What is Making Us Sick NOW?

In my December 19 post I suggested that COVID might finally be loosing its Mojo for causing a significant winter wave. This past month seems to be confirming that impression as COVID emergency room visits remain low, and actually decreasing throughout the country, while Influenza has been surging at high and increasing levels. RSV levels in the ER are moderate and decreasing. While COVID emergency room visits are low, the waste water levels are remaining moderately high, confirming what we already suspected—the virus is becoming progressively less severe over time due to our mounting immunity. I’d sort of like to know what virus is causing my own pretty nasty Flu-like illness right now, since testing for the big three has been negative, but that is just viral nerdiness. We shouldn’t count COVID out in any event, but it is looking like it will take a major shift in the virus away from the Omicron lineage to increase its pathogenicity, and ability to circumvent our relative herd immunity.

While it is generally fairly obvious when an acute infectious disease is making us sick, what about things in the environment which slowly affect us and produce severe or fatal illnesses after many years—those are much harder to pin down. In earlier posts I’ve covered how the “forever chemicals”, like poly-halogenated compounds found in flame retardants, non-stick cooking surfaces, black plastic cooking utensils, ski wax and myriad other products, and accumulate in the environment, the food chain and our bodies. Here is a study from JAMA Network Open Public Health examining the relationship between blood levels of PBDE (polybrominated biphenyl ethers) and all cause mortality and cancer mortality. These compounds are flame retardants which were poured into the environment for decades in all kinds of products which we interact with—and are found in high levels today particularly in black plastic kitchen utensils. Seems this plastic is frequently sourced from recycled electronic devices which were originally manufactured with built in flame retardants. The recycling and remanufacturing processes (often in third world locations) do nothing to breakdown these highly stable compounds, and heating in the presence of oils facilitates their release into our food.

The study I am referencing was a prospective follow up of 11,000 randomly selected Americans followed for about 16 years with baseline measurements of PBDE in their blood. Sure this is a correlation study, but these compounds are known to be carcinogenic in animals, as well as endocrine disruptors, and the degree of the association is impressive.

Participants with higher serum PBDE levels were at higher risk for death. After adjustment for age, sex, and race and ethnicity, lifestyle and socioeconomic factors, and body mass index, participants with the highest tertile of serum PBDE levels had an approximately 300% increased risk of cancer mortality (HR, 4.09 [95% CI, 1.71-9.79]) compared with those with the lowest tertile of serum PBDE levels.

Exposure to Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers and Risk of All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality

Buyun Liu, MD, PhD¹; Hans-Joachim Lehmler, PhD²; Ziyi Ye, BAgr³; et alXing Yuan, PhD³; Yuxiang Yan, BS³; Yuntian Ruan, BS³; Yi Wang, BS³; Yu Yang, BS³; Shuhan Chen, BS³; Wei Bao, MD, PhD⁴ JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(4):e243127. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.3127

That’s enough to make me appreciate the patina of stainless steel and wood over some black plastic morass scavenged from old digital device housings and other crap in an Indonesian recycling pile. If you’re worried the stainless will scratch your non-stick pans, toss them too.

Since we are still in the midst of winter’s short days, prone to bringing on a touch of Seasonal Affective Disorder, I thought that hearing about another new human virus straight out of China would be cheering. This little bundle of DNA and protein is another tick-born virus that makes humans ill with a febrile illness that hasn’t been characterized very well yet. It was identified in 2 patients with prolonged fever after tick bites, but with negative tests for all the known viruses in that area which might have been etiologic. Through a technique known as metatranscriptomic sequencing of blood samples, the researchers were able to identify a virus belonging to a known family of viruses, but clearly a unique species. The new discovery was named Xue-Cheng Virus (XCV) after the city where it was found—clearly the Chinese have gotten the memo that the DEI world of political correctness in such matters is crumbling, but then again they were never on board that ship. Working toward fulfilling Koch’s postulates and proving this virus was truly the agent of disease, they isolated the viral genome and introduced it into a laboratory cell line which then developed the cytopathologic changes typical of that family of viruses, with viral particles filling the cells. Using a PCR test which they developed for the virus the researchers then looked at 792 people with febrile illnesses ranging from mild to very severe, and found 26 of them were infected with the XCV, and negative for all other identifiable infections. It likely is a virus which has been around for a while, but until now people infected with it fell into the undiagnosable category.

This week the CDC requested that all samples from hospitalized patients that test positive for influenza A undergo expedited testing to determine if they are positive for the typical seasonal Influenzas of H1 and H3 subtypes. If they are not, then the agency wants the specimens prioritized for immediate shipping to CDC. The CDC has not increased their threat assessment regarding the Avian Influenza H5N1, but it does appear they are suddenly taking a more proactive response to the situation. The Influenza season is a critical period of increased risk, when chances of a reassortment event between one of our human seasonal viruses and the H5N1 clade infecting wild birds is highest. While anything is possible in this game of nucleoside roulette, the bird clade of this virus is far more worrisome than the version infecting our dairy herds. This past week also saw the FDA ban Red Dye #3, a carcinogen which has been in our food supply since the early 1900’s. Whether there will be a titanic shift with the government prevailing against the food industry to dramatically reduce Americans consumption of highly processed, unhealthy foods and dangerous chemical additives, or whether the industry’s lobbying machine (one of the biggest and richest) will prevail as usual remains uncertain.

It’s a short edition today as some unnamed virus (luckily not the actual Sin Nombre Virus) has fairly kicked my posterior. Seemed like a good time for short post since there is not much new and noteworthy in the realm of infectious diseases, or indeed in the world at large: other than some hostages being released, a ceasefire in Gaza, Putin and Zelensky making vague references to perhaps considering some sort of settlement, uncontrolled fires for weeks in LA and now San Diego, 8 inches of snow in New Orleans and Florida, and temps so cold that hundreds of water mains broke around the country including Baltimore. Just the usual stuff. Thanks for reading, liking and forwarding. Commenting is guaranteed not to cause contagion, or reports to the FBI, so give it a shot.