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WHO - Polio Outbreak Confirmed in Mali

Wed, 2015-09-09 09:15 — Kathy Gilbeaux

afro.who.int

Bamako, 7 September 2015 – A case of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) has been confirmed in Bamako, the capital and largest city of Mali. The country is on high alert after national authorities detected a paralysis case with onset 20 July 2015. The patient is a 19-month old child of Guinean nationality whose paralysis occurred 7 days prior to the child’s arrival in Bamako to seek health care. The last case of wild polio virus (WPV) in Mali dates back to June 2011 in Goundam, Timbuktu Region.

The current detected virus is genetically linked to a confirmed VDPV detected in Siguiri district, in the Kankan Region of Guinea in August 2014, and has been circulating across international borders for more than 2 years without detection.

The risk of spread of this virus is deemed high and it has the capacity to cause paralytic disease in humans or kill. The emergence and circulation of VDPV2 reveals low population immunity against the virus due to low rates of vaccination coverage in Guinea. Consequently, oral polio vaccine (OPV) must be administered multiple times to stop the outbreak and protect children.

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Fossil Fuels Losing Cost Advantage Over Solar, Wind, IEA Says

Sun, 2015-09-06 17:53 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Photographer - Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg

bloomberg.com - by Tara Patel - August 31, 2015

Renewable technologies no longer cost outliers, report says
No single technology is cheapest under all circumstances

The cost of producing electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind has dropped significantly over the past five years, narrowing the gap with power generated from fossil fuels and nuclear reactors, according to the International Energy Agency.

“The costs of renewable technologies -- in particular solar photovoltaic -- have declined significantly over the past five years,” the Paris-based IEA said in a report called Projected Costs of Generating Electricity. “These technologies are no longer cost outliers.”

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WHO To Vaccinate 200 Individuals Following Recent Sierra Leone Ebola Death

Sun, 2015-09-06 13:34 — mike kraft

TECH TIMES by rina Maria Doctor Sept. 3, 2015
The World Health Organization (WHO) is set to vaccinate about 200 people in Sierra Leone, who were believed to have been directly or indirectly exposed to a woman who succumbed to death due to the virus on Saturday, Aug. 29.

The 67-year-old woman, whose diagnostic test results came positive for Ebola, was a merchant from the Kambia District, which is close to the border of Guinea. She died five days after Sierra Leone has begun a countdown projected to last for 42 days before the country may be declared free from the deadly virus. Before her diagnosis, the last patient diagnosed with the disease was reported on Aug. 8....

WHO will immunize the people in the area of Tonko Limba who have had direct and indirect exposures to the deceased, says Margaret Harris, a spokesperson from WHO. This effort will also include people who have had close contacts with the said exposed individuals....

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Survey Finds Many Physicians Overestimate Their Ability to Assess Patients’ Risk of Ebola

Sat, 2015-09-05 10:21 — Kathy Gilbeaux

massgeneral.org - August 27, 2015

While most primary care physicians responding to a survey taken in late 2014 and early 2015 expressed confidence in their ability to identify potential cases of Ebola and communicate Ebola risks to their patients, only 50 to 70 percent of them gave answers that fit with CDC guidelines when asked how they would care for hypothetical patients who might have been exposed to Ebola. In addition, those who were least likely to encounter an Ebola patient – based on their location and characteristics of their patients – were most likely to choose overly intense management of patients actually at low risk. The results of the survey, conducted by a team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators, have been published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - Ebola Risk and Preparedness: A National Survey of Internists

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Warming Oceans Putting Marine Life ‘In a Blender’

Fri, 2015-09-04 23:42 — Maeryn Obley

A lobsterman threw back a lobster near Mount Desert, Me. in 2012. The catch in the area has reached record highs. Credit Robert F Bukaty/Associated Press

Image: A lobsterman threw back a lobster near Mount Desert, Me. in 2012. The catch in the area has reached record highs. Credit Robert F Bukaty/Associated Press

nytimes.com - September 3rd, 2015 - Carl Zimmer

Up in Maine, lobsters are thriving. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission reported last month that stocks there have reached a record high.

Down the coast, however, the story is different.

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A Vaccinated Man Has Been Emitting Virulent Polio for 28 Years

Fri, 2015-09-04 23:37 — Maeryn Obley

Children after an India polio-vaccination event, 2012. Courtesy CDC.gov

Image: Children after an India polio-vaccination event, 2012. Courtesy CDC.gov

phenomena.nationalgeographic.com - September 2nd, 2015 - Maryn McKenna

At the end of the decades-long global battle to eradicate polio from the planet, there is what looks like a simple goal: Render every person immune, by vaccination, for long enough that the disease can find no host in which to breed, and thus dies out. That was the strategy behind the eradication of smallpox, and since polio like smallpox affects only humans, it is supposed to work for that disease too.

Of course, it’s a little more complicated, and a paper published last week reveals one of the most challenging complications.

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http://disasterlit.nlm.nih.gov/record/11129

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CDC - HHS - Ebola Concept of Operations (ConOps) Planning Template

Fri, 2015-09-04 09:32 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Source:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - Date Published:08/20/2015

Annotation:This 38-page document provides a standard format for creating an Ebola Concept of Operations (ConOps) plan at the state, territorial, or major metropolitan area government level. It provides information on measures local governments, agencies, and organizations can take to support the plan. The ConOps in the template describes strategic, high-level considerations for establishing a regional tiered system to safely and effectively manage persons under investigation (PUIs) or patients confirmed with Ebola.

(38 page .PDF document)
URL: http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/documents/ebola-concept-of-operations-planning-template-8-20-2015.pdf

Authors:Dugas, Robert; Lamoureux, Joe; Mangieri, William; et al.
Type:Guideline/Assessment Tool
ID:11129. From Disaster LitTM, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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Budapest Migrant Standoff Enters Second Night

Wed, 2015-09-02 18:19 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Hundreds of families have set up camp underneath Budapest's eastern station

Hundreds of migrants are in a standoff with police for a second night outside a Budapest railway station.

bbc.com - September 2, 2015

Earlier, scuffles broke out between the two sides as frustration among migrants boiled over outside Keleti station.

Many of the migrants have tickets and are insisting they be allowed to travel on to Germany and other countries, but Hungary says it is enforcing EU rules.

Meanwhile, Germany, Italy and France have called for "fair distribution" of refugees throughout the EU.

In a joint declaration, the country's three foreign ministers also called for Europe's asylum laws to be revised, the Italian foreign ministry said in a statement (in Italian).

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422,000 Besieged Syrians Didn't Get Food Aid In July, It's World's 'Largest Humanitarian Crisis:' UN

Wed, 2015-09-02 16:27 — Kathy Gilbeaux

BARAA AL-HALABI via Getty Images

There were challenges due to conflict, insecurity and deliberate obstructions.

huffingtonpost.com - AP - by Edith M. Lederer - August 26, 2015

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused all parties in the Syrian conflict of "indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks" on civilians and said the U.N. and its partners couldn't deliver food to 422,000 people in besieged areas in July.

Ban said in his monthly report to the U.N. Security Council circulated Tuesday that access to the 4.6 million Syrians in hard-to-reach areas - most controlled by Islamic State extremists - remains a critical concern with extremely limited humanitarian access.

He said U.N. agencies and their partners reached only 29 of the 127 hard-to-reach locations last month, and in the besieged areas, the only aid that arrived was a trickle of health assistance to 1.8 percent of the population.

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