A mysterious illness showing flu-like symptoms has killed four people in east Texas.
Montgomery County Health Officials confirmed the deaths of four out of eight patients showing signs of the mystery disease.
The patients all show signs of the flu or pneumonia but all tests for flu are negative. The patients range in age from 41 to 88 and health officials have not said the ages of the patients who have died.
Sources told KHOU-TV that two of the surviving patients at Conroe Regional Medical Center are “very sick.”
Health officials say they are waiting for more conclusive test results to determine the possible illness. They would not comment on whether the patients had pre-existing medical issues. Doctors have been advised to use extra precautions to keep the illness from spreading.
It had been a long established scientific fact that when a flu virus obtained an immunity to particular anti-viral flu medications, they would become less effective in transmission between humans.
Now scientists have found the deadly H7N9 bird flu in China does not lose any of its infectivity when it becomes resistant to commonly used drugs like Tamiflu.
The researchers were quick to add that the drug-resistant H7N9 was not more infectious than in the past. They reiterated that the virus is one of the less transmittable viruses between humans.
H7N9 emerged earlier this year in China and has killed 45 of the 139 people confirmed to have been infected with the virus. Scientists had initially believed H7N9 could not transmit between humans but found cases in August of human-to-human transmission.
A separate study in the United States this week said that it was not impossible for H7N9 to mutate into a form that could be easily passed among humans.
A severe winter storm hit the western U.S. bringing hazardous travel conditions, dangerously lowering temperatures and threatened crops as far south as California.
Meteorologists say the jet stream has moved significantly further south than normal bringing arctic temperatures into the northwest. AccuWeather reported that temperatures could fall as much as 40 degrees below normal this weekend and a second winter blast could follow in a few days.
Areas of Montana saw temperature forecasts as low as the minus-20s. Officials say that when temperatures reach that low, even a little breeze can cause enough wind chill to be dangerous.
The storm also dumped heavy snow across the northwest part of the country including up to 2 feet in the Rocky Mountains. Ice and snow created dangerous driving conditions and contributed to a four car crash in Montana that killed a 21-year-old woman.
The system is pushing so far south that forecasters say Texans currently experiencing 80 degree days will see lower 40s by Thursday.
The major storm making its way across the U.S. is now officially blamed for 11 deaths as it bears down on the East Coast in sync with Thanksgiving travel times.
Over half the deaths are in Texas with most released to ice covered roads. One woman was killed when a tree weighed down by ice fell onto her car.
The National Weather Service has issued winter storm warnings for large parts of the eastern United States through Wednesday afternoon. Forecasters predict big delays at some of the nation’s largest airports – New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Boston and Charlotte, North Carolina – are very likely.
Thanksgiving is one of the peak travel times of the year. Airlines for America, the industry’s lobbying group, say this year could see the most air travellers since 2007 with an estimated 2.56 million passengers. AAA estimates as many as 39 million people will be traveling by car Wednesday and Thursday.
The storm is expected to bring heavy rain to the south that could cause delays at southern airports like Atlanta.
Philippine officials have officially risen the death toll from Typhoon Haiyan to over 5,000.
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said that 4,919 people are confirmed dead in the Eastern Visayas region while a civil defense official released a statement adding an additional 290 confirmed dead in the central & southern parts of the country.
Roxas told reporters the situation in the country is beginning to stabilize, as relief workers are able to clear roads to more remote regions.
In addition to the cleared roads, officials say that banks, gas stations and stores are beginning to re-open in damaged regions.
Nigerian Islamic terrorist organization Boko Haram has taken to a new tactic to try and boost the morale of their soldiers. They are kidnapping Christian women, forcing them to convert to Islam through violence and then are forcing them to marry terrorist fighters.
A 19-year-old woman identified only as Hajja escaped from the group after four months of captivity. The Christian woman said she was forced multiple times to kneel and beaten while her captors yelled at her to worship Allah. She said she eventually pretended to go along with them because a fighter told her she was about to be beheaded.
She told reporters that she was forced to be a slave for a group of fourteen terrorists and was used as bait to lure in civilians working with the military so that the terrorists could slit their throats. She reported being forced to watch multiple murders at the hands of her captors.
Hajja now lives in the nation’s capital city of Abuja and is free to worship Christ. She says that she has trouble sleeping at night because of nightmares related to her captivity.
Cyclone Cleopatra roared into the Italian island of Sardinia killing at least 17 people and leaving dozens missing.
The storm’s heavy rains led to flash flooding and many rivers to overflow their banks. The flooding destroyed several bridges and swept away cars and homes.
A mother and daughter died when they car was swept away in the flash flooding. A family of three died when a bridge collapsed onto their car.
Prime Minister Enrico Letta has declared a state of emergency for the island, calling the situation a “national tragedy.” He said that $27 million would be immediately allocated to emergency relief efforts and that soldiers are being sent to the island for search and rescue operations.
Reports say the flash flooding reached 10 feet high at times. The mayor of the told of Olbia told the BBC the storm was “apocalyptic.”
Officials say that citizens of the island are coming together. Many residents with homes left undamaged by the storm are using social media to contact those who have lost homes and are inviting them in for meals and shelter.
Virginia state lawmaker and onetime candidate for governor Creigh Deeds suffered serious injuries in a stabbing attack that took place in his home Tuesday, police said.
Deeds, 55, was flown from his home in Bath County and is being treated at UVA Hospital in Charlottesville, while a second person at the residence, who is believed to be his son, is dead, the Virginia State Police said in a statement.
Virginia and national Democratic sources told Fox News that Deeds is in critical condition. The sources cited Virginia law enforcement authorities as alleging that Deeds’ son, Gus, stabbed him before shooting himself.
Source: FOX News – FOX News: Virginia State Sen. Creigh Deeds in critical condition after being stabbed inside home, sources say
The rebels attempting to overthrow the government of Bashir al-Assad took a major hit over the weekend with the death of a major rebel commander.
Abdul Qadir al-Saleh, the leader of the Liwa al-Tawlid, died overnight from wounds sustained in an air strike on a rebel held air base in Aleppo province on Thursday. The group is one of the major rebel forces in Syria with around 10,000 fighters. The group was the leaders of the rebels who took the city of Aleppo from government troops.
The brigade’s intelligence and financial chief died in the same attack.
“As an individual, he was very, very important, certainly in the Aleppo area, but increasingly as an individual that many in Syria felt represented the revolution,” IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre Charles Lister told the AFP news agency. “He came from a humble background, was outwardly religious but was very open… and he maintained extremely good relations with almost all groups of all different natures.”
Observers say it’s likely the rebel group will rally after the death of their leader to launch a major counter-offensive against government forces.
An al-Qaeda linked rebel group in Syria was in such a rush to post a violent video, they accidentally beheaded a commander of a fellow rebel group.
The members of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham asked fellow rebel groups for “understanding and forgiveness” for the killing of their ally and putting his head on display.
A spokesman for the Islamic State of Iraq said that Mohammed Fares had believed he had been captured by pro-Assad fighters and asked them to kill him.
Meanwhile, the Syrian government announced they were working with Russia to bring all sides to the table in Geneva for a second major peace conference. The U.S. and Russia have been trying to broker a peace conference since May.
