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Saturday, July 28, 2012
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Ethiopia tops list of animal-human disease transfer hotspots (Wired UK)
Ethiopia tops list of animal-human disease transfer hotspots
05 July 12
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A study into the locations on the planet where diseases cross between animals and humans has picked out Ethiopia as the epicentre of zoonoses.
The report, which was put together by the International Livestock Research Institute, the UK Institute of Zoology and the Hanoi School of Public Health, concludes that the highest rates of human-animal disease transfer occur in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania and India. Most human infections are acquired from the world's 24 billion livestock, including pigs, poultry, cattle, goats, sheep and camels.
Diseases that transfer between species are known as a zoonose, and the process is known as zoonosis. Tuberculosis, Bird Flu and Rift Valley fever are well-known zoonoses, and a mere 13 of them are responsible for 2.2 million human deaths and 2.4 million illnesses each year.
"From cyst-causing tapeworms to avian flu, zoonoses present a major threat to human and animal health," said Delia Grace, a veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert with ILRI in Kenya and lead author of the study. "Targeting the diseases in the hardest hit countries is crucial to protecting global health as well as to reducing severe levels of poverty and illness among the world's one billion poor livestock keepers."
The survey covered more than ten million people, six million animals and 6,000 food and environment samples.
The worst offender? Diarrheal disease. At least a third of cases of this affliction can be attributed to zoonotic causes, making it the biggest zoonotic threat to public health. Tuberculosis, both human and bovine (both of which can affect both cattle and humans), is another massive problem -- in 2010 more than 12 million people suffered from it globally, a number which is thought to be significantly underreported.
While Africa contains most of the worst locations for zoonosis right now, the northeastern US, western Europe (and particularly the UK), Brazil and parts of southeast Asia are expected to become hotspots for "emerging zoonoses" -- diseases that are newly affecting humans, or newly virulent. These include diseases like BSE and Lyme disease, though few people tend to die of these diseases in these areas, likely due to good reporting and healthcare available.
The report also considered how climate change and livestock intensification may affect the results of the study in the future -- concluding that livestock density is associated more with disease "event emergence" than with overall disease burdens. Also, areas predicted to gain increased rainfall and flooding are expected to be at increased risk of zoonoses.
"These findings allow us to focus on the hotspots of zoonoses and poverty, within which we should be able to make a difference," said Grace.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Health officials staying vigilant on combating West Nile virus threat - Bastrop, LA - Bastrop Daily Enterprise
BASTROP, La. —
Last week, the Ouachita Parish Mosquito Abatement District reported the parish’s first positive test this year for the West Nile virus in a mosquito pool. The information was received from the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, where they’d discovered it in one pool representing one location in the Garden District of Monroe.
The West Nile virus mainly infects birds, but is known to infect humans, horses and other animals. Mainly transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito, a person who is infected with the virus may experience achy, mild, flu-like symptoms.
Kyle Moppert, medical entomologist for DHH, said this is no cause for Ouachita nor Morehouse parishes to be concerned.
“We usually get positive pools in April or early May,” he said. “This is normal this time of year.”
Unlike Morehouse Parish, Moppert said Ouachita Parish has mosquito surveillance and abatement programs.
“Mosquito abatement districts capture mosquitos and trap them to gather and send to LADDL (Louisiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory) in Baton Rouge,” he said. “They test for West Nile and other arbovirus.”
Moppert said this is a tool Ouachita Parish uses to see were they need to apply larvicides.
Larvicides, which are evaluated and registered through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), are pesticides used for mosquito control. They are based on an evaluation of the risks to the general public from diseases transmitted by mosquitoes.
“Shannon Rider [director for Ouachita Parish Mosquito Abatement] will concentrate on the area where the test was positive and apply larvicides in that area,” Moppert said. “They’ve done a Cracker Jack job every year.”
Bastrop Public Works Director Willie McKee said his department is currently spraying larvicides in Bastrop’s ditches and canals.
“We’re spraying now everyday, Monday through Friday from 8 p.m. ’till midnight,” he said.
McKee said they’re not “doing any testing in Morehouse Parish for West Nile. To my knowledge, we haven’t had any cases of it here.”
Ken Pastorick, public information director for DHH, said the best way to rid an area of mosquitoes is to remove all standing water.
“Each year people need to remember to empty the water in their yard such as in bird baths or buckets,” he said. “Wear long sleeves and pants and always wear insect repellant.”
Moppert agreed that standing water remains the most effective incubator for mosquitoes. He said some species of mosquitoes breed in water with high organic contents. Other species will breed in any source of water.
“Most mosquitoes don’t travel very far, so if there’s a high number of mosquitoes in your yard, more than likely they’re breeding in your yard,” he said. “Dump all water. If there’s no water, there’s no mosquitoes.”
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Time's Breastfeeding Cover Leaves Out Adopted Ethiopian Child - Forbes
Jamie Lynne Grumet, America’s most famous Lululemon Madonna, admits that breastfeeding her nearly 4-year-old son, Aram, on the cover of this week’s Time was meant to “cause a stir.” In her appearance this morning on the Today show, she said, “Yes, we knew exactly what we were going to get into. Our family was one of the better ones to handle because my mom is a personal breastfeeding…” And here she couldn’t finish her sentence due to cute little Arom’s on-air fuss.No matter. We get the point. Grumet, breastfed by her own mother until she was six, was prepared to challenge the rest of us to look at the “real” face (and body) of attachment parenting. If that’s true, though, why is Grumet’s other child, an older child she also continues to breastfeed, not in the cover photo? Or on the Today interview?
As Grumet shares on her Twitter bio and blog, I Am Not The Babysitter, she has another son. Samuel, 5, is adopted from Ethiopia. Grumet tells Time’sKate Pickert that Samuel continues to nurse “maybe once a month.”
Here’s part of her June 2011 breastfeeding story with Samuel, who she brought home in November 2010 (which includes a photo of the two boys breastfeeding together):
Being able to breastfeed Samuel for almost a year was a beautiful experience.I wish I could say it was my idea. Truthfully, I thought he was too old to latch on to a new person for the first time. I was wrong. Samuel had been curiously watching me breastfeed his brother (Aram, 2.5 years at the time.) He didn’t speak English, but in his curiosity he was able to convey that he was also interested.He seemed to timid ask outright. You could tell his fear of rejection when he showed the initial interest. When I asked him if he would also like to breastfeed he smiled and jumped right on my lap. Our first experience breastfeeding you could tell his was an old pro. It was clear it was something he missed dearly. Something from home I was able to give him….It helped Aram understand Samuel’s role in the family and he was completely equal.
Like attachment parenting — Grumet describes her personal life as “being with my child constantly”– adoptive breastfeeding has morphed its way onto the parenting scene. Grumet is both a stanch advocate of — and obviously takes a great deal of pleasure in — attachment parenting and adoptive breastfeeding both. So it’s a little curious as to the whereabouts of Samuel. Maybe he was sick, or perhaps too fussy to sit still for the cameras. (No comment yet fromTime’s Director of Photography Kira Pollack, who managed the shoot, or Grumet.)
It appears that the new Poster Mom of attached parenting has pulled off a neat rhetorical trick and gone public detached from a child she nurses and homeschools. Indeed, Time cover photographer Martin Schoeller makes a particular point of explaining that, “It was important to show that there’s no stereotypical look for a mom…breast-feeding her child or children.” Of the four mothers at the Time photo shoot, including Grumet, one did sit with two children suckling simultaneously and one with her brood of four.
“To me, the whole point of a magazine cover is to get your attention,” Ric Stengel told my colleague Jeff Bercovici yesterday. If Time was looking to hit every hot button of parenting, it missed one: race.
Monday, May 7, 2012
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