12 ***^ Wednesday 24 July 2019 The Daily Telegraph
Having a giraffe James, Viscount Severn mimics the giraffe he is feeding, to the amusement of his mother, the Countess of
Wessex, during a family visit to The Wild Place Project in Bristol. The Earl of Wessex is patron of Bristol Zoological Society.MAX MUMBYNews
Climate change led to evolution of killer superbug
By Sarah Knapton SCIENCE EDITOR
A DEADLY superbug which suddenly
started infecting humans evolved
because of global warming. Scientists
believe it is the first fungal disease to
emerge because of climate change.
The fungus, called Candida auris
(C.auris), was first identified in Japan in
2009, in the ear canal of a 70-year-old
woman. It has since spread around the
globe, emerging in five continents,
with the first UK case detected in 2013.
Since then it has caused outbreaks in
at least 55 hospitals across Britain,
infecting more than 200 patients. It has
been linked to eight deaths.
Public health experts are alarmed by
the rapid spread of the fungus, which
has been likened to a superbug because
it has proved resistant to the main three
classes of drug treatment.
But researchers now believe that as
global temperatures have risen, C.auris
evolved to thrive in conditions which
mirror the internal temperature of thebody – 97-99F (36-37C) – making
humans a perfect breeding ground.
“The reasons fungal infections are so
rare in humans is that most of the fungi
in the environment cannot grow at the
temperatures of our body,” said Dr
Arturo Casadevall, lead author and a
molecular microbiology expert at
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
“Something happened to allow this
organism to bubble up and cause
disease. We began to look into the pos-
sibility that it could be climate change.“As the climate has got warmer, or-
ganisms, including Candida auris,
have adapted to the higher tempera-
ture, and as they adapt, they break
through humans’ protective tempera-
tures. Global warming may lead to new
fungal diseases that we don’t even
know about right now.”
The fungus is a yeast which, in other
forms, can cause skin infections. The
new type, which can lead to blood
infections, emerged independently in
India, South America and Africa.While healthy patients can usually
fend it off, those with compromised
immune systems can develop infec-
tions, which can prove fatal, or cause
major disabilities such as hearing loss.
In the new study, published by the
American Society for Microbiology, the
researchers found that C.auris is capa-
ble of growing at higher temperatures
than most of its closely related species.
Adaptation to higher temperatures is a
contributory cause for its emergence,
they concluded, as they called for bet-ter surveillance to monitor new dis-
eases. “What this study suggests is this
is the beginning of fungi adapting to
higher temperatures, and we are going
to have more and more problems as the
century goes on,” added Dr. Casadevall.
A 2015 C.auris outbreak at the Royal
Brompton Hospital and Harefield NHS
Foundation trust in London led to the
closure of its intensive care unit for two
weeks, while 70 patients were infected
at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford
between 2015 and 2017.Children deployed to shame speeders
u Children are being used by police
to shame speeding drivers who have
been pulled over – by asking them
why they were travelling so fast.
So-called “mini-police” schemes
send primary school pupils to monitor
traffic with roadside policing units,
arming them with speed guns. Any
driver stopped is given the option of
accepting the traditional penalties or
facing censure from children as young
as eight.
It is thought the initiative – jointly
run by the police and local authorities- is an effective means of deterring
reckless driving.
Oily fish reduces risk of bowel cancer
u Eating three portions of fish a week
significantly lowers the chances of
bowel cancer, a major study has found.
Data showed a 12 per cent lower risk
among regular fish eaters of the UK’s
fourth most common form of cancer.
Oily fish, such as mackerel, salmon
and herring, are already thought toreduce the risk of heart disease and
brain degeneration, due to their
omega-3 fatty acids. Scientists at the
International Agency for Research on
Cancer followed 476,160 people in
Europe for 15 years.
The study was published in Clinical
Gastroenterolog y and Hepatolog y,Battered Pict had the appetite of royalty
u A Pictish man whose skeleton was
found in a Scottish cave after a “brutal
death” about 1,400 years ago could
have been royalty, researchers believe.
The skeleton, discovered in a Black
Isle cave in the Highlands, was in a
cross-legged position with stones
weighing his limbs down and his headbattered. Radiocarbon dating indicates
he died between AD430 and AD630.
Simon Gunn, of the Rosemarkie
Caves Project, said analysis showed he
was either royalty or a chieftain
because he had a high-protein diet. He
added he was well built as if he had
eaten “nothing but suckling pigs”.Almost everyone
can be identified on
‘anonymised’ data,
research reveals
u So-called “anonymised” databases
can be reliably linked back to people’s
real identities 99.98 per cent of the
time, researchers have found.
Imperial College London (ICL) and
UCLouvain in Belgium developed an
algorithm which found that
anonymous databases – often used by
technology companies and healthcare
services to share data that doesn’t
include people’s real names – could be
“de-anonymised”.
Given enough information,
researchers were able to consistently
find unique individuals based on
known snippets of information in the
databases such as their marital status,
postcode and date of birth.
Prof Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye,
of ICL, said that the findings show
that “the techniques that we are using,
the current de-identification practices
are basically not working” because
companies now include thousands of
pieces of information such as people’s
internet browsing history.
The paper, published in the journal
Nature Communications, is not calling
for an end to the use of anonymised
data, but urging companies to better
protect people’s identities and “tighten
what the standards are for what
constitutes anonymous data”.
Vulnerable patients
left without
intravenous food
after supply delay
u Hundreds of NHS patients who
depend on intravenous nutrition are
experiencing delays in deliveries, an
investigation has found.
Senior clinical staff said they were
“walking a very thin line” amid
shortages of supplies of hydration and
food for the most vulnerable.
Calea, the British manufacturer of
the intravenous foods, said hundreds
of people, including children, were
affected by the delays, which resulted
from an inspection by watchdogs.
The Medicines and Healthcare
products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)
ordered Calea to revamp its processes,
in order to maintain product safety.
The MHRA said no defects had been
found but as a consequence output
was reduced.
The feed is used by vulnerable and
disabled people, mainly living in their
own homes. Patients who expected
deliveries in recent days said they had
been left with nothing.
Dr James Stewart, clinical lead for
intestinal failure at University
Hospitals of Leicester Trust, said: “If
this carries on we are going to have to
admit some of these patients because
we can’t keep them hydrated and
nourished with these sporadic
supplies that we are getting.”РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS