Where is the Outbreak?

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

nytimes.com - by Joe Burgess, Denise Grady, Josh Keller, Heather Murphy and Sergio Peçanha - August 6, 2014

What are the chances of getting Ebola in the United States?

Two American aid workers infected with the Ebola virus while working in West Africa are being treated at a hospital in Atlanta, in a containment unit for patients with dangerous infectious diseases. But the risk that anyone will contract Ebola in the United States is extremely small, experts say.

Doctors across the country are being reminded to ask for the travel history of anybody who comes in with a fever.

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cnn.com - by By Jacque Wilson and Danielle Dellorto - August 5, 2014

(CNN) -- Two American missionary workers infected with the deadly Ebola virus were given an experimental drug that seems to have saved their lives.

Dr. Kent Brantly was given the medication, ZMapp, shortly after telling his doctors he thought he would die, according to a source familiar with his case. Within an hour, doctors say his symptoms -- labored breathing and a widespread rash -- dramatically improved. Nancy Writebol, another missionary working with Samaritan's Purse, received two doses of the medication and has also shown significant improvement, sources say.

As there is no proven treatment and no vaccine for Ebola, this experimental drug is raising lots of questions.

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Algae near a Toledo water intake crib in Lake Erie. Photograph: Haraz N Ghanbari/AP

theguardian.com - Associated Press in Toledo - August 4, 2014

A water ban that had hundreds of thousands of people in Ohio and Michigan scrambling for drinking water has been lifted, Toledo’s mayor announced Monday.

Mayor D Michael Collins lifted the ban at a Monday morning news conference, and said the city’s drinking water is safe.

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cbsnews.com - AP - August 3, 2014

TOLEDO, Ohio - Residents of Ohio's fourth largest city are now being warned about potential hazards from taking a shower.

The Toledo-Lucas County Health Department said late Saturday that, at the urging of the Centers for Disease Control, it is advising that those with liver disease should avoid showering. This applies only to those who get their water service from the city of Toledo's water treatment plant.

The department now also says that those with sensitive skin may want to avoid showering because the water could cause irritation, reports CBS affiliate WTOL in Toledo.

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As a follow-up to my post titled A New Approach, following below are several examples of how I propose that structural adaptivity should be applied as a guiding principle for future growth and development in the US.  As I explained before, I believe that structural adaptivity is the only logical approach to building our man-made environment for a rapidly changing, uncertain, unpredictable future.

Bus Rapid Transit.  Bus rapid transit (BRT) is a system of individual self-propelled vehicles (often several linked together) that can and do travel on conventional streets and highways, on dedicated lanes on surface streets, and/or on separate intersection-free busways dedicated to buses only.  Likewise, the rapid transit buses can leave their normal routes of travel and enter and leave most all areas of a city or region.  As a modern system providing rapid mass transit, it also normally has features similar to rail rapid transit, e.g., off-board fare collection, platform-level boarding, efficient and rapid scheduling, etc., and it oftentimes has traffic signaling priority at any street intersections.

National Wildlife Federation CEO Collin O’Mara checks out the algal bloom in Western Lake Erie near the water intake facility for the City of Toledo during a visit to the site with local and national officials and local media. Toledo Free Press photo by Sarah Ottney

toledofreepress.com - August 3, 2014

The City of Toledo issued an urgent water advisory early Saturday morning. The advisory is still in effect as of Sunday.

City of Toledo residents and regional residents (including portions of Lucas, Wood, Fulton and Monroe counties) who receive water from the city are asked to not drink city water until further notice, including water that has been boiled. Water should also not be given to pets.

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(ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE )

Image: A wind farm in the Texas panhandle. Credit David Bowser for The New York Times

nytimes.com - July 23rd, 2014 - Matthew L. Wald

The wind is so relentless that a week can go by before it is calm enough for a crane operator to install the 30-ton blades atop the 260-foot towers at the Panhandle 2 wind farm here. It’s worth the wait; a single turbine at the farm can produce 40 percent more energy than an average one.

But turning wind into electricity is one thing; moving the energy to a profitable market is another.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

cdc.gov - http://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/quarantinestationcontactlistfull.html

Twenty U.S. Quarantine Stations, located at ports of entry and land border crossings, use these public health practices as part of a comprehensive Quarantine System that serves to limit the introduction of infectious diseases into the United States and to prevent their spread.

(CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)

At LAX and other U.S. airports, CDC quarantine officers are on alert, looking for infected passengers.

abc7.com - by Robert Holguin - August 1, 2014

At Los Angeles International Airport and other U.S. airports, CDC quarantine officers are on alert, looking for infected passengers. . .

. . . The CDC operates quarantine stations at airports across the U.S., including at Los Angeles International Airport, to respond to reports of illness or death.

Officers are trained to spot symptoms of Ebola, and anyone who departs from a flight from an affected country and appears to have symptoms would be tested. If they test positive, they would be rushed to a hospital and quarantined.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outfitted a Gulfstream jet with an isolation pod designed and built by the U.S. Defense Department, the CDC and a private company. The pod, officially called an Aeromedical Biological Containment System, is a portable, tentlike device that ensures the flight crew and others on the flight remain safe from an infectious disease.

kfor.com - by Laura Noland - August 1, 2014

ATLANTA (CNN) — When a plane took off from Georgia to meet two American missionaries fighting to survive Ebola hemorrhagic fever in West Africa, a small epidemic ignited on social media in the United States: Fear.

The medical charter flight that departed Cartersville on Thursday could bring Nancy Writebol or Dr. Kent Brantly back to a treatment facility up the street from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. . .

. . . If the plane returns with them lying in the microbial containment system erected in its bay, it will be the first known time that someone infected with Ebola has crossed into the United States.

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cdc.gov - July 31, 2014

CDC urges all US residents to avoid nonessential travel to Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone because of an unprecedented outbreak of Ebola.

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices

I would like to share the results of my research, thinking and writing with the U. S. Resilience System in the hopes that its viewers can incorporate some of it into their own work.  I also hope to receive feedback so I can improve my ideas.

My background is in city and regional planning.  More recently it has expanded to include futures research.  I believe that the much-needed resilience many of us are seeking can best be achieved if we are working on immediate plans and actions plus long-range plans and actions at the same time.  Immediate or short-term actions are seldom sufficient by themselves.

Resilience to the wide variety of critical problems and uncertainties we expect to face this century requires systemic changes in our country and world.  It requires changes in the way we think, act, organize and communicate, and in what and where we build.  We slowly build our man-made environment to fit our needs and then our man-made environment shapes and controls us for many decades - even after our needs have changed. 

Today we’re excited to host the White House Innovation for Disaster Response and Recovery Demo Day. This event will bring together technologists, entrepreneurs, and members of the disaster response community to showcase tools that will make a tangible impact in the lives of survivors of large-scale emergencies. The White House Innovation for Disaster Response and Recovery Initiative was launched by the Administration in the wake of Hurricane Sandy to find the most effective ways technology can empower survivors; first responders; and local, state, tribal, territorial, and Federal government with critical information and resources. The event will be webcast live today at 1:30PM ET from the White House, go to www.whitehouse.gov/live to tune in.

The sun rises over an oil field over the Monterey Shale formation where gas and oil is extracted using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on March 24, 2014 near Lost Hills, California.  David McNew, Getty Images

cbsnews.com - by Michael Roppolo - July 23, 2014

A new international survey shows that Americans are more divided and doubtful about climate change than people in other leading countries, even as the scientific evidence supporting it keeps piling up.

Ipsos-MORI, one of the largest market research companies in Great Britain, released its new Global Trends 2014 survey covering data from 200 questions with over 16,000 interviewees in 20 countries. . .

. . . When asked if they agreed with the statement, "The climate change we are currently seeing is largely the result of human activity," just 54 percent of Americans surveyed said yes. Although this number indicates a majority, the United States still ranked last among 20 countries in the poll.

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