Polio: Mutated virus breaches vaccine protection
(University of Bonn) Thanks to effective vaccination, polio is considered nearly eradicated. Each year only a few hundred people are stricken worldwide. However, scientists of the University of Bonn, together with colleagues from Gabon, are reporting alarming findings: a mutated virus that was able to resist the vaccine protection to a considerable extent was found in victims of an outbreak in the Congo in 2010. The pathogen could also potentially have infected many people in Germany. The results appear now in the magazine PNAS. (Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases)
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - August 21, 2014 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Tropical countries' growing wealth may aid conservation
(Duke University) Attainment of upper middle income in Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, Gabon, Malaysia, Peru and Thailand -- nations that contain nearly 80 percent of the world's primary tropical forests -- may shift the financial burden for tropical forest conservation. Rising public opinion and donations to conservation causes provide '...strong evidence that as countries reach upper-middle-income status, support for conservation and willingness to pay for it grows ..." (Source: EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science)
Source: EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science - June 30, 2014 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: news
Oldest biodiversity found in Gabonese marine ecosystem
Researchers have discovered, in clay sediments from Gabon, fossils of the oldest multicellular organisms ever found. In total, more than 400 fossils dating back 2.1 billion years have been collected, including dozens of new types. The detailed analysis of these finds reveals a broad biodiversity composed of micro and macroscopic organisms of highly varied size and shape that evolved in a marine ecosystem. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)
Source: ScienceDaily Headlines - June 26, 2014 Category: Science Source Type: news
Nearly One-Third of World’s Population Is Overweight
Schools around the world, like this one in Melilla, Uruguay, are trying to introduce healthy eating habits to bring down rates of obesity and overweight. Credit: Victoria Rodríguez/IPSBy Farangis AbdurazokzodaWASHINGTON , May 31 2014 (IPS) Over two billion people – or 30 percent of the world’s population – are either obese or overweight, and no country has successfully reduced obesity rates to date, according to a new study published this week by the British medical journal, The Lancet.
The number of overweight and obese people increased from 857 million in 1980 to 2.1 billion in 2013, according to the resea...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - May 31, 2014 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Farangis Abdurazokzoda Tags: Development & Aid Featured Food & Agriculture Headlines Health Population Poverty & MDGs Regional Categories TerraViva United Nations World Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Body Mass Index Michelle Obama obesity Overweight The Source Type: news
Morocco: HM the King and Gabonese Pres. Visit Agondjé University Hospital Center in Libreville
[MAP]Libreville -HM King Mohammed VI and Gabonese president Ali Bongo Ondimba visited, on Thursday, the Agondjé University Hospital Center (CHU) in Libreville. (Source: AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine)
Source: AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine - March 7, 2014 Category: African Health Source Type: news
Morocco: HM the King and Gabonese Pres. Visit Libreville Cancer Treatment Institute of Agondjé University Hospital Center
[MAP]Libreville -HM King Mohammed VI and Gabonese president Ali Bongo Ondimba visited, on Thursday, the Libreville Cancer Treatment Institute, located at the Agondjé University Hospital Center (CHU), north of the Gabonese capital. (Source: AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine)
Source: AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine - March 7, 2014 Category: African Health Source Type: news
Birds' migration secrets to be revealed by space tracker
Icarus, a wildlife receiver circling above Earth, will monitor the epic journeys of tiny birds and insects, helping to warn us of volcanic eruptions and to protect us from diseasesSmall birds, butterflies, bees and fruitbats will be fitted with tiny radio transmitters and tracked throughout their lifetimes from space when a dedicated wildlife radio receiver is fitted to the International Space Station next year.The ability to follow the movements of very small organisms hour by hour from space will revolutionise our understanding of long-distance bird migrations, and give advance warnings of volcanic eruptions and earthqua...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - January 19, 2014 Category: Science Authors: John Vidal Tags: Bird flu World news Health Society Birds Animals International Space Station Insects The Observer Environment Science Wildlife Source Type: news
Starwatch: The November night sky
One month away from Comet ISON's Sun-grazing perihelion on 28 November, it is still anyone's guess as to whether it will flourish or flop. Meanwhile, Jupiter is now our brightest non-lunar object for much of the night.Venus, brilliant at mag -4.4 to -4.6, stands low in the SSW at sunset, though its altitude improves from about 7° to 11° as it turns northwards again and by the 30th it sets later than 18:30. Look for it 8° below-left of the young Moon on the 6th when it stands further S against the stars than it has been since 1930.Jupiter, mag -2.4 to -2.6, sits below and right of Castor and Pollux in Gemini. Rising just...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - October 28, 2013 Category: Science Authors: Alan Pickup Tags: The Guardian Astronomy Comets Features Science Space Source Type: news
New consortium to advance first-ever clinical testing of human hookworm vaccine in Gabon
(Sabin Vaccine Institute) The HOOKVAC consortium, led by the Academic Medical Center, has been awarded a grant of six million Euros from the European Commission FP7 programme to expand the Sabin Vaccine Institute Product Development Partnership's work to develop and test a vaccine for human hookworm, which infects 600-700 million of the world's poorest people. Under this grant, the HOOKVAC consortium will begin the first clinical testing of the human hookworm vaccine in Gabon. (Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health)
Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health - September 26, 2013 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: news
Element of the week: einsteinium | video | @GrrlScientist
What do Ivy Mike, plutonium and Gabon, Africa share in common?This week, we meet the element einsteinium, which has the atomic symbol Es and the atomic number 99. The atomic symbol was originally E but was later changed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) to conform to their new rule that all newly named elements must have symbols with two letters. The inspiration for this element's name should be obvious.Einsteinium is a soft silvery-white metal that is radioactive. The resulting radio-decay is accompanied by both heat and light (see right). It was first identified in the aftermath of the Ivy ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - August 16, 2013 Category: Science Authors: GrrlScientist Tags: theguardian.com Blogposts Chemistry Science Source Type: news
Africa: Yvonne Chaka Chaka: Why We Need to Back the Global Fund Now
[Global Fund]We were coming home from a musical festival in Gabon when a musician from my group felt unwell and was driven home to rest. No one detected that her malaise was a malaria infection. By the time Phumzile Ntuli was taken to the hospital in South Africa, she had developed cerebral malaria. To my greatest shock and dismay, she fell into a coma and died shortly after. (Source: AllAfrica News: HIV-Aids and STDs)
Source: AllAfrica News: HIV-Aids and STDs - April 10, 2013 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
11,000 elephants slaughtered in national park once home to Africa’s largest forest elephant population
The Wildlife Conservation Society has just announced that a national park, once home to Africa’s largest forest elephant population, has lost a staggering 11,100 individuals due to poaching for the ivory trade. The shocking figures come from Gabon's Minkebe Park, where recent surveys of areas within the park revealed that two thirds of its elephants have vanished since 2004. The majority of these losses have probably taken place in the last five years. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)
Source: ScienceDaily Headlines - February 6, 2013 Category: Science Source Type: news
Plants help dispose of toxic threat
This article appeared in Guardian Weekly, which incorporates material from Le Monde PlantsChemistryPollutionPierre Le Hirguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - February 5, 2013 Category: Science Authors: Pierre Le Hir Tags: News Plants Guardian Weekly Science Source Type: news
Hallucinogenic drug ibogaine is associated with a long QT interval
Tabernanthe iboga
1.5 out of 5 stars
Life-threatening complications of ibogaine: three case reports. Paling FP et al. Neth J Med 2012 Nov;70:422-424.
Abstract
Ibogaine is a psychoactive alkaloid found in the bark of the root of the iboga plant (Tabernanthe iboga), a shrub that grows in the rain forests of western Central Africa. The plant is an important adjunct to Bwiti religious ceremonies in Gabon. Ibogaine causes hallucinations that apparently are mediated, not through serotonin receptors, but rather muscarinic cholinergic pathways involved in dreaming and memory.
In the mid-twentieth-century, ibogaine was markete...
Source: The Poison Review - January 14, 2013 Category: Toxicology Authors: Leon Tags: Medical ibogaine long QT torsade de pointes Source Type: news
20 dead in latest Ebola outbreak, UN health agency reports
The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today reported that 20 people have died of the deadly Ebola virus since the most recent outbreak struck the border region between Gabon and the Republic of the Congo. (Source: UN News Centre - Health, Poverty, Food Security)
Source: UN News Centre - Health, Poverty, Food Security - December 28, 2001 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news
