U.S. Cases of West Nile Virus Decline

ATLANTA (AP) — The West Nile virus season is on track to be the mildest in seven years, with less than a third the number of serious cases as last year's total, U.S. health officials said. As of Tuesday, there were 368 severe cases, with 18 deaths, according to preliminary reports. Mississippi and California were hardest hit, together accounting for nearly half the cases. Most West Nile infections are reported in August and September, so health officials believe the worst of the season is probably over. It's not clear why this season has been so mild, said officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's the fewest cases since 2001, when the mosquito-borne virus was still emerging in the United States and was only reported in 10 states. Mosquitoes often pick up the virus from birds they bite and then spread it to people. Perhaps the weather in some areas of the country was not as favorable for mosquito-breeding as in years past, some experts said.

'Greening' Disease Threatens the Core of U.S. Citrus Crops

A botanical disease that has hit Florida and now threatens California is raising fears that the price of citrus fruits and juices will soar in coming years. Government agencies and the produce industry are working to stop the spread of "citrus greening." Discovered in China in the 1800s, the disease has a global history of devastating crops. "Areas that have had greening no longer have a commercial citrus industry," says Robert Norberg, an economist with the Florida Department of Citrus. It's already "a 10" on a threat scale of 1 to 10 in Florida, says Andrew Meadows of Florida Citrus Mutual, a growers' organization. "It is the biggest issue the industry is facing right now. It is killing trees as we speak."

• JJ Commentary: End-time pestilence is also increasing.

Pestilence

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Bark beetles feasting on Utah trees are creating a double problem — they're killing off portions of Utah's forests and creating fuel for wildfires. Between 1990 and 2005, two types of wood-boring beetles ate their way through more than 466,000 acres of Utah forests. Colleen Keyes, forest health manager for the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, said the Dixie National Forest has been significantly impacted by the tiny predators. She says beetles have wiped out hundreds of thousands of acres — nearly all the forest's spruce. "It's really something to see," she said. "It's just dead trees as far as the eye can see." In some regions, the increased number of beetles are considered "outbreak proportions" that could negatively affect recreation, wildlife and watersheds. Sustained winter cold snaps were traditionally one of the best ways to stop bark beetle outbreaks. Warmer winters have allowed the beetles to survive and breed more quickly.

Pestilence

FRESNO, California — Federal inspectors at U.S. border crossings repeatedly turned back filthy, disease-ridden shipments of peppers from Mexico in the months before a salmonella outbreak that sickened 1,400 people was finally traced to Mexican chilies. Yet no larger action was taken. Food and Drug Administration officials insisted as recently as last week that they were surprised by the outbreak because Mexican peppers had not been spotted as a problem before. But an Associated Press analysis of FDA records found that peppers and chilies were consistently the top Mexican crop rejected by border inspectors for the last year. Since January alone, 88 shipments of fresh and dried chilies were turned away. Ten percent were contaminated with salmonella. In the last year, 8% of the 158 intercepted shipments of fresh and dried chilies had salmonella.

• JJ Commentary: Outbreaks of food poisoning will continue to increase as the end-time unfolds

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%.

AIDS (Pestilence) Slows

A major boost in AIDS prevention and treatment efforts worldwide over the past two years has helped slow the epidemic's growth and reduce its death toll, the United Nations' AIDS agency reported Tuesday. The cost of cementing those gains will grow, along with the demand for prevention and the need for treatment, the United Nations' Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) report says. "We've achieved more in the last two years than in the preceding 20," UNAIDS director Peter Piot said Tuesday at the United Nations in New York. "We need now to continue these efforts more than ever. Otherwise all our previous investments will be wiped out." Among the findings:

• Roughly 33 million people worldwide are infected with HIV, 67% of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa, home to 75% of all AIDS deaths.

• Approximately 3 million people in developing countries were being treated for HIV by the end of 2007, with an increase of 1 million in the past year alone. Tripling the number of people in treatment will cost about $11 billion a year.

• Deaths fell to 2 million last year from 2.2 million in 2005. About 25 million people have died since AIDS emerged.

• The epidemic has leveled off in some African countries. Though in several, infection rates hover at 15%. It continues to grow in Asia and Eastern Europe. About 1.5 million people are infected in Eastern Europe, 90% of them in Russia and Ukraine.

Pestilence

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The AIDS epidemic among African-Americans in some parts of the United States is as severe as in parts of Africa, according to a report out Tuesday. "Left Behind - Black America: A Neglected Priority in the Global AIDS" is intended to raise awareness and remind the public that the "AIDS epidemic is not over in America, especially not in Black America," says the report, published by the Black AIDS Institute, an HIV/AIDS think tank focused exclusively on African-Americans. "AIDS in America today is a black disease," says Phill Wilson, founder and CEO of the institute and himself HIV-positive for 20 years. "2006 CDC data tell us that about half of the just over 1 million Americans living with HIV or AIDS are black." Although black people represent only about one in eight Americans, one in every two people living with HIV in the United States is black, the report notes. AIDS remains the leading cause of death among black women between ages 25 and 34. It's the second-leading cause of death in black men 35-44

JJ Commentary: Pestilence is one of the key end-time signs in many Biblical prophecies (e.g. Matthew 24:7).

A Plague of Mosquitos

CHICAGO (AP) — First came the floods — now the mosquitoes. An explosion of pesky insects are pestering clean-up crews and just about anyone venturing outside in the waterlogged Midwest. In some parts of Iowa there are 20 times the normal number, and in Chicago up to five times more than usual. The good news is these are mostly floodwater mosquitoes, not the kind that usually carry West Nile virus and other diseases. But they are very hungry, and sometimes attack in swarms with a stinging bite. Heavy rain followed by high temperatures creates ideal conditions for these bugs, whose eggs hatch in the soil after heavy rains. Scientists call them nuisance mosquitoes.

HIV Rates Down in South Africa, But Still Apocalyptic

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa's health minister said Thursday that HIV infection rates among pregnant women declined for the second straight year and claimed it was proof of the success of government policies. South Africa has an estimated 5.4 million people infected with the virus, the highest total in the world. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said that a new survey showed that 28% of women screened at prenatal clinics last year had the virus that causes AIDS, down from 29.2% in 2006. She said that overall, 37.9% of women aged 25-29 were infected with HIV, down from 38.7% in 2006. Full results of the annual survey will be released in the coming weeks, she told parliament. After prolonged delays in providing lifesaving drugs to AIDS patients, South Africa, where 900 people die each day of the disease, has made big strides in the past year in rolling out treatment. At the end of February, more than 450,000 people had started therapy, the health minister said. This is about half the number estimated to be in need of drugs.

• JJ Commentary: The slight decline in infection rates for pregnant women is laudable. However, the numbers of HIV cases is still staggering, truly an end-time epidemic

China Virus Slows

BEIJING (AP) — The spread of a virus that has sickened more than 24,000 people and killed dozens across China is slowing in the province where the outbreak was first reported, a state-run news agency said Friday. The health department in eastern Anhui province said no deaths from the hand, foot and mouth disease virus had occurred there in the past 12 days, Xinhua News Agency reported. The virus has killed at least 43 people across China, but the state health ministry hasn't updated that number since May 16. The report by Anhui's health department said the number of new cases reported daily had dropped from a high of 1,160 on May 1 to 153 on May 21. It said 10 people were still in serious or critical condition, Xinhua reported.