Year: 2022

Case numbers in the global monkeypox outbreak have now topped 70,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced Wednesday as it warned that a decline in new cases did not mean people should drop their guard.  The WHO said that case numbers last week were on the rise in several countries in the Americas and it stressed that a slowdown worldwide in new cases could be the “most dangerous” time in the outbreak.  WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more than 70,000 cases have now been reported to the U.N. health agency this year, with 26 deaths.  “Globally, cases are continuing to decline, but 21 countries in the past week reported an increase in cases, mostly in the Americas, which accounted for almost 90 percent of all cases reported last week,” he told a press conference in Geneva.  “A declining outbreak can be the most dangerous outbreak, because it can tempt us to think that the crisis is over, and to let down our guard,” he said.  He said the WHO was working with countries to increase their testing capacity and to monitor trends.  “We are concerned about reports of cases in Sudan, including in refugee camps near the border with Ethiopia,” Tedros added.  “Like COVID-19, monkeypox remains a public health emergency of international concern, and WHO will continue to treat it as such,” he said.  A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May among men who have sex with men, outside the African countries where it has …

Uganda and the World Health Organization are planning to try out two vaccines for the Ebola Sudan virus to try and curb the spread of the rare strain.  The virus has so far killed 19 people and infected at least 54 people in five districts in Uganda. After meetings in Kampala, the WHO’s director general described the new outbreak as troubling. Uganda hosted ministers from 11 countries in an emergency one-day meeting Wednesday to align their preparation for and response to Ebola outbreaks and agree on a strategy for collaboration. Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, Uganda’s health minister, said the department is expecting two different types of vaccines for the Sudan virus of Ebola currently circulating in Uganda. Both vaccines, according to the WHO, are pending regulatory and ethics approvals from the Ugandan government. Aceng says the vaccines, which are expected to arrive in the country next week, are in clinical trials. “One, Oxford. Manufactured in the United Kingdom. And the other Sabin. Manufactured in the United States of America. We are getting small doses, but the manufacturers are quickly manufacturing more.” Uganda reported the Ebola outbreak on September 20. The epicenter is the Mubende district, west of Kampala, with one death reported in Kampala itself.  WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that although the outbreak is troubling, it is not unexpected. Tedros says the primary focus now is to rapidly contain the outbreak to protect neighboring districts, as well as neighboring countries. The WHO …

The world’s first space tourist wants to go back — only this time, he’s signed up for a spin around the moon aboard Elon Musk’s Starship. For Dennis Tito, 82, it’s a chance to relive the joy of his trip to the International Space Station, now that he’s retired with time on his hands. He isn’t interested in hopping on a 10-minute flight to the edge of space or repeating what he did 21 years ago. “Been there, done that.” His weeklong moonshot — its date to be determined and years in the future — will bring him within 125 miles (200 kilometers) of the lunar far side. He’ll have company: his wife, Akiko, and 10 others willing to shell out big bucks for the ride. Tito won’t say how much he’s paying; his Russian station flight cost $20 million. The couple recognize there’s a lot of testing and development still ahead for Starship, a shiny, bullet-shaped behemoth that’s yet to even attempt to reach space. “We have to keep healthy for as many years as it’s going to take for SpaceX to complete this vehicle,” Tito said in an interview this week with The Associated Press. “I might be sitting in a rocking chair, not doing any good exercise, if it wasn’t for this mission.” Tito is actually the second billionaire to make a Starship reservation for a flight around the moon. Japanese fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa announced in 2018 he was buying an entire flight so he could …

The White House on Tuesday said eligible Americans should get the updated COVID-19 boosters by Halloween to have maximum protection against the coronavirus by Thanksgiving and the holidays, as it warned of a “challenging” virus season ahead. Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 coordinator, said the U.S. has the tools, both from vaccines and treatments, to largely eliminate serious illness and death from the virus, but he stressed that’s only the case if people do their part. “We are not helpless against these challenges,” he said. “What happens this winter is up to us.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says only about 11.5 million Americans so far have received the updated shots, which are meant to provide a boost of protection against both the original strain of COVID-19 and the BA.5 variant that is dominant around the world. Jha said studies suggest that if more Americans get the updated vaccines, “we could save hundreds of lives each day this winter.” More than 330 people die on average each day of COVID-19, according to CDC data, with the U.S. death toll standing at over 1.05 million. Jha acknowledged the slower pace of vaccinations, saying, “We expected September to be a month where it would just start picking up.” He added that the White House expects more Americans to get the updated boosters this month, around the time when they get their annual flu shots. He also emphasized that they should look to get them soon to be protected …

A spacecraft that plowed into a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away succeeded in shifting its orbit, NASA said Tuesday in announcing the results of its save-the-world test. The space agency attempted the first test of its kind two weeks ago to see if in the future a killer rock could be nudged out of Earth’s way. The Dart spacecraft carved a crater into the asteroid Dimorphos on Sept. 26, hurling debris out into space and creating a cometlike trail of dust and rubble stretching several thousand kilometers. It took days of telescope observations to determine how much the impact altered the path of the 160-meter asteroid around its companion, a much bigger space rock. Before the impact, the moonlet took 11 hours and 55 minutes to circle its parent asteroid. Scientists had hoped to shave off 10 minutes but NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the impact altered the asteroid’s orbit by about 32 minutes. “This mission shows that NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us,” Nelson said during a briefing at NASA headquarters in Washington. Neither asteroid posed a threat to Earth — and still don’t as they continue their journey around the sun. That’s why scientists picked the pair for the world’s first attempt to alter the position of a celestial body. Launched last year, the vending machine-size Dart — short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test — was destroyed when it slammed into the asteroid 11 million kilometers away at 22,500 …

Energy infrastructure will become more vulnerable to extreme weather such as heatwaves and hurricanes, the World Meteorological Organization warned on Tuesday, with a senior official saying that climate change poses as big a threat to global energy security as the war in Ukraine. This year was illustrative of what the WMO says are the challenges ahead, with hot weather and drought hampering power production in parts of Europe and China. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation,” has led to deep cuts to European energy supplies, with possible power rationing and blackouts ahead. “I think that if we don’t do anything, if we don’t make our energy system more resilient to climate change, there will be as big a disruption in the energy system as the war,” Roberta Boscolo, WMO climate and energy lead told Reuters as the U.N. agency launched a major report on energy. To meet the challenges, she said “huge” investment was needed to prepare for and adapt to that scenario, such as retrofitting dams to match new rainfall patterns and shoring up plants against storm surge. A WMO document showed that more than a third of all nuclear plants are found at sea level and said some will be threatened as they rise. Overall, the WMO said in its report that countries are behind in their renewable power pledges, saying they have so far committed to building less than half of the capacity needed by 2030 to reach the Paris accord goals. …

Malawi’s health ministry says it will soon roll out Africa’s first malaria vaccine for children under age five. The RTS,S vaccine, which was tested in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, took more than 30 years to develop. While the vaccine has a relatively low level of effectiveness, it has raised hopes of saving some of the more than 400,000 people who die annually from the mosquito-borne disease, most of them African children. The vaccine roll out, scheduled for next month, follows the completion of the pilot phase. Since 2019, the World Health Organization has vaccinated 360,000 children per year in Malawi, Ghana and Kenya, one-third of them in Malawi.   Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, Malawi’s minister of health, said children are especially at risk of malaria during the rainy season, in the months of November and December.  Chiponda said the decision on the vaccine was reached following discussions between Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera and representatives of PATH, a global health nonprofit organization, when Chakwera attended this year’s U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York.  The WHO endorsed the vaccine years ago, saying it was a breakthrough in the fight against malaria.  The vaccine, sold by GlaxoSmithKline as Mosquirix, is about 30% effective and requires four doses. However, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, backers of the vaccine, have raised concern whether the vaccine is worth the cost. In July, The Associated Press quoted Philip Welkhoff, director of malaria programs for the Gates Foundation, as saying the foundation will no longer offer direct …

As awareness grows around the world about the problem of food waste, one culprit in particular is drawing scrutiny: “best before” labels. Manufacturers have used the labels for decades to estimate peak freshness. Unlike “use by” labels, which are found on perishable foods like meat and dairy, “best before” labels have nothing to do with safety and may encourage consumers to throw away food that’s perfectly fine to eat. “They read these dates and then they assume that it’s bad, they can’t eat it and they toss it, when these dates don’t actually mean that they’re not edible or they’re not still nutritious or tasty,” said Patty Apple, a manager at Food Shift, an Alameda, California, nonprofit that collects and uses expired or imperfect foods. To tackle the problem, major U.K. chains like Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer recently removed “best before” labels from prepackaged fruit and vegetables. The European Union is expected to announce a revamp to its labeling laws by the end of this year; it’s considering abolishing “best before” labels altogether. In the U.S., there’s no similar push to scrap “best before” labels. But there is growing momentum to standardize the language on date labels to help educate buyers about food waste, including a push from big grocers and food companies and bipartisan legislation in Congress. “I do think that the level of support for this has grown tremendously,” said Dana Gunders, executive director of ReFED, a New York-based nonprofit that studies food waste. The United …

Monday is World Mental Health Day. To mark the day, the World Health Organization has launched a campaign to “raise awareness and spur action” in regions where there are high rates of death by suicide. The world health body said that the pandemic has created “a global crisis for mental health,” in a statement Monday, adding that it is “fueling short- and long-term stresses and undermining the mental health of millions.”  “Estimates put the rise in both anxiety and depressive disorders at more than 25% during the first year of the pandemic,” the U.N. agency said. “At the same time, mental health services have been severely disrupted and the treatment gap for mental health conditions has widened.” The treatment of mental health issues is particularly acute in Africa where there is only one psychiatrist for every 500,000 people — 100 times less than WHO’s recommendation. The WHO suicide prevention campaign in Africa aims to address the issue. In Africa, 11 people per 100,000 kill themselves, in comparison to the world average of 9 per 100,000. The continent has six of the 10 countries with the highest suicide rates. Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said “Significant investment must be made to tackle Africa’s growing burden of chronic diseases and non-infectious conditions such as mental disorders that can contribute to suicide.” The mental healthcare initiatives that WHO is supporting in Africa include training primary healthcare workers in Zimbabwe to boost quality and access to mental health services. “Mental health …

Older people with limited mobility and those with chronic health conditions requiring the use of electrically powered medical devices were especially vulnerable when Hurricane Ian slammed into Southwest Florida, and experts warn such risks to society’s oldest are growing as disasters increase with the impact of climate change. Almost all of the dozens of people killed by Ian in hardest hit Lee County were 50 or older, with many in their 70s, 80s and even 90s. That’s highlighted the rising dangers for those least likely to be able to flee such disasters and those most likely to be impacted by the aftermath. Climate change makes hurricanes wetter and more powerful, but it also increases the frequency of heat waves like ones that scorched the Pacific Northwest the last two summers, killing scores of mostly aged people. It’s also intensified drought-fueled wildfires like the inferno that incinerated the California town of Paradise in 2018, killing 85 people, again mostly older. “It’s not terribly surprising that physically frail, socially isolated people are the most likely to die in these events. But it is politically significant,” said New York University sociology professor Eric Klinenberg. “If we know people are at risk, why aren’t we doing more to help them?” Klinenberg, who wrote the book “Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago” about extreme heat that killed more than 700 mostly older and Black people in July 1995, called Ian a mere preview. “We saw this happen in Chicago, in (Hurricane) Katrina, …

The city of Philadelphia issued an apology Thursday for the unethical medical experiments performed on mostly Black inmates at its Holmesburg Prison from the 1950s through the 1970s. The move comes after community activists and families of some of those inmates raised the need for a formal apology. It also follows a string of apologies from various U.S. cities over historically racist policies or wrongdoing in the wake of the nationwide racial reckoning after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.  The city allowed University of Pennsylvania researcher Dr. Albert Kligman to conduct the dermatological, biochemical and pharmaceutical experiments that intentionally exposed about 300 inmates to viruses, fungus, asbestos and chemical agents including dioxin — a component of Agent Orange. The vast majority of Kligman’s experiments were performed on Black men, many of whom were awaiting trial and trying to save money for bail, and many of whom were illiterate, the city said. Kligman, who would go on to pioneer the acne and wrinkle treatment Retin-A, died in 2010. Many of the former inmates would have lifelong scars and health issues from the experiments. A group of the inmates filed a lawsuit against the university and Kligman in 2000 that was ultimately thrown out because of a statute of limitations.  Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said in the apology that the experiments exploited a vulnerable population, and the impact of that medical racism has extended for generations. “Without excuse, we formally and officially extend a sincere apology to …

China’s annual Golden Week festivities wind down Friday under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic with sharply reduced travel, frequent COVID testing and tight security in the capital ahead of this month’s 20th Communist Party Congress. As in the past two years, authorities have sought to discourage the popular practice of traveling to one’s hometown or village during the period surrounding the country’s national day in early October. At least 24 provinces and cities issued announcements urging people to “spend the holidays locally,” including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The advice has been followed by many Chinese, who prefer to stay close to home in order to avoid frequent COVID tests, ID checks and mandatory quarantines. Citizens were warned before the holiday to especially avoid 1,619 areas marked as “medium- or high-risk areas.” “If you leave Beijing, even if just to the nearby Tianjin or Hebei Province, your health app on the phone could send you a message when you return, reminding you there were positive cases in the places you’ve been,” said Allen, a 51-year-old information technology worker who lives in Beijing. “Then you’d have to be quarantined at home. Traveling means trouble.” Only 9.7 million people took to the nation’s railroads Oct. 1, the first day of the holiday, according to Shanghai’s Dragon TV. That compares to as many a 15 million rail passengers on the first day of pre-pandemic Golden Weeks. The Ministry of Transport had predicted that road traffic this week would drop by about 30% compared …

Around 3.9 million people in the United States received updated COVID-19 booster shots over the past week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday. he CDC said a total of 11.5 million Americans had received the shot as of Oct. 5, the first five weeks the booster has been available. This is up from the 7.6 million people who received the shot as of Sept. 28. The 11.5 million figure represents only 5.3% of the 215.5 million people in the United States aged 12 or older who are eligible to receive the shots because they have completed their primary vaccination series. The shots are being administered at a slower pace than last year, when the United States initially authorized COVID-19 boosters just for older and immunocompromised people. Around 20 million people received their third shot in the first five weeks of that vaccination campaign. A survey conducted by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation found that nearly two-thirds of adults in the United States do not plan to get updated COVID-19 booster shots soon. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer and Moderna’s Omicron-tailored shots in August in preparation for the country’s ongoing fall revaccination campaign. The CDC tally includes booster shots from both Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna. While the Pfizer/BioNTech updated COVID-19 booster is approved for those aged 12 and above, Moderna’s shot is approved for individuals aged 18 and above. These Omicron-tailored shots aim to tackle the BA.5 subvariants, which makes up a significant majority of …

Australian scientists are trying to grow plants on the moon by 2025 in a new mission unveiled Friday that they said could help pave the way for a future colony. Plant biologist Brett Williams, from the Queensland University of Technology, said seeds would be carried by the Beresheet 2 spacecraft, a private Israeli moon mission. They would be watered inside the sealed chamber after landing and monitored for signs of germination and growth.  Plants will be chosen based on how well they cope in extreme conditions and how quickly they germinate, he said.  One likely choice is an Australian “resurrection grass” that can survive without water in a dormant state.  “The project is an early step towards growing plants for food, medicine and oxygen production, which are all crucial to establishing human life on the moon,” the researchers said in a statement.  Caitlin Byrt, an associate professor from the Australian National University in Canberra, said the research was also relevant to food security fears driven by climate change.   “If you can create a system for growing plants on the moon, then you can create a system for growing food in some of the most challenging environments on Earth,” Byrt said in a statement.   The Lunaria One organization is running the project, which involves scientists from Australia and Israel.    …

Lebanon reported its first case of cholera since 1993, Health Minister Firas Abiad said Thursday. The case, recorded Wednesday, was from the rural northern province of Akkar, Abiad said, adding the infected person was a Syrian national who was receiving treatment. Akkar province borders Syria, where a cholera outbreak has infected more than 10,000 people and killed at least 39, according to the Syrian Ministry of Health. The country declared an outbreak on September 10. Richard Brennan, regional emergency director of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, said, “Cross-border spread is a concern. We’re taking significant precautions.” He said the WHO has been talking to officials in countries bordering Syria, including Lebanon, to bring in the supplies necessary to respond to possible cholera cases. Cholera is caused by consuming water or food contaminated with cholera bacteria, often transmitted through poor sanitation methods, according to the World Health Organization. Symptoms can include severe watery diarrhea, vomiting and muscle cramps, the WHO said. It added that while cholera can kill within hours if untreated, most of those affected have no or mild symptoms. Lebanon has suffered a series of hardships, starting nearly four years ago with an economic and financial crisis, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic and a horrific explosion at the Port of Beirut on August 4, 2020. The resulting economic collapse has plunged three-quarters of Lebanon’s population into poverty. Lebanon’s “low-grade infrastructure” includes “a dysfunctional electricity sector, water supply shortages, and inadequate solid waste and wastewater management,” the World Bank reported …

NASA makes history yet again. Plus, why a Mars rover’s doom may signal a new beginning, and a look back at a pioneering spacecraft’s suicide mission to Saturn. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space. …

The Biden administration will begin redirecting U.S.-bound travelers who had been to Uganda within the previous 21 days to five major American airports to be screened for Ebola as public health officials sent an alert to health care workers. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday issued an alert to health care workers to raise awareness about the outbreak but said there were currently no suspected or confirmed U.S. Ebola cases from the Sudan strain, which is behind the latest Uganda infections. According to Uganda’s Health Ministry at least nine people had died of the disease in Uganda by October 3. Authorities in the east African nation announced the outbreak of the deadly hemorrhagic fever on September 20. There are 43 total cases, including the deaths. U.S. screening began Thursday at the airports but the funneling requirements are expected to take effect within the coming week or so, a source told Reuters. “Out of an abundance of caution (CDC) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will apply new layers of screening at these five U.S. airports in response to the Ebola outbreak in Uganda,” the U.S. Embassy in Uganda said Travelers from Uganda need to arrive at New York-John F. Kennedy, Newark, Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare or Washington Dulles airports for screening. There is no approved vaccine for the Sudan strain of the disease, triggering fears of a major health crisis in the country of 45 million people. Two sources said …

VOA visits William Padilla-Brown, a self-taught citizen scientist and mycologist whose passion for mushrooms is leading to new discoveries as he teaches others and works to build a healthier, more sustainable world. Camera: Aaron Fedor Produced by: Kathleen McLaughlin …

UNICEF says the cholera outbreak in Syria has reached more than 10,000 patients and claimed the lives of at least 39 people, according to the Syrian Ministry of Health. For VOA, Mouneb Taim has this report from Idlib, Syria, with Heather Murdock in Istanbul. Videographer: Mouneb Taim, Moawia Atrash …

Drought that stretched across three continents this summer — drying out large parts of Europe, the United States and China — was made 20 times more likely by climate change, according to a new study. Drought dried up major rivers, destroyed crops, sparked wildfire, threatened aquatic species and led to water restrictions in Europe. It struck places already plagued by drying in the U.S., like the West, but also places where drought is more rare, like the Northeast. China also just had its driest summer in 60 years, leaving its famous Yangtze river half its normal width. Researchers from World Weather Attribution, a group of scientists from around the world who study the link between extreme weather and climate change, say this type of drought would only happen once every 400 years across the Northern Hemisphere if not for human-caused climate change. Now they expect these conditions to repeat every 20 years, given how much the climate has warmed. Ecological disasters like the widespread drought and then massive flooding in Pakistan, are the “fingerprints of climate change,” Maarten van Aalst, a climate scientist at Columbia University and study co-author, said. “The impacts are very clear to people and are hitting hard,” he said, “not just in poor countries, like the flooding Pakistan …. but also in some of the richest parts of the world, like western central Europe.” To figure out the influence of climate change on drying in the Northern Hemisphere, scientists analyzed weather data, computer simulations and soil …