Newly arrived virus gains foothold in Caribbean

By DAVID McFADDEN 19 hours ago

FILE- In this undated file photo provided byt he USDA, an aedes aegypti mosquito is shown on human skin. Health officials in the Dominican Republic said this Tuesday April 29, 1014, that the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus has spread widely since making its first appearance in the country. According to the Centers for Disease Control the chikungunya virus is most often spread to people by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. These are the same mosquitoes that transmit dengue virus. They bite mostly during the daytime. (AP Photo/USDA, File)

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — A recently arrived mosquito-borne virus that causes an abrupt onset of high fever and intense joint pain is rapidly gaining a foothold in many spots of the Caribbean, health experts said Thursday.

There are currently more than 4,000 confirmed cases of the fast-spreading chikungunya virus in the Caribbean, most of them in the French Caribbean islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe and St. Martin. Another 31,000 suspected cases have been reported across the region of scattered islands.
The often painful illness most commonly found in Asia and Africa was first detected in December in tiny St. Martin. It was the first time that local transmission of chikungunya had been reported in the Americas. Since then, it has spread to nearly a dozen other islands and French Guiana, an overseas department of France on the north shoulder of South America.
It is rarely fatal and most chikungunya patients rebound within a week, but some people experience joint pain for months to years. There is no vaccine and it is spread by the pervasive Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits dengue fever, a similar but often more serious illness with a deadly hemorrhagic form.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is closely monitoring the uncontrolled spread of the new vector-borne virus in the Caribbean and has been advising travelers about how best to protect themselves, such as applying mosquito repellant and sleeping in screened rooms. It is also closely watching for any signs of chikungunya in the U.S.
"To help prepare the United States for possible introduction of the virus, CDC has been working with state health departments to increase awareness about chikungunya and to facilitate diagnostic testing and early detection of any U.S. cases," said Dr. Erin Staples, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC.
In the Caribbean, concern about chikungunya is growing as many countries enter their wettest months. The only way to stop the virus is to contain the population of mosquitoes — a task that commonly relies on individual efforts such as installing screened windows and making sure mosquitoes are not breeding in stagnant water.
Experts say eradicating vector-borne diseases like chikungunya once they become entrenched is an extremely difficult task. Dr. James Hospedales, executive director of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency, recently described the virus as the "new kid on the block."

In late April, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Antigua & Barbuda became the latest Caribbean countries to report confirmed cases. In the Dominican Republic, there are now 17 confirmed cases and over 3,000 suspected ones. This week, the virus was discussed by health authorities at a two-day conference in the Dominican Republic attended by representatives of Central American countries.

Marie Guirlaine Raymond Charite, general director of Haiti's health ministry, said there are several suspected cases of chikungunya but nothing has been confirmed yet.

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AP writer Trenton Daniel contributed to this story from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

David McFadden on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dmcfadd

'Zombie' Bees Surface in the Northeast

By BEN GITTLESON | ABC News – 18 hours ago

• 
  ABC News - 'Zombie' Bees Surface in the Northeast (ABC News)

Mutant "zombie bees" that act like the ghoulish creatures of horror films have surfaced in the Northeast after first appearing on the West Coast, a bee expert told ABC News on Wednesday.

An amateur beekeeper in Burlington, Vt., last summer found honeybees infested with parasites that cause the insects to act erratically and eventually kill them. It was the first spotting of zombie bees east of South Dakota, according to John Hafernik, a professor of biology at San Francisco State University whose team in October verified the infestation.
"They fly around in a disoriented way, get attracted to light, and then fall down and wander around in a way that's sort of reminiscent of zombies in the movies," Hafernik said. "Sometimes we've taken to calling [it], when they leave their hives, 'the flight of the living dead.'"
The professor accidentally discovered the zombie bees in California in 2008, and since then cases have been reported in Oregon, Washington state, California and South Dakota, he said.
The effect starts with a fly called the Apocephalus borealis, which latches onto European honeybees — common across the United States — and lays eggs in the bees that eventually hatch and wreak havoc on their hosts, Hafernik said.
"It's sort of a combination of zombies and aliens mixed together," he said.
But there's not necessarily any threat of a zombie (bee) invasion anytime soon, according to Hafernik.
The Vermont iteration of the bees first came to light when Anthony Cantrell, a hardware-store employee who took up beekeeping as a hobby less than a year ago, noticed some dead bees outside his home. Later, he came across ZomBeeWatch.org, a website run by Hafernik and his colleagues, and realized some of his bees might have become infested.
Honeybees sometimes become infested by other parasites and diseases. "I just thought, great, one more thing that the poor honeybee has to deal with," Cantrell, who has two hives, told ABC News.
Steve Parise, an agriculture production specialist with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, on Tuesday brought up the threat posed by zombie bees, at a meeting of the Vermont Beekeepers Association, according to Cantrell, who is a member.
Farmers rely on bees to pollinate agriculture fields and produce honey, but there hasn't been any sign of a widespread infestation, even though it remains unclear just how many bees across the continent have been infested, he said.
While researchers at San Francisco State University have confirmed reports of the parasitic flies infesting bees up and down the West Coast — one-third of hives in the San Francisco Bay Area may at certain points in time be infested — no confirmed cases have popped up in the Northeast since October, according to Hafernik.
Once the flies infest bees with their eggs, the bees start exhibiting zombielike behavior; then, once the eggs hatch, they generally drop dead after about five minutes, he said.
The culprit fly was originally discovered in the 1920s, in Maine, and has been found across the United States, where it had been known to parasitize bumblebees and yellow jacket hornets — but not honeybees, he said.
In Vermont, the state's Agency of Agriculture may trap bees to investigate the zombie bee threat, according to The Associated Press.
Cantrell's waiting out the winter to see if the parasite survives the winter.

Dragonflies Pics

California Detects Disease-Carrying Mosquitoes

 By Morgan Jones
Sat, Oct 19, 2013

As if the West Nile virus wasn't enough of a reason to try to stay away from mosquitoes, residents of California now have a new reason to avoid these bug bites. State officials have discovered a type of mosquito known to carry other, sometimes serious, diseases.
Video Overview: California Detects Disease Carrying Mosquitos
The discovered species of mosquito is not native to the state and is known to carry a variety of diseases, including yellow fever and dengue fever.
Health officials are asking residents to report mosquito bites received during the day — when this type of mosquito often strikes.
"Fix screens on windows and doors to keep bugs out."
According to the County of Fresno Department of Public Health (DPH), the Aedes aegypti species of mosquito was first detected in June in Clovis, a city in Fresno County, in nearby Madera county and in San Mateo County in the San Francisco Bay area. This week, new reports of the bugs came from additional locations in Fresno County, in the cities of Fresno and Fowler.
While no illnesses associated with the bugs have been reported, health authorities are on alert. The Aedes aegypti is known to carry diseases like yellow fever, dengue fever and chikungunya fever.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), yellow fever is usually found in the tropical and subtropical regions of South America and Africa. Most infected people have no illness or have mild symptoms like fever, chills, body aches, nausea, vomiting and weakness. However, in about 15 percent of cases, patients experience a brief period of remission followed by severe illness including high fever, bleeding and organ failure.
More: Infectious Disease News & Articles
Dengue fever is found worldwide in tropical and subtropical regions. Symptoms include high fever, joint, muscle and bone pain, severe headache and rash. In rare cases, dengue hemorrhagic fever can develop, which includes symptoms like severe abdominal pain and problems breathing, said CDC.
Chikungunya fever is mostly found in Africa and Asia. Typical symptoms also include fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, muscle and joint pain and rash. CDC reported that symptoms usually last for a few days to a few weeks, but the disease can linger and in some cases, severe joint pain can last for weeks or months.
Related Story: Honey Treatment for Infections Isn't So Sweet
The Aedes aegypti is small and dark with white markings and bands on the legs, reported Fresno DPH. The bugs might be active during dusk and dawn but typically bite during the day, often indoors.
In a Fresno DPH news release, Tim Phillips, Manager of the Fresno Mosquito and Vector Control District stressed the importance of being proactive against mosquitoes.
“Detection of this mosquito in additional communities is of great concern. The public’s help is needed to eradicate this mosquito population before it can become established,” said Phillips. “Residents who experience mosquito bites during the day are asked to contact their mosquito abatement district right away.”
dailyRx: Relevant Health News

The Chinese city living in fear of giant killer hornets

Jonathan Kaiman visits Ankang municipality where swarms of highly venomous hornets have killed 41 people in three months

• Chen pointed with a shaky hand at the small plot of cabbage, scallions and corn where his friend Yu Yihong was stung to death by giant hornets.

"When he got to the hospital, there were still two hornets in his trousers," says Chen, a local farmer who, like many villagers, declined to give his full name to a foreign journalist. "The hornets' poison was too strong – his liver and kidneys failed, and he couldn't urinate."
Yu, a square-jawed 40-year-old farmer in perfect health, had been harvesting his crops when he stepped on a nest of vespa mandarinia hornets concealed beneath a pile of dry corn husks. The hornets swarmed Yu, stinging him through his long-sleeve shirt and trousers. He ran, but the hornets chased him, stinging his arms and legs, his head and neck.
After Yu succumbed to his wounds and about 50 of his friends and relatives gathered to mourn his passing. Outside the farmer's mountainside home in Yuanba village, they ate preserved eggs, buckwheat noodles and boiled peanuts in silence; one set off a string of fireworks. Yu's wife and two children sat inside weeping.
Vespa mandarinia is the world's largest hornet, around the size of a human adult's thumb, yellow and black in colour and highly venomous. Their 6mm-long stingers carry a venom potent enough to dissolve human tissue. Victims may die of kidney failure or anaphylactic shock.

 

  An Asian hornet (vespa mandarinia) eats a honeybee. The sting of the highly venomous giant hornet, which measures about the size of a human thumb, can dissolve human tissue and cause kidney failure. Photograph: Scott Camazine Yu's story is a tragic but increasingly common one in north-west China's Shaanxi province where, over the past three months alone, hornets have killed 41 people and injured a further 1,675. Ankang, a municipality in the province's south, appears to be the epicentre of the scourge. While hornets infest its mountainous rural areas every year – 36 residents were stung to death between 2002 and 2005 – locals and municipal officials say this year is tantamount to an epidemic, the worst they have ever seen.
At least some of the deaths were caused by vespa mandarinia, experts say. The species does not typically attack unless it feels its nest is threatened. But when it does, it can be fierce and fast – the hornets can fly at 25 miles per hour and cover 50 miles in a day. They nest in tree stumps or underground, making nests extremely difficult to detect.
Both locals and experts blame this year's scourge on climate change; the past year has been unusually warm, allowing a high number of hornets to survive the winter. Huang Ronghui, an official at the Ankang Forestry Bureau's pest control department, lists a host of other possibilities: the hornets may have been agitated by a dry spell, while labourers have been moving deeper and deeper into the mountains, disturbing their nests. "Other than this, hornets are attracted to bright colours and the smell of peoples' sweat, alcohol and sweet things," he told state media. "They're sensitive to movement, such as running people or animals."
The region has also been overrun by the Asian hornet vespa velutina, a slightly smaller species which can be equally dangerous. Hundreds, even thousands inhabit their nests, which typically hang from high places. In Chengxing village, a few miles downhill from a winding mountain road from Yu's hometown, 16-year-old Tan Xingjian points at a tree in the distance. Hanging from one thick branch was a pale, basketball-sized bulb, its surface alive with darting black specks. "That's where they live," Tan says. "We don't dare to go near there."
Ankang is on alert, with the local authorities posting warning notices online, on roadside tree trunks and on primary school walls. The crisis has exhausted Gong Zhenghong, the spiky-haired mayor of Hongshan township in rural Ankang. Since September, Gong has spent nearly every night wandering the township exterminating nests with four other cadres. He says there are 248 hornet nests in Hongshan with 175 are close to schools and roads.
Gong and his team survey nests by day; once the sun sets, they dress in homemade anti-hornet suits made of rain jackets and canvass, and burn the nests with spray-can flamethrowers. "They don't fly around at night," he says.
Firefighters destroy dead hornets in Ankang, Shaanxi province, China. Photograph: China Stringer Network/REUTERS Sometimes, his team begins work in the late evening and doesn't finish until 2am. "We'd normally send the fire squad to do this, but this year there were too many nests." Gong left his office, returned with a black rubbish bag, and pulled out the charred remains of a nest, the blackened tails of bulb-like larvae protruding from its combs.
Two other cities in Shaanxi – Hanzhong and Shangluo – have also been besieged by hornets, though the death tolls have been markedly lower. In southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, a swarm of hornets attacked a primary school in mid-September, injuring 23 children and seven adults. The teacher, Li Zhiqiang, told pupils to hide under their desks and tried to fight the creatures off until he lost consciousness, state media reported.
The hornets seem ubiquitous in Ankang. In Liushui township, a smattering of two-storey concrete homes sandwiched between a lush hillside and a stagnant river, an elderly shopkeeper in a purple blazer says that the hornets have infested a cabbage patch near her home. "The government has been coming down and burning them, but they can't burn them all," she adds, pointing down into the brush. "I'm not willing to go down there."
Mu Conghui, a 55-year-old Ankang villager, was stung 200 times while tending her rice field in late August. "These hornets are terrifying – all at once they flew to my head, and when I stopped, they stung me so much that I couldn't budge," she told state media. "My legs were crawling with hornets. Right now my legs are covered with small sting holes – over the past two months I've received 13 dialysis treatments."
The Ankang government says it has removed 710 hives and sent 7m yuan (£707,000) to help affected areas. "We're doing everything we can, but there's only so much we can do," says Deng Xianghong, the deputy head of the Ankang propaganda department. "God has been unfair to us."

Bugs and Insects

Bugs and Insects

  All bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs. Insects and arthropods creep most people out. The word “bug” is typically used by most people to describe anything that is creeping or crawling. True bugs belong to the order Hemiptera that has 50,000 or more species. Some of which are aphids, shield bugs, plant hoppers, cicadas, leafhoppers, and others that share the same sucking mouth parts to pierce plant tissues and suck the fluids out of plants.