For some patients, the only identified risk factor was visiting a live-poultry market. Plausible transmission routes include contact with virus-contaminated fomites or with fertilizer containing poultry feces, followed by self-inoculation of the respiratory tract or inhalation of aerosolized infectious excreta. It is unknown whether influenza A (H5N1) virus infection can begin in the human gastrointestinal tract. In several patients, diarrheal disease preceded respiratory symptoms, and virus has been detected in feces. Acquisition of influenza A (H5N1) virus infection in the gastrointestinal tract has been implicated in other mammals. Drinking potable water and eating properly cooked foods are not considered to be risk factors, but ingestion of virus-contaminated products or swimming or bathing in virus-contaminated water might pose a risk. (Please see complete article for footnotes.)

I was aware that in 25% (or more) of the cases the method of exposure was unknown. It took commentor Wilfried Soddemann posting in the avian flu article below in reference to the likelihood of infection from contaminated water that made me realize that most of the news articles I had read mentioned contact with poultry as a source of infection, limited cluster of infection among closely-related people (one or more of whom had contact with poultry), or that the infected person had no known contact with poultry. Alternative avenues of infection are, in general, not mentioned, although they are surely known.

I’m not sure if this is because the people writing the articles were not sufficiently curious about alternative means of infection to ask questions about other possible means of contraction, or whether the information about other possible means of exposure is not published to allay fears of contracting a virus that has, so far, infected only a few.

BY CASTO OCANDO

El Nuevo Herald

Venezuela’s controversial President Hugo Chávez has revealed that he regularly consumes coca — the source of cocaine — raising questions about the legality of his actions.

Chávez’s comments on coca initially went almost unnoticed, coming amid a four-hour speech to the National Assembly during which he made international headlines by calling on other countries to stop branding two leftist Colombian guerrilla groups as terrorists and instead recognize them as “armies.”

”I chew coca every day in the morning . . . and look how I am,” he is seen saying on a video of the speech, as he shows his biceps to the audience.

Chávez, who does not drink alcohol, added that just as Fidel Castro ‘’sends me Coppelia ice cream and a lot of other things that regularly reach me from Havana,” Bolivian President Evo Morales “sends me coca paste . . . I recommend it to you.”

It was not clear what Chávez meant. Indigenous Bolivians and Peruvians can legally chew coca leaves as a mild stimulant and to kill hunger. But coca paste is a semi-refined product — between leaves and cocaine — considered highly addictive and often smoked as basuco or pitillo.

”It is another symptom that [Chávez] has totally lost the concept of limits,” said Aníbal Romero, a political scientist with the Caracas Metropolitan University. “It shows Chávez is a man out of control.”

More seriously, Venezuelan and Bolivian analysts said Chávez’s comments amount to a dangerous endorsement of a substance controlled around the world, and perhaps even an illegal act by a very public head of state.

”If he is affirming that he consumes coca paste, he is admitting that he is consuming a substance that is illegal in Bolivia as well as Venezuela,” said Hernán Maldonado, a Bolivian analyst living in Miami. ”Plus, it’s an accusation that Evo Morales is a narco-trafficker” for sending him the paste.

Morales is the longtime head of a Bolivian coca-growers’ union and is known to chew coca in public, even during cabinet meetings, since he took office. Bolivia limits the coca acreage in an effort to control supplies of coca leaf that wind up being refined into cocaine.

Most likely, however, it seems Chávez was referring to chewing coca leaves, a traditional and legal practice among indigenous groups in the high Andes mountains but illegal in Venezuela, according to experts.

”Venezuela signed the Vienna Convention of 1961, which regulates everything that has to do with narcotics,” said Mildred Camero, former president of the government’s main counter-narcotics agency, the National Council Against the Illicit Use of Drugs. “On the list . . . the coca leaf was prohibited.”

For the rest of the story, go here:

I can’t say that I’m entirely surprised given Hugo’s deranged handling of the Venezuelan economy and exaggerated sense of his importance on the world stage.  Why indeed would he believe that laws that bind his countrymen similarly apply to him?

Also read Hugo Chavez:  Latin America’s Money Man.  Hugo’s ambitions do not stop at the Venezuelan border. 

I got up to cook breakfast this morning, and turned on Fox to see the results of the South Carolina primary. All I wanted to know was first, second, and third in the GOP, and among the Dems, whether Clinton or Obama was victorious (since everybody knew in advance who 3rd and 4th would be).

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? I did not want to see the opinions on the various Republican campaigns by the Democratic strategists, or to hear the reasons why Huckabee was finished, Thompson was finished, or Giuliani was finished by the people that didn’t have any actual ideas on how to make America better or stronger but could only criticize others that were making the attempt. I did not want to see Hillary Clinton accused of “race baiting”. All I wanted to know was the results and not have my intelligence insulted by the various “experts” brought in because I am quite capable of making my own analyses of the various candidates’ strengths and weaknesses, thank you very much.

I switched over to the local station and instead of political coverage, learned how to make cookies from a store-bought cake mix. The news morning show website was supposed to have it posted online so I didn’t write anything down, but nooooooo. So here’s a link to cake mix cookie recipes if you feel the urge to experiment. The cookie recipe given was similar to #3 with the addition of 2 Tbs. of brown sugar and a half cup? of chopped cashews and a (forgotten) quantity of toffee chips. I would use a devil’s food or German chocolate cake mix and use pecans, but that’s just me.

I haven’t actually made a cake since I started getting rounder. Maybe I’m getting rounder because I have not been eating a sufficient quantity of cake (or maybe I’m suffering from a severe shortage of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts).  This begs for further research. I need to write a grant. Women everywhere need this information!

No, I did not actually make cookies for breakfast. The political coverage put me off eating entirely so I went back to bed and snuggled in the warm blankets for awhile longer. Hmmmmm. Watching Fox political coverage as the next weight loss strategy? It could work! (And another grant application is clearly in order.)