Amazon & the Red Cross offer this one-click service [1]. At the time of this posting $1,070,000.00 have been donated.
Speed of Sumatran tsunami
In about an hour and a half the Sumatran tsunami had arrived at Sri Lanka. (Animation). This animation reinforces how Indian Ocean neighbors geographically relate.
Health consequences
"...For example, following a major sea surge flood on Haiti in 1963, 75,000 cases of malaria were reported in the five months after the disaster because of poor vector-borne disease control." (From the Tsunami Risk Project, an effort to link "the UK insurance industry to UK science" [2, 3])
Case History
A man in his 40's has cirrhosis, ascites, chronic hepatitis C, and an acute febrile illness with abdominal pain, diarrhea and acute renal failure. Preliminary blood culture results show neisseria. Final culture report is pending.
Cirrhosis and hepatitis C have been associated with a predisposition for neisseria infection. Low complement levels may be the mechanism. This is discussed in a CDC case report of meningococcemia and HCV/HIV [1, 2, 3]
Another case describes a woman with spontaneous peritonitis due to neisseria gonorrhea [4].
Necrotizing fasciitis can present with skin redness, edema and pain--with the pain out of proportion to the amount of redness and swelling. Adrienne Headley from New Jersey Robert Wood Johnson Medical School presents a current practical review in the American Family Physician [1]. (Full text online)
Sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim) has been effective against community acquired methacillin resistent staph aureus (CA-MRSA), but I cannot find prospective trials. A small military outpatient trial, and another series in the dermatology literature suggest this [1, 2].
The CDC has an FAQ on CA-MRSA [3]. MRSA is also the subject of an entire blog [4].
Curiously, MRSA's role in spider bites is reported from the Houston VA [5]. Nearly 90% of patients referred for surgical treatment of spider bites at this VA grew MRSA.
