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Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], June 12 (ANI): The World Health Organisation has confirmed the human case of <keyword id="3653784" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bird-flu-in-india" source="Orion">bird flu in India</keyword>, after the <keyword id="15897682" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="H9N2-virus" source="Orion">H9N2 virus</keyword> was detected in a four-year child in West Bengal. Overall, this is the second <keyword id="21166335" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="human-infection" source="keywords">human infection</keyword> of <keyword id="2663051" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Avian-Influenza-A" source="Orion">avian influenza A</keyword> (H9N2) notified to WHO from India, with the first being done in 2019. The child has recovered and was discharged from the hospital. WHO received a notification from the International Health Regulations (IHR) National Focal Point (NFP) for India, regarding a human case of avian influenza A(H9N2) virus infection in West Bengal, the health body said in a press release. "The patient is a 4-year-old child residing in West Bengal state. The case, previously diagnosed with hyperreactive airway disease, initially presented to the paediatrician with fever and abdominal pain on 26 January 2024. He developed seizures on January 29 after which he was brought to the same paediatrician. The patient was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) of a local hospital due to the persistence of severe respiratory distress, recurrent high-grade fever and abdominal cramps. The patient tested positive for influenza B and adenovirus. He was discharged from the hospital on February 28 but with a recurrence of severe respiratory distress, he was referred to another government hospital and was admitted to the pediatric ICU and intubated on March 3. His nasopharyngeal swab was sent to the Kolkata Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory and tested positive for influenza A (not sub-typed) and rhinovirus. On April 26, the sample was sub-typed as influenza A(H9N2) through a real-time polymerase chain reaction. The patient was discharged from the hospital with oxygen support on May 1. WHO said that the infected patient had exposure to poultry at home and in the surroundings. It, however, also affirmed there were no known persons reporting symptoms of respiratory illness in the family, the neighbourhood, or among healthcare workers at health facilities attended by the case at the time of reporting. The health body further warned that sporadic human cases could occur in the future as this virus is "one of the most prevalent avian influenza viruses circulating in poultry in different regions." Animal influenza viruses normally circulate in animals but can also infect humans. Infections in humans have primarily been acquired through direct contact with infected animals or through indirect contact with contaminated environments. Depending on the original host, influenza A viruses can be classified as avian influenza, swine influenza, or other types of animal influenza viruses, the WHO stated in the release. The health body further said that it is providing continued support to the government of India through technical advice, updates on risk assessment and updating contingency plans- both in the human and animal sectors in line with the global guidance.

WHO confirms human case of bird flu in India! H9N2 virus detected in a four-year child in West Bengal

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The bird flu, or avian influenza, is increasingly worrying public-health experts.</li><li>The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-avian-influenza-outbreak-us-h5n1-wiping-out-everything-2023-4">H5N1 bird flu virus</a> is changing, creeping closer to humans, and getting more opportunities to adapt.</li></ul><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-virus-h5n1-new-human-case-michigan-respiratory-symptoms-2024-6">Bird flu</a> is flying wild, and it has many infectious disease experts more worried now than ever.The H5N1 avian influenza virus has killed tens of millions of birds across the planet and more than 40,000 sea lions and seals. For animals, it's a pandemic.Still, the CDC says the risk to humans is low. Most people seem to have very little chance, if any, of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-eggs-meat-milk-dairy-safety-during-outbreak-2024-4">catching H5N1 avian influenza</a> right now.Only three people in the US have tested positive for the virus since its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-cattle-outbreak-repeat-mistakes-former-surgeon-general-warning-2024-4">surprising break into the cattle population</a>, and they all had direct contact with infected cows.<div type="image" title="farmer man in overalls blue and white button shirt and camo cap reaches over a wooden fence to scratch a cow wearing a bow inside an indoors stall full of hay" height="1500" width="2250" msid="110949087" hostid="261" sizebytes="321112"></div>But infectious disease experts are increasingly concerned that the H5N1 virus could <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/3-viruses-scientists-are-watching-for-the-next-pandemic-2022-4">make a sustained jump into humans</a> and start spreading among us. That's not inevitable, but several recent developments suggest it's a growing threat."There's a lot going on," Dr. Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine and associate chief of the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told Business Insider. "I'm becoming more worried."You shouldn't panic, but you should probably know what's going on. This virus is a leading candidate for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-says-world-needs-billion-year-prevent-next-pandemic-2022-6">the next pandemic</a>, and four developments in the past month have experts worried.Here's what you need to know.<h2 id="a6efdbe9-4727-4b3a-b934-ceccc3f63ba8">Bird flu hospitalized a child in Australia</h2>On Friday the World Health Organization announced that a 2-year-old had become Australia's first human case of H5N1 in March.After returning from travel to Kolkata, India, the child's symptoms — loss of appetite, fever, coughing, vomiting, and irritability, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2024-DON519">according</a> to WHO — put them in the hospital for two and a half weeks, including admission to the intensive care unit.As human cases crop up in different parts of the world, epidemiologists like Christopher Dye become more concerned."There's such a vast amount of virus at the moment. And clearly it is changing, and it's doing new and unexpected things," Dye, a professor and senior research fellow at the University of Oxford, told BI.<div type="image" title="researcher in white lab coat blue medical gloves and protective goggles works with an ice bucket containing small samples of milk in a lab" height="1500" width="2250" msid="110949085" hostid="261" sizebytes="166070"></div>He recently co-authored a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bmj.com/content/385/bmj.q1199.full">paper</a>, published in the medical journal BMJ, arguing that the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-real-is-the-last-of-us-science-behind-fungus-pandemic-2023-1">risk of a major human outbreak</a> is "large, plausible, and imminent.""<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/influenza-more-worrisone-than-zika-ebola-2016-4">Influenza has always been a concern</a> for decades and decades, and this particular form of influenza for at least two decades," Dye said. "But now, it's risen to a level of concern, I think, which is greater than ever before."<h2 id="17691a35-dcc3-4171-8b3c-1c847c1e9bb6">Mice could bring bird flu into homes</h2>A total of 47 house mice have tested positive for H5N1 in New Mexico, the US Department of Agriculture reported on Tuesday."Mice are kind of everywhere," Gandhi said. "They're around other animals, they're around humans a lot. And it's a little worrisome."<div type="image" title="brown mouse with white belly sits eating small piece of something in the snow" height="1500" width="2250" msid="110949089" hostid="261" sizebytes="37666"></div>The samples were collected from the sick mice in early May. According to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/why-the-discovery-of-h5n1-bird-flu-in-mice-is-so-alarming/">The Telegraph</a>, scientists suspect that the mice, as well as some domestic cats, may have gotten the virus from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-milk-food-safety-former-surgeon-general-doctor-2024-4">drinking raw milk from infected cows</a>. (Public health experts resoundingly advise that people should not drink unpasteurized, aka "raw," milk.)"This brings the virus closer to human homes," Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, told The Telegraph. "This is out of control," he added.Every new population of animals, and every new exposure to humans, is another opportunity for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/woman-hiv-had-coronavirus-216-days-virus-mutated-2021-6">the virus to mutate</a> and adapt.<h2 id="abc7e6b4-b179-449b-b66c-ad52a39458d8">One mutation suggests the virus has started adapting</h2><div type="image" title="h5n1 virus microscope image shows black and white long straight worm-shaped organism" height="1500" width="2250" msid="110949092" hostid="261" sizebytes="157400"></div>When the CDC analyzed a virus sample from the second US farmworker infected, they spotted a mutation in the virus's replication machinery — the way it gets inside its host's cells to make copies of itself.It's a change "associated with viral adaptation to mammalian hosts," the CDC said in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/spotlights/2023-2024/h5n1-technical-update-may-24-2024.html">statement in May</a>. The statement also said that studies in mice indicate this type of genetic mutation in the virus is associated with more severe disease and enhanced viral replication.That doesn't make it a human virus yet, though.Other than this one change, H5N1 has mainly "avian virus properties and not human virus properties," Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude and director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds, told BI.That means the virus is better adapted to thrive and spread among birds, not humans.Still, that could change.<h2 id="ddfee4b3-1706-4652-9418-5ae34679d762">The latest US case had a troubling cough</h2>The first two farmworkers to test positive for H5N1 in the US had <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/treatments/pink-eye-treatment">pink eye</a>. But the third case, reported in Michigan in May, featured a cough and sore throat.That means H5N1 was in that worker's respiratory system, which is a scarier place to find a threatening virus than in our eyes.For one thing, it's easier to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-covid-positive-biden-statement-meadows-book-coughing-on-people-2021-12">spread a virus by coughing</a> or sneezing than by, well, sharing eye fluid.<div type="image" title="A man coughing" height="1439" width="2084" msid="110949086" hostid="261" sizebytes="169668"></div>The good news is that, as far as scientists can tell, H5N1 is still not adapted to humans enough to transmit between us. The CDC has reported no evidence that the coughing farmworker spread the virus to anyone else.But that doesn't mean H5N1 can't mutate to achieve human-to-human transmission — which brings us to the second unfortunate reality of this farmworker's respiratory infection. Compared to the eyes, human lungs are a more convenient place for an avian virus to get more mammalian, according to Webby. In the lungs, the virus is exposed to more of the cell receptors that a mammalian virus would bind to, giving H5N1 more opportunity to mutate and start grabbing onto those receptors — thereby becoming better adapted to infecting and spreading between humans.Many experts fear the USDA and CDC aren't monitoring cattle and farmworkers closely enough to catch concerning mutations early, and that other human cases may be going undetected.<div type="image" title="blue gloved hands in a white lab coat hold a large syringe and a lab tube of fluid" height="1500" width="2250" msid="110949093" hostid="261" sizebytes="47636"></div>"I think there's enough of a threat here to be very alert so that we have a surveillance system in place that, as soon as this happens, we can find it," Dye said.<h2 id="048d06aa-b91d-4421-b98b-5ae259b70f87">Vaccines are in the works</h2>The good news is that bird flu is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/august-flu-vs-covid-infection-rate-2023-8">not COVID-19</a>. Scientists have been tracking this virus and its entire viral family tree, watching for any sign of a growing threat to humans, for decades.As a result, the key elements of a vaccine are already on standby. The US is beginning to manufacture millions of vaccines using "candidate vaccine viruses" — weakened influenza viruses — that the CDC has developed.<div type="image" title="how does the flu shot work" height="1414" width="2121" msid="110949090" hostid="261" sizebytes="78400"></div>Though the candidates are not necessarily perfect matches to H5N1, and the vaccines' use of eggs may be a manufacturing roadblock if bird flu is sweeping the chicken population, they may provide some immunity in the case of a human outbreak.Furthermore, scientists now have proven <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mrna-vaccine-pfizer-moderna-coronavirus-2020-12">mRNA vaccine technology</a> at the ready. Vaccines that use mRNA, of which the COVID-19 vaccines were the first approved for use, are more flexible and faster to develop than traditional vaccines — and they don't require eggs.<div type="image" title="white shiny eggs on a machine coming out of a pink glowing chamber" height="1500" width="2667" msid="110949091" hostid="261" sizebytes="187078"></div>Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have already <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2024/may/penn-researchers-develop-experimental-mrna-avian-flu-vaccine">developed</a> an experimental mRNA vaccine for H5N1, which they've successfully tested in mice and ferrets.If H5N1 becomes a problem in humans, a vaccine could be offered with the flu shot you get later this year.In the meantime, bird flu is a looming threat to keep an eye on."As far as I can see, this is not going to go away anytime soon," Dye said.

Why 4 new bird flu developments have experts worried about the virus

China has reported the first case of <keyword id="9496369" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="human-infection">human infection</keyword> with the <keyword id="11359120" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="H10N3-strain">H10N3 strain</keyword> of <keyword id="95867" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bird-flu">bird flu</keyword> from the country's eastern Jiangsu province, China's <keyword id="6407801" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="national-health-commission">National Health Commission</keyword> said on Tuesday. The patient, a 41-year-old man from Zhenjiang city, is currently in a stable condition and meets discharge standards, the state-run CGTN TV reported. Health authorities played down the outbreak, saying the case was a sporadic virus transmission from poultry to humans, and the risk of causing a pandemic was extremely low. The patient was diagnosed as having the H10N3 avian <keyword id="6388288" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="influenza">influenza</keyword> virus on May 28, National Health Commission said in a statement without elaborating on how the man had got infected with the virus. No other cases of human infection with H10N3 have previously been reported globally, it said. H10N3 is a low pathogenic or relatively less severe strain of the virus in poultry and the risk of it spreading on a large scale is very low. There are many different strains of avian influenza in China and some sporadically infect people, generally those working with poultry. <keyword id="2599676" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="H5N8">H5N8</keyword> is a subtype of the Influenza A virus (also known as the bird flu virus). While H5N8 only presents a low risk to humans, it is highly lethal to wild birds and poultry. In April, a highly pathogenic H5N6 avian flu was found in wild birds in northeast China's Shenyang city. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/google-photos-alternatives-are-hardly-any-good/articleshow/83138238.cms">Google Photos alternatives are hardly any good – here’s what made the Google service so good</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/economy/news/indias-gdp-has-contracted-five-times-since-1947-but-never-as-bad-as-7-3/articleshow/83135455.cms">India’s GDP has contracted five times since 1947, but never as bad as 7.3%</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/xiaomis-latest-wired-charging-tech-can-fully-charge-a-phone-in-just-8-minutes-and-wirelessly-in-15-minutes/articleshow/83136172.cms">Xiaomi’s latest wired charging tech can fully charge a phone in just 8 minutes and wirelessly in 15 minutes</a>

China reports first human infection with H10N3 strain of bird flu in the world

<keyword id="6356806" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="moscow">Moscow</keyword>, <keyword id="6358826" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Russia">Russia</keyword> has confirmed the first case of human infection with the <keyword id="109029" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="avian-influenza">avian influenza</keyword> A(H5N8) virus in the world, a Russian sanitary official announced on Saturday. Scientists have isolated the genetic material of this <keyword id="95867" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bird-flu">bird flu</keyword> virus in seven workers of a poultry farm in south Russia, where an outbreak among fowls was reported in December, said Anna Popova, head of the country's consumer rights and human well-being watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, say reporters. All the necessary measures were taken immediately to protect humans and animals, and the infection did not spread further, she told a briefing. All of the seven people who were infected are now feeling well, with only mild clinical symptoms, Popova said. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/entertainment/news/pewdiepies-lyrics-targeting-cocomelon-and-jk-rowling-that-may-have-gotten-youtube-angry-enough-to-pull-the-video-down/articleshow/81102941.cms">PewDiePie's lyrics targeting CocoMelon and JK Rowling may have gotten YouTube angry enough to pull the video down</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/flipkart-gets-leaner-with-a-300-million-jabong-write-off-as-ceo-kalyan-krishnamurthy-lists-out-the-priorities-for-2021/articleshow/81105083.cms">Flipkart gets leaner with a $300 million Jabong write-off as CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy lists out the priorities for 2021</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/happiest-minds-is-leveraging-its-partnerships-with-big-players-like-google-microsoft-aws-salesforce/articleshow/81105035.cms">Happiest Minds is a smaller company that does the same thing as MindTree and L&amp;T Infotech — but clearly it is doing it a lot better</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/india-may-require-twitter-facebook-and-others-to-remove-unlawful-content-within-36-hours/articleshow/81104740.cms">India may require Twitter, Facebook and others to remove unlawful content within 36 hours</a>

World's first case of human infection with bird flu in Russia

New Delhi, Contrary to what some people think that the <keyword id="95867" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bird-flu">bird flu</keyword> <keyword id="10860" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Virus">virus</keyword>, also known as Avian influenza, is spread to humans via consumption of cooked poultry products, health experts on Sunday stressed that it usually does not infect people as the virus is heat-labile (degraded and killed when subjected to heat). Avian influenza refers to the disease caused by infection with avian (bird) influenza (flu) Type A viruses. These viruses occur naturally among wild aquatic birds worldwide and can infect domestic poultry and other bird and animal species. According to the <keyword id="935509" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="World-Health">World Health</keyword> organisation (WHO), <keyword id="27178" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="cooking">cooking</keyword> of poultry (e.g. chicken, ducks and geese) at or above 70 degree Celsius so that absolutely no meat remains raw and red, is a safe measure to kill the virus in areas with outbreaks in poultry. Richa Sareen, consultant (pulmonology) at Fortis Vasant Kunj in New Delhi, said the virus is heat-labile and it gets killed with cooking temperatures. "At this time, people should eat fully cooked chicken and eggs and not raw or partially cooked ones. One should avoid going to open markets that sell poultry as they are the focal point of the spread," Sareen told IANS. "People who handle poultry should take special precautions. They should wear PPE, gloves and masks while handling birds and should practice frequent hand washing," she added. Although the virus causing bird flu usually does not infect people, but rare cases of human infection with these viruses have been reported, especially in individuals working with infected domestic birds. "The possible cause of infections in humans is when they come in contact with birds with the viruses and enough viruses get into a person's eyes, nose or mouth, or is inhaled through the excretions of birds," said Kunal Kothari, Senior Physician, Internal Medicine, <keyword id="52870" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SMS-Medical-College">SMS Medical College</keyword> in Jaipur. "The spread of Bird Flu from one individual, who is sick to another has been very rare and data is limited, inefficient and not sustained but as a precaution, we should all be watchful of public health advisory," Kothari added. Bird Flu is a communicable virus among the avian population and human to human spread is not too prominent with the current strain. However, viruses are prone to mutation, so if this virus undergoes mutation in future, it has the potential to spread from human to human and cause a pandemic. Bird flu mostly infects the respiratory system of humans. Common symptoms are fever, runny nose, <keyword id="51415" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sore-throat">sore throat</keyword>, cough, muscle aches, etc. "If severe, it can cause ARDS, multi-organ involvement and even death. The sporadic data on bird flu from the past shows very high mortality, to the tune of 60 per cent. Thus, it becomes important to take precautions now," Sareen mentioned. Nevertheless, maintaining distance from birds in the environment is important as the spread of the avian virus is through the saliva, faecal matter of an infected bird. "The avian virus is airborne. Notify the community health department on seeing sick or dead birds and try not to come in direct contact with these birds without proper masks, gloves and disinfectants," Kothari noted. The Central government has issued a status report of avian influenza in the country, saying the disease has been confirmed in seven states. The Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry &amp; Dairying (DAHD) has issued an advisory to the affected states so as to avoid further spread of disease. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/samsung-galaxy-s21-series-mobile-available-on-pre-orders-checkout-expected-price-of-this-smartphone/articleshow/80168058.cms">Samsung Galaxy S21 series now up for pre-orders ⁠— expected to be priced around ₹75,000</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/tcs-ongc-tata-power-punjab-national-bank-nhpc-and-other-top-stocks-to-watch/articleshow/80164057.cms?upcache=2">TCS’ market share, ONGC’s borrowing, Tata Power gets new territories⁠— these and other top stocks to watch</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/telecom/news/employment-opportunities-in-the-telecom-sector-are-expected-to-grow-by-20-in-2021/articleshow/80183579.cms">Fiber layers and field engineers to researchers ⁠— telecom jobs may see a 20% spike in 2021 as India leaps into the 5G era</a>

Bird flu virus is heat-labile, gets killed at 'cooking temperature'

<keyword id="6354416" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="indian-army" source="Orion">Indian Army</keyword> troops are using trained <keyword id="25561" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="kites" source="Orion">Kites</keyword> to prey on enemy drones in a first-of-its-kind usage of these birds. Indian Army is using trained Kites along with dogs for military operations, Army officials said. Such a capability can help the security forces to tackle the menace of drones coming from across the border to Indian areas in <keyword id="6354953" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="punjab" source="Orion">Punjab</keyword> and Jammu and Kashmir. Several cases have come to light where drones coming from Pakistside dropped consignment of drugs, guns and money in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. Recently on November 24, Jammu and Kashmir Police recovered a consignment of weapons and Indian currency that were dropped by a Pakistani drone in the <keyword id="14535" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="samba" source="Orion">Samba</keyword> district of Jammu. The Indian Army demonstrated the use of kites to prey on enemy drones during the ongoing joint training exercise <keyword id="15648208" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="yuddh-abhyas" source="Orion">Yuddh Abhyas</keyword> in Auli, Uttarakhand. Meanwhile, the 18th edition of the Indo-US joint training exercise "Yudh Abhyas 22" commenced in Uttarakhand's Auli on Saturday. Exercise Yudh Abhyas is conducted annually between India and US with the aim of exchanging best practices, Tactics, Techniques and Procedures between the Armies of the two nations. The previous edition of the exercise was conducted at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, Alaska (US) in October 2021. <keyword id="57857" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="us-army" source="Orion">US Army</keyword> soldiers of the 2nd Brigade of the 11th Airborne Division and Indian Army soldiers from the ASSAM Regiment are participating in the exercise. The training schedule focuses on the employment of an integrated battle group under Chapter VII of the UN Mandate. The scope of the Field Training Exercise includes the validation of integrated battle groups, force multipliers, establishment and functioning of surveillance grids, validation of operational logistics, mountain warfare skills, casualty evacuation and combat medical aid in adverse terrain and climatic conditions. According to the Army, the joint exercise focuses on deploying an infantry battalion group in peacekeeping and disaster relief operations under the mandate of the US. The Yudh Abhyas is a 15-day-long exercise that will focus on high altitude and extremely cold climate warfare. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/banks/news/list-of-bank-holidays-in-december-2022-month/articleshow/95851343.cms">Here is a list of bank holidays in December 2022</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/news/us-weekly-flu-hospitalisations-hit-record-high-since-2010/articleshow/95851463.cms">US weekly flu hospitalisations hit record high since 2010</a>

In a first, Indian Army trains kites to destroy enemy drones

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boris-johnson-government-coronavirus-may-leaked-chinese-laboratory-covid-2020-4">A fringe theory</a> suggests the new <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> could have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/theory-coronavirus-accidentally-leaked-chinese-lab-2020-4">leaked from a Chinese research laboratory</a>, but there's little evidence to support it.</li><li>It's far more likely that the virus spilled over naturally from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-sars-bats-animals-to-humans-2020-1">bats</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-chinese-wet-market-photos-2020-1">jumping to humans</a> via an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-pangolins-intermediary-host-2020-2">intermediary animal host</a>.</li><li>This isn't the first instance of a cross-species <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-zoonotic-virus-coronavirus-jumps-from-animals-to-people-2020-4">spillover event</a>, and experts don't think it will be the last.</li><li>Ebola, SARS, Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, and Nipah are all <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-many-other-disease-outbreaks-to-come-2020-1">zoonotic diseases</a> that naturally spilled over in the past.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>When Chinese authorities first reported an outbreak of a new <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-live-updates-latest-news">coronavirus</a>, many disease scientists had the same thought: History was repeating itself.The <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword> pandemic is the latest example of a well established phenomenon — viruses commonly jump from an animal host to humans. This type of cross-species hop, called a spillover event, also led to outbreaks of Ebola and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Both of those viruses originated in <keyword id="92255" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Bats">bats</keyword>, and genetic research has all but confirmed the same for the new coronavirus — <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2012-7">a study</a> published in February found that it shares 96% of its genetic code with coronaviruses circulating in Chinese bat populations.However, lingering questions about exactly when and how the coronavirus started spreading in people have given rise to a range of unsubstantiated theories. One suggests it may have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boris-johnson-government-coronavirus-may-leaked-chinese-laboratory-covid-2020-4">accidentally leaked from a Wuhan laboratory</a> in which scientists were researching coronaviruses.While it's not impossible that a stored sample of a bat coronavirus could have leaked from a lab, it's far more likely that it jumped naturally from bats to an intermediary species — perhaps a <a href="https://scau.edu.cn/2020/0207/c1300a219015/page.htm">pangolin</a> — before making its way into our population. Infectious-disease researchers had been warning of the potential for exactly such a spillover event for years. <h2>Many spillovers have occurred in the past</h2><div type="image" title="Bird Flu" height="2006" width="3000" msid="75352454" hostid="261"></div>Experts have long agreed that the next pandemic was always a matter of when, not if."The world needs to prepare for pandemics in the same serious way it prepares for war," Bill Gates said <a href="http://epidemics.events.nejm.org/#/main">during a 2018 conference</a>. "If history has taught us anything, it's that there will be another deadly global pandemic." The year prior, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned of the inevitability of a <a style="font-size: 15px;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-warned-trump-infectious-disease-pandemic-danger-2017-2020-4">"surprise outbreak" of a new disease</a>."There is no question that there will be a challenge to the coming administration in the arena of infectious diseases," Fauci said during a <a href="https://gumc.georgetown.edu/gumc-stories/global-health-experts-advise-advance-planning-for-inevitable-pandemic/">speech at Georgetown University</a>, specifically highlighting the threat of unknown diseases."The thing we're extraordinarily confident about is that we're going to see this in the next few years," he added.<div type="image" title="Anthony Fauci" height="2000" width="3000" msid="75352460" hostid="261"></div>Three out of every four <a href="https://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/infectious-diseases-conditions/world-zoonoses-day-most-emerging-infectious-diseases-originate">emerging infectious diseases</a> come to us from other species; these pathogens are known as zoonotic diseases. The 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic — swine flu — started in pigs then killed nearly 300,000 people. People have caught bird flus via direct contact with infected poultry. Other pandemic influenza strains, including <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1957-1958-pandemic.html">the 1957</a> "Asian flu" and the 1968 <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Hong-Kong-flu-of-1968">Hong Kong pandemic</a>, likely started in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Asian-flu-of-1957">birds</a>, too.And in the last 45 years, at least four epidemics — including SARS — have been traced back to bats. "Bats and birds are considered reservoir species for viruses with pandemic potential," Bart Haagmans, a virologist at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-sars-bats-animals-to-humans-2020-1">previously told Business Insider</a>.Researchers traced the SARS coronavirus to a population of <a href="http://www.bio.bris.ac.uk/research/bats/China%20bats/rhinolophussinicus.htm">horseshoe bats</a> in China's Yunnan province; humans caught it from civet cats at a wet market in Guangdong. The virus killed 774 people and infected more than 8,000 in eight months.Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), also a coronavirus, first passed from bats to dromedary camels. It circulated in the camel population undetected for decades before jumping to humans in 2012. So far, 858 people have died across 28 countries from the illness, which is marked by a fever, cough, and shortness of breath.In Southeast Asia, fruit bats were the original hosts of the deadly Nipah virus, which emerged in Malaysia in 1998, then again in India in 2001. The bats passed it to farmed pigs, which gave it to people. Patients experienced headaches and vomiting; many slipped into a coma and died.Fruit bats in Africa have played a major role in Ebola outbreaks as well. The worst Ebola outbreak in history, however, came from a population of <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/01/bat-species-may-be-source-ebola-epidemic-killed-more-11000-people-west-africa">long-fingered bats</a>. More than 11,000 people died in that epidemic from 2013 to 2016.<h2>Bats are prolific virus carriers</h2><div type="image" title="horseshoe bat" height="2323" width="3437" msid="75352466" hostid="261"></div>Scientists estimate that there are 1,400 living bat species. "The great diversity of bats also means they host a great diversity of viruses," Nancy Simmons, curator of the American Museum of Natural History's mammology department, said during a media briefing on Wednesday.Bats harbor a significantly higher proportion of viruses than other mammals, according to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28636590">a 2017 study</a>. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6356540/">A 2019 study</a>, in fact, found that bats carry more than 200 coronaviruses. They're ideal hosts if you're a virus because bats fly across large geographical ranges, transporting diseases as they go <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bats-breeding-ground-viruses-superhost-coronavirus-2020-4">without getting sick themselves</a>.Bats pass these virus to other species via their poop or saliva, and the unwitting intermediaries can transmit the virus to humans in the same way.A study published in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6466186/">March 2019</a> predicted that bats would be the source of a new coronavirus outbreak in China."It is highly likely that future SARS- or MERS-like coronavirus outbreaks will originate from bats, and there is an increased probability that this will occur in China," the researchers wrote at the time.That's because the majority of coronaviruses — those that affect humans and animals — can be found in China, and many bats "live near humans in China, potentially transmitting viruses to humans and livestock," the authors said.<h2>Millions of people are exposed to zoonotic viruses annually</h2>Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/04/23/841729646/virus-researchers-cast-doubt-on-theory-of-coronavirus-lab-accident">told NPR</a> this week that his colleagues are "finding 1 to 7 million people exposed" to zoonotic viruses in Southeast Asia each year."That's the pathway. It's just so obvious to all of us working in the field," he said.<div type="image" title="civet round-up SARS" height="1648" width="2464" msid="75352474" hostid="261"></div>Dennis Carroll, former director of US AID's emerging threats division, <a href="http://nautil.us/issue/83/intelligence/the-man-who-saw-the-pandemic-coming">told Nautilus Magazine</a> in March that research from <a href="https://www.ecohealthalliance.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EcoHealth Alliance</a> suggests "we're looking at an elevation of spillover events two to three times more than what we saw 40 years earlier."That's because of the growing human population and the way we're encroaching on wild areas. "The single biggest predictor of spillover events is land-use change — more land going to agriculture and more specifically to livestock production," Carroll said.He added, "whatever future threats we're going to face already exist; they are currently circulating in wildlife."Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-natural-jump-from-bats-more-likely-than-lab-leak-2020-4">Business Insider</a>

It's far more likely that the coronavirus jumped naturally from bats to people than leaked from a lab — at least 4 other viruses did the same thing in the last 45 years

Good morning! Here's what you need to know for Tuesday. 
1. Greece's new prime minister Alex Tsipras, leader of the radical leftist Syriza party, is <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f5c1dbda-a547-11e4-ad35-00144feab7de.html#slide0">set to unveil his cabinet Tuesday morning</a>.
2. The<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/amazing-pictures-of-relentless-snow-blanketing-the-northeast-2015-1"> US East Coast is braced for a massive blizzard that could dump more than two feet</a> of snow on some areas.
3. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebook-and-instagram-are-down-2015-1">Facebook and Instagram were down for around 40 minutes early Tuesday</a>, affecting users in the US, Asia, and Australia. 
4. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/argentinas-president-wants-to-dissolve-the-countrys-spy-agency-2015-1">Argentine president Cristina Kirchner wants to dissolve the country's intelligence agency </a>on suspicions that rouge agents were behind the death of a prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebook-and-instagram-are-down-2015-1"> </a>
5. On a three-day visit to India, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/27/world/us-and-india-share-sense-of-unease-over-china.html">US President Obama signed a joined statement with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi scolding China</a> for creating conflict neighbours over control of the South China Sea. 
6. A new Oxfam report says the<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-post-ebola-plan-needed-to-avert-double-disaster-in-west-africa-oxfam-2015-1"> three West African countries worst hit by Ebola risk a "double disaster"</a> unless a multi-million dollar plan is put in place. 
7. A preliminary report into the crash of an <a href="A%20new%20Oxfam%20report%20says%20the%20three%20West%20African%20countries%20worst%20hit%20by%20Ebola%20risk%20a%20" double20disaster20unless20a20multi-million20plan20is20put20in20place.20="">AirAsia jet will not include analysis from the black box flight recorders</a>. 
8. Survivors and several heads of state will gather at the memorial site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on the<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/afp-survivors-return-to-auschwitz-70-years-on-as-leaders-sound-alarm-2015-1"> 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp</a>.
9. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-wants-its-own-shale-gas-2015-1">Saudi Arabia's state-run oil firm Saudi Aramco </a><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-wants-its-own-shale-gas-2015-1">is investing another $7 billion (£4.64 billion) in fracking</a>, the process used to extract shale gas from underground.
10. <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-resident-diagnosed-with-first-north-american-case-of-h7n9-avian-flu/article22638787/">Canada has confirmed North America's first human case of the H7N9 bird flu strain</a>, which can lead to death but is not thought to be easily spread from person-to-person.
And finally...
<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/hersheys-bans-british-chocolate-2015-1">Hershey's has blocked British-made Cadbury chocolate from entering the US</a>.

The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aedes_Albopictus.jpg">Wikimedia/CDC</a></div></div></div>
<a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/111008/1/WHO_DCO_WHD_2014.1_eng.pdf?ua=1" target="_blank">Half of the world population</a> is considered at-risk for diseases transmitted by blood-sucking bugs like ticks, sandflies, and mosquitoes. For <a href="http://www.who.int/campaigns/world-health-day/2014/en/" target="_blank">World Health Day today</a>, the World Health Organization wanted to highlight that very real risk with a snappy slogan: "small bite, big threat."
That's right: The most dangerous animals on the planet can be killed with a single swat - but if they've had time to bite, they may have already transmitted a fatal disease.
Many Americans consider bug bites a nuisance more than anything else. But illnesses transmitted by mosquitoes and their ilk kill more than a million people each year and infect more than a billion, causing debilitating pain, brain damage, blindness, and other serious effects.
Globally, the deadliest of the creatures that carry and cause these diseases is the mosquito. Here are 11 scientific reasons why they are the worst.
<h3>1. Mosquitoes put 40% of the world at risk for dengue, which causes "the feeling of broken bones."</h3>
Dengue fever hurts so much that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/diseases-you-can-get-from-mosquitoes-2013-8">it's commonly referred to as</a> break bone fever.
It's the most rapidly spreading mosquito-borne disease in the world, with 40% of the world currently at risk. Between 50 and 100 million people get dengue every year year, and even though it's not usually fatal, <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs117/en/">it still is a leading cause of death</a> for children in certain Latin American and Asian countries.
The disease can also develop into severe dengue, a hemorrhagic condition that is much more dangerous, causing bleeding, organ impairment, and persistent vomiting.
There's no medicine or vaccine for dengue. Treatment generally involves just trying to keep patients hydrated.
<h3>2. Mosquitoes spread yellow fever, which the WHO calls "the original viral haemorrhagic fever."</h3>
Yellow fever <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/111008/1/WHO_DCO_WHD_2014.1_eng.pdf?ua=1" target="_blank">infects around 200,000 people a year</a> - and kills 30,000. It's a viral hemorrhagic fever that has no treatment. After a period of severe illness, most patients recover, but about 15% enter a toxic phase, when they start to bleed internally and organs begin to fail. About half of patients who enter the toxic phase die.
Cases of yellow fever have been increasing since the 1980s due to declining human immunity, deforestation, climate change, increased air travel, and higher infection rates in cities due to a particular breed of mosquito called the Aedes aegypti.
However, there is an effective vaccine for for the fever - one dose provides life-long immunity, and many countries won't permit travelers to enter without proof of vaccination.
<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/theactionitems/4425892550/in/photolist-7K6REf-7JYYux-7JZ2oa-7K7YZC-7JXzDF-7KjLUb-7K3vVA-7JXCXk-7K34Dw-7K7Bfh-7K3zMN-7K5S6b-7KcLC9-7KjQSE-7K8GVZ-7KcDXw-7KcDeY-7K42ks-7KcEuw-7K3mBn-7K1uUe-7K7PGL-7JY5Rg-7K5HT7-7K3Ndm-7K2MgX-7K2K8B-7K9hD6-7K3Efr-7K7MqG-7K2dyY-7K71Vu-7K47zP-7KcVG7-7K2Xpx-7K42Eh-7K97mc-7K4eLg-7JXmdg-7K3gxb-7K45DQ-7JYeqZ-7JYxa2-7JYqG8-7KcFrb-7K1oTn-7K2ZqV-7K4bTL-7K2V1A-7Kf6Kn">Marc AuMarc / flickr</a></div></div>3. Mosquitoes are behind the recent outbreaks of chikungunya, which can sometimes lead to agonizing pain.</h3>
The painful and potentially debilitating virus chikungunya has been around for centuries, but just appeared in the Americas for the first time at the end of 2013.
The disease's name <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chikungunya-virus-arrives-in-americas-2014-1">comes from a word in a Tanzanian language</a> that means "to become contorted," referring to the severe joint pain that it causes, which lasts for weeks, and in some rare cases, even months and years.
"I've been in Africa and seen and heard children just screaming for days on end because of the pain," American Mosquito Control Association technical advisor Joe Conlon <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/diseases-you-can-get-from-mosquitoes-2013-8">told Business Insider</a> last summer.
The first cases were reported on the island of Saint Martin, but since then cases have occurred in Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Barthelemy, the British Virgin Islands, and the Dominican Republic.
Humans have very little natural immunity to chikungunya, which has allowed mosquitoes to spread the virus quickly throughout populations. In 2005, an outbreak sped through the island of La Reunión, sickening 200,000 of 750,000 residents, despite the fact that the only mosquitoes there, the Asian Tiger Mosquitoes, should not have been able to transmit the virus. Experts realized <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/chikungunya-outbreak/">that it had mutated</a>, allowing Asian Tiger mosquitoes to spread the disease.
<h3>4. Mosquitoes scoff at national borders, turning isolated cases into outbreaks.</h3>
Any person infected with a mosquito-borne disease can carry it to a different country, where it can spread if they are bitten by a local mosquito upon arrival - which happens frequently.
In 2007, an older <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/chikungunya-outbreak/">Italian man returned home from a trip to India</a>, unknowingly having been bitten by a mosquito carrying chikungunya. Upon returning home, he visited a cousin - and within 3 months, more than 200 people had been infected with the disease.
<h3>5. Mosquitoes infect us with nasty bird diseases, like West Nile Virus.</h3>
Although West Nile Virus is carried by birds, humans can catch it too - usually from a mosquito that bit the bird first.
Most people don't develop symptoms, but 20% of the infected develop a fever - accompanied by headache, body aches, joint pains, vomiting, diarrhea, or rash.
About <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/111008/1/WHO_DCO_WHD_2014.1_eng.pdf?ua=1" target="_blank">1 in 150 people infected become seriously ill</a> with West Nile encephalitis or West Nile meningitis, potentially fatal conditions. Horses can also become ill due to West Nile Virus, but neither horses nor humans can spread the disease. And while there's a vaccine against the illness for horses, there's not for humans.
Since it arrived in the United States, West Nile may <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cdc-study-on-cost-of-west-nile-virus-2014-2">have infected more than 3 million Americans, and cost more than $800 million</a>.
<h3>6. Mosquitoes don't play fair: They target some people more than others.</h3>
Some people really are mosquito magnets. Mosquitoes are drawn to the smell given off by the bacteria that live on everyone's skin, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/skin-bacteria-attracts-mosquito-bites-2014-3">so</a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/skin-bacteria-attracts-mosquito-bites-2014-3">me people give off an odor</a> that makes them especially attractive to the tiny beasts. And contrary to what a lot of people say, eating garlic and using natural repellent <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/travel/getting-the-jump-on-mosquitoes.html">doesn't do much</a>, if anything, though DEET-containing bug repellents are effective indeed.
<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-1038463p1.html">Shutterstock/Trazos sobre Papel</a></div></div>7. Mosquitoes spread Rift Valley fever, which can blind people and bankrupt farmers.</h3>
Rift Valley fever mostly affects animals, but mosquitoes can transmit it to humans, too, where it causes some pretty horrific symptoms.
Some people experience no symptoms, and among those who do, the effects <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs207/en/" target="_blank">seem like a flu</a> at first. Some develop neck stiffness and sensitivity to light as well.
But the small subset of people (less than 2%) who get the ocular form of the disease may develop lesions in their eye that cause them to go blind, while others (also less than 2%) may develop potentially a fatal brain disease or hemorrhagic fever.
Since Rift Valley fever primarily affects animal populations, its effects <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/rvf/">can decimate farming industries and economies</a>.
<h3>8. Mosquitoes cause permanent disability around the world.</h3>
Lymphatic filariasis, a mostly neglected tropical disease, <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/lymphaticfilariasis/">is a leading cause of permanent disability</a> for people around the world.
More than 120 million people are currently infected, and about one-third of them are disfigured and incapacitated by it.
Mosquitoes spread microscopic parasites between people, which then settle into the lymphatic system to multiply over a period of 6-8 years. They can damage the immune system and the kidneys, and later on in life may cause <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs102/en/">painful swelling in the arms, legs, and genitals</a>.
<h3>9. Mosquitoes spread fatal diseases to children.</h3>
<a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/111008/1/WHO_DCO_WHD_2014.1_eng.pdf?ua=1" target="_blank">Japanese encephalitis</a> is another disease that mosquitoes can spread to humans from infected animals, though humans cannot spread the disease on. It still kills about 10,000 people a year, mostly children under the age of 5. Although there is no treatment, there is an effective vaccine. <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/111008/1/WHO_DCO_WHD_2014.1_eng.pdf?ua=1"> </a>
<h3>10. Mosquitoes spread malaria, which still causes hundreds of thousands of deaths every year.</h3>
Between 2000 and 2012, there's been <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/111008/1/WHO_DCO_WHD_2014.1_eng.pdf?ua=1" target="_blank">a dramatic reduction in malaria deaths</a> - 42% globally. Even so, an estimated 627,000 people died from malaria in 2012 alone, and there were approximately 207 million cases of the disease.
Female Anopheles mosquitoes transmit Plasmodium parasites in their bites, which then cause high fever, chills, and a serious flu-like illness that can kill if it's not treated. This disease is preventable, with items like bed nets, insect repellent, and long sleeves, and is treatable, yet it still kills that many people.
<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image">NRCS SD at <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nrcs_south_dakota/7687101212/">www.flickr.com</a></div></div>11. Mosquitoes are really hard to get rid of.</h3>
Mosquitoes don't need much to survive. Any small water container - or anything that will catch rainwater - is enough to provide a breeding ground. Mosquitoes are also <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DumgZ8ELGlEAF8M9a7X7xMpIXHX-mhS8Xprse3-qK3c/edit">becoming resistant</a> to commonly used insecticides, like pyrethroids, which are commonly used to treat bed nets.
They also travel quickly. The Asian Tiger Mosquito, which is known to carry yellow fever, dengue, and chikungunya, has <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0060874#pone.0060874-Sprenger1">spread to 36 states</a> since first showing up in the United States in 1985.
Its vehicle of choice? <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3576225">Used tires</a>. Tires commonly hold standing water, which makes them an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes. Worn out tires are sent from rich countries to poor countries, where they are often fitted with new treads, and then sent back to the countries they came from. And on both routes, they may carry six-legged stowaways. This is such a serious problem that entomologists are <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/05/chikungunya-the-mosquito-borne-virus-that-contorts-your-limbs.html">looking for ways</a> to incorporate insecticides into tire rubber.

11 Reasons Mosquitoes Are The Most Horrible Creatures On Earth

<div class="KonaFilter image-container click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="REUTERS/Tyrone Siu" title_caption="Health officers in full protective gear wait to cross a road near a wholesale poultry market in Hong Kong January 28, 2014. Hong Kong began culling 20,000 chickens and suspended imports of fresh poultry from mainland China for 21 days on Tuesday after the discovery of the H7N9 bird flu virus in a batch of live chicken from the southern province of Guangdong." class="zoomin" href="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/52e8ea2f6bb3f7b87033b5db-960/chinese-health-workers.jpg"></a>REUTERS/Tyrone SiuHealth officers in full protective gear wait to cross a road near a wholesale poultry market in Hong Kong January 28, 2014. Hong Kong began culling 20,000 chickens and suspended imports of fresh poultry from mainland China for 21 days on Tuesday after the discovery of the H7N9 bird flu virus in a batch of live chicken from the southern province of Guangdong.</div></div>
Good morning. Here's what you need to know.
- At an emergency midnight meeting, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cbrt-decision-2014-1">announced massive rate hikes</a> to shore up the Turkish lira, which has been plummeting to successive all-time lows against the U.S. dollar in recent weeks amid a government corruption scandal and deteriorating economic fundamentals. The central bank's benchmark overnight lending rate was raised to 12% from 7.75%, while the repo rate was raised to 10% from 4.5% and the overnight borrowing rate was hiked to 8% from 3.5%. The lira surged on the news but has already given back most of its gains early in Wednesday trading.
- The Federal Open Market Committee announces its final policy decision under the leadership of Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke at 2 PM ET. The widespread consensus is that the FOMC will move forward with another $10 billion reduction to its monthly bond-buying program, but the bigger question is how it might seek to modify the language in its policy statement to strengthen its forward guidance on the likely path of short-term interest rates.
- Ahead of the FOMC announcement, gold is up and the dollar is down against the euro and the yen. S&amp;P 500 futures have been falling all morning and now point to a negative open. Treasuries are poised to open slightly lower as well. Markets in Asia rallied overnight - the Japanese Nikkei 225 advanced 2.7%, the Hong Kong Hang Seng rose 0.8%, and the Shanghai Composite gained 0.6%. European markets are rallying, led by Spain's IBEX 35.
- Shares of Yahoo! Inc. are down more than 3% in pre-market trading following the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/yahoo-q4-earnings-2014-1">release of earnings results</a> for the quarter ended December 31. Earnings per share were $0.46, better than the consensus estimate of $0.38, but display ad revenue fell 9% year over year to $1.9 billion, prompting concerns over the company's core business.
- President Obama delivered his annual State of the Union address last night. "There were not any big policy surprises or announcements on energy/environment policy, housing, student loans, or healthcare," says Chris Krueger, a policy analyst for Guggenheim Partners in Washington, D.C. "'Opportunity for All' was relatively light on partisanship that covered many similar themes heard in previous States of the Union (tax reform, energy independence, gun control, patent reform, etc.) that are perennial topics in D.C. each year." 
- At 11:30 AM, the U.S. Treasury will auction $15 billion of 2-year floating-rate notes, marking its first new product offering in years. "Auction statistics may be hard to interpret without any historical bid/cover or indirect bids as comparison, but we expect decent participation from dealers as well as customers," say Nomura interest rate strategists. "However, we will not be surprised to see a bit of concession as dealers look to build up inventory only at attractive levels, while some customers take a wait-and-see approach at this inaugural FRN auction. Looking past the clearing level at 11:30 AM, we expect buyers of various investor classes to provide strong support for new FRN, especially on any yield spread cheapening."
- The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will announce its latest decision on monetary policy at 3 PM ET. Economists predict the central bank will leave its official cash rate unchanged at 2.50%. "Dovish lean on the meeting is increasingly strong," says Todd Elmer, a currency strategist at Citi. "We believe this gives rise to risk for New Zealand dollar strengthening beyond expectations on even a modest hawkish surprise and we believe this argues for maintaining long exposure."
- Market research company GfK's German consumer confidence indicator rose to 8.2 from last month's 7.6 reading, marking a larger-than-expected gain. "Germans consider the domestic economy to be clearly on the upturn at present," said GfK <a href="http://www.gfk.com/Documents/Press-Releases/2014/20140129_GfK-Consumer-Climate-January-2014_efin.pdf">in a statement</a>. "This is reflected in the fifth consecutive improvement in economic expectations. In the wake of this, income prospects climbed to reach a 13-year high. Willingness to buy also improved and surpassed its seven-year high of the previous month. The considerable increase in the consumer climate is further boosted by a recent slump in propensity to save."
- U.K. house prices rose 0.7% in January from a month earlier, slowing from December's 1.4% month-on-month pace of growth but surpassing the consensus estimate, which called for a 0.6% advance. The year-over-year pace of house price appreciation increased to 8.8% in January from 8.4% in December.
- South Korea's current account surplus <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/cc723f32-8891-11e3-85a2-00144feab7de.html">rose to a record $70.73 billion</a> in 2013. Meanwhile, the global economic "canary in the coal mine" also saw industrial output expand 3.4% from the previous month in December, marking the strongest gain since June 2009.
MARKET COMMENTARY
"Today's main event is the U.S. FOMC meeting, after London goes home. The Fed will probably deliver a further $10 billion in 'tapering' - cutting Treasury and MBS purchases by $5 billion each. That would surprise no one, but from India to the U.S., we are now in a global monetary policy tightening cycle, and that is likely to resurrect the bear market in Treasuries. 10-year yields, having fallen to 2.7% amid the EM weakness, will head back toward 3% in the days ahead. How fast they rise will determine how long the improvement in risk sentiment lasts, but within G-10, rising U.S. yields at a time of economic outperformance leave us wanting to be long USD.
"As for the wider picture, the turn in the Fed cycle is causing volatility in markets over-reliant for too long on super-easy Fed policy. The slow, uneven process by which a new equilibrium is reached with investors differentiating between 'carry' and genuine investment opportunities, is going to drag on for much of the year. Volatility will return."
-Kit Juckes, a global strategist at Société Générale

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