"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
“All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”
“Whatever ishurtful to you, do not do to any other person.”
...From 1 August to 8 November 2017, (click here) a total of 2,034 confirmed, probable and suspected cases of plague, including 165 deaths (case fatality rate 8%), have been reported from 55 of the 114 districts in the country. Of these, 1,565 (77%) were clinically classified as pulmonary plague, 297 (15%) were bubonic plague, one was septicemic, and 171 were not yet classified (further classification of cases is in process). Since the beginning of the outbreak, 82 healthcare workers (with no deaths) have been affected.
Of the 1,565 clinical cases of pneumonic plague, 371 (24%) have been confirmed, 581 (37%) are probable and 613 (39%) remain suspected (additional laboratory results are in process). Twenty-eight specimens cultured Yersinia pestis, which were sensitive to antibiotics recommended by the National Program for the Control of Plague....
2 October 2017
...A pneumonic plague (click here) is a form of plague that is transmissible from person-to-person, with a potential to trigger severe epidemics if inadequately controlled. Detection of this outbreak occurred more than two weeks after the first case died during which cases travelled to different parts of the country, including the capital Antananarivo. Therefore, the overall risk at the national level is high. The overall regional risk is moderate due to frequent flights to neighbouring Indian Ocean islands. The global risk is low.
WHO advice
Prevention and control measures
Preventive measures include informing people when zoonotic plague is present in their environment and advising them to take precautions against flea bites and not to handle animal carcasses. The most rapid and effective method for controlling fleas is to apply an appropriate insecticide formulated as a dust or low-volume spray. People, especially health workers, should also avoid direct contact with infected tissues such as buboes, or close exposure to patients with pneumonic plague.
Important prevention and control measures are primarily intended to reduce human transmission and avoid increase in epidemic. These include:
- Advising the public to take all necessary precautions against flea bites and to not pick up or touch dead animals
- Implementing measures to control rodents hosts of Yersinia pestis (plague bacillus), especially rats
- Avoiding direct contact with infected tissues such as buboes, or close exposure to patients with pneumonic plague
- Early presentation to health care - go to the closest health center in the event of suspicious symptoms
- Health workers and people who are in direct contact with pneumonic plague patients must wear personal protective equipment
- Health workers should receive a chemoprophylaxis with antibiotics as long as they are exposed
- Safe management and burial of deceased cases
Treatment
Rapid diagnosis and treatment is essential to reduce complications and fatality. Effective treatment methods enable plague patients to be cured, if diagnosed in time. These methods include the administration of antibiotics as Aminoglycosides, Fluoroquinolones, Sulfonamides and supportive therapy....
March 17, 2017
By Natalie Huet
Lyon, France — As President Donald Trump (click here) raises the axe on U.S. medical research funding, scientists across the Atlantic are trembling, too.
The World Health Organization’s cancer agency, the France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), has long been a prime purveyor of bad news. Now, with big business blasting it as fake news and Republicans in total control, U.S. funding crucial for IARC’s work is under threat.
A perfect storm is brewing. On Thursday, Trump unveiled a FY2018 budget that would chop $6 billion, or nearly 20 percent, from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). IARC’s work classifying things like bacon, plutonium and wood dust as carcinogens relies most heavily on NIH funding. The chemical lobby recently launched a campaign portraying IARC as a useless scaremonger that ignores actual human exposure to potential hazards, and U.S. lawmakers are already investigating whether taxpayers’ money should be funding its work....
2013
Dr. Christopher Wild re-elected as Director of IARC (click here)
