517. Χρονολόγιο μέτρων (διαρκής ενημέρωση)

Παρατηρήθηκε ότι με τον εγκλεισμό στο σπίτι και το βομβαρδισμό ειδήσεων έχει χαθεί η αίσθηση του χρόνου.

H αίσθηση που επικρατεί για αυτήν την καταστάση είναι σαν να υπήρχε από πάντα και όλα τα μέτρα μοιάζουν να ελήφθησαν-ανακοινώθηκαν μόλις χθες. 

Όσα μπορούσα να θυμηθώ

Όλα ανακοινώνονται για δύο εβδομάδες, μέχρι νεωτέρας.

Μέχρι νεωτέρας..

Δεν ξέρω ποιοί με εκνευρίζουν περισσότερο: οι yolo αλαφροϊσκιωτοι ή οι πανικόβλητοι καταστροφολόγοι.

Για να αυξήσεις τις πιθανότητες επιβίωσης σου πρέπει να γνωρίζεις τί ισχύει και να θυμάσαι.



Don't succumb to this culture of fear


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

20200323 Δευτέρα: Απαγόρευση άσκοπων μετακινήσεων. Η κυκλοφορία των πολιτών θα επιτρέπεται μόνο για τους ακόλουθους λόγους:

α.Μετάβαση από και προς την εργασία για τις εργάσιμες ώρες.
β. Μετάβαση σε φαρμακείο ή επίσκεψη στον γιατρό, εφόσον αυτό συνιστάται μετά από σχετική επικοινωνία.
γ. Μετάβαση σε εν λειτουργία κατάστημα προμηθειών αγαθών πρώτης ανάγκης, όπου δεν είναι δυνατή η αποστολή τους.
δ. Μετάβαση στην τράπεζα, στο μέτρο που δεν είναι δυνατή η ηλεκτρονική συναλλαγή.
ε. Κίνηση για παροχή βοήθειας σε ανθρώπους που βρίσκονται σε ανάγκη.
στ. Μετάβαση σε τελετή (π.χ. κηδεία, γάμος, βάφτιση ή ανάλογες τελετές) υπό τους όρους που προβλέπει ο νόμος.
ζ. Σωματική άσκηση σε εξωτερικό χώρο ή κίνηση με κατοικίδιο ζώο, ατομικά ή ανά δύο άτομα, τηρώντας στην τελευταία αυτή περίπτωση την αναγκαία απόσταση 1,5 μέτρου.
η. Εφάπαξ μετάβαση στον τόπο της μόνιμης κατοικίας.

Ακόμη, σε κάθε ΙΧ πρέπει να επιβαίνουν μόνο δύο άτομα. Ο οδηγός και ο συνοδηγός.

Όλοι οι πολίτες θα πρέπει να έχουν μαζί τους διαβατήριο ή ταυτότητα όταν μετακινούνται, καθώς και τη σχετική βεβαίωση κίνησης. Για μετάβαση προς και από την εργασία κατά τις εργάσιμες ώρες, η βεβαίωση κίνησης είναι πάγια (τύπου A) και παρέχεται, με προσωπική ευθύνη του υπογράφοντος, από τον εργοδότη ή, σε περίπτωση νομικού προσώπου από τον νόμιμο εκπρόσωπό του ή, σε περίπτωση ελεύθερου επαγγελματία ή αυτοαπασχολούμενου, από τον ίδιο.

Για όλες τις άλλες μετακινήσεις, η βεβαίωση κίνησης αφορά κάθε μεμονωμένη κίνηση και μόνο αυτή (τύπου Β), υπογράφεται από τον ίδιο τον ενδιαφερόμενο με προσωπική του ευθύνη και περιέχει το ονοματεπώνυμο, την ημερομηνία γέννησης, την διεύθυνση κατοικίας και την ώρα μετακίνησης του πολίτη, καθώς και τον συγκεκριμένο λόγο της μετακίνησης.

Για μεμονωμένες μετακινήσεις (τύπου Β), υπάρχουν  3 επιλογές: SMS, εκτυπωμένο και συμπληρωμένο έντυπο βεβαίωσης κίνησης, ή και χειρόγραφη βεβαίωση κίνησης.

Μπορείτε να στείλετε από το κινητό σας μήνυμα SMS στον αριθμό 13033 χωρίς χρέωση.

Το SMS πρέπει να είναι της μορφής:

X [κενό] ονοματεπώνυμο και διεύθυνση κατοικίας
όπου Χ ο λόγος εξόδου

20200321 Σάββατο: Απαγόρευση μετακίνησης προς τα νησιά σε μη μόνιμους κατοίκους

20200319 Τετάρτη: Απαγόρευση δημόσιων υπαίθριων συναθροίσεων 10 και άνω ατόμων. Ανακοίνωση υπάρξης διοικητικού προστίμου 1.000 ευρώ ανά άτομο, ανεξαρτήτως άλλων ευθυνών.

20200317 Τρίτη: Απόφαση για αναστολή των λειτουργιών στους ναούς.

20200316 Δευτέρα: Απόφαση για:
– Αναστολή λειτουργίας εμπορικών καταστημάτων από 18/3/2020.
– Υποχρεωτικός κατ’ οίκον περιορισμός για 14 ημέρες όσων εισέρχονται στην Ελλάδα από το εξωτερικό.
– Αναστολή της εφαρμογής του μέτρου του δακτυλίου μέχρι το τέλος Απριλίου.
– Αναστολή για δύο εβδομάδες από το Υπουργείο Αγροτικής Ανάπτυξης υποβολής δηλώσεων ΟΣΔΕ.

20200315 Κυριακή: Στην καθημερινή σύσκεψη υπό τον Πρωθυπουργό αποφασίζεται:
– Η διακοπή οδικών, θαλάσσιων και αεροπορικών συνδέσεων με Αλβανία και Βόρεια Μακεδονία, με εξαίρεση τη μεταφορά εμπορευμάτων και την είσοδο όσων έχουν ελληνική ιθαγένεια ή διαμένουν στην Ελλάδα.
– Η διακοπή και της ακτοπλοϊκής μεταφοράς από και προς Ιταλία για επιβάτες. Συνεχίζεται η μεταφορά εμπορευμάτων.
– Η απαγόρευση της πρόσδεσης κρουαζιερόπλοιων και ημερόπλοιων στα ελληνικά λιμάνια.
– Διακόπτονται οι αεροπορικές συνδέσεις με Ισπανία.
– Εχουν γίνει συντονισμένες προσπάθειες με ξένες πρεσβείες ώστε η Ελλάδα να προμηθευθεί μάσκες τις επόμενες μέρες από χώρες που έχουν απόθεμα.
– Επιπλέον των υπόλοιπων νομικών συνεπειών, θα επιβάλλονται πρόστιμα 5.000 ευρώ σε όσους, επιδεικνύοντας αντικοινωνική συμπεριφορά, παραβιάζουν τα μέτρα που ανακοινώνονται.

20200314 Σάββατο: Διαφημιστικό τηλεοπτικό σποτ. Απόφαση για κλείσιμο χιονοδρομικών κέντρων και οι οργανωμένων παραλιών.

20200313 Παρασκευή: Απόφαση για κλείσιμο εμπορικών κέντρων, καφέ, μπαρ και καφετεριών, μαγαζιά εστίασης εκτός delivery και take away, βιβλιοθήκες, μουσεία, αθλητικοί χώροι, κέντρα αισθητικής.

20200312 Πέμπτη: Απόφαση για αναστολή της λειτουργίας των δικαστηρίων, των γυμναστηρίων, των κέντρων διασκέδασης, των θεάτρων και των κινηματογράφων.

20200311 Τετάρτη: 99 κρούσματα

20200310 Τρίτη: Απόφαση για κλείσιμο κάθε δομής όλων των εκπαιδευτικών βαθμίδων σε όλη τη χώρα για 14 μέρες.
Νομοθετική παρέμβαση του Υπουργείου Οικονομικών με την οποία παρέχεται η δυνατότητα η ποσότητα αιθυλικής αλκοόλης που έχει δημευθεί ή κατασχεθεί, ως αντικείμενο λαθρεμπορίας, να διατεθεί με πράξη του Διοικητή της ΑΑΔΕ δωρεάν, προς το Υπουργείο Υγείας, για τον σκοπό της παρασκευής αντισηπτικών, με βάση την έκθεση εξέτασης δείγματος που εκδίδεται από την αρμόδια Χημική Υπηρεσία.

20200308 Κυριακή: Ανακοίνωση Υπουργείου Υγείας:
– Αναστολή της λειτουργίας των ΚΑΠΗ όλης της χώρας για 4 εβδομάδες.
– Αναστολή οιασδήποτε συνεδριακής εκδήλωσης στην επικράτεια για τις επόμενες 4 εβδομάδες.
– Αναστολή όλων των σχολικών εκδρομών στο εσωτερικό της χώρας για 2 εβδομάδες.
– Διεξαγωγή όλων των αθλητικών εκδηλώσεων κεκλεισμένων των θυρών για τις επόμενες 2 εβδομάδες.


20200305 Πέμπτη: Σύσκεψη με το Υπουργείο Υγείας για την πορεία εξάπλωσης του κορωνοϊού. Εκδοση ΠΝΠ με 5 βασικά άρθρα:
– Το πρώτο άρθρο αφορά στα μέτρα πρόληψης, υγειονομικής παρακολούθησης και περιορισμού της διάδοσης της νόσου.
– Το δεύτερο άρθρο αφορά ζητήματα προσωπικού για την αντιμετώπιση της διάδοσης του κορωνοϊού.
– Το τρίτο άρθρο αφορά σε ζητήματα δημοσίων συμβάσεων και ειδικότερα στην απευθείας αγορά, κατά παρέκκλιση όλων των κείμενων διατάξεων, υγειονομικού υλικού, ατομικών μέτρων προστασίας και φαρμάκων.
– Το τέταρτο άρθρο αφορά σε ζητήματα αναγκαστικής διάθεσης στο Δημόσιο κλινών ιδιωτικών θεραπευτηρίων και κλινικών, κλινών Μονάδων Εντατικής Θεραπείας (ΜΕΘ), ξενοδοχείων, ιδιωτικών χώρων παροχής υπηρεσιών στέγασης, άλλων δημόσιων ιδιοκτησιών ή ιδιοκτησιών Νομικών Προσώπων Δημοσίου Δικαίου.
– Το πέμπτο άρθρο αφορά στην έκτακτη οικονομική επιχορήγηση του Υπουργείου Υγείας για την κάλυψη των εκτάκτων αναγκών πρόσληψης ιατρικού, νοσηλευτικού και υγειονομικού προσωπικού, για την αγορά υλικών και τη λήψη μέτρων προστασίας.

20200228 Παρασκευή: Σύσκεψη με την πολιτική ηγεσία του Υπουργείου Οικονομικών σχετικά με τις επιπτώσεις του διεθνούς προβλήματος του κορωνοϊού στην ελληνική οικονομία, στα νοικοκυριά και τις επιχειρήσεις.

20200227 Πέμπτη: Ακύρωση καρναβαλικών εκδηλώσεων. Αναστολή και ανάκληση μέχρι νεωτέρας των κανονικών αδειών του υγειονομικού προσωπικού σε όλη τη χώρα.

20200226 Τετάρτη: 1 κρούσμα: Απόφαση για αναστολή των κανονικών αδειών του προσωπικού της Κεντρικής Υπηρεσίας του Υπουργείου Υγείας, των Κεντρικών Υπηρεσιών των Υγειονομικών Περιφερειών, των νοσοκομείων του ΕΣΥ, του ΕΚΑΒ, του ΕΟΔΥ, του ΕΚΕΑ, της ΕΚΑΠΥ, του ΙΦΕΤ και των Δημοσίων Δομών Πρωτοβάθμιας Φροντίδας Υγείας (Κέντρα Υγείας, Πολυδύναμα Περιφερειακά Ιατρεία, Περιφερειακά Ιατρεία και Τοπικά Ιατρεία), καθώς και των Τοπικών Ομάδων Υγείας σε όλη τη χώρα.

πληροφορίες από
Εθνικό Κήρυκα
Βικιπαίδεια

[NEWS] About the coronavirus

https://systems.jhu.edu/research/public-health/ncov/





You will find more infographics at Statista


World Health Organization recommends people take simple precautions against virus to reduce exposure and transmission

Justin McCurry

Mon 27 Jan 2020 09.19 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jan/27/coronavirus-how-to-protect-yourself-from-infection
A Chinese man wears a protective mask, goggles and coat as he stands in a nearly empty street during the Chinese New Year holiday in Beijing
A Chinese man wears a protective mask, goggles and coat during the lunar new year holiday in Beijing. Health authorities are urging people to take precautions against the spread of the coronavirus. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

The spread of the coronavirus across China and to at least 10 other countries including the US, South Korea and Japan has prompted experts and health authorities to offer advice on how to reduce the chances of contracting the illness.

All but four of the 80 reported deaths so far have been recorded in Hubei province where the outbreak started. Experts have warned, however, that about 100,000 people may already be infected – far more than the 2,700 cases reported by China’s National Health Commission in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
What is the coronavirus and how worried should we be?
Read more

The World Health Organisation is recommending that people take simple precautions to reduce exposure to and transmission of the virus, for which there is no specific cure or vaccine.

The UN agency advises people to:

    Frequently wash their hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or warm water and soap

    Cover their mouth and nose with a flexed elbow or tissue when sneezing or coughing

    Avoid close contact with anyone who has a fever or cough

    Seek early medical help if they have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, and share their travel history with healthcare providers

    Avoid direct, unprotected contact with live animals and surfaces in contact with animals when visiting live markets in affected areas

    Avoid eating raw or undercooked animal products and exercise care when handling raw meat, milk or animal organs to avoid cross-contamination with uncooked foods

Despite a surge in sales of face masks in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak, experts are divided over whether they can prevent transmission and infection of the airborne disease.

There is some evidence to suggest that masks can help prevent hand-to-mouth transmissions, given the large number of times people touch their faces – 23 times an hour, according to one study.

Dr David Carrington, of St George’s, University of London, told BBC News that “routine surgical masks for the public are not an effective protection against viruses or bacteria carried in the air”, because they were too loose, had no air filter and left the eyes exposed.

Masks could, however, help lower the risk of contracting a virus through the “splash” from a sneeze or a cough and offer some protection against hand-to-mouth transmissions, he said.

The consensus appears to be that wearing a mask can limit – but not eliminate – the risks, provided they are used correctly. That means securing them over the mouth, chin and nose, using the bendable metal strip at the top to keep it snug against the contours of the nose.

Experts say the best way to avoid germs, with coronavirus and other airborne illnesses, is to wash your hands thoroughly and frequently, try not to touch your face or eyes and avoid contact with people displaying symptoms.

WHO experts advise against wearing gloves on the basis that hand-washing is more important and people wearing gloves are less likely to wash their hands.










Why we should be skeptical of China’s coronavirus quarantine
As a historian of epidemics, I’m not optimistic it will turn out well

By Howard Markel
Howard Markel is the George E. Wantz distinguished professor of the history of medicine, a professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases, and the director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan. He is the author of “Quarantine!” and “When Germs Travel.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/why-we-should-be-skeptical-of-chinas-coronavirus-quarantine/2020/01/24/51b711ca-3e2d-11ea-8872-5df698785a4e_story.html

The new respiratory coronavirus, first detected in Wuhan, China, last month, is like most germs: It travels. It has jumped to Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, the southern Chinese province of Guangdong (home to SARS in 2003) and across borders to Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Japan, and even Seattle and Chicago. At this writing, more than 800 people have contracted it, and 26 have died.

To combat the contagion, the Chinese government has taken the extraordinary step of quarantining the city of Wuhan, as well as neighboring districts and cities. The borders are sealed, and all transportation out is blocked. Officials closed the public transportation systems. Friday morning, more than 35 million people woke up facing aggressive curtailments of their freedom.

Having spent my medical and academic career studying these issues, I am astounded by what is already the single largest quarantine in recorded history. As a physician, I cannot yet give a prognosis of how all this will work out. But as a historian of quarantines and epidemics — one who has read, seen or written similar sad stories too many times — I am not terribly optimistic it will turn out well.

China is in a real bind. If Beijing doesn’t act — or delays reporting on the situation, as officials did for five long months during the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic of 2002-2003 — then the virus will spread quickly and, if it proves especially lethal, could kill many more people than it already has. China will also incur international blame, economic sanctions or worse. Doing nothing is not an option in an era when information, fear and gossip travel at the speed of electrons and the public invariably demands action from leaders.

On the other hand, by taking the draconian step of closing down densely populated urban areas, China can hope only to diminish the coronavirus’s spread, knowing full well that some additional infections, or many, will inevitably occur. It takes just a few cases to spread outside the Chinese quarantine zone before critics say it has failed. As Lawrence O. Gostin, a public health law professor at Georgetown, has, for example, already said, “It’s very unlikely to stop the progressive spread.”

The U.S. has stopped Ebola before. But it may never repeat that success.

It’s possible that this coronavirus may not be highly contagious, and it may not be all that deadly. We also do not know yet how many people have mild coronavirus infections but have not come to medical attention, especially because the illness begins with mild to moderate respiratory tract symptoms, similar to those of the common cold, including coughing, fever, sniffles and congestion. Based on data from other coronaviruses, experts believe the incubation period for this new coronavirus is about five days (the range runs from two to 14 days), but we do not yet know how efficiently this coronavirus spreads from infected person to healthy person. And because antibodies for coronavirus do not tend to remain in the body all that long, it is possible for someone to contract a “cold” with coronavirus and then, four months later, catch the virus again.

The case fatality rate, a very important statistic in epidemiology, is calculated by dividing the number of known deaths by the number of known cases. At present, the virus appears to have a fatality rate of about 3 percent, which mirrors that of the influenza pandemic of 1918.

But what if there are 100,000 Chinese citizens in Wuhan with mild infections that we do not know about? That would lower the case fatality rate to a mere 0.02 percent, which comes closer to seasonal flu death rates. If that’s the case, a major disruption like the Chinese quarantine would seem foolish and cost a fortune in terms of public health efforts, interrupted commerce, public dissonance, trust, good will and panic.

Even open societies such as the United States have stringent laws regarding quarantine during epidemics, but they are rarely used because they are so poorly tolerated by citizens. Nevertheless, Americans have a long history of misapplying the quarantine. Russian Jewish immigrants in New York City in 1892, San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1900, and more recently gay men and Haitians in the early years of the AIDS epidemic were all stigmatized, isolated and blamed for the spread of contagious diseases. In many instances, some of these “undesirable” groups were inappropriately quarantined; their health needs were routinely ignored; and some even contracted deadly diseases while in isolation.


None of this is to say that extreme quarantines can’t be effective. In 2004, I attended an international meeting focused on examining the public health response to the SARS epidemic the year before. One panel featured the health officers of Singapore, Beijing, Hong Kong and Toronto. Singapore and Beijing had imposed the harshest and most restrictive quarantines and had the best results in terms of decreasing the disease’s spread and rates of morbidity and mortality. Hong Kong, and to a much greater extent Toronto — both open societies — applied far more lax containment policies and experienced much greater spread of the disease and more deaths.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean autocratic nations, such as China, are better equipped to contain contagious diseases. When the public trusts leaders and health authorities, it is easier to establish wide-scale cooperation, clear lines of communication and appropriate, humane health care. Civic-minded, community-wide, voluntary disease containment and mitigation efforts — such as those adopted in Mexico City during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, when officials inspired buy-in from the public to enact bans on social gatherings, school closures, isolation of the ill and at-home quarantines for those suspected of having contact with sick people — have been shown to work well. That is certainly the prescription I would write, and it’s not one that extreme measures are likely to engender.

Microbes, as agents of illness and death, are the ultimate social leveler. They bind us and, when transmitted through a filter of fear, have the power to divide. China has deemed this contagious disease to be too dangerous, or poorly understood, to take any chances with the public’s health. But the country also has a moral imperative to provide safe and compassionate medical care for those confirmed or suspected to be infected by the coronavirus. Equitable and fair attention to adequate housing; individual rights; economic and recreational needs; cultural and religious beliefs and practices; Internet, telecommunications and other connectivity; and the emotional, psychological and social difficulties patients invariably experience in isolation are as essential to a quarantine effort as the hue and cry of rounding up victims. Such human considerations cannot, of course, eradicate the many problems caused by the experience of quarantine, but they can reduce those burdens.

This is the question that will shape the story of this coronavirus outbreak: Not whether China will quarantine other cities or impose still more draconian edicts, but whether it is up to the enormous task of caring for those separated from the rest of society.

China's deadly pig pandemic should worry everyone: Here's why

Rather than acknowledge the problem, officials throughout the Chinese government shut down media coverage

 It's a familiar and ominous story. A deadly pathogen with no known cure begins spreading in China. Rather than acknowledge the problem, officials throughout the Chinese government shut down media coverage, while under-reporting infection and mortality rates for fear of career and political repercussions. Just as the true scale of the epidemic emerges, Chinese officials declare victory.

In 2002 and 2003, that was roughly the course of the deadly, incurable SARS pandemic that emerged in southern China and disrupted global travel, commerce and health. In 2018 and 2019, it's an accurate description of how China has mismanaged an epidemic of African swine fever that's on course to kill 130 million pigs -- or roughly one-third of China's herd, the biggest in the world.

AS SEEN @https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/china-s-deadly-pig-pandemic-should-worry-everyone-here-s-why-119042400282_1.html

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Post-SARS, China supposedly reformed its system so that secrecy, careerism and concerns over China's international image wouldn't again take precedence over public health. Thankfully African swine fever only affects pigs. But the epidemic highlights how hard old habits die, and how systemically unprepared China is to report and manage the inevitable next epidemic that kills people.

For decades, the Chinese government's top priority has been the preservation of social stability. Mainly this is promoted through economic development policies designed to enrich and placate China's vast population, especially in the countryside. Meanwhile, events that the government views as potentially threatening tend to be suppressed. For example, in 1976, the government censored reporting on the Tangshan earthquake, a catastrophic event that killed more than 500,000 people, for fear of how the public would react to the death toll and the government's inadequate response.

That preference for secrecy in the face of natural and human-made disasters didn’t dissipate in the wake of China's economic opening. In fact, it's strengthened over the decades as the government has prioritized economic growth as the all-purpose solution to China's ills. Insofar as news about natural disasters might inhibit investment and disrupt business, it’s clearly unwelcome.

Meanwhile, China's hierarchical system remains fragmented and autonomous below the top levels of power. Despite President Xi Jinping’s efforts at bureaucratic reform, this chaotic structure tends to bog down policymaking and confuse lines of authority. For example, during the SARS crisis in 2002 and 2003, the Ministry of Health was politically subservient to provincial governments and its recommendations were viewed as guidelines, not directives. Likewise, provincial governments had limited obligations to communicate with the Ministry of Health or the central government.

The result was an uncoordinated political process in which local officials prioritized provincial needs -- most notably, promoting growth (and thereby, their own careers) -- rather than calling attention to the emerging epidemic. The Communist Party also proved reluctant to distract officials and the public from a politically crucial Party Congress. The immediate needs of the public, insofar as they were considered at all, were subservient to the needs of the bureaucracy.

At first glance, African swine fever doesn't seem to have much in common with the SARS pandemic. But, from the perspective of officials, it's also a serious threat to social stability. In China, where pork is the staple protein, rising pork prices play an outsize role in the country's inflation rate. That fact appears to be undercutting post-SARS reforms intended to create more transparency during natural disasters. In recent months, there have been numerous reports of pig death undercounts and coverups, and widespread efforts to suppress and censor news coverage while promoting a false narrative that the epidemic is under control (it's not).

While the outbreak may not be as immediately dangerous to humans as SARS, the official response should worry Chinese, as well as public health authorities globally.

Thanks to its geographic position on migratory bird routes, its vast and largely unregulated livestock industry, and its weak public health institutions, China is a prime candidate to serve as the incubator for the next pandemic capable of killing millions of humans. Ensuring that Beijing responds to that epidemic in a responsible manner must be a global priority.

The WHO has a plan to save the world from the next pandemic—but it doesn’t have the money

DATE: 02/01/2017
RETRIEVED: 03/01/2017
SOURCE: QUARTZ

As a new year begins, the WHO is beginning to implement a new pandemic preparedness plan, so that countries around the world are ready for the next Ebola or Zika. Step one in that plan is the creation of the Emerging Diseases Clinical Assessment and Response Network (EDCARN), intended to help caretakers during an outbreak.

But for the WHO to implement its new health-emergencies program in 2016-17—of which EDCARN is a part—the agency needs $485 million in funding. As of October (pdf), they had raised just over half that. Worse, the organization also needs $656 million to support its humanitarian response plans, but as of October had only raised a third.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE @

http://qz.com/876470/the-who-has-a-plan-to-save-the-world-from-the-next-pandemic-but-it-doesnt-have-the-money/

HIV & AIDS Cure Updates: Nanotechnology the next frontier, latest solution discovered

DATE: 14/12/2016
AUTHOR: JACQUES FOUCAULT
SOURCE: YIBADA


HIV and AIDS are among the most dreaded diseases that have long puzzled the medical science for its definitive cure. However, with the recent discovery made in Nigeria using nanotechnology, such disease may soon be eradicated.

Extensive and categorical cure for HIV/AIDS might have already been discovered by a team of Nigerian researchers, headed by Prof. Maduike Ezeibe. Such cure is unique in itself, for it utilizes nanotechnology to create a so-called nanomedication. With the use of Medicinal Synthetic Aluminium-magnesium Silicate (MSAMS) Ezeibe and his team managed to attract global experts, which led their proposed cure to be published in the prestigious British Journal of Medicine & Medical Research.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE @ http://en.yibada.com/articles/178874/20161214/hiv-aids-aids-cure-medicine-public-health.htm

Plume Labs raises $4.5 million to expand its AI-driven app that helps people avoid air pollution

DATE: 15/12/2016
AUTHOR: CHRIS O'BRIEN
SOURCE: VENTUREBEAT


Paris-based Plume Labs announced today that it has raised $4.5 million as the company seeks to deepen the impact of an air pollution service it hopes will improve health, and even save lives.

Launching last year, the Plume Air Report is a free mobile app for the iPhone and Android phones that allows consumers to measure their exposure to heavy pollution and offers pollution forecasts. The service plugs into publicly available pollution data and air quality monitors operated by governments and then uses AI to track and forecast pollution safety levels.

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 http://venturebeat.com/2016/12/15/plume-labs-raises-4-5-million-to-expand-its-ai-driven-app-that-helps-people-avoid-air-pollution/

Re-emergence of syphilis traced to pandemic strain cluster

DATE: 5/12/2016
SOURCE: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161205110911.htm

Over the last few decades, an age-old infectious disease has been re-emerging globally: syphilis. Using techniques to analyze low levels of DNA, an international research team has now shown that all syphilis strains from modern patient samples share a common ancestor from the 1700s. Furthermore, their research demonstrates that strains dominating infections today originate from a pandemic cluster that emerged after 1950, and these strains share a worrying trait: resistance to the second-line antibiotic azithromycin.

READ THE REST @ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161205110911.htm

WHO warns of H7N9 pandemic

15/12/2016

World Health Organization director- general Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun warns bird flu H7N9 is particularly worrying as it could be a flu pandemic strain.

This is because H7N9 is unique as it does not make chickens sick but is deadly in humans. Sick birds could usually provide early warning for imminent outbreaks, Chan told The Standard.

This comes as Macau reported its first human case of H7N9 yesterday.

"The biggest challenge for the world is the next influenza pandemic," Chan said.

The last flu pandemic was the human swine flu H1N1 which originated in Mexico in 2009, but was considered milder than most pandemics.

Chan, who was the first to notify the WHO of a new bird flu H5N1 when she was Hong Kong's director of health in 1997, said that of the various bird flu viruses, she has paid attention the most to H7N9.

"H7N9 is unique as compared to H5N1. Why? Because when it affects the poultry population, it does not kill the bird. So we lost one early warning signal. We only see human morbidity and mortality," she said.

"In other words this is not causing disease in birds, it is only causing disease when it jumps to humans. So we need to watch it. We have been blindsided (by H7N9) as we don't have early warning signs in animals as we do in H5N1."

READ THE REST @ http://www.thestandard.com.hk/section-news.php?id=177527