Global Health

Computer rendering of an avian influenza virus
Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF

With the Chinese New Year and the Olympics on the horizon, health officials can only watch and wait for a potential pandemic

time.com - by Alice Park - January 29, 20114

submitted by Luis Kun

homelandsecuritynewswire.com - December 27, 2013

In the United States, 80 percent of the antibiotics are consumed in agriculture and aquaculture for the purpose of increasing food production. This flood of antibiotics released into the environment — sprayed on fruit trees and fed to the likes of livestock, poultry, and salmon, among other uses — has led bacteria to evolve.Mounting evidence shows resistant pathogens are emerging in the wake of this veritable flood of antibiotics — resulting in an increase in bacteria that is immune to available treatments. Scientists say that if the problem is left unchecked, this will create a health crisis on a global scale.

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CLICK HERE - RESEARCH REPORT - Preserving Antibiotics, Rationally

submitted by Luis Kun

homelandsecuritynewswire.com - December 13, 2013

Computational model demonstrates how disease spreads in a highly connected world. The computational work has led to a new mathematical theory for understanding the global spread of epidemics. The resulting insights could not only help identify an outbreak’s origin but could also significantly improve the ability to forecast the global pathways through which a disease might spread. . .

. . . Their study is published today (13 December) in the journal Science.

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RESEARCH - Science - The Hidden Geometry of Complex, Network-Driven Contagion Phenomena

who.int

Global Alert and Response (GAR)

3 June 2013 - In Israel, wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) was isolated from sewage samples collected on 9 April 2013 in Rahat, southern Israel. The virus has been detected in sewage only; no case of paralytic polio has been reported. Genetic sequencing and epidemiological investigations are ongoing to determine its origin. Preliminary analyses indicate the strain is not related to the virus currently affecting the Horn of Africa. The virus isolate was detected through routine environmental surveillance in Israel that involves regular testing of sewage water. Israel has been free of indigenous WPV transmission since 1988. In the past, wild poliovirus has been detected in environmental samples collected in this region between 1991 and 2002 without occurrence of cases of paralytic polio in the area.