Medicine : WHO ISSUES NEW DATA ON GLOBAL TUBERCULOSIS EPIDEMIC
24th March - World TB Day
Tuberculosis is one of the world's leading infectious killers - second only to HIV/AIDS. The 2007 WHO Global TB Control Report, issued Thursday 22 March 2007, updates the current trends on the airborne disease, with all the very latest data from nearly 200 countries.
In the wake of the newly identified extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), drug resistance and continuing challenges such as TB and HIV co-infection, the 2007 WHO Global TB Control Report underlines the major issues affecting TB patients, health workers and governments today. This year's report also highlights achievements in reaching global 2005 TB targets set by the World Health Assembly.
The launch coincides with World TB Day (24 March) and its theme: "TB Anywhere is TB Everywhere".
Space & Astronomy : Mars' South Pole Ice Deep and Wide
Pasadena, Calif. -- New measurements of Mars' south polar region indicate extensive frozen water. The polar region contains enough frozen water to cover the whole planet in a liquid layer approximately 11 meters (36 feet) deep. A joint NASA-Italian Space Agency instrument on the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft provided these data.
This new estimate comes from mapping the thickness of the ice. The Mars Express orbiter's radar instrument has made more than 300 virtual slices through layered deposits covering the pole to map the ice. The radar sees through icy layers to the lower boundary, which is as deep as 3.7 kilometers (2.3 miles) below the surface.
