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By Claire LEE SEOUL, Dec 19, 2023 (AFP) – When news broke about a bedbug outbreak in his native South Korea, 29-year-old blockchain engineer and self-professed insectophobe Kang Jae-gu got straight to work — on the data. As authorities scrambled to install high-temperature steam heaters at the airport and approve industrial-strength insecticides for home use, Kang started mapping reported infestations. South Korea has been largely bedbug-free for years, but it has seen a surge in […]
There was a clear failure in the psychiatric care of the radicalised Islamist suffering from mental troubles who stabbed a German tourist to death in central Paris at the weekend, France’s interior minister said Monday. “There was clearly a failure, not from the point of view of his monitoring by the intelligence services, but a psychiatric failure,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told BFM TV, adding the attacker had an “acute mental illness”. “Doctors said on […]
WASHINGTON, Nov 29, 2023 (AFP) – Americans’ life expectancy rose in 2022 after two years of sharp decline, although it did not return to pre-pandemic levels, health officials said Wednesday. Life expectancy at birth in the United States rose by 1.1 years between 2021 and 2022, and stood at 77.5 years, according to initial estimates from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC). “The increase… primarily resulted from decreases in mortality due to Covid-19,” […]
Australia will ban imports of disposable vapes from January 1, the government said Tuesday, slamming the devices as recreational products addicting children. The block on single-use vapes is aimed at reversing a “disturbing” increase in vaping among young people, Health Minister Mark Butler said. Australia first revealed the import ban in May but had not given a start date until now. Vaping had been sold to governments as a tool to help long-term smokers quit, […]
LONDON, Nov 27, 2023 (AFP) – UK public health officials on Monday said they had confirmed a first human case of a swine flu strain similar to one that has been circulating in pigs. The variant of the H1N2 virus was confirmed in an individual who had been tested by their doctor after experiencing respiratory symptoms. It has not previously been detected in humans in the country, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said. “This […]
By Ludovic EHRET BEIJING, Nov 23, 2023 (AFP) – China has reported no ‘unusual or novel pathogens’ in a respiratory illnesses spreading in the north of the country, the World Health Organization said Thursday. Northern China has recorded an increase in “influenza-like illness” since mid-October when compared to the same period in the previous three years, said the WHO, which had requested more information on the situation. China’s National Health Commission told reporters last week […]
The World Health Organization has asked China for more data on a respiratory illness spreading in the north of the country, urging Chinese to take steps to reduce the risk of infection. Northern China has reported an increase in “influenza-like illness” since mid-October when compared to the same period in the previous three years, according to the WHO. “WHO has made an official request to China for detailed information on an increase in respiratory illnesses […]
A programme using artificial intelligence to test inmates in a high security Mozambican jail for tuberculosis has spawned hope that the new tech can help eradicate the disease. Teeming prisons are a hotbed of TB, the world’s second deadliest communicable disease after Covid, according to the World Health Organization. Mozambique, a country of 32 million people, recorded about 120,000 infections last year. Caused by a bacteria that most often affects the lungs, it infected more […]
US health authorities on Thursday approved the world’s first vaccine for chikungunya, a virus spread by infected mosquitoes that the Food and Drug Administration called “an emerging global health threat.” The vaccine, developed by Europe’s Valneva which will be marketed under the name Ixchiq, was approved for people 18 and over who are at increased risk of exposure, the FDA said. Ixchiq’s green-light by the US drug regulator is expected to speed the vaccine’s rollout […]
A rare delivery of emergency medical supplies and medicines on Wednesday reached Al-Shifa hospital in the war-ravaged north of the Gaza Strip, the UN said, warning though that far more was needed. In a joint statement, the heads of the United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees and the World Health Organization said the aid had reached Gaza’s largest hospital “despite huge risks to our staff and health partners due to the relentless bombardments”. They highlighted […]
Cases of syphilis among newborns have grown tenfold in the United States over the past 10 years, health officials warned Tuesday, part of a broader rise in sexually transmitted diseases in America. Over 3,700 infants were born with congenital syphilis in 2022, more than 10 times the number in 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement. However, in nine out of 10 cases the disease could have been prevented with […]
GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Nov 7, 2023 (AFP) – Sweden is poised to become Europe’s first smoke-free country largely thanks to the popularity of snus, a kind of moist snuff which is placed under the upper lip. But some are worried the tobacco industry is peddling a “fairytale” that is too good to be true. Used by one in seven Swedes, snus has, according to the government, helped slash the number of smokers from 15 percent of […]
