Bush meat was blamed for the Ebola outbreak - Photo: Issa Davies/IRIN

irinnews.org - by Philippa Garson

NEW YORK, 6 November 2015 (IRIN) - Climate change is having a profound impact on animal habitats, but what disease risk does this pose for humans?

Scientists estimate that almost 75 percent of new (and re-emerging) diseases affecting humans at the beginning of the 21st Century were transmitted through animals. Among these so-called “zoonotic” diseases are AIDS, SARS, H5N2 avian flu and H1N1, or swine flu. 

Barbara Han, from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, describes bats, pigs, and birds as “mixing vats” for viruses like Ebola, Hendra, Nipah, avian and swine flus that can spread to humans. As wild animals lose their habitats through deforestation, they come into closer contact with domestic animals and people. Extreme weather events and a warmer climate are also disrupting animal habitats, breeding cycles, and migration patterns.

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Image: Health workers in Sierra Leone check travelers entering the country from Liberia. Zoom Dosso/AFP/Getty Images

npr.org - November 7th, 2015 - Nahid Bhadelia

Today marks the 42nd day that Sierra Leone has had no new cases of Ebola. That potentially signals the end of the epidemic in that country.

I spent almost three months in Sierra Leone over the last year, both as a clinician in Ebola treatment units and as an infection control educator.

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CLICK HERE - World Bank - Rapid, Climate-Informed Development Needed to Keep Climate Change from Pushing More than 100 Million People into Poverty by 2030

CLICK HERE - World Bank - Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty

in.reuters.com - by Megan Rowling - November 9, 2015

Without the right policies to keep the poor safe from extreme weather and rising seas, climate change could drive over 100 million more people into poverty by 2030, the World Bank said on Sunday.

In a report, the bank said ending poverty - one of 17 new U.N. goals adopted in September - would be impossible if global warming and its effects on the poor were not accounted for in development efforts.

But more ambitious plans to reduce climate-changing emissions - aimed at keeping global temperature rise within an internationally agreed limit of 2 degrees Celsius - must also cushion poor people from any negative repercussions, it added.

US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT HEALTHDAY NEWS by Robert Preidt,  Nov. 6, 2015

Ebola patients are more likely to survive if they are hospitalized soon after being infected, a new study finds.

Researchers analyzed data from nearly 1,000 cases of Ebola virus that occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo over 38 years. They found that each day of delay in hospital admission was associated with an 11 percent higher risk of death during epidemics.

Delays in hospitalization were caused by factors such as geography, infrastructure and cultural influences, the researchers said.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has had more Ebola outbreaks than any other country since the deadly virus was discovered in 1976, they noted.

The researchers also found that rapidly progressing Ebola outbreaks are swiftly brought under control, while national and international responses to slower-progressing outbreaks tend to be less intense. As a result, those outbreaks last longer, the study authors said.

The study was published Nov. 3 in the journal eLife.

Read complete story.

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2015/11/06/each-1-day-delay-in-hospitalization-ups-risk-of-ebola-death

NEW YORK TIMES by DIONNE SEARCEY and SHERI FINK     Nov. 7, 2015

DAKAR, Senegal — After a nerve-racking countdown, Sierra Leone celebrated a national milestone on Saturday that government officials hoped would help the country finally leave behind a grim chapter in its history: it was officially declared free of Ebola transmissions.

NEW YORK TIMES by Dionne Searcey          Nov. 7, 2015

TANA, Guinea  ....

This is the last known place on Earth with Ebola.

After nearly 22 months and more than 11,300 deaths worldwide, the deadliest Ebola epidemic in history has come down to a handful of cases in a cluster of villages in rural Guinea, the country where the outbreak began.

The report, "Explaining Extreme Events of 2014 From a Climate Perspective," can be viewed online. (Credit: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society)

CLICK HERE - REPORT - Explaining Extreme Events of 2014 from a Climate Perspective

noaanews.noaa.gov - November 5, 2015

Human activities, such as greenhouse gas emissions and land use, influenced specific extreme weather and climate events in 2014, including tropical cyclones in the central Pacific, heavy rainfall in Europe, drought in East Africa, and stifling heat waves in Australia, Asia, and South America, according to a new report released today. The report, “Explaining Extreme Events of 2014 from a Climate Perspective” published by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, addresses the natural and human causes of individual extreme events from around the world in 2014, including Antarctica. NOAA scientists served as three of the five lead editors on the report.

 New York TImes, November 2, 2015

cdc.gov

To the Editor: Ebola virus (EBOV) disease is usually an acute illness, but increasing evidence exists of persistent infections and post-Ebola syndromes. We report a case of EBOV encephalitis.

A 30-year-old woman with no known EBOV contact sought treatment at an Ebola isolation unit in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on January 1, 2015 (day 7 of illness). 

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Image: A nurse organizes the files of deceased patients at a TB hospital in Togliatti, Russia. Multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis is a huge problem in the former Soviet Union. Misha Friedman

npr.org - October 28th 2015 - Jason Beaubien

Tuberculosis is now killing more people each year than HIV, according to new data from the World Health Organization.

WHO estimates there were almost 10 million new cases of TB last year; the disease caused 1.5 million deaths. By comparison, 1.2 million lives were claimed by HIV.

That makes TB the No. 1 infectious killer.

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submitted by Mike Kraft

An outbreak of the deadly disease is sweeping across Iraq. But El Niño, climate change, and Middle Eastern instability could make the crisis much bigger.

foreignpolicy.com - by Laurie Garrett - November 2, 2015

The last great epidemic of Vibrio cholerae to hit Africa and the Middle East occurred from 1997 to 1998. Over 200,000 people were afflicted and some 8,000 killed as the disease spread from southern Mozambique all the way up to the Horn of Africa and into the Middle East. Now cholera is back. And this time it could be much worse.

As in 1997, today’s outbreak, which is unfolding in the Middle East and East Africa, is growing during an El Niño climate event that is shifting the planet’s normal rain and drought patterns, spreading the waterborne cholera bacteria. But this year’s outbreak has dangerous added dimensions: Its spread is fueled by war throughout the Middle East, the existence of vast ungoverned and poorly governed tracts of the region, and an enormous refugee crisis.

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AN EXPANDING LIST OF NEWS AND INFORMATION RESOURCES ON HURRICANE PATRICIA IN MEXICO
(CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW)

CLICK HERE - GDACS - Overall Red Tropical Cyclone alert for PATRICIA-15 in Mexico 

CLICK HERE - United States Consulate General Guadalajara - Emergency Message for U.S. Citizens: Hurricane Patricia - October 22, 2015

CLICK HERE - Mexican Red Cross Preps for Hurricane Patricia

CLICK HERE - Facebook - Cruz Roja Mexicana Sede Nacional

CLICK HERE - Humanity Road - Hurricane Patricia

CLICK HERE - Hurricane Patricia spares Mexican cities, roars through remote villages

CLICK HERE - The Weather Channel - 5 Things to Know About Hurricane Patricia

Image: Crescent Dunes, a solar thermal power plant near Tonopah, Nevada.

newrepublic.com - October 27th, 2015 - Rebecca Leber

Right now, we're in a car, hanging on for dear life as we hurtle around a mountain bend. If we don't hit the brakes soon, we're going to lose control, crash through the guardrail, and careen into the abyss. We've been fully warned about the danger ahead, but now here we are, testing our fate.

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climatecentral.org - by Andrea Thompson - October 28, 2015

El Niño has its fingers in a lot of pies this year: Not only is it helping to boost 2015 toward the warmest year on record, but it is also a major factor in blockbuster hurricane activity in the Pacific and is contributing to a major worldwide coral die-off.

By this time next year we’ll probably be able to add another effect to that list: This El Niño is likely to tip us over into a world with carbon dioxide concentrations permanently above 400 parts per million.

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ALSO SEE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WITHIN THE LINKS BELOW:

http://resiliencesystem.org/heat-trapping-gas-passes-milestone-raising-fears

http://resiliencesystem.org/four-hundred-parts-million