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Nipah Virus: Kerala Implements Mass Testing After 4th Outbreak In India Since 2018

Nipah Virus

(CTN NEWS) – In a bid to contain the lethal Nipah virus, Indian authorities have implemented comprehensive mass testing measures after the virus claimed the lives of two individuals in the southern state of Kerala.

Officials reported that they have imposed restrictions on public gatherings and temporarily closed some schools in response to the situation, marking the fourth outbreak of Nipah in the region since 2018.

Nipah is a rare yet severe virus transmitted by bats, which can lead to symptoms such as fever, vomiting, and respiratory infections in humans. Severe cases may involve seizures, encephalitis (brain inflammation), and even result in a coma.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the virus carries a fatality rate ranging from 40% to 75%. Unfortunately, there is currently no known vaccine for Nipah, and the standard approach to treatment involves providing supportive care.

What is the Nipah virus?

The Nipah virus (NiV), as described by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was initially identified in 1999 during an epidemic that affected both pigs and humans in Malaysia and Singapore.

This outbreak resulted in nearly 300 human cases and over 100 fatalities. The economic impact was substantial, with more than one million pigs being culled to control the disease’s spread.

In response to the latest outbreak of the virus, Health Minister Veena George has emphasized the importance of early contact tracing and the isolation of individuals displaying symptoms.

Stringent measures have been implemented, including restrictions on public movement in certain areas of the state to contain the medical crisis.

The state of Kerala has experienced its fourth outbreak of the virus since 2018, leading to the establishment of containment zones in at least seven villages within the Kozhikode district.

Medical personnel in direct contact with infected individuals are being quarantined to prevent further transmission.

The initial victim of this outbreak was a small landholder from the village of Marutonkara in the Kozhikode district.

The victim’s daughter and brother-in-law have also been infected and are currently in isolation, with additional family members and neighbors undergoing testing.

The second death in this outbreak was linked to contact within a hospital, but it is important to note that the two individuals were not related.

To further investigate this situation, three federal teams, including experts from the National Virology Institute, are scheduled to arrive for additional testing.

Nipah Virus: Origins, Transmission, and Impact

The Nipah virus, a deadly pathogen, was first discovered in 1999 during an outbreak among pig farmers and individuals closely associated with pigs in Malaysia and Singapore.

Although no further outbreaks of NiV have been reported in Malaysia and Singapore since 1999, cases have continued to emerge almost annually in various parts of Asia, primarily in Bangladesh and India.

NiV is classified as a zoonotic virus, indicating that it initially spreads between animals and humans. Fruit bats, also known as flying foxes and belonging to the genus Pteropus, serve as the primary animal host reservoir for NiV. T

he virus can be transmitted through contact with infected fruit bats, pigs, and even through human-to-human contact, such as via saliva or urine.

The initial transmission from an animal to a person is referred to as a spillover event, and once an individual is infected, NiV can spread from person to person.

Human infections can range from asymptomatic cases to acute respiratory infections, including both mild and severe cases, as well as encephalitis, which involves swelling of the brain and can lead to coma within 24-48 hours.

Encephalitis has a mortality rate ranging from 40 to 75 percent, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Survivors of acute encephalitis may fully recover, but some may experience long-term neurological conditions, such as seizure disorders and personality changes.

Additionally, a small percentage of survivors may experience relapses or develop delayed-onset encephalitis, as noted by the WHO.

Nipah Virus Outbreak in Kerala, India: Measures and Concerns

The Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala, India, is indeed a concerning situation. To contain the virus and protect public health, Indian authorities have taken several measures:

  1. Comprehensive Mass Testing: Indian authorities have implemented comprehensive mass testing measures to identify and isolate infected individuals promptly. Mass testing helps in early detection and containment of the virus’s spread.
  2. Restrictions on Public Gatherings: To prevent further transmission, officials have imposed restrictions on public gatherings. This is a common strategy to minimize close contact between individuals and reduce the risk of virus transmission.
  3. Temporary School Closures: Some schools have been temporarily closed in response to the situation. This step is taken to prevent the virus from spreading among students and staff.
  4. Previous Nipah Outbreaks: The recent outbreak marks the fourth occurrence of Nipah in the region since 2018. This suggests that the virus has been a recurring concern in the area, and authorities are working to prevent its resurgence.
  5. Nipah Virus Transmission: Nipah is a rare yet severe virus transmitted by bats. It can be transmitted to humans through direct contact with infected bats or consumption of contaminated fruits or sap from date palm trees that bats have contaminated.
  6. Symptoms: Nipah virus infection in humans can lead to symptoms such as fever, vomiting, and respiratory infections. Severe cases may involve seizures, encephalitis (brain inflammation), and even result in a coma.
  7. Fatality Rate: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Nipah virus carries a fatality rate ranging from 40% to 75%. This makes it a highly dangerous virus with a significant mortality risk.
  8. No Known Vaccine: Unfortunately, there is currently no known vaccine for Nipah. The absence of a vaccine highlights the importance of preventive measures, early detection, and supportive care as the primary approach to managing cases.

It’s essential for the public to follow the guidelines and recommendations provided by health authorities to minimize the risk of Nipah virus transmission and stay safe during the outbreak.

Additionally, research and efforts to develop a vaccine or specific treatment for Nipah should continue to address this serious public health threat.

Preventing Nipah Virus Infection: Strategies and Recommendations

As of now, there are no available vaccines for the Nipah virus. Drawing from past outbreaks, maintaining stringent cleanliness and disinfection protocols on pig farms, employing suitable detergents, can be a valuable preventive measure.

In the event of suspected outbreaks among animals, immediate quarantine measures are crucial. The World Health Organization (WHO) has advised the potential necessity of “culling infected animals,” ensuring the careful handling and d

isposal of carcasses through either burial or incineration to mitigate the risk of transmission to humans.

Given the absence of specific Nipah virus vaccines, raising awareness about the associated risk factors and educating individuals about essential precautions remains the primary means of reducing or preventing human-to-human transmission.

Standard disease control practices should also be rigorously followed.

To mitigate the risk of international transmission through fruits or fruit products contaminated with fluids from infected fruit bats, it is advisable to thoroughly wash and peel produce before consumption.

Fruits displaying any signs of bat bites should be discarded as an additional precautionary step.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

google

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

google

Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

google

Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

trump

Washington — Trump Media,  The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.

The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.

The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.

The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.

trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.

Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.

trump

Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.

The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.

musk trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.

The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.

He also welcomed back a vast list of previously banned users, including Trump, and endorsed him for the 2024 presidential election.

SOURCE | AP

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

Supreme Court

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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