Month: November 2018

Rats are a problem in towns and cities world-wide. But they’re also causing huge damage to the world’s embattled coral reefs, according to a new study published in the Nature International Journal of Science. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports. …

Around the world plant based diets are on the rise. Statistics from the research firm Global Data say that six percent of Americans now identify as Vegan. That’s not a huge number but it’s jumped from one percent in the last couples years, and continues to go up and up. So it’s no surprise one California food company is working to meet the growing demand. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

The World Health Organization is releasing more than a million doses of yellow fever vaccine from its emergency stockpile after the deadly mosquito-borne disease killed 10 people in southwestern Ethiopia, a WHO report said Monday. The outbreak was confirmed in Wolaita Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region and has been traced back to a patient who fell ill on Aug. 21. It has caused 35 suspected cases of the disease. “This outbreak is of concern since the population of Ethiopia is highly susceptible to yellow fever due to absence of recent exposure and lack of large-scale immunization,” the WHO report said. Symptoms include fever, headache, jaundice, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting and fatigue, and although only a small proportion of patients who contract the virus develop severe symptoms, about half of those die within seven to 10 days. All the confirmed cases came from Offa Woreda district, and there have been no more confirmed cases since an immediate reactive vaccination campaign was conducted there in mid-October, reaching around 31,000 people. However, the WHO said there was a risk of further spread of the disease, partly because of conflict in the region, and it was releasing 1.45 million doses of vaccine for a mass campaign that needed to take place “without further delay.” Ethiopia, the home country of WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is within the geographic “yellow fever belt” and had frequent outbreaks until the 1960s, but no more until 143 cases were confirmed in the SNNP region …

The largest study to date of the genetic makeup of parasitic worms has found hundreds of new clues about how they invade the human body, evade its immune system and cause disease. The results point to potential de-worming treatments to help fight some of the most neglected tropical diseases — including river blindness, schistosomiasis and hookworm disease — which affect around a billion people worldwide. “Parasitic worms are some of our oldest foes and have evolved over millions of years to be expert manipulators of the human immune system,” said Makedonka Mitreva of Washington University’s McDonnell Genome Institute, who co-led the work with colleagues from Britain’s Wellcome Sanger Institute and Edinburgh University. She said the results of this study would lead to both a deeper knowledge of the biology of parasites and a better understanding of how human immune systems can be harnessed or controlled. Parasitic worm infections can last many years and can cause severe pain, physical disabilities, retarded development in children and social stigma linked to deformity. Current medicines to combat them — including drugs made by Sanofi, GSK and Johnson & Johnson — can be moderately effective and are often donated by drugmakers or sold at reduced prices to those who need them. But the spectrum of drugs to treat worm infections is still limited. To try to improve the potential drug pipeline and to understand how worms invade and take up residence inside humans and other animals, the research team compared the genomes of 81 species …

Earth’s protective ozone layer is finally healing from damage caused by aerosol sprays and coolants, a new United Nations report said. The ozone layer had been thinning since the late 1970s. Scientist raised the alarm and ozone-depleting chemicals were phased out worldwide. As a result, the upper ozone layer above the Northern Hemisphere should be completely repaired in the 2030s and the gaping Antarctic ozone hole should disappear in the 2060s, according to a scientific assessment released Monday at a conference in Quito, Ecuador. The Southern Hemisphere lags a bit and its ozone layer should be healed by mid-century. “It’s really good news,” said report co-chairman Paul Newman, chief Earth scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.  “If ozone-depleting substances had continued to increase, we would have seen huge effects. We stopped that.” High in the atmosphere, ozone shields Earth from ultraviolet rays that cause skin cancer, crop damage and other problems. Use of man-made chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which release chlorine and bromine, began eating away at the ozone. In 1987, countries around the world agreed in the Montreal Protocol to phase out CFCs and businesses came up with replacements for spray cans and other uses. At its worst in the late 1990s, about 10 percent of the upper ozone layer was depleted, said Newman. Since 2000, it has increased by about 1 to 3 percent per decade, the report said. This year, the ozone hole over the South Pole peaked at nearly 9.6 million square miles (24.8 million …

Children in Yemen are dying from malnutrition. Officials from the U.N. Children’s Fund say the three-and-a-half year war has pushed the Arab world’s poorest country to the verge of famine. There are 1.8 million malnourished children there, and warring sides block the humanitarian aid these children desperately need to survive. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports. …

According to the most recent Environmental Protection Agency data, about 262 million tons of municipal solid waste were generated in the U.S. in 2015. But while trash proliferation remains a global problem, there is a growing trend to help combat it. Repair Cafés are cropping up around the world, building community while teaching people how to fix their broken items instead of tossing them out. VOA’s Jill Craig recently visited the Twins ACE hardware store in Fairfax, Virginia. …

Tornadoes, hurricanes, fires and earthquakes are not a rare occurrence in California. Julia Vassey introduces us to people who are trying to be prepared to not only survive these cataclysms themselves, but help others do so as well. Anna Rice narrates her report. …

The UN Migration Agency has begun providing life-saving health care to two Somali towns previously inaccessible because of war and conflict. Tens of thousands of people in the towns of Gobweyn and Bulla Gaduud have been deprived of life-saving health care for nearly three decades. These areas have been too dangerous for aid workers to reach because of the never-ending cycles of war and conflict in the area. In recent months, International Organization for Migration spokesman, Joel Millman says government forces have succeeded in subduing the armed groups that have made life a misery for local inhabitants. This, he says has opened up these areas to outside help. “For the past 27 years, war and conflict have made healthcare access difficult or impossible in many parts of the country. Now these communities have access to vaccinations, malaria treatment, antenatal care for pregnant mothers, malnutrition screenings and referrals, among other essential services,” Millman said. Millman says aid agencies who finally were able to reach these towns were dismayed by the prevailing conditions. He says they found high levels of malnutrition and extremely poor immunization coverage. Because the towns had no humanitarian services, he says many people had abandoned their villages. He says they were living in overcrowded settlements in far-away urban centers where medical care was available. He says it is likely many of these displaced people will decide to return to their communities now that the life-saving aid they need can be had closer to home.     …

A prosthetic center in Iraq’s holy city of Karbala is introducing highly advanced robotic limbs, offering amputees a new beginning by enabling them to regain mobility and independence. VOA’s Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports. …

Aquaculture is the world’s fastest growing food industry and now accounts for more than 50 percent of the total global seafood supply, according to the World Economic Forum. But farming fish requires food for those fish, and currently, it relies on a lot of ingredients that could be feeding people, including soybean, corn, rice and wheat. Faith Lapidus reports on some new sustainable ideas about feeding farmed fish, from Norway. …

At first, it may seem that the small cold city of Barrow, Alaska, 515 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle, is in the heart of endless empty tundra. But, as Natasha Mozgovaya discovered on a visit to the northern-most city in the U.S., now known as Utqiagvik, that’s not the case. Anna Rice narrates her story. …

Four U.N. specialized agencies warn that many parts of Asia and the Pacific suffer from alarmingly high levels of malnutrition and hunger. This is the first time the Food and Agriculture Organization, the U.N. Children’s Fund, the World Food Program and the World Health Organization have issued a joint report, which calls for urgent action to reverse the situation. The report finds efforts to reduce malnutrition and hunger have come to a virtual standstill in Asia and the Pacific. Unless greater effort is made to tackle this situation, it warns prospects for economic and social development in the region will be at serious risk.   As of now, the U.N. agencies say many parts of Asia and the Pacific will not reach the U.N. sustainable goal of ending all forms of malnutrition and achieving zero hunger by 2030.   The United Nations reports 821 million people globally suffer from hunger. World Food Program spokesman Herve Verhoosel said 62 percent of that number, or 509 million people, are in the Asia-Pacific region, with children, in particular, bearing the biggest burden. Verhoosel said 79 million children, or one in every four under age five, suffer from stunting, and 34 million children are wasting. He says 12 million children suffer from severe acute malnutrition, which increases their risk of death. The report notes climate-related disasters are rising in the region, having a detrimental impact on agriculture. Loss of crops, it says, results in more hunger, more loss of nutrition and loss of livelihood. …

For the first time an underwater robot is to be used to plant baby coral to parts of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef damaged by mass bleaching, as scientists plan to collect hundreds of millions of coral spawn off the Queensland city of Cairns in the coming weeks. Most coral reproduce through spawning, where eggs and sperm are pushed into the water at the same time.  In northern Australia, researchers are preparing to harvest this mass release of coral spawn on the Great Barrier Reef.  They will be reared into baby corals in floating enclosures.  Then they will be delivered as so-called ‘larval clouds’ to Vlasoff Reef about an hour’s sailing from Cairns by a semi-autonomous robot. Professor Peter Harrison, the director of the Marine Ecology Research Center at Southern Cross University, said science is giving a nature a helping hand. “What we are trying to do now is compensate for the loss of corals that would normally provide enough larvae for the system to naturally heal,” Harrison said. Large areas of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef have been damaged by severe bleaching – or loss of the algae that gives coral its color.  The bleaching is caused by rising water temperatures and made worse by climate change. The experiment on Vlasoff reef, which was badly affected by the mass bleaching, will be coordinated by divers, who will guide the spawn-spreading robot, known as the LarvalBot.    Professor Matthew Dunbabin from the Queensland University of Technology says time is of essence. “In …

Many people know that a woman’s health, including her diet and exercise habits, can impact the health of her baby even before she gets pregnant. But, until recently, little was known about a father’s diet and exercise choices. Matthew Hurt is teaching his young sons how to hit a baseball. He wants them to enjoy sports and exercising. “I want it to be just natural for them. I don’t want it to be a chore. I want them to just want to go outside, want to be active and enjoy life to its fullest.” Impact of exercise A study at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center looked at the impact of fathers’ exercise habits on their offspring. Kristin Stanford is a member of Ohio State’s Diabetes and Metabolism Research Center. She co-led the study. The results showed that even moderate exercise before a baby was conceived “resulted in an improved metabolic health in their adult offspring. Essentially, it improved their glucose metabolism, decreased body weight and increased their insulin sensitivity.” The World Health Organization says 1 in 4 adults worldwide are dangerously inactive. That increases the risk of obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes. Inactivity also has social and economic consequences. The research at Ohio State was done in mice. More work needs to be done to see if it applies to people as well. “The idea would be that if you have a dad who wants to have a child, if they would exercise maybe …

Many people know that a woman’s health, including her diet and exercise habits, can impact the health of her baby even before she gets pregnant. Many women try to shed excess weight and check with their doctors to optimize their health. But, until recently, little was known about the role a father’s diet and exercise choices might play. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports on a study that shows, just like for women, there is a link between the father’s health and that of his unborn children. …