H5N1

Ready to assist encephalitis-hit Bihar: WHO

Via ZeeNews: Ready to assist encephalitis-hit Bihar: WHO. Excerpt:

New Delhi: The World Health Organisation Friday said it was ready to provide all assistance to encephalitis-hit Bihar. 

Talking to reporters here, WHO India representative Nata Menabde said that while WHO was ready to provide all assistance for establishing what the virus was, it had not been approached by the government yet. 

"We don`t have any specific project at present, but we are open to providing assistance whenever the government approaches us. We have all the expertise," Menabde told reporters. 

She also said that the WHO was providing some assistance based on requests by the Bihar government. 

Menabde stressed on including Japanese Encephalitis (JE) in routine immunization. 

"JE vaccine should be included in regular universal vaccination programme," she said. 

An encephalitis infection which has already claimed the life of over 200 children and affected nearly 600 in Bihar as per official data, has symptoms of encephalitis but is not Japanese Encephalitis.

India: Dengue fear in twin cities

Via The Times of India: Dengue fear in twin cities.

HUBLI: Umpteen claims of the authorities on the measures taken to check the spread of epidemics notwithstanding, dengue has once again raised its ugly head in the twin cities. 

According to sources, the district registered 16 fresh cases of dengue in the past four weeks. However, nothing could change the style of functioning of the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) which seems to be in a slumber despite the fear of dengue outbreak looming large over the twin cities. 

No steps have been taken to clean the overflowing gutters and dustbins which have become breeding ground for mosquitoes. Absence of proper UGD system in the city has resulted in the stagnation of sewage water on the roads which is leading to mosquito breeding, Ravi Patted of Ishwarnagar told TOI. 

"Civic workers are not coming to our areas to clean the gutters and clear garbage which is posing serious health risks," said Shamappa Kubsad, a resident of Ganesh Peth. 

All's well, say officials 

However, the officials are in denial mode. They argue that dengue cases are less in Dharwad district when compared with other districts. 

P N Biradar, HDMC health officer said they are conducting a survey to contain the spread of the disease in both rural and urban areas.

Last-ditch effort to block restart of nuclear reactors in Japan

Via Nature News & Comment: Last-ditch effort to block restart of nuclear reactors in Japan. Excerpt:

Two Japanese nuclear reactors are set to restart next month, despite tens of thousands of people throughout Japan pouring into the streets in protest. But warnings from scientists about the potential for earthquakes in the region could pose one last hurdle. 

All 50 of Japan’s operational reactors have been closed for scaled-up safety evaluations since the March 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant. But the government has been pushing to restart some of the reactors before the summer peak in electricity demand in August. 

On 16 June, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda gave the green light to restart two Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO) reactors at a plant in Ohi, some 50 kilometers north of Kyoto. On 27 June, KEPCO shareholders voted to go forward with the restarts, despite as many as 40,000 people protesting in front of the Prime Minister’s residence and several other protests in towns and cities throughout Japan. 

Final maintenance checks are now being made. One reactor is scheduled to go online in the first week of July and to be operating at full power within a week. The other would restart later in July. 

But on Tuesday at a press conference in Tokyo, geomorphologist Mitsuhisa Watanabe of Toyo University in Tokyo, and Katsuhiko Ishibashi, an emeritus seismologist at Kobe University, said that KEPCO has underestimated the threat of an earthquake at the Ohi plant. 

Ishibashi’s criticism was leveled at a 2006 government assessment of nuclear reactors operated by KEPCO and other utilities. The assessment, or ‘back-check’, was conducted according to newly set seismic design specifications. In one part of the analysis, KEPCO estimated the ground shaking that could come from three faults near the plant — the FO-B,  FO-A and Kumagawa faults. According to Ishibashi, these three faults could break together, producing tremendous shaking. 

Yoshihiro Yamamoto, a KEPCO spokesman, told Nature that the company does not consider such a simultaneous event to be likely. But the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency asked the company to make an estimate, just in case, as part of the 2006 assessment. They estimated 760 gal, a measure of ground acceleration from an earthquake. 

Ishibashi questions this figure, saying that many variables with large uncertainties are at play. He says that the KEPCO estimate was made using average parameters. But given the difficulties in making such an estimate, he says they should be ready for the strongest shaking ever recorded — 1,699 gal. “It’s clear that the utility is not issuing the maximum possible figure,” says Ishibashi.

Floods kill 27, displace 900,000 in northeast India

Via ReliefWeb, an AFP report: Floods kill 27, displace 900,000 in northeast India. Excerpt:

At least 27 people have died and 900,000 others have been forced to leave their homes as monsoon rains swamp wide areas of the northeastern Indian state of Assam, officials said on Thursday. 

A state government spokesman said 21 of Assam's 27 districts were hit by flash floods which began last weekend as the rains lashed the tea and oil-rich Indian state. 

"So far, 27 people have died in separate incidents including five who were killed when their boat sank," Assam Agriculture Minister Nilamoni Sen Deka told AFP in Guwahati, the state's largest city. 

He also said the Brahmaputra river was overflowing its banks in many places. 

Deka said an estimated 900,000 people had been displaced from their homes due to the flooding. 

"Most of the displaced people have been forced to take shelter on raised platforms and in tarpaulin tents," Deka added. 

"All major rivers are running menacingly high with breaches reported in many places," added Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma as rescuers set up 1,500 temporary shelters for people stranded. 

In nearby Bangladesh, the death toll from a series of flash floods and landslides rose above 100 on Thursday.

Desert poultry farms to fight bird flu in Egypt

Via WorldPoultry.net: Desert poultry farms to fight bird flu in Egypt. Excerpt:

Egyptian scientists recommend moving poultry farms to the desert, away from residential areas, as a solution to Egypt's bird flu problem. 

Egypt's Desert Research Centre (DRC) has called on the government to support rolling out poultry farms in desert regions, following the success of a pilot project to reduce avian flu transmission to humans. 

The project ran from December 2011 to February 2012, on five small units in the Egyptian desert. Researchers adopted procedures that helped avoid the transmission of infection, introduced indigenous desert plants into poultry diets, and evaluated varieties of poultry capable of resisting hot temperatures and drought. 

Ismail Abdul Jalil, a former DRC president and leader of the research team that implemented the project, said, "With the emergence of the avian flu virus in Egypt four years ago, the idea of moving poultry farms out of residential areas was raised, as having farms adjacent or close to housing was one of the main reasons why the virus was … being easily passed from poultry to humans". 

At a meeting last month (31 May) to announce the research findings, the DRC called upon Egypt's Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation to lend support to implementing the project on a wider level, within smallholder farms.  

Funded by a US$600,000 grant from the US Agency for International Development, the project created maps showing the location of groundwater availability — essential as a source of drinking water for poultry farms — in Egyptian desert areas, according to Abdul Jalil. The maps also showed each region's indigenous desert plants, which farmers could use to feed poultry. 

Ra'afat Khedr, president of the DRC, said, "Although the cost of setting up poultry farms in desert lands is ten per cent more than in populated areas, the production costs could be less. This is because providing poultry with food represents 70% of the price of breeding them, so by depending partially on desert plants, the price of poultry-rearing in arid regions could decrease. Furthermore, the pilot project showed that egg production was not affected by new nutrition and diets".

Ecuador: Dead Portoviejo boy had dengue

Via El Universo: Se ratificó que niño fallecido en Portoviejo tenía dengue. [Confirmed that dead boy in Portoviejo had dengue] Excerpt, with my translation:

La directora provincial de Salud de Manabí, Carminia Pinargote, confirmó ayer que Jonathan Sarrías Pico, de 5 años, tenía dengue al momento de su muerte y que esto lo confirmaron los exámenes realizados. 

Carminia Pinargote, Manabí provincial health director, confirmed yesterday that Jonathan Sarrías Pico, 5, had dengue when he died as shown in tests.

Sin embargo, explicó que el cuadro clínico del niño reveló que también padecía meningoencefalitis difusa, “por ello debemos esperar los resultados, para confirmar si falleció por dengue o por meningoencefalitis”. 

Nevertheless, she explained that the boy's clinical condition showed he also suffered from meningoencephalitis, "So we must wait for results to confirm whether he died from dengue or from meningoencephalitis."

Familiares del pequeño y su certificado de defunción señalaron que su deceso ocurrió por un paro cardiorrespiratorio causado por dengue hemorrágico (llamado grave por las autoridades) que lo aquejaba desde hace más de dos semanas.

Relatives of the little boy and his death certificate both indicate that his death resulted from a cardiorespiratory arrest caused by hemorrhagic dengue, which he had been suffering from for over two weeks.

The report goes on to say that Manabí province saw dengue cases rose from 2,753 to 3,478 between weeks 23 and 24. Nationally, Ecuador saw 1,070 new dengue cases in that week, for a total of 11,052 this year.

Sri Lanka: Dengue breeders face arrest

Via the Daily News: Dengue - breeders face arrest. 

Colombo residents facilitating the breeding of dengue mosquitoes will be arrested under Act 262 of the Penal Code when a joint operation of 2,000 personnel from the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC), Army, Navy, Air Force and Police conduct an operation on July 1 targeting dengue breeding points in Colombo, CMC Chief Medical Officer Dr Pradeep Kariyawasam said. 

He said five teams including midwives will assemble at five starting points. 

The starting points are New Bazaar Maternity Home in Mattakkuliya, Campbell Place, Town Hall, Kirula Road and Robert Gunawardena Mawatha. No red notices will be issued as residents tend to ignore them, Public Health Inspector E Edirisuriya said. 

The areas to be covered are Modera - Mattakuliya, Borella and Dematagoda, Kirula Road and Thimbirigasyaya, Kollupitiya , Milagiriya, Bambalapitiya and Wellawatte.

Around 1,030 dengue patients were detected this year of which 37 percent were schoolchildren. This figure is 12 percent less than the corresponding month of last year, he said. 

He said dengue larvae were found in swimming pools and bird baths in some luxury residencies.

Nigeria: Owning up to food insecurity in the north

Via IRIN Africa: NIGERIA: Owning up to food insecurity in the north. Excerpt:

It is the start of the rains in northern Nigeria, and farmers are out sowing their fields. They know that the next three months will be the belt-tightening lean season, when households need to be prudent to get by, but hardship will give way to the harvest in September. 

For the women gathered at a small healthcare centre in Daura, in the northwestern state of Katsina, hunger has come early, and is visible in the ginger-coloured hair and the slack skin of their children. 

Hajiya Ladidi’s two-year-old daughter, Kadija, is severely malnourished and enrolled in an outpatients therapeutic programme (OTP) at Gurjiya, one of six run by Save the Children in the Daura Local Government Area. 

Business has been bad for her husband, an onion middle-man who buys from local farmers and sells to traders heading south. He has another wife, a total of nine children to feed, and the stored grain from last year’s harvest ran out in May. 

Katsina, on the border with drought-affected Niger, has a global acute malnutrition rate of 8.1 percent among children aged under five, according to a preliminary survey at the beginning of this year by the UN’s Children Fund (UNICEF). That figure is almost certain to worsen as the lean season sets in, and prices of the staples millet, maize and sorghum rise. 

Nigeria is the key food producer in the Sahelian region, but across the northern states there are now 383 sites like those in Gurjiya, providing Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM): a dramatic expansion from the 30 at the launch of the programme in 2009. 

The women at the Gurjiya health centre, waiting to have their children measured and checked, understood the community mobilizers’ exhortation to feed their families with nutritious food, the problem was to find the money to do so. Khadija’s mother needs US$2 a day to keep her household fed just the basics, and that is a struggle, she told IRIN. 

“In the villages you will just find millet, which is a carbohydrate,” said Ramatle Bello, the OTP officer at Gurjiya, which has 200 children on its books. “They could use beans, eggs or milk, but they are not doing so because they prefer to sell those items to make money.”

Bihar: AES is not Japanese encephalitis

Via ZeeNews, an IANS report: Bihar: AES is not Japanese encephalitis.

Patna: It is official now, the acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) that has killed 233 children in Bihar since May is not Japanese encephalitis, announced Thursday. 

The ruling has come from the Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV). 

"In fact the disease remains a mysterious one," Additional Secretary (Health) R.P. Ojha said. 

"NIV has told the Bihar government that no one had a positive strain for Japanese encephalitis," he said. 

According to him, the NIV collected cerebral spinal fluid and blood samples of 73 patients from Muzaffarpur district. 

Earlier this month, Health Minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey announced that the mysterious disease was AES. 

Ojha said of the 599 children with AES symptoms admitted to hospitals in Muzaffarpur, Patna and Gaya, 233 have died.

Fukushima seafood goes on sale

Via Xinhua, a June 25 report: Fukushima seafood on sale for 1st time since nuke crisis. Excerpt:

Octopus and whelks caught off the coast of Fukushima went on sale Monday at supermarkets and retail stores in northeastern Japan's Soma City, marking the first sale since the Fukushima nuclear plant crisis. 

Local media cited a local fisheries cooperative saying that no radioactive substances were detected in the seafood caught during Friday's trial fishing in waters more than 150 meters deep and 50 kilometers off the coast of Soma. The products were boiled before being shipped to the local retailers. 

Some of the seafood were sold about 40 percent cheaper than usual market prices, media said. 

The Fukushima Prefectural Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations said the trial sale is aimed at gauging demand and market values of the particular species chosen for low levels or none of radioactive contamination during monitoring of 163 marine species from April last year.