A microbe found in mosquitoes that appears to block malaria could be used to control spread of the disease in humans, according to researchers in Kenya and Britain.

Damage from a natural disaster in one place can spread globally due to urban trade networks, a Yale study said Monday.

Thousands of North Carolina teachers will take leave on May 16 to protest at the state capitol, forcing some school districts to close.

Students and adults in the school community will all need more support when schools reopen, writes the head of the National Association of School Psychologists.

Coronavirus is spreading rapidly in pre- and post-trial correctional facilities across the United States, and the challenges of social distancing for students in regular districts are all massively compounded for students behind bars.

Students and adults in the school community will all need more support when schools reopen, writes the head of the National Association of School Psychologists.

London : Swan Sonnenschein, 1898.

The very first case of corona-virus illness was recorded on 30 January 2020, in India and the number of infected cases, including the death toll, continues to rise. In this paper, we present short-term forecasts of COVID-19 for 28 Indian states and five union territories using real-time data from 30 January to 21 April 2020. Applying Holt's second-order exponential smoothing method and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model, we generate 10-day ahead forecasts of the likely number of infected cases and deaths in India for 22 April to 1 May 2020. Our results show that the number of cumulative cases in India will rise to 36335.63 [PI 95% (30884.56, 42918.87)], concurrently the number of deaths may increase to 1099.38 [PI 95% (959.77, 1553.76)] by 1 May 2020. Further, we have divided the country into severity zones based on the cumulative cases. According to this analysis, Maharashtra is likely to be the most affected states with around 9787.24 [PI 95% (6949.81, 13757.06)] cumulative cases by 1 May 2020. However, Kerala and Karnataka are likely to shift from the red zone (i.e. highly affected) to the lesser affected region. On the other hand, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh will move to the red zone. These results mark the states where lockdown by 3 May 2020, can be loosened.

Far-right groups and individuals in the United States are exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to promote disinformation, hate, extremism and authoritarianism. "COVID-19 has been seized by far-right groups as an opportunity to call for extreme violence," states a report from ISD, based on a combination of natural language processing, network analysis and ethnographic online research.

The severity of this year's bleaching is second only to 2016, during which a third of the reef’s corals died

Acclaimed jigger Ryan Richard, from Sandy Bay First Nation, is calling all dancers to showcase their skills in an online jigging competition.

After several days in which fewer than 400 cases of COVID-19 were added to the provincial tally, Friday's report was up again, with 477 new cases reported.

Siniore desires for her family and friends to know Christ’s love as she does. After a training, she took what she learnt and put it into practice.

People arriving in the UK could be forced to quarantine for two weeks to halt the spread of coronavirus under plans for the "second phase" of the Government's response.

Almost 30 years after the first charter school legislation passed, guest blogger Sarah Tantillo takes a look at how this movement emerged and spread.

A report suggests that the $2.5 billion program should focus more on continuous improvement than on scattershot activities.

Nearly half of U.S. children experience adversity, but community-school partnerships can make a difference, write Olga Acosta Price and Wendy Ellis.

Acquired widespread pain syndromes of youth are prevalent, disabling, usually unexplained, and untreatable. Small-fiber polyneuropathy causes widespread pain and multisystem complaints in older adults. Some causes are treatable. Neurodiagnostic skin biopsy, autonomic function testing, and nerve biopsy permit objective diagnosis.

It identifies definite (in 59%) and probable (in 17%) small-fiber polyneuropathy among 41 young patients with otherwise-unexplained, childhood-onset widespread pain. It characterizes this new disease’s clinical features, diagnostic, and treatment options. Some cases appeared immune mediated and responded to immunomodulatory therapies. (Read the full article)

Some parents choose to "spread out" the recommended vaccine schedule for their child by decreasing the number of simultaneous vaccines or delaying certain vaccines until an older age. Epidemiologic studies demonstrate increasing numbers of parents are choosing to delay vaccines.

We demonstrate that almost all providers encounter requests to spread out vaccines in a typical month and, despite concerns, increasing numbers are agreeing to do so. Providers report many strategies in response to requests but think few are effective. (Read the full article)

The game's developer Ndemic Creations is adding the new 'Fake News' game scenario to raise awareness about the dangers of falsehoods and internet conspiracy theories ahead of the UK election. The new mode is now available in the iOS version.

A team of social media analysts at an SA business school is tracking misinformation, disinformation, distortion and lies online.

The hackers have been using files and emails that warn about a new coronavirus strain to trick users into opening them. Doing so can secretly deliver malware to the victim's machine.

In an effort to help mitigate the disruptive effects of the deadly COVID-19 virus, an interdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers are developing a novel methodology to analyze its spread and the impacts on policy to create better-prepared and more-resilient health care systems.

Meaghan Paige, a women’s fashion brand started by a Penn State Brandywine alumna, is supporting the local community by offering free, handmade cloth face masks during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Faculty and students at Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State College of Nursing have launched a Contact Tracing Task Force in an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Vatican City, Mar 31, 2020 / 10:28 am (CNA).- Cardinal Philippe Ouédraogo of Burkina Faso has tested positive for the coronavirus, his archdiocese announced Tuesday. He is the second cardinal known to have tested positive for the virus, which is now a global pandemic.

Ouédraogo, 75, has been admitted to a medical clinic in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou.  He is “in good condition and his close collaborators are reported to be self-isolating,” a spokesman for Burkina Faso’s bishops’ conference, Fr. Paul Dah, told ACI Africa on March 31.

The cardinal is president of the African continental bishops’ conference, the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM). He was elected to the post in July 2019. He has been Archbishop of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso for ten years, and was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2014.

Ouédraogo is the second bishop from Burkina Faso known to have contracted COVID-19, as countries across Africa implement lockdowns and restrictions to slow the spread of the virus across the continent.

Another Burkina Faso bishop, Archbishop Emeritus Séraphin François Rouamba of Koupela, tested positive for COVID-19 after being admitted to Our Lady of Peace clinic for urgent treatment on March 19.

The 78-year-old archbishop has since been transferred to another hospital and is reportedly in stable condition, according to a March 25 statement from Bishop Laurent Birfuore Dabire of Dori, Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso has the largest documented coronavirus outbreak in West Africa, with 249 documented cases as of March 31, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

The coronavirus has spread throughout the African continent to 47 countries, according to the Africa Center for Disease Control. In North Africa, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco each have more than 500 documented cases, and the South African government has reported more than 1,300.

Three Nigerian states began two-week mandatory lockdown this week to combat the spread of the virus, including Lagos, Africa’s most populous city with more than 20 million people.

Zimbabwe and Mauritius have also implemented national shut-downs, and the bishops in South Sudan and Zimbabwe have suspended public Masses.

Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, tested positive for coronavirus on March 30.

Other bishops in Italy, France, China, and the United States have also tested positive for COVID-19, and Bishop Angelo Moreschi, 67, died in the Italian city of Brescia on March 25 after contracting the coronavirus.

 

 

CNA Staff, Apr 17, 2020 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- A Catholic priest is one of two people in Kenya to be charged with “negligently spreading an infectious disease” after authorities allege he did not comply with quarantine regulations after he traveled to the country from Italy. 

Fr. Richard Onyango Oduor denied the allegations on Thursday, April 16, and is currently free after he posted bail. He will appear in court on May 2, after he spends another 14 days in quarantine. 

According to Kenyan media, Fr. Oduor is based in Rome and flew to the country to preside at a relative’s burial service. At that burial service, he distributed the Eucharist, interacting with several people. According to local media reports, as many as 60 people who came into contact with Fr. Oduor reported to the hospital, but it is unclear how many of them were eventually diagnosed with COVID-19. 

Fr. Oduor eventually tested positive for the virus, was hospitalized for a period of two weeks, and has since recovered. He was arrested on April 9, immediately after he was released from the hospital. 

Oduor reportedly traveled throughout Kenya from March 11 through 20, and was unaware that he had been infected with the coronavirus. During this period. Oduor took busses and a plane, and celebrated several Masses. 

Kenyan officials were able to locate and quarantine more than 130 people who had come into contact with Oduor before he was diagnosed with the coronavirus. This number includes priests at a parish in Nairobi where Oduor stayed before traveling to his hometown for the burial.

Archbishop Anthony Muheria, who leads the Archdiocese of Nyeri and is the apostolic administrator for the Diocese of Kitui, declined to comment about the case to Reuters, and said it was up to civil authorities to handle Oduor’s case. 

Kenya has banned public gatherings, reduced the number of people who are permitted to attend a funeral, instituted a curfew, and increased restrictions on who can travel to areas that have the highest number of cases.

In Kenya, 234 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and 11 have died. 

Oduor was arrested on the same day Gideon Saburi, the deputy governor of Kilifi, a county in Kenya, was charged with spreading coronavirus. Saburi is alleged to have appeared in public while suffering from the virus between March 6 and March 22. He has also pleaded not guilty and was released on April 16 after posting bail.

This hearty broth comprises goodness of chicken, lemon, coriander, ginger and garlic. This shorba is all things soothing and flavourful

Review of: How Behavior Spreads: The Science of Complex Contagions by Centola, Damon, reviewed by Srebrenka Letina

As part of National Fire Prevention Month in October, Smokey Bear will be visiting classrooms with the Delaware Forest Service's yearly fire prevention education programs targeted to first-grade students in the state's private, public, and charter schools. Ashley Peebles coordinates the successful effort that reaches around 9,000 students annually.

Division of Public Health (DPH) officials are concerned about the increasing number of cases of West Nile Virus (WNV) in humans this year. DPH is announcing that WNV is confirmed in a 73-year-old New Castle County man, who has been hospitalized since late August. This is the third case of WNV confirmed in humans in the last month. The first case involved a 60-year-old Sussex County man, and the second a 68-year-old New Castle County man. Additionally, DPH is awaiting results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a fourth potential case of the disease. Last week, the Delaware Department of Agriculture announced two cases of WNV in horses.

DOVER – As the number of confirmed influenza cases in Delaware continues to rise, the Division of Public Health (DPH) is announcing two recent flu-related deaths, bringing the total number of deaths for the 2019-2020 season thus far to four. The most recent victim is a 29-year-old New Castle County man diagnosed with influenza B […]

The Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH) is actively taking steps to prepare for community spread of the coronavirus disease known as COVID-19, as well as providing information to Delawareans about the actions they can take now to make preparations. To date, no one in Delaware has tested positive for COVID-19.

Customer Service Needs to Be Met by Appointment, Phone, Email or Online; Crisis Services Continue NEW CASTLE (April 5, 2020) – The Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) is announcing that all walk-in access to its public offices will end beginning on Monday, April 6, 2020, because of the potential risk for clients and […]

Governor John Carney on Thursday issued a State of Emergency declaration to prepare for the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19). The State of Emergency directs the Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) and the Delaware Department of Health & Social Services’ Division of Public Health to mobilize state agency resources to assist with Delaware’s response to the virus.

Notably, there are questions that he has raised which are not different from what Indians are already asking and discussing about between themselves.

Scientists at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) aim to begin the study at the earliest. 

Asked how India managed to keep the COVID-19 death rate low, Reddy, who obtained M.Sc. (Epidemiology) from McMaster University (Hamilton, Canada), cited that the country has a much younger population.

 The study can help ascertain whether there has been community transmission of the respiratory disease in those areas or not as the death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 1,886 and the number of cases climbed to 56,342 in the country on Friday.

In the case of Covid-19, hazardous waste is being generated in hospitals, quarantine zones or red zone areas within cities. They are potential sources of Covid-19 and can cause further spread within the locality.

For the April-July 2019 period, domestic sales declined by 22% to 2,23,612 units (as compared to 2,86,726 units sold in the same period last fiscal).

Amidst loud cheers and fluttering Tricolours and flags of the All Bodo Students Union, Modi asked the gathering — he called it the largest rally in independent India — in Kokrajhar in Bodoland Territorial Region to celebrate the peace and development accord that the government has signed with Bodo groups last month.

The DGCA has mandated that all aircraft need to be equipped with hand sanitisers, soaps and universal precaution kits to protect crew members who assist people.

This community transmission test is running separately from the testing and tracking of symptomatic travellers as well as those who have come in contact with confirmed Covid-19 cases.

After 21 employees of Ahmedabad-based Cadila Pharmaceuticals were found to be corona positive, the administration acted quickly and sanitised the entire campus of the company near Dholka.

Hashimoto told the upper house on Thursday that organisers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would continue to work together closely.

Every day we face risks. If we drive to work, we risk a fatal auto accident. If we eat red meat and fatty foods, we risk a heart attack. If we go out in public during a pandemic, we risk contracting a disease. A logical response to risk is to [...]

The post On reducing the spread of coronavirus appeared first on The DO Loop.

Four persons were detained by Ahmedabad police on Saturday for allegedly spreading misinformation about Union Home Minister Amit Shah's health by creating a fake Twitter account in his name.

[News24Wire] Only offenders who committed petty crimes will be eligible to be included in the 19 000 inmates who will be released on parole to combat the spread of Covid-19 in prisons.