While people have been talking of Building Homes for the Poor and Government spending Crores on this subject,a Woman in Bolivia has been building Homes from Plastic bottles, that too used and discarded ones!
Finished ‘Garbage Home’ with Plastic Bottles.Home Built by Used Plastic Bottles
Ingrid Vaca Diez is on a mission to build better homes for the poor.
With few funds and little support, she uses the only resource she can find in abundance – empty plastic bottles.
Her own life in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, is one of relative comfort but she is shocked by the rising level of poverty she sees around her.
Though completely self-taught, she designs and builds new homes using recycled plastic bottles filled with dirt as the “bricks”. So far, she has built 10 of these homes.
The people she is trying to help are rural, indigenous migrants, often living in single room, dirt floor shacks.
Ingrid picks her projects based on the urgency of a family’s need. It is through her work that we will observe the broader social and economic problems facing the poor in Santa Cruz.
Bolivia remains one of the poorest countries in South America with roughly 50 percent of the population living below the poverty level according to 2010 estimates.Conversely, it is one of the richest countries in South America in terms of natural resources, especially in mining and natural gas reserves.For the poor, housing is one of the most critical issues. This is an especially acute issue as more and more rural residents continue their migration into the major population centres of La Paz and Santa Cruz.
Statistics show that out of the total population of approximately 10 million people, a majority of families live in sub-standard housing conditions in which many structures have no more than a dirt floor.
Neither vaccine nor drugs for preventing infection are available. The bite of one infected mosquito can result in infection. The risk of being bitten is highest during the early morning, several hours after daybreak, and in the late afternoon before sunset. However, mosquitoes may feed at any time during the day. Aedes mosquitoes typically live indoors and are often found in dark, cool places such as in closets, under beds, behind curtains, and in bathrooms. Travelers should be advised to use insecticides to get rid of mosquitoes in these areas and to select accommodations with well-screened windows or air conditioning when possible. Additionally, travelers should take measures to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes. Long-term travelers and expatriates can take extra precautions to reduce mosquito-breeding sites around their accommodations by emptying and cleaning or covering any standing water (such as in water storage tanks and flowerpot trays).
SOURCE: CDC”
Dengue Fever Facts.
Main symptoms of dengue fever. To discuss image, instead see Talk:Human body diagrams (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Dengue Fever.
Dengue fever is a disease caused by a family of viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes.
Symptoms such as headache, fever, exhaustion, severe joint and muscle pain, swollen glands (lymphadenopathy), and rash. The presence (the “dengue triad”) of fever, rash, and headache (and other pains) is particularly characteristic of dengue fever.
Dengue is prevalent throughout the tropics and subtropics. Outbreaks have occurred recently in the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Cuba, and in Paraguay in South America, and Costa Rica in Central America.
Because dengue fever is caused by a virus, there is no specific medicine or antibiotic to treat it. For typical dengue fever, the treatment is purely concerned with relief of the symptoms (symptomatic).
The acute phase of the illness with fever and myalgias lasts about one to two weeks.
Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) is a specific syndrome that tends to affect children under 10 years of age. It causes abdominal pain, hemorrhage (bleeding), and circulatory collapse (shock).
The prevention of dengue fever requires control or eradication of the mosquitoes carrying the virus that causes dengue.
There is currently no vaccine available for dengue fever.
Dengue fever is a disease caused by a family of viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes. It is an acute illness of sudden onset that usually follows a benign course with symptoms such as headache, fever, exhaustion, severe muscle and joint pain, swollen glands (lymphadenopathy), and rash. The presence (the “dengue triad”) of fever, rash, and headache (and other pains) is particularly characteristic of dengue. Other signs of dengue fever include bleeding gums, severe pain behind the eyes, and red palms and soles.
Dengue (pronounced DENG-gay) can affect anyone but tends to be more severe in people with compromised immune systems. Because it is caused by one of four serotypes of virus, it is possible to get dengue fever multiple times. However, an attack of dengue produces immunity for a lifetime to that particular serotype to which the patient was exposed.
Dengue goes by other names, including “breakbone” or “dandy fever.” Victims of dengue often have contortions due to the intense joint andmuscle pain, hence the name breakbone fever. Slaves in the West Indies who contracted dengue were said to have dandy fever because of their postures and gait.
Reviewed by Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD on 9/9/2011
The transmission of the virus to mosquitoes must be interrupted to prevent the illness. To this end, patients are kept under mosquito netting until the second bout of fever is over and they are no longer contagious.
The prevention of dengue requires control or eradication of the mosquitoes carrying the virus that causes dengue. In nations plagued by dengue fever, people are urged to empty stagnant water from old tires, trash cans, and flower pots. Governmental initiatives to decrease mosquitoes also help to keep the disease in check but have been poorly effective.
To prevent mosquito bites, wear long pants and long sleeves. For personal protection, use mosquito repellant sprays that contain DEET when visiting places where dengue is endemic. There are no specific risk factors for contracting dengue fever, except living in or traveling to an area where the mosquitoes and virus are endemic
Treatment;
Because dengue fever is caused by a virus, there is no specific medicine or antibiotic to treat it. For typical dengue, the treatment is purely concerned with relief of the symptoms. Rest and fluid intake for adequate hydration is important. Aspirin andnonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs should only be taken under a doctor’s supervision because of the possibility of worsening bleeding complications. Acetaminophen(Tylenol) and codeine may be given for severe headache and for joint and muscle pain (myalgia).
I came across a Photo essay on the iconic Photos of the last century.
Reproduced for my readers.
Iconic Photos of the Last Century.Iconic Photos of the Last century.Iconic Photos of the Last century.
“On June 16th 1961 appeared in Life magazine an eight-page spread entitled, “Freedom’s Fearful Foe: Poverty.” The piece was hastily put together after the Secretary of StateDean Rusk denounced Latin American poverty as radicalizing influence towards Communism in a New York Times article the weekend before.
That summer, Life had sent its first African American photographer, Gordon Parks, to South America to cover one part of a five-part series on “Crisis in Latin America.” There Parks met a 12-year-old boy named Flavio da Silva who, with his poverty-stricken parents and their eight other children, lived in Catacumba favela (slum) in the hills outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.’
Africa Archaeology
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