SARS-like virus with high mortality rate spreading in Saudi Arabia

A new virus responsible for an outbreak of respiratory illness in the Middle East may be more deadly than SARS, according to a team of infectious disease specialists who recently investigated a set of cases in Saudi Arabia.

Of 23 confirmed cases in April, 15 people died — an “extremely high” fatality rate of 65 percent, according to Johns Hopkins senior epidemiologist Trish Perl, a member of the team that analyzed the spread of the virus through four Saudi hospitals.

Saudi officials said that as of Wednesday, 49 people have contracted the disease and 32 have died.

The infectious disease experts, who published their findings online Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, reported that infection occurred by way of person-to-person contact and poses an especially serious risk because it is easily transmitted in hospital settings.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/sars-like-virus-has-high-mortality-rate-in-saudi-arabia-specialists-say/2013/06/19/949bd7be-d84a-11e2-9df4-895344c13c30_print.html

Strange Guy Part Deux

We saw that strange guy in the military garb again. He spoke to me, but I couldn't understand a thing he said. Possibly words in Spanish or broken English. He was carrying two long slender wooden poles, one about four feet and one about seven feet long, that might have been fishing spears. My guess is that he's living back there.

When we got home a large un-neutered pit bull was wandering around loose.

I feel like I should be carrying around my little pocket pistol, which is illegal now in California. No more second amendment rights here.