A solar-powered airplane finished crossing the United States on Saturday, landing in New York City after flying over the Statue of Liberty during its historic bid to circle the globe, the project team said. The spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse 2, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 4 a.m. local time after it took off about five hours beforehand at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania, the team reported on the airplane's website. Such a pleasure to land in New York! For the 14th time we celebrate sustainability," said the project's co-founder Andre Borschberg on Twitter after flying over the city and the Statue of Liberty during the 14th leg of the trip around the globe. The Swiss team flying the aircraft in a campaign to build support for clean energy technologies hopes eventually to complete its circumnavigation in Abu Dhabi, where the journey began in March 2015. The solar cr...
The price being paid for a massive policy failure on mosquito control, says World Health Organization leader Margaret Chan
Speaking at the agency's annual World Health Assembly, Dr Chan said experts had "dropped the ball" in the 1970s with regards to getting a handle on disease-carrying insects. More than 60 countries and territories now have continuing Zika transmission. Most recently, the infection, spread by mosquito bites, reached Africa.The virus is thought to cause serious birth defects during pregnancy and has been declared a global public health emergency.
According to Dr Chan, outbreaks that become emergencies always reveal specific weaknesses in affected countries and illuminate the fault lines in our collective preparedness."Zika reveals an extreme consequence of the failure to provide universal access to sexual and family planning services," she said.
Dr Chan added that Latin America and the Caribbean, which have been hit hard by Zika, have the highest proportion of unintended pregnancies in the world.Eradication campaigns were successful in the Americas with 18 countries getting rid of the insect by 1962. But insecticide resistance plus a lack of political will led to the Aedes aegyptimosquito rebounding. "With no vaccines and no reliable and widely available diagnostic tests, to protect women of childbearing age, all we can offer is advice.
"Avoid mosquito bites. Delay pregnancy. Do not travel to areas with ongoing transmission," said Dr Chan.
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