Operational Biosurveillance - biosurveillance.typepad.com - October 1, 2013

Mexico is reporting upwards of 44 cases of cholera now with one fatality involving Hidalgo State and Mexico City.  The appearance of cholera in Mexico City is deeply concerning from the standpoint of the "tip of the iceberg": we only know of the recognized cases.  There are likely others out there.

A couple of points about this:

1. Totally expected to see expansion of the Nepalese cholera from Haiti to the DR, to Cuba, and now to Mexico. It is likely to include many other countries in that region before all is said and done.

2. It is likely to spread in Mexico in 'fits and starts' due to lack of indigenous immunity and will cause disruption.

3. It will likely spread along trade and migrant labor routes to the US and other countries doing business with Mexico.

4. Communities in the US may be caught unawareness due to basic expectation of border communities in Texas serving as "canaries in a coal mine" for the rest of the country. We propose the migrant labor routes penetrate deep into the US and far from these border communities.

ap.org - September 27, 2013

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's health authorities say cholera has killed one person and sickened at least another nine in central Mexico.

Mexico's Health Department says two cases were detected in Mexico City and the rest in the nearby state of Hidalgo, where one person died.

The department on Friday declared a health emergency for Hidalgo.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

ipcc.ch - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

"Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis" is the contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This comprehensive assessment of the physical aspects of climate change puts a focus on those elements that are relevant to understand past, document current, and project future climate change.

(CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND FOR LINKS TO THE FULL REPORT)

submitted by Margery Schab

eesi.org - Environmental and Energy Study Institute

Educating Congress on energy efficiency and renewable energy; advancing innovative policy solutions

For more information contact: Amaury Laporte at (202) 662-1884 or ***@***.***

"The emergence of the global warming problem creates an imperative for action that cannot be ignored." – The Environmental and Energy Study Institute's Board of Directors' unanimous statement, 1988.

In the past quarter century, the case for action has become ever more pressing, and the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a scientific body under the auspices of the United Nations, adds yet more urgency. The IPCC, first set up in 1990, has become the world's leading scientific authority on climate change.

cnn.com - by Dave Hennen, Brandon Miller and Eliott C. McLaughlin - September 27, 2013

(CNN) -- The world's getting hotter, the sea's rising and there's increasing evidence neither are naturally occurring phenomena.

So says a report from the U.N. International Panel on Climate Change, a document released every six years that is considered the benchmark on the topic. More than 800 authors and 50 editors from dozens of countries took part in its creation.

The summary for policymakers was released early Friday, while the full report, which bills itself as "a comprehensive assessment of the physical science basis of climate change," will be distributed Monday. Other reports, including those dealing with vulnerability and mitigation, will be released next year.

Here are the highlights from Friday's summary:

Man-made climate change is almost certain

Many may be struggling to a clear understanding of the real meaning of "resilience". According to this article, the term really expanded in this post 9/11, tsunami and hurricane katrina era to acquire new meanings. This article contains detailed description about how the term "resilience" becomes widely used to describe how people, communities, nations strive to minimize impact of natural and manmade desasters. Click here to read the article.

Brazil's president Dilma Rousseff is proposing a controversial set of measures to wrestle Brazil's internet from US control. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

President Rousseff expected to bring the conversation about the continued role of US-based supernetworks to the UN this month

theguardian.com - by Amanda Holpuch - September 20, 2013

When Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff postponed her official visit to the US in protest of National Security Agency spying activities on Tuesday, it seemed like a routine bit of diplomatic posturing.

But another one of her proposals could perhaps be more significant: a set of measures intended to extricate the internet in Brazil from under the influence of the US and its tech giants.

CDC - cnn.com - by Miriam Falco - September 17, 2013

(CNN) -- Health officials have been warning us about antibiotic overuse and drug-resistant "superbugs" for a long time. But today the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sounding the alarm in a new way.

For the first time, the CDC is categorizing drug-resistant superbugs by threat level.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Press Release - Centers for Disease Control - Untreatable: Today’s Drug-Resistant Health Threats
http://www.cdc.gov/media/dpk/2013/dpk-untreatable.html

Hassana Ousmane rests her head against the bed where her 21-month-old daughter, Zeinab, suffering from malaria, rests at the Princess Marie Louise Children's Hospital in Accra, Ghana, April 25, 2012.

CLICK HERE - World Bank - Global Burden of Disease: Generating Evidence, Guiding Policy

voanews.com - by Joe DeCapua - September 12, 2013

The World Bank has released new reports outlining the health challenges facing six major regions. Those challenges include not only many types of disease, but road accidents as well. The bank says the reports will help policymakers develop evidence-based health programs after the Millennium Development Goals expire.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

World Bank - Global Burden of Disease: Generating Evidence, Guiding Policy
http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/health/publication/global-burden-of-disease-generating-evidence-guiding-policy

A woman and her child walk between shacks, past a communal toilet in Khayelitsha township on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009. South African President Jacob Zuma says mayors need to clean up corruption and stop political squabbling in the face of sometimes violent protests over lack of city services. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

huffingtonpost.com - by Jessica Prois - September 12, 2013

The infographic below highlights the fact that 2.5 billion people have to seek out other options in lieu of a loo -- and it's just not OK.

Funny euphemisms aside, the World Bank created this illustration to detail the fact that lack of access to sanitation costs the world $260 billion yearly in health and productivity.

Health costs include $51 million spent on medication, transportation and hospitalization.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

ibtimes.com - September 3rd, 2013 - Zoe Mintz

Soot from the mid-1800s may be to blame for the retreat of mountain glaciers in the European Alps.

According to a new study published in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, soot, or black carbon, produced during the period of rapid industrialization caused the abrupt retreat of mountain glaciers after the long cold spell known as the Little Ice Age.

"Before now, most scientists have believed the end of the Little Ice Age in the 1800s was due to a natural climatic shift, distinct and well before emissions of carbon dioxide reached levels that could start to influence climate and glaciers in the 20th century,” lead author Thomas Painter, a snow and ice scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

submitted by Albert Gomez

No Straight Lines - by Alan Moore - September 7, 2013

It has been said that privacy is dead. Not so. It’s secrecy that is dying. Openness will kill it.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

ncdc.noaa.gov - September 5, 2013

Human influences are having an impact on some extreme weather and climate events, according to the report Explaining Extreme Events of 2012 from a Climate Perspective released September 5, 2013 by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Scientists from NOAA served as three of the four lead editors on the report. Overall, 18 different research teams from around the world contributed to the peer-reviewed report that examined the causes of 12 extreme events that occurred on five continents and in the Arctic.

submitted by Albert Gomez

veritythink.com - by Andrej Verity - September 3, 2013

In my June post Who are the Humanitarian Decision Makers, I outlined why I have problems with how easily we use the phrase “for the decision makers” without really knowing who they are. Once you start investigating the problem, you quickly realize how large and diverse the range of decision makers are in humanitarian response.

Now, it is easy to complain but harder to do something. So rather than leaving this problem to fester within the community, a few of us decided to do something.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

submitted by Tim Siftar

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Health officials are watching in horror as bacteria become resistant to powerful carbapenem antibiotics — one of the last drugs on the shelf.

nature.com - by Maryn McKenna - July 24, 2013

As a rule, high-ranking public-health officials try to avoid apocalyptic descriptors. So it was worrying to hear Thomas Frieden and Sally Davies warn of a coming health “nightmare” and a “catastrophic threat” within a few days of each other in March.

The agency heads were talking about the soaring increase in a little-known class of antibiotic-resistant bacteria: carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CREs).

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)