Word: bacillus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...just before Boris Yeltsin finally acknowledged the escape of anthrax from a bioweapons plant. Confronted with the evidence of an unprecedented 77 infections and 64 deaths, Walker and the others began thinking hard about the biology of anthrax and how doctors might deal with an outbreak. When Bacillus anthracis emerges from inhaled spores, they knew, it grows and multiplies and starts secreting a powerful toxin that chews through tissue and enters the bloodstream. From there the poison spreads throughout the body to attack internal organs. Lymph nodes, meanwhile, clogged with immune-system cells that have been summoned to fight...
...bacterium that causes the disease, bacillus anthracis, is found naturally in soil throughout the country. Most cases of anthrax until this month have been caused by exposure to parts of infected animals...
...example?cause allergic reactions. Then there is the problem of "genetic pollution," as opponents of biotechnology term it. Pollen grains from such wind-pollinated plants as corn, for instance, are carried far and wide. The continuing flap over Bt corn and cotton?the gene of a common soil bacteria (Bacillus thuringiensis), a natural insecticide, is transferred to the plants?has provided more fodder for the debate. Ecologists are concerned that widespread planting of these crops will spur Bt resistance among crop pests, and Bt is popular with organic farmers...
...devious as it is dangerous. Its name is Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and it sallies forth on spumes of sputum each time an infected inmate coughs or sneezes. As many as 10% of Russia's million prisoners suffer active TB; in at least 1 case out of 5, the bacillus is a multidrug-resistant strain. Now M. tuberculosis in virulent forms is stalking ordinary citizens in Russian cities and towns, and soon, if it hasn't done so already, it will hitch a ride on an airplane, a bus, a train and escape into the rest of the world...
Until recently, the outlook for patients with drug-resistant TB could not have been gloomier. The last major anti-TB drug, rifampin, was approved more than a quarter-century ago. In the interim, the TB bacillus has managed to develop resistance to the cocktail of drugs physicians have long used to treat it, including that old standby streptomycin. New drugs, with different mechanisms of action, would be a great help, particularly if they shortened the present six months' time required for treatment. The linezolid family, for example, appears to hold some promise, as does a compound the Seattle-based PathoGenesis...