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As our technology expands, as our wars multiply, and as we
invade more of nature, we create systems — organisations and the
organization of organisations — that increase the risks for the
operators, passengers, innocent by-standers, and for future generations.
Normal Accidents
Charles PERROW
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| This page follows a page developed first in |
Hong Kong at the HKU-Pasteur Rearch
Centre then at the Unit
Genetics of Bacterial Genomes in Paris. It provides information,
some of which is original (this site and this page are free to use but,
as with programs in open access Copyleft-protected to
guarantee this freedom), but also links that may help you to trace back
other relevant information and insight in the topics you are interested
in. Not all important information is in English! Chinese, mainly as Mandarin
Chinese (Putonghua 普通话), is the language spoken by the most people in
the world, followed by Latin languages (French, Italian, Portuguese,
Romanian, Spanish...), and then by English (or perhaps tongues from India).
In addition, Greek provides most of the words and concepts used in science.
Do not refrain from seeking information in other languages. Do not forget
that most of Chinese scientific literature has not been translated in
the West, and that it conveys information of its own. English is not
the sole tongue used at this site (see here, for example).
more... Understanding biology requires to be able
to write or speak about biological facts and concepts. Some reading may
be useful. Links to the World-Wide Web are provided to help finding out
relevant information. In addition, we refer to our own publications meant
to be used as media for communication both of basic and highly specialized
knowledge. A page is devoted to genomics, but broader information can
be found in The
Delphic Boat (2003, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, USA) and
in popularisation articles which are cited as needed.
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News in biology, evolution and
emerging diseases |
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This page has been initiated in Hong
Kong, in year 2000. The information presented
does not compete with that provided by news agencies such as Agence
France Presse or Reuters. It
selects information (occasionally not uncovered by standard media).
It also informs about History of Science and about the creation
of concepts used by modern biology. An important access to the
very nature of Science is discussed in a conference
given at Zhong Shan University (中山大學) in Guangzhou (广州). Finally,
the importance of China is emphasized: the Western world is so
dominating in its control of the mass media that this seems of
necessity. Several sites provide interesting news on influenza,
in particular Crawford Kilian's
blog.
To display daily news, click on the triangles, or click
on "Show all news". To go back go to the site Home
page, or to
the site map.
Show all
news
| Titles only
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26 april 2012. Hong Kong has suspended the import of poultry products from Liaoning province of the Chinese Mainland for three weeks. A confirmed case of avian influenza H5N1 in Dalian, Liaoning has been diagnosed. The Center for Food Safety of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has implemented a
specific response to ban import from regions affected by human cases of
the H5N1 virus. |
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25 april 2012. A
lethal skin disease, previously detected in 2011, is killing children in
Vietnam. A previously unknown disease,
first observed last year, has
affected 161 young people and killed 19 children in a poor Vietnam district.
The cause of the disease, which appears to be contagious by contact, is
unknown. As in the case of foot and mouth disease it affects hands and
feet, causing rashes and blisters. In another domain, it remains important
to monitor the development of H9N2 avian flu: a Korean
study shows how
the virus develops in poultry farms. |
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9 april 2012. The mysterious disease that kills seals in Alaska is now affecting polar bears. Polar bears living south of Beaufort Sea in Alaska are losing their fur and have skin lesions. This is similar to the disease that killed many seals last year. The cause of the disease has not yet been identified. A similar disease appeared in 1998-1999. |
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12 march 2012. An
outbreak of E. coli infection back in 2006 might be related to that of 2011
in Germany. A
virulent strain of Escherichia coli affected Norway in 2006. This strain,
dubbed O103:H25 appears to be related to the O104:H4 that created an epidemy
in Germany last year. Both the 2006 and the 2011 strains carry a similar toxinogenic bacteriphage (virus) and have similar genome organisation. This opens again the question of the origin of the strains that caused the disease. |
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27 february 2012. An
emerging virus disease affects cattle in Europe. The
virus of Schmallenberg was discovered last november. It infects domestic
ruminants. The contamination route is not yet entirely understood, but it
is suspected that the virus is transmitted by insect vectors. It is a bunya
virus. This family comprises a great many negative-sense,
single-stranded RNA viruses that infect animals, insects, and plants.
For the time being nothing is known about wild animals. The virus does not
appear to cause human diseases. Up to a quarter of new born lambs, when their
mother is affected have malformations. |
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29 january 2012. Several
fatalities caused by the Nipah virus in Bangaldesh; diagnostic confirmed
as an infection by Escherichia coli
O104:H4 in French tourists back from Turkey last autumn. In another domain,
volcanic activity might be waking up south of the island of Santorini (Greece). The Nipah
virus
is endemic in Bangladesh, where it lingers in fruit-eating bats. Five
persons just died from the infectionthat causes fatal encephalitis.
Contagion is usually indirect, often caused by poorly cleaned fresh dates. The
O104:H4 E.
coli strain that caused an epidemic
of diarrhoea in French tourists back from Turkey is related, but distinct
from the strain that caused the German outbreak last spring. In Greece,
likely volcanic activity south of Santorini (Thira) spurs
a debate about its immediate developments. |
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22 january 2012. The government informs the population about a case of avian flu in Guizhou province.
A 39 years old man has been infected by the H5N1 virus on january 6th. This case must be carefully monitored as the
patient did not appear to have had contact with poultry. However it must be remembered that similar situations were observed several times during the past decade. |
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19 january 2012. Vietnam
and Cambodia report the death of patients infected by the avian flu virus.
While these
countries had not been affected by human cases for several months (two
years for Vietnam) two deaths are unfortunately reported. In Hong Kong the H5N1 virus
has been identified in a little egret. |
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6 january 2012. Credit card payment was used to identify the source of contamination for the Escherichia
coli O104:H4 outbreak in Germany.
Risk factors for the large E.
coli outbreak that started in Germany last year have been identified
using credit card payments in cafeterias. This type of information has been recently used and led to important epidemiological data, pointing to the source of contamination (in that particular case, fenugreek sprouts). It is likely to become an important data source in the future. |
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3 january 2012. The
brand new complex for government offices is contaminated by Legionella in Hong Kong.
Contamination of water by amoeba containing Legionella species is fairly frequent. It may lead to serious pulmonary infections if the legionella density is more than one colony forming unit per mililiter. The level found after a government official has been hospitalized with the disease raised 14 times that level. Investigation continues. In the mean time several black
headed seagulls were found to have died from the H5N1 flu virus. |
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1 january 2012. The
SAR Hong Kong health authorities maintained the avian flu alert to the "serious" level.
Hong Kong SAR suspends poultry import from around the residence of the patient
who died from avian flu (H5N1). |
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