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There’s been a lot of progress in the fight against AIDS over the past 30 years, but as the 30th World AIDS Day is observed on Dec. 1 — people still die from the disease. And others are newly infected every day even though the tools are available to end the epidemic. Fear, stigma and ignorance. The World Health Organization says these are the reasons the AIDS epidemic is not over because doctors can treat HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. With treatment, no one needs to die from AIDS, and those with the virus can’t give it to someone else. In addition, with prevention therapy, no one needs to get infected. Dr. Jared Baeten, an HIV specialist at the University of Washington, spoke to us via Skype and says even with these tools we’re not there yet. “… because the ability to deliver those at the scale and …
Tremendous progress has been made in efforts to wipe out polio around the world. Before a global eradication program began 30 years ago, about 350,000 children became paralyzed from polio each year. The figure dropped to 28 in 2018. Nevertheless, Helen Rees, chair of the World Health Organization’s emergency committee, said Friday that polio remained an international threat. She said every available health strategy must be used to prevent the wild polio virus from spreading across borders. “The fear is that we might well see a resurgence, that we could see exportation again and a reversal of all of the work and all of the country global efforts that have gone into trying to eradicate polio,” Rees said. “And we certainly cannot allow that to happen.” Polio remains endemic in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. Rees said that over the last few months, there has been a worrying exportation of the wild polio virus to …
Ahead of World AIDS Day, Uganda is recruiting women to participate in a trial of an injectable antiretroviral drug to replace Truvada, a daily pill that has low adherence by users. The trial will assess if the new drug – Cabotegravir – can further reduce the risk of acquiring HIV. Halima Athumani has more from Kampala. …
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s charity has announced a $50 million donation to help fight the nation’s opioid epidemic. Bloomberg Philanthropies said over the next three years it will help up to 10 states address the causes of opioid addiction and strengthen prevention and treatment programs. Its initiative involves a partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Johns Hopkins University and Vital Strategies. Bloomberg, who has been considering a 2020 Democratic presidential bid, was expected to discuss the funding Friday during his keynote address at The Bloomberg American Health Summit in Washington. A spokeswoman said there was “no stated link” between his political aspirations and the $50 million investment to fight opioids. Bloomberg’s charity said CDC data shows there were more than 70,000 U.S. drug overdose deaths last year, including more than 47,000 from opioids, the highest numbers on record. It said those …
Global health experts are urging the Trump administration to allow U.S. government disease specialists to return to northeastern Congo to help fight the second-largest Ebola outbreak in history. The U.S. experts have been sidelined for weeks, ordered away from the region due to State Department security concerns. Health workers have compared the area to a war zone. Dozens of rebel groups are active and attacks by them have forced workers to halt Ebola containment for days at a time. New statements in two top medical journals this week are calling on the U.S. to change its mind and send its experts back where they are sorely needed. It’s not clear how many people from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are tackling the outbreak from Congo’s capital, nearly 1,000 miles away. …
Romanian health authorities on Friday temporarily closed a maternity hospital in the capital after 13 babies born there recently were diagnosed with a drug-resistant superbug. The Health Ministry said the Giulesti Maternity Hospital in Bucharest would stop admissions after the newborns were recently diagnosed with antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The Grigore Alexandru children’s hospital said Thursday it was treating at least six babies born recently in Giulesti for the bug. It said the babies didn’t have a fever, without providing further information on their condition. The ministry said wards would be closed for cleaning and disinfection after patients were discharged. The hospital said it had canceled dozens of C-section operations next week. Women will have the procedure at other public hospitals in the capital. The Public Health Directorate said 11 hospital employees found to be carriers of the bacteria have been temporarily removed from the hospital to undergo treatment. The bacteria …
Scientists working on the frontiers of medicine fear the uproar over the reported births of gene-edited babies in China could jeopardize promising research into how to alter heredity to fend off a variety of disorders. Researchers are rapidly learning how to edit DNA to fight such conditions as Huntington’s, Tay-Sachs and hereditary heart disease, conducting legally permissible experiments in lab animals and petri dishes without taking the ultimate step of actually creating babies. Now they worry about a backlash against their work, too. “The alarmists who claimed that scientists won’t behave responsibly in the development of the next generation of gene editing now have ammunition,” said a dismayed Kyle Orwig, a reproductive specialist at the University of Pittsburgh who hopes to eventually alter sperm production to treat infertility. He said there is a clear public demand for the kind of research he is doing: “Families contact me all the time,” …
The leaders of Canada, Mexico and the United States signed a new North American trade deal Friday. Justin Trudeau, Enrique Pena Nieto and Donald Trump inked the deal in Argentina, ahead of the opening of the G-20 summit. It will, however, take a while for the agreement to take effect as lawmakers from all three countries have to approve the scheme, officially known as the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. The pact underpins $1.2 billion in annual trade among the three countries. It replaces NAFTA, a pact that Trump had roundly criticized in his 2016 presidential campaign, terming it the worst trade deal in history and blaming NAFTA for the loss of American manufacturing jobs since it went into effect in 1994. Trump called the deal a “model agreement that changes the trade landscape forever” at a news conference with his North American counterparts in Buenos Aires, Argentina, ahead of the G-20 …
As the 30th World AIDS Day approaches, the World Health Organization says fear, stigma and ignorance are the reasons the AIDS epidemic is not over, because doctors can treat HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. With treatment, no one needs to die from AIDS, and those with the virus can’t give it to someone else. In addition, with prevention therapy, no one needs to get infected. Dr. Jared Baeten, an HIV specialist at the University of Washington, says even with these tools more people still contract the HIV virus and eventually die from AIDS each year, “because the ability to deliver those at the scale and with the coverage needed to be able to get HIV to go away is not nearly where it should be.” Nearly a million people still die every year from AIDS. Professor Steffani Strathdee at the University of California San Diego says one of the …
Russia and China are among several countries attempting to “stress-test” the resolve of traditional powers, according to a report from the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. It claims so-called “challenger” nations are persistently testing the tolerance of established powers for different forms of aggression, from proxy wars to cyberattacks. The researchers cite the seizure this week of three Ukrainian naval vessels by Russian forces in the Azov Sea off Crimea, the territory that was forcibly annexed in 2014. Moscow claims these are Russian waters, in contravention of a 2003 deal between Moscow and Ukraine, which agreed the Azov Sea would be shared. Ukraine warns its Black Sea ports are being cut off. A bridge built by Russia linking it with Crimea now limits the size of ships able to navigate the Kerch Strait. Probing for weaknesses The aim is to change the facts on the ground, said Nicholas Redman, …
On Dec. 1, we observe the 30th World AIDS Day. There’s been a lot of progress over the past 30 years, but people still die from AIDS. And others are newly infected every day. As VOA’s Carol Pearson reports, we have the tools to end the epidemic, but it’s far from over. …
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico, will file for bankruptcy protection as it faces litigation arising from accusations of sexual abuse by clergy, its archbishop said Thursday. The move comes nearly three months after New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas requested Catholic church officials in the state, including the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, provide his office with documents related to possible abuse by priests. Allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, especially with minors, have roiled dioceses across the United States and in other countries. Balderas made his request after the Pennsylvania attorney general in August issued an 884-page report that contained graphic examples of children who were groomed and sexually abused by Catholic clergymen. The Pennsylvania report described how church officials sent a number of priests accused of sexual abuse to a Catholic treatment center in New Mexico from the 1950s through the 1990s. Separately, a …
U.S. President Donald Trump has challenged car giant GM’s decision to close five plants across the United States and Canada just weeks before the holidays. GM says changing car habits are to blame for the closings, which impact thousands of workers across North America. VOA’s Katherine Gypson reports from the GM plant in Ohio, where workers say they feel left behind by the global marketplace. …
Expectations are building over whether U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping can reach a deal to defuse tensions over trade disputes and security issues when the two meet during the G-20 summit later this week in Argentina. As State Department Correspondent Nike Ching reports, in the best case scenario, the meeting could lead to a reset of ties between the world’s two largest economies. …
U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in during the Group of 20 summit, where they are likely to discuss stalled nuclear negotiations with North Korea. Experts said the meeting on the sidelines of the two-day gathering that begins Friday in Buenos Aires is unlikely to resolve the differences between Washington and Pyongyang over the North’s nuclear weapons program. The impasse began when North Korea abruptly canceled a planned meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in early November. During his meeting with Trump, Moon is expected to push for a second summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to South Korean news media reports. Pressure and dialogue Washington has been pursuing a dual policy of employing both pressure and dialogue simultaneously, as its differences with Pyongyang have been growing, while Seoul has been prioritizing improving ties with Pyongyang. …
Heavy rains and flash flooding hit Northern California Thursday, forcing evacuations and road closures in the area devastated by recent wildfires, including the Camp Fire and the Ferguson Fire. Officials sent swift-water rescue teams to evacuate people trapped in vehicles and in homes after a downpour near Paradise, the town of 27,000 that was destroyed by the Camp Fire earlier this month. Butte County Sheriff’s Sgt. Brad Meyer told KHSL/KNVN television stations in Chico that about a dozen homes were affected and rafts were being used to rescue people from water that was more than 60 centimeters (23 inches) deep. “It is serious. The water is coming up, so we want to make sure we get everybody out that we can,’’ Meyer told the station. The National Weather Service also issued flash-flood warnings for other areas hit hard by the wildfires, including the Carr, Delta and Hirz fires in Shasta …
U.S. President Donald Trump begins two days of meetings with world leaders Friday in the Argentinian capital, which is hosting the G-20 summit of the world’s leading economies. But one counterpart he will apparently not be sitting down with is Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump tweeted his decision from Air Force One on his way to Buenos Aires on Thursday. Trump had been scheduled to hold a two hour meeting here with Putin despite intense criticism in the United States and among NATO allies following Moscow’s seizure Sunday of the three Ukrainian vessels and their crews in the Kerch Strait as they tried to make their way to the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, in the Sea of Azov. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters on Air Force One that the decision to cancel the meeting was “made on the plane” after Trump received an in-flight briefing by Secretary of …
Top administration officials are debating whether to create a stand-alone Space Force to handle space defense or a Space Force that falls within the Air Force, officials tell VOA. Either option requires congressional approval, which could prove difficult with a Democratic-led House and a Republican-led Senate. An Oct. 26 memo obtained by VOA directs that the Department of Defense create the “optimal organizational construct to meet (the president’s) intent.” The memo, signed by Executive Secretary of the National Space Council Scott Pace and National Security Council official Earl Matthews, instructs the Pentagon to focus on whether the Space Force is most efficient as a new independent department or as “a separate service within the Department of the Air Force, along the lines of the U.S. Marine Corps within the Department of the Navy or the U.S. Coast Guard within the Department of Homeland Security.” Support in the House This latter …
Reporters traveling with President Donald Trump to the G-20 Summit in Argentina say he is in a bad mood and distracted after his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, admitted lying to Congress about a Trump real estate deal in Russia. Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court in New York Thursday, admitting he misled lawmakers about the timing of talks with Russia for building a Trump tower in Moscow. Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is probing possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian election meddling, brought the charges against Cohen. Cohen is already facing prison time for bank fraud and activities related to his taxicab business. WATCH: Cohen Guilty Plea Signals New Turn in Russia Probe What Cohen said to Congress Cohen told the Senate Intelligence Committee last year that negotiations between the Trump organization and Russia to build the tower in Moscow ended in January 2016. The talks actually continued …
Southwest Airlines says its pilots will get more instruction on an automated anti-stall system on certain new Boeing jets, and American Airlines pilots are also seeking more training. The system is under scrutiny after a deadly crash in Indonesia. The developments came Thursday after Boeing technical experts met separately with pilots from both airlines. Indonesian investigators are probing whether pilots on an Oct. 29 Lion Air flight were overwhelmed when incorrect sensor readings activated the anti-stall system and automatically pushed the nose of their plane down. The Boeing 737 MAX plunged into the Java Sea, killing 189 people. Anti-stall system is different The anti-stall system differs from those in previous Boeing 737 models. Pilots at American and Southwest say Boeing didn’t explain the changes in the new plane’s operating manual. Boeing says the MAX is safe and that there is a procedure for stopping the nose-down command. The Chicago-based company, …
Three tiny rocks brought back from the moon in 1970 by the unmanned Soviet Luna-16 mission sold for $855,000 on Thursday at a New York auction. They’re the only documented lunar rocks in private hands, Sotheby’s auction house said. The U.S. collector who bought the rocks was not named. The sellers, also from the U.S., bought the rocks for $442,500 at a Sotheby’s Russian space history sale in 1993. That was the first time that a piece of a celestial body had been offered for sale to the public. The rocks originally had been given to the widow of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, the former director of the Soviet Union’s space program, by the Soviet government in recognition of her husband’s work. It is extremely rare for authentic lunar samples to come on the market. All samples collected by American astronauts are deemed the property of the U.S. government — except one. Last year, a bag …
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein called on social media companies and technology firms Thursday to work with law enforcement to protect the public from cybercriminals. Speaking at a symposium on online crime, Rosenstein said that “social media platforms provide unprecedented opportunities for the free exchange of ideas. But many users do not understand that the platforms allow malicious actors, including foreign government agents, to deceive them by launching vast influence operations.” He said it was up to the companies to “place security on the same footing as novelty and convenience, and design technology accordingly.” He warned that if the technology sector failed to do so, government would have to step in. “I think the companies now do understand if they do not take it upon themselves to self-regulate — which is essentially the theme of my talk today — they will face the potential of …
The number of uninsured children in the United States has increased for the first time in nearly a decade, placing it at 3.9 million in 2017, according to a report Thursday from Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. Nationally, the number of uninsured children increased by an estimated 276,000 in 2017, from a historic low of 4.7 percent in 2016 to 5 percent last year. Experts say about 75 percent of the newly uninsured children are clustered in states that did not expand Medicaid such as Florida, Texas and Georgia. Under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, Florida and other states could take federal funding to help pay for health coverage for nearly 900,000 people, but the Republican-led Legislature in Florida voted against it. The vast majority of states have already expanded Medicaid and increased the number of residents eligible for its coverage. Joan Alker, executive director for Georgetown’s …
