Floodwaters wash fire ants into home, man dies of bites

Man fatally bitten by fire ants that washed into his home
Willoughby Mariano Gary Taylor and Vincent Bradshaw, Sentinel Staff Writers
August 28, 2008

Tropical Storm Fay continued its deadly streak when a Chuluota-area man was bitten to death by fire ants that washed into his flooded home, authorities announced Wednesday.

It also caused more destruction and anxiety. The St. Johns River spilled over the sea wall into downtown Sanford. In DeBary, where more than 130 homes were flooded, residents worried after a sinkhole swallowed trees and damaged a road.

State Road 46 -- a major road in Volusia, Seminole and Brevard counties -- remained blocked because of rising waters from nearby Lake Harney that sent snakes, alligators, and rabbits swimming for higher ground.

And still, the floodwaters continued to rise.


The St. Johns River remained 7 inches to 2 1/2 feet above flood stage in Astor, DeLand, Sanford and Lake Harney. Waters in all but the Astor location were expected to rise through the weekend.

The storm's latest victim was described as a man "60-plus years old" who went into anaphylactic shock after receiving multiple fire-ant bites Tuesday morning. Because of flooding, rescue crews were delayed in reaching him. He was taken to a hospital, where he died that night, said Seminole County Emergency Manager Alan Harris.
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Marine, smallpox vaccine and anaphylactic shock

When I began reading this article I thought it was a great story of how a Marine wanted to make sure that others would return to education to better their futures. It didn't turn out the way I thought it would.

Veteran wants more ex-military people in college
EmailPrint Text size – + January 19, 2008
HANOVER, N.H.—Ex-Marine Brendan Hart is on a new mission -- to get more veterans to college, especially those have been injured.

more stories like thisThe Dartmouth College student is one of three ex-Marines on campus. He's working with a program of the American Council on Education that reaches out to recent veterans to try to get them into college.

"Our country has an untapped resource in the service members who are transferring out" of the military, said Hart, who served in the Marines from November 2003 to November 2006.

World War II veterans were called the Greatest Generation because "when they came back they were educated," Hart said. "Now these guys transferring out have to fight tooth and nail to get into schools they may not want to go to."

With hundreds of thousands of troops circulating through Iraq and Afghanistan, "we have the same opportunity now" as the country did in the 1940s, Hart said. Not getting more veterans into school, he said, is doing the country a disservice.

Only about 10 percent of veterans go back to school, Hart said. As of last month, the American Council on Education had helped nearly 200 military personnel seriously injured in Iraq or Afghanistan and their families get into institutions of higher education.

The ACE program got off the ground with help from Dartmouth President James Wright, who began visiting hospitalized veterans in 2005. Wright, an ex-Marine himself, has raised $350,000 for the program, which is running at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, Brooke Army Hospital in Texas and Balboa Naval Hospital in California.

Although Hart, 25, wasn't wounded in combat, health problems he contracted in the military have stayed with him. A tainted smallpox vaccine he and roughly 50 other Marines were given in Virginia induced anaphylactic shock.

"The vaccine systematically destroyed my systems," he said, affecting his respiratory, immune and skeletal function. "It was kind of an all-encompassing problem," one that still has him making regular visits to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
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A tainted smallpx vaccine causes him to go into anaphylactic shock. How many others did this happen to the military called "died of natural causes" or became suddenly ill? Has anyone looked into the connection between some of the non-combat deaths and vaccines?

There have been a lot of reports following some of the shots the troops have been given. The question is why are they still getting them?

In searching I came across the following. It's an eye opener.

US develops lethal new viruses
19:00 29 October 2003
Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
Debora MacKenzie, Geneva
A scientist funded by the US government has deliberately created an extremely deadly form of mousepox, a relative of the smallpox virus, through genetic engineering.
The new virus kills all mice even if they have been given antiviral drugs as well as a vaccine that would normally protect them.
The work has not stopped there. The cowpox virus, which infects a range of animals including humans, has been genetically altered in a similar way.
The new virus, which is about to be tested on animals, should be lethal only to mice, Mark Buller of the University of St Louis told New Scientist. He says his work is necessary to explore what bioterrorists might do.
But the research brings closer the prospect of pox viruses that cause only mild infections in humans being turned into diseases lethal even to people who have been vaccinated.
And vaccines are currently our main defence against smallpox and its relatives, such as the monkeypox that reached the US this year. Some researchers think the latest research is risky and unnecessary.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4318

Is the government using the troops as yet another science project? It wouldn't be the first time.