Two men hospitalised with mosquito-borne viruses
Sydney, Jan 17: Two men in the northeastern Australian state of Queensland have been hospitalized with rare and potentially deadly mosquito-borne viruses.
An elderly man from the city of Townsville, over 1,000 km northwest of Brisbane, has been admitted to hospital with dengue fever despite being vaccinated against it, marking the region’s first breakthrough in five years, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) quoted Queensland health authorities as saying on Friday.
At the same time a middle-aged man from Townsville, who recently traveled to southern Queensland, was in hospital with Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV).
It was the first confirmed human case of JEV in Queensland since 2022.
Townsville Public Health Unit Director Steven Donohue told reporters on Friday that both men were in stable condition.
He said that the elderly man was unlucky because local mosquitoes in the Townsville area carry a bacteria that blocks transmission of dengue.
Mosquitoes from the area where he was bitten have been collected for analysis, Xinhua news agency reported.
Both dengue fever and JEV are types of flavivirus that can be fatal in rare cases.
Health authorities in the east coast states of New South Wales and Victoria have issued warnings over JEV in January after detecting it in mosquitoes.
The health authorities in Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state, had at the start of this year issued a high-risk warning after identifying a human case of a deadly mosquito-borne virus.
According to the World Health Organization, one in 250 human infections with JE virus results in severe clinical illness. The virus can cause a rare infection of the brain that can lead to seizures, hearing or vision loss, paralysis or even death.
The Victorian Department of Health alert had said that residents of, and visitors to, communities along the Murray River in the state’s north are potentially at higher risk of infection.
It said that children aged five years and younger and the elderly are at higher risk of developing severe illness if they are infected with the JE virus. (IANS)
China’s population drops
Taipei, Jan 17: China’s population fell last year for the third straight year, its government said Friday, pointing to further demographic challenges for the world’s second most populous nation, which is now facing both an ageing population and an emerging shortage of working age people.
China’s population stood at 1.408 billion at the end of 2004, a decline of 1.39 million from the previous year.
The figures announced by the government in Beijing follow trends worldwide, but especially in East Asia, where Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and other nations have seen their birth rates plummet. China three years ago joined Japan and most of Eastern Europe among other nations whose population is falling.
The reasons are in many cases similar: Rising costs of living are causing young people to put off or rule out marriage and child birth while pursuing higher education and careers. While people are living longer, that’s not enough to keep up with rate of new births. (AP)
Rare gold medal from 1904 St Louis Olympics up for auction
Boston, Jan 17: A gold medal awarded to the winner of the 110-meter hurdles at the 1904 St Louis Olympics, the first Games hosted on US soil, is being auctioned off as part of hundreds of lots of memorabilia representing various Olympics over the decades.
The medal bears the inscription “Olympiad, 1904” and shows a victorious athlete holding a wreath on the front. On the other side, Nike, the goddess of victory in ancient Greek mythology, is shown alongside Zeus, the pantheon’s king of gods, and the words for the hurdles event it was awarded. The medal, awarded to American Fred Schule, includes the original ribbon and leather case.
This was the first Olympics where gold medals were awarded and the Americans took advantage, winning 78 of 96 events. Unlike Olympic medals these days which are mostly made of silver with gold plating, these were smaller and made entirely of gold.
Bobby Eaton, an Olympic specialist at Boston-based RR Auction, said it is unusual for a medal of this kind to come up for auction though this particular one came from Schule’s family’s collection.
“No one really knows exactly how many 1904 Olympic gold medals are still out there,” Eaton said. “What we do know is they’re exceedingly rare. Of the roughly 100 gold medals awarded in St. Louis, many have been lost to time or are tucked away in private collections and museums.” Beyond the gold medals, the 1904 Games also were remembered for plenty of controversy and oddities.
The Games were originally awarded to Chicago, but organizers of the World’s Fair in St. Louis feared competition for attendance and protested against a second international event held simultaneously. Fair organizers threatened to host their own athletic events. (AP)