5 Essential Swine Flu Survival Tips

Pharmaceutical giant Roche has stopped delivering the flu remedy Tamiflu to French high street pharmacies, after panic over the swine flu outbreak saw it disappearing off the shelves.

Now that there are 5 confirmed Swine Flu cases in NJ and at least 50 in NY, the scare worldwide plus the first U.S. swine flu death, a toddler, has caused health officials to ratchet up their global alert level to just below a full-on pandemic.

No need to truly panic. Here are the top five essential things you can do to avoid getting sick and, importantly, avoid infecting others. These critical tips are widely agreed upon by the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other health experts and will help to reduce your chances of contracting the Swine Flu.

1. Wash your hands.

2. Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze.

3. Stay home.

4. Don’t touch your face.

5. Avoid sick people

Dr. George T. DiFerdinando Jr., a physician, epidemiologist and professor at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Public Health as well as a professor at Rutgers University, comments that “The way you spread influenza is with droplets that come out of your mouth or nose”. He recommends the classic shoulder or crook-of-the elbow sneeze.

These guidelines are important because you could be infected and spreading the flu up to a full day before you feel symptoms and up to seven days after you get sick.

For a more in depth explanation of these survival tips, please read the full article here.

To view a video on the swine flu outbreak, please click here.

Melissa Lawrence, Rutgers Student Intern, VERTICES, LLC

Vanishing employment across the country

This map displays how the economic crisis has caused employment losses, shown by county, and further shows how job losses first struck in the most vulnerable regions and then spread rapidly to the rest of the country. Blue dots represent a net increase in jobs, while red dots indicate a decrease. The larger the dot, the greater the number of jobs gained or lost.

For more information, please click the map above.

Melissa Lawrence, Rutgers Student Intern, VERTICES, LLC

Swine Flu

 

Swine flu is usually diagnosed only in pigs or people in regular contact with them.

Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza that regularly cause outbreaks of influenza among pigs. The virus is a brand new strain, a subtype of Influenza A/H1N1 that has never been detected before in swine or humans.

Swine flu viruses do not normally infect humans. However, this strain appears to be a combination of human, swine and bird flu viruses. It contains the DNA of: North American swine influenza; a swine influenza virus typically found in Asia and Europe; human influenza A; and a North American avian influenza.

Human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection have been identified recently in the United States as well as internationally. Laboratory testing has found the swine influenza A (H1N1) virus susceptible to the prescription antiviral drugs oseltamivir and zanamivir and has issued interim guidance for the use of these drugs to treat and prevent infection with swine influenza viruses. CDC also has prepared interim guidance on how to care for people who are sick and interim guidance on the use of face masks in a community setting where spread of this swine flu virus has been detected.

For more information, please check the CDC site.

Melissa Lawrence, Rutgers Student Intern, VERTICES, LLC

Rutgers Day!!

 

Rutgers Day on Saturday, April 25, 2009 will be  great, big one-day show-and-tell for New Jersey, a celebration of our great state and a great university. There will be a lively mix of music, dance, contests, storytelling, lectures, demonstrations, and more. It’s big, it’s fun, it’s enlightening—and it’s free.

Bring your family and friends for a day of discovery. There are hundreds of things for you to do and see.

Dr. Wansoo Im will be making a special presentation at Scott Hall on the College Avenue campus throughout the day. Stop by to learn about the latest information in regards to mapping and Google Earth.

For more information, view this Rutgers Day Flyer!

Melissa Lawrence, Rutgers Student Intern, VERTICES, LLC

Healthy Watersheds

Waterfalls in Keeny's Creek West Virginia (Photo courtesy Forest Wander)

The protection and conservation of freshwater ecosystems has become a big concern for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency who recently created a new website that will identify and protect watersheds and their components. The website is called the Healthy Watersheds website and its main purpose is to gather information so that decisions about the protection and restoration of rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands can be made strategically. The initiative aims to conserve healthy components of watersheds, avoiding future water quality impairments. The Healthy Watersheds Initiative is needed because of the deteriorating condition of the nation’s waters.

For more information on the Healthy Watersheds website, please check this website.

Melissa Lawrence, Rutgers Student Intern, VERTICES, LLC

Earth Day 2009!

Earth Day 2009

Happy Earth Day!! Its time to think about contributing to the bettering of our wonderful planet whether it be by recycling, planting a tree, changing lightbulbs, picking up some trash, or just enjoying nature.

Today, consider incorporating GIS into your celebration. Here are some resources to look into:

Visit Earth 911, which is a real-time recycling and local environmental information service

Visit Rising Sea Levels, which are animations showing the effects of ice melting on a large scale

Visit NASA Earth Day Photos

Or

Simply learn about the History of Earth Day

 

Melissa Lawrence, Rutgers Student Intern, VERTICES, LLC

Rutgers Crime Log

The site “Rutgers Crime Log” is a Vertices, LLC and student joint project that shows the incidents of crime on all four Rutgers campuses in New Brunswick, as well as in the surrounding areas. The site allows one to visualize crime trends such as what types of crime occur most often, and in what location the majority of crimes take place. With the search tool, individuals have the ability to find specific crimes on and off campus. This site proves to be beneficial because it gives the Rutgers community awareness of the problem areas. The goal of the project is that this information will evoke a response from the community to re-evaluate the safety and security of these locations.

 

For a look at this site, please visit “Rutgers Crime Log”.

 

For further questions about this site, contact gis@vertices.com.

 

Melissa Lawrence, Rutgers Student Intern, VERTICES, LLC

 

BIKENWALK.COM/WOODBRIDGE

A couple of posts ago, I talked about a new site called Bikenwalk.com. A sister site to it called Bikenwalk.com/woodbridge has recently been revealed. This site has the same concept as the original but focuses more on making the township of Woodbridge, NJ healthier. With the help of GIS consultants at Vertices, LLC and members of Pioneering Healthier Communities, efforts are being put forth to look at the walkability to schools and parks from the elementary schools in town. Walkability seeks the answer the questions of how far you can safely get through your community using footsteps. This project seeks to help members of a community map safe routes for people to travel without using cars, and make that data available to the public.

 

For more information on this project, please visit the website here.

 

Melissa Lawrence, Rutgers Student Intern, VERTICES, LLC

Pesticide Exposure Found To Increase Risk Of Parkinson’s Disease

Pesticide Being Sprayed

Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that often impairs motor skills, speech and other functions. Scientists know that in animal models and cell cultures, pesticides (the fungicide maneb and the herbicide paraquat) used to protect crops like potatoes, dry beans and tomatoes can trigger a neurodegenerative process that leads to Parkinson’s disease. Now, researchers at UCLA provide the first evidence for a similar process in humans.

Reported in the April 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, a new epidemiological study of Central Valley residents who have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease found that years of exposure to the combination of these two pesticides increased the risk of Parkinson’s by 75 percent. Studies showed that Central Valley residents who lived within 500 meters of fields sprayed between 1974 and 1999 had a 75-percent increased risk for Parkinson’s. Further, for people 60 years old or younger diagnosed with Parkinson’s, earlier exposure had increased their risk for the disease by as much as four- to six-fold.

For more information, please read the full article here.

Melissa Lawrence, Rutgers Student Intern, VERTICES, LLC

NJMC Flood Incidence Map

Flood Incidencies

The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission is a zoning and planning agency for a municipalities in Bergen and Hudson Counties in New Jersey. The site houses a Flood Incidence map that covers all municipalities under its jurisdiction. The Interactive map shows flooding data among the counties.

For more information, please view the maps at: http://merigis.hmdc.state.nj.us/website/htmlviewer/floodincident/asp.htm

Melissa Lawrence, Rutgers Student Intern, VERTICES, LLC