Transcript for CDC Telebriefing: Zika | CDC Online Newsroom | CDC

MARYN MCKENNA: thanks so much for taking my question.  Dr. Frieden, you said the CDC expects local transmission of Zika in the United States.  Is there anything you can say at this point about the robustness of state and local mosquito control programs?

TOM FRIEDEN: Mosquito control in the U.S.  Is often done by what are called mosquito abatement or abatement districts and quite variable.  Some of them do a superb job, some of them less so.  That’s why it’s so important that we invest in the systems to track and find mosquitos.  This is not easy work.  And I can — although the mosquitos did spread West Nile having worked on that for many years, the different aspects of mosquito control can be quite complex, labor intensive, and really when it comes to both Zika in general and mosquito control specifically, it is not easy, and it is not quick.  For mosquito control, you need to have monitoring of both mosquito larvae and adult mosquito.  That’s a labor intensive complex undertaking, and then you need to control mosquito larvae and adult mosquitos, and that’s a labor intensive and challenging area.  We know from the experience with dengue, you have to get to very high levels of mosquito control to drive down the risk of dengue in the community.

MARYN MCKENNA: My follow-up question this sounds like something you’re concerned about.

TOM FRIEDEN:  Yes, I think it is concerning because of the pregnant women and the developing fetus and because there is such an important need for us to learn more and do more in the U.S., in Puerto Rico and the other territories of the U.S., which have had lots of dengue cases in the past, and that’s a marker for the risk of Zika and around the world. So that we can learn more and partner to address Zika as effectively as possible.

 

 

Source: Transcript for CDC Telebriefing: Zika | CDC Online Newsroom | CDC

Some London boroughs face significantly high TB rates | Vaccine News

A recent report issued from the London Assembly shows there are specific boroughs within London that have significantly high tuberculosis (TB) rates, despite the nation’s efforts to eliminate the disease.In these boroughs, there are 113 TB cases for every 100,000 people. These rates are notably higher than the ones recorded in Brazil, China, India and Russia.TB is a respiratory illness that is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria can also infect other parts of the body, including the spine.

Source: Some London boroughs face significantly high TB rates | Vaccine News

Ban Ki-moon adds to pressure on UK to stop arms sales to Saudis

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UN secretary general accuses Saudi Arabia of indiscriminate bombing in Yemen and says Britain has duty to stop weapons flow

Britain has come under renewed pressure to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia after the UN secretary general accused the Saudis of indiscriminate bombing in Yemen and said countries such as the UK had a duty to stop the flow of weapons to Riyadh-led forces.

Speaking in London, Ban Ki-moon said: “Yemen is in flames and coalition airstrikes in particular continue to strike schools, hospitals, mosques and civilian infrastructure.”

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Donald Trump: 73 per cent of people in poll say he should be banned from entering Australia – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Almost 10,000 people have voted in a poll asking if Donald Trump should be banned from entering Australia, with a whopping 73 per cent of them saying he should be denied entry.

Source: Donald Trump: 73 per cent of people in poll say he should be banned from entering Australia – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

france 24 – Thousands of Syrians fleeing Aleppo mass at Turkish border – France 24

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday up to 70,000 people were heading to his country, with 10,000 already waiting at the border.His country hosts about 2.5 million Syrian refugees.On Friday morning, the main border crossing in northern Aleppo was closed and quiet on the Turkish side near the town of Kilis, with no sign of arriving refugees.But footage released Thursday by activists showed hundreds of people, including many children, heading towards the Turkish frontier, some carrying their belongings in plastic bags on their backs.“We were driven from our homes because of Russia, Iran, Bashar and (Lebanese Shiite militia) Hezbollah,” a child said in the video. “We ask (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan to let us into his territory.”

Source: france 24 – Thousands of Syrians fleeing Aleppo mass at Turkish border – France 24

Knesset attacks Arab members for visiting Palestinian martyr families

PNN/Jerusalem

Earlier this week, Knesset members (MK) of the Joint (Arab) List Hanin Zoabi,  Jamal Zahalka and Basel Ghattas visited the families of some Palestinians killed by the Israeli occupation forces.

This Friday they spoke out to defend themselves once that now, they are being attacked by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by the majority of the Israeli political spectrum.

Their visit came after a request from the relatives of some Palestinians killed by the IOF whom bodies were not return to them.

“We are defending national and human dignity. It is our duty and our right. The real crime is holding onto bodies. It is our duty to do our utmost to get the bodies released,” MK Hanin Zoabi wrote in Arabic on her Facebook page on Friday.

Zoabi was referring to Israel’s policy of delaying the return of bodies of Palestinians killed by the IOF, in an effort to prevent their families to give them proper funerals.

Ghattas also took to Facebook on Friday to defend their actions, accusing Israel of “fascism,”:

“When the trumpets of fascism incite against us, it means that we are protecting human values. We condemn the incitement against party members [as they] perform their duty to help families to return the bodies of their children, which the Israeli authorities hold contrary to international laws and values.”

According to the Israeli media, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein filed complaints with Knesset’s Ethics Committee against the three of them.

“Israeli MKs who visit the families of terrorists who murdered Jews are not worthy of their Knesset seat. I have asked the Knesset speaker to see what actions can be taken against them over this disgrace,” Netanyahu said Thursday.

Yuli Edelstein stated that for him “the meeting constituted outright incitement and encouragement to commit murder. This meeting was a gross infringement against the Knesset and the State of Israel. I hope the High Court of Justice remembers this the next time it debates petitions seeking to disqualify potential MKs.”

Other Knesset members strongly condemned the meeting, and urged both the Ethics Committee and the Attorney General’s Office to censure Zoabi, Zahalka and Ghattas.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said:

“The Arab MKs are not missing an opportunity to support terrorism. They harm first and foremost their own public, they represent nothing and promote nothing except supporting terrorism and actively working against the State of Israel. The Arab public is the first that should come out against its representatives who act as agents of terrorism and not as its representatives in the Knesset.”

As stated by the Israeli news outlet the Jerusalem Post, if the Israeli Ethics Committee determines the visits of the three MKs were a violation, it can sanction them with suspensions of up to six months from all Knesset activity but voting – a punishment Zoabi received in the past for comments sympathizing with Hamas during Operation Protective Edge (2014 assault on the Gaza Strip) – or a new punishment that has yet to be used, docking their salaries.