OSLO (Reuters) – Climate and health experts are teaming up to combat meningitis in Africa, fearing that creeping desertification and dust storms will aid a disease that thrives where people suffer from sore throats.
The novel partnership aims to map areas south of the Sahara most vulnerable to droughts and storms, to guide a 10-year U.N.-backed meningitis vaccination drive due to start in 2008 to protect 350 million people from Ethiopia to Senegal.
“Health experts need to know where to go first, where the hotspots of the disease will be,” Jose Achache, head of the Swiss-based Group on Earth Observations (GEO), told Reuters on Tuesday. GEO comprises 70 governments as well as other groups.
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Noelle dEstries
Noelle d'Estries, an early GO employee who took on the varied roles of Community Manager, green celebrity blogger, and more. She currently runs worstcookever.com GO entered Noelle's life in February 2007 while she was burning tires in her backyard. A phone call from the green gods at GO, burnt out the fires. Now, Noelle happily wears her GO sweatshirt while eating organic veggies and asking for paper, not plastic. A regular at the local farmer's market, Noelle shuns raking leaves and lawn maintenance, while making gourmet foods constantly. When not staring at her computer screen, she spends time with her equally attractive dog, Tessa, cat, Tim and lover Paul. She currently holds all three point records at RIT and could eat avocados and drink wine for the rest of her life.
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