Health

Zimbabwe reports first two mpox cases of unspecified variant

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe has confirmed its first two cases of mpox, the health ministry said on Sunday, without specifying which variant had been recorded. The first case was detected in an 11-year-old boy who developed symptoms last month after travelling to South Africa, the statement said. The second case was in a 24-year-old man who fell ill after travelling to Tanzania, it said. Both patients are recovering and contact tracing is underway, the statement […]

Cuba faces uphill battle as Oropouche virus spreads

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuban health authorities launched small-scale fumigation efforts in Havana on Friday to fight the spread of the Oropouche virus, but a rainy Caribbean summer, fuel shortages and growing roadside trash heaps are complicating those efforts, workers and officials said. More than 500 cases of the virus have been registered since May when the disease was first detected in far-eastern Cuba, health officials said this week. The virus, also known as sloth fever, […]

Thailand says mpox case recorded in traveller from Africa

BANGKOK (Reuters) -Thailand has detected an mpox case in a European man who arrived from Africa last week and is awaiting test results to determine the strain, a disease control official said on Wednesday. Thai authorities were treating the case as if it were the Clade 1 form of mpox, as the person, a 66-year-old European man with residency in Thailand had arrived on Aug. 14 from an African country where it was spreading, Thongchai […]

Africa could start mpox vaccinations within days, health agency says

By Anait Miridzhanian DAKAR (Reuters) –The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other African countries could start vaccinating against mpox within days, Africa’s top public health agency said on Tuesday. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has been working with countries experiencing mpox outbreaks on logistics and communication strategies to roll out vaccine doses that are due to arrive following pledges by the European Union, vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic, the United […]

One case of clade 2 mpox detected in Pakistan, new strain not detected

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – One case of the mpox virus has been detected in Pakistan of the clade 2 variety, the country’s ministry of health said on Monday, adding that no cases of the clade 1b strain of the disease have been diagnosed. Clade 1b has triggered global concern because it seems to spread more easily though routine close contact. A case of the variant was confirmed last week in Sweden and linked to a growing […]

‘Hong Kong’s Dr Fauci’ sounds alarm on next pandemic

By Xinqi SU HONG KONG, July 19, 2024 (AFP) – Hong Kong microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung has done battle with some of the world’s worst threats, including the SARS virus he helped isolate and identify. And he has a warning. Another pandemic is inevitable and could exact damage far worse than Covid-19, according to the soft-spoken scientist sometimes thought of as Hong Kong’s answer to top US health expert Anthony Fauci. “Both the public and (world) […]

‘Constant blood’: Ukraine’s frontline medics battle exhaustion

By Maryke VERMAAK Ukraine, June 15, 2024 (AFP) – When Vitaliy signed up to join the Ukrainian army as a surgeon, he made a promise not to burn himself out, fearing he could be needed for a lengthy and bloody war. More than two years after Russia invaded and with the fighting showing no sign of subsiding, that promise is being put to the test. Vitaliy serves at a medical post in the Pokrovsk area […]

UK’s Princess of Wales makes first public appearance since cancer diagnosis

By Sylvain PEUCHMAURD, Joe JACKSON LONDON, June 15, 2024 (AFP) – Catherine, Princess of Wales, on Saturday tentatively returned to UK public life for the first time since being diagnosed with cancer, attending a military parade in London to mark King Charles III’s official birthday. Kate, as she is widely known, travelled in a state carriage alongside her three children at the outset of the annual event before watching the ceremonial proceedings from a viewing […]

British TV presenter Michael Mosley found dead on Greek island

ATHENS, June 9, 2024 (AFP) – British diet guru and TV personality Michael Mosley was found dead on Sunday on the Greek island of Symi where he went missing this week, police said. “People on a boat saw a body close to the rocky coast,” said Petros Vassilakis, police chief for the southern Aegean region. The lifeless body was spotted by a television crew from Greece’s ERT public channel out filming in the area where […]

WHO confirms first fatal human case of H5N2 bird flu

GENEVA, June 5, 2024 (AFP) – A person died of bird flu in Mexico in the first confirmed case of a human infected with the H5N2 variant, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The 59-year old, who died on April 24 after developing fever, shortness of breath, diarrhoea and nausea, had “no history of exposure to poultry or other animals” and “multiple underlying medical conditions”, the WHO said in a statement. The resident of the […]

More than 1 in 4 children under age 5 face ‘severe’ food poverty: UNICEF

By Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS UNITED NATIONS, United States, June 6, 2024 (AFP) – More than one in four children under the age of five globally live in “severe” food poverty, UNICEF has warned — meaning more than 180 million are at risk of experiencing adverse impacts on their growth and development. “Severe child food poverty describes children who are surviving on severely deprived diets so they’re only consuming two or less food groups,” Harriet Torlesse, a […]

Morocco says eight dead after drinking bootleg alcohol

RABAT, June 5, 2024 (AFP) – Eight people in Morocco have died and dozens of others were hospitalised after drinking homemade liquor, the health ministry said on Wednesday. “Serious complications from poisoning” led to the death of eight people in the town of Sidi Allal Tazi, about 100 kilometres (over 60 miles) north Rabat, said the regional health directorate. More than 100 people in the town suffered from alcohol poisoning between Monday and Wednesday from […]