H5N1

Nigeria: Lassa fever claims six in Ondo, one in Delta, 27 others under watch

Via Vanguard, a February 1 report: Lassa fever claims 6 in Ondo, one in Delta, 27 others under watch. Excerpt:

Akure—Six persons have been confirmed dead and 27 others under watch as the Lassa fever epidemic spread in Ondo State.

Also, the Chief Medical Director of the Federal Medical Center, FMC, Asaba, Delta State, Dr Victor Osiatuma has disclosed that a female adult, brought in from Anambra State last Sunday, has died of the fever. 

Osiatuma, who disclosed this yesterday while receiving personal protective items donated by the Delta State government to the FMC to effectively curtail the Lassa fever outbreak in the state, said the female victim died Monday, a day after she was brought in.  

The affected council areas in Ondo, where 26 persons are under watch, include Owo, Akoko south-west, Akure North and Akure south. 

To prevent the spread, the state government has directed that any occurrence of the viral disease should “henceforth be brought to the notice of health officials at the council areas across the state.” 

The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Wahab Adegbenro gave the directive at a meeting with Primary Health Care, PHC, Coordinators in the 18 council areas of the state. 

The meeting, attended by the Commissioner for Local government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Lola Fagbemi, the Administrative Secretary, Primary Health Care Development, Caretaker Chairmen in the 18 LG council and their primary health care coordinators, held in Akure, was at the instance of the deputy governor, Mr. Agboola Ajayi. 

Adegbenro pointed out that it has become imperative that “burial for the body of any sudden death must henceforth be supervised by medical experts to prevent the possible spread of the disease," which had recorded 27 cases and six deaths.

Hurricane-hit Dominica hurries to prepare for next storm season

Via Thomson Reuters: Hurricane-hit Dominica hurries to prepare for next storm season. Excerpt:

The Caribbean island of Dominica, still reeling from Hurricane Maria last September, is on the "frontline of the war on climate change" and has only five months to prepare for the next hurricane season, its foreign minister said.  

"Time is not on our side," Francine Baron told an event in London, adding that the tiny island nation of 71,000 people is taking steps to "build back better" after last year's disaster.  

The top-strength storm killed at least 14 in Dominica, and caused damage worth $931 million, according to a government report. 

"No part of the island was spared - every single sector and every single family was negatively affected by this hurricane," Baron told Tuesday's discussion on the Caribbean region's resilience to disasters. 

Dominica's recovery effort will cost $1.37 billion, the same report found, equal to 226 percent of its 2016 GDP. 

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has vowed to make his country the first "climate-resilient nation", which Baron said was a "serious vision" that would involve practical steps. 

Those could include relocating whole communities from vulnerable areas, and developing geothermal energy, Baron said. So far, electricity has been restored to only 10 percent of customers, she added. 

Dominica has 365 rivers - one for each day of the year, quipped Baron - which along with its mountainous topography make it prone to flooding and landslides.  

Building back better will require stronger flood defences and construction guidelines, making use of risk data, and fortifying existing structures such as raising bridges.  

During the hurricane many people sought shelter in schools and churches, which were not built to double up as emergency shelters. 

The country will invest in new purpose-built shelters stocked with supplies and run by managers to prepare for the next crisis, Baron said. 

Dominica's shipping port, which had to handle a major influx of international aid after the disaster, will also be expanded. 

The government will hold a public consultation to develop a national resilience plan, and set up an emergency relief fund and a national disaster committee, the foreign minister said. 

'WOLF IS HERE' 

 None of these plans will come cheap. Small economies like tourism-reliant Dominica and others in the Caribbean are struggling to access funding for climate change measures, Baron said.  

The region needs about $8 billion to roll out national plans under the 2015 Paris Agreement to tackle global warming, experts say. 

At a November donor conference hosted by the United Nations and CARICOM, the Caribbean's largest cooperation group, countries promised $1.3 billion in aid and more than $1 billion in loans and debt relief to help the Caribbean recover from two major hurricanes. 

The Climate Finance Access Hub, managed by the 52-nation Commonwealth, enables countries to unlock funding to reduce the risk of disasters, said Patricia Scotland, the Commonwealth secretary-general. 

"I hardly recognised the land of my birth," she said of her native Dominica, calling herself "a daughter of the Caribbean".  

Scotland said climate-related disasters had become an "existential" threat to communities, and were undoing development in small islands like Dominica.  

"For all of those who thought for years... we were crying wolf (about climate change), well we've just been eaten, because the wolf is really here," said Scotland, referring to a well-known fairytale.

Canada: More than 1,420 people died of illicit-drug overdoses in BC in 2017, the 'most tragic year ever'—coroner

Via CBC News British Columbia: More than 1,420 people died of illicit-drug overdoses in B.C. in 2017, the 'most tragic year ever': coroner. Excerpt:

The B.C. Coroners Service says more than 1,400 people died of an illicit drug overdose in the province in 2017, making it "the most tragic year ever," according to the chief coroner. 

Lisa Lapointe said the preliminary total for the year is at 1,422 — an increase of 43 per cent from 2016 — but that figure will grow as test results continue to come in.  

Approximately 81 per cent of suspected deaths last year involved the opioid fentanyl. Lapointe said it was often combined with other illicit drugs — most often heroin, cocaine or methamphetamines. 

"If not for fentanyl, we wouldn't be seeing the deaths we're seeing," she said Wednesday.  

Nearly 90 per cent of people who died were alone inside a home when they suffered an overdose. Four out of five were men, and more than half of all victims were between the ages of 30 and 49. 

Vancouver saw the highest number of deadly overdoses last year, followed by Surrey and Victoria. 

The coroners service said nobody died at any supervised consumption site or at any of the drug overdose prevention sites. 

The number of deaths in 2017 had surpassed the 2016 record of 923 by October. 

The provincial health crisis, first declared in 2016, has continued into the new year: nine deaths were reported over five days in the B.C. Interior last week. 

Provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall, speaking on his last day before retirement, said the numbers show the province is still in the middle of an "epidemic of poisoning deaths."​ 

Indigenous people in B.C. were also disproportionately affected by the crisis in 2017 — Dr. Patricia Daly said they accounted for 10 per cent of all illicit overdose deaths in B.C. last year, even though they only represent 3.4 per cent of the provincial population. 

'Cautiously optimistic' 

However, Daly said there is a glimmer of hope in the numbers. 

She said statistics show a "significant decrease" in deaths over the last four months of 2017: an average of 96 deaths per month from September to December, compared with the first eight months of the year when there were more than 129 deaths per month. 

Daly said she's "cautiously optimistic" about the 25 per cent drop. 

"Things are moving in a better direction ... but I'd say it's too early to say it's an ongoing downward trend," she said.

Namibia: Windhoek records one cholera case

Via The Namibian: Windhoek records one cholera case.

The health ministry said Wednesday that they have recorded a case of cholera in Katutura. 

Petronella Masabane, the health ministry spokesperson said the victim whose details she could not give has since been discharged from hospital. 

Masabane could not say when the case was reported neither did she say in which part of Windhoek the victim stays. 

Although it is only one case reported so far, Namibia still considers it as an outbreak.  

Masabane added that a press release regarding the outbreak will be released later today.

Lassa fever kills at least 21 in Nigeria: Health officials

Via News24, an AFP report: Lassa fever kills at least 21 in Nigeria: health officials. Excerpt:

Lagos - Twenty-one people have died from Lassa fever in Nigeria this month, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control said on Wednesday, in the latest outbreak in Africa's most populous nation. 

"Since the beginning of 2018, 80 cases have been classified as: 77 confirmed cases, three probable cases with 21 deaths," the NCDC said on Twitter. 

Cases have been reported in 13 of 36 states while 10 health care workers had been affected, it added.  

Lassa fever belongs to the same family as Marburg and Ebola, two deadly viruses that lead to infections with fever, vomiting and in worst-case scenarios, haemorrhagic bleeding.   

Its name comes from the town of Lassa in northern Nigeria where it was first identified in 1969.  

More than one hundred people were killed in 2016 in one of the nation's worst outbreaks of the disease, affecting 14 of the 36 states, including Lagos and the capital Abuja.

Branswell: CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald resigns following controversy over stocks

This story is developing rapidly. Via STAT, Helen Branswell writes: CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald resigns following controversy over stocks. Excerpt:

Brenda Fitzgerald, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, resigned on Wednesday following a report that she had invested in tobacco stocks while overseeing an agency tasked with promoting public health. 

The announcement came less than 24 hours after the disclosure of her investments by Politico. Fitzgerald had been under fire for months for not divesting some of her financial holdings.  

The new Department of  Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who was sworn in earlier this week, announced the resignation in a brief statement. 

The statement said that Fitzgerald owns “certain complex financial interests that have imposed a broad recusal limiting her ability to complete all her duties as the CDC director.” 

It said that Fitzgerald could not divest from them in a definitive time period, due to the nature of the investments. After advising Azar of the problem, she offered her resignation and he accepted. 

Fitzgerald, a longtime OB-GYN from Georgia, served as that state’s public health commissioner before being named head of the CDC.

US: CDC director Brenda Fitzgerald resigns over conflicts with financial interests

Thanks to Rachel Gray for alerting me to this developing story. Via The Washington Post: CDC director resigns over conflicts with financial interests.

Director Brenda Fitzgerald, who joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention only in midsummer, held "complex financial interests" that had repeatedly forced her to recuse herself from the agency's activities and kept her from testifying before lawmakers on public health issues.

Her new boss, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, announced Wednesday morning that he had accepted her resignation because she could not "divest from them in a definitive time period."

Yemen: 1,051,646 cholera cases as of January 30

WHO's Cholera Response Dashboard reports 1,051,646 cases and 2,253 deaths as of January 30. That is an increase of 626 cases and three deaths in 24 hours.

South Africa #WaterCrisis: Day Zero pushed back to April 16

Well, that's a relief, then. Via IOL News: #WaterCrisis: Day Zero pushed back to April 16.

Cape Town - Day Zero in Cape Town, when household taps run dry, has been moved back four days to April 16, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane announced on Tuesday.  

Maimane, who was addressing media on efforts by Cape Town and Western Cape authorities and residents to deal with the water crisis, said: "Thanks to the water saving efforts of many Cape Town residents, I can confirm that we have begun to push back Day Zero, which is now 16 April 2018. 

"Pushing back Day Zero by four days may not seem like a lot," he added. "But actually it is a significant victory. It shows that residents are coming together and cutting water consumption."

 The DA governs at municipal and provincial level in the Cape. 

South Africa: Dangerously low on water, Cape Town now faces ‘Day Zero’

Via The New York Times: Dangerously Low on Water, Cape Town Now Faces ‘Day Zero’. Excerpt:

CAPE TOWN — It sounds like a Hollywood blockbuster. “Day Zero” is coming to Cape Town this April. Everyone, be warned.  

The government cautions that the Day Zero threat will surpass anything a major city has faced since World War II or the Sept. 11 attacks. Talks are underway with South Africa’s police because “normal policing will be entirely inadequate.” Residents, their nerves increasingly frayed, speak in whispers of impending chaos.  

The reason for the alarm is simple: The city’s water supply is dangerously close to running dry. 

If water levels keep falling, Cape Town will declare Day Zero in less than three months. Taps in homes and businesses will be turned off until the rains come. The city’s four million residents will have to line up for water rations at 200 collection points. The city is bracing for the impact on public health and social order. 

“When Day Zero comes, they’ll have to call in the army,” said Phaldie Ranqueste, who was filling his white S.U.V. with big containers of water at a natural spring where people waited in a long, anxious line. 

It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way for Cape Town. This city is known for its strong environmental policies, including its careful management of water in an increasingly dry corner of the world.

But after a three-year drought, considered the worst in over a century, South African officials say Cape Town is now at serious risk of becoming one of the few major cities in the world to lose piped water to homes and most businesses.  

Hospitals, schools and other vital institutions will still get water, officials say, but the scale of the shut-off will be severe. 

Cape Town’s problems embody one of the big dangers of climate change: the growing risk of powerful, recurrent droughts. In Africa, a continent particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, those problems serve as a potent warning to other governments, which typically don’t have this city’s resources and have done little to adapt.  

For now, political leaders here talk of coming together to “defeat Day Zero.” As water levels in the dams supplying the city continue to drop, the city is scrambling to finish desalination plants and increase groundwater production. Starting in February, residents will face harsher fines if they exceed their new daily limit, which will go down to 50 liters (13.2 gallons) a day per person from 87 liters now.