Tag: Virus

Hong Kong reduces Covid quarantine for arrivals

  HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Hong Kong will cut mandatory hotel quarantine for international arrivals from one week to three days from Friday, Chief Executive John Lee announced in an easing of Covid restrictions that have severely curbed travel. Once a global logistics and transportation hub, Hong Kong has been largely cut off from the rest of the world for more than two years under its strict adherence to China’s zero-Covid policy. Under some […]

Long Covid symptoms affects one in eight, study suggests

PARIS, France (AFP) — One in eight people who get coronavirus develop at least one symptom of long Covid, one of the most comprehensive studies on the condition to date suggested on Thursday. With more than half a billion coronavirus cases recorded worldwide since the start of the pandemic, there has been rising concern about the lasting symptoms seen in people with long Covid. However almost none of the existing research has compared long Covid […]

India reports Asia’s first possible monkeypox death

  by Aishwarya KUMAR Agence France Presse NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — Indian authorities reported Asia’s first possible monkeypox fatality on Monday after the death of a man who recently returned from United Arab Emirates testing positive. Kerala state’s health ministry said tests on the 22-year-old “showed that the man had monkeypox”. Three monkeypox-related fatalities have so far been reported outside Africa in an outbreak that the World Health Organization has declared a global health […]

Peru registers first death in monkeypox patient: hospital

LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru on Monday recorded its first death of a monkeypox-infected person, with more than 300 cases reported in the country to date, a health official said. The fatality was “a patient who came to hospital in a serious condition with monkeypox and their health weakened after abandoning treatment for HIV/Aids,” according to Eduardo Farfan, director of the Dos de Mayo hospital in Lima. The man, 45, died “of sepsis” due to […]

Pres. Marcos Jr., urges Filipinos to get booster shots

    (Eagle News) — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. urged Filipinos to get booster shots amid the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the country and the emergence of new highly infectious subvariants of Omicron. The President visited the PinasLakas Booster Vaccination campaign in Pasig City on Monday, August 1, and appealed to the public to get vaccinated and to have their booster shots too after the primary series of vaccination. Marcos Jr., said […]

DOH confirms the country’s first monkeypox case

(Eagle News) – The Philippines has recorded its first case of the monkeypox virus – a 31-year old Filipino who arrived from abroad on July 19, the Department of Health said on Friday, July 29. The patient also had prior travel to countries with confirmed monkeypox cases, according to Health Undersecretary Beverly Ho. The DOH official, however, did not reveal the gender of the Filipino who is now confirmed to be the first monkeypox case […]

Deadly elephant virus stalks Zurich zoo

by Agnès Pedrero Agence France-Pressec ZURICH, Switzerland (AFP)  — A deadly virus has swept through Zurich’s zoo, killing three Asian elephants in a month and leaving experts stumped as to how to stop its spread. The zoo overlooking Switzerland’s largest city now has only five of the majestic creatures roaming its 11,000-square-metre (118,400-square-foot) elephant enclosure. Two-year-old bull Umesh was the first to fall victim to the Elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) at the end of June, […]

First monkeypox case reported in Japan

  Tokyo, Japan | AFP Japan on Monday confirmed its first case of monkeypox, detected in a man in his 30s who had travelled overseas, Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike announced. “It’s a man in his 30s with a history of overseas travel who had returned from Europe. This is the first monkeypox case in Japan,” Koike told reporters. She said the man had been hospitalised in Tokyo, without giving further details. The case was reported […]

WHO triggers highest alert on monkeypox

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP by Christophe VOGT The World Health Organization on Saturday declared the monkeypox outbreak, which has affected nearly 17,000 people in 74 countries, to be a global health emergency — the highest alarm it can sound. “I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference. He said a committee of experts who met on Thursday […]

Study finds 95% of monkeypox cases transmitted through sexual activity

Washington, United States | AFP Ninety-five percent of monkeypox cases have been transmitted through sexual activity, according to the largest study to date, which also noted new clinical signs such as single genital lesions. The research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday, came as World Health Organization experts debated whether to classify the outbreak as a global health emergency, the highest alarm it can sound. Led by scientists at Queen Mary […]

Xi sends sympathy message to Biden over Covid infection

Beijing, China | AFP Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a sympathy message to his United States counterpart Joe Biden on Friday, state broadcaster CCTV reported, a day after the 79-year-old US leader tested positive for Covid-19. Biden on Thursday insisted he was “doing great”, and said he would continue to work while isolating at the White House with mild symptoms. “I would like to express my deep sympathies to you and wish you a speedy […]

Heart issues after Covid jabs very rare but research lacks clarity

  Paris, France | AFP by Julien DURY Research shows that the risk of developing heart conditions after a messenger RNA Covid vaccine is very low, and should not call into question the value of life-saving vaccination campaigns rolled out across the world. But the risk is “non-negligible”, and the available evidence is difficult to assess precisely, researchers have said, calling for better data on the subject. “That we are now more than a year […]