Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Yersinia pestis, the bacteria responsible for the plague, caused the death of a renowned vaccine researcher in 2009, raising fears about laboratory-acquired infections. Though rare, they can be devastating, prompting health experts to remind lab workers of the importance of following protocols.

The death of a University of Chicago scientist who contracted plague while working in his lab is a reminder of the rare –- but real –- risks to researchers who work with potentially dangerous bugs, a new review of the fatality  finds.

An estimated 500,000 workers are employed in laboratories in the United States, where they’re routinely exposed to a range of bacteria, viruses, molds and other infectious agents. No one knows how many get sick each year, mostly because there’s no systematic reporting of laboratory-acquired infections, health experts say.

In the last several months, however, federal health officials have investigated an outbreak of salmonella infections tied to dozens of microbiology students and workers across the country -- and, in several cases, their children and other family members -- who fell ill from a lab bug likely spread by contaminated cell phones, car keys and other personal items.

And now the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine updates the case of Malcolm Casadaban, 60, a professor of molecular genetics, who died in September 2009 after falling ill following experiments using a weakened strain of the Yersinia pestis bacteria that cause plague.  It was the first time a lab worker had contracted plague in 50 years and the first reported death tied to a lab, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In both situations, investigators said that said lack of attention to lab protocols might have contributed to the illnesses. Failure to consistently wear gloves when required, or bringing personal items like car keys and MP3 players into the lab environment raises the risk that infections move beyond the petri dish -- and into people.

University of Chicago Medical Center

Malcolm Casadaban, a University of Chicago professor, died in 2009 after working with the plague bacteria in his lab.

“It’s not the lab strain, it’s bad practice,” said Dr. Karen Frank, an assistant professor in the department of pathology at the University of Chicago and author of the latest research letter.

In Casadaban’s case, investigators also concluded that the vaccine researcher had a genetic condition that made him particularly susceptible to infection from the bacteria. He suffered from undetected hemochromatosis, a condition in which too much iron builds up in the body. The plague bacteria had been engineered to be safer by removing some of the germ's iron, but the scientist’s condition added it back.

“He had extra iron, which allowed this organism to make him sicker,” said Frank. It’s not clear how Casadaban was infected, but investigators suspect it was transmitted through contact with skin or mucous membranes.

Casadaban wasn’t identified by name in the NEJM letter or in a previous CDC report, but news accounts at the time and a university obituary indicate he was the respected lab worker who died after an infection.

Such incidents raise public fears of lab bugs escaping to infect the general population, but those fears are unwarranted, Frank said.

“There’s less risk coming from lab workers than from all the people visiting patients in the hospital,” Frank said.

In both of the cases in question, the lab strains of bacteria were found to be as safe as expected, she said. She characterized the level of lab workers’ personal worry about infections as “almost none.”

“As long as you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing, you should be fine,” she said.

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Talk about your teenage angst.

Imagine being a 17-year-old girl and having to choose between having drippy, sweaty palms -- or losing the ability to send text messages. OMG!

That’s exactly the dilemma outlined in the latest issue of Archives of Dermatology, in which researchers say that the Botox treatment that helped treat the girl’s excessively sweaty hands also seemed to immobilize her texting thumbs.

The girl sought help after trying all the usual tricks to cure her extra-sweaty palms, a condition known as palmar hyperhidrosis. It’s a version of general hyperhidrosis, which affects 3 percent of the U.S. population, or about 8 million people, according to the International Hyperhidrosis Society. Those are folks whose overactive glands can produce up to five times the volume of sweat as normally perspiring people.

The girl tried a three-month stint with Dryol, a high-powered antiperspirant. She used a super-saturated concentration of aluminum chloride. No luck.

Then she turned to Botox, the popular wrinkle-relaxing drug, which also has been approved to stop excessive sweating in places like the armpits, hands and feet. Treatment called for 30 injections in her palm and three in each finger, an uncomfortable but not excruciating ordeal.

The upside: The Botox injections temporarily blocked the chemical signals released by the nerves stimulating her sweat glands. Within a week, she reported “dramatic improvement,” the study said.

The downside, however, came later, when the girl discovered her thumbs didn’t work quite right, a condition doctors termed “transitory texting impairment.”

Still, the girl may be back for more. Although that problem lasted for six weeks, her palms stayed sweat-free for five months. Definitely something to text about.

Follow msnbc.com health reporter JoNel Aleccia on Twitter @jonel_aleccia.

Related:

• Dripping in sweat? Maybe it's hyperhidrosis 

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Don't worry about these guys. You'll know what to do, thanks to the CDC.

It looks like the serious folks at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found a whole new way to make disaster preparedness sexy: Cue the zombies.

A Monday post in the CDC’s typically ho-hum Public Health Matters blog blew up this week, making “Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse” a hot topic, at least by government standards.

The quirky post by Dave Daigle, a longtime CDC spokesman, has drawn 23,000 hits since Monday, the highest-ever for a CDC blog, he said. For a while, it even crashed the site. More important, it was tagged as a Top Tweet by the folks at Twitter, an honor that seemed to delight Daigle, a 52-year-old father of four.

“I’ve never been accused of being hip,” said Daigle, the associate director for communications at the Public Health Preparedness and Response Center at CDC.

Daigle, one of several authors for the blog, said he was searching for a way to raise awareness about the need to prepare for the worst, particularly in the wake of recent tornados and on the eve of hurricane season.

“Essentially the kits and many of the messages are the same,” said Daigle. “We have had a hard time engaging people.”

It’s not yet clear whether the threat of zombies will compel people to stockpile food, hoard water and put together disaster kits, as the agency suggests. But if this PR strategy works, Daigle says we can expect more crazy antics from those jokesters at the CDC.

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Osama bin Laden, seen here in a 1998 photo, has long been thought to have Marfan syndrome, a connective tissue disorder. The rumor is back following the terror leader's capture and killing.

Amid all the news about Osama bin Laden’s private life -- the home videos, the dyed beard, the reports of a medicine chest stocked with Avena syrup either to soothe a sour stomach or rev a flagging libido – comes a renewed rumor about the terror leader’s health.

Within days of the raid by Navy SEALS at a Pakistani compound, skeptics were resurfacing claims that it wasn’t actually a gunshot to the head last week that killed bin Laden at all. It was Marfan syndrome, a rare connective tissue disease that can cause disfigurement and sudden death.

That was the theory from Dr. Steve R. Pieczenik, a former state department official and apparent conspiracy theorist, who alleged years ago that bin Laden actually died in 2001 from the genetic disorder some claim affected Abraham Lincoln. His comments were broadcast last week on The Alex Jones syndicated radio show.

Back then, after the 9/11 terror attacks, medical experts weighed in on bin Laden’s tall, frame, lanky limbs and long face, all classic physical symptoms of Marfan syndrome. The disorder is also characterized by less visible problems such as severe nearsightedness, joint troubles and heart problems that can lead to the sudden rupture of the aorta.

“He is Marfanoid,” Dr. Richard Devereux was quoted as telling Salon.com nearly a decade ago. “He seems to have long fingers and long arms. His head appears to be elongated and his face narrow … It’s certainly conceivable that he has the Marfan syndrome and could be evaluated for it.”

Devereux, a New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center expert who treats patients with Marfan syndrome, doesn’t want to talk about bin Laden now, a hospital spokesman said.

Related: What was in medicine chests at bin Laden compound?

But Dr. Hal Dietz, a geneticist at  the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who first mapped Marfan mutations, said the theory isn’t any more valid now than it was then.

True, bin Laden had some physical characteristics linked to Marfan syndrome, which affects about 1 in 5,000 people.

“He was quite tall and he had a long, narrow face,” Dietz said.

But bin Laden didn’t have deep-set, downward-slanting eyes of those with Marfan syndrome. He had no skeletal deformities and no evidence of heart problems that might have resulted in an aortic tear or rupture. There seems to have been no sign of the dominant genetic disorder in his children, Dietz said.

In fact, Dietz – who is so familiar with the signs he often spots people with Marfan in public places like restaurants and theme parks – says he wouldn’t have flagged bin Laden as a potential patient at all.

“I think it’s pure speculation with minimal basis in fact,” Dietz said.

With bin Laden, however, it'll likely take more than mere facts to put this rumor -- or any other -- to rest.

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Wolfgang Kumm / AFP - Getty Images

Bearded dragon lizards are praised as great pets, but health officials warn that they, like other reptiles and amphibians, can spread salmonella infections.

It might be the weirdest way yet to contract food poisoning: Take two bearded dragon lizards, combine with a big batch of turkey gravy and serve to unwitting patrons of a community potluck Thanksgiving dinner.

That’s what happened in Minnesota in 2009, when an outbreak of Salmonella infections typically associated with reptiles sickened at least 19 holiday diners and led health officials on a winding trek that led to a pair of living room lizards.

In the end, the problem was traced back to the private home of a cook who also happened to keep two of the scaly critters in a glass cage, according to a new case report detailed in the journal Zoonoses and Public Health. Three days before the potluck, the cook had made turkey, potatoes, gravy and two salads.

Within hours of the meal, three potluck patrons reported illness and experts were called in to investigate.  Trouble was, none of the sick people reported contact with reptiles.

After much sleuthing, however, investigators detected the types of salmonella that made people sick, including an unusual strain of Samonella Labadi, in several places in the gravy-maker’s house, including the kitchen. Health officials said that the infections likely came from the bearded dragons, perhaps when a teenager in the home changed the critters’ food and water dishes using the kitchen sink.

Researchers say it’s just another reminder that reptiles -- including lizards, turtles and snakes -- may be great pets, but they’re also a common source of infections that can be dangerous, even deadly, to very young children and others with vulnerable immune systems. Amphibians, too, can pose problems, such as the recent outbreak of salmonella in more than 200 people caused by pet African dwarf frogs.

The risk of salmonella poisoning in homes that keep reptiles is well documented, the researchers say. But it’s another thing entirely for lax food handlers to sicken large groups of people, all for the sake of a couple scaly pets. They call for better education about food safety -- and more vigilance to keep reptile bacteria away from the gravy.

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Wrinkle-busting Botox has long been used to rev up the sex lives of women who blame waning allure on facial lines and creases, but doctors now say the injections can help smooth problems below the belt as well.

The newest use for botulinum Toxin A, the active ingredient in drugs such as Botox or Dysport, is to help ease painful vaginal conditions that plague women with excruciating burning sensations or constrict their muscles so tightly that sex is all but impossible.

“Almost to a patient, they say it’s like hitting a brick wall,” said Dr. Peter T. Pacik, a New Hampshire plastic surgeon who is conducting an FDA-approved clinical trial testing the use of Botox on severe cases of vaginismus. “Most patients I treat are unable to consummate, unable to have a family.”

Such patients – perhaps as many as 6 percent of all women worldwide – suffer from what Pacik describes as a reflex reaction to sexual penetration that causes their muscles to spasm. The problem is often rooted in fear caused by sexual abuse or a rigid upbringing, but it becomes unmistakably physical.

“It’s uncontrollable and involuntary,” said Pacik, the author of “When Sex Seems Impossible: Stories of Vaginismus & How You Can Achieve Intimacy.”

To treat the problem, Pacik injects the muscles at the entrance of the vagina with Botox, which works as it does in the face, interrupting nerve impulses and allowing the muscles to relax.

“When I inject them, I put them asleep,” he said. “You would not be able to approach these people with a needle.”

When they wake up, the women find that they are relaxed enough to allow penetration and, soon, to have normal sex with their husbands or partners. Pacik has treated 78 patients so far and all but one have virtually been cured after a single session, he said.

His work was echoed this week by a new report in the journal Archives of Dermatologythat said a 26-year-old woman was cured of vulvodynia, an excruciating, persistent burning vaginal pain, with the use of botulinum Toxin A injections.

And it was confirmed by Patti Dyer, a 59-year-old Maine nurse who said she has suffered from vaginismus for more than 30 years. Despite having three children, all delivered by cesarean section, Dyer said sex has always been painful to the point of tears. She and her husband, Bill, toughed it out because of their love for each other, she said. But when she heard about Pacik’s work, she had to try it.

On Jan. 10, Dyer had the $6,300 Botox treatment. Within two weeks, she said, she and her husband were able to have sex for the first time in a dozen years. With a month, they were catching up on lost time.

“We’re like honeymooners,” she said. “This is so exciting. This is what it should have been 30 years ago.”

Dyer would recommend Botox down below to anyone suffering like she was. But when it comes to using the drug in her face, she draws the line.

“Oh, no,” she said. “I’m not that vain. It’s just for the part that needs it.”

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BMJ.com

Photos reveal how different someone looks after a good night's sleep (left) compared to staying up for 31-hours straight.

Everyone knows that getting too little sleep makes you feel terrible, but new research suggests that cutting back on Zzzs actually makes you look noticeably worse as well.

Turns out, there’s a reason they call it beauty sleep.

That’s the bottom line of a Swedish study that finds that people are perceived as less attractive -- as well as less healthy and more tired -- when they’re sleep-deprived than when they’re well-rested.

And it should be a wake-up call to the 1 in 5 Americans who routinely get less than six hours of sleep a night, said John Axelsson, the researcher who led the study conducted at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.

“A good night’s sleep does not only improve your physiological health, it will also make you look healthier and more attractive, which in turn improves the chance of better treatments in a wide range of social situations,” said Axelsson, an associate professor in the clinical neuroscience department. His work was published online this week in the British Medical Journal.

Axelsson and his colleagues in Sweden and the Netherlands decided to test the notion that lack of sleep affects your looks -- in addition to your brain function, immune system, reaction time and vulnerability to a host of ills, including heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

So they recruited 23 healthy adults and took photos of them after a good night’s sleep and after they were forced to stay up for 31 hours straight. Then they asked 65 ordinary people to rate each photo according to how attractive, healthy and tired the subjects looked.

The results? The same people were perceived as 4 percent less attractive, 6 percent less healthy and 19 percent more tired when they were sleep deprived than when they were rested.

That’s not surprising to Dr. David E. Anderson of the Rocky Mountain Sleep Disorders Center in Great Falls, Mont. The physical effects of too little sleep can’t help but show up in your face, he said. It may not last after only a few missed snoozes, but long-term sleep deprivation can affect health -- and looks -- profoundly.

For everyone who believes that sleep deprivation doesn’t show, the new research proves otherwise, Axelsson said.

“We propose that sleep is a cheap and effective beauty treatment, both acutely and in the long-term,” he said. “Sleep should be seen as the body’s natural beauty treatment and a clear alternative or complement to other beauty treatments.”

How many hours of shut-eye do you get a night? Tell us about it in the comments.

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