Cholera and other tropical diseases

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Granny says, "Dat's right - kill it a-fore it spreads...

15 Million to Be Vaccinated to Contain Yellow Fever Outbreak
July 07, 2016 — Scientists say Central African outbreak in Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo risks spreading internationally if not halted

The World Health Organization is leading a mass yellow fever vaccination campaign in central Africa to prevent the national and international spread of this deadly disease. The campaign, which begins this month, aims to vaccinate 15.5 million people in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. A yellow fever outbreak began late last year in the Angolan capital, Luanda and spread quickly throughout the country. The disease also spread to neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. The two-month vaccination campaign is being held in advance of the next rainy season in September, when mosquitos come out and transmission goes up.

Staff members of the Teaching Hospital receive the first vaccination treatment for yellow fever in El Geneina, West Darfur​

Bruce Aylward is WHO executive director of Outbreaks and Health Emergencies. He says this outbreak is particularly dangerous because it is occurring in large cities. He says massive outbreaks of yellow fever can occur in urban settings because mosquitos can rapidly infect thousands of people. “With that explosive spread and the number of cases, you can see very high mortality rates," he said. "These can be very dangerous, destabilizing events; but, the other concern is when urban outbreaks take off in these areas, there is a risk then of international spread of this virus.”

Aylward says two cases were reported in Kenya and 11 cases were brought to China by Chinese men who had been working in Angola. Yellow fever is endemic in 47 countries, 33 of them in Africa. Most of the rest are in South America. Yellow fever is an acute viral disease that in the worst cases, can cause liver damage that begins to turn the skin yellow. The mosquito that transmits the virus is the Aedes Aegypti, the same one that transmits the Zika virus. Since the mosquito also exists in Asia, Aylward warns the potential for creating an international crisis exists.

A researcher holds a container of female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes at the Biomedical Sciences Institute at Sao Paulo University in Brazil.​

Aylward, however, tells VOA the prognosis for containing the geographical spread is good. “This is not like Ebola or not like Zika, for which we do not have a vaccine, of course. This is a disease for which we have a vaccine and for which there is a vaccination requirement under the International Health Regulations for yellow fever," he said. "So, again a big part of our work with the countries at risk of the disease is to ensure that they have a vaccination of traveler policy.”

Latest WHO figures show more than 3,500 suspected and over 860 confirmed cases of yellow fever in Angola, with 355 deaths. In DRC, there are over 1,300 suspected and 68 confirmed cases, with 75 deaths. The cost of the mass yellow fever campaign is expected to be $34 million. Aylward says the WHO will launch an appeal for $20 million in the coming days, with Angola and DRC covering the rest.

15 Million to Be Vaccinated to Contain Yellow Fever Outbreak

 

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Cholera outbreak suspected in So. Sudan...

Cholera Outbreak Suspected in Beleaguered South Sudan
July 20, 2016 : Dozens of people have fallen ill with suspected cholera in South Sudan, a nation already beseiged by civil unrest, the United Nations said.

UNICEF said the main hospital in Juba, admitted 69 new cases Wednesday, bringing the total number of people being treated in the capital to 112. Nationwide, there were 141 suspected cholera cases, with six reported deaths. This was down from an earlier report of 11 deaths. In collaboration with the Ministry of Health and partner agencies, UNICEF is providing medical supplies, sanitation services and community awareness.

A South Sudanese baby suffering from cholera is being attended by medics in Juba Teaching Hospital​

One suspected case came from inside a U.N. base in Juba, raising fears that it could spread among the 4,000 people sheltering there from fighting this month between opposing army factions. South Sudan's civil war displaced some 28,000 people in Juba after fighting began in late 2013, and renewed fighting last week caused more upheaval, with 15,000 people taking shelter in U.N., aid organization, church and other compounds.

Last year, 47 people died in South Sudan in a cholera outbreak, and 167 died from the disease in 2014. Cholera is a gastrointestinal disease, usually spread by contaminated water and food, and can cause severe diarrhea that, in extreme cases, can lead to fatal dehydration and kidney failure within hours.

Cholera Outbreak Suspected in Beleaguered South Sudan

 

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WHO 'loses' a million doses of yellow fever vaccine...

UN Bungles Response to Africa's Yellow Fever Outbreak
August 05, 2016 — The World Health Organization and its partners shipped more than 6 million yellow fever vaccines to Angola in February to quash an emerging epidemic, yet when they asked country officials the following month what happened to the vaccines, they discovered that about 1 million doses had mysteriously disappeared.

Of the shipments that did make it to Angola, some vaccines were sent to regions with no yellow fever cases, while others arrived at infected areas without syringes. In neighboring Congo, some vaccines weren't always kept cold enough to guarantee they would be effective. This lack of oversight and mismanagement has undermined control of the outbreak in Central Africa, the worst yellow fever epidemic in decades, an Associated Press investigation has found. There is now a shortage of vaccines so severe that WHO has recommended doses be diluted by 80 percent to stretch the supply, even though there is limited evidence they will be effective in African populations. "We have a major problem on our hands'' UNICEF's Robert Kezaala wrote in capital letters in a June email to his colleagues at WHO, Doctors Without Borders and other partners.

WHO vowed after its fumbled response to the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa that it would adopt a ``no regrets'' policy to better manage future disease outbreaks with its partners in other health organizations and national governments. But according to hundreds of pages of internal emails and documents obtained by AP, the U.N. health agency is facing many of the same problems that compromised its handling of Ebola, an outbreak that killed 11,000 people in three West African countries. Health officials now estimate they will be short millions of doses to fight an epidemic that has also spread to Congo. To date, yellow fever is estimated to have caused upward of 5,000 cases and at least 450 deaths. More than 18 million vaccines have been sent to the continent, far short of the 40 million doses some experts think are needed to contain the outbreak.

Some of the most vulnerable areas of Congo's sprawling capital have been vaccinated, but millions of people still are waiting for doses as fumigation teams spray crowded neighborhoods in an attempt to kill the mosquitoes that spread the disease. "People are very afraid,'' says Dr. Ernest Mumakubwidi, who treats patients out of a tiny cement-block neighborhood clinic in Kinshasa. "They won't be able to vaccinate everyone, that is clear.'' Amanda McClelland, a senior emergency official at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, or the IFRC, said the crisis is a repeat of WHO's mismanagement of the Ebola epidemic in 2014. "It was the same people at WHO that made the initial calls during Ebola and it was the exact same response: We've got enough, we don't need any help and it's all under control.''

Dr. Bruce Aylward, who directed WHO's Ebola response, acknowledged that more changes are still needed to enable WHO to respond quicker to complex emergencies, even though he said the agency has made substantial reforms in the past two years. "It would be a mistake to think that WHO is now ready,'' he said. "I think a lot of things are better but I don't think we're there yet.''

A disaster for this country and the region

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Researchers Find ‘Sign Post’ Toward New Way to Fight Roundworms
August 04, 2016 | WASHINGTON — People in developed countries tend to think of roundworm as just a problem for dogs and cats. But more than 800 million people around the world are infected with the parasite. The highest infections rates occur in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and south-central Latin America.

Those numbers could be brought down, since researchers in Ireland and England have identified a mechanism that could potentially turn a mouse susceptible to roundworm into one that can effectively fight the infection. Their findings are published in PLOS.

Neglected tropical diseases

Roundworm is one of many neglected tropical diseases identified by the World Health Organization and it is the most common of the three transmitted from soil. Most humans infected with roundworm do not show symptoms. People find out they are infected after passing the parasite in their stool or vomit. Fertilized roundworm eggs are deposited in the soil from human feces. If someone ingests these eggs, they hatch in the intestine. The larvae then move into the liver where they mature further and are transported through the bloodstream into the lungs. After a few days, the now mature worms wriggle out of the lungs into the throat, where they are either swallowed or evacuated. If they make it back into the intestines, the female worms can lay up to 200,000 eggs a day which are deposited back into the soil after defecation-- starting the cycle anew.

Roundworm larva mature in the liver before migrating to the lungs.​

This disease is particularly harmful for young children. The adult worms can live up to 2 years, so intestinal blockage can become severe in tiny tummies. The larvae can also cause breathing issues when they enter the lungs. The WHO combats the disease in highly affected areas with regular deworming of the population.

Susceptible hosts

Researchers have noticed that some people are more susceptible to roundworm than others. But human studies are expensive. So researchers use mice that mimic this dichotomy. When infected, susceptible mice show a higher number of parasites in their lungs than those that are resistant. This led previous researchers to conclude that the liver environments in these two genetically different mice also had to be different. Jim Carolan, a lecturer of biology at Ireland's Maynooth University, finds the roundworm parasite fascinating. “Our bodies should be able to kick that [parasite] up and down the street. But it doesn’t because the [roundworms] have evolved ways to evade … or suppress the system,” he tells VOA. To find out how, he looked at the liver proteins in these two types of mice. In the liver cells of resistant mice, Carolan and colleagues discovered hundreds of different proteins that are associated with energy production. One of the byproducts of the higher mitochondrial processes that produce energy is chemicals containing oxygen known as reactive oxygen species (ROS).

Children in Guatemala are at high risk of contracting roundworm.​

The researchers suggest that if resistant mice have more active mitochondria, they will produce more of these ROS, which could be toxic to parasitic cells. This work is only preliminary and Carolan stresses that more tests and research are needed before human therapies can be developed. “I like to refer to it as a sign post. It’s pointing us in a direction that we need to focus on.” They still need to determine if there are actually more mitochondria present in the resistant mice and if that mitochondria is more active. To do this they will need to count the mitochondria and measure the levels of ROS to see if it is indeed higher than in susceptible mice. “This is the easy part. The hard part is yet to come,” says Carolan.

Bringing attention to a neglected disease

 

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TB has taken over the #1 spot from AIDS for killing people.

India, Indonesia, and China in that order have the highest number of cases of TB.

AIDS is in 2nd.

 

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Cholera outbreak in Congo, CAR...

Cholera kills 16 people in C. African Republic, 34 in Congo
Aug 12,`16 -- Central African Republic's health minister says at least 16 people have died from cholera and there have been 66 recorded cases since the beginning of August.

Fernande Ndjengbot, Minister of Health, said Friday the government is mobilizing with organizations including the World Health Organization and U.N. Children's Agency to isolate the disease and provide clean water, medicine and aid to the communities. He called on residents to report cases.

The ministry's emergency health report said it has spread across the Oubangui river to Congo's Libi area where 34 people have died and there are 387 suspected cases.

Cholera is a gastrointestinal disease, usually spread by contaminated water and food, and can cause severe diarrhea that in extreme cases can lead to fatal dehydration and kidney failure within hours.

News from The Associated Press

 

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ALIMA tryin' to stop outbreak of Rift Valley Fever...

Rift Valley Fever Outbreak Kills 21 in Western Niger
September 21, 2016 — Health workers in western Niger are racing to contain an outbreak of Rift Valley fever that has killed at least 21 people over the past month, an aid agency said Wednesday.

The highly contagious disease, which is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes or close contact with contaminated animals, has infected 52 people in Niger's western region of Tahoua since late August, the country's health ministry said. The Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA) and Niger's health authorities have opened an emergency treatment center in the region's hardest-hit district of Tchintabaraden to look after the infected and stop the disease from spreading. "Unfortunately, the 52 severe cases officially registered at present only represent the tip of the iceberg," ALIMA's medical coordinator Oumarou Maidadji said in a statement.

Mariam Dagane, who is infected with Rift Valley fever, rests on her bed at the Garissa hospital, 390 km (242 miles) from Nairobi​

With no specific treatment or effective human vaccine, Rift Valley fever can cause blindness and severe hemorrhaging, leading the victim to vomit blood or even bleed to death. Herders and farmers are deemed at higher risk of infection from the disease, which can devastate livestock. Niger's health ministry said people in the Tahoua region, especially pastoralists, should avoid handling meat from infected animals, boil raw milk before consumption, and ensure that the corpses of dead animals are buried carefully.

ALIMA is also working with local partners and doctors to provide a mobile clinic which travels the region to inform the public about the disease and how to prevent it from spreading. "Awareness is an essential step to contain the spread of the epidemic," Maidadji said. "Vigilance is crucial."

Rift Valley Fever Outbreak Kills 21 in Western Niger

 

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Granny wantin' to know when dey gonna come up with a cure for the epizootics?...

Two Tropical Diseases on Track for Eradication in 4 Years
October 13, 2016 | WASHINGTON — By the year 2020, two neglected tropical diseases, lymphatic filariasis, commonly known as elephantiasis, and trachoma, a blinding illness, may be eliminated in the world’s poorest countries, thanks to a partnership of governments, charitable foundations and pharmaceutical companies.

The U.S. provides the most funding for elimination of neglected tropical diseases, through the U.S. Agency for International Development. That funding, between 2006 and today, has provided 1.6 billion treatments in about 30 countries. “In the areas that USAID has supported,” NTD program coordinator Emily Wainwright said, “there are going to be 400 million people who don’t have to worry about getting lymphatic filariasis again. We will have addressed that problem. And there will be about 184 million people who aren’t going to have to worry about getting trachoma, the leading cause of preventable blindness.”

A doctor examines a trachoma patient in Ethiopia​

According to the World Health Organization, neglected tropical diseases affect an estimated 1.5 billion people in the poorest countries. Other diseases that are targeted for elimination include onchocerciasis, known as river blindness, schistosomiasis or snail fever, which causes intestinal and urogenital infections, and soil-transmitted helminthiasis, a systemic illness that causes diarrhea, fever, fatigue and malnutrition. Children are disproportionately affected by the parasitic and bacterial illnesses, which stunt growth and affect brain development. Recently, WHO released data showing that in 2015, 979 million people received preventive chemotherapy for neglected tropical diseases, an increase of 121 million from 2014.

More diseases are predicted to follow the path of elimination, according to Ariel Pablos-Mendez, assistant administrator for Global Health, Child and Maternal Survival Coordinator at USAID. “Just like in polio,” he said, “which is in the last battle of the disease to remove from the face of the Earth, or leprosy, which is down 95 percent [from] the levels we used to have 50 years ago, these diseases we are in a position right now ... to end all of the diseases of extreme poverty by 2030.” USAID’s Neglected Tropical Disease Program and the WHO have put a priority on eliminating 17 NTDs in 149 countries, where one in six people suffer from at least one of the illnesses.

Two Tropical Diseases on Track for Eradication in 4 Years

 

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Doctors in Australia have reported a resurgence in patients suffering from scurvy...

Scurvy makes surprise return in Australia
Tue, 29 Nov 2016 - Doctors in Australia report a resurgence in the disease historically associated with sea explorers.

The disease, historically associated with sea explorers, has been found in about a dozen diabetes patients at Westmead Hospital in western Sydney. Scurvy is now a rare condition caused by having too little vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, in your diet. Professor Jenny Gunton discovered the latest cases after treating a patient whose leg wound would not heal.

The findings have been detailed in the international journal Diabetic Medicine. "In the report that's just come out I've had seven people with vitamin C deficiencies," said Prof Gunton, who heads the Centre for Diabetes, Obesity and Endocrinology research at The Westmead Institutes. "Since that time there would have been another six or seven." She said scurvy could be more widespread than previously thought.

Two oranges growing in a citrus orchard.​

What is scurvy?

* Without vitamin C, the body cannot make collagen - which is essential for your skin, blood vessels, bones and cartilage.
* Symptoms include feeling tired all the time, lack of appetite, joint pain, shortness of breath and easily bruised skin.
* It affects people who do not have a healthy diet including those on fad diets, the homeless, the elderly and those with eating disorders.
* Fruits including oranges, lemons and strawberries are good sources of vitamins C along with broccoli, cabbage and asparagus.

"There's no particular link to diabetes ... except that if you have a poor quality diet you're more likely to get diabetes," Prof Gunton told the BBC. "But of course, a lot of people with diabetes eat perfectly reasonable diets." Health authorities in Australia do not generally test for scurvy or keep statistics on patients suffering from it. However, Prof Gunton said the disease was easy to prevent. "Eat some fruit, eat some vegetables - and don't overcook the vegetables," she said. "If you really can't manage that, take one vitamin C a day. But healthy diet is the better fix."

Scurvy makes surprise return in Australia - BBC News

 

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Malaria and dengue updates...

Child Anti-Malaria Drug Programs in Senegal a ‘Blueprint’ for Africa
November 29, 2016 — Researchers say that giving anti-malarial drugs to older children can significantly reduce overall transmission of disease. Currently, most such programs are limited to the under-fives, but a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, shows that expanding the intervention can lower the number of malaria cases.

The World Health Organization estimates there were 214 million new cases of malaria in 2015 — and 438,000 deaths, with by far the majority of fatalities in sub-Saharan Africa. In Senegal, health workers from charities like Speak Up Africa have been testing a new approach: giving preventive anti-malarial drugs to children up to the age of 10 during the rainy season, when malaria prevalence is highest. It’s known as seasonal malaria chemoprevention, or SMC.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine conducted a study of 200,000 children in the program. “The treatments then have to be repeated at strictly four-week intervals, and that’s quite challenging in terms of implementing that in rural Africa. But despite that, countries have been quick to adopt this new approach,” said Professor Paul Milligan, who led the investigation.

Child Anti-Malaria Drug Programs in Senegal a ‘Blueprint’ for Africa​

Major reduction in cases

And it’s showing results. In Senegal, the SMC program more than halved cases of malaria in children under 10. It also reduced cases in those above 10 years of age by a quarter — by helping to reduce transmission of the disease. “By expanding the age range, one is then treating a larger fraction of the parasite reservoir, which is the source of infection to mosquitoes,” Milligan said. The SMC program has been rolled out to 11 countries, reaching about 15 million children up to the age of five in 2016.

Milligan says the latest results show the programs should be expanded to include older children. “What we found was that if you’re going door-to-door, it doesn’t take much extra time to treat older children, and that if you go out of school hours then you can get high coverage even during term time,” he said. Milligan says the next step is to identify other parts of Africa that could benefit from expanding the SMC program to older children.

Child Anti-Malaria Drug Programs in Senegal a ‘Blueprint’ for Africa

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Study: Use of Dengue Vaccine Effective in Some Regions, Risky in Others
November 29, 2016 - The World Health Organization is continuing to assess the risks and benefits of the first vaccine developed to prevent dengue fever.

A study, published in September, concluded that the vaccine, called Dengvaxia, could have a positive impact in regions where there is a high incidence of dengue, preventing one in five hospitalizations, but could be problematic in other areas. A new report, commissioned by WHO and spearheaded by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, refined that conclusion. Researchers used mathematical models to assess data from human trials of Dengvaxia involving some 30,000 people around the world.

A patient has his blood taken to be tested at a fever clinic especially set up to cater to those suffering from fever, one of the main symptoms of several mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, at a hospital in New Delhi, India, Sept. 15, 2016. The World Health Organization is continuing to assess the risks and benefits of the first vaccine developed to prevent dengue.​

According to the new report, the vaccine could potentially reduce the incidence of dengue fever between 6 percent and 25 percent in countries with moderate to high transmission rates, where at least 50 percent of children get infected for the first time by their ninth birthday. Investigators concluded a policy of routinely vaccinating 80 percent of 9-year-olds is needed to realize the reduction in cases. But in places where the disease is uncommon, affecting ten percent of the population or less, Dengvaxia could cause severe illness and hospitalization in individuals who contract dengue for the first time after being vaccinated.

A double-edged sword

Approximately half of the world's population is at risk for contracting dengue, a mosquito-borne illness that can cause high fever, joint pain, bleeding and potentially, death by dengue shock syndrome. A person can potentially be infected by four different strains of the virus, and can be infected more than once. A second infection is generally the worst. In people who have been infected the first time, the vaccine may prevent a serious second infection. But in those who have never been infected and are vaccinated, as in low burden countries, the vaccine can act like a silent, first infection, making individuals very sick should they actually become infected.

In an early study, published in the journal Science, researchers found a dengue vaccine could reduce severe illness and hospitalizations by 20 to 30 percent.​

So Dengvaxia, made by the pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Pasteur, has turned out to be a double-edged sword. In an early study, published in the journal Science, researchers found a dengue vaccine could reduce severe illness and hospitalizations by 20 to 30 percent. In an early study, published in the journal Science, researchers found a dengue vaccine could reduce severe illness and hospitalizations by 20 to 30 percent.

Vaccine has risks

 

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NGO's helping Zimbabwe with typhoid outbreak...

Aid Groups Help Zimbabwe Fight Typhoid Outbreak
January 12, 2017 — International aid groups have begun helping Zimbabwe fight an outbreak of typhoid. Some stakeholders say President Robert Mugabe’s government has not been taking the outbreak seriously. Officials say the waterborne disease, which has struck more than 200 people in Harare, killing two, has been detected in other parts of Zimbabwe.

Health Minister David Parirenyatwa is appealing for international assistance, citing help the country received during a major cholera outbreak in 2008. “When we had cholera, I called the partners and other countries came out. Yes, with typhoid we will welcome partners, particularly the usual partners like UNICEF, MSF and others,” said Parirenyatwa. The British charity Oxfam has responded, supplying water treatment chemicals to typhoid-affected areas, and deploying volunteers to educate people on ways to avoid the disease.

In Mbare township, the “epicenter” of the current typhoid outbreak, sewer water flows and refuse has gone for days without being collected in Harare, Zimbabwe​

Zimbabwe has been hit hard by waterborne diseases before, most notably a cholera outbreak during the 2008-2009 rainy season that killed 4,000 people. In an interview, Fortune Nyamande, the spokesman for the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights, said the government is
not fulfilling the right to health enshrined in the country’s constitution. ‘We have not seen tangible action from the Harare city council ," said Nyamanda. " At the central government level, what we have seen is more blame game. People should concentrate more on dealing with typhoid. It is unacceptable for anyone to lose his or her life because of typhoid. They are the diseases of the 1900's.

That is when cholera and typhoid used to kill people. People should come together and deal with the root cause of typhoid and the nation should move forward.” Typhoid, an infectious bacterial fever, can be treated with antibiotics, but still kills more than 220,000 people worldwide each year. It can be prevented through improved water and sanitation. In Mbare township, the epicenter of the current outbreak, sewer water can be seen flowing on the streets and garbage has gone for days without being collected.

Residents of Mbare township - navigate through raw sewerage one of the causes of typhoid, a waterborne disease which Zimbabwean authorities are battling to end since the beginning of the rainy season.​

After the outbreak began, authorities banned vendors from selling food in Harare; but, seller Chenai Mananga says vending is not the cause of typhoid. “Garbage is not being collected. Burst sewer pipes are not being repaired. It is junk all over, she said. "If there is junk there will be disease outbreaks. So it is not vendors’ problem.” In some areas, residents say faucets have been dry for days, forcing them to rely on water from open sources like lakes and rivers for daily chores. Those waters are not clean, making it harder to end Zimbabwe’s typhoid outbreak.

Aid Groups Help Zimbabwe Fight Typhoid Outbreak

 

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The next big pandemic? - Brazil stocking up on yellow fever vaccine...

Brazil orders 11.5 million yellow fever vaccine doses
Thu, 26 Jan 2017 - Brazil is facing the largest outbreak of the disease in the country since 2000.

Brazil's health ministry has ordered 11.5 million doses of yellow fever vaccine amid the largest outbreak of the disease in the country since 2000. Seventy cases - including 40 deaths - are confirmed, mostly in rural areas of the state of Minas Gerais. More than 300 cases are under investigation. Vaccinations are being recommended for people travelling to Minas and other areas with confirmed cases. Yellow fever is a potentially fatal disease transmitted by mosquitoes. Most of Brazil is considered at risk from yellow fever but the country has only seen a handful of cases in recent years.

Yellow fever vaccine​

What is yellow fever?

* Caused by a virus that is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes
* Difficult to diagnose and often confused with other diseases or fevers
* Most people recover after the first phase of infection that usually involves fever, muscle and back pain, headache, shivers, loss of appetite, and nausea or vomiting
* About 15% of people face a second, more serious phase involving high fever, jaundice, bleeding and deteriorating kidney function
* Half of those who enter the "toxic" phase usually die within 10 to 14 days

Source: WHO

The governor of Minas Gerais has declared a 180-day state of emergency. There have also been three confirmed cases in Sao Paulo, Brazil's most populous state, and one each in Espiritu Santo and Bahia, which both neighbour Minas. Around 5.5m vaccine doses have already been sent to five states that have confirmed cases or are at risk. The other 6 million ordered will arrive soon. It is not clear what has caused the rise in cases. Jimmy Whitworth, professor of international public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "It's unusual. "The more cases you have, the more chance that it's going to light up and take off in urban areas." The Brazilian authorities are taking the situation very seriously and appear to have enough vaccine stocks, he added.

Brazil orders 11.5 million yellow fever vaccine doses - BBC News

 

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Cholera outbreak in Malawi...

Malawi Registers New Cases of Cholera
March 17, 2017 — Malawi has started registering new cases of cholera in areas bordering Mozambique, one week after the government in Malawi warned of a cholera outbreak in the neighboring country.

The disease — an acute diarrheal infection caused by eating food or drinking water contaminated with a bacterium — affects children and adults, and can kill within hours if left untreated. Malawi last registered cholera cases in 2015, but now health authorities in Malawi say they have found new cases at a health center in Nsanje district bordering Mozambique. "So far we have 11 suspected cases, all in Ndamera health center," said Alexander Juwa, the district health officer in Nsanje. "Here we did what we call a Rapid Diagnostic Testing, and it came out positive. We have set up a treatment unit there, and nobody has died."

A child suffering cholera symptoms receives serum at a hospital​

Juwa said they haven't confirmed whether the outbreak is a spillover from Mozambique, because none of the cholera patients had contact with anyone from there. "When we did a follow-up of the cases, it appears communities have clean water supplies," Juwa said, "but probably we are suspecting issues to do with food preparation and food handling that might have caused the problem." Media reports in Mozambique say cholera has infected more than 1,200 people, killing two this month. The outbreak is believed to have been triggered by Tropical Cyclone Dineo, which hit the country last month.

In Zimbabwe, the health ministry says it has detected three suspected cases of cholera in Chipinge district, which borders Mozambique. "The area where the cases have been reported is adjacent to the border, where there is an influx of people coming from Mozambique," said Aldrin Musiiwa, the deputy minister of health. "There are cases of cholera which have been reported in the adjacent Manica province of Mozambique." Meanwhile, the governments of Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe are urging people to practice safe hygiene to prevent further spread of the disease.

Malawi Registers New Cases of Cholera

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UN: Cholera Reaches South Sudan's Second-largest City
March 10, 2017 — The United Nations says South Sudan's cholera outbreak has reached the country's second-largest city, as the number of cases nationwide rises beyond 5,500.

The U.N. humanitarian agency said Friday that cases of the sometimes fatal gastrointestinal disease have been confirmed in Malakal, which has been ravaged by the country's three-year civil war.

Relatives of Samual Moro, 30, grieve after he died of cholera, outside the cholera isolation ward at the Juba Teaching Hospital in the capital Juba, South Sudan.​

The U.N. says cholera now has been confirmed in 14 South Sudan counties, with at least 137 deaths since June. Cholera cases have been reported in the two counties recently declared to be in the grip of famine, Mayendit and Leer.

Many of the country's cholera cases have been reported around the capital, Juba. Cholera is a fast-developing, highly contagious infection that can spread in areas without clean drinking water and with poor sanitation.

UN: Cholera Reaches South Sudan's Second-largest City

 

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A diarrheal disease that kills about 600 children a day...

Researcher: Efficacy of New Rotavirus Vaccine Promising
March 23, 2017 - A new vaccine against rotavirus, a diarrheal disease that kills about 600 children a day, has been shown to have almost 67 percent efficacy in preventing the illness.

"This efficacy of about 70 percent is higher than any other vaccine in similar settings," said Dr. Emmanuel Baron, director of Epicentre, the research arm of Doctors Without Borders, which conducted the trial. A clinical trial of 3,500 infants in the African country of Niger showed the efficacy of the new vaccine, known as BRV-PV, to be 66.7 percent. Thirty-one cases of rotavirus were reported among children who got the vaccine, compared with 87 cases among those who received a placebo. Details of the study and the vaccine's effectiveness were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. "We saw actually three things," Baron said. "The first is that this vaccine is efficient. The second is that this vaccine is safe. And we also saw a good acceptability by the care providers and the families."

An infant infected with rotavirus sleeps at the San Rafael hospital in Santa Tecla, El Salvador​

An estimated 450,000 young children and babies die each year of diarrheal diseases. One of them is rotavirus, which causes a severe infection of the gastrointestinal tract. Experts say rotavirus is responsible for about 37 percent of deaths among children younger than 5 who succumb to diarrheal diseases each year, or about 215,000 deaths annually. There are two existing vaccines, but Baron said they are not widely used, as they are relatively expensive and must be refrigerated. Refrigeration is an obstacle in many African countries where rotavirus is most pronounced because electricity there is unreliable. Even when children are immunized with the older vaccines, Baron says, hundreds die each day around the world.

The new vaccine does not need refrigeration for up to six months, because it is mixed or reconstituted with liquid before it is given to children in a three-dose schedule, at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age. Initially, the BRV-PV is expected to cost $6 dollars for the three shots, a price that is expected to drop as the vaccine gains traction. Baron said clinicians in countries where rotavirus is a serious health threat are waiting for the green light from the World Health Organization to begin immunizing children with the new vaccine.

Researcher: Efficacy of New Rotavirus Vaccine Promising

 

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Cholera outbreak in Somalia...

Cholera Spreads in Famine-threatened Somalia
March 31, 2017 — Deadly cholera is spreading through drought-ravaged Somalia as clean water sources dry up, a top aid official said, deepening a humanitarian crisis in a country that is on the verge of famine.

The Horn of Africa nation has recorded more than 18,000 cases of cholera so far this year, up from around 15,000 in all of 2016 and 5,000 in a normal year, Johan Heffinck, the Somalia head of EU Humanitarian Aid, said in an email on Thursday. The current strain of the disease is unusually deadly, killing around 1 in 45 patients. Somalia is suffering from a severe drought that means more than half of its 12 million citizens are expected to need aid by July. Families have been forced to drink slimy, infected water after the rains failed and wells and rivers dried up. "We are very close to famine," Heffinck said.

Internally displaced Somali women gather to collect water from a plastic pan after fleeing from drought stricken regions near a makeshift camp in Baidoa, west of Somalia's capital Mogadishu​

The Security Information Network (FSIN), which is co-sponsored by the United Nations food agency, said in a report on Friday Somalia was one of four African countries at high risk of famine. Somalia's rainy season normally runs from March to May, but there has been no rain this month. The drought has hit particularly hard in the breakaway northern region of Somaliland, where the rains began to fail in 2015, killing off animals that nomadic families rely on to survive.

'This is the last bottle'

Listless, skinny children last week lay in crowded wards in the main hospital in the regional capital Hargeisa. Three-year-old Nimaan Hassid had diarrhea for 20 days before his mother brought him to hospital. He weighs only 6.5 kilograms, less than half the normal weight for his age. Doctors say he is suffering from severe malnutrition but his grandmother, 60-year-old Fadumo Hussein, told Reuters the family has no money for food or clean water. "We don't have mineral water to give to the sick child. This is the last bottle," she said, carefully pouring it into a feeding tube inserted through his nose. In the malnutrition ward in the general hospital of Somaliland's second city Burao, Doctor Hamud Ahmed said children were also being hit hard by diseases like tuberculosis, meningitis and measles.

Children's admissions reached almost 60 in March, up fourfold from October. "This is due to the drought," Ahmed said. "When families lose all their livestock and children do not get milk, this is the famine that causes the children to suffer." If the rains fail, the country could tip into famine. Somalia's last famine, in 2011, killed more than 260,000 people. Heffinck said aid agencies were working overtime to try to prevent a similar disaster, trucking in clean water and stepping up the distribution of food and cash. "The big difference this time is that we have started the preparation and scaling up of the relief operations earlier," he said.

Cholera Spreads in Famine-threatened Somalia

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How Ebola Impacted Liberia's Appetite for Bushmeat
March 31, 2017 - When Ebola struck Liberia, consumption of bushmeat dropped dramatically. But in an odd twist, poorer households cut their consumption much more than well-to-do households.

The findings have implications for public health, as well as wildlife conservation. Education campaigns about the risks and consequences of bushmeat hunting have focused on rural villagers near protected nature reserves. But, it turns out, the more tenacious consumers may be the wealthier city-dwellers. Bushmeat — wild animals like monkeys, duikers and pangolins — is an essential protein source for many rural West Africans, but it's also a favorite of urbanites.

Alice Jallabah, head of a bushmeat seller group, holds dried bushmeat on Oct. 7, 2014, in Monrovia. The outbreak of the Ebola virus in Liberia led to a ban on eating bushmeat.​

Satisfying that demand has created, in some places, "empty forests" that are otherwise pristine but are devoid of critical wildlife. In addition, bushmeat can spread diseases like Ebola because, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "human infections have been associated with hunting, butchering and processing meat from infected animals." Before the 2015 Ebola outbreak, Jessica Junker and her colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology based in Leipzig, Germany, had studied Liberians' preferences for bushmeat compared to chicken or fish.

Tradition, taste

"We asked people, 'If you were at a party and you could choose the type of meat you could eat there, what would you like to eat?'" Junker told VOA. That scenario aimed to take cost out of the equation. Bushmeat often topped the list. People prefer the taste, Junker said. Bushmeat also is often cheaper than domesticated meat. Plus, it's a traditional part of their diet. "Many people have told me, 'Well, we've always eaten bushmeat. Our fathers have eaten bushmeat,'" Junker said. When Ebola hit, she decided it would be a good time to see how attitudes toward eating wildlife had changed. Bushmeat consumption dropped, as expected. However, it dropped less among wealthier people.

Rich or poor, before Ebola, people said they ate bushmeat every other day on average. During the outbreak, that dropped to once a month among the lowest-income survey respondents, but once a week among the highest-income respondents. It's not clear why that should be, but Junker notes that poorer people hunt bushmeat themselves. "During the Ebola crisis, a lot of people didn't leave their houses," she said. In the cities, it was illegal to sell bushmeat. But "there was an underground bushmeat market," she said. "If you wanted to get bushmeat, you could still get it," as long as you had money.

Awareness campaigns

Human testing to begin...

Zika Vaccine Trials Enter Next Phase
March 31, 2017 - U.S. researchers have begun enrolling people in the next phase of testing for a vaccine to protect against Zika, the mosquito-borne virus that can cause birth defects in pregnant women.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told reporters Friday that the Zika vaccine had cleared preliminary safety hurdles and would now be tested on human volunteers to see whether it is effective. In the study, funded by the U.S. government, researchers aim to enroll more than 2,400 healthy volunteers from areas where mosquitoes carry the Zika virus — parts of the southern United States, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica, Panama and Mexico.

Researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) said the trial would begin with a small number of people testing different doses or strengths of vaccine. Once the dosage is decided, the larger part of the study could begin by June, when the volunteers will receive either the vaccine or a placebo. Participants will be monitored for two years to see whether the vaccine protects against Zika infection. The vaccine being tested is a new type, called a DNA vaccine. Traditionally, vaccines are made using killed or weakened viruses, which increase the recipients' ability to fight off an active infection.

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are seen in a mosquito cage at a laboratory in Cucuta, Colombia​

The DNA vaccine contains no actual virus, but has genes extracted from Zika viruses. Once inside the body, the genes form particles resembling Zika that cannot cause infection. If all goes well, the gene particles should induce volunteers' immune systems to produce antibodies capable of repelling the full virus. NIH researchers also are studying more traditional Zika vaccines, but those are not yet ready for human trials. The DNA vaccine trial is expected to cost $100 million, but Fauci said the government was in talks with pharmaceutical companies to share the costs of the final stage of testing, in return for rights to manufacture the vaccine in the future.

Zika typically causes no symptoms or only mild ones, such as fever and body aches. If the virus infects a pregnant woman, however, it can result in birth defects in newborns, including microcephaly, which is characterized by an abnormally small head and brain, accompanied by marked developmental disorders. Zika is primarily transmitted by mosquitoes, but it can also be transmitted via sexual contact.

Zika Vaccine Trials Enter Next Phase

 

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Cholera strikes swampy region of So. Sudan...

Cholera stalks 'refugee islands' in swamplands of South Sudan
April 6, 2017 -- Kneeling over a pot of water drawn from the nearby swamp, Veronica feigns a smile as her eyes dart toward the floor of her small hut. "I know it's dirty but I have no other choice," says the 35-year-old South Sudanese mother of four.

A few years earlier, Veronica lost her 3-year-old daughter to cholera. Several months ago, another of her children contracted the disease and Veronica herself spent 10 days in hospital receiving treatment. On South Sudan's tiny island of Tayar, in Unity State, there's no escaping this debilitating epidemic. Once a commercial trading island with only 200 inhabitants, Tayar is now home to 2,300 internally displaced people who have sought refuge from South Sudan's three-year civil war. They live with no toilets or running water, openly defecating in the island's surrounding swamplands. This same filthy water is then used for cooking, bathing and drinking. Thus, cholera has become rife in this makeshift community.

The deadly waterborne disease, which causes crippling diarrhea and kills through dehydration, is flourishing amid the young nation's war. Every time fighting erupts in villages, people flee their homes seeking safety wherever they can, often in isolated pockets of safety where they have few resources and little access to aid. The war has displaced 1.9 million people inside the country, while 1.6 million have fled its borders. Many, like Veronica travel for days through swamps, with no food or water until they find sanctuary. Roughly 5,800 people reside on seven remote islands in Panyijiar county, including Tayar.

A young girl in Ganyiel’s health clinic watches her 3-year-old sister who is sick with cholera. Her mother brought her over from Tayar island to seek treatment in the clinic.​

These shifting populations mean that a growing number of people are crammed into small, unsanitary spaces, spawning a cholera outbreak that is unprecedented for this time of year. "It would be the worst problem if this doesn't get under control before the rainy season," says Stephen Gatliah, health director for Panyijiar county. Gatliah has seen cholera in this area before, but he says it has never been this bad in the dry season, which usually runs from December to May. After that, the onset of months of heavy rains will make tackling the epidemic even more challenging, as flooding increases the risk of contamination and further restricts humanitarian access.

A U.N. study found that more than 4,000 cholera cases were reported between June 2016 and January 2017 in 10 counties in South Sudan, of which 83 were fatal, although the true figures are likely much higher due to unreported deaths. The disease has spread to more locations and lasted longer than the previous two years. On Tayar Island 10 people have died from the disease since October and 37 have died in surrounding areas, according to community leaders.

A breeding ground for cholera

 

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'Record-breaking' Progress in Fighting Neglected Tropical Diseases...

WHO Reports 'Record-breaking' Progress in Fighting Neglected Tropical Diseases
April 18, 2017 — The World Health Organization said Tuesday that unprecedented progress had been made in tackling many of the world's most disfiguring and disabling neglected tropical diseases over the past 10 years.

Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, said there has been "record-breaking progress towards bringing ancient scourges like sleeping sickness and elephantiasis to their knees." About 1.5 billion people in 149 countries, down from 1.9 billion in 2010, are affected by neglected tropical diseases (NTD), a group of 18 disorders that disproportionately affect the very poor. In 2007, the WHO and a group of global partners devised a strategy for better tackling and controlling NTDs.

World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan speaks during a news conference on neglected tropical diseases in Geneva​

Five years ago, a group of nongovernmental organizations, private and public partners signed the London Declaration, committing greater support and resources to the elimination or eradication of 10 of the most common NTDs by the end of the decade. "That has been a game changer in the expansion of NTD interventions worldwide," said Dirk Engel, director of the WHO's Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Meeting on Wednesday

The WHO's fourth report on neglected tropical diseases was launched to coincide with a one-day meeting Wednesday at the agency's headquarters to take stock of what has been achieved in the fight against NTDs and to explore ways to move the process forward. Engel said health ministers, representatives from pharmaceutical companies, academics, donors and philanthropists "will look at the changing landscape of NTDs" and explore better ways of integrating the fight against these diseases into global health and development. The report described achievements made in controlling the debilitating diseases. For example, it noted that an estimated 1 billion people received 1.5 billion treatments donated by pharmaceutical companies for one or more NTDs in 2015 alone.

A man with a hand showing symptoms of leishmaniasis waits to be treated at a hospital in Aleppo, Syria​

It cited dramatic successes in efforts to eliminate visceral leishmaniasis, a parasitic, disfiguring disease that attacks the internal organs. "If you get it, it kills. There is no way out," said Engel. The disease is prevalent in Southeast Asia, particularly in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Engel said a subregional program was organized to provide early treatment with donated medicines and vector control through indoor residual spraying, similar to that used in malaria control. "With those two interventions, you reduce the incidence of visceral leishmaniasis almost to nothing," said Engel. "And the aim was to have less than one case in 10,000 people at the subdistrict level, which is a tough target."

Ajak Kuol Nyamchiek watches while John Lotiki, a nurse with the Carter Center, bandages blisters on her leg from where a guinea worm is emerging, Abuyong, Sudan​

He noted that the disease had been eliminated in 82 percent of subdistricts in India, 97 percent of subdistricts in Bangladesh, and eliminated entirely in Nepal. "This is a result that we had not anticipated a few years back," he said. While Asia is burdened with the greatest number of NTD cases, Africa has the highest concentration of the diseases. Engel told VOA that between 450,000 and 500,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa were infected by at least one tropical disease — but usually several — at the same time. He said Africa was making excellent progress in controlling neglected tropical diseases. African sleeping sickness has been reduced from 37,000 new cases in 1999 to fewer than 3,000 cases in 2015, and Guinea worm disease has gone down "to only 25 human cases, putting eradication within reach," he said.

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Frog Substance Shown to Kill Human Flu Viruses
April 18, 2017 - A frog found in India secretes a substance that has been shown to be highly effective at killing influenza viruses.

Researchers at Emory University in Atlanta say the secreted peptide — a subunit of a protein chain — kills dozens of flu strains that plague humans. It is effective against H1 viruses, including ones that could cause pandemics. Unlike humans, frogs don't have an immune system that is capable of protecting them against pathogens like viruses and bacteria. But they do produce a slimy mucus that does the job for them. Researchers at Emory screened 32 peptides derived from the mucus of the frog, called Bahuvistara, and found one that was effective against all H1 viruses. The frog is found in the southern Indian province of Kerala.

An image of H1N1 influenza virus from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention​

Joshy Jacob, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Emory's vaccine center and senior author of the study, describing the peptide in the journal Immunity. He and his colleagues administered the peptide to mice and then exposed them to H1 viruses. He said it protected the animals from infection. "The beauty of this peptide is that it directly kills the virus. It's virucidal. So if you put the peptide and the virus together, it actually destroys the virus," Jacob said. The researchers named the peptide urumin, after a sword blade that snaps and bends like a whip. Jacob said the mucus is collected from the frog after exposing it to a mild electric current, which makes the amphibians secrete the antiviral agent.

Three dozen peptides

After identifying the more than three dozen immune peptides in the mucus, the protein building blocks were made synthetically in the lab. Four emerged as antiviral candidates. But one, urumin, killed all H1 viruses. Jacob said an flu-fighting peptide could be especially useful when vaccines are not available or when circulating viral strains become resistant to current drugs.

He said one of the next challenges would be turning the effective peptide into a pill or injection to protect humans from viruses. "It's like when you get a headache, you take a Motrin [a painkiller]. [The peptide] doesn't keep you from getting [the flu] again, but it kills the virus. It's like taking an antibiotic for bacterial infection. You take this for a flu infection," Jacob said. Jacob said the peptide was not effective against seasonal flu viruses that mutate rapidly. But researchers plan on testing more of the frog-derived peptides to try to find others that work against other types of influenza virus.

Frog Substance Shown to Kill Human Flu Viruses

 

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Cholera outbreak in Kenya...

Kenya cholera outbreak hits dozens at health conference
Thu, 22 Jun 2017 : Delegates were attending a conference organised by Kenya's Ministry of Health in Nairobi.

Nearly 50 people have contracted cholera while attending a health conference in Kenya's capital. The infected delegates were among hundreds who had gathered for the four day forum organised by the Ministry of Health at a Nairobi hotel on Tuesday. They have been isolated in a city hospital, but health officials say the number of people infected may rise. It is unclear how they caught the disease, which has led to five deaths in the past month.

It is not clear what triggered the latest cholera outbreak​

Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholera. Most of those infected will have no or mild symptoms but, in severe cases, the disease can kill within hours if left untreated. In Yemen, a large cholera outbreak is fast approaching 300,000 cases, according to UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien. He described it as a "man-made catastrophe" caused by both sides of the country's ongoing civil war.

In a press release on 24 May, Kenya's Ministry of Health said there had been 146 cases across the country since the outbreak began. Some of those infected had attended a wedding at an upmarket estate in Nairobi. As a result, authorities put in place emergency measures to try and curb its spread. An outbreak two years ago killed 65 people across Kenya.

Kenya cholera outbreak hits dozens at health conference - BBC News

 

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Bahuvistara mucus (above) compares to Chinese Chan su, a fermentation product from the skin of Bufo:

Chansu
A new indole alkaloid from the traditional Chinese medicine Chansu. - PubMed - NCBI

Brazilian yellow fever indeed links to hepatitis C virus (U.S. Army) as well as Zika, though Noguchi's vaccine worked for Leptospira, Noguchi thought that it was the cause of yellow fever. Noguchi was astute in tracking the Leptospira to a certain locality in Columbia, and note that in the reports in this thread, Columbia is not mentioned for Zika vaccine (a yellow fever family virus). We recall that Zika apparently did not impact Columbia as it did Brazil, which is a clue to its epidemiology (Zika Forest, Uganda rather than Columbia). We think it a good possibility that yellow fever originated in South America rather than Africa, which if proven, would turn its history topsy-turvy.

Hideyo Noguchi
Hideyo Noguchi - Wikipedia

 

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Granny thinks Uncle Ferd got bit by a tsetse fly `cause he likes to sleep inna hammock alla time...

Tsetse Fly's Weakness May Be Its Symbiotic Bacteria
June 30, 2017 - The fly that carries African sleeping sickness may carry the seeds of its own destruction, according to new research.

Scientists have detailed the unique relationship between the tsetse fly and bacteria in its gut the fly can't live without. The tsetse fly spreads African sleeping sickness to humans from wild animals and has caused several major epidemics in the past. The parasite responsible for sleeping sickness is one of the few pathogens able to pass from the blood into the brain. It disrupts the sleep cycle and leads to mood changes, confusion, tremors and ultimately organ failure. Researchers have long hoped to take advantage of a number of the fly's unusual properties. Like mammals, the tsetse fly lactates and gives birth to live young.

Dead tsetse flies are seen in a laboratory in Ghibe Valley, southwest of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia​

The tsetse milk contains bacteria called Wigglesworthia that the mother passes on to its young. Despite having one of the smallest known genomes, Wigglesworthia is a big deal for the tsetse fly. Without it, the fly becomes infertile. In the report published Wednesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, researchers from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and the University of Pavia in Italy described a number of ways that the tsetse fly depends on Wigglesworthia. The bacteria supply B vitamins that the fly can't produce on its own and doesn't get from blood, its only food source. Without B vitamins, the fly can't properly nourish its young, and they starve.

Proteins' roles

The scientists also examined the tissue that houses the bacteria. The fly produces a special protein that guides the bacteria where they are needed. Another protein hides the bacteria from the fly's immune system. This leaves the researchers with several attack strategies as they move forward. They could try to produce drugs that target Wigglesworthia directly, or unleash the flies' immune system on the bacteria, or block one of the several pathways that the bacteria use to support the fly. "There's a lot of potential places you could throw a wrench into the works," study co-author and entomologist Geoffrey Attardo told VOA. "It's just finding a place that's optimal."

Recent efforts to stem the spread of sleeping sickness have been largely successful. According to the World Health Organization, the number of reported cases fell from almost 40,000 in 1998 to just 2,804 in 2015. But researchers say it is still important to develop new control methods that are cheaper, easier to deploy and more effective. "During epidemics, the political will to address this is there, but then when the disease goes away, the control efforts stop," said Attardo. "Then flies come back in from wild areas, and the cycle starts again. And 20 or 30 years later, you have another epidemic."

Tsetse Fly's Weakness May Be Its Symbiotic Bacteria

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Studies Fuel Dispute Over Whether Banned Pesticides Harm Bees
June 29, 2017 — Two major studies into how bees are affected by a group of pesticides banned in Europe gave mixed results on Thursday, fueling a row over whether the chemicals, called neonicotinoids, are safe.

The studies, one conducted across three European countries and another in Canada, found some negative effects after exposure to neonicotinoids in wild and honeybee populations, but also some positives, depending on the environmental context. Scientists who conducted the European research - in Britain, Hungary and Germany - told reporters their overall findings suggested neonicotinoids are harmful to honeybee and wild bee populations and are "a cause for concern." But scientists representing companies who funded the work - Germany's Bayer AG and Switerland's Syngenta AG - said the results showed "no consistent effect." Several independent experts said the findings were mixed or inconclusive.

The European Union has since 2014 had a moratorium on use of neonicotinoids - made and sold by various companies including Bayer and Syngenta - after lab research pointed to potential risks for bees, crucial for pollinating crops. But crop chemical companies say real-world evidence is not there to blame a global plunge in bee numbers in recent years on neonicotinoid pesticides alone. They argue it is a complex phenomenon due to multiple factors. A spokesman for the EU's food safety watchdog EFSA, said the agency is in the process of assessing all studies and data for a full re-evaluation of neonicotinoids, expected in November.

A bee flies over a sunflower on a field near Frankfurt, Germany​

EFSA's scientific assessment will be crucial to a European Commission decision in consultation with EU states on whether the moratorium on neonicotinoid use should remain in place. The two studies published on Thursday, in the peer-reviewed journal Science, are important because they were field studies that sought to examine the real-world exposure of bees to pesticides in nature. Researchers who led the Canadian study concluded that worker bees exposed to neonicotinoids - which they said often came from contaminated pollen from nearby plants, not from treated crops - had lower life expectancies and their colonies were more likely to suffer from a loss of queen bees.

On the findings of the European study, researchers told a briefing in London that exposure to neonicotinoid crops harmed honeybee colonies in two of the three countries and reduced the reproductive success of wild bees across all three. They noted, however, that results from Germany showed a positive effect on bees exposed to neonicotinoids, although they said this was temporary and the reasons behind it were unclear. "This represents the complexity of the real world," said Richard Pywell, a professor at Britain's Center of Ecology and Hydrology who co-led the work. "In certain circumstances, you may have a positive effect ... and in other circumstances you may have a negative effect" Overall, however, he said: "We are showing significant negative effects on [bees'] critical life-cycle stages, which is a cause for concern."

Several specialists with no direct involvement in the study who were asked to assess its findings said they were mixed. Rob Smith, a professor at Britain's University of Huddersfield, said the results were "important in showing that there are detectable effects of neonicotinoid treatments on honeybees in the real world", but added: "These effects are not consistent." Lynn Dicks at the University of East Anglia said the findings "illustrate the complexity of environmental science." "If there was a really big effect of neonicotinoids on bees, in whatever circumstances they were used, it would have shown up in both of these studies," she said. Norman Carreck, an insect expert at Britain's Sussex University, said: "Whilst adding to our knowledge, the study throws up more questions than it answers."

Studies Fuel Dispute Over Whether Banned Pesticides Harm Bees

 

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Despite Boko Haram...

WHO: Nearly 900,000 Children in Nigeria Receive Anti-malaria Drugs
August 04, 2017 — The World Health Organization reports it has provided anti-malaria drugs to nearly 900,000 children in areas in northeast Nigeria formerly held by Boko Haram militants.

The effort is part of a new strategy to tackle malaria, a major killer of children younger than 5 years old. The director of WHO's Global Malaria Program, Pedro Alonso, tells VOA the agency has completed the first round of an emergency approach to stop the disease. Alonso estimates about 10,000 lives will be saved by providing anti-malaria drugs to the same 900,000 children every month until November, when the period of high transmission will be over.

A woman carrying a baby holds a treated mosquito net during a malaria prevention action in Nigeria, April 21, 2016. WHO is providing anti-malaria drugs to children in northeast Nigeria in an effort to combat the disease.​

He says the drug clears the parasites that might already have invaded a child's system and provides protection for three to four weeks. "By repeating this operation to the same children every month over the next four or five months, which is the high transmission area," Alonso said, "we may potentially — unfortunately, it will not be perfect and therefore we will not be able to stop all deaths — but, we should be able to have a massive impact in terms of prevention of disease and death in that specific population group, which is the highest risk group and where mortality concentrates."

WHO estimates there are more than 8,000 cases of malaria every week, including seven deaths, among northeastern Nigeria's population of 3.7 million people. There are an estimated 1.1 million children aged three months to five years in the region.

WHO: Nearly 900,000 Children in Nigeria Receive Anti-malaria Drugs

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Famine Looms in Former Boko Haram Stronghold in NE Nigeria
May 30, 2017 — The United Nations is warning that more than 1.4 million people in northeastern Nigeria could face famine by September because of a severe funding shortage. To date, only 28 percent of the U.N. appeal for more than $1 billion to provide humanitarian aid for nearly seven million people has been received.

Since Boko Haram militants began their armed rebellion against the government of Nigeria in 2009, the United Nations estimates more than 20,000 people have been killed, nearly two million are internally displaced inside the country, and about 200,000 have taken refuge in neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Government forces have recaptured much of the territory held by Boko Haram, but the security situation remains fragile.

The U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, says food is in short supply and traditional coping measures have been exhausted. "Although the humanitarian response has increased substantially, we have not turned the corner yet," he said. "If the funding situation is not sustained, the situation can easily relapse into a famine situation." Kallon says 43,000 people already are in a state of famine. Nigeria has entered the so-called lean season when food stocks are at their lowest. U.N. estimates indicate 2.8 million people will be in urgent need of food between June and September. This is also the rainy season, a period when disease outbreaks are expected.

A mother feeds her malnourished child at a feeding center run by Doctors Without Borders in Maiduguri, Nigeria​

The situation means some of the 450,000 severely malnourished children could die, according to Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria Peter Lundberg. "If they die, they will most likely die from disease that could be easily prevented if their immune system had been much stronger," Lundberg told VOA. "So, what we will see is that people will die from diarrhea disease or malaria or anything else that they normally would be able to survive if they were in a much better nutritional condition."

The United Nations says people in northeastern Nigeria also are living through a protection crisis. It says thousands are victims of sexual violence and exploitation. According to government statistics, tens of thousands of children and women have been used by Boko Haram, some as suicide bombers.

Famine Looms in Former Boko Haram Stronghold in NE Nigeria

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Insecurity, Underfunding Hamper Nigeria Hunger Relief
May 25, 2017 — Aid agencies warn that humanitarian efforts against hunger in northeastern Nigeria are dangerously underfunded and some communities remain cut off from aid and their farms as the military continues to battle Boko Haram.

Communities in northeastern Nigeria are facing the dual threats of hunger and the terrorist group known as Boko Haram. The zone has been identified by aid agencies as one of four conflict-torn parts of the world at risk of famine this year. The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that the number of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition will reach 450,000 this year in the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.

Scott Paul, a senior humanitarian policy advisor for the international charity organization Oxfam America, was recently in northeastern Nigeria. He said the biggest driver for the humanitarian emergency is the inability for residents to access their farmlands, fishing sites and the markets. “I spoke with people who had to flee villages that were captured by Boko Haram and they’ve since come back but they can’t go a kilometer out of town to farm. Right now people are coming home sometimes under false pretenses," he said. "They’re being told that their homeland and home areas are safe and they’re coming home to find that the towns themselves might be safe but the farmlands outside aren’t safe. The markets aren’t safe. The roads aren’t safe. And in some areas that we’re working in there isn’t even clean and safe water to be procured.”

Internally displaced persons wait to be served with food at Dikwa camp, in northeast Nigeria's Borno state​

Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency says people internally displaced by the conflict can voluntarily go back to liberated areas as long as they feel safe. The Nigerian army provides road escorts several times a week from Maiduguri to certain communities. But aid groups say many communities are simply not prepared for the large numbers of people coming back. The Norwegian Refugee Council noted more than one million people have returned to northeast Nigeria since October 2015, and they are returning to towns that have no basic services or infrastructure. Nearly one million homes were destroyed or damaged by years of fighting, according to Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima.

Earlier this month, Shettima told reporters it is still not safe for many internally displaced people to return to their homes. The governor said the IDP camps will remain open indefinitely, but that he hopes Borno state will be safe enough for full rehabilitation very soon. The state capital, Maiduguri, is home to more than a dozen camps for those displaced by Boko Haram. Those camps have repeatedly been targeted by suicide bombings.

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