Category Archives: environment

Avian Flu Diary: WHO WER: Zika Virus Outbreaks In the Americas – {the Real World War Z}

In May 2015, the Ministry of Health of Brazil confirmed autochthonous transmission of ZIKV in the north-east­ern part of the country. This was the first documented outbreak in Brazil and in the Americas. As of October 2015, 14 states have confirmed autochthonous virus transmission: Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Pará, Paraíba, Paraná, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Norte, Roraima, and São Paulo.In October 2015, the Ministry of Health of Colombia reported the first autochthonous case of ZIKV infection in the Department of Bolivar. As of 16 October 2015, ZIKV was laboratory confirmed in 9 of 98 samples from Bolivar. Recent outbreaks of ZIKV infection in different regions of the world underscore the potential for the virus to spread further in the Americas and beyond, wherever the vector is present. Given the worldwide spread of chikungunya and dengue, associated with urbanization and globalization, there is a potential risk of outbreaks of urban ZIKV infection in urban settings in any part of the world where the mosquito vector is present or may become established in future.

Source: Avian Flu Diary: WHO WER: Zika Virus Outbreaks In the Americas

​Hawaii dengue fever case count reaches 15 – Pacific Business News

Hawaii officials are urging the community to work collectively to prevent the spread of dengue fever, as the case count rose to 15 on the Big Island as of Wednesday afternoon.State vector control experts are on ground on the Big Island to conduct mosquito abatement, but stopping the virus will take community involvement, Hawaii State Epidemiologist and Chief of the Disease Outbreak Control Division Sarah Park told PBN.

Source: Hawaii dengue fever case count reaches 15 – Pacific Business News

NorCal Man’s Headache Was Actually Worm Eggs In His Brain: SFist

Well, here’s nightmare fodder for pretty much ever. Sacramento State senior Luis Ortiz just thought he had an awful headache, but when he sought medical attention, he learned that things were much, much worse. Wormy worse.According to CBS5, the Napa man was rushed to the hospital after the pain in his head worsened. Once he was there, doctors made a gruesome discovery: Ortiz had a tapeworm in his head. It laid eggs. And those eggs caused a cyst that was preventing blood from circulating, which doctors say means he would have died in the next 30 minutes without medical attention.

Source: NorCal Man’s Headache Was Actually Worm Eggs In His Brain: SFist

Report shows countless birds dying from West Nile virus | Vaccine News “Uh oh!”

The study demonstrated that millions of birds die in just one year when they are exposed to the virus. “These populations are getting hammered — over five years, they’re losing a third of their population,” Harrigan said. “They’re getting infected every year. In some species, this has gone on five or six years after the disease hit, so the idea that the populations have not recovered since then is a bit scary.”

Source: Report shows countless birds dying from West Nile virus | Vaccine News

Bull killed by vehicle in HK, companions refuse to leave his side, try in vain to move him from street: Shanghaiist

Witnesses say that the herd tried to push the bull’s body to the side of the road, Unable to move it, the cows started to nuzzle against the bull’s body with their faces, ignoring the horns of impatient motorists, r

Source: Bull killed by vehicle in HK, companions refuse to leave his side, try in vain to move him from street: Shanghaiist

Rare Cyclone Heads for Arabia : Image of the Day

Forecasts suggest Chapala will reach super cyclone category 5 status on October 31, but then weaken as it moves north and meets the extremely dry air of the Arabian Peninsula. It has the potential to make landfall in Yemen and Oman as a category 1 cyclone. But whether or not it sustains its winds, the storm should drop substantial rainfall over the parched region. Forecasters from the UK Met Office noted that the storm could produce up to 20 inches (500 millimeters) of rainfall in some places—four to five times the yearly average for the region. The storm is also having an impact on the busy shipping routes to the Indian Ocean through the Gulf of Aden.

Source: Rare Cyclone Heads for Arabia : Image of the Day

Deforestation ‘may have started west Africa’s Ebola outbreak’

Environment ministers from all over the world attend one-day conference on deforestation and climate change in London

Source: Deforestation ‘may have started west Africa’s Ebola outbreak’

Deforestation may have triggered the recent Ebola outbreak in west Africa, France’s environment minister Ségolène Royal told a London summit hosted by the Prince of Wales ahead of next month’s Cop21 conference.

Royal said researchers believe the destruction of forest habitat brought bats, known to carry the virus, into greater contact with humans.

“They had to clear the forest to begin subsistence agriculture and the deforestation has also been caused by mining activity and large-scale logging for export,” she told the high-level meeting at Lancaster House.

“This destruction of the natural habitat of fruit-eating bats drove the animals to approach human settlements to find food and the virus may have been transmitted during this increased contact resulting from deforestation,” she said.

{I have thought this had to have been the cause of many outbreaks in the past, or we would have heard about it for more than 100 years but it took generations before too much of the forest was cut and drove bats into closer contact with humans and other primates.}

No, it is true that meat causes cancer | Sci-Tech | DW.COM | 29.10.2015

“I have sat on many committees around the world, I have done cancer research for 35 years – if you want the ultimate answer to something, you go to the IARC monograph program,” says Neil Pearce, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.Pearce tells DW that such criticisms come out every time IARC produces a monograph. “The same happened with smoking, with asbestos and many other things.”

Source: No, it is true that meat causes cancer | Sci-Tech | DW.COM | 29.10.2015