Global Health Officials Worried As Two New Viruses in Middle East And China Could Spark Possible World-Wide Outbreak

By MARIA CHENG, Associated Press – “LONDON (AP) — Two respiratory viruses in different parts of the world have captured the attention of global health officials – a novel coronavirus in the Middle East and a new bird flu spreading in China.

Last week, the coronavirus related to SARS spread to France, where one patient who probably caught the disease in Dubai infected his hospital roommate. Officials are now trying to track down everyone who went on a tour group holiday to Dubai with the first patient as well as all contacts of the second patient. Since it was first spotted last year, the new coronavirus has infected 34 people, killing 18 of them. Nearly all had some connection to the Middle East.

The World Health Organization, however, says there is no reason to think the virus is restricted to the Middle East and has advised health officials worldwide to closely monitor any unusual respiratory cases.

At the same time, a new bird flu strain, H7N9, has been infecting people in China since at least March, causing 32 deaths out of 131 known cases.

WHO, which is closely monitoring the viruses, says both have the potential to cause a pandemic – a global epidemic – if they evolve into a form easily spread between people. Here’s a crash course in what we know so far about them…” Read more.

France Confirms New Case Of Deadly SARs-Like Virus – “French health authorities said on Sunday that a second person infected with a deadly new SARS-like virus coronavirus has been transferred to intensive care after his condition worsened. The man fell ill after sharing a hospital ward with the first victim identified in France… Two more potential cases were also being investigated. The regional health authority said the first man, who was hospitalised after returning from a holiday in Dubai in April, was in a ‘very serious but stable condition’.” Read more.

WHO Says New Coronavirus May Be Passed Person To Person – “This comes after the French health ministry confirmed a second man had contracted the virus in a possible case of human-to-human transmission. Two more people in Saudi Arabia are also reported to have died from the virus, according to health officials. NCoV is known to cause pneumonia and sometimes kidney failure. World Health Organization (WHO) officials have expressed concern over the clusters of cases of the new coronavirus strain and the potential for it to spread.” Read more.

Unsealed: A Closer Look At Revelation 6 And ‘The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse’

By ICA

Revelation 6:1, “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see…”

Were John’s apocalyptic snapshots and descriptions of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” in the Book of Revelation pointing to events that would only take place nearly 2000 years after the visions were first revealed? All too often, many of today’s Christian teachers and Bible prophecy experts have repeated the belief that the entirety of the Book of Revelation, with the exception of the first three chapters, are to be understood in futuristic terms only. I have done this myself in the past. Whether it be the Seven Seals or the Seven Trumpets or the Seven Bowls of wrath, everything contained therein and described by John from Revelation 4:1 onward must be treated as little more than a description of apocalyptic earth-shattering events that we, as Christians, will never witness taking place upon the world in which we live, events that can only begin to come to fruition after an imminent rapture has suddenly removed all followers of Christ from the face of the earth to deliver them from the impending wrath of God and the last-days Beast of Revelation. If we take the time to engage in a careful examination of the text, however, we may begin to see that some of the events often understood as yet to come, are events that are already taking place today.

An Overview Of History: The Islamic Beast Of Revelation – The Past And The Present

After careful study, I have come to the conclusion that, judging from the description of events and their sequence provided for us in Scripture, the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” described in the first four Seals of Revelation 6 are four separate

‘Catastrophic’: Lingering ‘Red Tide’ In Florida Killing Record Number Of Manatees

By Melissa Gray and Joe Sutton, CNN – “Florida’s endangered manatees have long suffered from human activity, but this year they face an especially deadly threat hidden in the waters where they swim.

An algae bloom off southwest Florida, called Florida red tide, has killed 174 manatees since January, the highest number to die from red tide in a calendar year, state wildlife officials said Monday.

A red tide is a higher than normal concentration of a microscopic algae that appears in the Gulf of Mexico. At high enough concentrations, the algae can turn the water red or brown, hence the name.

Red tides happen almost every year in southwest Florida and sometimes last just a few weeks, but this year the red tide has lingered and settled in an area of warm water where the manatees have migrated.

‘It’s kind of filled in an area where they’ve congregated and are feeding on sea grass where the toxins settle on,’ said Kevin Baxter, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Those toxins can affect the central nervous systems of fish and other vertebrates, causing the animals to die.

Wildlife officials and their partners have this year rescued 12 manatees suffering from the effects of red tide. They asked the public to alert them to other ailing manatees who may be showing a lack of coordination and stability in the water, muscle twitches or seizures, and difficulty lifting their heads to breathe.” Read more.

The Powers Of Heaven Shaken: Earthquakes, Mass Animal Deaths, Violent Storms, Meteorites Light Up Skies, Strange Signs February 2013

Haggai 2:6, “For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.”

Romans 8:20-22, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.”

Chad: Children Starve To Death As Islamic ‘Doctors’ With ‘Healing Gift From Allah’ Throw Common Sense Into The Wind

Allah apparently neglected to attend medical school …

Fox News – “MOUSSORO, Chad – On the day of their son’s surgery, the family woke before dawn. They saddled their horses and set out across the 12-mile-long carpet of sand to the nearest town, where they hoped the reputed doctor would cure their frail, feverish baby.

The neighboring town, almost as poor and isolated as their own, hosts a foreign-run emergency clinic for malnourished children. But that’s not where the family headed.

The doctor they chose treats patients behind a mud wall. His operating room is the sand lot that serves as his front yard. His operating table is a plastic mat lying on the dirt. His surgical tools include a screwdriver. And his remedy for malnourished children is the removal, without antiseptic or anesthesia, of their teeth and epiglottis…

There are now 32 clinics equipped with the latest technology to halt starvation, most within a few hours’ walk of affected families. If a child makes it to one of these centers in time, the chance of survival is remarkably high.

Yet acute malnutrition is only getting worse in the Sahel, where every year, cemeteries fill up with the bodies of children who wasted away within walking distance of help.

In 2010, 55,000 children were treated for the most acute form of malnutrition in Chad. In 2011, it was 65,000. The expected caseload for 2012 is 127,300, according to the report published in June. Overall, in the eight countries in the Sahel, the number of admissions has doubled in just three years…

Eight-month-old Abdallah Lamine had been sick for a month, but it wasn’t until he started vomiting that his parents made the trip to the medicine man, Haki Hassane…

The remedy the healer prescribes for malnourished children is the removal of the epiglottis, the tiny ball of flesh that hangs from the back of the throat, which he says ‘gets in the way of the food.’ For fever, he prescribes the removal of the child’s teeth.

In baby Abdallah’s case he prescribed both. He grabbed the baby by one arm, placed him on the mat and pinned him down. As the child began to shriek, he dug the unwashed screwdriver into the baby’s pink gums, until four tiny teeth popped out.

The healer wiped down the holes in the child’s mouth with a corner of a ratty blanket, stained with the blood of the other children he’d treated that day. Then he handed the petrified, whimpering toddler to his stone-faced mother.

Tooth extraction and the removal of the epiglottis is common in this part of Chad. Elsewhere, the treatment for diarrhea is burning the child’s anus with a rod heated over a fire…

… Already malnourished children who have their epiglottis cut can’t eat for at least a week, says health official Blague. When the child does eat, the open wound often gets infected. This worsens the malnutrition.

Because the infection can last several weeks, families believe their baby has simply contracted a different ailment. Chad’s government has never addressed these harmful practices. The issue remains extremely sensitive, in part because the healers claim their gift came from Allah …” Read more.

Pakistan: Islamists Kill Aid Workers For Trying To Save Lives With Un-Islamic Polio Vaccine

However, since their sinless and all-wise prophet said so, they’d be perfectly ok with serving a warm glass of camel urine instead to the sick and dying …

RFE/RL – “A volunteer who was shot during a wave of attacks on polio-vaccination teams has succumbed to his injuries in Pakistan.

That brings to nine the number of health workers killed since December 17.

Officials say the student volunteer died on December 20, a day after he was shot while helping distribute polio drops in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Five of the nine health workers killed were women.

The bloodshed prompted United Nations agencies to suspend their campaign against polio in Pakistan after the attacks.

The Islamic terrorist group Jundullah claimed responsibility, telling RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal that polio vaccination is forbidden in Islam.

Pakistan is one of only three countries where the disease is endemic.” Source – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Flashback: Mali: 4.6 Million People Face Starvation Following Islamist Advances In The North – “War is not the only reason why at least 340,000 people have fled their homes since gunmen loyal to ‘al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’ (AQIM), along with rebels from the local Tuareg tribe, began their advance across northern Mali in January. A desperate shortage of food is also taking hold in this arid Saharan region. More than 1.6 million people in northern Mali are in a ‘situation of severe, close to extreme, food insecurity,’ according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.” Read more.

Flashback: Somalia: Islamist Militants Deprive 1.3 Million People Of Food, Clean Water And Health Care After Banning Muslim Aid – “Somalia’s al Shabaab militants said on Monday they had banned Muslim aid agency Islamic Relief from areas under their control, a move that would deprive 1.3 million people of food, clean water and health care… Al Shabaab accused the humanitarian organisation of working with other relief groups it had already expelled.” Read more.

Iowa: Thousands Of Bass Found Dead Along Shores Of Dickinson County Lakes May Have Been Killed By Disease

By Russ Mitchell – “Water temperatures are far warmer than usual for this time of year. Fish have had an extra long growing season and the arrival of yellow bass in the area a decade ago may have caused a population explosion in the Iowa Great Lakes.

Some, or all of those factors may be contributing to an unsettling scene along the shores of Dickinson County lakes this fall. Bass carcasses can be seen every few steps along the beach at Pikes Point State Park, which is on the northern shore of West Lake Okoboji. The die-off is affecting primarily East and West Lakes Okoboji and the lower chain of lakes.

‘It looks like a fairly significant fish kill,’ said Mike Hawkins of the Iowa DNR. ‘I wouldn’t say it’s minor. There’s thousands of fish being affected. I don’t have a real good handle on whether we’re still ongoing or if it’s finished up or curtailing. It’s kind of hard to tell, but we’re continuing to see dead fish on the shoreline.’

The fisheries biologist was first called out to the State Pier area near Arnolds Park Amusement Park on Sept. 4.

‘That’s where we could see some live fish, out away from shore — but they were acting sick,’ he said. ‘There were some dead fish on the shore.’

Hawkins then went to Brown’s Bay, on the south end of West Lake Okoboji.

‘By going down to Brown’s Bay, you’re looking at a different part of the lake,’ he said. ‘It’s pretty hard, in a lake that size, to put enough pollutant in to have an effect on fish. Seeing some dead fish down in Brown’s Bay is kind of an indicator that it is disease-related.’

Live bass samples have been sent to a wildlife service office in LaCrosse, Wis. Staff members at a fish health and disease center there will try to determine whether the bass disease is viral or bacterial.” Read more.

Indiana: Thousands Of Dead And Dying Deer Affected By Virus Statewide Will Affect Hunters For Years To Come

By Kelly Roberts – “TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) – This summer’s drought effects are expanding into hunting season. Thousands of the state’s deer are dying. Biologists believe the deer are infected with a virus that causes Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, or EHD.

‘It’s a virus, and it’s spread by a small biting insect called a midge,’ Department of Natural Resource’s District Biologist Dean Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman said EHD has been seen in deer since the 1990s, but this year’s outbreak is more extreme, and it can be blamed on the drought. Zimmerman said the dry weather is perfect for midge reproduction…

Zimmerman said a deer with EHD will have flu-like symptoms, and can act distracted. He believes dead deer found in Tippecanoe, Carroll and Cass counties had the virus…

As more dead deer are discovered, Zimmerman said it’s becoming more likely it will affect hunters for years to come.” Read more.

Flashback: Disease Kills Hundreds, Possibly Thousands Of Deer In The North Carolina Foothills, ‘They Are Decaying From The Inside Out’ – “A disease is killing deer by the hundreds in the North Carolina foothills… ‘They act sick; they stumble around; they hold their head low,’ Ray said… ‘I’ve never experienced deer smelling like these have,’ Haley said. ‘They are decaying from the inside out.’ Wildlife biologists fear the number of cases in Caldwell County may actually be much higher than 500. Those are just the reported cases — the number of deaths could be in the thousands.” Read more.

Flashback: Wyoming: Massive Black Hills Deer Die-Off Could Be Worst In Decades – “Wildlife officials knew some deer would die in the Black Hills this fall. No one expected what could be the worst die-off in decades… ‘Our deer numbers are down right now anyway, and this sure isn’t helping anything,’ said Joe Sandrini, a Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist based in Newcastle.” Read more.

The Armageddon Virus: Experts Fear Animal-To-Human Disease Could Devastate Mankind In The Next Five Years

By John Naish – “The symptoms appear suddenly with a headache, high fever, joint pain, stomach pain and vomiting.

As the illness progresses, patients can develop large areas of bruising and uncontrolled bleeding. In at least 30  per cent of cases, Crimean-Congo Viral Hemorrhagic Fever is fatal.

And so it proved this month when a 38-year-old garage owner from Glasgow, who had been to his brother’s wedding in Afghanistan, became the UK’s first confirmed victim of the tick-borne viral illness when he died at the high-security infectious disease unit at London’s Royal Free Hospital.

It is a disease widespread in domestic and wild animals in Africa and Asia — and one that has jumped the species barrier to infect humans with deadly effect.

But the unnamed man’s death was not the only time recently a foreign virus had struck in this country for the first time.

Last month, a 49-year-old man entered London’s St Thomas’ hospital with a raging fever, severe cough and desperate difficulty in breathing.

He bore all the hallmarks of the deadly Sars virus that killed nearly 1,000 people in 2003 — but blood tests quickly showed that this terrifyingly virulent infection was not Sars. Nor was it any other virus yet known to medical science.

Worse still, the gasping, sweating patient was rapidly succumbing to kidney failure, a potentially lethal complication that had never before been seen in such a case.

As medical staff quarantined their critically-ill patient, fearful questions began to mount. The stricken man had recently come from Qatar in the Middle East. What on earth had he picked up there? Had he already infected others with it?

Using the latest high-tech gene-scanning technique, scientists at the Health Protection Agency started to piece together clues from tissue samples taken from the Qatari patient, who was now hooked up to a life-support machine.

The results were extraordinary. Yes, the virus is from the same family as Sars. But its make-up is completely new. It has come not from humans, but from animals. Its closest known relatives have been found in Asiatic bats.

The investigators also discovered that the virus has already killed someone. Searches of global medical databases revealed the same mysterious virus lurking in samples taken from a 60-year-old man who had died in Saudi Arabia in July.” Read more.

Disease Kills Hundreds, Possibly Thousands Of Deer In The North Carolina Foothills

WSOCTV – “CALDWELL COUNTY, N.C. — A disease is killing deer by the hundreds in the North Carolina foothills.

Most of the people Eyewitness News talked with reported seeing the deer carcasses near creeks in northern Caldwell County. Wildlife biologists said that’s because the deer look for a cool place after their temperature spikes while fighting off the virus.

State wildlife biologist Danny Ray has fielded calls on dying deer much of the last two months. The virus killing the animals is called hemorrhagic disease.

‘They act sick; they stumble around; they hold their head low,’ Ray said.

Experts said the virus is in various parts of North Carolina, but the hardest-hit is an area of northern Caldwell County.

Homeowner Don Edwards said he found a dead deer in his pond.

‘Everybody has a story that they’ve seen one,’ Edwards said. ‘The big fields across the street — there’s one a week.’…

But it is something few people in the area will forget.

‘I’ve never experienced deer smelling like these have,’ Haley said. ‘They are decaying from the inside out.’

Wildlife biologists fear the number of cases in Caldwell County may actually be much higher than 500. Those are just the reported cases — the number of deaths could be in the thousands.” Read more.

Flashback: Wyoming: Massive Black Hills Deer Die-Off Could Be Worst In Decades – “Wildlife officials knew some deer would die in the Black Hills this fall. No one expected what could be the worst die-off in decades… ‘Our deer numbers are down right now anyway, and this sure isn’t helping anything,’ said Joe Sandrini, a Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist based in Newcastle.” Read more.

Flashback: Illinois: Virus Previously Unknown To Area Kills Hundreds Of Deer Around Chicago – “Hundreds of deer in the Chicago area have been killed by a virus previously unknown in the area. The Daily Herald reports that roughly 200 deer in Cook County have died. Six suspected cases have been reported in Kane County.” Read more.

Flashback: Virus Killing Hundreds Of Deer In Michigan, Oklahoma, Kansas, Indiana, Iowa, Arkansas … – “Hundreds of deer in eight Michigan counties have died from a viral disease that is on the rise nationwide because of hot, dry weather, state officials said Thursday… ‘We are seeing a large die-off of deer in local areas. To date we have over 900 reports of dead deer across all (eight) counties…’” Read more.

Wyoming: Massive Black Hills Deer Die-Off Could Be Worst In Decades

By CHRISTINE PETERSON, Casper Star-Tribune – “CASPER, Wyo. — Wildlife officials knew some deer would die in the Black Hills this fall. No one expected what could be the worst die-off in decades.

Called epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD, the disease typically strikes fawns and bucks and is worse during droughts. Biologists first found the disease in the Black Hills in the 1950s.

‘Our deer numbers are down right now anyway, and this sure isn’t helping anything,’ said Joe Sandrini, a Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist based in Newcastle.

The disease is spread by a type of biting gnat. White-tailed deer are most often affected. It’s worse during dry years because deer congregate in larger groups near diminishing water sources. A hard frost will kill the gnats, but when temperatures don’t drop low enough, the gnats — and the disease — persist, Sandrini said.

It cannot be spread to humans or most other wildlife and is not a threat to humans, Sandrini said.

Dying deer may be lethargic, appear to be drooling and congregate near water. If a deer succumbs to the disease, it typically dies within three days of infection, Sandrini said.

Biologists won’t know the extent of the die-off until mid-October after they begin calculating the herd estimates. It seems to be worse in the northern part of the Black Hills, Sandrini said.

Sundance Game Warden Chris Teter started fielding calls from concerned residents around the first of September and has since received dozens reporting dead or dying deer.

‘I’ve not had this many calls ever before, even during an outbreak,’ said Teter, who has been the game warden for 22 years.” Read more.

Flashback: Illinois: Virus Previously Unknown To Area Kills Hundreds Of Deer Around Chicago – “Hundreds of deer in the Chicago area have been killed by a virus previously unknown in the area. The Daily Herald reports that roughly 200 deer in Cook County have died. Six suspected cases have been reported in Kane County. The disease is known as EHD, or epizootic hemorrhagic disease. It’s a virus that kills deer in about a week and is spread among them by bites from flies known as midges.” Read more.

Flashback: Virus Killing Hundreds Of Deer In Michigan, Oklahoma, Kansas, Indiana, Iowa, Arkansas … – “Hundreds of deer in eight Michigan counties have died from a viral disease that is on the rise nationwide because of hot, dry weather, state officials said Thursday… ‘We are seeing a large die-off of deer in local areas. To date we have over 900 reports of dead deer across all (eight) counties,’ stated Tom Cooley, DNR wildlife biologist and pathologist.” Read more.

Oregon: Portland Bird Population Threatened After Outbreak Of Avian Botulism Kills Thousands Of Birds

By Lauren Edmundson – “At least 2000 birds have died from an outbreak of avian botulism in Portland, Oregon. This outbreak could reduce the area’s migratory bird population significantly. Officials are currently working to contain the outbreak.

Avian botulism is caused by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which is found in the soil and activated by warm temperatures. Experts believe that the warm weather combined with decomposing plant materials have led to elevated bacteria levels in the area.

Birds can be infected with avian botulism through consuming the bacteria directly or by consuming other invertebrates that are infected with the bacteria. In this outbreak, maggots have been feeding on dead birds, and other birds become infected by eating these maggots.

For this reason, experts are focusing on clean up of sick and dead birds as the primary means of prevention. Dan Moeller, Metro’s Natural Areas Land Manager, explained to Portland’s local news station, KGW, ‘If groups of scientists and workers aren’t out here collecting the dead materials then it can spread very quickly. And that’s what we’ve been doing ever since we found it was occurring, was to get out here as quickly as possible.’” Read more.