NGO

Marburg virus disease in Angola - update

As of 29 March 2005, the Ministry of Health has reported a total of 124 cases and 117 deaths in Cabinda, Luanda and Uige. All these cases had originated in Uige Province. Ten of these cases have been laboratory confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, USA. The team from WHO, including experts from the Inter-country programme for southern Africa, the Regio...

Marburg haemorrhagic fever in Angola update

As of 20 April, the Ministry of Health in Angola has reported 266 cases of Marburg haemorrhagic fever. Of these cases, 244 were fatal. In Uige Province, which remains the epicentre of the outbreak, 253 cases, of which 233 have been fatal, were reported as of 21 April. The international response to the outbreak in Angola began one month ago, on 22 March. T...

Bird samples from Mongolia confirmed as H5N1 avian flu

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has positively identified the pathogenic form of avian flu--H5N1--in samples taken from birds last week in Mongolia by field veterinarians from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). It is the first instance of this viral strain occurring in wild migratory birds with no apparent contact to domestic poultry or waterfowl. Present in Mong...

Ohio University researchers discover evolutionary oddity in flamingos

With their spindly legs, long necks and bright plumage, flamingos are a curiosity of nature. Now a new discovery by a team of Ohio University researchers reveals an anatomical oddity that helps flamingos eat: erectile tissue. Flamingos are known for their peculiar feeding behavior. While standing in shallow water, they bend their necks, tilt their bills upside down in the water and swish t...

Ongoing collapse of coral reef shark populations

Investigators have revealed that coral reef shark populations are in the midst of rapid decline, and that “no-take zones”—reefs where fishing is prohibited—do protect sharks, but only when compliance with no-take regulations is high. The findings, reported by William Robbins and colleagues at James Cook University and its ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, appear in the December 5th...

Bacteria research offers hope for new vaccine against meningococci

Each year 170,000 people around the world die of this type of meningitis, according to the World Health Organization, WHO. Bacterial meningitis, as the disease is called, can even spark epidemics: in Africa 250,000 people were affected in a matter of weeks in the late 1990s. Without treatment, mortality among those who contract the disease is 85-90 percent, with treatment some 10-15 percent. P...