What is the World's Deadliest Animal to Humans? Depends on How and Who You Count

Bill Gates released a chart showing the deadliest animals to humans.

Diseases spread by mosquitoes such as dengue, malaria, Rift Valley fever, yellow fever, and West Nile make this flying insect a plague to many.

The chart on the surface looks good.  It cites the World Health Organization and other reputable sources.  It shows just how deadly mosquitoes are compared to the stereotype killers such snakes, sharks, and other killing animals.  However, the 475,000 homicides by fellow humans is too low when you count abortions.  There are up to 42 million abortions a year.  When one factors in abortion the 3 mosquito-caused deaths for every 2 homicides changes to 1 mosquito-caused death for every 58 homicides.  Quite a dramatic changed. as we remain our own worst enemy. 

Map of Health Care Insurance Rate Changes Due to Obamacare

Forbes has a great article discussing the geography and overall changes in health care insurance premiums due to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.  Overall the Forbes article describes how all the new regulations will make health care insurance less affordable.

Only Colorado and New Hampshire benefit overall with women in Ohio also saving money.  Nebraska is the worse state to suffer in terms of the growth of fees.

Food Pyramids from Blue Zones and other Geographic Locations

Blue Zones, as created and defined by demographers Gianni Pes and Michel Poulain, as regions where people live measurably longer lives than surrounding areas.  Explorer and geographer Dan Buettner studied several blue zones around the world.  The common variables each region he studied shared were family-centered culture, no smoking, plant-based diet with more sea food than meat, constant moderate physical activity, active social engagement, and consumption of legumes.

Healthy food with friends and family was a common theme documented in Buettner's book.  Independently, Oldways has also reached the conclusion that traditional healthy foods enjoyed with active family and friends leads to a healthy and better life.  Oldways defines itself as "a nonprofit food and nutrition education organization with a mission to guide people to good health through heritage."  As part of there mission they have created food pyramids from Blue Zone Mediterranean (Sardina) and Asian (Japanese) cultures as well as a healthy Latino (Middle America) and African (sub-Saharan) food pyramid.  While these stereotype whole regions to one food culture, one can learn healthy eating from these cultures.

Geography Meme: John Snow and the Cholera Map

Frank at Very Spatial had some fun creating memes of John Snow.  This inspired me to make my own educational John Snow meme.

John Snow was a medical doctor who mapped out an outbreak of cholera in 1854 London.  His map helped him figure out the cause of cholera was water based (the point of origin of the outbreak was a water pump's well) rather than the "bad air" of urban living which was the accepted scientific cause at the time.



Snow's use of geographical thinking started the field of medical geography.  Countless lives have been saved by his research and spin-offs from it.

John Snow and Geography: Knew It, Mapped It, and Still Stops Epidemics Around the World.

STD Map of the United States Reveal Interesting Medical Geography

BestMedicalDegrees.com created a map of four common sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the United States.  There are some interesting medical geography trends which reveal much of the darker, underworld sexual landscape of America.

The "South" has the highest concentration per 100,00 of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis while its AIDS rate is just shy the Northeast.  The "South" though includes Maryland and the District of Columbia.  While this different cultural appendage compared to the South does add to the South's numbers, it is undeniable that sexual diseases have found elements of poorer Southern culture, in a sense long in rebellion against mainstream southern Christian cultural norms, rich territory to infect.

The Midwest has the second highest rates of Chlamydia and gonorrhea.  However, its syphilis and especially AIDS rate are the lowest in the country.  The split between the two groups of diseases is who gets them.  Chlamydia is the widest spread STD in the United States.  Gonorrhea is the second most common STD but only at a forth of chlamydia's level.  The other two diseases, syphilis and AIDS, are much less widespread though deadlier.  These two diseases are primarily homosexual diseases with 72% of syphilis cases being from male-male sex while the Center for Disease Control says 63% of new AIDS cases are homosexual males.  Either the Midwest's homosexual population has healthier sexual culture or the Midwest simply has less homosexuals compared to the rest of the United States.  Which explanation is true I do not know.

The full chart with more information is available by clicking or downloading the image below.

Map of Abortion Providers versus Abortion Alternatives in the United States

Blue dots represent more abortion alternatives while green represent more abortion providers. Click image to Enlarge. Map by Floating Sheep

The geography blog Floating Sheep has created a map comparing the presence of abortion providers to abortion alternatives. The map shows that the vast majority of the country has more abortion alternatives to abortion providers. The a few urban centers along the Pacific Coast, Gulf of Mexico's coast, and the northern half of the Atlantic Coast. An odd outlier is western Iowa where there seems to an even mix of abortion providers and abortion alternatives.

The bloggers have good analysis at the end of their post "Overall, the blue coverage across the United States shows that, in a vast majority of the country, abortion alternatives are much easier to find than abortion providers. So while the "pro-life" camp ended up on the wrong side of the 1973 Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion, they have built a significant organizational infrastructure which can be leveraged to promote their cause, while "pro-choice" advocates remain concentrated primarily in the nation's more politically progressive urban centers."

Hat Tip: American Papist

The Geography of Saving Soldier X's Life

From Michael Yon. Click to Enlarge.

In July 2009 a British soldier was accidentally shot in the in the abdomen and chest by his fellow countrymen. Losing blood, a lung, and on death's door, all seemed lost as the military bureaucracy of the Coalition forces was stuck and did little. Fortunately for this soldier, journalist Michael Yon was nearby. Yon began a worldwide effort to save the British soldier's life. The effort, shown on the map above, is told rivetingly on Yon's website. Be sure to read how the globalized, internet-connected world came together to save one man's life in this true military-medical adventure story.

Canadian and Worldwide H1N1 Flu Maps

I have written before about H1N1 Flu but loyal reader Laura has made me aware of a Canadian Swine Flu map. The map displays hospitalizations, admittance to intensive care units, and deaths but country and by province or territory. While the data may seem dire, clicking the per capita button actually helps see how well Canadians are doing with not getting sick to the point where medical care is needed.

Meanwhile, the New England Journal of Medicine has a worldwide map of H1N1 Flu cases.

H1N1 Flu Vaccine Map and Flu Map

Fox News has an interactive Google Maps mash-up showing how many H1N1 flu vaccines have been shipped to each state and the percentage of each state's population below the age of fourteen. Meanwhile FluTracker has up-to-date coverage on confirmed H1N1 flu cases worldwide on their detailed map.

For previous medical geography of H1N1 check-out the April Geographic Travels post on the topic.

Maps of Swine Flu (H1N1)

The news right now is full of stories about the latest outbreak of Swine Flu aka Pig Flu. The disease appears to have started with Mexico and now has jumped into all of North America and into parts of Europe, Asia, and elsewhere.

A biomedical researcher has created a map of the outbreak so far. His website, PigFluMap, has a map of the outbreak (shown below) that is frequently updated. News post below provide further details and give sourcing. Be sure to check out his website for more information.

View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map

Also on Google Maps is an open, collaborative map.

View H1N1 Swine Flu Outbreak in a larger map

Another website, HealthMap, gathers news stories and press release from credible sources around the world and places them on a Google Maps mashup.

For more updated information check out The Mexican Flu blog and HealthMap's Twitter alerts.

Anthrax Causes Blogging Delay

Anthrax is a particularly nasty disease found in the Bible (Exodus 9: 9-11); all throughout the world, and in my left arm. The nasty buggers are the last part of the vaccination process before I ship out for Iraq. Besides swelling into a four-inch blight, the vaccine's side effects are generating heat on the wound and making me sleepy. However, I dare not sleep because of bad fever dreams.

According to this medical map anthrax has receded from the first world but still manages to run wild throughout the third world. The reason is because the disease is commonly spread through livestock. First world farmers can afford vaccines that stop the disease. However, lack of money and general dirty living in the third world allows for anthrax to thrive.

Another main reason I had to get the shot was because of weaponization. The spores that cause anthrax can live hundreds of years and are easily available if one knows where to look. It is a messy process that can easily effect the maker but a crude anthrax weapon can be made from household equipment. And a black market somewhere might have the weaponized version for sale for the right price.

Scary little tidbit, the island where the Soviet Union had their anthrax stockpile was in the Aral Sea and now is a peninsula. Fortunately American scientists managed to destroy the stockpile remains... after it was abandoned for a decade!

Saudis Seek to Map "Arab" Genome

A medical news story from Reuters describes an effort by Saudi researchers to map the Arab genome. The main drive for the research is to help create better medicine and treatments for disease, such as diabetes, which effect a large number of Arabs.

The story has a interesting tidbit of geography buried in it. Out of the 100 Arabs being used fifty are from the Arabian Peninsula and fifty are from elsewhere. An comment how Arabian Peninsula Arabs are "pure" is more than just racism. The Arab Conquests introduced Arab/native intermixing only to a certain point. Many to the north and west adopted Arabic cultural traits so much that for all purposes the considered themselves fully and solely Arab when in fact they were mixed, at best.

Romans May Have Hurt Medical Geography of AIDS, and Helped Against the Black Death

French scientists have discovered proof of what they believe shows the Roman Empire's impact on the spread of AIDS. The researchers believe the Romans carried a disease which in part killed large numbers of people who had genes which protect against AIDS. People with the gene trait are found more in regions where the Empire had no or very limited presence in Europe.

British researchers fired back saying the Empire's spread protected against Black Death. In parts of the Empire's core the Black Death killed rate was 1 in 20,000 while in never-Roman Northern Europe the rate shot up to 1 in 10.

Regardless of the Empire's impact on AIDS the dreaded disease is most prominent in sub-Saharan Africa, a place the Romans would only know myths about.