Year: 2022

The charity Doctors Without Borders said Thursday that Kenya’s Dadaab Refugee Complex faces a high risk of measles and cholera outbreaks as thousands of new refugees arrive from areas of Somalia where the diseases are circulating.  More than 233,000 refugees live in three overcrowded camps in the complex.   Doctors Without Borders, best known by its French acronym MSF, reported a sharp rise since January in the number of people fleeing to Kenya to escape drought, hunger and violence.  Many of the new arrivals are from southern Somalia, where measles and cholera outbreaks recently have occurred, the charity said.   MSF’s deputy program manager for Kenya, Adrian Guadarrama, said Thursday in Geneva that many are being received by refugee communities inside camps, but many more are living in very poor conditions on the outskirts of the camps.  Last week, he said, MSF teams recorded three cases of measles and two suspected cases of cholera in Dagahaley, one of Dadaab’s three refugee camps.  “This should be an alarm for all the actors and stakeholders involved in the response in Dadaab. Because we know that just one case of any of these diseases can cause a full-blown outbreak very quickly, affecting not only the refugee community, but also the host community,” Guadarrama said.  Kenya’s Health Ministry last week issued a cholera alert following confirmation of 61 cases in six counties.  Guadarrama said Kenya stopped registering new arrivals in Dadaab in 2015.   Unregistered refugees, he said, cannot get basic services and assistance. …

Germany on Wednesday unveiled plans to legalize cannabis, potentially making it one of the first countries in Europe to make marijuana legal. Presenting his plans to the cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said the proposal aims to achieve “the most liberal cannabis liberalization in Europe, and, on the other hand … the most tightly regulated market.” Germany’s federal Cabinet reportedly approved the plan, kicking off a lengthy process to legalize growth, cultivation and distribution of the plant. German laws must comply with European legislation, and under the proposal, the government would regulate cannabis production, sale, and distribution as part of a controlled, legalized market, said Lauterbach, describing the reform as a possible “model” for other European countries. Although many European countries have decriminalized small amounts of cannabis for recreational purposes, only one, Malta, has fully legalized it. The proposed plan would also legalize the acquisition and possession of 20 to 30 grams of cannabis for personal consumption, cultivation of up to two or three plants per person, and sales through specialized stores. Use of cannabis would remain prohibited for anyone under 18. According to the plan, the government would also introduce a special consumption tax and develop education and abuse prevention programs, while ongoing investigations and criminal proceedings connected to cannabis would be terminated. Legalizing cannabis would push out Germany’s cannabis black market and could increase annual tax revenues, create 27,000 new jobs, and generate cost savings of about $4.7 billion, according to a report …

President Joe Biden got his third COVID-19 booster shot Tuesday and urged Americans to do the same before major holidays and winter flu season. But with no more congressional funding coming for COVID relief, where does this leave nations the U.S. vowed to help? Anita Powell reports from the White House. Patsy Widakuswara contributed. …

After two years of low influenza case numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns of a possibly harsh flu season.   “The United States has experienced relatively little influenza activity since 2020, thanks, in part, to community mitigation measures used to control the spread of COVID-19, making the country ripe for a severe influenza season,” the CDC told VOA in an email.   According to the CDC, the flu is already spreading in parts of the South, with relatively high activity levels in Georgia and Texas, compared to the same period last year.   Although the influenza season in the U.S. is just beginning, “based on what we have seen in parts of the Southern Hemisphere, flu has the potential to hit us hard this year,” Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, said earlier this month. Researchers often look to the Southern Hemisphere because its flu season hits first, usually from May to October, to foreshadow what will happen in the north, where flu season usually starts in October, peaks in December and can last through May.  Australia’s flu season hit that country two months earlier than usual and caused one of its worst seasons in recent years, with cases peaking about three times higher than average, according to the Australian government’s Department of Health and Aged Care. During Australia’s 2022 flu season, of the 225,332 laboratory-confirmed cases, there have been 308 influenza-associated deaths, the agency reported. …

Bees pollinate 71 of the 100 crop species that provide 90% of food worldwide. They also pollinate wild plants, helping sustain biodiversity and the beauty of the natural world. But climate change, pesticides and parasites are taking a terrible toll on bees, and they need protecting, said European beekeepers, who held their annual congress in Quimper, western France, this week. The congress, which said some European beekeepers were suffering “significant mortalities and catastrophic harvests due to difficult climatic conditions,” was an opportunity for beekeepers and scientists to respond to the major concerns. The European Union, the world’s second-largest importer of honey, currently produces just 60% of what it consumes. French beekeepers, for example, expect to harvest between 12,000 and 14,000 metric tons of honey this year, far lower than the 30,000 tons they harvested in the 1990s, according to the National Union of French Beekeepers (UNAF). “I’ve been fighting for bees for 30 years, but if I had to choose now, I don’t know if I’d become a beekeeper,” said UNAF spokesman Henri Clement, who has 200 hives in the mountainous Cevennes region in southeastern France. Clement is 62 and not far off retiring. “But it’s not much fun for young people who want to take up the profession,” he said. Many of the topics buzzing around the congress were evidence of this — pesticides, climate change, and Asian hornets, parasitic varroa mites and hive beetles, all invasive alien species in Europe. Challenges includes rain, drought With climate change, “the …

Kenya’s museums and partners are conserving and promoting indigenous seeds after the government lifted a ban on genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, for farming. The museum says the native seeds are at risk because of the GMO seeds, which the government and some farmers say will help them to produce more crops faster as the region suffers a historic drought. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi, Kenya. Videographer: Jimmy Makhulo …

In marking World Polio Day, advocates for a polio-free world are urging nations to commit to a new five-year strategy to eradicate this crippling disease and consign it to the trash bin of history. An estimated 350,000 children were paralyzed by polio when the World Health Organization launched its Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988. In the world today, polio is endemic only in Pakistan, and Afghanistan. So far this year, 29 cases have been recorded, putting the possibility of a polio-free world within reach. The WHO notes the final stretch is the most difficult and cautions nations against letting down their guard too soon. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the 29 recorded cases include a small number in southeast Africa linked to a strain originating in Pakistan. “While it does not affect the WHO African region’s wild polio free certification, it shows us that as long as polio continues to circulate anywhere, it is a threat to children everywhere. Despite this news, we have a unique window of opportunity right now to end polio for good.” The WHO warns polio also can spread within communities through circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses. These variants, it notes, can emerge in places where not enough people have been immunized against this crippling disease. It reports these variants continue to spread across parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe and new outbreaks have been detected in Britain, Israel and the United States in recent months. UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell says the new polio eradication …

Authorities in Cameroon say they are struggling to contain a cholera outbreak in an overcrowded refugee camp on its northern border with Nigeria. In the past week, three people have died in the Minawao refugee camp and at least 81 have been infected from the bacteria, which spreads through dirty water and food. The camp was designed to hold fewer than 15,000 refugees but currently has more than five times that number. The camp located on Cameroon’s northern border is home to 76,000 Nigerians who have fled Boko Haram terrorist attacks. Helen Ngoh, spokesperson for UNHCR Cameroon says the U.N. body needs support to contain the ongoing wave of infections and to prevent future outbreaks in the refugee camp. “In Minawao specifically UNHCR needs at least 450,000 U.S. dollars to be able to increase portable water supply and also to be able to cover an existing gap of 900 latrines and to be able to improve waste management in the camp as well. All of these needs are extremely urgent at this point,” she said. UNHCR says it is investigating suspected cases and treating patients free of charge. The refugee agency says it is also finding out if the disease has spread to host communities. Ngoh said several hundred humanitarian workers have been deployed to the camp and host communities to educate refugees on prevention measures, which she said are basically respecting hygiene rules. Nigerian refugee Special Bulama is among aid workers raising awareness about the outbreak and teaching civilians …

Photos of Zarghoona Wadood sightseeing in Egypt with two other wheelchair-using women went viral last year in Pakistan, becoming a symbol of what women with disabilities can do. Wadood was just 7 months old when polio paralyzed her legs. Her parents didn’t know to get her vaccinated. “I can’t even move from my bed unless the wheelchair is near me … the wheelchair is a part of me now,” Wadood, now 38 and employed with the U.N. World Food Program, told VOA. She is one of thousands of Pakistanis disabled by polio, an incurable and highly infectious viral disease that can infect a person’s spinal cord, causing muscles to stop working. The invention of polio vaccines in the 1950s and 1960s wiped the disease from the industrialized world, and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative launched in 1988 largely eliminated the disease through mass vaccination campaigns in the developing world as well. As the global health community marks World Polio Day on Oct. 24, only Pakistan and Afghanistan continue to grapple with the wild polio virus. In Pakistan After 15 months without any reported cases of the wild polio virus, Pakistan has recorded 20 cases since April — 17 in the former tribal region of North Waziristan that borders Afghanistan and three from nearby areas. Dr. Shahzad Baig, who leads Pakistan’s Polio Eradication Program blames a poor security situation, migration patterns, harassment of polio teams, mistrust of the vaccine, and complicity among members of local communities and polio workers to find …

India launched a rocket carrying 36 private internet satellites on early Sunday, stepping in to keep the orbital constellation growing after a monthslong interruption related to the war in Ukraine. The liftoff from southern India was the first launch for London-based OneWeb since breaking with the Russian Space Agency in March because of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “We have accomplished the orbit very accurately, now the rocket is in its intended orbit,” said S. Somanath, the chairperson of India’s space agency. He said 16 satellites were put into orbit and expressed optimism that “the remaining 20 satellites will get separated as safely as the first of the 16.” OneWeb now has 462 satellites flying — more than 70% of what the company said it needs to provide broadband services around the world. Despite this year’s disruption, OneWeb said it remains on track to activate global coverage next year with a planned constellation of 648 satellites. It’s already providing service in the northernmost latitudes. Each OneWeb satellite weighs about 330 pounds (150 kilograms). It was the 14th launch of OneWeb satellites and relied on India’s heaviest rocket, normally reserved for government spacecraft. All of the previous OneWeb flights were on Russian rockets; the first was in 2019. The launch is important for India and reflects the gradual opening of its space agency to private customers, said Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, a director specializing in space and security at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. Rajagopalan said India is an expert at …

Two more people in an isolation unit of Uganda’s main hospital have tested positive for Ebola, bringing total cases recorded in the facility to five, the health minister said on Sunday. The five confirmed cases in Kampala are the first known transmission of the virus in the city, coming days after the information ministry said the country’s Ebola outbreak was coming under control and was expected to be over by the end of the year. Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said on Saturday that three patients among 60 people in isolation at Kampala’s Mulago Hospital tested positive for the disease a day earlier. She had said the three infected people had been in contact with a patient from Kassanda district in central Uganda who had died in Mulago. “Two more contacts to the Kassanda case, who are quarantined in Mulago Isolation facility, tested positive for Ebola yesterday…” Aceng said on Twitter. She added the two had been transferred to a treatment unit at a hospital in Entebbe, 41 km (25 miles) away. The government has introduced a three-week lockdown around the Mubende and Kassanda districts in central Uganda, the epicenter of the outbreak of the Sudan variant of the Ebola virus. A government statement on Friday said the outbreak had by then infected 65 people and killed 27. It was not clear if the numbers included the three first new Kampala cases. The government said last week two other cases of Ebola confirmed in Kampala had come from Mubende and …

U.S. health regulators Friday estimated that BQ.1 and closely related BQ.1.1 accounted for 16.6% of coronavirus variants in the country, nearly doubling from last week, while Europe expects them to become the dominant variants in a month.  The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said the variants are likely to drive up cases in the coming weeks to months in the European region.  The two variants are descendants of Omicron’s BA.5 subvariant, which is the dominant form of the coronavirus in the United States. Regulators in Europe and the U.S. have recently authorized vaccine boosters that target it.  There is no evidence yet that BQ.1 is linked with increased severity compared with the circulating Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5, European officials said, but warned it may evade some immune protection, citing laboratory studies in Asia.  “These variants [BQ.1 and BQ.1.1] can quite possibly lead to a very bad surge of illness this winter in the U.S. as it’s already starting to happen in Europe and the U.K.,” said Gregory Poland, a virologist and vaccine researcher at the Mayo Clinic.  In the U.S., weekly cases have been falling recently, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  The amount of coronavirus found in wastewater samples tested by Biobot Analytics has been basically flat around the United States over the last six weeks. Wastewater samples often predict possible spikes in COVID-19 ahead of the CDC data.  New variants are monitored closely by regulators and vaccine manufacturers …

As China’s ruling Communist Party holds a congress this week, many Beijing residents are focused on an issue not on the formal agenda: Will the end of the meeting bring an easing of the at times draconian “zero-COVID” policies that are disrupting lives and the economy? It appears to be wishful thinking. As the world moves to a post-pandemic lifestyle, many across China have resigned themselves to lining up several times a week for COVID-19 tests, restrictions on their travels to other regions, and the ever-present possibility of a community lockdown. “There is nothing we can do,” Zhang Yiming, 51, said this week at a park in Beijing. “If we look at the situation abroad, like the United States where over 1 million people have died, right? In China, although it is true that some aspects of our life are not convenient, such as travel and economy, it seems that there is no good solution.” People are looking to the party congress, which ends Saturday, for two reasons. The meeting, which is held every five years and sets the national agenda for the next five, can send signals of possible changes in policy direction. Secondly, authorities always tighten controls — COVID-19 and otherwise — before and during a major event to try to eliminate disruptions or distractions, so they could relax controls when the event ends. Any hopes for an easing, though, appear to have been dashed before the congress. The Communist Party’s newspaper, the People’s Daily, published a series …

 A decade-old publicity stunt continues shaping modern life. Plus, satellite TV gets a serious upgrade, and the Webb telescope gives us another stunning image. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space. …

The World Health Organization warns physical inactivity can lead to the development of debilitating noncommunicable diseases and millions of premature deaths. Data from 194 countries show governments are not doing enough to encourage their populations to engage in physical activity, including creating the opportunities for people to be more active and move around freely. For example, the World Health Organization reports too few countries encourage active and sustainable transport. It notes just over 40% of countries have road design standards that make walking and cycling safer. Fiona Bull, head of WHO’s physical activity unit within the Department of Health Promotion, said this neglect results in staggering economic, physical, and mental costs. “Our estimates indicate that $27 billion a year or up to 2030, $300 billion dollars (in costs) could be averted if we increased physical activity,” she said. “It estimated that 500 million new cases of key important NCDs (noncommunicable diseases) and mental health conditions could be prevented by increasing physical activity.” The report says nearly 500 million people will develop heart disease, obesity, diabetes or other noncommunicable diseases by 2030 due to inactivity. Latest global estimates show 1.4 billion adults do not do enough physical activity to improve and protect their health. In 2016, it said, levels of inactivity among adults in high-income countries were double those in low-income countries. The report finds women in most countries are less active than men, particularly in the eastern Mediterranean region and in the Americas. Juana Willumsen, technical officer in WHO’s physical …

Canberra scientists are researching a mysterious new recreational drug not seen before in Australia. The Australian National University says the substance is a “close cousin” of ketamine, a controlled anesthetic used by doctors and veterinarians. The new substance is known as “CanKet” — a Canberra ketamine. It was discovered at Australia’s first government-supported pill-testing center that started as a trial in the national capital earlier this year. The research team says the new drug was handed in at Australia’s first pill-checking center in Canberra. The user thought it was ketamine but said its effects were unusual and wanted it checked by experts at the pill-monitoring service. The drug was presented in a “small plastic bag of crystals and powder.” Australian National University scientists believe the new drug was probably imported from overseas. It is not known whether CanKet has side effects. It is chemically similar to ketamine but has characteristics that have not been seen previously. Associate professor Malcolm McLeod of the Australian National University Research School of Chemistry told VOA that ketamine and its derivatives are becoming increasingly popular illicit drugs. Ketamine is used in medicine and as a horse tranquilizer. It is also a popular recreational drug linked to a phenomenon known as the “k-hole” — a type of out-of-body experience. Common side effects include nightmares, hallucinations, high blood pressure and confusion. It is typically injected, snorted, or taken orally. In 2019, an estimated 9 million Australians — or more than 40% of the population aged over 14 …

The first Native American woman in space said Wednesday she is overwhelmed by the beauty and delicacy of Mother Earth and is channeling “positive energy” as her five-month mission gets underway. NASA astronaut Nicole Mann said from the International Space Station that she’s received lots of prayers and blessings from her family and tribal community. She is a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in Northern California. Mann showed off the dream catcher she took up with her, a childhood gift from her mother that she’s always held dear. The small traditional webbed hoop with feathers is used to offer protection, and she said it’s given her strength during challenging times. Years before joining NASA in 2013, she flew combat in Iraq for the Marines. “It’s the strength to know that I have the support of my family and community back home and that when things are difficult or things are getting hard or I’m getting burned out or frustrated, that strength is something that I will draw on to continue toward a successful mission,” Mann told The Associated Press, which gathered questions from members and tribal news outlets across the country. Mann said she’s always heeded her mother’s advice on the importance of positive energy, especially on launch day. “It’s difficult for some people maybe to understand because it’s not really tangible,” she said. “But that positive energy is so important, and you can control that energy, and it helps to control your attitude.” Mann, …

The World Health Organization said Wednesday it is too early to lift the highest-level alert for the COVID-19 crisis, with the pandemic remaining a global health emergency despite recent progress. The WHO’s emergency committee on COVID-19 met last week and concluded that the pandemic still constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), a status it declared back in January 2020. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Wednesday that he agreed with the committee’s advice. “The committee emphasized the need to strengthen surveillance and expand access to tests, treatments and vaccines for those most at risk,” he said, speaking from the UN health agency’s headquarters in Geneva. The WHO first declared the COVID-19 outbreak a PHEIC on January 30, 2020, when, outside of China, fewer than 100 cases and no deaths had been reported. Although declaration of a PHEIC is the internationally agreed mechanism for triggering an international response to such outbreaks, it was only in March, when Tedros described the worsening situation as a pandemic, that many countries woke up to the danger. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 622 million confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported to WHO and more than 6.5 million deaths, although those numbers are believed to be significant underestimates. According to WHO’s global dashboard, 263,000 new cases were reported in the previous 24 hours, while 856 new COVID-19 deaths had been reported in the past week. Tedros acknowledged Wednesday that “the global situation has obviously improved since the pandemic …

The eight most recent Ebola cases reported during the outbreak in Uganda have no known links with current patients, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, raising concerns about the spread of the deadly disease. In a briefing, WHO said initial investigations into the cases by Uganda’s Ministry of Health had found they were not contacts of people already known to have Ebola. “We remain concerned that there may be more chains of transmission and more contacts than we know about in the affected communities,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. There have been 60 confirmed and 20 probable cases since the outbreak began last month, and 44 deaths, the WHO said. The strain spreading in Uganda is the Sudan strain, and the existing vaccines and therapies do not work against it. However, the Ugandan government is collaborating with WHO to set up a trial of two vaccines in the early stages of development that target the Sudan strain — one developed by Oxford University and the Serum Institute, and one made by the Sabin Institute in the United States, WHO confirmed. The U.S. has also sent experimental therapies to help tackle the outbreak. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Saturday that the government was implementing some lockdown measures, including restricting movement and closing places of worship and entertainment, in Mubende and Kassanda districts in central Uganda, the epicenter of the epidemic. …

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday it will temporarily suspend the standard two-dose vaccination regimen for cholera, replacing it with a single dose due to vaccine shortages and rising outbreaks worldwide.  The U.N. agency said “the exceptional decision reflects the grave state of the cholera vaccine stockpile” at a time when countries like Haiti, Syria and Malawi are fighting large outbreaks of the deadly disease, which spreads through contact with contaminated water and food.  As of October 9, Haiti had confirmed 32 cases and 18 deaths from the disease, while many cases were still awaiting confirmation.  “The pivot in strategy will allow for the doses to be used in more countries, at a time of unprecedented rise in cholera outbreaks worldwide,” WHO said in a statement on Wednesday.  The WHO’s emergencies director Mike Ryan told reporters in a briefing that the change in strategy was a sign of the “scale of the crisis” caused by a lack of focus on safe sanitation and immunization for all at risk.  “It’s a sad day for us to have to go backwards,” he said.  The one-dose strategy had proved to be effective as a response to cholera outbreaks, the agency said, although the duration of protection is limited and appears to be much lower in children.  The disease often causes no or mild symptoms, but serious cases cause acute diarrhea and can kill within hours if untreated.  Cholera cases have surged this year, especially in places of poverty and conflict, with outbreaks …