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11 Jan 20 - 08:53 AM (#4027650) Subject: BS: Contagious Mental illnesses From: Donuel MILLIONS ARE SICK and so is our President Starting with prion diseases like mad cow, Jacob Creutzfeld disease, Alzhiemers and toxiplasmosis gondii, there are behavior changing parasitic diseases out there that are so influential on society as to be called a pandemic. There are political subtexts, socio economic and personal deficiencies that exacerbate some of these conditions as well as learned stereotypes from TV and movies. These are subtle but aggresive behavior changes that are nearly as pervasive as popular potrayals of a zombie apocolypse. Simply observe the increase in mass shootings and gun violence. Now before you start laughing you need to famliarize yourself with the facts, first in media and then the actual contagious mental illnesses and parasitic infections. Media; The portrayal of mentally ill persons in movies and television programs has an important and underestimated influence on public perceptions of their condition and care. Movie stereotypes that contribute to the stigmatization of mentally ill persons include the mental patient as rebellious free spirit, homicidal maniac, seductress, enlightened member of society, narcissistic parasite, and zoo specimen. The authors suggest that mental health professionals can fight this source of stigma by increasing their collaboration with patient advocacy groups in monitoring negative portrayals of mentally ill people, using public information campaigns such as Mental illness Awareness Week to call attention to theprocess of stigmatization, and supporting accurate dramatic and documentary depictions of mental illness. Toxoplasmosis is an infection caused by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Cats are the definitive host in which the organism can complete its sexual cycle. Cats usually shed the environmentally resistant oocyst form of the organism in their feces for 1–2 weeks after a new infection, although in specific situations related to strain types, co-infection with Cystoisospora felis (syn. Isospora felis), and immunosuppression, repeat shedding is possible.1 Sporulation is required for oocysts to become infectious and occurs within 1–5 days in the environment. Sporulated oocysts are quite hardy; they can remain infective in a moist environment for a year or more.1 Once ingested by humans or any other warm-blooded animal, the parasite transforms into a tissue-infective stage in the intestine, migrates through the intestinal wall, and is carried via the blood to other tissues including the central nervous system. Disease; Humans are accidental hosts and can be infected through a variety of exposures. Food-borne transmission occurs with ingestion of raw or undercooked meat containing the parasite in tissue cysts (usually pork, lamb, goat, or wild game meat, although beef and field-raised chickens have been implicated in epidemiologic studies),2 or through ingestion of food, soil, or water contaminated by cat feces (for example, from eating unwashed fruits and vegetables, gardening, or cleaning a cat's litter box). Mother-to-child transmission typically occurs when a pregnant woman is newly infected during, or just prior to, her pregnancy. The organism can also be transmitted when a previously uninfected person receives an organ or blood transfusion from an infected donor. The proportion of human T. gondii infections acquired by eating meat containing infective cysts versus ingesting oocysts from cat feces contamination is not known for a representative sample of the general population. However, ingestion of oocysts from cat feces/soil and ingestion of tissue cysts in meat both are significant contributors to the disease burden in humans, although oocysts have recently been shown to play an important role.3–5 Modern confinement production has decreased T. gondii contamination of meat but there is concern that a new trend in the production of free-range raised animals for meat could increase the risk of contamination. Three principal clonal T. gondii genotypes were originally detected, primarily in isolates from the United States and Europe. However, more recently using sequence-based technology 15 haplogroups that define 6 major clades have been described, and the new paradigm is that many atypical genotypes differ in pathogenicity and transmissibility from typical genotypes. Research supports the concept that T. gondii genotype may be related to disease severity. However, there is relatively little information about T. gondii genotypes infecting asymptomatic persons, and in general, the clinical implications of T. gondii strains are incompletely understood. Clinical ManifestationsGO TO SECTION... A self-limited or mild illness characterized by fever, malaise and lymphadenopathy is often seen after T. gondii infection, but many infections are subclinical. However, regardless of initial symptoms, a chronic infection is established, and immunosuppression, such as occurs with advanced human immunodeficiency virus disease or use of immunosuppressive medications in cancer treatment or after organ transplant, can result in disease reactivation and severe morbidity including neurologic involvement, or mortality. In those with advanced human immunodeficiency virus–related immunosuppression, encephalitis is a common manifestation unless long-term prophylactic medication is taken. Congenital infection can cause pregnancy loss (miscarriage or stillbirth) or severe disease in the newborn, including developmental delays, blindness, and epilepsy. However, many newborns with congenital toxoplasmosis are asymptomatic at birth. Nevertheless, even if asymptomatic at birth, illness will develop in many infected infants later in their life, most often ocular disease, but also neurologic symptoms and developmental disabilities. For example, 82% of congenitally infected children (9 of 11, including 4 who received treatment) were shown to have ocular lesions by age 20 in one small prospective series.12 Other studies confirm the risk for severe illness among congenitally infected children but have found a somewhat lower risk in treated children. For example, in a group of 127 treated children followed-up to 16 years in France, ocular lesions were present in 18.9%. In another series of 130 treated children followed-up 12 years in France, ocular involvement was found in 30%,14 and in a third series of French adults (median age = 22 years) who had congenital toxoplasmosis that was treated pre- and post-natally, 59% had ocular lesions but only 13% had reduced vision.15 A comparison of cohorts of children with congenital toxoplasmosis in Brazil with those in Europe found that T. gondii causes more severe ocular disease in congenitally infected children in Brazil. The authors suggested that the increased frequency and severity of ocular disease in Brazil compared with that in Europe may be caused by more virulent type 1 and atypical strains found there.9 In general, infants born to women who were infected with T. gondii more than a few weeks before conception are not at risk for congenital infection, although congenital infection from women with chronic T. gondii infection has occurred with reactivation in immunosuppression or with infection by atypical genotypes.7 Although T. gondii infection appears to be lifelong, for most healthy persons infected outside of infancy it has long been believed that further clinical manifestations after acute infection are rare. However, studies have now revealed associations between T. gondii antibody seropositivity (indicating infection) and the presence of various psychiatric disorders in humans (e.g., schizophrenia,16 bipolar illness,17 suicide attempts,18 episodes of self-directed violence and memory impairment in elderly persons). Although these results are intriguing and potentially signal a new and compelling reason to redouble efforts to prevent toxoplasmosis, additional studies are needed to fully elucidate the relationship between T. gondii infection and mental illness, and how the strain and stage of T. gondii (oocyst versus tissue cyst) affects this relationship. I do not expect you to see all the implications here , because sometimes a problem is so big it cannot be seen in its entirety. Perhaps you have seen the symptoms of narccisism, schizphrenic violence and pathological obstenacy in our daily lives more than you have ever seen before. Or you may call it the new normal. The pandemic does not care. |
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11 Jan 20 - 09:13 AM (#4027653) Subject: RE: BS: Contagious Mental illnesses From: Donuel This is not the zombie apocalypse we could have imagined. It is historically older than we know. In ancient Egypt a scribe noted the bizarre behavior of a mouse standing on its hind legs offering itself to a cat moments before it was devoured. The scribe did not know what h was seeing. This today is known to be just one of the manifistation of behavior changing toxiplasmosis. In the dark ages people blamed the rat for spreading the plague and not the flea. Today I hope we do not blame the cat instead of the parasite. |
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11 Jan 20 - 10:30 AM (#4027662) Subject: RE: BS: Contagious Mental illnesses From: Donuel While this is Horse Shit it is a 12 year old sci fi fantasy of mine. Who can disagree that its a mad mad world. I did interviews and legwork developing the facts but I still have not yet found the best setting. I thought the Trump admin might be it as in Outbreak meets all the Presidents men. |
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11 Jan 20 - 10:39 AM (#4027666) Subject: RE: BS: Contagious Mental illnesses From: Donuel When Rachel Maddow becomes infected and starts praising Trump on high, we might take a second look. |
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11 Jan 20 - 10:44 AM (#4027667) Subject: RE: BS: Contagious Mental illnesses From: robomatic You mean when he devours her? |
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11 Jan 20 - 10:52 AM (#4027669) Subject: RE: BS: Contagious Mental illnesses From: Donuel I just had a real lol |
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11 Jan 20 - 11:38 AM (#4027675) Subject: RE: BS: Contagious Mental illnesses From: Iains News Release 7-Jan-2020 The Lancet Infectious Diseases: Scientists identify and characterise eight more deaths from Borna disease virus and suggest more cases could be identified A virus that jumps from shrews to humans could have been causing encephalitis unnoticed for decades in regions where the host shrew lives in the wild. how the disease virus jumps from shrews to humans is unclear. Symptoms in infected people start with a fever, headache and confusion, and continue with signs of brain disease such as an unsteady gait, memory loss, seizures, and a progressive loss of consciousness. In the new cases, symptoms deteriorated rapidly following patients' admission to hospital, leading to deep coma and death. All eight patients died within 16 to 57 days of admission. |
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11 Jan 20 - 11:59 AM (#4027682) Subject: RE: BS: Contagious Mental illnesses From: Mrrzy I often unkindly wish someone could catch mine. Not that I can throw too far... |
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11 Jan 20 - 02:40 PM (#4027710) Subject: RE: BS: Contagious Mental illnesses From: Senoufou Regarding the little mouse standing on its hind legs in front of the cat, I have seen this many times. In our last house, the five cats we had then brought many poor creatures in to 'play' with, including field mice. They inevitably saved themselves by running into the dining room under the door, and I used a humane trap (plastic tube with bait) When I'd caught one, I'd carry the tube outside. The poor wee things would always stand up on their hind legs on the patio and look me in the eye before realising they were free to go. It always brought tears to my eyes, so pitiful and sweet. |
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12 Jan 20 - 08:20 AM (#4027782) Subject: RE: BS: Contagious Mental illnesses From: Donuel The cycle for some parasites is 5 or 6 stages. In relative size changes btween each cycle can be a small as a mouse and tall as the statue of liberty. I was interested in the ones that cause subtle andspecific behavior changes in the central nervous system. Its amazing. Fatal infections are like a weapon system and do not interest me. In my first draft I used dramaticized historic examples of these micro monsters leaving mysterious clues and changing human history. |