Category Archives: Viva!

An outbreak of leptospirosis among kayakers in Brittany, North-West France, 2016

In September 2016, a cluster of seven kayakers with clinical symptoms of leptospirosis with onset since July 2016 was reported to French health authorities. Human and animal investigations were undertaken to describe the outbreak, identify the likely place and source of infection and implement necessary control measures. We identified 103 patients with clinical symptoms of leptospirosis between 1 June and 31 October 2016 who lived in the Ille-et-Vilaine district in Brittany. Of these, 14 (including the original seven) reported contacts with the river Vilaine during the incubation period and were defined as outbreak cases: eight were confirmed by serology tests or PCR and six were probable without a laboratory confirmation for leptospirosis. All 14 cases were kayakers. Three distinct contamination sites were identified on a 30 km stretch of the river Vilaine. Nine cases reported having skin wounds while kayaking. None were vaccinated against leptospirosis. The outbreak was attributed to Leptospira kirschneri serogroup Grippotyphosa. Animal investigations did not allow identifying the possible reservoir. Leptospirosis outbreaks associated with freshwater sports are rare in temperate climates. The prevention of such outbreaks requires control of potential animal reservoirs in zones such as the Vilaine valley and that kayakers adopt the recommended individual prevention measures.

Twitter’s Jesse Kelly problem – Los Angeles Times

More transparency won’t satisfy all of Twitter’s critics, some of whom want a license to offend and bristle at what they see as political correctness run amok. Witness the pushback to the company’s new rules to address complaints by transgendered people about the abuse directed their way. But making clear why users like Kelly are disciplined — specifying which tweets violate which rules and how they do so — along with giving users notice and a chance to appeal before a ban is imposed would go a long way toward lifting the shroud of mystery about the company’s judgments.

Source: Twitter’s Jesse Kelly problem – Los Angeles Times

More transparency will not satisfy anyone, especially those who want to defend, ultra-right and ultra-left opinion/hate/lies. And it will just be more grist for the mill of trolls who have no life other than trolling.

 

In China, Your Car Could Be Talking to the Government

News
Global automakers are feeding real-time location information and dozens of other data points from electric vehicles to Chinese government monitoring centers, potentially adding to China’s rich kit of surveillance tools as President Xi Jinping steps up the use of technology to track Chinese citizens. Generally, it happens without car owners’ knowledge, The Associated Press found.
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Contributed Author: 
Erika Kinetz, Associated Press
Topics: 

Calling this exodus a ‘migrant caravan’ obscures the heart of the matter | Mark Isaacs

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We need a new term that acknowledges the dire circumstances that have caused Central Americans to leave their homes

When I first heard of the “migrant caravan” I thought it was a grossly inadequate way to describe this mass movement of people. The more I have learned about the movement, the more convinced I am of its inappropriateness as a definition. Thus far, I have been using it for social media purposes but I want to break down the terminology.

The term “migrant” is a misnomer. It gives the impression that these people have similar situations to us. It implies they can apply for a visa, get a job and relocate their families the legal way just like an Australian might migrate to the United Kingdom for work. It is misleading to use the term migrants for a group of people who are fleeing criminal violence, authoritarian governments, corrupt security forces, economic failure and extreme poverty. It is misleading to imply that these people have the same opportunities to migrate as people from Australia, the US or other wealthy nations.

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