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Thursday, October 30, 2014
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Sunday, October 12, 2014
Liberia threatened by Ebola
Some pundits are sounding the alarm that the Ebola epidemic could destabilize West Africa politically and economically possible giving an opening for extremists to gain control of the countries in the region.
(John Moore/Getty Images)
Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa bordered by Sierra Leone to its west, Guinea to its north and Ivory Coast to its east.
Liberia is the only country in Africa founded by United States colonization while occupied by native Africans. Beginning in 1820, the region was colonized by African Americans, most of whom were freed slaves.
The colonizers (who later become known as Americo-Liberians) established a new country with the help of the American Colonization Society, a private organization whose leaders thought former slaves would have greater opportunity in Africa.
African captives freed from slave ships by the British and Americans were sent there instead of being repatriated to their countries of origin.
In 1847, this new country became the Republic of Liberia, establishing a government modeled on that of the United States and naming its capital city Monrovia after James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States and a prominent supporter of the colonization. The colonists and their descendants, known as Americo-Liberians, led the political, social, cultural and economic sectors of the country and ruled the nation for over 130 years as a dominant minority.
The country began to modernize in the 1940s following investment by the United States during World War II and economic liberalization under President William Tubman.
Liberia was a founding member of the United Nations and the Organisation of African Unity.
1980 a military coup overthrew the Americo-Liberian leadership, marking the beginning of political and economic instability and two successive civil wars. These resulted in the deaths of between 250,000 and 520,000 people and devastated the country's economy.
A peace agreement in 2003 led to democratic elections in 2005.
Today, Liberia is recovering from the lingering effects of the civil wars and their consequent economic upheaval, but about 85% of the population continue to live below the international poverty line, and the country's economic and political stability has recently been threatened by a deadly Ebola virus epidemic.
Liberia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberia
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Friday, October 10, 2014
Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai Are Awarded Nobel Peace Prize - MOGUL
The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday awarded the 2014 peace prize to Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India for their work in helping to promote universal schooling and protecting children worldwide from abuse and exploitation.
The announcement was made in Oslo by Thorbjorn Jagland, the committee’s chairman, after a year in which war has spread into Europe with fighting in eastern Ukraine, and across frontiers in the Middle East after the Sunni militant Islamic State pushed from Syria into Iraq in June.
The committee cited Ms. Yousafzai’s “heroic struggle” for girls’ rights to education. Mr. Satyarthi was praised for “showing great personal courage” in leading peaceful demonstrations focusing on grave exploitation of children for financial gain.
For the previous two years, the prize had been awarded to international bodies: the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 2013 and the European Union in 2012.
The winner was chosen from 278 candidates, 47 of them of organizations, the highest overall number of candidates since the prize was first awarded in 1901. The previous record was 259 in 2013, according to the Oslo-based committee, which traditionally makes its final choice at the last minute and seeks unanimity.
Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai Are Awarded Nobel Peace Prize - MOGUL:
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Stop Deforestation
Counting trees to save the woods: using big data to map deforestation
Global Forest Watch uses data to monitor changes to the Earth’s forests.
What can other climate initiatives gain from the project?
Nigel Sizer, Loretta Cheung and James Anderson in Washington DC
Guardian Professional, Thursday 2 October 2014
A forest by any other name
Providing data on forests for both technical experts and the broad public requires caution in defining key terms and describing exactly what the data show. The term “forest” is particularly fraught, with many countries and experts defining forest by different thresholds for canopy cover, some including “plantation forests” in their definition, while others exclude it. “Deforestation” is even more confusing, with over 800 competing definitions. Satellites tend to be agnostic to such definitional questions and, without extensive additional analysis, measure only tree cover loss, showing where trees were but no longer are or vice versa. Without consistent definitions, there is increased risk that the data on GFW may be misinterpreted, or dismissed as not relevant. Clarifying and responding to critiques and inquiries about the data has therefore become a major priority for the project, along with continually improving response to such feedback. It has also inspired new research efforts, including an extensive project to map the extent of degradation in the world’s pristine intact forests, and an initiative to map plantation forests in key countries across the world. So while finding definitions that everyone can agree on may not always be possible, we discovered that that there is much that can be done to provide options for those with different priorities.
As we see it, these challenges are not unique to the development of GFW but are hurdles that anyone working in the sphere of big data for the environment needs to tackle. The big lesson is that the big data revolution is under way, and we can all play a role by demanding transparency, contributing our efforts and feedback to science-based platforms where we can, and supporting efforts that confront climate change with timely and accurate data.
Nigel Sizer is director of Global Forest Watch.
Nigel Sizer, Loretta Cheung and James Anderson in Washington DC
Guardian Professional, Thursday 2 October 2014
What can other big data initiatives seeking to combat climate change learn from the Global Forest Watch? Photograph: Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images
Forests provide benefits few of us appreciate. They store carbon and mitigate the impacts of climate change, preserve biodiversity and ecosystem stability. They provide resources we all use, and more than a billion people around the world depend on forests directly for their livelihoods.
But forests are under more pressure today than ever. Between 2000 and 2012, the world lost a net 1.5 million square kilometres of tree cover, an area roughly the size of Mongolia. The clearing and burning of forests is responsible for between 12-20% of greenhouse gas emissions. In response, a major declaration on forests was signed at the UN climate summit in September, committing to end global deforestation by 2030. But one major barrier to curbing the destruction of forests around the world remains: the lack of reliable data that tells us precisely when and where it’s happening.
To fill this data gap, we created Global Forest Watch (GFW) – an online platform combining hundreds of thousands of satellite images, high-tech data processing and crowd-sourcing, to provide near-real time data on the world’s forests. Our goal is to enable governments, companies, NGOs, and the public to better manage forests, track illegal deforestation and more.
But big data comes with big challenges. From the start, GFW grappled with a lack of public data, barriers to participation, and confusion over terminology. In our experience, these challenges are common to data-driven initiatives that aim to enable public use of big data. So as we push forward with Global Forest Watch, we thought we would share a few lessons that might help other big data initiatives seeking to tackle climate change.
Forests provide benefits few of us appreciate. They store carbon and mitigate the impacts of climate change, preserve biodiversity and ecosystem stability. They provide resources we all use, and more than a billion people around the world depend on forests directly for their livelihoods.
But forests are under more pressure today than ever. Between 2000 and 2012, the world lost a net 1.5 million square kilometres of tree cover, an area roughly the size of Mongolia. The clearing and burning of forests is responsible for between 12-20% of greenhouse gas emissions. In response, a major declaration on forests was signed at the UN climate summit in September, committing to end global deforestation by 2030. But one major barrier to curbing the destruction of forests around the world remains: the lack of reliable data that tells us precisely when and where it’s happening.
To fill this data gap, we created Global Forest Watch (GFW) – an online platform combining hundreds of thousands of satellite images, high-tech data processing and crowd-sourcing, to provide near-real time data on the world’s forests. Our goal is to enable governments, companies, NGOs, and the public to better manage forests, track illegal deforestation and more.
But big data comes with big challenges. From the start, GFW grappled with a lack of public data, barriers to participation, and confusion over terminology. In our experience, these challenges are common to data-driven initiatives that aim to enable public use of big data. So as we push forward with Global Forest Watch, we thought we would share a few lessons that might help other big data initiatives seeking to tackle climate change.
Building support for open data
It can be difficult to manage the process of opening up previously exclusive data – like the locations of concessions for logging, agriculture, and mining – for public use. Global Forest Watch compares this data with satellite-detected tree cover loss to determine where harmful or illegal activities might be taking place. Governments may release official deforestation statistics, but not simple ways for the public to verify these numbers. And without a history of public data-sharing, even virtuous countries, companies, and researchers may be reluctant to share their information, for fear of losing control over how it would be used.
Global Forest Watch data at work in an area of south west Brazil.
Despite these concerns, many groups have embraced open and transparent data recently. In June, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil released via GFW the first detailed public maps of their certified concessions, which Global Forest Watch now uses in its analyses. As the open data movement slowly gains trust and traction, big data tools like GFW will have more and more material to work with.
Reaching out to those who know the forests
Satellite images and data processing techniques can only do part of the work. Global Forest Watch was built to allow users to contribute their own data to provide local context, such as: maps of protected areas, concessions, or land ownership, or short stories explaining why forests were lost, regrown, or conserved in a particular area. However, despite hundreds of thousands of visitors to the GFW website, relatively few submitted their own data or content. So we have learned that outreach on the ground is indispensable and are now showcasing GFW for governments, local communities, and businesses around the world. We have also been looking for ways to better engage users online. We are now working with TomNod, a crowdsourcing platform that is part of Digital Globe, a GFW partner, that uses ultra-high resolution satellite imagery to identify areas in Indonesia where forests and other sensitive ecosystems have been cleared by fire for agriculture or due to land conflict. These detailed satellite pictures have prompted almost 300,000 “tags” on the images, identifying over 24,000 active fires. This data will be posted online for the public and law enforcement officials.
It can be difficult to manage the process of opening up previously exclusive data – like the locations of concessions for logging, agriculture, and mining – for public use. Global Forest Watch compares this data with satellite-detected tree cover loss to determine where harmful or illegal activities might be taking place. Governments may release official deforestation statistics, but not simple ways for the public to verify these numbers. And without a history of public data-sharing, even virtuous countries, companies, and researchers may be reluctant to share their information, for fear of losing control over how it would be used.
Global Forest Watch data at work in an area of south west Brazil.
Despite these concerns, many groups have embraced open and transparent data recently. In June, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil released via GFW the first detailed public maps of their certified concessions, which Global Forest Watch now uses in its analyses. As the open data movement slowly gains trust and traction, big data tools like GFW will have more and more material to work with.
Reaching out to those who know the forests
Satellite images and data processing techniques can only do part of the work. Global Forest Watch was built to allow users to contribute their own data to provide local context, such as: maps of protected areas, concessions, or land ownership, or short stories explaining why forests were lost, regrown, or conserved in a particular area. However, despite hundreds of thousands of visitors to the GFW website, relatively few submitted their own data or content. So we have learned that outreach on the ground is indispensable and are now showcasing GFW for governments, local communities, and businesses around the world. We have also been looking for ways to better engage users online. We are now working with TomNod, a crowdsourcing platform that is part of Digital Globe, a GFW partner, that uses ultra-high resolution satellite imagery to identify areas in Indonesia where forests and other sensitive ecosystems have been cleared by fire for agriculture or due to land conflict. These detailed satellite pictures have prompted almost 300,000 “tags” on the images, identifying over 24,000 active fires. This data will be posted online for the public and law enforcement officials.
A forest by any other name
Providing data on forests for both technical experts and the broad public requires caution in defining key terms and describing exactly what the data show. The term “forest” is particularly fraught, with many countries and experts defining forest by different thresholds for canopy cover, some including “plantation forests” in their definition, while others exclude it. “Deforestation” is even more confusing, with over 800 competing definitions. Satellites tend to be agnostic to such definitional questions and, without extensive additional analysis, measure only tree cover loss, showing where trees were but no longer are or vice versa. Without consistent definitions, there is increased risk that the data on GFW may be misinterpreted, or dismissed as not relevant. Clarifying and responding to critiques and inquiries about the data has therefore become a major priority for the project, along with continually improving response to such feedback. It has also inspired new research efforts, including an extensive project to map the extent of degradation in the world’s pristine intact forests, and an initiative to map plantation forests in key countries across the world. So while finding definitions that everyone can agree on may not always be possible, we discovered that that there is much that can be done to provide options for those with different priorities.
As we see it, these challenges are not unique to the development of GFW but are hurdles that anyone working in the sphere of big data for the environment needs to tackle. The big lesson is that the big data revolution is under way, and we can all play a role by demanding transparency, contributing our efforts and feedback to science-based platforms where we can, and supporting efforts that confront climate change with timely and accurate data.
Nigel Sizer is director of Global Forest Watch.
Loretta Cheung is a research analyst at Forest Legality Alliance.
James Anderson is communications manager - forests programme at World Resources Institute.
Follow @globalforests on Twitter.
Twitter: Success Tips
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning form failure. – Colin Powell
It's never too late to become what you might have been.
-George Eliot
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
-Mahatma Gandhi
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts
Start with simple goals and then progress to longer range goals. It's easy to get frustrated and give up if your goals are too ambitious.
“You cannot find peace by avoiding life.”
― Virginia Woolf
“You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.”
― Darren Hardy
"Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential." -John C. Maxwell
-Zig Ziglar
Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven't planted. - David Bly
Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl when you must, but don’t give up.
"Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out."
-John Wooden
"If you set your goals ridiculously high and it's a failure, you will fail above everyone else's success." -James Cameron
The motivation to make changes in your life has to come from within you.
"Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won't, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can't."
Fatigue
Toni Morrison
Scientist who discovered Ebola fears an unimaginable tragedy
Peter Piot was a researcher at a lab in Antwerp when a pilot brought him a blood sample from a Belgian nun who had fallen mysteriously ill in Zaire
• Ebola isn't the big one. So what is? And are we ready for it?
• Answering the ten basic questions you were afraid to ask
Rafaela von Bredow and Veronika Hackenbroch
The Observer, Saturday 4 October 2014
Professor Piot, as a young scientist in Antwerp, you were part of the team that discovered the Ebola virus in 1976.
These days, Ebola may only be researched in high-security laboratories. How did you protect yourself back then?
We had no idea how dangerous the virus was. And there were no high-security labs in Belgium. We just wore our white lab coats and protective gloves. When we opened the Thermos, the ice inside had largely melted and one of the vials had broken. Blood and glass shards were floating in the ice water. We fished the other, intact, test tube out of the slop and began examining the blood for pathogens, using the methods that were standard at the time.
But the yellow fever virus apparently had nothing to do with the nun's illness.
No. And the tests for Lassa fever and typhoid were also negative. What, then, could it be? Our hopes were dependent on being able to isolate the virus from the sample. To do so, we injected it into mice and other lab animals. At first nothing happened for several days. We thought that perhaps the pathogen had been damaged from insufficient refrigeration in the Thermos. But then one animal after the next began to die. We began to realise that the sample contained something quite deadly.
But you continued?
Other samples from the nun, who had since died, arrived from Kinshasa. When we were just about able to begin examining the virus under an electron microscope, the World Health Organisation instructed us to send all of our samples to a high-security lab in England. But my boss at the time wanted to bring our work to conclusion no matter what. He grabbed a vial containing virus material to examine it, but his hand was shaking and he dropped it on a colleague's foot. The vial shattered. My only thought was: "Oh, shit!" We immediately disinfected everything, and luckily our colleague was wearing thick leather shoes. Nothing happened to any of us.
In the end, you were finally able to create an image of the virus using the electron microscope.
Yes, and our first thought was: "What the hell is that?" The virus that we had spent so much time searching for was very big, very long and worm-like. It had no similarities with yellow fever. Rather, it looked like the extremely dangerous Marburg virus which, like ebola, causes a hemorrhagic fever. In the 1960s the virus killed several laboratory workers in Marburg, Germany.
Were you afraid at that point?
I knew almost nothing about the Marburg virus at the time. When I tell my students about it today, they think I must come from the stone age. But I actually had to go the library and look it up in an atlas of virology. It was the American Centres for Disease Control which determined a short time later that it wasn't the Marburg virus, but a related, unknown virus. We had also learned in the meantime that hundreds of people had already succumbed to the virus in Yambuku and the area around it.
A few days later, you became one of the first scientists to fly to Zaire.
Yes. The nun who had died and her fellow sisters were all from Belgium. In Yambuku, which had been part of the Belgian Congo, they operated a small mission hospital. When the Belgian government decided to send someone, I volunteered immediately. I was 27 and felt a bit like my childhood hero, Tintin. And, I have to admit, I was intoxicated by the chance to track down something totally new.
Was there any room for fear, or at least worry?
Of course it was clear to us that we were dealing with one of the deadliest infectious diseases the world had ever seen – and we had no idea that it was transmitted via bodily fluids! It could also have been mosquitoes.
We wore protective suits and latex gloves and I even borrowed a pair of motorcycle goggles to cover my eyes. But in the jungle heat it was impossible to use the gas masks that we bought in Kinshasa. Even so, the Ebola patients I treated were probably just as shocked by my appearance as they were about their intense suffering. I took blood from around 10 of these patients. I was most worried about accidentally poking myself with the needle and infecting myself that way.
But you apparently managed to avoid becoming infected.
Well, at some point I did actually develop a high fever, a headache and diarrhoea …
... similar to Ebola symptoms?
Exactly. I immediately thought: "Damn, this is it!" But then I tried to keep my cool. I knew the symptoms I had could be from something completely different and harmless. And it really would have been stupid to spend two weeks in the horrible isolation tent that had been set up for us scientists for the worst case. So I just stayed alone in my room and waited. Of course, I didn't get a wink of sleep, but luckily I began feeling better by the next day. It was just a gastrointestinal infection. Actually, that is the best thing that can happen in your life: you look death in the eye but survive. It changed my whole approach, my whole outlook on life at the time.
You were also the one who gave the virus its name. Why Ebola?
On that day our team sat together late into the night – we had also had a couple of drinks – discussing the question. We definitely didn't want to name the new pathogen "Yambuku virus", because that would have stigmatised the place forever. There was a map hanging on the wall and our American team leader suggested looking for the nearest river and giving the virus its name. It was the Ebola river. So by around three or four in the morning we had found a name. But the map was small and inexact. We only learned later that the nearest river was actually a different one. But Ebola is a nice name, isn't it?
In the end, you discovered that the Belgian nuns had unwittingly spread the virus. How did that happen?
In their hospital they regularly gave pregnant women vitamin injections using unsterilised needles. By doing so, they infected many young women in Yambuku with the virus. We told the nuns about the terrible mistake they had made, but looking back I would say that we were much too careful in our choice of words.
Clinics that failed to observe this and other rules of hygiene functioned as catalysts in all additional Ebola outbreaks. They drastically sped up the spread of the virus or made the spread possible in the first place. Even in the current Ebola outbreak in west Africa, hospitals unfortunately played this ignominious role in the beginning.
After Yambuku, you spent the next 30 years of your professional life devoted to combating Aids. But now Ebola has caught up to you again. American scientists fear that hundreds of thousands of people could ultimately become infected. Was such an epidemic to be expected?
No, not at all. On the contrary, I always thought that Ebola, in comparison to Aids or malaria, didn't present much of a problem because the outbreaks were always brief and local.
Around June it became clear to me that there was something fundamentally different about this outbreak. At about the same time, the aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières sounded the alarm. We Flemish tend to be rather unemotional, but it was at that point that I began to get really worried.
Why did WHO react so late?
On the one hand, it was because their African regional office isn't staffed with the most capable people but with political appointees. And the headquarters in Geneva suffered large budget cuts that had been agreed to by member states. The department for haemorrhagic fever and the one responsible for the management of epidemic emergencies were hit hard. But since August WHO has regained a leadership role.
There is actually a well-established procedure for curtailing Ebola outbreaks: isolating those infected and closely monitoring those who had contact with them. How could a catastrophe such as the one we are now seeing even happen?
I think it is what people call a perfect storm: when every individual circumstance is a bit worse than normal and they then combine to create a disaster. And with this epidemic there were many factors that were disadvantageous from the very beginning. Some of the countries involved were just emerging from terrible civil wars, many of their doctors had fled and their healthcare systems had collapsed. In all of Liberia, for example, there were only 51 doctors in 2010, and many of them have since died of Ebola.
The fact that the outbreak began in the densely populated border region between Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia ...
… also contributed to the catastrophe. Because the people there are extremely mobile, it was much more difficult than usual to track down those who had had contact with the infected people. Because the dead in this region are traditionally buried in the towns and villages they were born in, there were highly contagious Ebola corpses travelling back and forth across the borders in pickups and taxis. The result was that the epidemic kept flaring up in different places.
For the first time in its history, the virus also reached metropolises such as Monrovia and Freetown. Is that the worst thing that can happen?
In large cities – particularly in chaotic slums – it is virtually impossible to find those who had contact with patients, no matter how great the effort. That is why I am so worried about Nigeria as well. The country is home to mega-cities like Lagos and Port Harcourt, and if the Ebola virus lodges there and begins to spread, it would be an unimaginable catastrophe.
Have we completely lost control of the epidemic?
I have always been an optimist and I think that we now have no other choice than to try everything, really everything. It's good that the United States and some other countries are finally beginning to help. But Germany or even Belgium, for example, must do a lot more. And it should be clear to all of us:
This isn't just an epidemic any more. This is a humanitarian catastrophe.
We don't just need care personnel, but also logistics experts, trucks, jeeps and foodstuffs. Such an epidemic can destabilise entire regions. I can only hope that we will be able to get it under control. I really never thought that it could get this bad.
What can really be done in a situation when anyone can become infected on the streets and, like in Monrovia, even the taxis are contaminated?
We urgently need to come up with new strategies. Currently, helpers are no longer able to care for all the patients in treatment centres. So caregivers need to teach family members who are providing care to patients how to protect themselves from infection to the extent possible. This on-site educational work is currently the greatest challenge. Sierra Leone experimented with a three-day curfew in an attempt to at least flatten out the infection curve a bit. At first I thought: "That is totally crazy." But now I wonder, "why not?" At least, as long as these measures aren't imposed with military power.
A three-day curfew sounds a bit desperate.
Yes, it is rather medieval. But what can you do? Even in 2014, we hardly have any way to combat this virus.
Do you think we might be facing the beginnings of a pandemic?
There will certainly be Ebola patients from Africa who come to us in the hopes of receiving treatment. And they might even infect a few people here who may then die. But an outbreak in Europe or North America would quickly be brought under control.
I am more worried about the many people from India who work in trade or industry in west Africa. It would only take one of them to become infected, travel to India to visit relatives during the virus's incubation period, and then, once he becomes sick, go to a public hospital there. Doctors and nurses in India, too, often don't wear protective gloves. They would immediately become infected and spread the virus.
The virus is continually changing its genetic makeup. The more people who become infected, the greater the chance becomes that it will mutate ...
... which might speed its spread.
Yes, that really is the apocalyptic scenario. Humans are actually just an accidental host for the virus, and not a good one. From the perspective of a virus, it isn't desirable for its host, within which the pathogen hopes to multiply, to die so quickly. It would be much better for the virus to allow us to stay alive longer.
Could the virus suddenly change itself such that it could be spread through the air?
Like measles, you mean? Luckily that is extremely unlikely.
But a mutation that would allow Ebola patients to live a couple of weeks longer is certainly possible and would be advantageous for the virus. But that would allow Ebola patients to infect many, many more people than is currently the case.
But that is just speculation, isn't it?
Certainly. But it is just one of many possible ways the virus could change to spread itself more easily. And it is clear that the virus is mutating.
You and two colleagues wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal supporting the testing of experimental drugs. Do you think that could be the solution?
Patients could probably be treated most quickly with blood serum from Ebola survivors, even if that would likely be extremely difficult given the chaotic local conditions.
We need to find out now if these methods, or if experimental drugs like ZMapp, really help.
But we should definitely not rely entirely on new treatments. For most people, they will come too late in this epidemic.
But if they help, they should be made available for the next outbreak.
Testing of two vaccines is also beginning. It will take a while, of course, but could it be that only a vaccine can stop the epidemic?
I hope that's not the case. But who knows? Maybe.
In Zaire during that first outbreak, a hospital with poor hygiene was responsible for spreading the illness. Today almost the same thing is happening.
Was Louis Pasteur right when he said:
"It is the microbes who will have the last word"?
Of course, we are a long way away from declaring victory over bacteria and viruses. HIV is still here; in London alone, five gay men become infected daily. An increasing number of bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics.
And I can still see the Ebola patients in Yambuku, how they died in their shacks and we couldn't do anything except let them die. In principle, it's still the same today. That is very depressing.
But it also provides me with a strong motivation to do something. I love life. That is why I am doing everything I can to convince the powerful in this world to finally send sufficient help to west Africa. Now!
Der Spiegel
'In 1976 I discovered Ebola - now I fear an unimaginable tragedy' | World news | The Observer:
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/04/ebola-zaire-peter-piot-outbreak
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Thursday, October 9, 2014
Ebola death in the U.S.
Despite an Ebola death in the U.S., the likelihood of an epidemic here is low - Harvard Health Blog
POSTED OCTOBER 09, 2014, 10:51 AM
Beverly Merz, Executive Editor, Harvard Women's Health Watch
The New York Times has described Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to die of Ebola virus infection in the United States, as “the Liberian man at the center of a widening health scare.”
Use of the term “health scare” about Ebola in the U.S. just isn't warranted, according to a consensus of several Harvard experts who have looked at Ebola through different lenses.
They give four main reasons why an epidemic of Ebola virus disease is not likely to happen here.
A. The virus is relatively difficult to spread
Ebola isn’t transmitted through the air like a respiratory virus. That makes it much more difficult to catch.
A. The virus is relatively difficult to spread
Ebola isn’t transmitted through the air like a respiratory virus. That makes it much more difficult to catch.
The Ebola virus is passed from person to person in bodily fluids, much like HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. But unlike HIV, Ebola is transmitted only by people who are visibly ill.
To become infected with the Ebola virus, a person must somehow absorb blood, diarrhea, urine, saliva, sweat, or tears from a person with Ebola virus disease through the eyes, mouth, or broken skin.
As a result, even in the hardest-hit countries, on average fewer than two people are infected by each person with Ebola virus disease. In contrast, before the development of a measles vaccine, a person with measles infected 18 others.
As a result, even in the hardest-hit countries, on average fewer than two people are infected by each person with Ebola virus disease. In contrast, before the development of a measles vaccine, a person with measles infected 18 others.
So far, none of the people with Ebola virus disease being treated in the U. S. have infected anyone else, although a deputy who entered the apartment where Duncan had been staying is being treated in isolation for flu-like symptoms.
Contrary to internet rumors, Ebola is not likely to become airborne, says Stephen Gire, a researcher who is studying the Ebola genome at the Harvard-affiliated Broad Institute. He notes that Ebola is a very small virus with relatively few genetic regions that can tolerate mutations without being detrimental to the virus.
Contrary to internet rumors, Ebola is not likely to become airborne, says Stephen Gire, a researcher who is studying the Ebola genome at the Harvard-affiliated Broad Institute. He notes that Ebola is a very small virus with relatively few genetic regions that can tolerate mutations without being detrimental to the virus.
There are no known instances in which a virus has mutated to change its mode of transmission so drastically. “It’s much more likely for a virus to mutate to infect new species than to change its mode of transmission,” says Gire.
B. We have an effective emergency-response infrastructure
The United States is not hampered by the lack of infrastructure that set the stage for the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. “Sierra Leone’s and Liberia’s abilities to handle the epidemic are extremely limited due to the poor capacity of their healthcare and public health systems,” says Dr. Michael VanRooyen, vice chair of Emergency Medicine at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Although he acknowledges the need for some improvement in communications among healthcare institutions, the international travel industry, and the general public, Dr. VanRooyen says the United States’ capacity to manage new cases of Ebola is excellent. “There is no reason to believe we will have an epidemic in the US, and we have the resources we need to manage infected people arriving from West Africa,” he says.
Dr. Paul Biddinger, chief of emergency preparedness at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital, says that the nation’s emergency-response systems are in a much better position to handle Ebola patients than they would have been a decade ago, citing widespread readiness training that minimized casualties following a devastating tornado in 2011 in Joplin, Missouri, and the 2013 Boston marathon bombings.
Ebola has not taken the nation by surprise. “Responders have been preparing for outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases for many years. We have been emphasizing importance of travel history with emerging diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome, Middle-East respiratory syndrome and influenza strains from East Asia.”
C. Most hospitals are equipped to treat Ebola safely
It does not take a major metropolitan hospital or specialists in respirators and hazmat suits to treat someone with Ebola virus disease, argues Dr. Atul Gawande, professor of health management at Harvard School of Public Health in an October 3 New Yorker article
. He says that only a few basic precautions are needed—a room with a door that can be shut to keep people from inadvertently entering; protective clothing for medical personnel and visitors, including gloves, gowns, eyewear, and leg and shoe covers; medical equipment that is used only on the patient; and a good system for disposing of contaminated bedding and clothing—all of which can be achieved by small community hospitals.
Dr. Gawande and colleagues advised the CDC on developing checklists to help medical institutions treat people infected with the Ebola virus. The nurse who first saw Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas followed the checklist, flagging him as a potential Ebola patient. But her note was overlooked by medical personnel who sent him home. Duncan returned two days later and was admitted to the hospital in serious condition.
Such tragic missteps can be easily avoided by “closing the loop”—confirming that important messages have been received and understood by the next person in the chain, Dr. Gawande says.
D. New treatments are in the works
Several potential treatments are being developed and may be available to Ebola patients experimentally.
The antiviral drug ZMapp was given to two U.S. patients, both of whom have recovered.
Another antiviral, brincidofovir, was administered to Duncan and another patient, who is still hospitalized.
Several pharmaceutical companies have been enlisted to increase supplies of ZMapp, and two vaccines are being fast-tracked by the Food and Drug Administration.
Another experimental treatment is a blood transfusion from an Ebola survivor.
Another experimental treatment is a blood transfusion from an Ebola survivor.
Taking precautions
If you have traveled to West Africa recently or have been in contact with anyone who has,the CDC website
has some helpful tips and instructions for you.
If you haven’t, your chance of becoming infected is almost zero and the best advice is the same as it is for avoiding any infection—wash your hands frequently.
Additional information about Ebola is available from the Harvard School of Public Health
and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
.
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Inside Japan's Controversial Military Expansion
When will America Invite Japan To Take A Combat Role In American Worldwide Aggression?
Japan is already armed well beyond the terms of their Surrender after WWII.
Japan is already armed well beyond the terms of their Surrender after WWII.
Published on Sep 22, 2014
Rise of the Samurai: How Japan's growing military is setting off alarm bells both in Japan and around the world.
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As tensions with China continue to escalate, Japan is ramping up the role of its military as a deterrent power. But many are worried this aggressive posture will lead to a repeat of the mistakes of the past.
"As I don't know the purpose and intention of unidentified aircraft approaching our air space, I always become tense", says Sho Yoshida, a fighter pilot with Japan's Self Defence Forces. This unified military outfit was formed following the Allied occupation of Japan at the end of WW2, and is constitutionally restricted to defending the nation. But now a heightening feud with China over the disputed Senkaku Islands, as well as the country's proximity to a wildly unpredictable North Korea, has led Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to reinterpret the legal framework that governs the SDF, with a view to transforming it into a force equipped for offensive operations. "Unless it has the power to strike, it cannot become a so-called 'deterrent power'", explains retired general Toshio Tamogami. And after a number of well-funded recruitment campaigns, enrolments at Japan's elite military college are at a record high. But not everyone here support the moves. "Japan has not really reflected on its past", bemoans Tadmasa Iwaii, a WW2 veteran and former Kamikaze-turned-pacifist. "It hurts my conscience."
ABC Australia - Ref 6239
Journeyman Pictures is your independent source for the world's most powerful films, exploring the burning issues of today. We represent stories from the world's top producers, with brand new content coming in all the time. On our channel you'll find outstanding and controversial journalism covering any global subject you can imagine wanting to know about.
Subscribe to Journeyman for more: http://www.youtube.com/journeymanpict...
For downloads and more information visit: http://www.journeyman.tv/?lid=67659
As tensions with China continue to escalate, Japan is ramping up the role of its military as a deterrent power. But many are worried this aggressive posture will lead to a repeat of the mistakes of the past.
"As I don't know the purpose and intention of unidentified aircraft approaching our air space, I always become tense", says Sho Yoshida, a fighter pilot with Japan's Self Defence Forces. This unified military outfit was formed following the Allied occupation of Japan at the end of WW2, and is constitutionally restricted to defending the nation. But now a heightening feud with China over the disputed Senkaku Islands, as well as the country's proximity to a wildly unpredictable North Korea, has led Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to reinterpret the legal framework that governs the SDF, with a view to transforming it into a force equipped for offensive operations. "Unless it has the power to strike, it cannot become a so-called 'deterrent power'", explains retired general Toshio Tamogami. And after a number of well-funded recruitment campaigns, enrolments at Japan's elite military college are at a record high. But not everyone here support the moves. "Japan has not really reflected on its past", bemoans Tadmasa Iwaii, a WW2 veteran and former Kamikaze-turned-pacifist. "It hurts my conscience."
ABC Australia - Ref 6239
Journeyman Pictures is your independent source for the world's most powerful films, exploring the burning issues of today. We represent stories from the world's top producers, with brand new content coming in all the time. On our channel you'll find outstanding and controversial journalism covering any global subject you can imagine wanting to know about.
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