Virus

JUNCTION CITY — A disease usually is best avoided, but Mary Etta Stone is glad a virus spread through her friends and family over the past two and a half weeks. On May 22, the back half of her house where she has lived almost 42 years caved in. Years of water damage led to the wreckage of her house, and insurance would not cover a claim. People she has known through the many jobs she worked while putting her two sons through college stepped up and slowly have been transforming the house where her check never seemed to stretch enough to pay for new curtains or even paint for the ceiling.

A third case of H1N1 virus was confirmed Tuesday in Mercer County. "The third case had close contact with case No. 1," said Kathy Crown-Weber, director of the Mercer County Health Department. Mercer's first case was confirmed Thursday. A second was confirmed Friday. Lincoln had its first case confirmed Thursday and Boyle had its first case May 11. Crown-Weber said the Mercer cases had been on medicine a week and have been cleared to return to work. "So I'm hoping this is the end of it all," she said.

Asus has confirmed and apologized to its consumers for a very serious mishap involving one of its new product lines. Several of its Eee Box desktop computers were discovered to have shipped preloaded with malware. The malware came in the form of a virus called Recycled.exe. The virus was found hidden on the computer's D drive partition. The virus will activate and start copying itself onto any other drive, USB flash media, etc., that connects to the computer just by simply accessing the D drive.

STANFORD - A case of the West Nile virus has been confirmed in Lincoln County. Jackie McMurtry, community health nurse at the Lincoln County Health Department, said the virus was confirmed at the end of September. It occurred in a rural part of the county where not many people live and was considered a serious case of the virus. She declined to release information about the victim or his condition. Generally, humans contract West Nile from infected mosquitoes. McMurtry said many times the symptoms are mild and a person may not realize he or she is infected.

Last week we explored the Display, Internet Options and the System sections of the Control Panel. Today we continue on our adventures in the Windows Control Panel. One of the applets in the Control Panel that all computer users should become familiar with is Add/Remove Programs. This is where you go to properly remove programs from your system. Add/Remove Programs allows you to add, remove and change software. It also allows you to change components installed for your operating system such as games or other utilities.

Clark County's response to swine flu would involve a coordinated effort to dispense medical treatment and limit the spread of the virus if the flu becomes a problem here, an official said Tuesday. Scott Lockard, director of public health, said he is participating in a daily teleconference with the state Department of Public Health and health departments across Kentucky to share information about the illness. As of this morning, no cases of swine flu have been reported in Kentucky.

I think there is a scary new virus going around that appears to be affecting the minds of incumbent Democrats. It’s the only way to explain some of the really weird stuff coming out of their mouths lately. The first signs began a few weeks ago when Sen. John Kerry said, “There are a lot of people in the electorate who are not paying attention.” He was trying to explain why the Democrats were doing so poorly in the polls. Note to John Kerry — we are paying attention.

The actual definition of zoonotic diseases is diseases caused by infectious agents that can be transmitted between, or shared by, animals and humans. Unfortunately, there are a lot of zoonotic diseases that people can contract from animals. However, the occurrence or likelihood of someone becoming infected by one of these diseases is still pretty rare. One of the most devastating diseases affecting mammals, including dogs and humans is rabies.   I realize that I have written about rabies in the past, but there could never be too much awareness about such an awful disease.

RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION (B/Directed by Russell Mulcahy/Starring Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Oded Fehr, Mike Epps/Screen Gems/Rated R/Horror): "Resident Evil: Extinction" begins with Milla Jovovich's Alice character collapsed and naked on a shower floor somewhere in the belly of the dreaded Umbrella Corporation, with a strategically placed curtain providing her only cover. Within seconds of regaining consciousness, Alice is forced to navigate her way through a series of death traps fans likely will remember from the first film.

Certainly, in the past couple of years, I have written about the importance of vaccinations for pets several times. It dawned on me, while I was explaining the details of vaccinations to a client, that I have never really written about how vaccinations work and the actual reason pets need vaccinations. The overall concept is pretty simple, but some clients want to know more details. In general, a vaccine is a commercially prepared product that contains the infectious agent in an altered form.

In general, cats often get the short end of the stick or at least the short end of discussion. Cats take the back seat to dogs in almost every media exposure. They might get to equally share the limelight with dogs on America's Funniest Videos, but there are definitely 10 times more movies starring dogs than cats. Therefore, this week's article is dedicated to all the cat lovers. Unfortunately, feline diseases are very complicated and often devastating. There are some extremely prevalent and deadly viruses  to which cats are susceptible.

Certainly, in the past couple of years, I have written about the importance of vaccinations for pets several times. It dawned on me, while I was explaining the details of vaccinations to a client, that I have never really written about how vaccinations work and the actual reason pets need vaccinations. The overall concept is pretty simple, but some clients want to know more details. In general, a vaccine is a commercially prepared product that contains the infectious agent in an altered form.

September through May is the typical season for becoming infected with the flu or influenza virus. Most of us know a little about it, but we all should be aware of certain facts, such as how we get the flu, how its spread, and how we can prevent it. The flu is a contagious respiratory illness that causes symptoms such as sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, coughing, fever, muscle aching, fatigue and sometimes, especially in young children, vomiting...

The actual definition of zoonotic diseases is diseases caused by infectious agents that can be transmitted between, or shared by, animals and humans. Unfortunately, there are a lot of zoonotic diseases that people can contract from animals. However, the occurrence or likelihood of someone becoming infected by one of these diseases is still pretty rare. One of the most devastating diseases affecting mammals, including dogs and humans is rabies.   I realize that I have written about rabies in the past, but there could never be too much awareness about such an awful disease.

Health department officials from Clark and Rowan counties believe norovirus is responsible for an outbreak of gastrointestinal symptoms in both counties. “I¿feel very comfortable in saying the bug is norovirus, but you like to have enough sampling to make sure, and that's where we're at right now,” said Bobby Ratliff, director of the Gateway District Health Department. The Rowan County Health Center is an affiliate of the Gateway District Health Department, located in Owingsville.

I think there is a scary new virus going around that appears to be affecting the minds of incumbent Democrats. It’s the only way to explain some of the really weird stuff coming out of their mouths lately. The first signs began a few weeks ago when Sen. John Kerry said, “There are a lot of people in the electorate who are not paying attention.” He was trying to explain why the Democrats were doing so poorly in the polls. Note to John Kerry — we are paying attention.

JUNCTION CITY — A disease usually is best avoided, but Mary Etta Stone is glad a virus spread through her friends and family over the past two and a half weeks. On May 22, the back half of her house where she has lived almost 42 years caved in. Years of water damage led to the wreckage of her house, and insurance would not cover a claim. People she has known through the many jobs she worked while putting her two sons through college stepped up and slowly have been transforming the house where her check never seemed to stretch enough to pay for new curtains or even paint for the ceiling.

SS. Peter and Paul Catholic Church was the first parish in the Catholic Diocese of Lexington to institute special preventive procedures during communion to combat the H1N1 virus, according the church's pastor, the Rev. Thomas Farrell. "We implemented our precautionary measures in September, and they were the first such procedures put in place by a church in our dioceses," he said. "Now, several other parishes have adopted the same or similar measures. " The ball got rolling when members of the church's health ministries committee decided something needed to be done during the communion portion of mass after hearing the news that Junction City Elementary School had to close because of concern over the so-called swine flu, Farrell said.

Word has been circulating on the streets of Winchester the past few days that a confirmed case of H1N1, or swine flu, was reported in Clark County. While there probably have been several cases of H1N1 in the county, the severity of the illness is not such that it has to be reported to the Health Department, as MRSA was last year, said Director of Public Health Scott Lockard. "H1N1 flu is not reportable to us so, no, we have not had any doctors call us and say they had a case of H1N1.

I received a forwarded e-mail regarding the H1N1 flu and how it relates to cats and dogs. My correspondent commented that others might be interested in the information. Let me first say that dogs and cats do not get the current (and I stress the word "current") H1N1 virus, but the article stated that flu viruses mutate and just because our pets cannot contract this illness right now, they might be susceptible in the future. Are dogs susceptible to other flu-like viruses? Yes, the canine influenza is classified as Type A H3N8 virus.