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Source: ProMEDmail, 10/31/06
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Source: ProMEDmail, 10/31/06
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Email This Post
Source: ProMED-mail, 10/31/06
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Email This Post
Islam was founded in Saudi Arabia by the Prophet Muhammad between 610 and 632 A.D. and became one of the three major monotheistic religions of the world. ‘Islam’ means ‘submission’ to the will of God, known in Arabic as Allah. The Islamic scripture, Quran, is comprised of Muhammad’s divinely inspired revelations.Â
Following the Prophet’s death, a disagreement arose over who would succeed him as the spiritual and political leader, known as caliph. Out of the dispute two main groups of Muslims emerged: Sunnis and Shiites.Â
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The majority of Muslims argued that caliphs should be appointed through elections and consensus by the elders of the community, as was the custom of the region. In Arabic ‘Sunna’ means ‘custom,’ and those who follow this line of thought are known as Sunnis.Â
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A minority faction argued that the Prophet’s successors should come exclusively from his family and their descendents. Believing that Muhammad designated his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, as his successor, those who follow this line of belief are known in Arabic as the ‘Shia,’ or ‘partisans,’ of Ali.Â
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Today, about one billion Muslims are spread over 40 predominantly Muslim countries and five continents.Â
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Source: MSNBC, Accessed 10/30/06Â
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+ Of the 104 souls on board, there are 7 survivors. One is critical.
+Â Â Flight 53Â was a Boeing 737 that crashed shortly after take-off in bad weather.
+Â Debris and body parts were scattered over an area as large as a soccer field.
+ Nigeria is no stranger to airplane crashes. There have been 11 crashes since 1995 killing > 500 people; the third over the past 12 months.
+Â 10/23/05: Bad weather; plane goes down; all 117 on board perish.
+Â 12/10/05: Another plane goes down due to wind shear, according to Nigerian officials; all 108 killed, many of them children.
Source:Â CNN, 10/30/06
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+ It smashed into the northern Philippines Monday, killing at least 10. Plenty of flooding and mudslides reported.
+Â Maximum winds of 109 mph and gusts up to 130 mph.
+Â It should be on its way to Vietnam by later Monday evening.
+Â Cimaron is the Philippine word for wild ox.
Source: AP, 10/30/06
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Onchocerciasis is an infection caused by the parasite Onchocerca volvulus (worm), spread by the bite of an infected blackfly. Also called River Blindness because the transmission is most intense in remote African rural agricultural villages, located near rapidly flowing streams. Persons with heavy infections will usually have one or more of the three conditions; dermatitis, eye lesions, and/or subcutaneous nodules. Superficial skin biopsies will identify the parasite microscopically. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) expert committee on onchocerciasis estimates the global prevalence is 17.7 million, of whom about 270,000 are blind and another 500,000 have visual impairment. About 99% of infected persons are in Africa; the remainder is in Yemen and six countries in the Americas. Onchocerciasis is commonly treated with an oral medicine called Ivermectin.Â
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Onchocerciasis is locally transmitted in Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Yemen and thirty countries of Africa. Onchocerciasis in casual travelers is rare; the infection is transmitted in rural areas, and, unlike malaria, contracting onchocerciasis requires more than one infectious bite. Thus, risk of infection is greater in adventure travelers, missionaries, and Peace Corps volunteers who are likely to have intense and prolonged exposure to black fly bites. Given the low rate of transmission in the Americas, the likelihood is very low that any travelers in this region (even missionaries and Peace Corps volunteers) would ever get infected.Â
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The disease spreads from person to person by the bite of a blackfly. When a blackfly bites a person who has onchocerciasis, microscopic worms (called microfilariae) in the infected person’s skin enter and infect the blackfly. The microfilariae develop over 2 weeks to a stage where they are infectious to humans. An infectious blackfly will typically inject one or two larvae to transmit the disease to another person. Since the worms can only increase their numbers in the human by first mating and then cycling their microfilariae through the blackfly, the intensity of human infection (number of worms in an individual) is related to the number of infectious bites sustained by an individual. Blindness is almost always in persons with intense infection.Â
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Those most at risk are adventure travelers, missionaries, and Peace Corps volunteers who are exposed to black fly bites in endemic areas. The disease is most intensely transmitted in remote African rural agricultural villages, located near rapidly flowing streams.Â
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Onchocerciasis was a leading cause of preventable blindness and skin disease. However, the global disease burden of this disease has been considerably reduced as the result of very successful disease control programs led by the World Health Organization (WHO). These programs are based on vector control and/or mass administration of an oral drug called Ivermectin (Mectizan R ), being donated by Merck. As a result of these programs, millions no longer suffer pain, disfigurement, and blindness.Â
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Infected persons may be without symptoms. Those with symptoms will usually have one or more of the three manifestations; skin rash, eye lesions, and/or subcutaneous bumps under the skin. The most serious manifestation consists of lesions in the eye that can progress to blindness.Â
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The normal incubation period of onchocerciasis ranges from nine to 24 months after the bite of an infected blackfly. Each female worm can reproduce millions of microfilariae during her lifetime. Worms can live for 10-15 years.Â
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Ivermectin is administered as an oral dose of 150 micrograms per kilogram (maximum 12 mg) every 6-12 months. The drug should probably not be given to pregnant women or children under 5 years. Ivermectin does not kill the adult parasites, but reduce the numbers of microfilariae in skin so the disease does not progress.Â
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No, there is neither a vaccine nor recommended drug available to prevent onchocerciasis.Â
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This fact sheet from the CDC website (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/onchocerciasis/factsht_onchocerciasis.htm)Â is for information only and is not meant to be used for self-diagnosis or as a substitute for consultation with a health care provider. If you have any questions about the disease described above or think that you may have a parasitic infection, consult a health care provider.Â
Revised September 27, 2004Â
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 + 34 homes and 29 other buildings have been destroyed in the fire so far.
+Â Evacuation orders remained in effect for about 500 homes in Poppet Flat and Twin Pines.
+Â The fire is 63-square-miles in extent (40,450 acres).
+ Calm weather allowed the use of choppers and airplanes to drop H2O and fire retardant. A DC-10 was also used.
+ There are fears that the fire could extend to Black Mountain which could be difficult for firefighters to reach.
+Â The fifth firefighter remains in critical condition.
Source: AP, 10/29/06
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WHO and a group of more than 25 partner organizations unveiled a new strategy to fight some of the most neglected tropical diseases that destroy the lives and health of poor people. The approach contained in a newly published manual, Preventive Chemotherapy in Human Helminthiasis, focuses on how and when a set of low-cost or free drugs should be used in developing countries to control a set of diseases caused by worm infections.
Preventive chemotherapy in this context means using drugs that are effective against a broad range of worm infections to simultaneously treat the 4 most common diseases caused by worms: onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, and soil-transmitted helminthiasis. Opportunities also exist to integrate these efforts with the prevention and control of diseases such as trachoma.Â
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The new approach provides a critical first step in combining treatment regimens for diseases which, although different in themselves, require common resources and delivery strategies for control or elimination.
The second key component of the strategy brings together for the first time dozens of agencies, NGOs, pharmaceutical companies and others into a coordinated assault on neglected diseases. These organizations are integrating their expertise and resources to deliver the manual’s protocols for wide-scale drug use.Â
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More than 1 billion people are afflicted by these diseases. Their impact can be measured in the impaired growth and development of children, complications during pregnancies, underweight babies, significant and sometimes disabling disfigurements, blindness, social stigma, and reduced economic productivity and household incomes. These effects can now be dramatically reduced by scaling up interventions using highly effective drugs of proven quality and excellent safety record — the majority donated free by companies or costing less than US$ 0.40 per person per year, including the cost of the drugs and their delivery. (WHO 10/26/06)Â Â
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