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Tokyo, Japan (AFP) — The world’s smallest baby boy, who was born in October in Japan weighing as much as an apple, is now ready for the outside world, his doctor said Friday. Ryusuke Sekiya was delivered via emergency Caesarean section, after 24 weeks and five days of pregnancy as his mother Toshiko experienced hypertension. At 258 grams (9.1 ounces) he was even lighter than the previous record holder, another Japanese boy who weighed just […]
by Marlowe HOOD PARIS, France (AFP) — At least one running argument among cat lovers is now over: Whiskers, Lucy and Tigger are definitely better off staying indoors, scientists reported Wednesday. Pet cats allowed outdoors, in fact, are nearly three times as likely to become infected with pathogens or parasites than those confined to quarters, they reported in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. Two-legged house-mates should also take note because cats — a.k.a. Felis […]
by Thomas URBAIN New York’s mayor declared a public health emergency in parts of Brooklyn on Tuesday, ordering all residents to be vaccinated to fight a measles outbreak concentrated in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. The order concerns all people living or working in four zip codes of Williamsburg, northwest Brooklyn, where some residents oppose vaccines on religious grounds — although neither Jewish texts nor local Jewish authorities advise against vaccination. “It was time to take […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia on Monday launched a major education campaign to encourage its residents, particularly those traveling overseas, to get vaccinated against measles as a sudden spike in cases amid a global resurgence causes alarm. Measles — an airborne infection causing fever, coughing and rashes that can be deadly in rare cases — was declared officially eliminated from Australia by the World Health Organisation in 2014. In developed nations including Australia however, the […]
by Samir TOUNSI Agence France-Presse BUTEMBO, DR Congo (AFP) – Evelyne was one of the first victims of the Ebola epidemic which broke out in eastern DR Congo last August, the second deadliest in its known history. Against the odds, the nurse not only survived the hemorrhagic virus, whose outbreak has claimed nearly 700 lives, but has also returned to the fray. After receiving a vaccination, Evelyne is now tending Ebola-affected children — part of a […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Air pollution will shorten the life expectancy of children born today by an average of 20 months and will have the greatest impact in south Asia, according to a study published Wednesday. The State of Global Air report, published by the US-based Health Effects Institute and the University of British Columbia, says air pollution is the fifth leading cause of early death worldwide — responsible for more deaths than malaria, […]
by Patrick GALEY Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – One in five deaths globally are linked to poor diet, experts said Thursday, warning that over consumption of sugar, salt and meat was killing millions of people every year. The United Nations estimates that nearly a billion people worldwide are malnourished, while nearly two billion are “over-nourished”. But the latest study on global diet trends, published in The Lancet, showed that in nearly every one of the […]
HONGKONG, China (AFP) — Air pollution will shorten the life expectancy of children born today by an average of 20 months and will have the greatest impact in south Asia, according to a study published Wednesday. The State of Global Air report, published by the US-based Health Effects Institute and the University of British Columbia, says air pollution is the fifth leading cause of early death worldwide — responsible for more deaths than malaria, […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Death rates from prostate cancer — the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men — have stabilized or declined in dozens of countries since the turn of the century, the American Cancer Society reported Tuesday. In 33 of 44 countries surveyed, the incidence of prostate cancer had stabilized in the last five years for which data was available — and in seven countries, it was down, the report found. Only four […]
MAPUTO, Mozambique (AFP) — A cyclone-induced cholera outbreak in central Mozambique has killed two people and infected more than 1,400, the government announced Tuesday on the eve of the launch of a mass vaccination drive. Health authorities said 376 new cholera cases had been reported Tuesday, taking the total number of people infected to 1,428 since the first cases were reported last week. The bulk of the cases have been registered in the central city […]
by Ivan Couronne WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The kidney of a 35-year-old HIV-positive woman has been transplanted into another patient with the virus that causes AIDS, US surgeons announced Thursday, in a major medical breakthrough. The surgeons at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore performed the operation on Monday, calling it the first in the world of its kind. “I’m feeling good,” said the donor, Nina Martinez, at a news conference on Thursday following the […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — A New York county hit by a measles outbreak declared a state of emergency Tuesday and banned non-vaccinated minors from public places in a bid to prevent the once-eliminated disease from spreading. The measure, which defines a public place as anywhere “more than 10 persons are intended to congregate” — including public transport — was announced by officials in Rockland County, 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of New York […]
