XDR-TB, HIV/AIDS and other obstacles still thwarting progress

The global tuberculosis (TB) epidemic has levelled off for the first time since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared TB a public health emergency in 1993. The Global Tuberculosis Control Report released today by WHO finds that the percentage of the world's population struck by TB peaked in 2004 and then held steady in 2005.

"We are currently seeing both the fruits of global action to control TB and the lethal nature of the disease’s ongoing burden," said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "Almost 60 per cent of TB cases worldwide are now detected, and out of those, the vast majority are cured. Over the past decade, 26 million patients have been placed on effective TB treatment thanks to the efforts of governments and a wide range of partners. But the disease still kills 4400 people every day."

Pasadena, Calif. -- New measurements of Mars' south polar region indicate extensive frozen water. The polar region contains enough frozen water to cover the whole planet in a liquid layer approximately 11 meters (36 feet) deep. A joint NASA-Italian Space Agency instrument on the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft provided these data.

This new estimate comes from mapping the thickness of the ice. The Mars Express orbiter's radar instrument has made more than 300 virtual slices through layered deposits covering the pole to map the ice. The radar sees through icy layers to the lower boundary, which is as deep as 3.7 kilometers (2.3 miles) below the surface.

24th March - World TB Day

Tuberculosis is one of the world's leading infectious killers - second only to HIV/AIDS. The 2007 WHO Global TB Control Report, issued Thursday 22 March 2007, updates the current trends on the airborne disease, with all the very latest data from nearly 200 countries.

In the wake of the newly identified extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), drug resistance and continuing challenges such as TB and HIV co-infection, the 2007 WHO Global TB Control Report underlines the major issues affecting TB patients, health workers and governments today. This year's report also highlights achievements in reaching global 2005 TB targets set by the World Health Assembly.

The launch coincides with World TB Day (24 March) and its theme: "TB Anywhere is TB Everywhere".

More than twenty technology companies are responding to a call to support the fight against counterfeit medicines spearheaded by the IMPACT task force set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners.* They will join the IMPACT Working Group on Technology today for a one-day meeting in Prague to assess technologies which could improve the global prevention, tracking and detection of counterfeit medicines.

"Technologies can speed up health results in all sorts of ways," said Dr Howard Zucker, Assistant Director-General for Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals at WHO and Chair of IMPACT. "In the case of anti-counterfeiting, the challenges we face are finding technologies that cannot themselves be counterfeited and transferring them to resource poor settings at an affordable cost. While technology alone cannot solve the problem, some of these solutions could greatly enhance the ability to detect and deter the distribution of counterfeit medicines."

The World Health Organization (WHO) today publishes guidelines for the cultivation and collection of Artemisia annua L, a Chinese traditional medicinal plant which is the source of artemisinin, used to produce the most effective medicines for malaria. The guidelines will contribute to improving the quality of Artemisia annua L to further develop artemisinin-based medicines, and help ensure a sustainable supply to meet market demand.

Artemisia annua L, used in Chinese traditional medicine for centuries, is today considered part of the solution where malaria has become resistant to other medicines. Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) have been recommended by WHO since 2001 in all countries where falciparum malaria - the most resistant form of the disease - is endemic. 

Are countries doing enough to reduce the negative effects of unhealthy environments on children? Preparations are now under way for an intergovernmental review, to take place on 13–15 June in Vienna, Austria. Countries in the WHO European Region will assess their progress in implementing the commitments that they made in the Children’s Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe (CEHAPE), adopted at the Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in 2004.

This week, Member States set the agenda for the Vienna review at the twenty-third meeting of the European Environment and Health Committee (EEHC) in Brussels, Belgium. In addition, Member States and stakeholders discussed the latest developments in organizing the review and made decisions on how to carry forward the European environment and health process. 

New rules also proposed for elephant ivory and dozens of threatened plants and animals

The Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has published a provisional scientific and technical assessment of some 40 new government proposals for amending wildlife trade rules. Governments will accept or reject these proposals at the next triennial CITES conference, to be held in The Hague from 3 to 15 June.

Many of the proposals reflect growing international concern about the accelerating destruction of the world's marine and forest resources through overfishing and excessive logging. Others seek to advance the protection or sustainable use of diverse plants, reptiles, birds and mammals. Still others aim to recognize conservation successes by removing from the CITES Appendices species that are no longer endangered.

Are bigger bones stronger bones? Not necessarily, according to a recent NASA study that seeks to ensure healthy bones in astronauts.

A four-year study of the long-term effects of microgravity on the bones of International Space Station crew members showed that the astronauts, on average, lost roughly 11 percent of their total hip bone mass over the course of their mission.

The study also found that a year after each crew member had returned to Earth, much of their lost bone mass was replaced. However, the bone structure and density had not returned to normal and signs of hip strength had not recovered at one year, although it had increased slightly compared to post-flight levels. Researchers say it could take much longer than a year to regain the lost strength.

Customs Officers Intercept Illegal Ozone Damaging Substances Under UNEP-Backed Project Skyhole Patching
A new initiative to monitor and curb illegal trade in chemicals that damage the ozone layer-- the Earth’s protective shield-- has begun registering some of it first promising results.
Today it was announced that seizures of up to 64.8 tons of illegal ozone depleting substance (ODS) have been reported in China, India, Thailand and other countries following the start of Project Skyhole Patching.


China Customs seized nearly 8.2 tons of Dichlorodifluoromethane (CFC-12), used in refrigerant and air conditioning systems, in the Guandong Province between September and November 2006 – 752 kg in Shengzhen and 7.5 tons in Huanpu Port.
In West Bengal, India, customs and enforcement officials seized nearly 6 tons of illegal chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) between October and November 2006. Nearly 49 tones of illegal ODS were seized from other countries participating. More is expected to come.
“Months after he attended a workshop in Wuxi, China, a Chinese customs officer in Huanpu Port intercepted the illegal ODS using methods he learned there. It is encouraging to see that our training efforts, involving customs and enforcement officers in the 18 participating countries is beginning to have payoffs,” said Ms. Ludgarde Coppens, Policy and Enforcement Officer, UNEP.
Project Skyhole Patching, to combat illegal trade in ODS and hazardous waste in the Asia Pacific region began 1 September 2006. It involves 20 customs and environmental authorities from 18 countries, including Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Fiji, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, the Maldives, Mongolia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

Cabestana cutacea (Linné, 1767) è un Ranellidae Recente, distribuito nel bacino mediterraneo e nell’Oceano Atlantico orientale (B.D.D., 1882), comprese Isole Canarie, Madera e Azzorre ( Poppe & Goto, 1991). Lo scopo di questa nota è evidenziare le varie forme con cui questo gasteropode si manifesta.

Nonostante sia abbastanza conosciuto, è considerata specie non comune o localmente rara, di fatto questo Ranellidae si esprime con una morfologia piuttosto variabile, con caratteri particolari della teleoconca tipici delle varie popolazioni esaminate, ma che possono essere riconducibile ad un unico taxon.

SISTEMATICA

• Superfamiglia TONNOIDEA Suter, 1913
• Famiglia Ranellidae Gray J.E., 1854
• Sottofamiglia Cymatiinae Iredale, 1913
• Genere Cabestana Roeding, 1798
• Specie Cabestana cutacea (Linné, 1767)

• Sinonimia (Sabelli et al., 1990-1992a, b):
• Tritonium curta (Locard, 1886)
• Tritonium danieli (locard, 1886)
• Triton gernum (De Gregorio, 1885) - var.
• Triton isgurum (De Gregorio, 1885) - var.
• Ranella lemania (Risso, 1826)
• Ranella tuberculata (Risso, 1826)
• Murex succincta (Risso, 1826)

La ricca sinonimia e le varietà descritte nel passato da alcuni Autori che contraddistinguono C. cutacea sono probabilmente dovute proprio alle varie forme popolazionali con le quali la specie si esprime. Senza dubbio, all’interno del taxon, si possono reperire esemplari con diverse morfologie, ma che devono essere considerate prive di concreto valore sistematico.

Vengono raffigurati alcuni morpha, la cui diversità risulta molto evidente, sia come habitus, che come scultura generale. Alcune forme si presentano tanto particolari da poter indurre in errore facendole attribuire a Cabestana doliaria (Linné, 1767), specie West africana segnalata anche per le Isole Canarie, e che sembrerebbe essere presente anche in Mediterraneo nel Mare d’Alboran (Beu, 1985; Poppe & Goto, 1991), ma ufficialmente non confermata con sicurezza per questa area. C. doliaria si distingue facilmente da C. cutacea per le dimensioni nettamente inferiori, per la forma meno snella e più rigonfia, per la diversità di scultura con interspazi larghi e scultura spirale più tubercolata, e per il periostraco fibroso, più spesso e di colore marroncino scuro, mentre quello di C. cutanea è sericeo, semitrasparente e color giallo senape.

Tuttavia qualche esemplare di quest’ultima specie, a scultura più esaltata e di forma robusta, potrebbe essere confuso a prima vista con C. doliaria. Ma un’analisi complessiva delle caratteristiche morfologiche delle due specie possono farle separare agevolmente.

La morfologia di C. cutacea può variare tra due forme principali che rappresentano degli estremi: esemplari allungati, di forma elegante con scultura poco esaltata ed individui più corti, inflati con scultura più evidente è più robusta. Ma a conferma che in realtà la specie è da considerarsi unica sono le forme di passaggio intermedie, che consentono un continuum tra le due forme estreme.

Fig.1 - Cabestana cutacea (Linné, 1767). Forma elongata, mm 44 x 81. Tor Valdaliga, Civitavecchia, Lazio, 25m. Veduta boccale.

Fig.2 - C. cutacea (Linné, 1767). Esemplare fig. 1, veduta dorsale.

Fig.3 - C. cutacea (Linné, 1767). mm 42 x 65. Santa Marinella Porto, Lazio, ex reti. Veduta boccale.

Fig.4 - Cabestana cutacea (Linné, 1767). Esemplare fig. 3, veduta dorsale.

Fig.5 - C. cutacea (Linné, 1767). Forma curta, mm 43 x 55. Montalto di Castro, Lazio, 30 m. veduta boccale.

Fig.6 - C. cutacea (Linné, 1767). Esemplare fig. 5, veduta dorsale

Fig. 7 – C. cutacea (Linné, 1767). mm 47 x 68. Lazzaro (RC), Calabria, 25 m. veduta boccale.

Fig. 8 – C. cutacea (Linné, 1767). Esemplare fig. 7, veduta dorsale.

Fig. 9 – C. cutacea (Linné, 1767). mm 40 x 60. Lazzaro (RC), Calabria, 25 m. varietà albina, veduta boccale.

Fig. 10 – C. cutacea (Linné, 1767). Esemplare fig. 7, veduta dorsale.

Fig. 11 – C. cutacea (Linné, 1767). mm 40 x 53. Sorrento, Campania, spiaggiato. Esemplare sprovvisto di varice, veduta boccale.

Fig. 12 – C. cutacea (Linné, 1767). Esemplare fig. 11, veduta dorsale.

Fig. 13 – C. doliaria (Linné, 1767). mm 28 x 37. Cabo Negro, Marocco, spiaggiato, veduta boccale.

Fig. 14 – C. doliaria (Linné, 1767). Esemplare fig. 13, veduta dorsale.