The deadly and mysterious coronavirus that first appeared in Saudi Arabia last year has claimed two more victims, bringing the official death toll to 11.
The World Health Organization said a 73-year-old man from the United Arab Emirates who was taken to Germany for medical treatment died at a Munich hospital Tuesday. The United Nations health authority also announced that a man from Britain who became sick in January has died. That man had traveled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and presumably became infected there.
A total of 17 cases of the new coronavirus have been confirmed by the WHO at this point, but a point of origin has yet to be determined. The virus is believed to have been first transmitted by a bat, but it’s unclear if another animal(s) served as an intermediary between the bat(s) and the first infected human(s).
Should his results come back and he is positive, that causes us a lot of worry. So right now, we have resolved that the remaining prisoners will be cuffed on the beds for fear that they might also escape.Ugandan Ministry of Health commissioner Dr. Jackson Amune • Discussing the escape of a prisoner who may have a case of the Ebola virus — one of 30 being held out of suspicion of having the virus. Despite the earlier WHO reports this morning that the virus was under control, some reporters in the country dispute this. (thanks Patrick deHahn)
Joaquim Saweka, the WHO representative in Uganda, told reporters Friday that everyone known to have had contact with Ebola victims has been isolated — a total of 176 people.
Ebola was confirmed in Uganda on July 28, several days after the deadly disease had started killing villagers in a remote corner of western Uganda.
At least 16 Ugandans have died so far, and officials say the 176 are being closely monitored for signs and symptoms of the disease.
The disease was initially tied to a single family, who contracted the disease at a funeral.
» That’s 1 in 10 people worldwide. The World Health Organization says that the rise in diabetic adults will most likely be due to an aging world population, not the increasing rate of obesity. Most cases are Type 2 and come from “weight gain and a sedentary lifestyle.” Count this number as inspiration for 2012’s resolutions.
Never a bad time: The new, concerning report on cell phone use isn’t the only place you’ll hear the word “carcinogenic” being used today; May 31st is World No Tobacco Day, a cause that could probably benefit from a slightly less clunky title. The World Health Organization estimates that some 6 million people die each year from tobacco-related illness. Anti-smoking measures within the U.S. have blossomed over the last decade, with smoking bans in public places, restaurants, and bars becoming more and more prevalent across the states — check here for a list of smoking bans applicable in your area. source
oldmanyellsatcloud said: This story sounds…familiar. Quick google foo brought up this old transcript. transcripts.cnn.com/TRA… Weird. Any link to the actual WHO study? only found this: who.int/mediace…
» SFB says: This is new. Engadget has a press release if you’re curious. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a WHO-affiliated group, made the specific report. If anything else, this certainly makes things more interesting.
The World Health Organization has a new study out that says cell phones are possibly carcinogenic to humans — they’re in the same class as lead, engine exhaust and chloroform. They based their findings on a number of peer-reviewed studies on cell-phone safety. Long-term effects from cell phone radiation remain unknown, but research suggests that cell phone radiation is non-ionizing — similar to a very low-powered microwave. “What microwave radiation does in most simplistic terms is similar to what happens to food in microwaves, essentially cooking the brain,” notes Dr. Keith Black, who leads the neurology department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He notes that beyond brain cancer, this could also cause memory problems because we hold cell phones close to the memory temporal lobes. Looks like it’s time to break out the earbuds. (photo via ElvertBarnes’ Flickr page) source
» Controversial numbers: The numbers in the developing world are questionable simply because, being the developing world, they’re much harder to quantify. But that doesn’t make the numbers any less shocking. According to the World Health Organization’s estimates, these countries have two-thirds of the stillborn deaths worldwide: India, Pakistan, Nigeria, China, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Afghanistan and the United Republic of Tanzania. Yeah, that’s right. That’s only ten countries.
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