Pestilence

Thousands more people are infected with HIV every year in the USA than health officials realized, according to the first government tally of the year-by-year impact of the AIDS epidemic, officials report. "The epidemic is — and has been — worse than was previously known," says Kevin Fenton, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for HIV/AIDS. The long-awaited analysis offers the first clear picture of HIV in the United States in the 27-year-history of the epidemic. It reveals that the government based its AIDS response on a major miscalculation of the annual impact of the disease, government officials acknowledge. Roughly 56,300 new infections occurred in 2006, 40% more than the CDC's previous estimate of 40,000 new infections every year. More than a third of new infections are in young people from 13 to 29 years old. Hardest hit are gay and bisexual men of all races, with 53% of all new infections, and non-Hispanic blacks. Blacks, who account for 45% of new infections, get HIV at a rate seven times higher than the rate for whites, the study shows.

NEWSMAX: Agricultural experts warn that a “black plague” is ravaging America’s citrus farms, causing billions of dollars in damage and threatening the very survival of America’s once-thriving citrus industry. Growers are alarmed by a disease called “citrus greening” that is hurting worldwide production. The culprit: the Asian citrus psyllid, a tiny bug that spreads the bacterial disease that causes greening, which ruins fruit while weakening and eventually killing the trees. Biologists believe the pest probably came from Asia where it has virtually destroyed citrus production. Production of oranges in Florida has shrunk 25% since 1998, while grapefruit production is down almost 58%.