Health

Climate change ‘clearly’ fuelled Australia bushfires: inquest

by Andrew BEATTY Agence France-Presse SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia’s devastating 2019-2020 bushfires were “clearly” fuelled by climate change, a government inquiry reported Tuesday following some of the largest forest fires ever recorded worldwide. With this year’s fire season already underway, authorities recommended urgent action to limit the impact of extreme blazes, expected “to become more frequent” in future. The deadly bushfires raged for nine months to March and were most severe in New South Wales […]

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Hong Kong: first ‘proven’ case of COVID reinfection

by Marlowe HOOD Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Researchers in Hong Kong Monday identified what they said was the first confirmed case worldwide of COVID-19 reinfection, raising questions about the durability of immunity, whether acquired naturally or with a vaccine. “Our study proves that immunity for COVID infection is not lifelong — in fact, reinfection can occur quite quickly,” said Kelvin Kai-Wang To, a microbiologist at Hong Kong University’s Faculty of Medicine and lead […]

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Fire crews make progress battling historic California blazes

LOS ANGELES, California (AFP) — Thousands of firefighters made small progress on Monday as they battled to contain historic wildfires in California, with potentially dangerous lighting storms proving milder than expected and temperatures easing. Governor Gavin Newsom said some 625 fires were burning throughout the state and had scorched more than 1.2 million acres — nearly the size of the Grand Canyon. Of those fires, 17 were considered major, he said, including the LNU Lightning […]

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Stricken ship behind oil spill sunk off Mauritius

PORT LOUIS, Mauritius (AFP) — The broken stem of a Japanese-owned ship which ran aground causing a devastating oil spill in pristine waters off Mauritius, has been successfully sunk in the open ocean, the national crisis committee said Monday. The MV Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef off the Indian Ocean island on July 25 and began leaking oil two weeks later, prompting a race against the clock to pump all the fuel off the […]

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Convalescent plasma: What you need to know

By Issam AHMED Agence France Presse The United States has issued an emergency authorization to use blood plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients as a treatment against the disease. Is it safe and effective? Has US President Donald Trump’s administration put political considerations ahead of the science? Here’s what you need to know. – What is convalescent plasma? – When a person has COVID-19, their body produces antibodies that fight the coronavirus. These proteins float in […]

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US health official apologizes for touting false plasma data

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Dr Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, apologized Monday after misrepresenting a key statistic on how effective blood plasma is for treating COVID-19 when announcing an emergency approval measure. The US on Sunday issued emergency approval for plasma taken from recovered coronavirus patients, so that more people can get access to the experimental treatment. But Hahn and other senior health officials came under fire […]

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Contaminated water sickens nearly 500 in China

BEIJING, China (AFP) — Hundreds of people in eastern China have been infected with bacteria which can cause dysentery after drinking contaminated water, state media said Monday, prompting the closure of a local water plant. Nearly 500 people in the rural town of Baoyi — about 550 kilometres (342 miles) west of Shanghai — have developed fever and diarrhoea since late last week. A report by the local government published Sunday found they have been […]

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California fires cover 1 million acres amid fears of new spread

by Jocelyne ZABLIT Agence France-Presse LOS ANGELES, California (AFP) — Firefighters on Sunday battled some of California’s largest-ever fires that have forced tens of thousands from their homes and burned one million acres, with further lightning strikes and gusty winds forecast in the days ahead. Thousands of lightning strikes have hit the state in the past week, igniting fires that left smoke blanketing the region, bringing the total area burned to “close to one million […]

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$600 million settlement in Flint water crisis

WASHINGTON D.C., United States (AFP) — The US state of Michigan has agreed to pay some $600 million to victims of the Flint water crisis, a health scandal that became a symbol of social injustice in America, officials said Thursday. The settlement could see payments to tens of thousands of people, children and adults alike, who may have ingested lead-tainted drinking water after the city of Flint changed the source for its water system in […]

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Russia to test coronavirus vaccine on 40,000 people

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia said on Thursday it would start clinical trials of its controversial coronavirus vaccine next week, involving tens of thousands of people. President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that Russia had become the first country to register a coronavirus vaccine, though the announcement was met with caution from scientists and the World Health Organization who said it still needed a rigorous safety review. Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, which finances the […]

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Stem cell treatment offers new hope for diabetics

by Sara HUSSEIN TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A new method to create insulin-producing pancreatic cells from stem cells and protect them from the body’s immune system could pave the way for improving experimental diabetes treatment. In type-1 diabetes, the body turns on itself and attacks the so-called beta cells inside clusters in the pancreas called “islets”. These beta cells are responsible for gauging sugar levels in the blood and releasing insulin to keep them stable. […]

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‘Test-&-trace’ crucial but won’t beat coronavirus alone: study

by Marlowe HOOD PARIS, France (AFP) — Testing for COVID-19 and tracing the prior contacts of those found to be infected are crucial measures for slowing the disease’s spread, but inadequate unless combined with other measures, researchers said Wednesday. By itself, the test-and-trace approach can reduce the virus’ reproduction rate, or R number, by 26 percent, they reported in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, using mathematical models to examine data from previously published studies. The reproduction […]

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