The scene in Charleston, S.C., on Tuesday morning during high tide. (Jessica Hofford)

washingtonpost.com - by Angela Fritz - October 27, 2015

Ocean water surged into neighborhoods on the Southeast coast on Tuesday morning during high tide, pushing gauges well beyond predicted levels. Seemingly overnight, spurred by sea level rise, we’ve entered an era where king tides compete with hurricanes in the water level record books . . .

. . . Residents are saying Tuesday’s high tide was worse than South Carolina’s “1,000-year flood” in early October.

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A young boy takes a photo of houses damaged in Saudi-led airstrikes. A hospital run by Doctors Without Borders was also hit in the attack. Associated Press

msf.org - October 27, 2015

Airstrikes carried out late last night by the Saudi-led coalition in northern Yemen destroyed a hospital supported by the international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), MSF announced today. 

The small hospital, in the Haydan district in Saada Province, was hit by several airstrikes beginning at 22:30 last night. Hospital staff and two patients managed to escape before subsequent airstrikes occurred over a two hour period.  One staff member was slightly injured while escaping. With the hospital destroyed, at least 200,000 people now have no access to lifesaving medical care.

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CLICK HERE - Huffington Post - Doctors Without Borders Hospital In Yemen Hit By Airstrikes

Pilgrims in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in September. A new study predicts heat and humidity levels “intolerable to humans.”  
Credit Ahmad Masood/Reuters

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Future temperature in southwest Asia projected to exceed a threshold for human adaptability

nytimes.com - by JOHN SCHWARTZ - October 26, 2015

By the end of this century, areas of the Persian Gulf could be hit by waves of heat and humidity so severe that simply being outside for several hours could threaten human life, according to a study published Monday. Because of humanity’s contribution to climate change, the authors wrote, some population centers in the Middle East “are likely to experience temperature levels that are intolerable to humans.” . . .

Image: A photograph of a city skyline at dusk with lamps in the foreground that resemble stylized trees.

huffingtonpost.com - October 20th, 2015 - Jeremy Rifkin

The global economy is slowing, productivity is waning in every region of the world and unemployment remains stubbornly high in every country. At the same time, economic inequality between the rich and the poor is at the highest point in human history. In 2010 the combined wealth of the 388 richest people in the world equaled the combined wealth of the poorest half of the human race.

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Image: A microscopic view of the Ebola virus. Credit: CDC/Cynthia Goldsmith/Public Health Image Library

livescience.com - October 20th, 2015 - Ashley P. Taylor

Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey — who became sick with Ebola about a year ago and recovered, but then became very ill again last week with what may be a relapse of the deadly virus — is now improving.

"Pauline Cafferkey's condition has improved to serious but stable," representatives from London's Royal Free Hospital said in a statement Monday (Oct. 19).

Hospital representatives said on Oct. 9 that the nurse had developed an "unusual late complication" of the virus, and reported last week that she was "critically ill."

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Hurricane Patricia was forecasted to bring catastrophic damage to Mexico’s coast and put the popular tourist destination of Puerto Vallarta on high alert.

Friday afternoon forecasters said that Hurricane Patricia was the strongest hurricane ever recorded packing winds of over 200 MPH, many referring to the storm as a Category 6 storm on a scale 1-5.

For two days Hurricane Patricia was expected to bring 3-5 meter storm surges, 10 inches of rain, and hurricane force winds to Puerto Vallarta when it made landfall between Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta late Friday afternoon.

Hurricane Patricia packed maximum sustained winds of 160 mph late Saturday, a Category 5 hurricane

cnn.com - by Catherine E. Shoichet and Ben Brumfield - October 22, 2015 - 11:37 PM ET

(CNN) Hurricane Patricia, churning toward southwestern Mexico, is a "potentially catastrophic hurricane," forecasters said after the storm increased in strength to Category 5.

"Satellite images indicate that maximum sustained winds have increased to near 160 mph (260 kph) with higher gusts," the National Hurricane Center said Thursday night.

Though it is expected to weaken Friday, it should make landfall on the Pacific coast near Punta San Telmo late in the day as an extremely dangerous storm.

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submitted by George Hurlburt

Sierra Leonean doctors practice wearing protective clothing in the Ebola Training Academy in Freetown, Sierra Leone, December 16, 2014. Reuters

uk.reuters.com - by Kemo Cham and Emma Farge - October 21, 2015

. . . the case of Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey – the first known Ebola survivor to have an apparently life-threatening relapse – has revived concerns about the health of some 17,000 survivors in Sierra Leone, neighbouring Guinea and Liberia.

Doctors and health officials in Sierra Leone told Reuters that a handful of mystery deaths among discharged patients may also be types of Ebola relapses, stirring fear that the deadly virus may last far longer than previously thought in the body, causing other potentially lethal complications.

Diagnoses have not been made, partly because of a lack of relevant medical training and insufficient equipment for detecting a virus that can hide in inaccessible corners of the body - such as the spinal fluid or eyeball. In Cafferkey's case, the virus in her brain caused meningitis.

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acaps.org

Ebola Project, Thematic Report: Key issues for recovery and preparedness, Oct 2015 (3 page .PDF file)
http://acaps.org/img/documents/e-acaps-ebola-project-thematic-report-key-issues-for-recovery-and-preparedness-oct-2015.pdf

ACAPS - Thematic Reports
http://acaps.org/en/pages/ebola-project-sep-dec-2015-thematic-reports

submitted by Carrie La Jeunesse

PAHO/WHO calls for more collaboration between governments and indigenous communities in preparing for emergencies and disasters

Washington, D.C., 6 October 2015 (PAHO/WHO) -- Involving indigenous communities in disaster risk reduction activities can save lives during catastrophes, experts with the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) said on the eve of the International Day for Disaster Reduction 2015.

Building on a growing recognition that mainstream methods of disaster preparedness and mitigation have left indigenous people and their deep knowledge on the sidelines, PAHO/WHO is calling for new disaster risk reduction models based on close collaboration with the communities often most affected by catastrophes, both natural and man-made.

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submitted by Carrie La Jeunesse

nejm.org - October 14, 2015 - DOI: 10.1056/NEJMe1512928

The number of new cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in western Africa has declined from a peak of 1063 cases in the week of October 9, 2014, to fewer than 10 confirmed cases per week for 11 consecutive weeks as of October 7, 2015. The main mode of transmission is direct contact with the blood or body fluids of a person with EVD or from the body of a person who died from EVD. However, Ebola virus can persist in the body fluids of survivors during convalescence, which may result in transmission of the virus. The potential for the persistence of Ebola virus in the semen of male survivors raises concern regarding the possible transmission of the virus to sexual partners.

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Image: Two women go back to their village after collecting garbage to sell to traders, Gazipur. PROBAL RASHID

wired.com - October 14th 2015 - Laura Mallonee

Bangladesh is dominated by a vast river delta of rich, fertile and flat land no more than 40 feet above sea level. That makes it especially susceptible to climate change. Scientists estimate that rising sea levels will claim as much as 17 percent of the country by 2050, displacing as many as 18 million people.

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Buildings near the ocean in North Miami, Fla., a state with a high risk of flooding as sea levels rise, according to a recent report. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Carbon choices determine US cities committed to futures below sea level

CLICK HERE - INTERACTIVE MAP - Surging Seas

washingtonpost.com - by Chris Mooney - October 12, 2015

In a new study, a team of scientists who specialize in studying rising seas bring the implications of their research right to the U.S.’s doorstep — calculating just how many American cities and municipalities are at risk of being flooded in the future, as well as how many may already be committed to that fate.

Sierra Leone health officials check people transiting at the border crossing with Liberia in Jendema in March 2015.
Photograph: Zoom Dosso/AFP/Getty Images

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine finds that if Britain had set up beds one month earlier, about 7,500 people would not have become ill

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - Measuring the impact of Ebola control measures in Sierra Leone

theguardian.com - by Sarah Boseley - October 12, 2015

The number of Ebola cases in Sierra Leone could have been halved if treatment beds had been set up by the UK government and charities just one month earlier, a report claims.

The slow response of the World Health Organisation and others to the increasingly desperate pleas for help from people on the ground, especially Médecins sans Frontières, has attracted widespread criticism. Now researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have revealed how many could have been spared the disease if action had been taken sooner.

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