In 2009, three New York physicians cared for a sixty-seven-year-old man who had major surgery and then picked up a hospital infection that was “pan-resistant” — that is, responsive to no antibiotics at all. He died fourteen days later. When his doctors related his case in a medical journal months afterward, they still sounded stunned. “It is a rarity for a physician in the developed world to have a patient die of an overwhelming infection for which there are no therapeutic options,” they said, calling the man’s death “the first instance in our clinical experience in which we had no effective treatment to offer.”
Category Archives: environment
To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to require periodic review of listings of endangered species and threatened species under that Act, to support protection and conservation measures for endangered or threatened species under that Act and to alleviate the need to list a species as an endangered or threatened species, to convey small parcels of National Forest System land and Department of the Interior land to generate revenues for such protection and conservation measures, and for other purposes. (H.R. 4419) – GovTrack.us
Teddy Roosevelt turning over in grave – GOP Rep. wants to sell off National Forests to pay for less species protection while pretending to be doing a good thing!
H.R. 4419: To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to require periodic review of listings of endangered species and threatened …
… species under that Act, to support protection and conservation measures for endangered or threatened species under that Act and to alleviate the need to list a species as an endangered or threatened species, to convey small parcels of National Forest System land and Department of the Interior land to generate revenues for such protection and conservation measures, and for other purposes.
Greenpeace responds to P&G’s new effort on deforestation – Cincinnati Business Courier
Procter & Gamble Co. pledged today to work with palm oil suppliers and farmers in Indonesia to ensure that rainforests home to endangered animals aren’t destroyed.
Cincinnati-based P&G said it will require suppliers to submit plans that “demonstrate how they will ensure no deforestation in the supply chain for their mills by 2020.”
The announcement was applauded by the environmental advocacy group Greenpeace, which had stepped up pressure on P&G to guarantee that palm oil used in brands such as Head & Shoulders shampoo, Gillette shaving gel and Olay skin care products isn’t purchased from plantations that clear-cut forests.
Nine Greenpeace activists were arrested March 4 after some of them rappelled from the 12th floor of P&G’s corporate headquarters in Cincinnati to unfurl protest banners that called attention to the plight of Sumatran tigers and orangutans who live in rainforests.
via Greenpeace responds to P&G’s new effort on deforestation – Cincinnati Business Courier.
MERS fears prompt ER closure at Saudi hospital | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR
Realities, not fears
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia: The main public hospital in the Saudi city of Jeddah has closed its emergency room after a rise in cases of the MERS virus among medical staff, medics said Tuesday.
A Jeddah paramedic was among two more people Saudi health authorities reported on Sunday had died from the SARS-like disease, bringing the nationwide death toll to 66.
On Monday, the health ministry reported four more MERS cases in Jeddah, two of them among health workers, prompting authorities to close the emergency department at the city’s King Fahd Hospital.
A medical source told AFP it was a “precautionary measure” and the Sabq.org news website reported that patients were being transferred to other hospitals in the city.
But the move caused widespread public concern in the city, fuelled by rumours on social networks.
“I’m afraid to send my children to school,” said Jeddah resident Bassem Ben Ali, 33.
The total number of cases in Saudi Arabia has reached 175 since Middle East Respiratory Syndrome first appeared in the kingdom in September 2012.
The MERS virus is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.
via MERS fears prompt ER closure at Saudi hospital | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR.
Avian Flu Diary: Study: Chikungunya’s Growing Threat To The Americas
While rarely fatal, the CDC describes the symptoms of infection as lasting a few days to a few weeks, producing `debilitating illness, most often characterized by fever, headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain, rash, and joint pain’, although some may experience `incapacitating joint pain, or arthritis which may last for weeks or months.’
via Avian Flu Diary: Study: Chikungunya’s Growing Threat To The Americas.
Mob attacks Ebola treatment centre in Guinea as suspected cases reach Mali | South China Morning Post
Pray that none on the flight to Brussels were carrying ebola with then unknowingly – ease of travel today multiplies the risks – that’s what moved the outbreak to Conakry!
“A return Brussels Airlines flight between the Belgian capital and Conakry on Thursday had just 55 people arriving and 200 leaving, an airline employee said.”
Tanzania’s Farming Cooperatives Struggle to Bear Fruit – Inter Press Service
John Daffi climbs to the top of a hill overlooking a scenic Rift Valley wall and the Ngorongoro forest, where wildlife migrates between the world famous Ngorongoro crater and Tanzania’s Lake Manyara. Daffi, 59, looks down upon his family’s farm below and reminisces about the time his father first brought him here as a boy.
“Upper Kitete was a model farming village set up by the government of Tanzania. My father received a call while he was in Arusha from his brother in Karatu telling him to apply. We were selected as one of the first 100 families,” Daffi told IPS.
via Tanzania’s Farming Cooperatives Struggle to Bear Fruit – Inter Press Service.
To prohibit any Federal agency or official, in carrying out any Act or program to reduce the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on climate change, from imposing a fee or tax on gaseous emissions emitted directly by livestock. (H.R. 4393) – GovTrack.us
Missed filing this on April 1st.? 
H.R. 4393: To prohibit any Federal agency or official, in carrying out any Act or program to reduce the effects of greenhouse gas …
… emissions on climate change, from imposing a fee or tax on gaseous emissions emitted directly by livestock.
Introduced:
Apr 03, 2014
Status:
Referred to Committee
Prognosis
0% chance of being enacted
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SPONSOR
Jeff Fortenberry
Representative for Nebraska’s 1st congressional district
PARTY
Republican
Navajo Nation to Receive $1 Billion Settlement from Tronox Bankruptcy Case
On Thursday, April 3, 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the court decision for Tronox Inc. v. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. Tronox will receive 88 percent of the $5.15 billion settlement and the Navajo Nation will receive 23 percent of that amount, totaling $1 billion.
via Navajo Nation to Receive $1 Billion Settlement from Tronox Bankruptcy Case.
Widespread Contamination of Drinking Water from the East Poplar Oil Field in Montana | Briana Mordick’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC
A new report from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) documents serious drinking water contamination caused by oil production in Montana. This is the latest report from the USGS in an ongoing investigation of groundwater contamination in and near the East Poplar oil field.
Researchers found that almost 18 square miles of the shallow aquifer in the study area is contaminated with brine (also known as “produced water”) that is co-produced with oil. Produced water can be many times saltier than seawater and may also contain hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and naturally occurring radioactive material.
These shallow aquifers are the only source of drinking water in the area. The contamination has impacted both private drinking water wells and public water supply wells for the city of Poplar. All told, the USGS estimates that anywhere from 15-37 billion gallons of groundwater is contaminated with brine, compromising the groundwater supplies of about 3,000 people. As a result, the city of Poplar, headquarters of the Fort Peck Tribal government, had to build a pipeline to bring in drinking water from the Missouri River.



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