Swine flu: 12 cases detected in Pune, authorities on alert , India

PUNE: Detection of about 12 Swine flu cases in the last fortnight has put the health authorities here on an alert, as two patients are reported to be in a critical condition.

While some of the cases have been detected in a "pro-active" research survey, undertaken by the city-based National Institute of Virology (NIV) in a locality here, other non-specified areas, too, have reported H1N1 infections. "While the cases detected by NIV are being treated as outdoor patients without admission, other cases, which include two critical ones, call for a greater surveillance, as Pune had not reported any fatality on account of Swine flu in the last year," Dr Pradip Awate, State swine flu surveillance officer told PTI.

Two of the three critical patients, admitted to ICU in different hospitals, were put on ventilator, health officials said. General practitioners, treating seasonal influenza cases, have been advised to screen patients for suspected H1N1 infections, they added. Pune became the epicentre of swine flu cases since recording the first fatality of the dreaded infection in 2009, leading to vigorous surveillance measures that saw a substantial reduction in its transmission. Source

Wildfire rages near Maple Cree, Canada

Fire crews are making headway on a raging grass fire near Maple Creek, in southwest Saskatchewan, officials say.

The wild fire is burning north of the Trans-Canada Highway and led to the evacuation of at least two farmyards.

Late Tuesday night, local fire chief Keith Stork told CBC News the western edge of the fire was under control and crews were able to stop the fire from advancing east. It was stopped about five kilometres north of the Trans-Canada, near Highway 21.

The fire blazed through several farmyards, although there were no reports of injuries.

Stork said crews were tending to flare-ups and expected to be working through the night.

"We're getting lots of flare ups," Stork said. "We still have winds gusting up ... so what we're getting is these fingers burning out from the burnt spots." Read More

'Three suspected typhoid cases in Malabuyoc town', Philippines

AFTER the outbreak in Tuburan, the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) admitted there are three suspected typhoid fever cases in Malabuyoc District Hospital.

Dr. Cristina Giango, IPHO head, said the patients showed signs and symptoms of typhoid fever.

She asked the Rural Health Unit (RHU) in the town to check where these patients came from to determine if there are other similar cases in the area.

But Giango said they had yet to confirm if the cases in Alegria town were indeed typhoid fever.
At least 11 suspected victims ages between 5 and 18 and mostly children from barangays Legaspi and Poblacion of Alegria were brought to a local hospital after showing signs of typhoid fever.

But Giango said she has not received reports from the municipal health office confirming that these were cases of typhoid fever.

In Tuburan, cases have gone down as of yesterday.

Giango said that there were only four patients admitted yesterday and 10 were treated at the out-patient department.

There are now 46 patients confined in Tuburan District Hospital. Read More

Heat wave sets record high in Sioux City, Iowa

SIOUX CITY -- A Midwestern heat wave fueled Tuesday's record-high 80-degree weather, breaking a record set in 1946.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Chris Jansen said the warmest March 13 on record in Sioux City was 72 degrees in 1946.

The warm weather is expected to last through early next week, and there is a chance additional daily records may be broken during that time, Jansen said.

Jansen advised against packing away the winter gear though.

"You can't rule out more snow. It's still winter and April is still going to be here," Jansen said.
The good weather does bring its dangers.

A hazardous weather outlook was in place Tuesday for the region due to the extreme risk of grass fires. Additional hazardous weather outlooks for grass fires may be issued throughout the next week due to the warm, dry weather.

Residents are advised against outdoor burning when there is an elevated risk of grass fires. Read More

New strain of hemorrhagic fever virus found on Jeju Island‎, South Korea

A new strain of epidemic hemorrhagic fever has been found on Jeju Island, the first time that the infectious disease has broken out on a Korean island.

A team of researchers led by Song Jin-won, a microbiology professor at the College of Medicine of Korea University in Seoul, said Tuesday that a new strain of hantavirus that causes epidemic hemorrhagic fever was found in Jeju.

The team caught 51 "lesser white-toothed shrews" in the province and examined their liver and lung tissue from October 2006 through September 2010. Through genetic analyses, the researchers found viruses belonging to the hantavirus genus from eight mice. The new virus was named the “Jeju” virus." Also discovered the “Imjin” virus, a kind of hantavirus from "Manchurian musk-shrews" living in the Imjin River near the inter-Korean border in 2009. The Jeju virus is a new variety.

These viruses live in the bodies of field mice such as lesser white-toothed shrews and black-striped field mice, come out through excrement, and float in the air. Humans develop epidemic hemorrhagic fever by inhaling them. Read More

Peru: dengue fever cases double in Cajamarca

Health officials in the northern highlands region of Cajamarca report a doubling of dengue fever cases so far this year compared to the same period in 2011.

According the news source, Peru21, the Diresa (Health Department) reported Tuesday nearly 1,200 cases of dengue. During the same time frame last year, the number of cases reported was 587.

In addition, there have been two fatalities this year, a 26-year-old woman and a six-year-old child.

Alberto Sanchez, general doctor of Jaen’s hospital, the province most affected, said the dengue virus in the area was of the more aggressive American/Asian genotype. He also notes that since February the disease intensified.

In addition to Jaen province, Tembladera, Cutervo, and San Ignacio regions are also strongly hit by the dengue outbreak. Source

Obama warns China against 'skirting the rules'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama warned China Tuesday that it would not be allowed to gain a competitive advantage in world trade by "skirting the rules."

Making an election-year pitch to American workers, and businesses as well, Obama announced Washington has brought a new trade case against Beijing. The goal is to pressure China, a rising Asian economic power, to end its restrictions on exports of key materials used to manufacture hybrid car batteries, flat screen televisions and other high tech-goods.

"If China would simply let the market work on its own, we'd have no objection," Obama said during remarks at the White House. "But their policies currently are preventing that from happening. And they go against the very rules that China agreed to follow."

The U.S., working in conjunction with the European Union and Japan, asked the World Trade Organization Tuesday to facilitate talks with China over its curtailment of exports of what's known as rare earth minerals. Obama cast the fresh action against China as part of a broader push to level the playing field for U.S. companies. Read More

High cesium levels detected in mud at Fukushima dam lake

Mud at the bottom of a dam lake near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant is heavily contaminated with radioactive cesium, government research has shown.

Tsukuba University professor Yuichi Onda, commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to conduct the survey, released the findings at a symposium on March 13.

Onda's team detected radioactive cesium of some 3 million becquerels per square meter at the bottom of the Horai Dam lake, about 60 kilometers west-northwest of the nuclear plant, along the Abukuma River in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture. The level was 10 times higher than those of nearby reservoirs, and was roughly equivalent to soil contamination levels in the 20-kilometer radius exclusion zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant.

From July to August last year, Onda took samples from the 20-centimeter-deep mud on the bottom of the dam lake, dried them and compared them with mud samples from four nearby reservoirs registering contamination in the 200,000 to 400,000 becquerels per square meter range. Cesium from the crippled power station is believed to have condensed in the mud on the bottom of the Horai Dam after flowing into the river with soil and rainwater. Read More

Allyson McConnell drowned her two young sons in a bathtub and left them in the water to "rot"

Australian mother Allyson McConnell drowned her two young sons in a bathtub and left them in the water to "rot", the boys' father has told a Canadian court.

Curtis McConnell wept on Tuesday as he recalled frantically searching the family's home in Millet, Alberta, in February 2010 after receiving a call from police that his wife had jumped off a freeway overpass in an apparent suicide bid.

Mr McConnell said he rushed to the home and searched the bedrooms for his sons, 10-month-old Jayden and two-year-old Connor, but could not find them.

He then discovered a locked bathroom, used a knife to unlock it and found the lifeless bodies in the bathtub.

"I just dropped to my knees and I reached into the water and the water was so cold ...," Mr McConnell testified, according to the Edmonton Journal. Read More

Old TV tubes converted into radiation-shielding material, Japan

Tubes from old television sets can be recycled into radiation-proof materials suitable for use at temporary storage sites for contaminated soil and waste, two Japanese companies have found.

Shimizu Corp., a general contractor in Tokyo, and R Japan Corp., a manufacturer of eco-friendly products in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, developed concrete and waterproof materials, respectively, using television tubes ground into a form that can help shield against radiation.

The method takes advantage of the fact that cathode-ray tube (CRT) glass in television sets contains lead, which can shield against radiation. It is expected to be utilized at temporary storage sites for radioactive soil and waste.

While a 50-centimeter-thick chunk of concrete can lower the doses of penetrating radiation to a hundredth of the original amount, Shimizu Corp. found that the doses can be even lowered to one two-hundredth by replacing most of the crushed stone used in the concrete with ground television tubes. The strength of the two types of concrete was almost the same. Read More

Radioactive materials may have sunk 30 cm into ground

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Radioactive materials released from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant into the atmosphere were found 5 centimeters beneath the ground three months after the breakout of the nuclear crisis last March, but are now believed to have sunk 10 to 30 cm deep, a study by a research institution showed Wednesday.

The hazardous materials must have seeped into the land with rain, according to the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.

"Further delay in decontamination works will make the radioactive materials sink into the ground deeper, and it will impose more burdens on those involved in the decontamination," said Haruo Sato, researcher at the agency's Horonobe Underground Research Center in Hokkaido.

A group of researchers of the agency examined the penetration of four radioactive materials, including cesium 137, at 11 points in Nihonmatsu, Kawamata and Namie in Fukushima Prefecture, which are within a radius 20 to 60-kilometers from the Fukushima complex, in June. Read More

Moon exploration robots tested on sand dunes in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan

HAMAMATSU, Shizuoka -- The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has conducted tests of prototype moon exploration robots here, that were designed by several institutions to become part of Japan's next-generation lunar exploratory equipment.

On March 13, the agency conducted test runs on a total of eight robot prototypes at the Nakatajima sand dunes in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, a vast undulated land area somewhat resembling the moon's surface.

The eight robot prototypes were made by various research institutions, including Tohoku University, the Aichi University of Technology, Osaka University and Tokyu Construction, which are competing in JAXA's Lunar Robotics Challenge for designing robots to explore the moon's surface.

During the experimental run, the agency tested the robots' drivability and collected various data related to their performance.

Seeking to capitalize on their success with the SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer), a lunar orbiter better known by its nickname Kaguya, JAXA is now looking into the development of next-generation moon exploratory equipment.

The Kaguya probe, after successfully orbiting the moon for approximately a year and nine months from September 2007, ended its mission and was crashed onto the lunar surface in June 2009. Read More