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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In the first week of February, there were two more deaths from the swine flu reported in Northern Ireland. The total deaths from the flu there is now 25 for the season.

It is thought that the flu season could be on the down slide as fewer cases are being reported. Only 9 more were reported having the flu the first week of February while there were 86 in the first week of the year and 41 in the second. That was 127 cases being reported in only 2 weeks time.

With there only being nine reported last week, they are hoping the flu season is ending.

Of the ones who died, 22 of the victims did have other health problems along with getting the flu.

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The cholera epidemic continues to stretch across Haiti. It started back in October of 2010 and continues still.

On October 21st, the CDC stated that the disease with the symptoms of diarrhea plaguing people in hospital was indeed Cholera. It is the first confirmed outbreak of cholera in Haiti for half a century.

People were frightened upon hearing of the disease and were very confused. All of this hindered relief efforts.

Cholera isn’t always such a wide spread epidemic as it has become in Haiti. If there is plenty of clean water and adequate sewage, the disease can be contained.

In Haiti, since the earthquake of 2010, that is not the case in Haiti. Water isn’t always clean and safe to drink and the sewage isn’t being treated well enough to prevent disease.

It’s thought that the Cholera germ started in the Artibonite River. Some of the people with the disease had drank water from the river. It is possible that there was a sewage spill from a peace keeping groups area into the river.

In November, the disease was found in the Dominican Republic. A country on the east side of Haiti.

In the United States, there was a lady who had been visiting Haiti and returning home that had to be admitted to a hospital in Florida. She had contacted cholera.

It is possible that the true death numbers could be even higher from the epidemic as there are many rural places in Haiti where people die without going for treatment.

2120 people have died. 33,500 have been admitted to hospitals. How many others are there that are not included in the counts.

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It has now been a month that the cholera epidemic has continued taking lives in Haiti. 1,100 people have passed away due to the illness and another 18,382 have spent time in hospitals. On Wednesday, another 76 people are said to have died due to the cholera. This is included in the 1,100 total deaths at this time.

It is feared that the epidemic could spread even more rapidly if it gets into the disreputable camps that people who are homeless from the earthquake are living in. The earthquake left 1.3 million people trying to find places to live. These camps don’t offer the best living conditions and are considered unhealthy.

There is a lack of good drinking water and poor handling of food being prepared to be eaten. The camps are crowded and set up good conditions for the spread of disease.

Authorities are preaching to the people to only drink and use clean water for consumption and preparing food.

On Tuesday, in the Dominican Republic, the first cases of cholera appeared. The Dominican Republic and Haiti are located on the same island, Hispaniola.

Haiti is in dire need of help to fight this epidemic.

They need to get control of the disease to keep others who become sick from dieing.

Cholera is a result of raw sewage getting into the water system. People get sick with a bacteria illness. It can cause very watery diarrhea and vomiting. This all can cause the person to become very dehydrated.

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World Health groups are gearing up to start a mass polio vaccination drive in three Western African nations.

The first confirmed case of polio was proven November the 4th, 2010. It was a patient in the Republic of Congo.

There have been possibly more then 225 people that have been diagnosed with acute flaccid paralysis. This is typically associated with polio.

Of the 226 people diagnosed, 97 have died as of Tuesday. The number of polio cases is expected to go up.

To help curb the polio, immunization are being offered on Friday that will be given to adults and children.. It is targeting 3 million children and adults.

Most of the time, the ones hit with polio have been young adults that are between the ages of 15 and 29.

The plan is to vaccinate every person, adults and children. That way they will know everyone is protected from the disease.

Polio is a disease that hits the nervous system. A majority of people who have had it show no symptoms. 4 to 8 precent have very minor symptoms. The number of polio victims permanently paralyzed is not even 1 percent.

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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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Since June of this year, 350 or more people in Nigeria have died from Cholera.

There has been over 6400 people that have been sick and 352 others that have died.

Cholera becomes a threat when there is no good clean source of drinking water. The flooding after the heavy rainfall has help distribute the disease.

At this time, the occurrence of Cholera has been in the north west and northeastern parts of a Nigeria, the entire country is at risk.

There is 2/3rd’s of the Nigerian population that do not have clean drinking water. Even less then that, less then 40% of the population have any type of indoor plumbing for bath room facilities.

cholera affects the intestines. It will cause diarrhea and vomiting. These two together can cause very serious dehydration.

There are around 120,000 people that die every year from Cholera. It can kill with

in hours if no treatment is started.

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Emergency personnel have been sent to a distant area in the Amazon region to fight an occurrence of rabies that is being spread by vampire bats.

500 people have been bit by the bats and 4 children have died.

The vampire bat typically feeds on blood from animals in the wild or livestock. They don’t normally attack humans. They suck blood from the animals while they sleep.

The rabies vaccine has been given to the people who would accept it. There are some that denied it.

It is possible that the reason for the sudden spurt in the vampire bats attacking humans could be due to the harvesting of trees in the Amazon.

The children in the area of Urakusa which is located in the north-eastern Peruvian Amazon are the ones who perished due to the disease. When the children died, and the community did not understand why, they asked for help.

That is when the health ministry sent out 3 medical groups to take care of and vaccinate the people who had received bites.

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