Nocere – Earth Disasters

 

Health officials are scrambling to find what is the cause behind an outbreak of E.coli that has appeared now in 10 countries. It is a uncommon type of E coli and has now been the cause of 16 people deaths. There are many more sick with the disease.

In Germany, 9 people perished from a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome or HUS. 6 perished due to a form of E.coli that causes bleeding in the intestines. The result is stomach cramping and diarrhea with blood in it.

There has been 499 people discovered with HUS in Europe and 1115 people have been found with the enterohemorrhagic E. coli, EHEC.

The cases are showing up in other countries besides Germany and Sweden. Now they are being detected in Austria, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Most of these people had been in contact or had lately been to Germany. Only 2 had not done either.

The type of E coli in Germany is a new super toxic strain. It has been seen before but is very uncommon. The CDC has noted that it has very little experience with this type. At this time, there is no knowledge of this uncommon type having ever been discovered in the US. There have been cases of it reported in other countries. Britians Health Protection Agcy has said that they feel the form in the outbreak is an uncommon type that has seldom been seen in the UK.

To help prevent the spread of the disease into Russia, they have stopped all imports of fresh vegetables from the Europe Union. They have done this to stop the disease from entering Russia and people becoming ill. Gennady Onishchenko, the head of the Russian Fed’l Agcy for Health and Consumer Rights released a statement saying that the ban will remain in effect “until we become convinced that this situation is resolved.”

 

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A yet new threat to the trees of Ireland has put close to two thirds of the countries trees under a threat of a killer disease.

The fungus which is called P. ramorum or also referred to as the Sudden Oak Death has been found in tens of thousands of the Japanese larch trees.

The infection of the trees has caused an alarming clearing of 200 hectares over 9 woodland areas.

Now it has been discovered that the disease has gone onto another type of tree, the Sitka spruce which is found in the Republic of Ireland. It is also in many different types of beech trees in the County Down area in the northern part.

If this disease circulates into other Sitka trees, it could infect possible two thirds of the governments woodland areas that they own.

This could prove to be disastrous for the Northern Ireland Forestry Service.

At this time the disease has been discovered in the European larch which is in England. It is known that it can also infect beech trees.

There isn’t a lot they can do at this time to protect the trees from the disease. All they can do is wait and see what happens.

If it is believed that a tree has the disease, samples have to be tested in a laboratory to confirm it.

It is felt that the disease was brought to the Republic of Ireland by some tainted rhododendron plants.

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High levels of radiation have been found as far as 25 miles away from Japans nuclear plant that has been giving them problems ever since the earthquake tsunami went through the area.

The levels were found in the village of Iitate which is on the northwestern side of the plant and is further away then the 19 miles area that Japan has been advising people to vacate.

At first there was an area of 12.5 miles set up to keep clear of. This area continues to grow as radiation is found further away. People living 19 miles away are now being asked to vacate the area.

There has been radiation found in the dirt and the sea water close to the the plant.

The radiation has now been found in area grown crops, unprocessed milk and in faucet water as far away as Tokyo which is 140 miles on the south side of the plant.

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There have been dozens of people die in central Haiti due to a possible outbreak of cholera.

They are waiting for laboratory test to confirm if it is indeed cholera.

The sick suffered from diarrhea, high fever and were vomiting. At this time there are over 450 sick in the hospital with these symptoms.

The suspected outbreak is mainly located in the Artibonite and Central Plateau areas, north of the capital Port-au-Prince.

Cholera is caused by bacteria. It is an disease found in the intestines. It enters the body through drinking water or food that has the bacteria in it. The bacteria usually comes from the bowel movements of people who have cholera.

Cholera can lead to very bad cases of dehydration and can cause death if not treated quickly enough.

The treatment for cholera is fluids and antibiotics.

At this time it is suspected that more then 49 people have died from the outbreak.

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In Cameroon, over 100 people have perished from cholera since this past June.

In June, a warning was announced about a possible cholera outbreak. Then came the news of people dieing in the Far North area located in the northern parts of Cameroon.

At this time, there have been known to be over 600 people who have contacted cholera. Cholera causes severe diarrhea which causes people to dehydrate. If you are dehydrating and cannot get proper medical care, you can die from it within hours.

Cholera is a disease that is found in infected drinking water. People living in the Far North region, do not have the access to potable water for safer drinking and cooking with.

It is possible that all the flooding in the area has led to the spread of the disease.

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Brakes is a frozen food distributor in Tamworth located in Staffordshire.

An ammonia leak left 28 people with injuries. One man had very bad burns to his arms. He was in a compressor room at the time. The accident happened at approximately 1150 BST

Besides the man suffering burns, another 27 people suffered injuries of which 7 had to be taken to a hospital. No one was kept at the hospital. All were treated and released.

Close roads around the plant were closed down by police causing quite a serious congestion around the Brakes plant in Tamworth.

At first it was thought there were going to be a great many casualties, but luckily that isn’t the case.

The man who suffered the worse injury was the one in the compressor room. He is a 30 year old male and he had 15% burns that were infected with the ammonia.

The firefighters used water to rinse off his wounds and then he was transported to Queen Elizabeth Hospital located in Birmingham.

Of the ones taken to the hospital, 4 were having difficulty breathing, and 2 had minor injuries. There were more injuries that did not require a trip to the hospital that were taken care of at the scene.

Brakes was evacuated after the leak that happened during a typical maintenance at the plant. After noting the leak, the plant was evacuated and there is no need to be worried about the ammonia leak. All emergency services have been set in motion.

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In the northern state of Zamfara, children have been dieing. The villagers thought it was malaria.

The children’s deaths were discovered during the time for the yearly vaccinating  of the children by the country, something they do every year. They noticed that in a few of the villages in the distant northern state had very few children.

A group  from the international aid agency Medecins Sans Frontiers obtained blood samples from many of the village people. They found the blood samples contained a large amount of lead in them.

Zamfara State had brought in a company from China to excavate for gold in Zamfara.

Many of the locals had gone out on their own digging and searching for gold. Possibly digging in areas of high lead content.

It is possible that the villagers and children got ill from the lead that was  taken out during the act of refining the gold ore and it running off into the water polluting it.

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How long we ask is this going to go on? There is no end in sight.

It has now been 46 days since the start of one of the worlds worst natural disasters. The oil continues to spill out into the Gulf.

BP now has a plan to siphon the oil from the well and bring it to the top of the Gulf waters. Then they will try to get it to flow onto another drill ship called Discover Enterprise.

They already started doing this on Friday. BP is to shut 4 of the vents on the top of the cap which is allowing the oil to leak out into the Gulf. They are hoping if they close off these 4 vents that the flow will be cut back.

If the procedure is going to be successful or not was to be determined later on Friday.

President Obama once again visited the Gulf Coast on Friday to view the extinct of the damage. It has been said the he was “furious at this entire situation.”

Obama didn’t talk a lot about the efforts to cap off the well, but he did relay to the news that, “it does appear that the cap — at least for now — is holding.” He also said that it is, “way too early to be optimistic.”  We could possible know something in the next 24 to 48 hours according to Obama on Friday. That means we could possibly be hearing good news anytime, or I could have missed the announcement.

I do hope we hear that the oil is now being contained and will be capped.

Our wildlife have suffered and our beaches have balls of tar the size of silver dollars on them in Pensacola, Florida.

The oil has already become a threat to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Florida is next.

It was possible that the oil will reach Destin Florida by Saturday afternoon.

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