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Dutch officials have identified a single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as “mad cow disease”, in a cow carcass, the government said Wednesday. The infected cow “did not enter the food chain and did not pose a risk to food safety,” Agriculture Minister Piet Adema said. BSE is linked to the fatal human condition Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease if contaminated meat is ingested. Dutch officials had sealed off the affected farm, whose location was […]
by Anuj Chopra and Marisha Goldhamer Agence France-Presse Washington, United States (AFP) — Vaccine skeptics blocking transfusions for life-saving surgeries, Facebook groups inciting violence against doctors and a global search for unvaccinated donors — Covid-19 misinformation has bred a so-called “pure blood” movement. The movement spins anti-vaccine narratives focused on unfounded claims that receiving blood from people inoculated against the coronavirus “contaminates” the body. Some have advocated for blood banks that draw from “pure” unvaccinated […]
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Monday 1/30/2023 by Robin MILLARD All countries remain “dangerously unprepared” for the next pandemic, the Red Cross warned on Monday, saying future health crises could also collide with increasingly likely climate-related disasters. Despite three “brutal” years of the Covid-19 pandemic, strong preparedness systems are “severely lacking”, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said. The world’s largest humanitarian network said building trust, equity and local action […]
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Monday 1/30/2023 Three years to the day after the World Health Organization sounded the highest level of global alert over Covid-19, it said Monday the pandemic remains an international emergency. The UN health agency’s emergency committee on Covid-19 met last Friday for a 14th time since the start of the crisis. Following that meeting, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus “concurs with the advice offered by the committee regarding the ongoing […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday approved emergency aid of $105 million for Haiti, which has long been mired in a humanitarian crisis that has been exacerbated by recent global inflation. The funds should enable the Caribbean country to “support those most affected by food price rises through feeding programs and cash and in-kind transfers to vulnerable households” said Antoinette Sayeh, the IMF deputy managing director, in a statement. The […]
London, United Kingdom (AFP) – Nurses in England began two days of strikes over pay Wednesday, as officials warned of disruption for thousands of patients in the UK’s state-run health service. It comes after nurses held an unprecedented strike last month, joining a wave of industrial action by public sector workers hit by the cost-of-living crisis. The main nursing union accuses the government of failing to negotiate seriously on improving their pay deal for the […]
by Daniel Lawler Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — New research that links cooking with natural gas to around 12 percent of childhood asthma cases has sparked debate about the health risks of kitchen stoves, as well as calls in the United States for stepped-up regulation. The authors of the study said their findings suggested that around 650,000 US children would not have developed asthma if their homes had electric or induction stovetops, comparing the […]
QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) – Ecuador reported on Tuesday its first case of a human being infected with bird flu, weeks after the globally-spreading disease was detected on poultry farms in the South American country. “The first case of influenza A-H5 (bird flu) was confirmed in a nine-year-old girl in the province of Bolivar,” in the heart of the Andes, the health ministry said in a statement. “We presume that the infection was transmitted by direct contact […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) – Mosquitoes that transmit dengue and other viruses have evolved growing resistance to insecticides in parts of Asia, and novel ways to control them are desperately needed, new research warns. Health authorities commonly fog mosquito-infested areas with clouds of insecticide, and resistance has long been a concern, but the scale of the problem was not well understood. Japanese scientist Shinji Kasai and his team examined mosquitos from several countries in Asia as well […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) – China on Tuesday condemned fresh Covid test requirements by around a dozen countries on passengers travelling abroad from its territory, warning it could take “countermeasures” in response. The United States, Canada, France and Japan are among a number of countries that now require travelers from China to show a negative Covid test before arrival, as the country faces a surge in cases. “Some countries have taken entry restrictions targeting only Chinese travelers,” […]
by Laurie CHEN and Vivian LIN in Shanghai Agence France-Presse CHONGQING, China (AFP) — Elderly patients lined the wards of hospitals in major cities in China Thursday as the country battled a wave of Covid cases. The virus is surging across the vast Asian nation in an outbreak authorities say is impossible to track after the end of mandatory mass testing. And with cases soaring, Washington called on Beijing to share its Covid outbreak data, […]
by Helen ROWE / Joe JACKSON Agence France-Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — UK ambulance workers readied to walk out on Wednesday, a day after nurses staged their second stoppage, in a widening dispute with the government which is refusing to cede to above-inflation demands on pay. The series of walkouts has intensified, with industrial action by railway workers and passport control officers threatening to ruin festive holiday getaways. On Wednesday, ambulance staff including paramedics […]
