Chikungunya virus spreads to Europe
1
News in perspective Upfront – deuterium and tritium – to create helium. This releases neutrons and huge amounts of energy. The European Commission gave approval in July for the High Power Laser Energy Research (HiPER) facility. Last week, negotiations began to establish where the facility will be located, how the £500-million project will be funded and what technical options to pursue. “This project is now going ahead,” says Dunne. “It’s just a matter of working out the detail.” Dunne leads a consortium of scientists from 15 nations, which hopes to begin construction of the facility in 2011. WANT to give your children a good start in life? Then you may need to deny them their beloved television every once in a while. The first long-term study of the impact of television viewing on attention skills reports that the more television children watch between the ages of 5 and 11, the more likely they are to have attention problems between the ages of 13 and 15 (Pediatrics, vol 120, p 532). The team followed more than AS FEARED, the chikungunya virus has begun spreading in Europe. In June, a few people near Ravenna in north-east Italy developed a fever with severe joint pain, but by mid-August there were more than 100 cases. The Italian government has confirmed that the culprit is chikungunya virus, a previously rare, mild infection spread by mosquitoes, that has mutated into a virulent, rapidly spreading strain. Since 2005, it has infected at least 1.4 million people in India and on islands in the Indian Ocean and may have killed thousands. Italian officials blame the outbreak on warm weather and unusually high numbers of mosquitoes, but as New Scientist went to press no more new cases had come to light in recent days. Chikungunya has been diagnosed in dozens of travellers returning to Europe and North America from infected areas, but the Italian cases are the first in Europe to have originated locally, meaning that the virus has now established itself in mosquitoes. Officials are spraying insecticide in the places where the insects breed in a bid to wipe them out. The Asian tiger mosquito, which carries chikungunya, is now widespread in Italy, but also in warmer regions of Europe and the Americas where the virus is not established. In the tropics the insects also carry the more serious dengue virus, which infects about 100 million people a year. The fear is that if chikungunya can establish itself in local tiger mosquitoes, so can dengue. REPRODUCING the power of the sun on Earth is no easy task, but an international team of physicists based in Europe is now preparing to give it a go. If their attempt to develop nuclear fusion works, it could provide a limitless and clean source of energy that promises to end reliance on the fossil fuels that are causing global warming. The consortium, led by Mike Dunne of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxford, UK, hopes to develop commercial nuclear fusion using lasers to crush together isotopes of hydrogen – It is sure to send wings a-flapping and tails a-sagging. Even when owners walk their dogs on leashes they still manage to frighten off nearly half the birds in natural parklands. Land managers in several countries, including the UK and Australia, have responded to birders’ worries that dogs may be scaring local wildlife by banning the animals from sensitive wild areas. But dog-owners maintain there is little hard evidence to support this view, and are angry over such bans. So Peter Banks and Jessica Bryant at the University of New South Wales in Sydney tested the effect of dogs on bird sightings at 90 different sites in both regional parks where dogs are allowed on a leash and in neighbouring national parks, where dogs are banned. They used two “treatments” – a person walking alone and a person with a dog. After each treatment group walked past, the researchers counted the number of birds they saw or heard within 50 metres. Walking a dog was followed by an immediate exodus of nearby birds, leaving 41 per cent fewer individual birds on average. The number of species also dropped by 35 per cent compared to when no one was walking. People alone, even two people, had half the impact (Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0374) Walking a dog without a leash is likely to be even worse, says Banks, who says the birds must perceive the dogs as potential predators. He anticipates dog-owners will react badly to his findings. WHEN DOGS WALK BIRDS FLY JOHANN ROUSSELOT/OEIL PUBLIC –Investing in an attention deficit?– SOPHIE CHIVET/AGENCE VU “The Italian cases are the first infections in Europe to have originated locally” –They’re not singing any more– Deadly virus Fusion is go Now look here 6 | NewScientist | 8 September 2007 www.newscientist.com
Transcript of Chikungunya virus spreads to Europe
News in perspective
Upfront–
deuterium and tritium – to create
helium. This releases neutrons
and huge amounts of energy.
The European Commission
gave approval in July for the High
Power Laser Energy Research
(HiPER) facility. Last week,
negotiations began to establish
where the facility will be located,
how the £500-million project will
be funded and what technical
options to pursue.
“This project is now going
ahead,” says Dunne. “It’s just a
matter of working out the detail.”
Dunne leads a consortium of
scientists from 15 nations, which
hopes to begin construction of
the facility in 2011.
WANT to give your children a
good start in life? Then you may
need to deny them their beloved
television every once in a while.
The first long-term study of the
impact of television viewing on
attention skills reports that the
more television children watch
between the ages of 5 and 11,
the more likely they are to have
attention problems between the
ages of 13 and 15 (Pediatrics,
vol 120, p 532).
The team followed more than
AS FEARED, the chikungunya
virus has begun spreading in
Europe . In June, a few people near
Ravenna in north-east Italy
developed a fever with severe
joint pain, but by mid-August
there were more than 100 cases.
The Italian government has
confirmed that the culprit is
chikungunya virus, a previously
rare, mild infection spread by
mosquitoes, that has mutated
into a virulent, rapidly spreading
strain . Since 2005, it has infected
at least 1.4 million people in India
and on islands in the Indian Ocean
and may have killed thousands .
Italian officials blame the
outbreak on warm weather and
unusually high numbers of
mosquitoes, but as New Scientist
went to press no more new cases
had come to light in recent days.
Chikungunya has been
diagnosed in dozens of travellers
returning to Europe and North
America from infected areas, but
the Italian cases are the first in
Europe to have originated locally,
meaning that the virus has now
established itself in mosquitoes.
Officials are spraying insecticide
in the places where the insects
breed in a bid to wipe them out.
The Asian tiger mosquito,
which carries chikungunya, is
now widespread in Italy, but also
in warmer regions of Europe and
the Americas where the virus is
not established .
In the tropics the insects also
carry the more serious dengue
virus , which infects about
100 million people a year. The
fear is that if chikungunya can
establish itself in local tiger
mosquitoes, so can dengue.
REPRODUCING the power of
the sun on Earth is no easy task,
but an international team of
physicists based in Europe is now
preparing to give it a go.
If their attempt to develop
nuclear fusion works, it could
provide a limitless and clean
source of energy that promises to
end reliance on the fossil fuels
that are causing global warming.
The consortium, led by Mike
Dunne of the Rutherford Appleton
Laboratory in Oxford, UK, hopes
to develop commercial nuclear
fusion using lasers to crush
together isotopes of hydrogen –
It is sure to send wings a-flapping and
tails a-sagging. Even when owners walk
their dogs on leashes they still manage
to frighten off nearly half the birds in
natural parklands.
Land managers in several countries,
including the UK and Australia, have
responded to birders’ worries that dogs
may be scaring local wildlife by banning
the animals from sensitive wild areas.
But dog-owners maintain there is little
hard evidence to support this view, and
are angry over such bans.
So Peter Banks and Jessica Bryant
at the University of New South Wales in
Sydney tested the effect of dogs on bird
sightings at 90 different sites in both
regional parks where dogs are allowed
on a leash and in neighbouring national
parks, where dogs are banned. They
used two “treatments” – a person
walking alone and a person with a dog.
After each treatment group walked
past, the researchers counted the
number of birds they saw or heard
within 50 metres. Walking a dog was
followed by an immediate exodus
of nearby birds, leaving 41 per cent
fewer individual birds on average. The
number of species also dropped by
35 per cent compared to when no one
was walking. People alone, even two
people, had half the impact (Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0374)
Walking a dog without a leash is
likely to be even worse, says Banks,
who says the birds must perceive
the dogs as potential predators. He
anticipates dog-owners will react
badly to his findings.
WHEN DOGS WALK BIRDS FLY
JOHA
NN R
OUSS
ELOT
/OEI
L PUB
LIC
–Investing in an attention deficit?–
SOPH
IE CH
IVET
/AGE
NCE V
U
“The Italian cases are the first infections in Europe to have originated locally”
–They’re not singing any more–
Deadly virus Fusion is go
Now look here
6 | NewScientist | 8 September 2007 www.newscientist.com
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