New Ebola outbreak in Congo raises alarm.

                 New Ebola outbreak in Congo raises alarm.

A new outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus has infected 100 people in a western province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a rapid spread that has health officials concerned about the chances of an uncontrolled epidemic.


 The outbreak in Equateur Province began in early June, when a cluster of cases were discovered in the provincial capital Mbandaka.


The number of cases has doubled in just the last five weeks.“The virus is spreading across a wide and rugged terrain which requires costly interventions, and with Covid-19 draining resources and attention, it is hard to scale up operations,” said Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s Africa regional director.

DHL's delivery drone can make drops quicker than a car..

The latest version of DHL's delivery drone has made more than 100 successful deliveries and can get parcels to remote villages faster than transporting them across difficult terrain in a car. The third generation of the company's Parcelcopter completed a three month test period of autonomously carrying parcels to and from set locations in Bavaria, Germany. From January to March this year DHL operated a 'Skyport' where a selected number of private customers in the Reit im Winkl area could take their parcels and put them into the port. Once the parcel was inserted its delivery system would begin, the drone would take-off and fly to another port eight kilometers away. The drone's cargo was typically either sporting goods or urgently needed medicines and it arrived at the Alm station within just eight minutes of take-off," DHL said in a statement. The same journey normally takes 30 minutes by car, according to DHL. The drone made 130 deliveries in three months, carrying individual payloads of almost 2kg and flying up to 40mph. The company launched its first drone delivery service in 2014, with its first development of the Parcelcopter. At the time the copter was used over a 12km open water route, delivering parcels to the car-free island of Juist in Lower Saxony. The first drone trial could carry up to 1.2kg per trip and provided the community of 1,700 people with basic medical aid. Culled from wired.co.uk

MOSQUITOES , PATHOGENS AND GLOBAL THREAT.

The world focuses on Zika's rapid advance in the Americas but experts warns the virus that originated in Africa is just one of a growing number of continent-jumping diseases carried by mosquitoes threatening humanity. The Aedes aegypti species blamed for transmitting Zika breeds in car tires, tin cans, dog bowls and cemetery flower vases. And its females are great at spreading disease as they take multiple bites to satisfy their hunger for the protein in human blood they need to develop their eggs. Around the world, disease-carrying mosquitoes are advancing at speed, taking viruses such as dengue and Zika, plus a host of lesser-known conditions such as chikungunya and St. Louis encephalitis, into new territories from Europe to the Pacific. In 2014, there was a large outbreak of chikungunya, which causes fever and joint pains, in the Caribbean, where it had not been seen before, while the same virus sickened Italians in 2007 .Europe has seen the re-emergence of malaria in Greece for the first time in decades and the appearance of West Nile fever in eastern parts of the continent. The speed of change in mosquito-borne diseases since the late 1990s has been unprecedented, for many experts the biggest potential threat is Aedes albopictus, otherwise known as the Asian tiger mosquito. This is expanding its range widely and is capable of spreading more than 25 viruses, including Zika. There is evidence that Aedes albopictus is now out-competing aegypti in some areas and becoming more dominant, in the United States, Aedes albopictus has been found as far north as Massachusetts and as far west as California. In Europe it has reached Paris and Strasbourg. The global movement of mosquitoes rests on the increase in human travel, humans are moving the pathogens around and the mosquitoes are waiting there to transmit them. Deforestation in Malaysia, for example, is blamed for a steep rise in human cases of a type of malaria usually found in monkeys. The elimination of mosquitoes,their breeding sites and avoiding mosquito bites in mosquito prone areas are some of the measures to keep the mosquito menace at bay. Read more here; http://veterinarymedicineechbeebolanle-ojuri.blogspot.com.ng/2016/01/the-zika-threat-and-global-village.html

RABIES AND GLOBAL TRAVEL.

Scientists/researchers have warned tourist/holiday enthusiast to stay away from animals including bats on such travelling.This advice came on the heels of a lady that died after she was bitten by a dog while on a trip in India for 2 weeks. 

 Rabies is an acute viral infection of the central nervous system. The virus is usually transmitted through a dog bite, and results in at least 40,000 deaths worldwide every year.Around 90% of deaths occur in the developing world,particularly in India, where dogs that roam freely are largely responsible. Rabies is rare in the UK, where just 12 cases have been reported since 1977, 11 contracted abroad and one rare case acquired from a bat in the UK. 

 A team of researchers describe the case of a woman in her late 30s who was admitted to hospital with shooting pain in her lower back and left leg. Three and a half months earlier, she had been bitten by a puppy on a lead during a two week holiday in Goa. It left a slight graze, but she did not seek medical help, and she had not received a vaccination before travelling. 

She was diagnosed with rabies and died after 18 days in hospital. This case serves as an important reminder of the risk of rabies for any traveler to a country where rabies is endemic, even tourists on a short visit to a holiday resort, say the authors. 

 Travelers need to know whether they are visiting a country where rabies is endemic, and that any dog bite must be taken seriously,even an apparently innocuous bite from a pet. The risk can also be reduced by avoiding contact with animals that might be susceptible to rabies. stay away from roaming dogs ,cats or wildlife.

Public Private Partnerships to limit disease spread due to global travelling.

A new study from a team at the University of Arizona in the US has found that international travel – along with trade – can be listed as being among the most efficient methods of spreading infectious diseases.

   This is due to the fact that people sick with communicable infections may unknowingly board planes and spread their illnesses to both fellow passengers and the residents of their destination country. Led by Charles Perrings, a professor of environmental economics at the university, the team behind the research cited the recent Ebola outbreak as an example – while a global pandemic did not occur, and the majority of the 8,000 people who died from the disease were from the outbreak’s source countries in West Africa, a man from Liberia did become patient zero in the US and later died from Ebola. 

 Two of his attending nurses also contracted the disease, although they later recovered. While this was a thankfully small-scale example, it can be considered a microcosm of what a larger epidemic or pandemic might look like. 

 The research paper also pointed towards international trade, mentioning the hoof and mouth outbreak that cost the government of the UK billions, and other diseases such as swine and avian flu.

 In terms of solutions, Perrings suggested addressing these issues ‘at the source’, and confronting those behind the import and export of potentially dangerous materials with the risks. 

 “The recent Ebola outbreak made us realize that we are all just a plane ride away from exposure to emerging infectious diseases,” said Perrings. 

“The more trade grows as a proportion of global production, the more likely it is that diseases will be spread through trade, and the higher the economic cost of resulting trade bans. What is at risk is the food we eat, the fibres we wear and build with, and the fuels we burn. In addition, many infectious diseases that affect animals also affect people. 

Zoonoses like SARS, MERS, HIV, AIDS [and] highly pathogenic avian influenza all originated in wild animals and were then spread person-to-person through trade and travel.” He went on to say: “There are two problems to address. One is that disease spread is an unintended (external) effect of trade. 

To solve this problem exporters and importers need to be confronted with the risks they impose on consumers. The other is that the control of infectious disease is a public good – the benefits it offers are freely available to all, and so will be under supplied if left to the market. 

To solve this problem, we need to undertake co-operative, collective control of infectious diseases at the source.” He suggested financial incentives for risk reduction in developing countries and establishing a global fund to combat and control infectious diseases. 

Currently, countries have the right to act defensively in their own interests once a disease is introduced, controlling the outbreak and working to reduce the possibility of reinfection by banning trade with countries that pose a risk. This, however, will not stop new diseases emerging, said Perrings: 

“The One Health Initiative suggests that what is needed is co-operative collective action to reduce risk at the source. This requires a partnership between the rich countries that have the resources to fund global prevention, and the poor countries where disease is most likely to emerge. 

The management of infectious diseases of animals and plants, like the management of infectious diseases of people, is now a global problem that requires global solutions. 

This in turn requires a more strongly co-ordinated and co-operative approach than is currently allowed under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement.” culled from international travel and health insurance journal.

A CASE SCENARIO # BIRD FLU VIRUS.

The world being a global village, facilitates trade interaction between countries and also promotes smuggling of animals along trade zones. The international air travel and smuggling is a major route of introducing and spreading of the bird flu virus. A case readily comes to mind about a Thai man that brought in 2 eagles to Europe in 2004.The birds were seized at customs because import of birds to Europe from Asian countries is prohibited. The seized birds seized at the Brussels international airport showed no signs of bird flu.The birds were killed and upon diagnosis in the vet department,the HPAI was confirmed. The authorities swung in to action and traced birds that had passed through customs with the birds,they found 2 parrots,2000 parrots in quarantine and 400 birds in another quarantine area,all birds were culled to forestall spread. The health authorities went further and traced all those who had contact with the eagles;they were identified,isolated and treated with Tamiflu. The Thai man reported himself to the police when he heard that the birds were H5N1 POSITIVE,he was isolated and treated.All those who had contact with the birds were asymptomatic except the VET,that euthanize the birds,he was isolate and treated same with members of his family. The main reasons we are recording outbreaks of various diseases around the world is because of international trade facilitated by travel and also smuggling along trade routes.Stuffed animals,hides of skin used to make drums, tools/equipment have all been implicated in spreading of various diseases. It will be appropriate to advise everyone to stay away from exotic animals, do not touch them if found in the wild and dont smuggle in animals off unknown origin. BE PROACTIVE! STOP THE BIRD FLU VIRUS.