10.31.15 Happy Halloween

Last year this time we had tropical storm Nuri and heavy rains and winds. This is the same weather front that became super typhoon Nuri and ended up dumping 7 feet of snow in Buffalo and is the strongest typhoon in the Bering Sea.

This week I traveled to Philadelphia, where we were experiencing the effects of super hurricane Patricia - the one that had winds in excess of 200 mph before it hit the coast of Mexico. We had a lot of rain and flight delays as it moved up the east coast of the US. I had given a presentation on betelnut use in Yap. While it is an old custom and part of the tradition, it also is an amphetamine, is addictive and causes a slight buzz when peole chew. It also is a known carcinogen and the spitting with it has risks of spreading TB and other infectuos respiratory diseases and many dental problems.

 This was an international conference and it was very educational to hear many of the talks on vectors. WHo ever thought that mosquitos could hear?

Here is the information presented at the ASTMH conference. Yes, just about everyone chews.