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Shocking: Common Pesticide Linked to Over 1,000 Infant Deaths!

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Shocking: Common Pesticide Linked to Over 1,000 Infant Deaths! Credit | Getty Images

United States: New Yorkers discovered the bats in Howe Cave in 2006 had their snouts strangely coated with a peculiar, fuzzy, white substance. 

This was the first time that white-nose syndrome, a disease caused by a fungus, was seen in bat species, which has been bringing great loss to bats in the US. 

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Now, a new study from the United States showed over 1,000 human infants died because of the loss of bats in North America due to pesticides, a testimony to how necessary this much-loathed mammal is to our lives. 

According to Eyal Frank, the study author and an ecological economist at the University of Chicago, “Bats have gained a bad reputation as being something to fear, especially after reports of a possible linkage with the origins [of] COVID-19,” sciencealert.com reported. 

“But bats do add value to society in their role as natural pesticides, and this study shows that their decline can be harmful to humans,” Frank added. 

More about White-nose syndrome (WNS)

WNS affects hibernating bats by growing a coral-like fungus called Pseudogymnoascus destructans around the bats’ mouth, nose, and ears. 

Shocking: Common Pesticide Linked to Over 1,000 Infant Deaths! Credit | University of Illinois

Shocking: Common Pesticide Linked to Over 1,000 Infant Deaths! Credit | University of Illinois

Frank employed a quasi-experimental, observational method to analyze how pesticide use goes up when WNS kills hundreds of thousands of bats, and so does infant mortality. 

Insectivorous bats naturally limit the crop pests; all the more with mortality rates of WNS provisionally standing at over seventy percent in the US since it was identified in 2006, the farmers found themselves overrun by pests that compelled them to resort to chemical control for their produce. 

Frank also looked at the economic as well as the health repercussions of this transition in the counties with ample instances of bat deaths due to WNS and in the counties that appeared to be isolated from such deeds due to their reluctance to apply pesticides. 

On the other hand, he ascertained that the number of deaths caused by bats relating to the use of pesticides increased in the afflicted counties by about 31 percent. At the same time, the sales revenue of crops declined by nearly 29 percent, sciencealert.com reported. 

 “This demonstrates the substitution between a declining natural input and a human-made input – providing the first empirical validation of a fundamental theoretical prediction in environmental economics,” said Frank. 

Shocking: Common Pesticide Linked to Over 1,000 Infant Deaths! Credit | AP

Shocking: Common Pesticide Linked to Over 1,000 Infant Deaths! Credit | AP

What more have the experts stated?

He reckons the two have come to a total loss of USD 26.9 billion in GDP between 2006 and 2017. 

Rates of infant mortality resulting from internal causes of death also increased in the same counties by 8 percent. It translates to roughly between 1,334 de minimis added deaths of infants, which Frank proved had probably resulted from the more frequent application of pesticides in WNS-affected counties. 

He added, “Any additional alternative explanation would need to change along the expansion path of the wildlife disease around the same timing of its expansion.” 

“More broadly, this study shows that wildlife adds value to society, and we need to better understand that value in order to inform policies to protect them,” he continued. 

  • Shocking: Common Pesticide Linked to Over 1,000 Infant Deaths! Credit | Getty Images

  • Shocking: Common Pesticide Linked to Over 1,000 Infant Deaths! Credit | University of Illinois

    Shocking: Common Pesticide Linked to Over 1,000 Infant Deaths! Credit | University of Illinois

  • Shocking: Common Pesticide Linked to Over 1,000 Infant Deaths! Credit | AP

    Shocking: Common Pesticide Linked to Over 1,000 Infant Deaths! Credit | AP

  • Shocking: Common Pesticide Linked to Over 1,000 Infant Deaths! Credit | Getty Images
  • Shocking: Common Pesticide Linked to Over 1,000 Infant Deaths! Credit | University of Illinois
  • Shocking: Common Pesticide Linked to Over 1,000 Infant Deaths! Credit | AP

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Marburg Outbreak Claims 11 Lives – Is a Global Crisis Looming? 

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Marburg Outbreak Claims 11 Lives - Is a Global Crisis Looming? Credit | USNews

United States: In East African countries, health authorities said on Thursday that 11 people had died from Marburg hemorrhagic fever, a disease first found in patients using health facilities. 

The latest Rwandan government update indicates 36 cases of disease that looks like Ebola, with 25 of them in isolation. 

More about the news 

On September 27, Rwanda declared an outbreak and on the next day reported six deaths, US News reported. 

The first cases were found among patients in health facilities and authorities said an investigation was being carried out “to determine the origin of the infection.” 

However, it’s unclear where the source of the outbreak is, causing fears that the virus is spreading through a small central African nation.  

Stopping the spread of viral hemorrhagic fevers like Marburg depends upon the isolation of patients and their contacts. 

Cases in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, would be risky to international spread since the city has an international airport and is connected by road to other cities in East Africa, the World Health Organization has warned. 

What more are the experts stating?  

According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a regular briefing on Thursday while referring to the Marburg outbreak in Rwanda, “WHO assesses the risk of this outbreak as very high at the national level, high at the regional level and low at the global level,” US News reported.  

The news is testimony to growing international concern over the outbreak, with two people in the northern German city of Hamburg isolated after returning from Rwanda, where they’d been in a medical facility alongside patients with Marburg virus, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said in a statement Thursday. 

The ECDC statement said both tested negative for the virus. 

Concern about the virus led authorities to cordon off two tracks of a railway station at which two people had arrived, German media reports said. 

The other was a young medical student who had suffered symptoms of the disease and contacted doctors from the train. 

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Health

Abortion Rights Fundraising Blitz: Will It Secure Victory? 

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Abortion Rights Fundraising Blitz: Will It Secure Victory? Credit | US News

United States: Supporters of the abortion rights ballot measures across the country have raised nearly eight times what opponents are spending to try to halt the amendments on the November ballots.  

The advantage could be small, however, and it may not give Florida an edge down the stretch in the most expensive of the nine statewide campaigns to ensure abortion rights are written into state constitutions.  

More about the news  

So far, campaign finance data compiled by the watchdog group Open Secrets and analyzed by The Associated Press tells a similar story in most of those states: As of reports aggregated Tuesday, backers of the amendment brought in nearly USD 108 million, compared with USD 14 million for their opponents, and also raised multiples of as much money and had multiples more donors. 

However, in the final weeks before the November 5 elections, it’s not certain that this will result in further spending to push the measures in every state. 

According to Kelly Hall, who is an executive director of The Fairness Project, which is providing money and other support for abortion rights groups in several of the campaigns, “The apparent differential on campaign finance reports does nothing to reassure me that we will not see large, late spending on these campaigns,” US News reported. 

Abortion Rights Fundraising Blitz: Will It Secure Victory? Credit | AP

Abortion Rights Fundraising Blitz: Will It Secure Victory? Credit | AP

What are the impact of measures? 

The measures would roll back restrictions in some states and provide protections in others in a few others’ constitutions, post SC’s 2022 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. 

After the ruling, most of the GOP-controlled states banned or restricted most of their rights. 

Some of the most Democratic-controlled ones provided at least some protections for abortion access. 

The ballot measures could also encourage turnout in the elections. The money would then go to ads and elsewhere. 

This puts campaigns with more money ahead on ads on TV, radio, and websites, by mailers and yard signs, and so forth, as well as in terms of other organizing power in things like door knocking. 

Data collected by the media tracking firm AdImpact showed that big funding advantages so far have translated into far more ad buys in Missouri and Montana, US News reported. 

The Open Secrets data also show abortion rights groups have raised more than USD 5 million in Missouri, and state filing shows millions in more contributions, including USD 1 million from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. 

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Is Cancer Getting Younger? Alarming Data Raises Concerns

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Is Cancer Getting Younger? Alarming Data Raises Concerns. Credit | Getty Images

United States: According to the scientists at the American Cancer Society, Gen-x and Millenials in the US have higher chances of developing seventeen of the thirty-four cancer types as compared to older generations. 

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The report suggests that almost 80,000 young adults whose ages lie between 20 to 39 are diagnosed with cancer in the US. 

The researchers stated, “Although we have identified cancer trends associated with birth years, we don’t yet have a clear explanation for why these rates are rising,” CBS News reported. 

Therefore, the findings raise a major question about whether cancer is becoming common in the younger generation. 

What more are the experts stating?

According to Dr. Jason Molitoris, an oncologist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, “There is clear evidence that’s been published in the literature showing an increase in incidence in the number of cancers in younger people.” 

Is Cancer Getting Younger? Alarming Data Raises Concerns. Credit | Getty Images

Is Cancer Getting Younger? Alarming Data Raises Concerns. Credit | Getty Images

Molitoris also urged individuals to have regular checkups of health and to get them done regularly. 

“What is next?” – Experts

According to a case study, in which a patient, Tiffany Walker-Jones, a Maryland mother of four, was shocked to be diagnosed with cancer.  

Tifanny, who is 38 years old, was diagnosed with bile duct cancer. 

She said, “I went through all the emotions of what’s going on. What’s going to happen? Am I going to survive this?,” reported CBS News. 

Moreover, weeks earlier, when Tifanny woke up with a left flank and made herself go for an immediate check up, she said, “Even the nurses thought it was just a kidney stone, and then they did the CT scan, and they found the mass on my liver, then they did an MRI, and they found a lesion on my spine.” 

Is Cancer Getting Younger? Alarming Data Raises Concerns. Credit | iStock

Is Cancer Getting Younger? Alarming Data Raises Concerns. Credit | iStock

Diagnosis is hard to accept 

According to Dr. Jason Molitoris, “In my day-to-day practice, it’s also very noticeable,” and “I see a lot of patients who are younger coming in with cancers that we typically associate with patients who are of older ages.”  

However, it is unfortunate that Tiffany’s cancer is identified as one of the early-onset cancers in the study, where it is shared by a large number of young adults. 

Tiffany said, “I just asked, do I have an expiration date?” and “I think that is the first thing that comes to anybody’s mind when they hear ‘You have cancer.'” 

“What I try to do is give the patients a sense of what we’re going to be going through, and I try to give everybody a sense of hope,” Molitoris answered. 

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