Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Singapore is facing a dengue fever ’emergency’ and peak season has only just begun – ABC News

An Aedes aegypti mosquito is one of the primary carriers of dengue fever

Total cases in 2022 have already exceeded 13,000, according to figures from Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA).

That’s compared to a total of 5,258 infections reported throughout last year.

“The weekly number of dengue cases is expected to rise and hit another historical peak, surpassing the highest weekly figure of 1,787 cases seen in 2020, and may even exceed 2,000 in the month of June,” the NEA said last week.

It is advising people to “take urgent action to break disease transmission” by removing potential mosquito breeding habitats in their homes.

The current outbreak is the largest Singapore has seen since 2020, when it recorded around 35,300 cases and 28 deaths.

Dr Leong Hoe Nam — an infectious diseases expert at Singapore’s Rophi Clinic — said that, depending on herd immunity, “there are usually a few good years, and then a few bad years”.

“We are the victims of our earlier successes,” Dr Nam told the ABC.

Immunity is already low for the common dengue type 1 and 2 strain, and the current outbreak appears to be the rarer dengue types 3 and 4, Dr Nam said.

“[The] new strain of dengue has taken a foothold,” he said.

 

Source: Singapore is facing a dengue fever ’emergency’ and peak season has only just begun – ABC News

The Week’s Best Cartoons 6/11

Filosofa's Word

There always seems to be one topic at the forefront that gets the most attention from the political cartoonists, and this week it is no surprise that it’s the televised hearings of the House Committee that has been tasked with investigating the events leading up to and during the attempted coup on January 6, 2021. And the second most popular topic, again understandably, is the gun insanity that has swept this nation. As she does so brilliantly every week, TokyoSand has gone through them and selected the ‘pick of the litter’ for our cartoon viewing pleasure. Please do click on the link at the end of this post to see all the cartoons, for what I have here is but a small sampling. Thank you once again, TS!


Here’s how editorial cartoonists covered the start of the January 6th Committee hearings.

be sure to check out the rest of the…

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Small Nuclear Reactors Still Have a Big Waste Problem – Mother Jones

Krall, who is now a scientist with Sweden’s nuclear waste company, got an answer: By many measures, the SMR designs produce not less, but potentially much more waste: more than five times the spent fuel per unit of power, and as much as 35 times for other forms of waste. The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this week.

Source: Small Nuclear Reactors Still Have a Big Waste Problem – Mother Jones

Santa Fe shooting survivor visited Uvalde to comfort town struck by tragedy | The Texas Tribune

Flo Rice poses for a portrait at her home June 2, 2022 in Santa Fe, Texas.

Flo Rice at her home in Santa Fe. Rice survived the 2018 mass shooting at Santa Fe High School, where she worked as a substitute teacher, but was shot six times in the legs. Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune

Source: Santa Fe shooting survivor visited Uvalde to comfort town struck by tragedy | The Texas Tribune