Myanmar Reports HPAI


The Burmese veterinary authorities have reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Sagaing.

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) received an immediate notification yesterday, 29 February. 5-month and 18-month old layers have been affected.

A total of 1060 layers were found susceptible, out of which 61 cases were identified. The 61 affected birds were found dead. The remaining 999 birds were destroyed.

A few chickens were found dead on 20 February 2012. A total of 61 chickens died within 4 days. There are 40,000 chickens reared in 139 farms in Chaung U towship. All are layers and broilers of different ages.

The source of the outbreak is yet to be determined.

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/poultryne ... ports-hpai



Vietnam:

A/H5N1 flu patients have recovered


On 1-3, information from the leaders of Tropical Disease Hospital, said City after nearly a week of treatment, patients infected with influenza A/H5N1 Phu Truong Son (22 years old, a native of Thanh Hoa, staying in Phu Loi, Thu Dau Mot town, Binh Duong) has passed a critical health is recovering.

TS-BS Le Manh Hung, deputy director of the Tropical Disease Hospital, said patients with end stage is oxygen; PCR results, lung CT tests showed negative for influenza A/H5N1 virus.

Also according to Dr. Hung, subsequent health of such patients is temporary settlement Son and this is the first A/H5N1 flu cases this year were successfully treated.

The avian influenza virus A/H5N1 variant, virulent; human beings are vulnerable to death if infected

Recommended by the world health agency also said the recent avian influenza A/H5N1 virus strains were virulent variants with strong, if infected with avian influenza virus, the risk of mortality is almost 100%.

This is Tuesday A/H5N1 flu infection in the country from early 2012 to present. Two patients infected with influenza A/H5N1 Soc Trang and Kien Giang indicate the same to have died.

http://nld.com.vn/20120301011843902p0c1 ... i-phuc.htm


With high-tech system, Egypt hopes to avoid possible pandemic


H5N1, also known as avian influenza or bird flu, has apparently found a perfect environment to thrive in Egypt. Since the initial onset of the virus back in 2006, new outbreaks of the flu have occurred every single year, making Egypt one of the world’s few endemic countries for the virus, along with Indonesia and Peru. The government, taking the threat of a pandemic seriously, has launched annual vaccination campaigns to mitigate the number of fatalities in Egypt, which made up 55 of the 159 total reported cases according to the World Health Organization.

The amount of data collected by Egyptian veterinary services and bird flu specialists on the ground since 2006 is massive, yet these scientists lack proper technology that could track the virus and identify areas where the virus could potentially strike again.

Three specialists from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) conducted a three-day workshop this week to familiarize Egypt’s leading researchers, vets and ecologists with Geographic Information System (GIS), a system designed to capture, manipulate, analyze, merge and present all kinds of geographically referenced data to track the bird flu virus across the country. GIS merges cartography, statistical analysis and database technology and has proven extremely useful in fighting epidemics and pandemics worldwide, giving precious help to epidemiologists who specialize in tracking viruses.

Ryan Harrigan is a postdoctoral student at UCLA who specializes in spatial modeling for avian influenza. After installing GIS software on the attendees’ laptops, he kept hopping around from one person to another to help them use the program.
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“For the first time, I found a case in a wild but resident bird, which proves that the virus is in mutation,” she says.

http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/689366?


Flu shuts down two Catholic schools in St. Louis


At least two St. Louis schools have decided to shut down after high numbers of students and teachers were sidelined by flu symptoms.

About 80 out of 477 students stayed home sick today from St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Elementary School in the St. Louis Hills neighborhood. The school will shut down Thursday and Friday to give students and teachers time to rest and allow janitors to clean the school.

The sickened students and teachers have high fevers, said principal Ann Davis.

"Right now having the kids stay home is the best we can do," she said.

Illnesses previously shut down the school about eight years ago, Davis said.

Another school, St. Raphael the Archangel, will be closed today and Thursday, staff said. The Catholic elementary school is also in the St. Louis Hills neighborhood.

Although the flu season statewide has been relatively mild, illnesses in children have been increasing over the last three weeks, said Dr. Gregory Storch, director of infectious diseases at St. Louis Children’s Hospital



Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/heal ... z1nxGM56EK


Two fresh cases of swine flu reported in Andhra Pradesh
PTI Feb 28, 2012, 11.07P


Two fresh cases of swine flu have been reported from two private hospitals here, a top health official said on Tuesday.

"Two H1N1 positive cases have been identified and they include a male and a female. The patients are admitted in private hospitals and their condition is stable," Andhra Pradesh State Coordinator for Swine Flu Dr Subhakar told PTI today.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes ... tive-cases



Flu Cases Rise, Health Officials Urge Vaccination

The state Department of Health Services says the number of influenza cases has risen recently in Wisconsin and across the country.

Because of the increase, the department is urging people to get vaccinated.

The Department of Health Services says anyone over six months old can get vaccinated. There is a ready supply of the vaccine.

The department says flu symptoms include: fever, body aches, fatigue, headache and sore throat.

http://www.wuwm.com/programs/news/view_ ... cleid=9976

Drowning in debt: 70% of Britons are now in the red as increasing numbers turn to gambling in bid to solve their problems

The true scale of Britain's debt mountain has been revealed, with seven out of ten Britons owing money to banks, loan lenders and credit card companies, according to experts.

And one in ten are turning to gambling or the lottery in a desperate bid to to ease their money woes - branded by experts as 'debt-pression' - a study has found.
The Co-operative Bank says that half of all households have seen their debt rise this year and most people owe £325 more than they did three months ago because of overspending at Christmas.
Almost a third are not prepared to confront the issue and more worryingly most are not concerned until they have accumulated an average of £1,247 of debt in overdrafts, credit cards or loans - despite this taking months or years for many to pay off.

And it is the spiralling cost of living in Britain that is being squarely blamed for the 70 per cent of Britons who are in debt.

New figures show that the current financial squeeze is so tight that households have not had it this bad since the Great Depression.

Gas and electricity bills are up a quarter in a year while filling up a car with petrol is up to 26 per cent more expensive than two years ago.

Meanwhile in the supermarket, carrots and cucumbers are up to 20 per cent more this year while the key elements of a good bolognese, beef mince and tomato sauce, are up a third in a year.

Apart from milk, pasta and bananas, the cost of supermarket staples are up across the board.

Robin Taylor, head of banking at The Co-operative Bank said today: 'It is no surprise that people are feeling the pinch at the moment, but that it is a worry to see that so many people are choosing to ignore their problems.

'Our research also shows that the "debt alarm" doesn't go off until people owe more than £1,000, which can be a real struggle to pay back.

'Managing your money with steps such as writing a list of incomings and outgoings and regularly checking your bank account will help you get on top of your finances now before problems get any worse.'
To tackle their problems one in 20 have got into so much debt that they have been forced to take out payday loans with interest rates of up to 400 per cent.

Finance expert Kim Stephenson told the Daily Express that 'confronting the problems now will start you on the road to making your finances healthier and as a result help you break out of debt-pression. and alleviate many of the physical symptoms brought on by money worries.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1nxIU3AMu

Killer sheep virus 'may last for a year': Deadly disease spreading at alarming rate, experts warn

A killer virus blighting sheep and cows is likely to be here for another year and is spreading at an alarming rate, experts warned yesterday.

Schmallenberg virus has already been detected at 83 farms in England, killing thousands of newborn lambs or causing them to be born with serious deformities.

Yesterday experts said it was likely to be made worse by the warm weather and could spread across the whole country, putting another breeding season at risk.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1nxJFjrrU

Incidents suggest Israel-Iran 'cold war' intensifying


Iran's nuclear program has fuelled an escalating war of words between Israel, which believes the Islamic state is well on its way to developing atomic weapons, and Iran, which maintains the nuclear technology it is developing is solely for civilian use.

The two countries have publicly threatened military action against each other, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to ask Prime Minister Stephen Harper to support an Israeli pre-emptive strike on Iran when he visits Ottawa on March 2.

But there are growing indications that Israel and Iran have actually been fighting a covert war for years.


In the past two years, at least five Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in car bombings. No links have been proven, but some intelligence experts think they were directed by Israel's spy agency, Mossad.

In mid-February 2012, Iran appeared to respond with a series of co-ordinated, though unsuccessful, bomb attacks on Israeli officials in India, Georgia and Thailand.

Signs of a 'cold war'

Experts say this secret war has been simmering since the mid-2000s.

"It's something we've been tracking since about 2006," says Scott Stewart, vice-president of tactical intelligence for Stratfor, a geopolitical analysis firm based in Austin, Tex.

There have been a number of incidents that suggest the two countries have been engaged in sabotage, but these have been impossible to verify given that neither side has claimed any responsibility.

According to Stewart, one of the first signs of a "cold war" between the two countries was the disappearance — sometime between December 2006 and February 2007 — of Ali Reza Asgari, a general in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, an elite wing of the military charged with defending the regime, and a former deputy defence minister. Asgari, who had reportedly been in Turkey to meet a European arms dealer, was thought to be a treasure trove of information for Western intelligence agencies and Mossad. There is debate about whether he defected or was kidnapped.

Stewart claims the Iranians retaliated by abducting Bob Levinson, a former FBI agent, in Iran in 2007 and later attacking an Israeli attaché for agriculture in Paris.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012 ... -iran.html

Oil Is Poised for Weekly Decline After Saudi Denial of Pipeline Explosion


Oil fell in New York and headed for the first weekly decline in four after Saudi Arabia denied a reported pipeline explosion in its Eastern province.

Futures slid as much as 0.9 percent after climbing to the highest price in 10 months yesterday. There was no sabotage at oil facilities in the Qatif area, according to Major General Mansour Al-Turki, a spokesman for the Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry. Prices rose above $110 a barrel for the first time since May after Iran’s Press TV said an explosion hit pipelines in the area, home to Saudi Arabia’s largest refinery.

“The report of the pipeline fire seems to have been a very successful scam by the Iranians,” said Filip Petersson, commodity strategist at SEB AB in Stockholm. “They want higher oil prices to compensate for lost export barrels and are obviously using various means to achieve it. The success clearly shows how nervous the market is.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-0 ... nsion.html

More violent weather ahead for damaged communities(Ill)

Crews cleared splintered plywood and smashed appliances from small-town neighborhoods Thursday, a day after tornadoes killed 13 people in the Midwest and South. But the forecast held a menacing possibility: More twisters may be coming, and they could be even stronger.

Damaged communities tried to take advantage of the brief break in the weather, mindful of one meteorologist's warning that by Friday, both regions would again be "right in the bull's eye."


Skies were sunny in the southern Illinois community of Harrisburg, where Darrell Osman was back in the rubble of his dead mother's home, trying to salvage whatever he could. When he arrived, a neighbor handed him his mother's wallet, which the twister had dropped in a truck near her home.

He couldn't help but think of the pain that would be inflicted if another twister hit Harrisburg, a town of 9,000 where six people died.

"On a personal level, I think I've been hit as hard as I can be hit, but it would be disheartening for this community," Osman said.

Kera Wise searched the ruins of her aunt and uncle's home after the two were hospitalized in neighboring Indiana with injuries they suffered in the storm.

Wise figured she had little time to waste in rounding up her aunt's prized trove of Elvis memorabilia and Beenie Babies. Another line of storms could ruin anything left exposed to the elements.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/01/ta ... z1nxL3u2rP