Tonga Declares Zika Outbreak

Five cases of the ZIKV infection confirmed, hundreds of suspected cases being investigated

The South Pacific island-nation of Tonga has declared an outbreak of the Zika virus after five cases of the infection were confirmed.

The outbreak comes shortly after Brazilian government’s health authorities announced that active Zika virus had been detected in the saliva and urine of an unspecified number of patients.

Meanwhile, Spain confirmed Thursday that a pregnant woman was diagnosed with the Zika virus infection, the first reported case in Europe.

“The woman is among seven people who showed symptoms of Zika after visiting affected countries, the ministry said, adding that she was under medical treatment in the northeastern region of Catalonia,” said a report.

Earlier this week, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported a new case of infection involving the spread of virus through sex in Texas.

Zika in the U.S. (as of posting)

• A total of 35 travel-associated Zika virus disease cases have been reported to CDC from 11 U.S. states, and DC, including 9 cases in Florida and 8 in Texas.
• No locally acquired vector-borne cases have been reported from the continental United States.
• Nine locally acquired cases and 1 travel-associated case have been reported to CDC from U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Global map of the predicted distribution of Ae. aegypti. The map depicts the probability of occurrence (from 0 blue to 1 red) at a spatial resolution of 5 km × 5 km. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.08347.004

Zika Travel Notices -CDC

• Zika Virus in Cape Verde
• Zika Virus in the Caribbean
  Currently includes: Barbados; Curaçao; Dominican Republic; Guadeloupe; Haiti; Jamaica; Martinique; the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory; Saint Martin; U.S. Virgin Islands
• Zika Virus in Central America
  Currently includes: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama
• Zika Virus in Mexico
• Zika Virus in the Pacific Islands
  Currently includes: American Samoa, Samoa, Tonga
• Zika Virus in South America
  Currently includes: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela

 

Crop Disasters Declared in Two U.S. States

Excessive rain and flooding destroy crops across 18 counties in Georgia, North Carolina

Continued excessive rain and flooding destroy crops across 18 counties in North Carolina and Virginia .

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated a total of 18 counties in North Carolina and Virginia as crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by excessive rain and flooding that occurred from July 13, 2015, and continues. Those counties are:

North Carolina. Alamance, Caswell, Chatham, Durham, Granville, Guilford, Harnett, Lee, Moore, Orange, Person , Randolph, Rockingham, Stokes and Wake counties.

Virginia. Halifax, Henry and Pittsylvania counties.

Crop Disasters 2015

USDA declared crop disasters in at least 4,017 counties and county equivalents across 46 States [as well as Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands] in 2015. Those states are Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.

• About 99 percent of the 2015 crop disaster designations were due to drought last year.

Crop Disasters 2014

In 2014, USDA declared crop disasters in at least 2,904 counties across 44 states. Most of the designations were due to drought.

Those states were:

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan. Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. [FIRE-EARTH has documented all of the above listings. See blog content.]

Notes:
i. USDA trigger point for a countywide disaster declaration is 30 percent crop loss on at least one crop.

ii. The counties designated as agricultural disaster areas, as listed above, include both primary and contiguous disaster areas.

iii. Some counties may have been designated as crop disaster areas more than once due to multiple disasters.

iv. The U.S. has a total of 3,143 counties and county-equivalents.

Related Links

• Extreme Weather Events Destroy Crops in Georgia & the Carolinas January 24, 2016
• Multiple Crop Disasters Declared in Three U.S. States January 9, 2016
• Drought
• Agricultural Disasters Index

Sakurajima Volcano Explodes

Sakurajimsa erupts at Showa crater

The explosive eruption occurred at 09:56UTC producing a large plume of smoke and ash followed by lava flow.

Authorities upgraded the volcanic warning to a “Level 3 (Do not approach the volcano).”

One of the most active volcanoes in the world, Sakurajima is located in Kagoshima Bay, southern Kyushu, Japan (about 1,100km WSW of Tokyo). The composite volcano has three peaks: Kitadake, Nakadake and Minamidake (southern peak).

Since 1955 the Minamidake crater, has been continually active. The ongoing activity includes strong strombolian to ash explosions at least once and as many as 8 times a day.

Sendai nuclear power station was built about 50km from the volcano, and despite hundreds of recent eruptions, it was restarted on August 11, 2015.

Sakurajima is a post-caldera cone of the Aira caldera, a gigantic caldera in the southern portion of the island of Kyushu. The caldera was formed by a massive VEI 7 eruption (~ 400km³ of ejecta), about 22,000 years ago, “shortly” after the Oruanui eruption of New Zealand’s Taupo Volcano.

In August 2015, a level 4 emergency warning [“prepare to evacuate”] was issued after the local “experts” warned that a major eruption was imminent.

Related Links

• Sakurajima Volcano ‘Unhappy’ with Sendai Nuke Restart August 15, 2015
• Sakurajima Ejects Massive Column of Ash June 7, 2014
• Sakurajima Volcano Erupts Explosively May 11, 2014
• Sakurajima Erupts for 500th Time This Year August 18, 2013