From the UN News Center, a call for vaccination action in Europe:
UN health agency ‘taken aback’ as measles resurfaces in Europe, calls for widespread vaccination
European policymakers, healthcare workers, and parents must step up their efforts to vaccinate children against measles amid an ongoing outbreak across the continent, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said today, warning that a recent resurgence in the disease threatened Europe’s goal of eliminating measles by the end of 2015.
According to UN data, over 22,000 cases of the virus have surfaced across Europe during the 2014 to 2015 biennium with the outbreak spreading to seven countries. This comes despite a 50 per cent drop from 2013 to 2014.
“When we consider that over the past two decades we have seen a reduction of 96 per cent in the number of measles cases in the European region, and that we are just a step away from eliminating the disease, we are taken aback by these numbers,” Dr. Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe, affirmed in a press release.
“We must collectively respond, without further delay, to close immunization gaps. It is unacceptable that, after the last 50 years’ efforts to make safe and effective vaccines available, measles continues to cost lives, money and time,” she added.
Vastly unvaccinated in Africa, via the Liberian Observer:
70% Un-vaccinated children at Risk for Measles
An official of the Ministry of Health is encouraging all parents and guardians to take their children for the third phase of the nationwide Measles Immunization Program, to be launched from April 10-16 in all 15 counties.
“The Measles Immunization Program was delayed due to the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus that led to thousands of deaths. Parents must now be very serious in ensuring that their children take the measles immunization to avoid risks,” Mr. Clarke stressed.
Mr. Adolphus Clarke is the Deputy Program Manager for the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI). He noted that the exercise is geared towards protecting children against future outbreaks of the disease.
From SciDev.Net, a potentially much-needed new drug undergoes testing:
Tuberculosis drug candidate begins clinical safety trial
The first clinical safety trial on a tuberculosis drug since 2009 is now under way.
The phase I trial of TBA-354 will involve 50 volunteers from the United States, according to the TB Alliance, the not-for-profit product development partnership sponsoring the trial.
In preclinical studies, the compound showed more potent antibacterial and sterilising activity than pretomanid (PA-824), a related substance now in phase II and phase III clinical trials to assess its safety and efficacy, the alliance announced last week.
It said that the six years that passed between TBA-354 and the last drug to undergo Phase 1 trials shows that the pipeline of drugs to combat tuberculosis is disconcertingly empty.
From the University of California, cat-derived ailment complications:
Increased risk from toxoplasmosis
A third of all humans carry the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis — a disease commonly associated with cats, HIV-AIDS patients and pregnant women — with scientists long believing healthy immune systems control the parasite and prevent the disease from emerging. But new research by professor Kirk Jensen of the University of California, Merced, shows the parasite might be more dangerous than previously believed.
In a paper published Feb. 24 in mBio — an open-access journal presented by the American Society for Microbiology — Jensen shows that secondary exposure to most parasite strains found in South America can lead to uncontrolled infection and disease, which in humans can cause severe congenital infection or lesions in the retina and brain.
“There are a few strains of the Toxoplasma parasite present in North America and Europe, but in South America, there are many strains,” said Jensen, a professor in the university’s School of Natural Sciences. “We found these South American strains are really good at evading the immune system.”
After an initial infection, the immune system is typically primed and ready to protect against repeat offenses by the same parasite or disease. This is how vaccines protect humans from infectious diseases like measles. However, Jensen said, “There are known cases where pregnant women who were seropositive — and therefore should have been protected from toxoplasmosis — developed congenital infection following travel to South America.”
From Outbreak News Today, another outbreak:
Uganda: Hundreds sickened by typhoid; adulterated beverages and foods suspected
As of yesterday, more than 500 people were confirmed admitted to designated treatment centres after being diagnosed with typhoid, the Health Ministry reports.
The source of the bacterial outbreak is suspected to be due to adulterated beverages and foods prompting health officials to warn the public of the capital of Kampala.
Preliminary laboratory investigations of sampled beverages and foods obtained from the Kampala central business district contained the Salmonella bacterium.
Dr Monica Musenero, the assistant commissioner in-charge of epidemiology and epidemic diseases at the Health ministry said, “We took samples of water, juices, and foods from areas where the outbreak hit hard. We suspect the outbreak is caused by something in the category of juice or water that is widely consumed by people,” said Dr Musenero. “The 1st laboratory samples tests and epidemiological links have hinted on water, but it’s still too early to mention which type of water,” she said.
From SciDev.Net, a climate change to spreading diseases:
Warming climate accelerates spread of vector-borne diseases
Health agencies need to take into account disease evolution in warming environments as climate change could alter the development of vector-borne diseases, two studies have found.
The “vector” in a vector-borne disease refers to an infected human or animal that transmits pathogens or parasites and causes disease in human populations.
Climate change can impact “all relevant aspects” of vector-borne diseases, including the locations of host populations and the availability of vectors, says Nina Fefferman, a biologist and part of a team from Rutgers University in the United States behind one of the studies.
The research focused on Aedes japonicus japonicus, a species of disease-carrying mosquito native to Japan and Korea, whose range has expanded since the 1990s to parts of Europe and the Hawaiian archipelago. The study found that populations of the mosquito on the island of Hawaii and in the American state of Virginia were capable of “rapid evolutionary change” and adaptation to their new environment.
As a result, vector-borne disease could become a greater threat to human health as the global climate warms, the study found. Its authors say that climate change studies need to play a greater role in national and global efforts to eradicate these diseases.
From BBC News, a death toll reevaluation:
Tobacco ‘kills two in three smokers’
The death risk from smoking may be much higher than previously thought – tobacco kills up to two in every three smokers not one in every two, data from a large study suggests.
The study tracked more than 200,000 Australian smokers and non-smokers above the age of 45 over six years. Mortality risk went up with cigarette use, BMC Medicine reports.
Smoking 10 cigarettes a day doubled the risk, while 20-a-day smokers were four to five times more likely to die.
From Environmental Health News, polluting the poor:
EPA to investigate North Carolina for civil rights violations
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has accepted a civil rights complaint filed against the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources and will investigate whether lax regulation of industrial pig farms disproportionately impacts communities of color.
Last week the EPA announced it would proceed two days after Environmental Health News reported about the complaint and new research that found high levels of fecal bacteria in water near industrial pig farms in eastern North Carolina. The Charlotte Observer also wrote an editorial about the research and said the state needs to be “more vigilant” about pig waste.
The complaint was filed last September by the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, the Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help, the Waterkeeper Alliance, and is being led by Earthjustice.
FrontPageAfrica covers medical fraud in Liberia:
High Risk Zone for Fake Drugs: Pharmacy Under Scrutiny
One of Liberia’s leading pharmacies, Abeer Pharmacy has been ranked the top pharmacy that imports and sells fake drugs in the country. Mr. David Sumo, head of the Liberia Medicine and Health Products regulatory authority, explains that the pharmacy usually brings in anti-malaria pills, such as lonart, quinine and pain killers. He added that Abeer Pharmacy has repeatedly failed to abide by the standard of the regulatory agency.
“I know most of you will be surprised to hear this, the pharmacy has failed our test many times, and we’ve put this particular pharmacy in the high-risk zone,” Mr. Sumo said. He advised people dealing in fake drugs to desist and called on everyone, especially those who have mini-drug stores to look at the expiration date properly before purchasing the drugs.
LMHRA was set up in 2001 to register all medicines that are locally-manufactured, imported, distributed, sold and used in Liberia. It also has a mandate to prepare and keep the registry of medicines used in both the private and public sector in Liberia and to remove from the registry and prohibit the manufacturing, importation, distribution sale and use of any medicine which quality, safety or efficacy is brought to question. The body also has the power to set up a quality control laboratory to undertake laboratory analysis of all medicines imported and used in Liberia.
From United Press International, another kind of medical fraud:
Iowa scientist pleads guilty to fraud in AIDS vaccine study
A former Iowa State University scientist on Wednesday pleaded guilty to fraud for faking the results on an AIDS vaccine study funded by the federal government.
Dong-Pyou Han pleaded guilty to two felony counts of making false statements. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped two other counts of the same charge.
Dong-Pyou, 57, admitted he faked data in the study that cost the government between $7 million and $20 million. He said he inserted human antibodies into the blood of rabbits to make it appear as though an experimental vaccine he was studying helped protect the animals against HIV.
After the jump, a Big Agra pesticide lie, Big Agra pesticides pose global surface water dangers, plastics pose a major danger to imperiled coral reefs, clear evidence of manmade carbon atmospheric heat-trapping, a village to be abandoned because of climate change, Occupy targets Rio’s Olympic golf course in an environmental reserve, a massive fish die-off in Rio’s Olympic waters, massive pollution in a Mexican river, how liberal California unions bankroll fracking, on to Fukushimapocalypse Now!, starting with a demand for a probe of a radioactive leak coverup, fishers outraged over the leak coverup, Radioactive water drainage changes contemplated, and, finally, evacuees fail to heed claims the hot zone is safe. . .
Big Agra, Big Lie, via the New York Times:
A Pesticide Banned, or Not, Underscores Trans-Atlantic Trade Sensitivities
Syngenta, a Swiss chemicals company, produces one of America’s most popular herbicides. It is called atrazine, and 73.7 million pounds of the chemical compound were applied in the United States in 2013. It was used on more than half of all corn crops, two-thirds of sorghum and up to 90 percent of sugar cane.
But Syngenta cannot sell atrazine to farms in its own backyard.
The weed killer is banned as a pesticide in the European Union as well as in Switzerland over concerns that it is a groundwater contaminant.
Syngenta, however, did not get the memo.
Even though the European Union banned atrazine over a decade ago, the company has long insisted that the pesticide was not banned. On one corporate website, Syngenta points to “anti-atrazine activists” who “claim that ‘atrazine’ is banned in the European Union. This is patently false.”
Big Agra pesticides pose global surface water dangers, via Environmental News Network:
Agricultural insecticides pose a global risk to surface water bodies
Streams within approximately 40% of the global land surface are at risk from the application of insecticides. These were the results from the first global map to be modeled on insecticide runoff to surface waters, which has just been published in the journal Environmental Pollution by researchers from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the University of Koblenz-Landau together with the University of Milan, Aarhus University and Aachen University. According to the publication, particularly streams in the Mediterranean, the USA, Central America and Southeast Asia are at risk.
Unlike other chemicals, agricultural pesticides are intentionally applied to the environment to help farmers control insects, weeds and other potentially harmful pests threatening agricultural production. They can therefore affect land ecosystems but also surface waters from runoff. According to estimates, ca. 4 million tons of agricultural pesticides are applied annually, equating to an average of 0.27 kilograms per hectare of the global land surface. “We know from earlier investigations for example that pesticides can reduce the biodiversity of invertebrates in freshwater ecosystems by up to 42 percent and that we can expect an increased application of pesticides as a result of climate change”, explains Prof. Dr. Matthias Liess from the UFZ, who was recently appointed to a term of five years on the scientific advisory board “National Action Plan on Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products” where he advises the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Liess warns of an increase in the application of pesticides in many developing countries as farmers increasingly switch from traditionally extensive agricultural practices to more intensive ones. Until now the global extent of the potential water pollution from the application of insecticides has remained largely unknown.
From the Guardian, plastics pose a major danger to imperiled coral reefs:
Corals face ‘slow starvation’ from ingesting plastics pollution, experts find
Corals such as those found on the Great Barrier Reef consume ‘microplastics’ in the sea at the same rate as their normal food but cannot expel the fragments
Corals such as those found on the Great Barrier Reef are at risk from the estimated 5tn pieces of plastic in the world’s oceans because researchers have discovered they digest tiny fragments of plastic at a significant rate.
A study led by the ARC centre of excellence for coral reef studies at James Cook University found that corals consumed “microplastics” – plastics measuring under 5mm – about the same rate as their normal food.
These small plastics were found deep within the gut cavity tissue of analysed corals, showing that they weren’t able to expel the fragments.
From the Associated Press, clear evidence of man-made carbon atmospheric heat-trapping:
Scientists witness carbon dioxide trapping heat in air
Scientists have witnessed carbon dioxide trapping heat in the atmosphere above the United States, chronicling human-made climate change in action, live in the wild.
A new study in the journal Nature demonstrates in real-time field measurements what scientists already knew from basic physics, lab tests, numerous simulations, temperature records and dozens of other climatic indicators. They say it confirms the science of climate change and the amount of heat-trapping previously blamed on carbon dioxide.
Researchers saw “the fingerprint of carbon dioxide” trapping heat, said study author Daniel Feldman of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. He said no one before had quite looked in the atmosphere for this type of specific proof of climate change.
Feldman and colleagues used a decade of measurements from instruments in Alaska and Oklahoma that looked straight up into the sky and matched what they saw with the precise chemical composition and heat fingerprints of carbon dioxide trapping heat. Scientists say carbon dioxide from the burning of coal, oil and gas is the chief cause of global warming.
From Kivalina, Alaska, a village to be abandoned because of climate change, via the Washington Post:
The remote Alaskan village that needs to be relocated due to climate change
This tiny and isolated town of 400 cannot be reached by road. It lies on a fragile barrier island along the Chukchi Sea, 83 miles above the Arctic circle. And for generations, the Iñupiat people of the region have hunted gigantic bowhead whales from camps atop the sea ice that stretches out from the town’s icy shores.
But in recent years, climate change has thinned the ice so much that it has become too dangerous to hunt the whales. Soon, the U.S. government says, it may be too dangerous to live here at all, with less sea ice to protect the barrier island from powerful waves that wash across the village.
“Global warming has caused us so much problems,” said Joseph Swan, Sr., a Kivalina elder, at a town meeting last week. The ice “does not freeze like it used to. It used to be like 10 to 8 feet thick, way out in the ocean.”
Occupy targets Rio’s Olympic golf course in an environmental reserve, via the Guardian:
Rio 2016: Occupy takes swing at Olympic golf course
Demonstrators unhappy at building of site in environmental reserve and question officials’ relationship with property developers
First, there was Occupy Wall Street. Then, there was Occupy Starbucks. Now, in the latest take on the protest franchise, a small group of dedicated demonstrators are camped on the central reservation of a highway in an upmarket suburb of Rio de Janeiro, the Olympic-city-in-waiting. Their goal: Occupy Golf.
After a 112-year hiatus, golf will return to the Games in Rio in 2016. But the city’s decision to build a new course on an Area of Environmental Protection has angered campaigners and raised questions about the authorities’ relationship with property developers.
Local people struggling with intermittent water supplies in the midst of a severe drought have also expressed irritation at the liberal use of sprinklers to keep the new course green.
From the San Francisco Chronicle, a massive fish die-off in Rio’s Olympic waters:
Rio officials probe source of fish die-off in Olympic waters
Rio de Janeiro’s state environmental agency says it is investigating a fish die-off that has left thousands of carcasses floating in waters where sailing events are to be held when Brazil hosts next year’s Olympics.
The dead twaite shad, small whitish gray fish, were discovered Tuesday by inspectors conducting routine water testing in Rio’s sewage- and trash-filled Guanabara Bay. The agency was conducting tests to determine the cause of the die-off, with results expected in a week, it said Tuesday.
The discovery of the fish, which were washing up on the coastline outside Rio’s international airport and about 7.5 miles from the starting point for the 2016 Olympic sailing events, comes amid a visit by International Olympic Committee inspectors, in Rio to check up on the city’s progress in preparing for the Games.
From Mexico News Daily, massive pollution in a Mexican river:
11 firms closed for pollution infractions
Atoyac River called ‘highly toxic’ in 2014 Greenpeace study
A non-governmental organization charged in November that at least 1,000 businesses are contributing to the pollution of the Atoyac River. Today the federal government shut down 11 in the states of Puebla and Tlaxcala amid concerns that contamination might be causing deaths from leukemia.
The presence of methylene, toluene and chloroform in river water has raised concerns at Cofepris, the Federal Commission for Protection Against Sanitary Risk. Its chief, Mikel Arriola, said cases of leukemia deaths in the area will be compared with those at the national level to determine if there’s a connection.
In addition to warnings made by the NGO Dale la Cara al Atoyac, or Face Up to the Atoyac, Greenpeace said in a report last year that the greater part of the river is “highly toxic” and represents a serious risk for the 1.2 million people who live near it.
From the East Bay Express, how liberal California unions bankroll fracking:
Bay Area Workers and Unions Finance the Fracking Boom
Bay Area workers and unions are increasingly joining the climate justice movement, but their pension funds have been quietly investing in the oil and natural gas boom
Deep in the heart of Texas, the oil industry is still going strong. Take Navitas Midstream, a private corporation that specializes in transporting fossil fuels. Navitas is currently laying a pipeline that, when completed later this year, will funnel natural gas fracked from the Eagle Ford Shale into a processing plant that’s also under construction. Called the “La Bahia System,” the pipeline and plant will handle 120 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. La Bahia is part of a labyrinth of fossil fuel infrastructure that’s growing and will generate billions in profits for its owners — even with the current slump in oil prices. But it also is fueling the fracking boom and climate change.
Surprisingly, the source of financing for this fossil-fuel operation includes the pension funds of Bay Area workers whose unions are now taking stands against fracking. And few of the union members realize this fact.
Investors in La Bahia, through a limited partnership managed by the Warburg Pincus private equity firm, include 17,000 members of the California Nurses Association who work at Kaiser hospitals, and about 22,000 University of California employees who are members of the union AFSCME Local 3299. Through their pension funds, the retirement savings of these workers are being leveraged to build the Texas pipeline and plant.
On to Fukushimapocalypse Now!, starting with a demand for a probe of a radioactive leak coverup, via NHK WORLD:
NRA demands TEPCO probe radioactive water leak
Japan’s nuclear regulator has demanded that the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant thoroughly investigate a recent leak of radioactive drainage water that may have entered the sea.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority on Wednesday heard a report on the incident saying levels of beta ray-emitting substances rose sharply in a drainage channel at the plant on Sunday. It also said some of the contaminated water likely spilled into the plant’s port facing the Pacific Ocean.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, has been unable to determine why the radioactivity levels spiked.
Fishers outraged over the leak coverup, via the Japan Times:
Fisheries ‘shocked’ at silence over water leak at wrecked Fukushima No. 1 plant
Fishermen in Fukushima Prefecture slammed Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Wednesday after it emerged that water containing cesium and other radioactive isotopes has been draining into the Pacific near the Fukushima No. 1 plant and that Tepco did nothing to prevent it despite learning of the leak last May.
“I don’t understand why (Tepco) kept silent even though they knew about it. Fishery operators are absolutely shocked,” Masakazu Yabuki, chief of the Iwaki fisheries cooperative, said at a meeting with Tepco officials.
Local fishermen have already given Tepco approval to dump groundwater into the ocean before it becomes tainted, to reduce the volume of water stored in tanks at the site. The operator is now doing this, pumping water from wells, monitoring it and piping it into the ocean.
Radioactive water drainage changes contemplated, via NHK WORLD:
TEPCO may reroute wastewater drainage channel
The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is considering a plan to reroute a drainage channel so that contaminated rainwater will not leak outside the facility’s port.
Tokyo Electric Power Company said on Tuesday that the water had accumulated on the roof of the plant’s No. 2 reactor building. The firm added that rainwater with relatively high levels of radioactive substances spilled into the Pacific beyond the plant’s port through a drainage channel.
Following an outcry by local fishers, the utility said it will consider altering the channel so that water will drain in the port.
And, finally, evacuees fail to heed calls to return to the hot zone, via the Asahi Shimbun:
Fukushima cleanup fails to convince as just 10 to 20% of evacuees seek return
Less than one-fifth of evacuees from the Fukushima nuclear disaster say they want to return to their homes, despite government efforts to speed up reconstruction in areas with lower radiation levels.
The finding came from a survey by the Reconstruction Agency conducted between August and October last year that covered about 7,100 evacuee households in Namie; 2,400 in Futaba; 4,000 in Okuma; and 5,600 in Tomioka.
Between 51 percent and 60 percent of the households responded to the poll, including those living outside Fukushima Prefecture.
The four towns, all situated near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, are divided into three zones based on annual radiation dosage levels: “difficult-to-return zones” with 50 millisieverts or more; “no-residence zones” between 20 and 50 millisieverts; and “zones being prepared for lifting of evacuation order,” with 20 millisieverts or less.
