YELLOW PERIL ALERT The Westmorland Gazette (the paper that every week invites readers to take part in its Spot The Sheepdog competition) and the Guardian have both become worried by the spread of a killer weed.
Like the medical workers who put themselves at risk to aid the sick, these journalists should be regarded as heroes, combating the viral spread of a killer: the rumours and misinformation that put everybody at risk.
Residents across Sierra Leone, one of three countries at the centre of the biggest ever Ebola outbreak, scrambled on Wednesday to prepare for a three-day, unprecedented nationwide "lockdown" in a radical step intended to curb the spread of the killer virus, but which some health experts believe could worsen the epidemic.
"We should be honoring, not quarantining, health care workers who put their lives at risk not only to save people suffering from Ebola virus disease in West Africa but also to help achieve source control, bringing the world closer to stopping the spread of this killer epidemic".
Activities include the development of a communication strategy; mass media production and community-based communication so that children and families gain life-saving knowledge and learn actions they can take to prevent the potential spread of the killer disease.
These events can cause death and devastation, and can also contribute to the increased spread of major killers of children, such as malnutrition, malaria and diarrhoea.
A UNICEF report 'Unless we act now – The impact of climate change on children' points out that climate change brings more droughts, floods, heatwaves and other severe weather conditions, which contribute to the increased spread of major killers of children such as malnutrition, malaria and diarrhoea.
There are, after all, no barriers that can be built against hepatitis C, which can lay dormant creating numerous opportunities for the spread of this silent killer".
It turns out we're not even close to predicting the next catastrophic earthquake or the spread of the next killer bird flu, despite the enormous amounts of brainpower trained on these questions in the past few decades.
We therefore conclude that the data indicate either a recent spread of the male-killer into the population, or a recent selective sweep of a new strain of an existing male-killer.
