October 5, 2009 12:12:10
Typhoon Ketsana has torn across the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, killing hundreds of people.
In Laos, the storm killed at least 24 people. The floods meant that until two days ago, the worst-hit Attapeu region could only be reached by helicopter and boat. The United Nations World Food Programme says canned fish and rice have now been delivered to storm survivors.
MAKIN: The World Food Programme has an office in Attapeu which is on the border with Vietnam and Cambodia down in the south, right in the south of Laos.
LAM: Yes and what's the devastation there like, how are the people coping?
MAKIN: Many people lost everything, two districts already suffered some floods in late July and we were going in to offer assistance for this flood and when they were struck again. Phouvong is already... and Sanxay - two of our poorest districts in all of Laos and these were affected. People lost about, we think 90 per cent of their crops, and it's coming up to harvest season. So in the next few months we're going to face real problems, real food shortages. Two districts are still accessible only by helicopter and we're not able to get out to all of the villages here. So we're simply working with the government, the Lao government and the army to helicopter food into the driest place and we'll coordinate villages to come and collect food from there. In the other districts we're getting trucks and boats, and the army are really helping coordinate a big effort here.
LAM: And Cait before the disaster hit what sort of a town or area was Attapeu? Was it a largely agricultural rural area?
MAKIN: It's quite rural; it's not as densely populated as other provinces in Laos. But I'm speaking to you from Samakkhixay, which is the capital, but we were all affected. But it is mainly rural and subsistence farming. There is a Vietnamese community, a large Vietnamese community which many small businesses were damaged and completely destroyed.
LAM: And as you look around you are large parts of the region still submerged, under water?
MAKIN: It's hard for us to tell. Yesterday I travelled by helicopter to Sanamxay and certainly there are parts [flooded]. It's very hard to get information. Helicopters are going to the worst areas and landing in the dry places and then we're relying on the government there to go to the more difficult places. So there are probably parts that are submerged. We had a little bit more strong rain last night which may have had some impact. For Samakkhixay where we are the water has receded and so we have about three districts that we can access.
LAM: What news have you of the capital Vientiane? Was Vientiane hit at all?
MAKIN: No as far as I'm aware it's been concentrated in the south. It came through Vietnam. We expected it to go up to the central regions in Khammouan and Savannakhet. There is someone in Savannakhet making assessment, but for now Attapeu is the worst hit with still quite serious in Xekong and Salavan also, which are the neighbouring districts, provinces to Attapeu.
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Source: ABC Radio Australia
Showing posts with label International News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label International News. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Laos gets more emergency aid
4 October 2009
HANOI - MORE emergency aid reached southern Laos on Sunday, aid workers said after Tropical Storm Ketsana left at least 24 people dead last week in one of Asia's poorest nations.
'They've already started going out and helping people, giving out water and food,' said Sally Sakulku, of British-based Health Unlimited, referring to her staff in hardest-hit Attapeu province. 'It's accessible now.'
After Ketsana hit on Wednesday, floodwaters left the rugged region reachable only by helicopter and boat until limited road access opened on Saturday.
Ms Sakulku said her teams expected to reach about 1,000 families on Sunday in Attapeu, which borders Cambodia. Some were still sheltering in schools but others have returned home, she said.
In adjacent Sekong province, also hard-hit, the relief agency CARE said it was delivering kettles to help people boil water, and was mobilising other resources.
'We are supplying medicines to the provincial government so that they are prepared, for example, if it comes to an outbreak of diarrhoea,' said Henry Braun, CARE's director for Laos.
He said more than 15,000 people in the province have been affected and 200 houses confirmed destroyed.
'However, there is still a lot of unknowns surrounding the situation, especially in the remote areas,' he said.
Canned fish and rice from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has also been delivered to southern Laos by the government, WFP said.
Ketsana has brought devastation across Southeast Asia, first killing at least 293 people in the Philippines before striking Vietnam, where 162 died, and Cambodia where it claimed 17 lives. -- AFP
*************
Source: THE STRAITS TIME
HANOI - MORE emergency aid reached southern Laos on Sunday, aid workers said after Tropical Storm Ketsana left at least 24 people dead last week in one of Asia's poorest nations.
'They've already started going out and helping people, giving out water and food,' said Sally Sakulku, of British-based Health Unlimited, referring to her staff in hardest-hit Attapeu province. 'It's accessible now.'
After Ketsana hit on Wednesday, floodwaters left the rugged region reachable only by helicopter and boat until limited road access opened on Saturday.
Ms Sakulku said her teams expected to reach about 1,000 families on Sunday in Attapeu, which borders Cambodia. Some were still sheltering in schools but others have returned home, she said.
In adjacent Sekong province, also hard-hit, the relief agency CARE said it was delivering kettles to help people boil water, and was mobilising other resources.
'We are supplying medicines to the provincial government so that they are prepared, for example, if it comes to an outbreak of diarrhoea,' said Henry Braun, CARE's director for Laos.
He said more than 15,000 people in the province have been affected and 200 houses confirmed destroyed.
'However, there is still a lot of unknowns surrounding the situation, especially in the remote areas,' he said.
Canned fish and rice from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has also been delivered to southern Laos by the government, WFP said.
Ketsana has brought devastation across Southeast Asia, first killing at least 293 people in the Philippines before striking Vietnam, where 162 died, and Cambodia where it claimed 17 lives. -- AFP
*************
Source: THE STRAITS TIME
Earthweek: Environmental news from around the globe
October 04, 2009 8:00 AM
UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
Tropical cyclones
A tropical storm that later became Typhoon Ketsana killed at least 288 people and damaged the homes of 3 million as it triggered the worst flooding the northern Philippines has experienced in 40 years.
After devastating parts of Manila, Ketsana went on to hit other Southeast Asian countries, killing 99 in Vietnam, 14 in Cambodia and 16 in Laos.
• Typhoon Parma cut a path across the Philippines’ northern edge on Saturday, killing four people but sparing the capital, Manila, from a second flood disaster as the storm churned toward Taiwan.
Tens of thousands of Filipinos had evacuated their homes as the storm bore down on the main island of Luzon just eight days after an earlier tempest left Manila awash in floods that killed almost 300 people.
• Another typhoon, Melor, was churning in the Philippine Sea, 1,600 miles to the east, threatening the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Penguin rebound
A species of penguin virtually wiped out on Macquarie Island more than 100 years ago has rebounded, to the delight of Australian wildlife experts.
The island, located between New Zealand and Antarctica, was teeming with king penguins when it was discovered in 1810.
But the birds were slaughtered for blubber oil over the next century to the point that only a small colony survived. The Australian Antarctic Survey says that hundreds of the birds now live in the area around Lusitania Bay.
It appears the population has grown to the point that the penguins have begun to look for new parts of the island to recolonize.
Pushing Earth’s limits
A team of the world’s most eminent environmental scientists published a warning that human activity has already pushed three of Earth’s nine biophysical boundaries to beyond the planet’s ability to self-regulate.
Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers attempt to set “acceptable” upper limits on man’s influence on such environmental conditions as climate, biodiversity, stratospheric ozone and chemical cycles like that of nitrogen.
They suggest that for some of those conditions, like the use of nitrogen in fertilizers and loading of atmospheric carbon dioxide, humankind may have already stepped outside the safety zone.
It’s feared we may have to backpedal quickly to avoid catastrophe. Human activities, most notably the growing reliance on fossil fuels and industrialized agriculture, have become so pervasive that they may trigger irreversible and abrupt environmental change by damaging the regulatory capacity of the planet, the group warned.
African famine looms
The severe drought that has parched much of East Africa this year continues to worsen while taking the lives of people, wildlife and livestock.
The charity Oxfam International has appealed for $15 million in emergency donations so it can provide 750,000 people with food assistance.
Paul Smith Lomas, Oxfam’s East Africa director, said that while the drought stretches from the Horn of Africa to Uganda, about 3.8 million Kenyans, a tenth of the population, now need emergency aid.
Climate change has caused the frequency of drought to increase from about once per decade to once every two or three years.
Indian drought
Indian weather officials said that a weak summer monsoon has created the country’s worst drought since 1972.
Scant precipitation has caused extensive damage to rice, sugar cane and groundnut crops, according to the Meteorological Department.
It added that depleted reservoirs behind hydropower stations threaten both electricity and irrigation shortages this winter.
Acorn hazard
Many New Englanders are being forced to dodge a bumper crop of acorns raining down across the region this autumn.
The nuts were unusually scarce last year, but millions of the hard-shelled bombs are now bopping joggers on the head, whacking gardeners’ backsides and cracking vehicle windshields.
“It hurt,” University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor Wesley Autio told the The Boston Globe. “You stand outside and you can hear acorns hitting everything — cars, metal roofs, and it makes a tremendous sound.”
But the region’s largest acorn crop in memory is also allowing squirrels and other nut hoarders to fatten up for what some believe will be a brutal winter.
A cool summer along with record snowfalls and rain earlier this year have helped the acorns bloom larger and in greater numbers this fall.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
*****************
Source: gazette.com
UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
Tropical cyclones
A tropical storm that later became Typhoon Ketsana killed at least 288 people and damaged the homes of 3 million as it triggered the worst flooding the northern Philippines has experienced in 40 years.
After devastating parts of Manila, Ketsana went on to hit other Southeast Asian countries, killing 99 in Vietnam, 14 in Cambodia and 16 in Laos.
• Typhoon Parma cut a path across the Philippines’ northern edge on Saturday, killing four people but sparing the capital, Manila, from a second flood disaster as the storm churned toward Taiwan.
Tens of thousands of Filipinos had evacuated their homes as the storm bore down on the main island of Luzon just eight days after an earlier tempest left Manila awash in floods that killed almost 300 people.
• Another typhoon, Melor, was churning in the Philippine Sea, 1,600 miles to the east, threatening the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Penguin rebound
A species of penguin virtually wiped out on Macquarie Island more than 100 years ago has rebounded, to the delight of Australian wildlife experts.
The island, located between New Zealand and Antarctica, was teeming with king penguins when it was discovered in 1810.
But the birds were slaughtered for blubber oil over the next century to the point that only a small colony survived. The Australian Antarctic Survey says that hundreds of the birds now live in the area around Lusitania Bay.
It appears the population has grown to the point that the penguins have begun to look for new parts of the island to recolonize.
Pushing Earth’s limits
A team of the world’s most eminent environmental scientists published a warning that human activity has already pushed three of Earth’s nine biophysical boundaries to beyond the planet’s ability to self-regulate.
Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers attempt to set “acceptable” upper limits on man’s influence on such environmental conditions as climate, biodiversity, stratospheric ozone and chemical cycles like that of nitrogen.
They suggest that for some of those conditions, like the use of nitrogen in fertilizers and loading of atmospheric carbon dioxide, humankind may have already stepped outside the safety zone.
It’s feared we may have to backpedal quickly to avoid catastrophe. Human activities, most notably the growing reliance on fossil fuels and industrialized agriculture, have become so pervasive that they may trigger irreversible and abrupt environmental change by damaging the regulatory capacity of the planet, the group warned.
African famine looms
The severe drought that has parched much of East Africa this year continues to worsen while taking the lives of people, wildlife and livestock.
The charity Oxfam International has appealed for $15 million in emergency donations so it can provide 750,000 people with food assistance.
Paul Smith Lomas, Oxfam’s East Africa director, said that while the drought stretches from the Horn of Africa to Uganda, about 3.8 million Kenyans, a tenth of the population, now need emergency aid.
Climate change has caused the frequency of drought to increase from about once per decade to once every two or three years.
Indian drought
Indian weather officials said that a weak summer monsoon has created the country’s worst drought since 1972.
Scant precipitation has caused extensive damage to rice, sugar cane and groundnut crops, according to the Meteorological Department.
It added that depleted reservoirs behind hydropower stations threaten both electricity and irrigation shortages this winter.
Acorn hazard
Many New Englanders are being forced to dodge a bumper crop of acorns raining down across the region this autumn.
The nuts were unusually scarce last year, but millions of the hard-shelled bombs are now bopping joggers on the head, whacking gardeners’ backsides and cracking vehicle windshields.
“It hurt,” University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor Wesley Autio told the The Boston Globe. “You stand outside and you can hear acorns hitting everything — cars, metal roofs, and it makes a tremendous sound.”
But the region’s largest acorn crop in memory is also allowing squirrels and other nut hoarders to fatten up for what some believe will be a brutal winter.
A cool summer along with record snowfalls and rain earlier this year have helped the acorns bloom larger and in greater numbers this fall.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
*****************
Source: gazette.com
Myanmar minister promises 'free and fair' elections
3 October 2009
Siem Reap (Cambodia): Myanmar's foreign minister promised on Saturday his country would hold "free and fair" elections next year, despite the detention of democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi.
"In my country free and fair elections will be held. We have already announced it," Myanmar foreign minister Nyan Win told reporters after a meeting with counterparts in Cambodia's northwestern tourist hub.
"(Whether) the elections are free and fair or not, so far no one can judge it. After the elections will be held, you can judge whether the elections are free and fair or not."
A Myanmar court Friday rejected an appeal by Suu Kyi against her conviction over an incident in which a US man swam uninvited to her home in May, earning her an extra 18 months' detention.
The sentence sidelines her from the elections promised for 2010, leading critics to say the polls are a sham. The minister made the remarks after meeting with the foreign ministers of Japan, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam for talks intended to foster development within the Mekong region.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, and the junta refused to acknowledge the landslide win of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party in the last elections in 1990.
Bureau Report
**********
Source: Zeenews.com
Siem Reap (Cambodia): Myanmar's foreign minister promised on Saturday his country would hold "free and fair" elections next year, despite the detention of democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi.
"In my country free and fair elections will be held. We have already announced it," Myanmar foreign minister Nyan Win told reporters after a meeting with counterparts in Cambodia's northwestern tourist hub.
"(Whether) the elections are free and fair or not, so far no one can judge it. After the elections will be held, you can judge whether the elections are free and fair or not."
A Myanmar court Friday rejected an appeal by Suu Kyi against her conviction over an incident in which a US man swam uninvited to her home in May, earning her an extra 18 months' detention.
The sentence sidelines her from the elections promised for 2010, leading critics to say the polls are a sham. The minister made the remarks after meeting with the foreign ministers of Japan, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam for talks intended to foster development within the Mekong region.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, and the junta refused to acknowledge the landslide win of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party in the last elections in 1990.
Bureau Report
**********
Source: Zeenews.com
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Swine flu Q and A: What the CDC advises
Mercury News
Posted:
Updated:
A swine flu outbreak has infected more than a thousand people in
Q What is swine flu?
A Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza viruses. Until recently, the disease very rarely spread to humans. In late March and early April 2009, cases of human infection with swine influenza A (H1N1) viruses were reported in Mexico and then in Southern California and near San Antonio, Texas. Since then, 40 confirmed cases have been reported in the
Q Is this swine flu virus contagious?
A CDC has determined that this swine flu virus is spreading from person to person, but it is unknown how easily it spreads.
Q What are the symptoms of swine flu in people?
A The symptoms of swine flu, which are similar to symptoms of regular flu, include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people have reported diarrhea and vomiting associated
with swine flu. In the past, pneumonia and respiratory failure and deaths have been reported with swine flu infection. Like seasonal flu, swine flu may cause chronic medical conditions to worsen.
Q How does swine flu spread?
A This swine flu virus is thought to spread mainly by coughing or sneezing of people with the illness. Sometimes people may become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose. Infected people may be able to infect others one day before symptoms develop and up to seven or more days after becoming sick. That means that you may be able to pass on the flu germs before you know you're sick as well as while you're not feeling well.
Q What should I do to keep from getting the flu?
A Most important for preventing the spread of flu is washing your hands. Also, try to stay in good general health. That means get plenty of sleep, be physically active, drink plenty of fluids and eat nutritious foods and manage your stress. Also, try to avoid contact with people who are sick.
Q What is the best technique for washing my hands to avoid getting the flu?
A
Q How long can viruses live outside the body?
A Some germs can live for two hours or longer on surfaces such as doorknobs, desks, cafeteria tables. Washing your hands frequently can reduce your chances of getting sick after touching these common surfaces.
Q How does a doctor test for swine flu?
A A health care provider takes a nasal swab, which is then used to test for the disease.
Q Are there medicines to treat swine flu?
A Yes. CDC recommends the use of oseltamivir (sold as Tamiflu) or zanamivir (sold as Relenza) for the treatment and/or prevention of infection with these swine flu viruses. These antiviral drugs are prescription medicine that keep the flu viruses from reproducing in your body, thus helping you feel better quicker. For treatment, antiviral drugs work best if started within two days of symptoms first developing.
Q Is there a vaccine available to prevent swine flu?
A No. There is no available vaccine for this swine flu at this time.
Q What should I do if I get sick?
A If you live in an area where swine flu cases have been identified and become ill with symptoms including fever, body aches, runny nose, sore throat, nausea or vomiting or diarrhea, you may want to contact your doctor, who will determine whether you need to be tested or treated for the illness. While you are sick, you should stay home and avoid contact with people as much as possible.
Q Is it safe to travel to
A Government officials have issued a travel advisory suggesting "non-essential travel to
Q What are public health officials doing to inhibit the disease's spread?
A
Q Can I get swine flu from eating or preparing pork?
A No. You can not get swine flu from pork products. Eating properly handled and cooked pork products is safe.
*******************
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Associated Press, Mercury News
Link: http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12238623?nclick_check=1
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Assessing the Danger of New Flu
Published:
The three come from different viruses and carry different kinds of danger, depending on ease of transmission and virulence. As a benchmark, the deadliest influenza pandemic in the past century, the Spanish influenza of 1918 to 1919, had an estimated mortality rate of around 2.5 percent but killed tens of millions of people because it spread so widely.
The new swine flu cases are caused by an influenza strain called H1N1, which appears to be easily passed from person to person. Mexican health authorities have confirmed 149 deaths from that flu and are investigating the illnesses of 1,600 people, and the
But doctors have little information yet on the mortality rate, as there is no reliable data on the total number of people infected. Reports from the
In contrast, the lethal avian flu that has kept world health authorities anxious for years is caused by H5N1 influenza virus. It has killed 257 of the 421 people who have contracted it, or 61 percent. But it has shown very little ability to pass from person to person, mainly infecting poultry, and some experts have suggested that there may be something about the H5N1 virus that makes it inherently less transmissible among people.
SARS — severe acute respiratory syndrome — is both easily spread and virulent. In the 2003 outbreak in
The lessons learned from SARS did not go to waste in
Contingency plans are ready to keep public transport, electricity, food supplies, telecommunications and other vital services running even if large numbers of people fall ill. And at a time when many hospitals in the United States are already at full capacity and keep few extra beds in reserve, Hong Kong has 1,400 beds in respiratory isolation units, mostly built over the past six years for fear that bird flu or SARS would become a serious problem, and 15 times as many beds as the territory needs on an everyday basis.
For a population of seven million people,
Government lawyers are also moving quickly, carrying out all the procedures on Monday to make swine flu a disease for which health professionals are required by law to notify the authorities of any suspected case. The
SARS “gave us a lot of valuable insights and practical experience in managing a large outbreak,” said Gabriel Matthew Leung,
Still, in a measure of the terror that SARS has left, the territory’s stock market suffered some of the heaviest losses in
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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/health/28hong.html?hpw
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