7 Devastating Infectious Diseases

7.Catchy Coughs

They cause outbreaks, epidemics, even pandemics that spread from continent to continent. Modern medicine and hygiene have given us some control over devastating infectious diseases, even eradicating smallpox, but, for the most part they remain with us, often preying upon the poorest and most vulnerable.

6.Smallpox

A photo taken in 1975 shows the village cemetery in the Bangladesh countryside where smallpox victims were buried. The disease was believed to have killed 46 percent of its victims at a hospital in the Dacca, Bangladesh and to have ravaged the country for centuries. A disease marked by lesions on the skin, smallpox is believed to have emerged about 3,000 years ago in India or Egypt before sweeping across continents. The variola virus, which causes smallpox, killed as many as third of those it infected and left others scarred and blinded, according to the World Health Organization. In 1980, the WHO declared the disease officially eradicated, after a decade-long vaccination campaign. The last known remaining samples of the virus are being held in facilities in the U.S. and Russia.

5.Plague

Unlike smallpox, this ancient killer is still with us. Plague, which is caused by a bacterium carried by fleas — like the one shown above — has been blamed for decimating societies including 14th century Europe during the Black Death, when it wiped out roughly a third of the population. The disease comes in three forms, but the best known isbubonic plague, which is marked by buboes, or painfully swollen lymph nodes. Plague is now found in animals throughout the world, particularly in the western U.S. and Africa. In 2009, the World Health Organization reported 958 cases worldwide.

4.Malaria

 Although it is preventable and curable, malaria has a devastating effect in Africa, where the disease accounts for 20 percent of all childhood deaths, according to the World Health Organization. It is present on other continents as well. A parasite carried by blood-sucking mosquitoes causes the disease, which is first characterized by fever, chills and flu-like symptoms before progressing on to more serious complications. By 1951, the disease was eliminated from the U.S. with the help of the pesticide DDT. A subsequent WHO campaign to eradicate malaria was successful only in some places, and the goal was downgraded to reducing transmission of disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

3.Influenza 

This 3-D model illustrates a generic flu virus (there are different types). A seasonal, respiratory infection, flu is responsible for about three to five million cases of severe illness, and about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. Periodically, however, the viral infection becomes much more devastating: A pandemic in 1918 killed about 50 million people worldwide. As we learned from "swine flu" and "bird flu" scares in recent years,
some influenza viruses can jump between species.

2.Tuberculosis

Potentially fatal "TB" is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which usually attacks the lungs causing the signature bloody coughs. The x-ray above shows the chest of a patient suffering from far-advanced tuberculosis. The bacterium does not make everyone it infects sick, and up to one third of the world's population currently carries the bacterium. And among people infected with TB, but not HIV, 5 to 10 percent become sick or infectious at some time during their lifetimes. A full-blown TB infection is more common among those also infected with HIV. The TB bacterium has formed a deadly alliance with the immune-system-destroying HIV, with each disease worsening the other, according to the World Health Organization.                                  

                1     HIV/AIDS

In 2009, about 33 million people were living with a Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection and about 1.8 million died from it, according to the World Health Organization. While many of the worst offenders have a longstanding relationship with humans, HIV is a recent arrival. HIV's decimating effect on certain immune system cells was first documented in 1981. By destroying part of the immune system, HIV leaves its victims vulnerable to all sorts of opportunistic diseases. It is believed to have emerged from Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) which infects apes and monkeys.

Lynas Rare Earth and Controversy

The Lynas rare earth issue and controversy. What is Lynas?


Lynas Corporation, Ltd. is an Australian rare earths mining company, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange as a S&P/ASX 200 company. It has two major operations: a mining and concentration plant at Mount Weld, Western Australia, and a refining facility now under construction at Kuantan, Malaysia.




"The LAMP at Kuantan is being built with support from the Malaysian government,with "pioneer" status including a 12-year tax exemption.The ore processing will annually yield several thousand tonnes of waste product (gypsum) which contains high concentrations of thorium, a radioactive element.



Concerns regarding the short and long term storage of this waste material, politicised in the context of forthcoming parliamentary elections, fueled widespread protests in Malaysia in 2011.According to a New York Times report whistle blower engineers claimed that short cuts were taken on the construction of the LAMP including the use of cheaper standard steel instead of the more expensive materials to deal with the slightly radioactive, super heated and highly corrosive slurry used in the plant.^"

The Lynas rare earth processing plant in Gebeng, Kuantan

Read more: Nuke expert: Lynas plant is safe - General - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/local/general/nuke-expert-lynas-plant-is-safe-1.51982#ixzz1nkguVPMa




^{Radioactive : "}Radioactive wastes are wastes that contain radioactive material, Radioactive waste is hazardous to most forms of life and the environment, and is regulated by government agencies in order to protect human health and the environment. Radioactivity diminishes over time, so waste is typically isolated and stored for a period of time until it no longer poses a hazard. The period of time waste must be stored depends on the type of waste"


The Lynas issue is a problem for ALL Malaysians. The pollution will spread over a wide area,even into our ASEAN neighbours through the South China Sea. Contaminated seafood and agricultural produce can create serious food safety issue not just for the people of Kuantan but to all the consumers of agriculture and seafood and seafood products. Air pollution from the Lynas plant can be carried far and wide by the north eastern monsoon wind.


a temporary operating licence was issued to Lynas Malaysia, a wholly owned operation of Australia’s Lynas Corporation,for its controversial rare earth refinery plant in Gebeng, an industrial estate about 20 km from Kuantan.



“Many families living in kampungs along the coast in Pahang will be directly affected once Lynas starts to dump its waste water into the South China Sea. These families depend on the seafood and tourism industry. They run small businesses to sustain their livelihoods. Who will want to buy contaminated seafood? Who will want to holiday next to a toxic plant?”

Determined resident going bald against Lynas rare earth plantation in Malaysia


This has been a serious issue since the PRU is coming up, i believe Najib Razak need to do something about it or he will lose his position as the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

movie review : sang pemimpi

Sang pemimpi or The Dreamer is the second novel in the tetralogy Laskar Pelangi by Andrea Hirata.

In The Dreamer, it is about life in the days of high school. The three main characters are Ikal, Arai and Jimbron. Ikal is the alter-ego of Andrea Hirata while Arai is a distant relative of an orphan called "Simpai Keramat" as he is the last family member who is still alive and eventually became the foster brother of Ikal. Jimbron is an orphan who is obsessed with horses and stutter when he's enthusiastic about something or when he is nervous.

All three are intertwined in the story of friendship from childhood until they go to school in SMA Negeri Manggar (SMA means 'Sekolah Menengah Atas', equal to high school in English.

Attended school in the mornings and worked as a worker in the early morning fishing port, from their addiction of erotic movies in theaters and finally discovered by their religious teacher, the love story of Jimbron and Arai, Jimbron's farewell with Ikal and Arai who will study in Jakarta that makes them to separate but will still meet each other in France. Independently living separately from their parents with the background of poor economic conditions but with a big goal that if viewed from the background of their lives, is simply a dream.

i found that the movie is inspiring, emotionally connected to the audience and the director managed to convey the message of the film successively but i would say the book is better than the novel because not everything that written in the book are in the scene, maybe because the scriptwriter have to filter everything.

Andrea hirata
was born in Gantung, Belitung on 24 October.
He grew up in a poor family not far from a government-owned mine.
Degree in economics from the University of Indonesia
Master's degree in Europe, first at the University of Paris then at Sheffield Hallam University in Britain; his thesis dealt with telecommunications and the economy.

Hirata released Laskar Pelangi (The Rainbow Troops in 2005.
The novel went on to sell five million copies, with pirated editions selling 15 million more. It also spawned three sequels: Sang Pemimpi (The Dreamer), Edensor and Maryamah Karpov.

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