Category Archives: environment

Hermine Makes Landfall, Still Plans To Ruin Labor Day Weekend: Gothamist

By late tomorrow Hermine will have lost its tropical characteristics and become a potent extratropical storm over the western Atlantic. What Hermine will do over the latter half of the weekend is still very uncertain. Forecasters are pretty confident that the storm will get lodged in behind an upper level ridge and stay to the southeast of us well into next week. What they aren’t confident in is knowing exactly where the storm will be as it meanders about during that time (which is why their forecast map is shaped like a lollipop).Sunday looks to be a windy, rainy mess for most of the area. Southern New Jersey will be hardest hit with several inches of rain possible from Saturday night through Monday morning. Rainfall should be less than an inch in the city and across Long Island, but it will still be windy with northeasterly breezes at 25-35 mph. Beyond Sunday the National Weather Service throws up its hands and says “tropical storm conditions possible” for Monday and Tuesday. Not to be outdone in uncertainty, the Weather Channels goes with “watching the tropics.”

Source: Hermine Makes Landfall, Still Plans To Ruin Labor Day Weekend: Gothamist

Oil Fires in Iraq : Image of the Day

For the past few months, a smoke plume has shifted with the winds over northern Iraq. In recent years, periodic oil fires have cast a dark pall over this arid landscape. They are one consequence of ongoing war in the region.On August 17, 2016, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 acquired an image (above) of dense smoke plumes roughly 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Mosul. There appear to be multiple sources of fire, most likely oil wells from the Qayyarah oil field. The images in the grid below show the plumes changing direction and thickness since they were first spotted by Landsat 8 on June 14.

Source: Oil Fires in Iraq : Image of the Day

Outbreak: 200 under observation in Madrid over hemorrhagic fever | In English | EL PAÍS

According to the World Health Organization, the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) virus causes severe viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks, with a case fatality rate of up to 40%. “The virus is primarily transmitted to people from ticks and livestock animals,” the WHO website explains. “Human-to-human transmission can occur resulting from close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected persons.”The illness, the WHO states, is endemic in Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East and Asia, “in countries south of the 50th parallel north.” There is currently no vaccine available for either people or animals.

Source: Outbreak: 200 under observation in Madrid over hemorrhagic fever | In English | EL PAÍS

Airborne flu detection at bird markets hints at human exposure risk | CIDRAP – Duh! Virus is passed on in feces, urine, and saliva, so how can you not walk in it, breathe it, move it from place to place?

Viable avian flu virus is easily detectable in the air of live-poultry markets, which may explain why those who visit markets but don’t have direct contact with the birds become infected, according to air sampling from sites in China and Hong Kong.

Source: Airborne flu detection at bird markets hints at human exposure risk | CIDRAP

Study: Zika could reach 2.6 billion people | CIDRAP How have people helped this risk grow?

Two new studies published today present an alarming picture of the potential reach of Zika virus and its complex clinical presentation, while researchers reporting in the latest issue of Eurosurveillance said that Culex mosquitos aren’t likely to transmit the virus.Global at-risk populationsIn a study published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, researchers from the University of Toronto used modeling to identify the areas around the world most at risk for Zika virus. After considering mosquito activity, air travel data and climate information, the researchers said potentially 2.6 billion people living in low-resource parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific region could be sickened by Zika virus.

Source: Study: Zika could reach 2.6 billion people | CIDRAP

Madagascar: The Blue Gold Rush | UNICEF USA

Tsihombe district, Madagascar, August 2016 – Under a blazing sun, men, women and children are digging in the sand. Holes are scattered everywhere in what used to be a river, suggesting a kind of gold rush. And indeed, it is a rush for something more precious than gold: liquid blue gold! In the dried up Manambovo riverbed in Madagascar’s southernmost Tsihombe district, people and cattle share the water, for drinking, showering, washing laundry and doing the dishes.

Source: Madagascar: The Blue Gold Rush | UNICEF USA

More Than 50 Pregnant New Yorkers Have Been Infected With Zika: Gothamist Duh!?! If 500 with it get bitten by a local mosquito – they pass it on because that skeeter passes it to the next person it bites!

More than 500 New Yorkers have been infected with the Zika virus, including 56 pregnant women, according to the NYC Health Department. Although no Zika-carrying mosquitos have been found in New York (yet), health officials are urging New Yorkers—particularly pregnant women and their partners—to refrain from traveling to Zika-infested parts of the world for the next year.

Source: More Than 50 Pregnant New Yorkers Have Been Infected With Zika: Gothamist

US first: E coli resistant to both colistin, carbapenems | CIDRAP

US researchers say they’ve identified a strain of Escherichia coli that is resistant to both colistin and carbapenem antibiotics in a US hospital patient.According to a study published today in the journal mBio, the strain was isolated from the urine of a 76-year-old male patient who was being treated for a urinary tract infection at a New Jersey hospital in 2014. Whole-genome sequencing of the isolate, performed this year, confirmed the presence of the MCR-1 and blaNDM-5 genes, which confer resistance to colistin and carbapenems, respectively. The strain was found to harbor resistance genes to several other antibiotics, as well.The finding confirms fears that were aroused when researchers in China first identified the colistin-resistance gene MCR-1 in E coli isolates from pigs, pork products, and humans in November 2015. Colistin is considered an antibiotic of last resort in humans, used mainly when bacterial infections won’t respond to other drugs.

Source: US first: E coli resistant to both colistin, carbapenems | CIDRAP

Antibiotic resistance prompts new WHO STD guidance | CIDRAP

Quinolones out for gonorrheaAffecting an estimated 78 million people each year, Neisseria gonorrhoeae has become widely resistant, and older, cheaper antibiotics have lost their treatment effectiveness. The WHO said antibiotic resistance has appeared and expanded with every release of a new antibiotic class for managing gonorrhea.According to the guidance update, countries should track antibiotic resistance patterns in the strains that are circulating in their populations.Quinolone antibiotics are no longer recommended for treating gonorrhea because of widespread high levels of resistance.The WHO also said strains are showing decreased susceptibility to extended-spectrum (third-generation) cephalosporins, a recommended first-line treatment from its 2003 guidelines. Several countries have reported treatment failures, the agency said.New guidance now covers recommendations for treating oropharyngeal infections and retreatment after treatment failure. The WHO said dual therapy is now preferred over single therapy, with single therapy based on local resistance data.Updated guidance contains changes to some dosages and suggests new topical medications for the prevention of ophthalmia neonatorum, a type of conjunctivitis contracted by babies born to infected mothers.Single injection recommended for syphilisSyphilis affects about 5.6 million people each year, and infected mothers can pass the disease to their unborn babies, which can result in early fetal death or stillbirth. In its guidance, the WHO said resistance to azithromycin has been reported in some strains of Treponema pallidum, the bacterium that causes syphilis.To cure the disease, the WHO’s new guidance strongly recommends a single dose of benzathine penicillin, an antibiotic injected into the patient’s buttock or thigh. The drug is more effective and cheaper than oral antibiotics, the WHO said.Though benzathine penicillin was deemed an essential medicine in May by the World Health Assembly, shortages have been reported for the past several years, and the WHO said it has received out-of-stock reports from antenatal care groups and from health providers in countries that have high syphilis burdens.The WHO said it is working with partners to monitor the global supply of the drug and to help bridge the gaps between needs and supply.New guidelines also address congenital syphilis, including considerations for pregnant women, people living with HIV, immunocompromised patients, and key populations such as sex workers, men who have sex with men, and transgender people.First-line chlamydia treatmentThe WHO estimates that 131 million people are infected with chlamydia each year, making it the most common bacterial STI. People infected with Chlamydia trachomatis are frequently co-infected with gonorrhea.Treatment failures have been reported for tetracyclines and macrolides, according to the WHO. The new guidance provides updates for first- and second-line treatment of the disease.The chlamydia module includes nine treatment recommendations for genital infections and lymphogranuloma venereum, the more invasive, chronic form of the disease caused by a different subtype. Recommendations also address key populations, such as those living with HIV, and include specific recommendations for genital chlamydia infection in pregnant women and for prevention of ophthalmia neonatorum.

Source: Antibiotic resistance prompts new WHO STD guidance | CIDRAP

CDC Foundation, Partners Launch Zika Contraception Access Network | News | PND

The CDC Foundation has announced the launch of an initiative in Puerto Rico to give women the option of delaying or avoiding pregnancy during the Zika outbreak in that country.The Zika Contraception Access Network (Z-CAN) will provide women with information, counseling, and a full range of same-day contraceptive options free of charge. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 65 percent of all pregnancies in Puerto Rico are unintended, and approximately one hundred and thirty-eight thousand women of childbearing age are in need of effective contraception and counseling.Initial funding for Z-CAN has been provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Pfizer Foundation, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, while pharmaceutical companies have pledged large-scale product donations. To date, the CDC Foundation has trained hundreds of physicians and staff and secured funding to provide contraception, information, and counseling to fourteen thousand women, but an additional $18 million is needed to reach tens of thousands more women.

Source: CDC Foundation, Partners Launch Zika Contraception Access Network | News | PND