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I have never been so saddened by the loss of someone I hadn't had the pleasure to meet. Irwin was a towering figure to me - my only hero, in fact, apart from Gandhi. He was so charming and happy to help, I am truly sorry to know that I will not be able to call on his help again. His loss is deeply felt.

Heartfelt sympathy to you and your family,

Kathy and all at Europeans for Medical Progress

Mailbag

Stephen Joseph, New York NY

I look forward to reading The Civil Abolitionist. So much good information. I use it to teach critical thinking in my college classes. Enclosed check is for membership and to continue to receive the newsletter. Use the difference for stamps or whatever. Keep up the good work it's so important.

Deirdre Balaam, UK

I recently met a young science student from the US, who told me that his college is adjacent to a hospital, and that many people from both buildings rush over to an 'eatery' opposite for a quick lunch. He told me that the pharmaceutical company reps hang out at that restaurant to waylay doctors and try to talk them into recommending this drug or that, offering the doctors freebies left right and centre: holidays, cars, meals, luggage, anything . . . which probably accounts for the fact that a pill worth $1 has to sell at $20, a sort of hidden subsidy. The young man I spoke to said he couldn't stick it any longer and now goes elsewhere though it takes longer to reach his new eating place.

What's more, they've got all this money to spend on lavishly wooing the medics, when they could be investing that money in non-animal research processes.

Connie Spencer, Sacramento CA

(Following some complimentary comments, too nice to print )

….My husband died a few years ago and I am 74 (never dreamed I'd be around this long).

Point is, I'm on an extremely low income and have had to stop all the donations I used to be able to make. How I wish I could send you a really large amount because your work is so important and I'm sure you use your own money as I did when I ran a rescue group here.

Ireland has its first case of home-grown BSE

Ireland (Eire) was able to discount a case of vCJD (variant Creuzfeldt Jakob disease), the human form of BSE ("mad cow"), because the victim had lived several years in England in the 1980's, the period of highest exposure to meat products from infected cows.

An earlier case occurred in a woman of 30 who had undergone a gastroscopy in 1999. She, too, had lived in England. The instruments used for her gastric procedure were subsequently used on 49 other patients, but no subsequent infections have been reported.

The third and most recent Irish victim, a young man said to be 20, appears to be Ireland's first indigenous case because he has not lived abroad. Nor has he had surgery or received donated blood.

His case is officially listed as "probable" because final confirmation requires examination of brain tissue, but the appearance of the brain in an MRI scan and the presence of the infectious prion found in a tonsilar biopsy leave no room for doubt.

Ireland has the second highest rate of BSE in the world. ProMED-mail 11 November 2004

French officials trying to trace recipients of blood from 9th vCJD victim

For the second time in a month, a French blood donor has been diagnosed with variant Creuzfeldt Jakob disease, the human form of "mad cow" disease, attributed to eating parts of infected cows. Health officials are trying to track down all the recipients of blood from this donor.

This person is France's ninth vCJD victim and had donated blood several times between 1984 and 2002. Turkish Press 23 November 2004

British testing for BSE failed at 55 slaughterhouses

The British Meat Hygiene Service has announced that 261 sick or injured animals were not tested for BSE between January and October. BBC News 11 October 2004

Girl survives rabies infection without vaccination

A 15-year old Wisconsin girl is the first person known to survive rabies without being vaccinated against the disease. Only five other people are known to have survived and all had received the vaccine as a precautionary measure.

Jeanna Gies was bitten by a bat while sitting in church September 12. Her symptoms appeared a month later, too late for vaccine to be effective. In desperation, with permission of her parents, doctors led by pediatric disease specialist, Rodney Willoughby, MD, simultaneously used two anesthetic drugs to keep her in a coma and two antiviral drugs to combat the infection. With the full extent of her recovery still unknown, she is expected to be released from the hospital by Christmas. AP Reports November 24. 2004

This treatment cannot be considered a cure until it has been repeated on at least one more victim, but it has the potential to save hundreds of lives in third world countries every year The case is reminiscent of how penicillin became a valuable drug after it was used in desperation to save a dying man for whom there was no hope. Animal experiments were not a factor in either discovery.

Drug companies pressure surgeon to withhold unfavorable results of study

Peter Wilmshurst, a leading UK heart surgeon, refused a bribe of two years' salary not to publish unfavorable results of a study he had conducted on an approved drug. Sunday Express 7 November 2004

Microbiologist muzzled by US Department of Agriculture

James Zahn, PhD, formerly employed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), has identified harmful antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the air around factory pig-raising operations.

His studies suggest that these super bugs can invade neighboring farms and sicken both people and animals.

In April 2002, when he was preparing to present these findings at a conference of family farms and environmental advocates in Iowa, the USDA ordered him to cancel his presentation.

According to Robert F Kennedy, Jr., this order was instigated by the lobbying of the National Pork Producers Council.

Writing in the Canadian Magazine Alive, Croft Woodruff went on to point out that a study published in the Canadian Medical Study Journal (1998) showed that antibiotic- resistant bacteria are also a by-product of the beef industry. Then, he asked the question: Is it avian flu or super bugs?

When avian flu hit British Columbia last spring, the province's chief veterinarian asked the question on CBC Radio News: "Why chickens on free-range farms haven't been infected?"

According to Woodruff, that question should have "scuttled once and for all" the idea that avian flu is caused by wild bird droppings which fall freely on free-range farms but do not penetrate the roofs of chicken factories. Free-range chickens have no need for the antibiotics with which factory fowls are dosed to prevent them from succumbing to disease caused by the unhealthy conditions in which they are confined.

Woodruff goes on to point out that antibiotics destroy beneficial bacteria in the intestinal tract as well as those that cause disease. Eliminating friendly bacteria can cause dysbiosis in humans, a condition that can cause flu-like symptoms.

These observations suggest the possibility that avian flu could be caused by antibiotics rather than a virus though transmitted by wild birds. Alive, August 2004 CivAb index continue