3 Emerging Diseases, 12 Patients Each Time

12 high school girls in the same school district in LeRoy, New York have all gotten Tourette's like symptoms, and due to HIPPA laws, the docs aren't saying what it is. Anti-vaccine activists have speculated it might be due to Gardasil vaccines. The NYS health dept. said the girls have been diagnosed and treated, but a MSNBC article said one of the girls called and told the reporter they haven't in fact diagnosed it yet. One doctor has said it could be "conversion syndrome" (i.e. blackouts from stress).  Yeah, right.  And I've got a bridge for sale.

12 patents in India have come down with a completely drug resistant strain of tuberculosis.  It is so far 100% fatal. The strain, called TDR for totally drug resistant, actually showed up first in 2003 in Italy.  Two women died of it there.  One patient in India was a man in his 50's who has wandered off; nobody knows where he went.  Which means he might be out there spreading it somewhere.

12 people mostly in the Midwest have come down with a new variant of the swine flu.  This one is not that contagious, it looks like it's mostly hitting people who have close contact with farm animals, like at a 4-H club or similar. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/01/11/12-infected-with-new-swine-flu-strain