Deadly Storms Destroy Tens of Thousands of Homes in Bihar, India

Winds of up to 200 km/hr flatten crops in Bihar’s corn belt

Severe cyclonic storms have killed about 50 people, left more than 100 others injured and destroyed 25,000 mud houses across 12 districts in the most populous region of Bihar state, East India.

“Crops at most places are flattened,” said the State Chief Minister after conducting an aerial survey of disaster areas.

“I have never seen this kind of destruction in 75 years. I had taken a loan to do farming but everything is destroyed now,” said a local farmer.

The storms destroyed their homes and livelihoods in a span of just 45 minutes, said a  report.

It wasn’t the rain, but the winds, which raked across the region with speeds of up to 200 km/hr for just an hour or so, that caused damage, said a local trader. “There has been large scale lodging [flattening] of standing maize crop. Apart from yield loss, there will also be quality deterioration of the grain, affecting prices.”

Encephalitis Kills Dozens of Children in East India

EMERGING & RE-EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES
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DEADLY ENCEPHALITIS SPREADING IN INDIA
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Encephalitis spreads across east India states of Bihar, West Bengal

At least fifteen children have died in the Indian state of Bihar from suspected encephalitis since Sunday as the disease spreads to new districts, taking the death toll to 92, health officials said.

Thirteen of th victims died from suspected Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) Sunday, and two children died Monday.

Meantime, in the neighboring state of West Bengal, “at least 19 children have died of encephalitis from June 3 to 16. ” said a senor health official.

“The AES is now spreading its tentacles to new areas,” said the health department.

Acute encephalitis syndrome (AES)

Acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) is a clinical condition caused by infection with Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) or other infectious and noninfectious causes.

Transmission of Japanese Encephalitis Virus 

Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus, a flavivirus, is closely related to West Nile and St. Louis encephalitis viruses. JE virus is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected Culex species mosquitoes, particularly Culex tritaeniorhynchus.

The virus is maintained in a cycle between mosquitoes and vertebrate hosts, primarily pigs and wading birds. Humans are incidental or dead-end hosts, because they usually do not develop high enough concentrations of JE virus in their bloodstreams to infect feeding mosquitoes.

JE virus transmission occurs primarily in rural agricultural areas, often associated with rice production and flooding irrigation. In some areas of Asia, these conditions can occur near urban centers.

In temperate areas of Asia, JE virus transmission is seasonal. Human disease usually peaks in the summer and fall. In the subtropics and tropics, transmission can occur year-round, often with a peak during the rainy season. —CDC

Encephalitis Kills 200 in Bihar, India

Death toll exceeds 200 in AES outbreak in Bihar, eastern India

An outbreak of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) has claimed at least 200 lives in India’s eastern state of Bihar since May, reports quoting government sources said.

State health officials in Bihar have identified 10 districts where the mosquito-borne disease has spread. Most of the dead are children.

The disease has killed thousands of people in India since the late 1970s, reports said.

Encephalitis is an acute inflammation of the brain, which can be caused by a bacterial infection, e.g, bacterial meningitis, spreading directly to the brain.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of a brain with encephalitis. It has resulted in a large lesion (orange). Source: NHS/UK

Acute viral encephalitis

Acute viral encephalitis is most often caused by a viral infection from a large list of viruses that include rabies virus, herpes simplex virus (the virus that causes cold sores and the sexually transmitted infection, STI, genital herpes), poliovirus, measles virus, JC virus, West Nile Virus, mumps, varicella zoster virus (the virus which is responsible for chickenpox in children and shingles in adults), and rubella.

Exposure to viruses can occur through

• Breathing in respiratory droplets from an infected person
• Contaminated food or drink
• Mosquito, tick, and other insect bites
• Skin contact (Source A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia and others

Other causes may include an allergic reaction to vaccinations, autoimmune disease, bacteria, such as Lyme disease, complication of an existing infectious disease such as syphilis and tuberculosis, parasitic infestations, such as malaria, roundworms, cysticercosis, and toxoplasmosis in AIDS patients and other people who have a weakened immune system, or the effects of cancer.

For a list of other acute infections and symptoms click HERE.

Other Global Disasters, Significant Events

• Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic. An Excessive Heat Warning remains in effect from 1 pm Wednesday  to 6 am EDT Friday for New Castle-Mercer-Gloucester-Camden-Northwestern Burlington-Chester-Montgomery-Bucks-Delaware-Philadelphia- including the cities of Wilmington, Trenton, Glassboro, Camden, CherryHill, Moorestown, Mount Holly, West Chester, Norristown, Doylestown, Media and Philadelphia. NWS has forecast Heat Index Values of up yo 103ºF (39.4ºC).
• Arizona and California.  An Excessive Heat Watch remains in effect through Friday for east-central, southwest and south-central Arizona deserts and lower deserts of far southeast California. Cities include the Phoenix Metro area, Yuma, El Centro, Casa Grande, Wickenburg, Parker and Blythe. NWS has forecast temperature high of up to 115ºF (~46ºC).

• North Carolina.A wildfire that is burning in Croatan National Forest has grown to 10,800 acres, a fire official said.
  • “Ash has been falling from the sky in areas near the forest, and high levels of particle pollution have spurred two agencies to issue alerts. The National Weather Service has issued a Code Red Air Quality alert for Craven County until 8:15 PM on June 19. And the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources has issued a Code Red Air Quality Action Day for Craven, Jones, and Pamlico Counties,” said a report.

Up-to-date weekly average CO₂ at Mauna Loa

• Week of June 10, 2012:     396.37 ppm  (1-year increase:  2.75 ppm)
• Weekly value from 1 year ago:     393.62 ppm
• Weekly value from 10 years ago:     375.41 ppm

Recent Mauna Loa CO₂

• May 2012:     396.78 ppm  (1-year increase: 2.62 ppm; 10-year increase: 21.13 ppm; 50-year increase: 75.77 ppm)
• May 2011:     394.16 ppm
• May 2002:    375.65 ppm
• May 1962:     321.01 ppm

The graph shows recent monthly mean carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii.

The last four complete years of the Mauna Loa CO₂ record plus the current year are shown. Data are reported as a dry air mole fraction defined as the number of molecules of carbon dioxide divided by the number of all molecules in air, including CO₂ itself, after water vapor has been removed. The mole fraction is expressed as parts per million (ppm). Example: 0.000400 is expressed as 400 ppm.  In the above figure, the dashed red line with diamond symbols represents the monthly mean values, centered on the middle of each month. The black line with the square symbols represents the same, after correction for the average seasonal cycle. The latter is determined as a moving average of SEVEN adjacent seasonal cycles centered on the month to be corrected, except for the first and last THREE and one-half years of the record, where the seasonal cycle has been averaged over the first and last SEVEN years, respectively. [Source: NOAA/ESRL]

Recent Global CO₂

• April 2012:     394.01 ppm (1-year increase: 2.18 ppm)
• April 2011:     391.83 ppm

The graph shows recent monthly mean carbon dioxide globally averaged over marine surface sites. The Global Monitoring Division of NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory has measured carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases for several decades at a globally distributed network of air sampling sites [Conway, 1994]. A global average is constructed by first fitting a smoothed curve as a function of time to each site, and then the smoothed value for each site is plotted as a function of latitude for 48 equal time steps per year. A global average is calculated from the latitude plot at each time step [Masarie, 1995].   Source: NOAA/ESRL

• Typhoon GUCHOL and TS TALIM

Source: SSEC

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• 2012 Disaster Calendar