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by Camille BAS-WOHLERT Agence France Presse COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — Premature deaths caused by fine particle air pollution have fallen 10 percent annually across Europe, but the invisible killer still accounts for 307,000 premature deaths a year, the European Environment Agency said Monday. If the latest air quality guidelines from the World Health Organisation were followed by EU members, the latest number of fatalities recorded in 2019 could be cut in half, according to […]
AGAREB, Tunisia (AFP) – Thousands of Tunisians went on strike and rallied Wednesday after a demonstrator died of tear gas inhalation during angry demonstrations over the reopening of a rubbish dump, as environmental crises mount in the North African country. Abderrazek Lacheheb, 35, died early Tuesday in Agareb, in the Sfax region on the central coast, after security forces used tear gas to disperse protesters. A medic and a family member said he had died of […]
AMRITSAR, India (AFP) – Crackling flames and plumes of smoke rise from the earth as farmers set their fields alight in northern India — an annual post-harvest practice that shrouds New Delhi in toxic smog. Tens of thousands of small farmers around the capital burn their crop residue at the start of every winter, clearing fields from the recently harvested paddy to make way for wheat. The practice was banned two years ago but enforcement is […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US pharmaceutical giant Merck has vowed to avoid the pitfalls of the global Covid vaccine rollout by ensuring its new anti-coronavirus pill is made available in wealthy and poor countries at almost the same time. Paul Schaper, the company’s executive director of global public policy, told AFP that Merck, known as MSD outside the US and Canada, began working on its access strategy from July 2020, long before the efficacy […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech announced Tuesday they have formally submitted a request asking US officials for emergency authorization of their Covid-19 booster vaccine for people aged 18 and older. The move follows research published by the companies in late October indicating a third shot is 95.6 percent effective against symptomatic infection, based on clinical trials carried out on 10,000 people. The companies asked the US Food and Drug Administration to […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization’s chief scientist said Tuesday she was looking forward to the “second generation” of Covid-19 vaccines, which could include nasal sprays and oral versions. Soumya Swaminathan said such vaccines could have advantages over the current crop as they would be easier to deliver than injections and could even be self-administered. Swaminathan said there were 129 different candidate vaccines that have got as far as clinical trials — being […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Moderna has applied to the European Union’s medicine regulator for approval of its Covid-19 vaccine for children aged six to 11, the US biotechnology company announced Tuesday. The dosage for the two injections administered four weeks apart has been adjusted to 50 micrograms, compared with the 100 micrograms for shot recipients in older age groups. “We are pleased to announce the submission of this variation to the EMA,” the European […]
by Kaouther Larbi and Françoise Kadri with AFP bureaus in Rabat and Algeria Agence France-Presse TUNIS, Tunisia (AFP) – Proudly displaying her freshly picked pomegranates, Tunisian farmer Sarah Shili says going organic is “the future of farming” — and as demand surges in North Africa and beyond, the sector is blooming. Shili runs Domaine Elixir Bio, a 94-hectare (230-acre) farm near Tunis that produces organic-certified vegetable, fruit and cereal crops in a way she said […]
by Lucie AUBOURG Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Pfizer said Friday that a clinical trial of its pill to treat Covid-19 had shown it is highly effective, hailing it is as a big step toward ending the pandemic. A simple pill to treat the coronavirus at home has been sought since the start of the global health crisis. So far all treatments have been either intravenous or vaccine shots. Pfizer’s is […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Moderna cut its 2021 forecast for Covid-19 vaccine deliveries on Thursday, pushing back some doses to next year and sending shares sharply lower. The biotech company, which has soared to prominence this year on the success of its coronavirus vaccine, cited longer delivery times for international shipments. Other factors concern “temporary” impacts associated with the ramp up of production, said Moderna, adding that some shipments would lapse until early […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Cervical cancer cases plummeted among British women who received a vaccination against the human papillomavirus, according to a study published Thursday. In comparing cervical cancer and precancer rates before and after an HPV immunization program was introduced in England in 2008, the researchers found a “substantial reduction”, especially among the youngest women to have received the jab, according to results published in The Lancet medical journal. “Our study provides the first […]
by Moises AVILA Agence France-Presse Elieser Rodriguez emerges blackened from the thick smoke of burning pyres slowly transforming the limbs of mangroves into charcoal — a livelihood much maligned by environmental and climate campaigners in Panama. He says he has no other choice for a living. “This is the daily survival of my family, of my children, of my wife,” Rodriguez told AFP in El Espave, a town about 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Panama […]
