Tag: disease

Ebola outbreak: WHO puts six countries on urgent alert as deaths spread

Simon Osborne – February 16, 2021

HEALTH chiefs have warned of a looming Ebola crisis after fresh outbreaks were reported in Guinea and Democratic Republic of Congo.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has put six neighbouring African countries on alert after a resurgence of the deadly virus. WHO’s Margaret Harris said: “We have already alerted the six countries around, including of course Sierra Leone and Liberia, and they are moving very fast to prepare and be ready and to look for any potential infection.”

Guinea has recorded up to 10 suspected cases of Ebola and five people have died since the start of a new outbreak of the deadly virus in the southeast of the West African nation.

Guinea’s ministry of health said it had identified 115 contacts of the known cases in the city of Nzerekore in the country’s south east and 10 in the capital Conakry since the outbreak was confirmed on Sunday.

Unlike the deadliest known outbreak, which tore through West Africa between 2013 and 2016, Guinean authorities have said they are better prepared to stop the spread of the virus.

https://www.express.co.uk

Dangerous New Pestilences Are Breaking Out All Over The Globe

– February 8, 2021

Did you hear about the outbreak of the new “mystery disease” in Tanzania?  What about the alarming new outbreak in Congo?  New developments in South Africa are making headlines all over the globe as well.  Despite all of our advanced technology, humanity remains extremely vulnerable to outbreaks of disease, and many believe that the COVID pandemic is just the beginning.  Fearsome new bugs are constantly being cooked up in labs all over the planet, and it is inevitable that there will be more “accidents” that result in more of these bugs getting released in the future.  As we have seen, a single virus can rapidly spread throughout the entire world, and it is just a matter of time before a pandemic comes along that will wipe out tens of millions of people.

This is a hot button topic for me, and so I am constantly monitoring news sources for new pestilences that may be emerging.  Needless to say, when news stories about a new “mystery illness” in Tanzania started coming out, that definitely got my attention…

A MYSTERY illness which causes patients to vomit blood has killed at least 15 in Tanzania, officials said.

More than 50 people have been hospitalised in the south of the country due to the unidentified condition which also causes nausea in sufferers.

Authorities in Tanzania do not know what is causing people to vomit blood and drop dead.

But they did suspend the doctor that first reported this outbreak for “causing panic”…

Tanzania has suspended a medical officer who reported that a mystery disease had killed 15 people in the country and caused people to throw up blood.

Felista Kisandu, the chief medical officer for the Chunya district, had described how patients ‘vomit blood and die when they get to the hospital late’ in an unexplained bout of sickness which was said to have affected more than 50 people.

At this point, officials are insisting that there will not be a wider outbreak, but of course Tanzania would also have us believe that COVID does not exist in their country when there is a tremendous amount of evidence to the contrary.

So far, this new mystery disease does not appear to match the type of killer pandemic that I described in my latest book, but we will continue to monitor the situation.

Meanwhile, a new Ebola outbreak in Congo is creating a tremendous amount of concern…

http://endoftheamericandream.com

UK Professor Who Warned WHO About COVID-19 Says ‘Disease X’ Pandemic is Around Corner

Sputnik News – January 28, 2021

The development comes a day after Bill Gates said that the world is not ready for the next pandemic. The Microsoft co-founder, who is at the forefront of the campaign to eradicate COVID-19, said the next outbreak could be ten times worse than the current one and called on the international community to prepare for future challenges.

A leading British scientist has warned that a pandemic of “Disease X” is around the corner, noting that it is not a matter of if, but when the world will face another daunting challenge. Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the Usher Institute at the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh, said he and his colleagues in 2017 approached the World Health Organisation, asking the agency to place something called Disease X on its list of priorities.

“We thought that the next emerging pandemic might be a virus that we don’t even know about yet – quite frankly we thought it was the most likely scenario”, Woolhouse said.

At a meeting with WHO officials a year later, Woolhouse and his colleagues thought about what Disease X could wind up being. One of their hypotheses suggested that it would be a novel coronavirus related to MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) or SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome).

Asked whether the next Disease X could potentially be around the corner, the scientist responded “absolutely”. Woolhouse noted, however, that the mechanism by which the disease will break out is always unpredictable.

https://sputniknews.com

First U.S. cases of South Africa COVID-19 variant reported in South Carolina

UPI – January 28, 2021

Jan. 28 (UPI) — Health officials in South Carolina announced Thursday that they have identified two cases of a COVID-19 variant that emerged recently in South Africa — which are the first confirmed cases of the mutated virus in the United States.

Federal officials identified the B.1.351 variant in adults from the state’s Lowcountry and Pee Dee regions, according to South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control.

The patients have not traveled internationally and did not know each other, the department said.

“The arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 variant in our state is an important reminder to all South Carolinians that the fight against this deadly virus is far from over,” interim DHEC Public Health Director Dr. Brannon Traxler said in a statement.

“While more COVID-19 vaccines are on the way, supplies are still limited. Every one of us must recommit to the fight by recognizing that we are all on the front lines now. We are all in this together.”

New variants first reported in Britain and South Africa are said to be more transmissible, but most experts have said the available vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna should also be effective against the mutated strains.

“At this time, there’s no evidence to suggest that the B.1.351 variant causes more severe illness,” the department added.

https://www.breitbart.com

New York Bill Would Let Governor Imprison, Forcibly Medicate People Suspected Of Illness

– January 3, 2021

The New York assembly is considering a bill that would allow government officials such as Gov. Andrew Cuomo and health commissioners to “detain or remove” individuals that they deem a risk to public health.

The bill, first introduced by Democrat New York State Assemblyman N. Nick Perry, grants power to Cuomo and state health officials to forcibly confine any individual who is considered a danger due to a contagious disease or a suspected case of that disease to either a medical facility or another type of space appointed by the governor.

“The governor or his or her delegee may, in his or her discretion, issue and seek enforcement of any other orders that he or she determines are necessary or appropriate to prevent dissemination or transmission of contagious diseases or other illnesses that may pose a threat to the public health,” the bill states.

The proposed legislation does not name COVID-19 specifically. Instead, it claims that, in addition to being detained, individuals who are exposed or infected by a “communicable disease” resulting in “severe morbidity or high mortality” may also be subjected to tests, medical examinations, treatment, preventative medication, and vaccination by the state while being held.

Requirements for this legal detention include the production of “clear and convincing evidence” by the state as well as a court order if the custody prolongs 60 days. Judicial review is required if an individual is detained for more than 90 days.

Individuals may be released only after subjective scrutiny from health departments, which will determine “that the person is not infected with the disease or that such contact no longer presents a potential danger to the health of others.”

https://thefederalist.com

Barrage Of New Countries And Airlines To Adopt Vaccine Passports

Steve Watson – January 20, 2021

Several more countries have indicated that they are to adopt vaccination passports, meaning anyone crossing their borders will need to be able to prove they have been inoculated against coronavirus.

It is being reported that the South African government is working on implementing an entire Covid-19 vaccine ‘ID system’, which will not only encompass the so called ‘passports’, but will also include “management and surveillance of the Covid-19 vaccine,” as well as “an integrated track-and-trace system,” and “a dashboard system… to capture the reasons given for vaccine refusal.”

The country’s COVID battle has come under scrutiny in recent weeks with a purported super ‘mutation’ of the virus being discovered there.

The South African Department of Health has announced that all citizens who are vaccinated will be placed on a national register and provided with a vaccination card.

Meanwhile, in Europe, another country has indicated it will adopt the vaccination passport scheme with Ukrainian health officials announcing that all vaccinated people will be entered into an electronic health care database.

“When mandatory vaccination passports are introduced at the international level, Ukrainian doctors will be able to promptly issue a certificate of vaccinations,” said chief sanitary doctor of Ukraine Viktor Liashko.

Another country said to be mulling the introduction of COVID passports is Russia. The New York Times reported that “The Russian government is considering issuing coronavirus health certificates that could ease travel and commerce for people who have been vaccinated.”

The Times quoted the head of the Russian Parliament’s committee on public health, Dmitri Morozov, who said that a Covid passport was “very important and needed.”

“This is great, this is the new world,” Morozov reportedly stated.

https://summit.news

COVID “Detention Camps?” State government proposal revealed

–  January 9, 2021

(NaturalHealth365) It’s been over a year since the COVID-19 pandemic began.  Now, even as lockdowns and curfews persist and the vaccine rollout continues across America, we continue to find ourselves surprised by the troubling, if not creative ways, that government officials attempt to squeeze more control out of the situation.

The latest harrowing example is a New York State-sponsored proposal that demands detention camp for anyone identified as a “case, contact or carrier” of a contagious disease.  It’s a harrowing revelation – and would be so even if there weren’t already serious questions about the COVID-19 testing accuracy and false-positive rates.

The New York State Assembly bill in question is called Bill A416 and is sponsored by a Democratic member of the New York State Assembly, N. Nick Perry.  As of January 4, 2021, the bill has been introduced to the 2021-2022 Legislative Session and is currently in front of the Assembly Health Committee.

Bill A416, in summary, “[r]elates to the removal of cases, contacts, and carriers of communicable diseases that are potentially dangerous to the public health.”  The bill doesn’t mention COVID-19 specifically, and a similar bill was also introduced (and fell flat) during the Legislative Session of 2015-2016.

In attempts to blur the lines with pages of legalese, the bill continues:

“Upon determining by clear and convincing evidence that the health of others is or may be endangered by a case, contact or carrier, or suspected case, contact or carrier of a contagious disease that, in the opinion of the governor … may pose an imminent and significant threat to the public health resulting in severe morbidity or high mortality, the governor or his or her delegee … may order the removal and/or detention of such a person or a group of such persons by issuing a single order, identifying such persons either by name or by a reasonably specific description of the individuals or group being detained.”

The bill would allow officials to:

  • Approve detentions unilaterally (but require a court order within 60 days of confinement)
  • Require detainees to submit to medical examinations and/or complete an “appropriate, prescribed course of treatment, preventative medication or vaccination,” which would be legally enforcible so long as officials procure a court order

NOT present in the bill are any specific timeframes, criteria, or locations for these detentions – details that, if the bill were to pass, would ultimately be left up to the discretion of the NY governor (at the moment, Governor Andrew Cuomo).

https://www.naturalhealth365.com

Wisconsin pharmacist arrested on charges of sabotaging COVID vaccine doses

Steve Gorman and Rebecca Spalding – January 1, 2021

Dec 31 (Reuters) – A Wisconsin hospital pharmacist was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of sabotaging more than 500 doses of coronavirus vaccine by deliberately removing them from refrigeration to spoil, police and medical authorities said.

The pharmacist, an employee of Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, Wisconsin, at the time that 57 vials of vaccine were found left out of cold storage earlier this week, has since been fired but has not been publicly identified, officials said.

Each vial contains 10 doses. Nearly 60 of the doses in question were administered before hospital officials determined the medication had been left unrefrigerated long enough to render the vaccine ineffective. The remaining 500-plus doses were then discarded.

Moderna Inc, maker of the vaccine, has assured the hospital that receiving an injection of any of the doses removed from refrigeration poses no safety issue, other than leaving the recipient unprotected from COVID infection, said Dr. Jeff Bahr, Aurora Health Care Medical Group president.

Neither Aurora Health nor law enforcement offered any possible motive for the sabotage.

https://news.trust.org

54 Million Americans – Including 18 Million Kids – To Lack Access to Sufficient Food by Year’s End

Elias Marat – December 23, 2020

A new analysis has found that 54 million people in the United States, including 18 million children, will lack access to sufficient food by the end of the year.

The report from U.S.-based anti-hunger group Feeding America underscores the extent to which chronic food scarcity and malnourishment has surged in poor communities amid a devastating increase of coronavirus infections which federal and state governments have failed to get under control.

The group has distributed 4.2 billion meals across the country between March and October 2020. It is estimated that there has been a 60 percent average increase in food bank users as the pandemic has swept across the country, with roughly four out of 10 users being first-time seekers of food aid.

The analysis comes one month after the U.S. Census Bureau reported that less than half of U.S. households with children feel “very confident” about having sufficient money to afford food through December, with a stunning 5.6 million households struggling to put food on the table during Thanksgiving week, according to a pandemic survey.

The crisis of food insecurity has slammed Black and Latino communities the hardest, as well as poor people living in remote “food deserts” where affordable and healthy food is less accessible. The same individuals who have suffered from the economic impact of the pandemic, including seniors and people with chronic disease, are also at the highest risk of major coronavirus-associated illness.

The report noted that even prior to the pandemic, over 37 million people – including over 11 million children – lived in homes that were food insecure.

https://www.activistpost.com

Losing Jaw Bones and Eyesight: 9 Dead, Over 100 Hospitalised as Rare Fungal Disease Spreads in India

– December 18, 2020

As India inches towards a grim milestone of ten million COVID-19 cases, a new rare disease known as mucormycosis is spreading across the country. According to doctors, the COVID-triggered disease has a 50 percent mortality rate.

Authorities in northern and western Indian states have alerted people as hospitals have reported the rapid spread of a deadly fungal infection, mucormycosis, across the region. At least nine people have already reportedly died due to this rare disease, while over a hundred more have been hospitalised in different hospitals in Delhi and Ahmedabad.

“Since early reports of this rare disease spread through various mediums including that of media, more people have contacted hospitals. As of now, over a hundred people are being treated for this black fungal infection in different hospitals in Delhi alone”, Dr Manish Munjal, Senior Consultant at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital told Sputnik.

Doctors say that ignoring the early signs of the rare disease may be fatal.

“Nose obstruction, swelling in the eyes or cheeks, and black dry crusts in the nose are the early symptoms of the infection. These signs should immediately prompt the conduct of a biopsy in the OPD and start of antifungal therapy as early as possible”, Munjal added.

The doctor admitted that he found some cases in non-COVID patients as well, however, most of the infections are found in recovering COVID-19 patients.

Doctors say the frequency of cases as well as high morbidity and mortality has never been seen before and is alarming.

State chief of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot has also alerted people of the state about mucoramycosis. “In this disease, there is a risk of damage to many organs of the body including the brain. An alert for the disease has been issued in Mumbai and Ahmedabad”, Gehlot said.

https://sputniknews.com