Yellow Fever Outbreak In Southern Africa.

Angola and neighboring countries in Southern Africa have been combating an outbreak of yellow fever while the U.S is dealing with Zika virus. Yellow fever was once the most feared epidemic in the world before mass vaccination campaigns were implemented in the mid-20th century. The disease is now taking a toll on a new generation in Southern African nations. Yellow fever is caused by an RNA Flavirus, the same genus that includes the Zika, dengue, and West Nile viruses. Transmission occurs from humans to humans and monkeys to humans by mosquitoes of the Aedes or species. Yellow fever has three transmission cycles. The jungle cycle occurs when mosquitoes transmit the virus from monkeys to humans who are working or visiting jungle areas. The intermediate or Savannah cycle in Africa occurs when mosquitoes transmit the virus from monkeys to humans or humans to humans living or working in areas bordering jungles. The urban cycle occurs when mosquitoes like Aedes aegypti transmit the virus between humans usually by a person infected in the jungle or Savannah setting who then carries the disease to an urban area. People infected with the yellow fever virus are asymptomatic. The incubation period is generally between 3 to 6 days. The symptoms include fever, chills, severe headache, back pain, nausea, vomiting, and fatigue. About fifteen percent of cases will progress to a more severe second phase of the illness with symptoms including high fever, jaundice and bleeding. Death occurs from shock and failure of multiple organ systems. There is currently no treatment for yellow fever. Instead, symptoms are managed clinically under close observation. The epidemic was first detected again in the Angola’s capital city, Luanda, in late December of 2015 and the first cases were laboratory confirmed on January 19, 2016. As of July 15th, 2016, there have been 3,682 suspected cases reported in Angola, 877 of which are confirmed and 361 deaths from the disease. Suspected cases are widespread across the country, having been reported in 16 of the 18 Angola provinces. The outbreak has also erupted in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a neighboring country of Angola, where there are 1,798 suspected cases and 85 reported deaths. Additionally, Kenya and China have reported traveled-related cases of yellow fever. The outbreak is of international concern because despite the vaccination of 15 million Angolans, local transmission is still occurring. Cross-border travel also poses a risk of further spread of the virus to other nations. There is also speculation about locally transmitted cases in hard to reach areas, such as the province of Cabinda. In Angola and the DRC, vaccination campaigns are underway to prevent the spread of this infectious disease, but a global vaccine shortage poses a life-threatening challenge to containing transmission of the virus. The current yellow fever outbreak, as with Zika and Ebola, underscores the need for global pandemic preparedness to both prevent and respond to the continuing threat of infectious diseases around the world.contributed by HuffingtonPost

Depression genes found by tapping crowd-sourced data.

Scientists have discovered 15 genome sites — the first ever — linked to depression in people of European ancestry. Many of these regions of depression-linked genetic variation turn out to be involved in regulating gene expression and the birth of new neurons in the developing brain. The researchers analysed data already shared by people who had purchased their own genetic profiles via an online service and elected to participate in its research option. This made it possible to leverage the statistical power of a huge sample size to detect weak genetic signals associated with a diagnosis likely traceable to multiple underlying illness processes. This novel use of crowd-sourced data was confirmed with results from traditional genetics approaches in the study, funded by the National Institutes of Health. Roy Perlis, M.D., M.SC, of Harvard/Massachusetts General Hospital — a grantee of the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) — was the main contributor to the reports. The researchers adopted a strategy of studying much larger samples than had been used in the earlier genome-wide studies. They first analysed common genetic variation in 75,607 people of European ancestry who self-reported being diagnosed or treated for depression and 231,747 healthy controls of similar ethnicity. This data had been shared by people who purchased their own genetic profiles via the 23 and Me website and agreed to participate in the company’s optional research initiative, which makes data available to the scientific community, while protecting privacy. The researchers integrated these data with results from a prior Psychiatric Genomic Consortium genome-wide-association study, based on clinician-vetted diagnoses of more than 20,000 patients and controls of European ancestry. They then followed-up with a closer look at certain statistically suspect sites from that analysis in an independent 23 and Me “replication” sample of 45,773 cases and 106,354 controls. Continue

The impact of data in our world today.

Suhail Doshi, co-founder and CEO of Mixpanel gives an insight into how data is changing the way we live,do business and even our choices.There are so many applications where people are using data to create interesting machine learning models that can automate things such as car automation, anomaly detection, facial recognition, etc. The use of data in determining who will win contests or elections at astonishingly high accuracy is really interesting, this is changing the tactics people are using to win.Music is becoming more data-centric these days. If you’re a musician, the world is completely transforming from selling units in the store and seeing your spot on the billboard 100 to the number of streams and plays you get from YouTube, Spotify, or Soundcloud in order to drive distribution and improve brand recognition. I think the music industry will become much more quantified. The advent of people being able to create new kinds of hardware easily, we’re starting to see new applications of automation that didn’t exist before. The combination of that with the internet being almost everywhere is making it possible to log data about anything. This shift; digital inclusion is leading to all kinds of new insight that we haven’t had before, there are some companies now automating aspects of agriculture, which makes it easier to be much more data-driven thus increasing the possibilities in that industry.Adopted from Quora.

How a humble farmer turned his unwanted watermelons into fast-selling 'lucky' fruit.

A farmer from Pingdingshan, China, took drastic action to cut declining sales of watermelon.He carved characters with lucky meanings such as 'prosperity' and 'Chinese dream' onto the fruit and in 11 days he managed to sell three tonnes of watermelons which are in popular demand from passersby. A farmer discovered the secret to ensuring his watermelons sell by carving them with sayings and mottos in beautiful calligraphy. According to the 56-year-old from Pingdingshan, central China's Henan province, he had been struggling to sell the fruit before he came up with the ingenious idea to add carvings. He said since adding works of art to his fruit, Gu Xinliang managed to sell three tonnes of watermelons in just 11 days. The 56-year-old rural teacher grows the fruit on his 7,160-square-foot farmland. On July 20, his family dug up an acre of watermelon and set up a stall on the side of the road. A few people were interested but he sold one watermelon. By noon, he had not sold any more and used a fingernail on a watermelon to practice calligraphy. He found that the effect of the carving was quite good so he carved two of the fruit and put them on display. They were soon snapped up by passersby. Gu Xinliang said: 'Lettering on the watermelon takes time and carving a word takes around ten minutes.' But taking the time out to add the letterings meant that people were soon purchasing the fruit.Longevity and a snake: The man thought of the idea while he was sitting waiting for customers to buy his watermelons. He carved the entire lot with characters meaning 'Chinese dream' and 'prosperity.' Gu Xinliang says after adding art to the watermelons, he sold 3,000 kilograms (6,610 pounds) in just 11 days. He also sold the remainder of his crop of cantelopes. He says: 'I had no idea that by writing blessings on watermelons, I would soon sell out.' Xinliang says growing up he was fond of calligraphy but his family didn't have enough money to buy the necessary books and pens for him to practice the skill. However the popularity of the carved watermelons have had an impact on his health. culled from dailymail.co.uk

Badgers and bovine tuberculosis.

Badgers are not transmitting bovine tuberculosis (TB) to cattle through contact as the two species are never close proximity, a study has concluded. Over the past 40 years’ research has maintained that badgers have been infecting cattle with TB because of direct contact between the animals. However, the new study has demonstrated that this is not the case and the infection is spread through alternative ways. Scientists tracked hundreds of badgers and cattle using GPS collars on farms in Cornwall. It was found that though badgers spend a lot of time in cattle fields, there was no direct contact between the animals, with badgers preferring to be around 50m away from the cows. It has previously been assumed that cattle need to be in close proximity, around 1.5m, with an infected badger in order to be affected. Bovine TB is a serious issue for farmers to face, with 5,000 new herds diagnosed with the disease in 2014. The research, published in Ecology Letters, suggests that advice given to farmers about how to control the spread of TB may need to be reconsidered in light of the study. One possible route of infection is through badger faeces and urine in the grazing pastures which may leave the TB infection there for months and will explain why infected cows could be passing the disease between themselves. The team, made up of scientists from Imperial College and the Zoological Society of London, have said that vaccinating badgers may be a better way to tackle bovine TB instead of culling. contributed by wired.co.uk

A Dutch artist is making a fashion statement by converting cow manure into eco-friendly couture.

Cow dung just found a new value, its chemically converted into clothing. Cow dung and the fashion industry,a rare but exceptional combination. A Dutch artist is making a fashion statement by utilizing chemistry to convert cow manure into eco-friendly couture. watch.

The need for open data in agriculture and nutrition to ensure food security.

New data-driven solutions in agriculture and nutrition are increasingly being seen as a way to tackle the estimated population explosion. It is estimated that the population of the world is expected to double and the increase will definitely result in more food production. The Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative seeks to support global efforts to make agricultural and nutritional relevant data available, accessible, and usable worldwide. The three and a half year initiative funded by the UK Department for International Development will focus on building high-level policy support for open data in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors GODAN encourages collaboration and cooperation among existing agriculture and open data activities, and brings together stakeholders to solve global challenges. 

GODAN is about impact, it’s about finding the open data practices that work and using them to advocate for more open data in agriculture and nutrition. The initiative is using a data revolution to drive innovation in agriculture and nutrition, which ultimately means improved livelihoods for farmers, especially those in the developing world, and the ability for more people to feed themselves.more This is where telecommunication comes into play, the higher the number of farmers that are connected on a network/platform ,the more data is generated and information disseminated easily. The issue of data is key to any economy, if people,farms, markets,hospitals,stores can not be identified in terms of location,size and capacity then no meaningful planning can be set in motion and definitely no budgetary allocation to cater for that sector. Phones with easy connectivity are a vital tool for growth in agriculture. 

The possibilities are endless and its sad that most farmers in the developing countries are still not connected,the issue of disease surveillance,disease control ,animal health services and pricing of products can easily be rectified by connection of farmers on the network. 

The recent outbreak of anthrax in Yamal could have been curtailed and not escalated as it is now,where many are infected ,and a record of a child' death. The authorities have said they have to bury about 150 corpses a day, all because there was a bridge in communication, the herd man involved had to walk for 5 days to notify authorities of the disease incidence,this delay caused exposure of some many people and also consumption of infected animals. 

 Precision agriculture which is the modern farming ,also works on this premise.The data generated are sent through phones over a reliable network,most of the information generated from the farm,the animals,the soil and environment are all relayed through phones,and the corrective measures also through this platform making response time fast and production effective. 

I believe this is the time to start counting,numbers rule the world. The number of people at risk of hunger in the developing world is estimated to grow to more than a billion people by 2050,but sadly these people are not connected on any network. 

 Mobile connectivity that is expected to drive growth and development along side digital inclusion is still very low among rural communities. The 2016 Mobile Economy report for Africa, which was released by GSMA during the GSMA Mobile 360 Africa event in Dar Es Salaam, , showed that at the end of 2015, 46 per cent of the population in Africa, subscribed to mobile services, which is equivalent to more than half of a billion people. Africa’s three dominant markets are Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa, together accounted for about a third of the region’s total subscriber base.This shows there is so much to be done to ensure all facets of the economy is connected through data sharing, data analysis and networking at various levels to ensure the food security goal.