Volume 4, Issue 1, January-March 2015
CONTENT
- Chair's Forward
- SAES Review of 2014-15
- Geo-Hazards in Africa
- Post-Ebola Risk Management : Keep US Bio-Terror Researchers Out
- Affiliations
- Earth Science Events
- References and Selected reading
Chair's Forward
Welcome to the sixteenth issue of the newsletter of the Society of African
Earth Scientists (SAES), now issued quarterly.
In the current issue we review the year from April 2014 to March
2015 in the SAES calendar, reporting on the society’s affiliations and
activities in the year.
SAES Review of 2014/15 -
SAES Affiliations Update -
In the year 2014-15 we unfortunately have witnessed the disappearance of the Stop Africa Land Grab (SALG)
initiative, with its website now absent from the internet, and the apparent cessation
of its work led by its founder, Dr Emeka Akaezuwa. Although disappointed at the apparent cessation of its work, we are grateful for the brave efforts, and above all
wish for the continued well being and good health of its founder. SAES has supported the work of SALG since soon
after SAES formation in 2012, which involved the attempt to build up a mass of
public signatories and support to the website’s “African Peoples Land Grab
Declaration” as a basis on which to garner support for an anti-land grab
movement. Dr Akaezuwa and his co-workers and contacts in Africa have been involved
in attempts to stop land grabs, by direct appeals to the organisations involved
in the leasing of land under circumstances which disadvantaged local people and
displaced them from their ancestral lands. I can report that Dr Akaezuwa was
involved in trying to halt or delay land grabs buying time for local residents to
organise legal protection of their land; making the journey himself at his own
cost to meet with the institution or organisation involved in an attempt to
dissuade them from acquiring land that would deprive local people.
A new affiliation in
the year was made with the Yemeni Geology and Stratigraphy Network (YGSN),
chaired by Dr Mohammed Darsi Nedham. The affiliation is confirmed by the SAES
chair’s membership of the YGS Network.
SAES is happy to
report its continued affiliation to Association of African Women in the Geosciences,
Solar Sister and Young Earth Scientists (YES) South Africa.
An ongoing move to
network with other African scientists, technologists and engineers continued when
in March 2014, the chair met with various African scientists and engineers from
Ghana, Nigeria, Congo Brazzaville, Sudan and Eritrea attending courses in Solar
photovoltaic energy and wind power at Edinburgh Napier University. Later in
2014, SAES submitted its organisational details as part of registration with the
African Union Network of Sciences, in response to a letter of request from the
Executive Director of the African Union Commission, Abuja, Nigeria. Also, the
chair of SAES is a member of various social network groups of African scientists
from Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, and Ethiopia.
In late 2014 SAES has
made commitment to attend Kilombo, an annual social justice conference held in
Peki, Ghana, where it has been invited to deliver a solar electricity
installation workshop and demonstration in September 2015. Details of this project
are in the process of formation, and a workshop and demonstration will be
delivered at Kilombo 2015 – if not 2016.
SAES Members Training and Qualifications in Renewable Energy -
In March 2014 the chair is able to report attending courses
at the Edinburgh Napier University in Solar Photovoltaic energy and Wind power
energy installations for which he received Galileo Master Certificate
qualifications.
SAES Workshops 2014/15 -
- Solar Photovoltaic Electrical System Installation
Workshop and Demonstration, Owerri, Nigeria, 17th June 2014
In June 2014 SAES hosted a workshop and demonstration of the installation
of an off-grid 12 volt solar electrical system in Owerri, Nigeria. The workshop
covered the basic science behind solar photovoltaic energy, as well as a brief
introduction to electricity, electrical safety, solar electrical system design,
components of a 12v and 100 watts solar photovoltaics system and a practical
demonstration of its installation and operation.
- Climate Science Workshop at the CarAf Supplementary
School, Camden, London, Saturday 28th June 2014
In June 2014 SAES hosted a climate science workshop for 13
pupils of the CarAf Supplementary School in Camden, London entitled “Measuring
the Sizes of Raindrops”. The workshop aimed to introduce youngsters aged 8-11
years to climate science through exploring the sizes of local raindrops, which
were sampled by collecting raindrops from a local storm using the flour pellet
method. The participants were challenged with the question: ARE RAINDROPS ALL
OF THE SAME SIZE? This facilitated the children’s study of the varied
distribution of raindrop sizes in rainfall as a means of introducing them to
climate science and the phenomenon of climate change.
- Day of earth Sciences at CarAf Supplementary School,
Camden, London, Saturday 28th March 2015
To mark its
participation in the AAWG annual day of Earth Sciences, SAES hosted a workshop “What
is an Earth Scientist?” It involved a practical demonstration of what an earth
scientists does, from sampling of local raindrops using the flour pellet
method (used last year) to measure raindrop sizes and distributions [CLIMATE
SCIENCE]; to soil classification and sieving of soil particles [SOIL SCIENCE];
to a demonstration of the earth's gravitational force field as measured using a
computer software called Earth Now [GEOPHYSICS]. SAES used these practical demonstrations
to describe various fields of earth science; so that the children, potential earth scientists of the future, hailing from backgrounds representing much of Africa (Eritrea, Somalia, Congo, Sudan, Nigeria, etc) can later
decide to follow on from this and appreciate the different fields of earth
scientist: climatologists, meteorologists, geologists, soil scientists, geophysicists,
etc.
 |
| A landslide in the rainy season in Enugu, Nigeria, destroys a section of inter-state road, cuts off communities from the national and local transport network, and brings day to day business to a standstill |
Geohazards in Africa
Africa is impacted by a number of
geohazards including drought, flooding, landslides, volcanoes and earthquakes.
These destroy homes and claim many lives each year.
Recent
years have seen the hosting of conferences that are serving to raise awareness about
and mobilise the resources and training Africa needs to cope with the
challenges presented by geohazards. Only in March this year, the University of
Venda in South Africa hosted a conference entitled: First
National Conference on Disaster Risk Science and Management: South Africa's
Response in a Changing Global Environment. In
the conference invitation we are informed: “Disasters affecting African countries
include extreme temperatures, drought, floods and storms. These disasters impede
the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Vulnerability, lack of
information, lack of resources, weak or non-existent early warning systems and
fragile infrastructure all contribute to disaster situations. Disasters affect
livelihoods, cause losses in lives, assets, the economy and the environment.
The capacity to cope with disasters is further accentuated by population
growth, disease outbreaks conflict and civil unrest. Different countries in
Africa are devising various responses including prioritising training, research
and community engagements.”
The Abdus Salam International Centre for
Theoretical Physics in Senegal, has been at the forefront of the bid to raise
awareness of geohazards, and in 2009 hosted a workshop entitled: “Evaluating,
Monitoring and Communicating Volcanic and Seismic Hazards in East Africa”. The
conference arose due to the unprecedented level of volcanic activity in the
eastern African Rift Valley in recent years and a volcanic eruption in the
Congo that led to the evacuation to safety of 500,000 people in 20021. (http://nyiragongo.com/2002.html).
The ICTP intended, in hosting the
conference, to i) coordinate a network of trained geoscientists that would
focus on seismic and volcanic geohazards and ii) build a strategy on the
effective communication of geohazards information to governmental officials and
policy makers.
In 2004, the Indian Ocean tsunami that
caused the loss of over 400,00 lives in South East Asia, also lead to
destruction and loss of lives along the east African coast. The disaster opened
a new frontier of geohazard risk and concern. It underlined the fact that Tsunami
waves, generated by displacements of the ocean floor, do pose a geohazard risk
to the African eastern and western coastlines, since tsunami waves can travel hundreds of miles from their source of origin2. It is therefore
encouraging to discover that an African University has been engaged in the
mathematical modelling of Tsunami waves, as presented in a paper by scientists
at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Portharcourt.
Landslides are a very commonly occurring geohazard in Africa, representing high annual costs in destruction and
disruption to infrastructure and transport networks, as well as loss of lives. South
Africa has been a prominent region3 on the continent for landslide events and
studies have been conducted in the region. Golden Msilimba makes a comparative
study of landslides in northern Malawi in his PhD thesis at the University of the Free State,
Malawi; where he compiled an inventory of observed landslide events and studied
the physical characteristics of these slides affecting slope stability4. These
included the measurement of factors such as slope length, angle of slope
inclination, soil permeability, aspect, altitude, etc. Msilimba also endeavours
to classify landslides according to whether their movement is “translational”
or “rotational”. Soil samples were collected from the various landslide sites
investigated in the study and tested for plastic limit, liquid limit,
plasticity index, bulk density, hydraulic conductivity, aggregate stability and
particle size. The study carried out an assessment of landslides in northern
Malawi to develop means of landslide mitigation.
Msilimba’s study is notable in agreeing with others that
the point at which we see liquefaction occur is key. Liquefaction occurs in a
soil that is saturated with water, when the water pressure increases to the
point that bonding between the soil particles is broken and the particles move
about each other. Sassa, et al (eds)5,
also identify liquefaction as the key stage of soil failure in a landslide
event. Their book identifies liquefaction as the key point at which
landslides happen, usually at the tail end of the rainy season when the soil is
saturated by rainfall. It therefore identified the need to discover the types
of conditions and soil characteristics that lead to complete liquefaction of
the soil. Planes of weakness form in the soil due to the crushing of soil
grains which can lead to liquefaction of a shear zone in the soil when it is
saturated with water. This zone of weakness can create a slip surface resulting
in slope instability and landslide occurrence. Slope angle was seen to be an
important factor and erosion played a part in steepening slopes to an unstable
angle. Gully erosion in particular was noted as creating favourable conditions
for landslides. Other factors contributing included the topography and the flow
of surface runoff through lines of weakness in slopes.
In the work
of Sassa et al, landslides are identified as the geohazard taking enormous toll
on resources and lives annually in Africa with damage to infrastructure such as
roads, bridges and building. Landslides are also aggravated and triggered by
deforestation and excessive logging, as well as torrential rain and seismic
activity. Expectations are that with the onset of climate change the frequency,
distribution and intensity of landslides in africa will significantly change.
Finally, a
brief look at geohazards in Africa has to take on board the impact that climate
change will have on the incidence of geohazard events. Generally, we can expect
to see an increase in the frequency of events such as flooding from excessive
rainfall; increasing rainfall intensity is also likely to increase the
incidence of landslides. Indeed all of the geohazards affecting Africa probably
have an increased risk of occurrence and frequency of occurrence with the onset
of climate change.
Post-Ebola Risk Management : Keep US Bio-terror Researchers Out
Now that the west African Ebola epidemic which killed over 10,000 Africans in Sierra, Leone, Guinea and Liberia is over, there will be some soul searching as to what more could have been done to save so many more lives. The local branch of the WHO (World Health Organisation) in the region has come in for some criticism from various quarters for its lack of organisation and tardiness in decision making, which cost many lives. This was highlighted by a recent BBC2 documentary entitled "The Truth About Ebola".
The documentary, despite its title still assumed the license to propagate a totally speculative theory about the origin of the West African ebola epidemic from local fruit bats in the Guinean village of Meliandou, in December 2013, for which there was no scientific evidence presented. The BBC programme, regurgitated the identical "allegorical formula" used to speculate on the origin of AIDS in Africa - namely that some unknown and untraced animal flew two thousand miles (as the crow flies) from Congo infected with the ebola virus and on reaching Guinea, infected a human being either by biting a human or infecting the human whilst being eaten or butchered as bush meat6.
The documentary focussed substantially on the late Sierra Leonian scientist Dr Sheikh Humar Khan, a specialist in Lassa fever research who led the fight against ebola at the Kenema Hospital and eventually died from the disease, and interviewed various personnel familiar with Dr Khan. However, the programme failed to interview Prof Robert Garry from Tulane University, who worked closely with Dr Khan, or Daniel Bausch, a Tulane physician. Both were working at the Kenema hospital in Sierra Leone at the time of the outbreak and both were funded (in 2007 and again in 2009) to research into the bioterror aspects of viral haemorraghic fevers such as Lassa and Ebola by the US National Institutes for Health (NIH) with instructions to work in the Mano River countries, the very same countries in which the outbreak emerged7. The documentary (rather irresponsibly) preferred to present as fact, the unfounded speculations on the fruit bat origins of the outbreak, rather than test the possibility of origin of the outbreak from material held by US researchers. It is true that researchers in the US have already been working with a variant of the ebola virus (developed and patented in the US). It is well known, that the US Centre for Disease Control owns a patent on a variant of the ebola disease8.
Kenema Hospital was attacked in the early days of the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone because of suspicions over US biological researchers from Tulane University testing for Ebola as reported in the local press9. The Sierra Leone Government had to call on the Tulane researchers to stop their work. The BBC2 documentary steered wide of any mention of the US scientists named on the tulane University website as involved in US bio-warfare research, Robert Garry and Daniel Bausch from Tulane University and proceeded to portray the concerns of the native population as the result of some form of unexplained superstitious fear and mistrust of white doctors with no rational basis.
There was a clear and, arguably, unacceptable risk and conflict of interest in the Sierra Leonean government giving permission to Dr Robert Garry (the scientist leading bio terror research into viral haemmorhagic fevers and ebola funded by NIH) to conduct research at Kenema hospital, giving him and other US scientists access to the local population for test purposes. This is the lack of protection to which African governments are prepared to expose their own citizens, without a second thought; possibly due to the failure of African government officials to exercise due diligence in checking out the historical research backgrounds of these scientists they allowed to conduct biological research and testing on the local population under the lassa fever research programme.
There was a clear and, arguably, unacceptable risk and conflict of interest in the Sierra Leonean government giving permission to Dr Robert Garry (the scientist leading bio terror research into viral haemmorhagic fevers and ebola funded by NIH) to conduct research at Kenema hospital, giving him and other US scientists access to the local population for test purposes. This is the lack of protection to which African governments are prepared to expose their own citizens, without a second thought; possibly due to the failure of African government officials to exercise due diligence in checking out the historical research backgrounds of these scientists they allowed to conduct biological research and testing on the local population under the lassa fever research programme.
At the close of the BBC documentary, It was chilling to hear a health official state rather casually that the epidemic in West Africa was "a precedent " rather than an exception. Why is it acceptable and now normal that thousands of Africans will die, again and again in future outbreaks? This is not acceptable. African governments should be finding all means to eradicate the disease, and not be persuaded by this type of language, that ebola epidemic in africa is to become of routine recurrence.
Africa needs to prevent the type of conflict of interest noted above: not allowing doctors employed by the US government to research biological weapons to also be injecting African populations with biological medicines. It is about management of risk, regardless of which foreign agency is involved, when you are placing the safety of African people as absolutely paramount above all other interests and cutting out the risk of this being compromised by employing field scientists with potentially conflicting interests (e.g., drug company products development leading to great financial gain, and bio-terrorism research leading to military advantage), which are not compatible with the interests of African people's health and well-being and the struggle to eradicate this terrible disease from our continent.
Africa needs to prevent the type of conflict of interest noted above: not allowing doctors employed by the US government to research biological weapons to also be injecting African populations with biological medicines. It is about management of risk, regardless of which foreign agency is involved, when you are placing the safety of African people as absolutely paramount above all other interests and cutting out the risk of this being compromised by employing field scientists with potentially conflicting interests (e.g., drug company products development leading to great financial gain, and bio-terrorism research leading to military advantage), which are not compatible with the interests of African people's health and well-being and the struggle to eradicate this terrible disease from our continent.
Affiliations and Associations with Other Organisations
SAES is affiliated to the African Association of Women in the
Geosciences, Young Earth Scientists South Africa, the Yemeni Geology and Stratigraphy Network, Solar Sister, and is a supporter
of Stop Land Grabbing, a facebook group dedicated to raising awareness of and
countering the threat of land grabbing in Africa.
27 August – 4 September 2015
35th International Geological Congress
Venue: Capetown
International Convention Centre, South Africa.
VISION: South Africa will be hosting the 35th “World
Cup of Geosciences”.
21-22 October 2015
Application of Geospatial Technologies to Geosciences
Venue: Faculte
Polydisciplinaire de Jeza, Morocco.
25–27 November 2015
Human and
Environmental Security in the Era of Global Risks
Venue: Agadir, Morocco
VISION: Lives and
livelihoods of millions of people worldwide, especially in the Global South,
are being severely threatened by numerous global environmental/climate,
economic, geopolitical, societal and technological risks whose impacts reveal
our shared vulnerabilities and heighten the recognition that insecurities are
widespread, cross-cutting, and increasingly associated to intractable and
interrelated crises. Also, it’s being gradually perceived that these impacts
will be felt not just in the immediate region and by affected generations, but
also across the international community and by future generations.
REFERENCES
AND SELECTED READING
- Nyiragongo Volcano Eruption 2002, http://nyiragongo.com/2002.html.
- Eze, C.L., Uko, D.E, et al, "Mathematical Modelling of Tsunami Propagation", Journal of Applied Science and Environmental Management, Sep., 2009, vol. 13(3) 9-12.
- Singh, R., Forbes, C., Chiliza, G, et al, Landslide Geohazards in South Africa: Landslide susceptibility Mapping, Socio-economic Impacts Mitigation and Remediation Measures.
- Msilimba, G., "A Comparative Study of Landslides and Geohazard Mitigation in Northern and Central Malawi", PhD Thesis, Faculty of Agricultural and natural Sciences, University of the Free State, Malawi.
- Sassa, K., Rouhban, B, et al. Landslides: Global Risk Preparedness, Springer, London, New York, 2013.
- This is an identical "allegorical formula" (with no scientific basis) to the so called "cut hunter theory" of the origin of AIDS. It is supposed that the disease simply jumped species from monkeys to humans when an unidentified hunter in southern Cameroon who had slain an unidentified chimpanzee for bush meat, had either been scratched by the animal or cut himself whilst butchering it and contaminated his blood with a chimpanzee form of the AIDS virus. It was sepculated that the SIV (Simmian Immuno-deficiency Virus) in African primates was the ancestor of HIV, the virus causing AIDS.
- Refer to text of reported funding in 2007 and 2009 stated on the Tulane University website:-TULANE UNIVERSITYNEW WAVENEW TEST MOVES FORWARD TO DETECT BIOTERRORISM THREATSOCTOBER 18, 2007NEW WAVE STAFFNEWWAVE @TULANE.EDUTHE INITIAL ROUND OF CLINICAL TESTING HAS BEEN COMPLETED FOR THE FIRST DIAGNOSTIC TEST KITS THAT WILL AID IN BIOTERRORISM DEFENCE AGAINST A DEADLY VIRAL DISEASE. TULANE UNIVERITY RESEARCHERS ARE COLLABORATING IN THE PROJECT.CORGENIX MEDICAL CORP., A WORLDWIDE DEVELOPER AND MARKETER OF DIAGNOSTIC TEST KITS, ANNOUNCED THE FIRST TEST KITS FOR DETECTION OF HAEMORRAHGIC FEVER HAVE COMPLETED INITIAL CLINICAL TESTING IN WEST AFRICA.THE KIT, DEVELOPED UNDER A $3.8 MILLION DOLLAR GRANT BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, INVOLVE WORK BY CORGENIX IN COLLABORATION WITH TULANE UNIVERSITY, THE US ARMY MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES,BOIFACTURA INC., AND AUTOIMMUNE TECHNOLOGIES.“CLINICAL REPORTS FROM THE STUDY IN SIERRA LEONE CONTINUE TO SHOW AMAZING RESULTS”, SAYS ROBERT GARRY, PROFESSOR OF MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY AT TULANE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR OF THE GRANT.“WE BELIEVE THIS REMARKABLE COLLABORATION WILL RESULT IN DETECTION PRODUCTS THAT WILL TRULY HAVE A MEANINGFUL IMPAC T ON THE HEALTH CARE IN WEST AFRICA, BUT WILL ALSO FILL A BADLY NEEDED GAP IN THE BIOTERRORISM DEFENCE”.UNDER THE GRANT TULANE IS LEADING A THREE YEAR STUDY DESIGNED TO DEVELOP BETTER TESTS FOR VIRAL HAEMORRAHGIC FEVERS WHICH ARE CAUSED BY ARENA VIRUSES KNOWN TO BE POTENTIAL BIOTERRORISM AGENTS DUE TO THEIR HIGH FATALITY RATE AND EASE OF TRANSMISSION FROM PERSON-TO-PERSON.THE CLINICAL STDIES ARE BEING CONDUCTED AT THE MANO RIVER UNION LASA FEVER NETWORK IN SIERRA LEONE. TULANE, UNDER CONTRACT WITH THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION, IMPLEMENTS THE PROGRAM IN THE MANO RIVER UNION COUNTRIES (SIERRA LEONE, LIBERIA AND GUINEA) TO DEVELOPE NATIONAL AND REGIONAL PREVENTION AND CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR LASA FEVER AND OTHER IMPORTANT REGIONAL DISEASES.THE TULANE WORK INCLUDES THE ENHANCEMENT OF LABORATORY DIAGNOSTIC CAPACITY, SURVEILLANCE AND TRAINING IN LABORATORY DIAGNOSIS, CLINICAL MANAGEMENT AND INFECTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL.DAN BAUSCH, DIRECTOR OF THE TULANE PROGRAM IN WEST AFRICA SAYS, “THESE INITIAL CLINICAL THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO DEVELOPE A DETECTION SYSTEM THAT WILL HAVE A MEANINGFUL IMPACT ON THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA.”THE FIRST PATENT APPLICATION FROM THE COLLABORATION HAS BEEN SUBMITTED TO THE U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE. DARRYL SAMPEY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF BIOFACTURA, SAYS, “THIS APPLICATION IS THE FIRST OF MANY THAT WE EXPECT WILL COME FROM THE COLLABORATION WITH CORGENIX AND OTHER PARTIES.”“CLINICAL TESTING ON THE NEW RECOMBINANT TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATES THAT OUR COLLABORATION IS WORKING” SAY DOUGLAS SIMPSON PRESIDENT OF CORGENIX. “WE HAVE RECOMBINED THE SKILLS OF DIFFERENT PARTIES, RESULTING IN DEVELOPMENT OF SOME REMARKABLE TEST KITS IN A SURPRISINGLY SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. AS A GROUP WE INTEND TO EXPAND THIS PROGRAMME TO ADDRESS OTHER IMPORTANT INFECTIOUS AGENTS WITH BOTH CLINICAL HEALTH AND BIOTERRORISM ISSUES SUCH AS EBOLA.”TULANE UNIVERSITYSCHOOL OF MEDICINEOCTOBER 2012DEANS UPDATEUPDATE ON LASSA FEVER RESEARCHIN 2009, RESEARCHERS RECIEVED A FIVE-YEAR $7,073,538 (DOLLARS) GRANT FROM THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH TO FUND THE CONTINUED DEVELOPMENT OF DETECTION TEST KITS FOR LASSA VIRAL HAEMORRHAGIC FEVER...DISEASE IS SPREAD BY CONTACT WITH INFECTED RODENTS AND HAVE SYMPTOMS SUCH AS HIGH ... BLEEDING DISORDERS AND SEIZURES THAT CAN LEAD TO DEATH.SINCE THAT TIME MUCH HAS BEEN DONE TO STUDY THE DISEASE. DR. ROBERT GARRY, PROFESSOR OF MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY, AND DR JAMES ROBINSON, PROFESSOR OF PEDIATRICS, HAVE BEEN ABLE TO CREATE WHAT ARE CALLED HUMAN MONOCLONAL ANTI-BODIES. AFTER ISOLATING THE B-CELLS FROM PATIENTS THAT HAVE SURVIVED FROM THE DISEASE, THEY HAVE UTILISED MOLECULAR CLONING METHODS TO ISOLATE THE ANTI-BODIES AND REPRODUCE THEM IN THE LABORATORY. THESE ANTI-BODIES HAVE BEEN TESTED ON GUINEA PIGS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL BRANCH IN GALVESTON AND SHOWN TO HELP PREVENT THEM DYING OF LASSA FEVER.TULANE HAS ALSO PAIRED WITH RESEARCHERS AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY AND BROAD INSTITUTE TO STUDY GENETIS RESISTANCE TO LASSA FEVER.THEY HOPE TO BETTER UNDERSTAND WHY SOME PEOPLE HAVE LITTLE TO NO SYMPTOMS OF THE DISEASE AND OTHERS DIE FROM IT.MOST RECENTLY A NEW LASSA FEVER WARD IS BEING CONSTRUCTED IN SIERRA LEONE AT THE KENEMA GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL. WHEN FINISHED IT WILL BE BETTER EQUIPPED TO ASSIST PATIENTS AFFECTED BY THE DISEASE AND WILL HOPEFULLY HELP TO END THE SPREAD OF IT.See also: Nature, Infectious disease: Ebola’s lost ward, http://www.nature.com/news/infectious-disease-ebola-s-lost-ward-1.15990
- Human ebola virus species and compositions and methods thereof, US Patent Publication No. CA2741523A1, April 29, 2010.
- This is Sierra Leone: http://www.thisissierraleone.com/sierra-leone-as-ebola-cocktail-developed-at-canadian-and-us-labs-we-are-asking-what-are-us-biological-warfare-researchers-doing-in-sierra-leones-kenema-government-hospital-a-must-read/
- Jordan, et al (eds), Land
& Power: Sustainable agriculture and African Americans
- A collection of essays from the 2007 Black environmental thought
conference. Sustainable
Agriculture Research and Education (SARE), 2007.
- Gupta, S.K., Modern
Hydrology and Sustainable Water Development, Wiley-Blackwell, West
Sussex, 2011.
- A link on “Groundwater and
Rural Water Supply in Africa”: http://www.iah.org/downloads/occpub/IAH_ruralwater.pdf
- Link to Journal of African
Earth Sciences: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-african-earth-sciences/
