TRAVEL ALERTS!!!
(For those intending to travel to the U.S./Europe/Asia/So. Africa)
USA - New Charges & Increases for Checked Baggage
Baggage charges are changing significantly on most carriers and U.S. carriers are increasing their charges for checked-in baggages to alleviate the cost of fuel. New Baggage Charges
Random Gang Shootings, High Speed Chases, Hit & Run Drivers and Car Theft
Be especially cautious when travelling to some inner cities in the U.S. because of the rising incidents of random shootings by rival gang members who have gunned down innocent bystanders, students and mostly children. These incidences are worse in the inner cities of large counties like Los Angeles, where this has become a daily occurrence.
Be careful not to get caught in way of the high speed car chases which states like California are also notorious for. Some robbers, car theives, drunken drivers and other traffic violators have been known to lead police on long high-speed chases sometimes lasting several hours on both the freeways and sometimes city streets, sometimes causing ghastly accidents to innocent victims.
Some large cities especially those with high undocumented illegal aliens who cannot legally obtain driver's licenses and automobile insurance are also known to have higher incidences of 'hit and run' accidents, and sometimes the hit and run drivers are never found after leaving their victims dead on city streets and highways.
Large U.S. cities are also notorious for car thefts. According to All State Insurance a car is stolen every 25 seconds in the U.S., so be careful if you are renting cars or parking in unfamiliar neighborhoods. Make sure you get adequate insurance coverage.
As a rule always be very careful travelling and going around cities and neighbourhoods you are not familiar with regardless of which U.S. state you are visiting, especially if this is your first trip, and/or you are travelling with children.
South African Robbery Syndicate Targets Local Travellers
If you are a Nigerian business traveller to South Africa, you have to tread, or rather, fly with caution. You may lose all you have to a specialised robbery syndicate in Johannesburg as soon as you arrive. ***Also, in recent news foreigners were attacked and set on fire by South Africans who seem to have resorted back to their apartheid mentality.***
THISDAY checks revealed that in the last two weeks, no fewer than seven Nigerians have been victims of this syndicate that has attacked over 50 Nigerian business travellers in the last few months.
Dozens of Nigerians are also said to be daily harassed and subtly threatened by immigration officers in South Africa whenever they arrive aboard a Nigerian airline.
The syndicate is believed to include a strong network of immigration officials who allegedly leak the information provided by Nigerians on their landing cards to the robbers.
The information usually contains the addresses the Nigerian visitors would stay on their trip. The cash declaration form also provides sensitive information with which the syndicate works.
Sources say the attacks on Nigerians are not unconnected to the fact that Nigeria travellers carry huge sums of money on their trips, and they are easily identified by the airline on which they arrive the country.
It was also gathered that the robbery is hatched during the immigration check of these travellers, and by the time the traveller is through with declaring all currencies and valuables, he/she leaves the airport only to be attacked by armed men who dispossess them of their valuables.
THISDAY also gathered that most of the victims are robbed of all their belongings, including luggage and international passports.
Some victims have had to come back to Nigeria with their travel certificates, while some others are stranded in South Africa because they have no travelling documents to return home.
Longe confirmed that "once you declare your currencies and valuables at the airport, they follow you and unleash terror. The worst is that all complaints made to the police authorities in South Africa have produced no result. They claim they are hindered."
The South African High Commission in Nigeria refused to comment on the issue when contacted by THISDAY. Officials said the High Commission would soon address a press conference over the issue.
For updated articles regarding safety of travelling to South Africa visit South Africa
FLU outburst with FATAL strain
The outbreak has taken an enormous toll nationwide: Over 42 people mostly children have already died from the outbreak, and some experts predict this year's death toll easily could surpass the annual average of 36,000 deaths. Schools have shut down. Emergency rooms have been filled with sick children. And doctors' offices have been forced to turn away droves of people seeking flu shots.
Federal officials announced that the flu has hit hard in 36 states and more than 100,000 doses of the flu vaccine would be rushed across the country to combat vaccine shortages.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the flu has hit all 50 states at least sporadically, and the season has not yet peaked nationally. Almost the entire western half of the country is now considered to have widespread flu.
The early and intense outbreak in some Western states has swamped many hospitals with sick children and dried up vaccine supplies.
School Closures Several schools in some states closed down at some point because so many students were absent with the flu.
West Nile Virus
As of October 29, 2003, the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 7718 human cases of WNV with 166 deaths occurred nationwide during 2003. Onset of illness generally ranges from early July to the end of season, usually in late October or when the first hard frost occurs.
SYMPTOMS - Mild cases of West Nile infections may cause a slight fever or headache. More severe infections are marked by a rapid onset of a high fever with head and body aches, disorientation, tremors, convulsions and, in the most severe cases, paralysis or death. Usually symptoms occur from three to 14 days after the bite of an infected mosquito. Persons at the highest risk for serious illness are those 50 years of age or older.
CALIFORNIA - This state which previously seemed spared has in 2004 had its own share of outbreaks of the West nile virus resulting in some deaths so far.
PENNSYLVANIA - January 5 2004--State Health Secretary Dr. Calvin B. Johnson today reported an additional human case of West Nile virus in Pennsylvania. The case involves a four-year-old girl from Franklin County. This case developed in December, 2003, so is counted in that year's total. This brings to 245 the number of Pennsylvanians diagnosed with West Nile virus in 2003, with eight deaths.
ILLINOIS - statewide total this year for the mosquito-borne disease was 52 as of Nov. 2003. In 2002, Illinois had the most West Nile disease cases in the nation with 884 and 66 deaths and, as of this date last year, the state had reported 761 West Nile human cases and 48 deaths.
DENVER-One additional Coloradan has died from West Nile virus, bringing the state's death total to 52, state health officials announced Thursday. The death involved a 73-year old man from Larimer County, who was suffering from encephalitis. He died on November 10. Also reported were 100 new human cases of West Nile virus, bringing the state's total to 2,745 for 2003.
INDIANAPOLIS--- . After a 4th person died, State health officials also announced three new probable human cases of West Nile virus in Adams, Delaware, and Kosciusko counties, bringing to 41 the total number of probable human West Nile virus cases in Indiana. The probable cases in Indiana range from less than 1 year to 85 years of age. To date, 71 Indiana counties have shown evidence of West Nile virus activity.
NEW JERSEY - The Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) reported its 30th and 31st human cases of West Nile virus infection in New Jersey this year, in Oct. 2003.
KENTUCKY - Kentucky reported 14 human cases of West Nile for 2003, including one death. In 2002, Kentucky reported 75 human cases, including five deaths.
KANSAS - Oct. 31 The number of confirmed deaths is 5, and the number of presumptive deaths remains at 2. From commercial labs, KDHE has now received reports of 731 people in Kansas with unverified, presumptive positive WNV infection.
LOUISIANA - As of Aug. 2003 - 54 had contracted the virus and some people had died including 4 in Louisiana
For updates visit West Nile Virus
MadCow Alert!!!
The first (reported) case of Mad cow disease was discovered in a U.S. animal in Washington recently. Several countries have already halted importation of US beef to protect their citizens Mad Cow
A person who received donor blood died in England from MCD, the first incidence of this type recognized. Mad Cow
Another press release Mad Cow
This article is about the USDA not providing test data, and also interviews several people who worked with the USDA, and who seem certain that Mad Cow Disease has been present in US herds for some time. Mad Cow
"Even boneless cuts may not be risk-free, though. In the slaughterhouse, the bovine carcass is typically split in half down the middle with a band saw, sawing right through the spinal column. This has been shown to aerosolize the spinal cord and contaminate the surrounding meat.[20] A study in Europe found contamination with spinal cord material on 100% of the split carcasses examined .[21] Similar contamination of meat derived from cattle cheeks can occur from brain tissue, if the cheek meat is not removed before the skull is fragmented or split.[22] The World Health Organization has pointed out that American beef can be contaminated with brain and spinal cord tissue in another way as well.[23]
Except for Islamic halal and Jewish kosher slaughter (which involve slitting the cow's throat while the animal is still conscious), cattle slaughtered in the United States are first stunned unconscious with an impact to the head before being bled to death. Medical science has known for over 60 years that people suffering head trauma can end up with bits of brain embolized into their bloodstream; so Texas A&M researchers wondered if fragments of brain could be found within the bodies of cattle stunned for slaughter. They checked and reportedly exclaimed, "Oh, boy did we find it."[24] They even found a 14 cm piece of brain in one cow's lung. They concluded, "It is likely that prion proteins are found throughout the bodies of animals stunned for slaughter."[25]
For the full pdf from the GAO report issued to congress.... Mad Cow
This link deals with findings of nervous tissue in meat, which MAY be the cause of BSE and vCJD, although other theories point to the chemical 'organophosphate'. That story is in the second link. Mad Cow Mad Cow
Article stating that recalled meat had reached consumers in a wide range of states. Mad Cow
Charley Reese has a bit to say about Mad Cow and the human form of it, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD. Mad Cow
Bird Flu (Avian Influenza)
Bird flu could kill millions of people, WHO warns
Fears of a global health threat grew yesterday when the World Health Organisation said it was highly likely the bird flu sweeping Asia could be transmitted by humans as well as chickens. "We're now fairly certain that will happen, but we don't know how long it will take," a spokesman for the WHO, Dick Thompson, said in Geneva.
Dr Shigeru Omi, director of the WHO's Western Pacific office, said millions of people around the world could die if the H5N1 strain of the bird flu combined with another human influenza virus that was moving towards the region. There was a chance the two viruses could meet and mutate, triggering a pandemic . "In my judgement it is possible and so that's why we have to work very hard today, not tomorrow, to contain this, to prevent that mutation at the molecular level happening," he said in Hanoi.
His comments came as Vietnam confirmed eight human cases, Laos said the virus had spread there and China reported that 14,000 ducks were slaughtered in the country's south. Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Pakistan have also been affected. In Thailand's Sukhothai province, a six-year-old boy died from the virus two days after another six-year-old died in neighbouring Kanchanaburi province. As the Thai Government battled a domestic and international outcry over its handling of the crisis, Health Ministry officials awaited results of tests they said were likely to confirm bird flu had caused four more deaths. This would take the regional death toll to at least 12.
Amid concerns that countries may be holding back about outbreaks, the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said "Countries in the region must learn from the SARS experience, and that is 'fess up as soon as you find a case ... " Responding to the epidemic, Australia has introduced 100 percent screening of travellers arriving from Asia, using X-ray, sniffer dogs or physical examination. At Melbourne airport more than eight kilograms of eggs, and chicken and duck pieces from travellers arriving from Japan, China and Singapore were seized...........
The European Union, the second largest market for Thai poultry after Japan, has condemned Thailand's handling of the crisis and warned it would not allow imports to resume until there was independent verification that the outbreak had been brought under control. Mr Thompson said the agency was rushing to define a prototype of the strain of bird flu virus involved in most of the latest outbreaks. This would take "a couple of months", and another two or three months' work would be needed before an effective human vaccine was widely available. Bird Flu
Sniper Alert!!!
A sniper on the loose in the state of Ohio for months, and police have not been able to apprehend him , although there were reports that someone called claiming to be the sniper some months ago. Also the area span of the initial shootings has increased as more victims encountered the sniper in areas outside the initially reported areas.
For those planning to travel to the Ohio area, please get add'l info. to reduce your chances of becoming a victim should you visit the targetted area.
Ohio Highway Shooting Confirmed As 24th Ohio Sniper
