Archive | October 17, 2014
Virus-transmitting ‘yellow fever’ mosquitoes discovered in L.A. County, USA
A new aggressive daytime-biting mosquito capable of transmitting debilitating and possibly deadly viruses has been found in the Los Angeles region, officials announced Wednesday.
Known as yellow fever mosquitoes, the insects were found Oct. 7 and 8 in Commerce and Pico Rivera, respectively, according to the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District.
The Aedes aegypti species, which has black and white stripes and grows to about a quarter-inch in size, can transmit dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever — viruses that can cause painful symptoms including headaches and high fever, officials said.
“While these debilitating viruses, so far, aren’t locally transmitted in L.A. County, the mosquitoes that can transmit them are now here,” Susanne Kluh, the district’s director of scientific-technical services, said in a statement. “Infected travelers can bring these viruses to Los Angeles County.”
The mosquito is the third species of the Aedes genus found in Los Angeles County in the past three years, said district spokesman Levy Sun.
In September 2011, officials found Asian tiger mosquitoes, which come from Southeast Asia, in South El Monte and El Monte. The mosquito population has since grown and spread into 10 neighboring communities, officials said.
Then this summer, authorities found Australian backyard mosquitoes in Montebello and Monterey Park.
The yellow fever mosquito — which was first found in California, including in the Central Valley, in 2013 — is an aggressive daytime biter that thrives in urban environments, preferring small, man-made containers to lay eggs.
“We’re aggressively attacking the populations wherever we find them,” said Jason Farned, spokesman for the San Gabriel Valley Vector Control District.
Determining how the Aedes species were introduced to California has been difficult, but officials say imported tires and plants are typically to blame. They can also travel via planes, ships and other vehicles.
Officials urged residents to report any daytime-biting mosquitoes with black and white stripes.
Ebola Believed To Be Potentially Airborne, Researchers Claim
Editor’s note: this story has been amended to reflect that the primary source was submitted to and published by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy; the research and findings reflected did not originate with CIDRAP and should not be attributed to CIDRAP.
Ebola may have the potential to be airborne, according to a September commentary submitted to the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota. The authors believe “scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients.”
The scientists behind the report warn that surgical facemasks will not prevent the transmission of Ebola. According to the report, medical workers must immediately be given full-hooded protective gear and powered air-purifying respirators.
An excerpt from the report — submitted to CIDRAP by the authors, “who are national experts on respiratory protection and infectious disease transmission” — reads, “Healthcare workers play a very important role in the successful containment of outbreaks of infectious diseases like Ebola. The correct type and level of personal protective equipment (PPE) ensures that healthcare workers remain healthy throughout an outbreak—and with the current rapidly expanding Ebola outbreak in West Africa, it’s imperative to favor more conservative measures.”
The report goes on to note that any action which can be taken to “reduce risk” of Ebola exposure should not wait until a “scientific certainty” develops.
“The minimum level of protection in high-risk settings should be a respirator with an assigned protection factor greater than 10. A powered air-purifying respirator (PAPR) with a hood or helmet offers many advantages over an N95 filtering facepiece or similar respirator, being more protective, comfortable, and cost-effective in the long run,” the report also adds.
The working theory about Ebola transmission from the CDC and the agency’s director Thomas Frieden, is incorrect and “outmoded” according to the report.
“Virus-laden bodily fluids may be aerosolized and inhaled while a person is in proximity to an infectious person and that a wide range of particle sizes can be inhaled and deposited throughout the respiratory tract,” University researchers concluded.
Background information detailing why these experts believes the CDC and WHO are functioning under an outdated mode of thought when it comes to how infectious diseases are transmitted via aerosols is also included in the new report.
“Medical and infection control professionals have relied for years on a paradigm for aerosol transmission of infectious diseases based on very outmoded research and an overly simplistic interpretation of the data. In the 1940s and 50s, William F. Wells and other ‘aerobiologists’ employed now significantly out-of-date sampling methods (eg, settling plates) and very blunt analytic approaches (eg, cell culturing) to understand the movement of bacterial aerosols in healthcare and other settings. Their work, though groundbreaking at the time, provides a very incomplete picture,” the report said.
According to researchers, early aerobiologists were unable to measure small particles near an infected person and therefore made an assumption that such particles existed on far from the source and airborne transmission could have happened around 3-feet or so from the source.
MASSIVE DIP SPIKES ON THE MAGNETOSPHERE @ APPROX 21:00, 21:30, 21:45 hrs UTC
**VERY URGENT**
MASSIVE DIP SPIKES ON THE MAGNETOSPHERE @ APPROX 21:00, 21:30, 21:45 hrs UTC. FURTHER EARTHQUAKES, VOLCANO ACTIVITY & ADVERSE WEATHER PATTERNS WILL BE GREATLY INFLUENCED BY THE COSMIC RAYS STRIKING THE EARTH’S CORE
***BE ALERT***
‘Ebola-like virus’ kills 10 in Sultan Kudarat, Philippines
The Department of Health (DOH) in Sultan Kudarat is monitoring an “Ebola-like virus” that has killed at least 10 people in the province since April.
Back in March, more than 100 residents of Barangay Tinalon in Senator Ninoy Aquino town were rushed to the hospital due to stomach pains, vomiting, and diarrhea after eating what doctors believed was tainted horse meat.
Several of the victims died.
At that time, medical officials were baffled as to what kind of illness struck the victims.
Samples of horse meat were sent to a laboratory for testing.
The DOH is checking whether the virus came from a bat and was transferred to the horse killed and eaten by residents of Senator Ninoy Aquino town.
Based on the laboratory results, the residents were hit by an acute encephalitis syndrome, a biosafety level 4 disease, making it as fatal as Ebola virus.
The illness is transmitted through body fluids. It has an incubation period of from 4 to 27 days.
“It starts with a simple flu, but you can die in one week’s time. ‘Yung preparation natin dito ay the same sa preparation natin sa Ebola,” Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Officer Dr. Alah Baby Vingno said.
The disease has killed 10 residents since April.
The DOH is setting up an information campaign, as well as training its personnel to deal with acute encephalitis syndrome.
The agency is also reminding the public to observe proper hygiene to ward off deadly diseases.
Cat 4 Hurricane Gonzalo Is Slamming Bermuda With Powerful Winds Of 140 mph
Many trees are uprooting, power loss to 1000’s along with structural damage to many properties.
Flooding is a major concern.
Deadly Ebola Virus; Man with Ebola Virus is rushed to heavily armed quarantine establishment in Istanbul, Turkey
A man with an Ebola virus was hospitalized in a hospital in İstanbul on Wednesday night, prompting hospital officials to empty part of the building
A man, whose nationality or identity remains confidential, was detected to be carrying the Ebola virus during a health screening before he entered Turkey at İstanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport on Wednesday. He was immediately isolated and brought to Marmara University Education and Research Hospital at Pendik. Current patients were transferred to other hospitals while relatives of the patients were given protective masks and distanced away from the hospital. Relatives of some of the patients protested the hospital administration for cutting their treatment short.
The hospital also refused to accept additional patients throughout the night. The patient was going to spend the night at the hospital and he will be transferred to Süreyyapaşa Breast Diseases Education and Research Hospital on Thursday.
MAGNITUDE 4.1 30 km WEST OF DUNEDIN, NEW ZEALAND
http://www.geonet.org.nz/quakes/region/newzealand/2014p779024
Subject to change
Depth: 4 km
Distances: Latitude, Longitude -45.77, 170.15
MAGNITUDE 3.9 ICELAND REGION
Subject to change
Depth: 8.4 km
Depth: 8.4 km
Distances: Latitude, Longitude 64.672 -17.481
(4.2 km NNE of Bárðarbunga)
Earthquake location 17 Oct 20:55 GMT
Time and magnitude of earthquake 17 Oct 20:55 GMT
MAGNITUDE 4.2 ICELAND REGION
Subject to change
Depth: 8 km
Depth: 8 km
Distances: Latitude, Longitude 64.669 -17.465
(4.4 km NE of Bárðarbunga)
Earthquake location 17 Oct 20:55 GMT
Time and magnitude of earthquake 17 Oct 20:55 GMT
MAGNITUDE 3.1 ICELAND REGION
Subject to change
Depth: 1.3 km
Depth: 1.3 km
Distances: Latitude, Longitude 64.664 -17.401
(6.6 km ENE of Bárðarbunga)
Earthquake location 17 Oct 20:55 GMT
Time and magnitude of earthquake 17 Oct 20:55 GMT
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