NYT

“……Nearly a week after southern Africa was hit by one of the worst natural disasters in decades, it was all rescue workers could do to try to reach the victims, let alone count them.

People were clinging to trees, desperately waiting for some form of rescue. Around them, the remnants of homes sat in piles, collapsed as easily as if they had been houses of cards. Hundreds of thousands of people in Mozambique alone were displaced.

And everywhere there was a vast inland sea where once there had been land.…..”

Reuters

“…..All the children managed to escape unhurt before the bus was engulfed in flames…..”

CIDRAP

“The cases bring the outbreak’s total to 980 cases, including 606 deaths.

The new cases have brought to an end the downward trend mentioned last week in a press conference held by World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD. In mid-March, DRC officials were seeing 25 cases per week, half the number of cases seen in mid-January. 

But in the past 5 days, the DRC has recorded 44 cases and several community deaths, which increase the probability of the virus spreading among family members and close contacts……”

Amnesty

European leaders must end the unfair and unnecessary containment policy which is preventing asylum seekers from leaving the Greek islands and urgently reach a common responsibility-sharing agreement for hosting asylum seekers across European countries, said Amnesty International and 24 other NGOs in an open letter, published on the eve of the deal’s third anniversary.

Letter to European leaders

We, the 25 undersigned humanitarian, human rights and volunteer organizations call on you, in the run up to the third anniversary of the EU-Turkey deal, to take immediate and sustained action to end the unfair and unnecessary containment policy which is preventing asylum seekers from leaving the Greek islands. We also call on you to urgently reach a common responsibility-sharing agreement for hosting asylum seekers across EU Member States.

The policy that traps people on the Greek islands and prevents them from reaching the European mainland has caused a recurrent and endless cycle of overcrowding, substandard living conditions and extremely poor access to services: the European “hotspots” continue to provide accommodation and basic services, such as food and medical assistance, well below minimum standards. The European response in Greece has proven to have disastrous consequences on refugees’ rights, including their health and safety. This has been exhaustively documented and brought to your attention through countless reports over the last three years.

As many as 20,000 asylum seekers were stranded in unsafe, unhygienic and degrading conditions on the Greek islands in 2018. Currently, around 12,000 people are still forced to live in inadequate reception and identification centres built for a maximum capacity of half this population: sleeping in unheated tents or overcrowded containers with limited access to running water and electricity, and often exposed to ongoing violence, harassment and exploitation, amid high tensions, lack of security and minimal protection.

While the number of asylum applications across Europe has dropped over the last three years, the number of asylum applications filed in Greece has increased exponentially. In Lesvos alone, for instance, the number of asylum applications more than tripled between 2016 (5,000 applications) and 2018 (17,270 applications). At the same time, organizations providing medical and legal assistance are stretched beyond capacity. By preventing most asylum seekers from leaving the islands and being transferred to the European mainland, European governments are putting undue pressure on the islands’ residents, local community resources, local authorities, and on Greece, while reception conditions, including the protection mechanisms for asylum seekers are still substandard.

The expectation that most newcomers could be returned to Turkey under the EU-Turkey deal has proved to be dangerously unrealistic. According to Greek Asylum Service representatives in Lesvos, only up to 6% of the asylum-seekers arriving to Lesvos would be eligible for return to Turkey.

It is shameful that, despite this sobering reality, some European governments have been holding hostage any real responsibility sharing mechanism until returns are sped up and increased, focusing instead on deterrence policies and border controls at the expense of basic rights and safeguards. The current situation at the borders of Europe is the direct result of those short-sighted and unsustainable policies implemented following the EU-Turkey deal and the lack of aptitude and political will across Europe to find common ground on key aspects of a common European asylum system.

Yours sincerely,                                                               

ActionAid Hellas

Amnesty International

Avocats Sans Frontières France

Boat Refugee Foundation

Caritas Hellas

CEAR – Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado

Danish Refugee Council

DIOTIMA – Center for Research on Women’s Issues

Equal Rights Beyond Borders

Greek Council for Refugees

Greek Helsinki Monitor

Human Rights Watch

International Rescue Committee

JRS Europe

JRS Hellas

Legal Center Lesbos

Mare Liberum

Médecins du monde – Greece

Oxfam

Praksis

Refugee Legal Support

Refugee Rights Europe

Solidar

Solidarity Now

Terre des hommes Hellas

Parts of Northern Australia are being evacuated

Tropical #CycloneTrevor is located in the eastern #GulfofCarpentaria & is expected to rapidly intensify to a Category 3 system as it moves towards the #NT. In the west, #CycloneVeronica is now Cat 4 & tracking towards the #Pilbara coast. Latest warnings https://t.co/RxVKMQeRzS pic.twitter.com/DY8k98klHc

— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) March 20, 2019

HxC

CDC

National Poison Prevention Week (March 17-23) was started in 1962 to encourage Americans to “learn of the dangers of accidental poisoning and to take such preventive measures as are warranted by the seriousness of the danger.” Fifty-seven years later, those threats—and probably some new ones—to personal and public health persist. They can also be prepared for and—in many cases—prevented.

Here are three types of post-disaster poisonings that you should be aware of, and three ways to prepare your health for each.

Carbon monoxide poisoning

Carbon monoxide (or CO) is a silent killer. You can’t see it, smell it, or taste it; yet, there it is any time you burn gasoline, natural gas, charcoal, or kerosene in a car, generator, furnace, grill, or space heater.

Unintentional, non-fire related carbon monoxide (or CO) poisoning takes the lives of at least 430 people and sends another 50,000 people to the emergency department in the U.S. every year. Occurrences of accidental poisonings only increase when—in the aftermath of a disaster or emergency—people try to generate power or warmth or to cook.

Articles detailing the personal health threat posed by CO in the aftermath of hurricanes have appeared in the pages of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for decades–Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Hurricane Ike in 2008, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne in 2004. Most recently, 16 of the 129 deaths in in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina related to Hurricane Irma in 2017, were CO poisonings.

Here are three ways you can prepare for and prevent CO poisoning after a disaster.

1. Learn how to use a back-up generator safely. Place generators outside, in a dry area, and at least 20 feet from any door, window, or vent. Never run a generator inside your home or garage, even if doors and windows are open.
2. Install battery-powered or battery backed-up CO detectors in your home. The U.S. Fire Administration recommends that you test your devices at least once a month. Change the batteries in your CO detectors every six months. If your detector alarms, go outside for fresh air and call 911.
3. Know the symptoms of CO poisoning. The most common symptoms of CO poisoning are headache, dizziness, weakness, upset stomach, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion.

Medication poisoning

Medications are, for the most part, safe when used as prescribed and dosed as directed on the label, but there is the risk of an adverse drug event anytime you bring a medicine into the house. In the wrong hands, medicines are dangerous. More often than anyone would like, the wrong hands belong to kids. About 60,000 young children are taken to emergency rooms each year because they got into medicines.

The threat of medication poisoning in kids and adults is also there in an emergency evacuation when families are forced from their homes and into a shelter, a hotel, or the home of a friend or family. Under stressful circumstances and in unfamiliar surroundings, people can forget to practice safe medication use and storage.

Here are three ways you can prepare for and prevent medication poisoning after a disaster.

1. Keep all prescription medications and over-the-counter medicines and vitamins, including your emergency supply, Up and Away and out of the reach and sight of children and pets—this includes medicines in suitcases, purses, and “grab and go” bags.
2. Create an Emergency Action Plan that includes important contact information, such as phone numbers for your physician, pediatrician, pharmacist, veterinarian, and the Poison Control Center: 800-222-1222.
3. Properly dispose of unused, expired, or contaminated medicines in your medicine cabinet and emergency supply. Discard medications that touched floodwater or have changed in appearance or smell. Contact a pharmacist or healthcare provider if you are unsure about a drug’s safety.

Food poisoning

Food poisoning symptoms may range from mild to severe and may differ depending on the germ you swallowed. Eating or drinking something contaminated by floodwater, for example, can cause diarrheal disease, such as E. coli or Salmonella infection.

Prolonged power outages can also affect food safety. Perishable foods, such as meats, seafood, and dairy, are unsafe to eat after being in your refrigerator when the power has been off for 4 hours or more. Researchers have identified more than 250 foodborne diseases that can cause a variety of symptoms. Some of the most common symptoms are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach cramps.

Here are three ways you can prepare for and prevent food poisoning after a disaster.

1. When in doubt, throw out any food that may not be safe to eat. That includes foods that have an unusual or unintended odor, color, or texture, foods that may have touched floodwater, and perishable foods that have not been refrigerated properly due to power outages. Never taste food to determine its safety. Food can make you sick even if it looks, smells, and tastes normal.
2. Throw away wooden cutting boards, baby bottle nipples, and pacifiers if they have come into contact with floodwaters; you cannot properly sanitize them. Clean and sanitize all surfaces in your kitchen, including cutlery and countertops, that come into contact with food.
3. Handwashing with soap and water is one of the most important practical skills you can learn (and teach to others) to avoid getting sick and spreading germs at all times, including before you handle food—disaster or not. The germs that cause foodborne illnesses can survive in many places around your kitchen, including your hands, utensils, and cutting boards.

Learn more ways to prepare your health for a disaster or an emergency at www.cdc.gov/cpr/prepyourhealth.

Lancet

• “…..From August, 2015, to July, 2016, there were 721 snakebites recorded, with a peak in December. Of these, 372 resulted in serious injury. 569 bites happened in regions outside the city, and the patients were transferred to Katutura State Hospital after stabilisation.
• 123 injured people were children younger than 5 years,
• 120 injured people were aged 6–18 years old, and
• 133 injured people were older than 19 years.
• Children younger than 6 years were affected more by the bites than older children and adults.
• Of the 33 deaths recorded, 21 were children younger than 6 years…..
• 116 (18%) of 721 patients were treated with polyvalent or monovalent antivenom, and 30 (26%) of these patients died.
• The low administration of antivenom therapy could be a result of supply line deficiency, insufficient knowledge of clinical providers, or other factors. ….”