Tag: epidemics

Cuba faces uphill battle as Oropouche virus spreads

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuban health authorities launched small-scale fumigation efforts in Havana on Friday to fight the spread of the Oropouche virus, but a rainy Caribbean summer, fuel shortages and growing roadside trash heaps are complicating those efforts, workers and officials said. More than 500 cases of the virus have been registered since May when the disease was first detected in far-eastern Cuba, health officials said this week. The virus, also known as sloth fever, […]

West Nile virus epidemics made worse by drought: study

by Marlowe HOOD pARIS, France (AFP) — Drought has sharply boosted the intensity of deadly West Nile virus epidemics, which are set to worsen with global warming, scientists reported Wednesday. Their research, published in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B, offers the best explanation of why the disease’s impact has varied so much from year to year since arriving in the United States nearly two decades ago. “We thought epidemics would coincide with the most […]

Tourism: A tenth of the world economy

PARIS, France (AFP) — Terrorism and epidemics now and again make a dent in tourism numbers, but the sector usually quickly rebounds and it now employs hundreds of millions and accounts for a tenth of global output. Here are five key points about the sector, which grew 4.4 percent last year to nearly 1.2 billion people taking a trip outside of their country: – Europe (including Russia) remains the most visited region with 609 million […]