Month: December 2021

The World Health Organization reports a significant rise in malaria cases and deaths in 2020 due to COVID-19 disruptions in malaria services.

Over the past two decades, global malaria death rates have been cut in half, saving the lives of 10.6 million people. New data gathered by the WHO show COVID-19 has stopped and even reversed the progress made in reducing deaths from this preventable, treatable disease.

The WHO’s World Malaria Report estimates 241 million malaria cases and 627,000 malaria deaths globally have occurred in 2020.This represents an increase of 14 million cases and 69,000 deaths compared to the previous year. WHO links the increase to disruptions of malaria prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services during the pandemic.

Director of WHO’s Global Malaria Program, Pedro Alonso, said the situation could have been far worse. The good news, he said is that the predicted doomsday scenario did not transpire. He notes gloomy projections made in March 2020 of a huge spike in malaria have not materialized.

“One worst case scenario implied a doubling of malaria deaths. So, let me reiterate this, that is not the case. We can call this a success story, even though an extra 47,000 people have died as a consequence of the disruptions,” said Alonso.

The report finds progress in the global fight against malaria remains uneven.

Between 2000 and 2020, WHO has certified 12 countries as being malaria-free. Two countries, China and El Salvador, have achieved this status in 2021, despite the ongoing pandemic.

Since 2015, both cases and deaths have stalled in most of the world’s 93 endemic countries and territories. However, other figures show malaria cases have increased in 32 countries, most in Sub-Saharan Africa and some in South America.

Alonso said the situation remains especially precarious in Africa, where the malaria burden remains unacceptably high. He notes Africa accounts for about 96 percent of global deaths, 80 percent among children under age five.

“At the same time, the pandemic is not over, and the pace of economic recovery is uncertain. Without immediate and accelerated action key 2030 targets of the WHO Global technical strategy will be missed, and additional ground may be lost,” he said.

WHO’s strategy calls for a 90-percent reduction in malaria cases and deaths by 2030.It also presses for the elimination of malaria in at least 35 countries and for the prevention of disease resurgence in all countries that are malaria-free.

Source: Voice of America

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the U.S. space agency, NASA, says it has new software that will allow its Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) to better assess potential threats posed by asteroids that can come close to Earth.

In a press release on Monday, NASA astronomers said they have upgraded their impact software, called Sentry, with its next generation, Sentry-II, to better evaluate near-Earth asteroid (NEA) impact probabilities.

NASA said to date, almost 28,000 NEAs have been found by survey telescopes that continuously scan the sky, making about 3,000 new discoveries per year. But with better technology and newer, bigger telescopes scheduled to come online, that number is expected to multiply quickly, necessitating the software upgrade.

Contrary to what some might believe, asteroids are extremely predictable celestial bodies that obey the laws of physics and follow knowable orbital paths around the sun, NASA scientists say. Sometimes, when those paths bring those objects closer to Earth's future position in space, uncertainties in the asteroids' path raise the possibility of a collision with Earth.

Navigation engineer Javier Roa Vicens, who had led the development of Sentry-II while working at JPL and recently moved to SpaceX, said the first generation of Sentry was "very capable." He said that in less than an hour, it could produce the impact probability for a newly discovered asteroid for the next 100 years, what he called "an incredible feat."

But JPL scientists say the Sentry-II software can rapidly calculate impact probabilities for all known NEAs, including some special cases not captured by the original Sentry. For example, its calculations consider how the sun's heat and Earth's own gravity affect the trajectory of asteroids.

The scientists say that by systematically calculating impact probabilities in this new way, the impact monitoring system is more robust, enabling NASA to confidently assess all potential impacts with odds as low as a few chances in 10 million.

Since 2002, the JPL-managed CNEOS, at its headquarters in Southern California, has calculated every known NEA orbit to improve impact hazard assessments in support of NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office.

Source: Voice of America

The Kennedy Center Honors is returning to tradition this year.

The lifetime achievement awards for artistic excellence will be presented Sunday night in a gala at the Kennedy Center's main opera house after the coronavirus pandemic forced delays and major changes to last year's plans.

Honorees include Motown Records creator Berry Gordy, "Saturday Night Live" mastermind Lorne Michaels, actress-singer Bette Midler, opera singer Justino Diaz and folk music legend Joni Mitchell.

This year's event also represents a return to political normalcy, with President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden planning to attend. The Democrat will be the first president to be at the Kennedy Center Honors since 2016.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump skipped the show the first three years he was in office after several of the artists honored in 2017, his first year in office, threatened to boycott a White House reception if the Republican participated.

The Trumps also scrapped a traditional White House ceremony for the honorees, which Biden is resuming. Presidents usually host a lighthearted gathering with the honorees at the White House before the awards ceremony.

Last year, the pandemic forced organizers to bump the annual December ceremony back to May 2021. Performance tributes to the artists were filmed over several nights and at multiple locations on campus.

This year's main COVID-related modification was shifting the annual Saturday ceremony, where honorees receive their medallions on rainbow-colored ribbons, to the Library of Congress instead of the State Department.

Sunday's ceremony, which will be broadcast Dec. 22 by CBS, is the centerpiece of the Kennedy Center's 50th anniversary of cultural programming. The center opened in 1971.

Source: Voice of America

Two explosions rocked U.N. camps in the northern Mali city of Gao on Sunday, causing damage but no casualties, AFP journalists at the scene said.

The early morning blasts shook the barracks of the U.N. mission in Mali, called MINUSMA, forcing the occupants to take refuge in shelters for two hours.

The French army reported only material damage, but had no information on the possible perpetrators of the blasts.

MINUSMA spokeswoman Myriam Dessables told AFP that two other camps in the north had been targeted with mortar fire on Saturday, causing no damage.

The latest violence in the West African country comes after 31 people were killed in an attack on Friday by suspected jihadists near the central town of Bandiagara.

Mali has been struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that first erupted in the north in 2012 and has since claimed thousands of military and civilian lives.

Despite the presence of thousands of French and U.N. troops, the conflict has engulfed central Mali and spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.

France, the former colonial power in Mali, has said it will reduce its troop numbers in the Sahel.

It also said it is planning to transfer troops from Kidal, Tessalit and Timbuktu to Gao and Menaka, closer to the turbulent "three-borders" zone near Burkina Faso and Niger.

Source: Voice of America

The Botswana scientist who may well have discovered the omicron variant of the coronavirus says he has been on a “roller coaster of emotions,” with the pride of accomplishment followed by dismay over the travel bans immediately slapped on southern African countries.

“Is that how you reward science? By blacklisting countries?” Dr. Sikhulile Moyo, a virologist at the Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press.

“The virus does not know passports, it does not know borders,” he added. “We should not do geopolitics about the virus. ... We should be collaborating and understanding.”

Moyo was doing genomic sequencing of COVID-19 samples at his lab in Botswana two weeks ago and noticed three cases that seemed dramatically different, with an unusual pattern showing multiple mutations. He continued studying the results and by early last week, decided to publicly release the data on the internet.

Soon scientists in South Africa said they had made the same findings. And an identical case in Hong Kong was also identified.

A new coronavirus variant had been discovered, and soon the World Health Organization named it omicron. It has now been identified in 38 countries and counting, including much of Western Europe and the United States. And the U.S. and many other nations have imposed flight restrictions to try to contain the emerging threat.

Speaking from his lab in Gaborone, Botswana’s capital, Moyo bristled at being described as the man who first identified omicron.

“Scientists should work together and the ‘who first did that’ syndrome should go. We should all be able to be proud that we all contributed in one way or the other,” said the 48-year-old scientist.

In fact, he noted that the variant was found to be something entirely new only by comparing it to other viruses online in a public database shared by scientists.

“The only way you can really see that you see something new is when you compare with millions of sequences. That’s why you deposit it online,” he said.

The Zimbabwe-born Moyo — who is also a research associate at Harvard’s school of public health, a married father of three, and a gospel singer — expressed pride in the way he and his international colleagues were transparent about their findings and sounded the alarm to the rest of the world.

“We’re excited that we probably gave a warning signal that may have averted many deaths and many infections,” he said.

Omicron startled scientists because it had more than 50 mutations.

“It is a big jump in the evolution of the virus and has many more mutations that we expected,” said Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Center for Epidemic Response and Innovation in South Africa, who taught Moyo when he was earning his Ph.D. in virology from South Africa’s Stellenbosch University.

Little is known about the variant, and the world is watching nervously. It’s not clear if it makes people more seriously ill or can evade the vaccine. But early evidence suggests it might be more contagious and more efficient at re-infecting people who have had a bout with COVID-19.

In the coming weeks, labs around the world will be working to find out what to expect from omicron and just how dangerous it is.

“What is important is collaboration and contribution,” Moyo said. “I think we should value that kind of collaboration because it will generate great science and great contributions. We need each other, and that’s the most important.”

South Africa is seeing a dramatic surge in infections that may be driven by omicron. The country reported more than 16,000 new COVID-19 cases Friday, up from about 200 per day in mid-November.

The number of omicron cases confirmed by genetic sequencing in Botswana has grown to 19, while South Africa has recorded more than 200. So far, most of the cases are in people who did not get vaccinated.

“I have a lot of hope from the data that we see, that those vaccinated should be able to have a lot of protection,” Moyo said. “We should try to encourage as many people to get vaccinated as possible.”

Moyo warned that the world “must go to a mirror and look at themselves” and make sure Africa’s 1.3 billion people are not left behind in the vaccination drive.

He credited earlier research and investment into fighting HIV and AIDS with building Botswana’s capacity for doing genetic sequencing. That made it easier for researchers to switch to working on the coronavirus, he said.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, Moyo finds some cause for optimism.

“What gives me hope is that the world is now speaking the same language,” said Moyo, explaining that the pandemic has seen a new global commitment to scientific research and surveillance.

He added that the pandemic has also been a wake-up call for Africa.

“I think our policymakers have realized the importance of science, the importance of research,” Moyo said. “I think COVID has magnified, has made us realize that we need to focus on things that are important and invest in our health systems, invest in our primary health care.”

He added: “I think it’s a great lesson for humanity.”

Source: Voice of America

As the world races to vaccinate billions more people against COVID-19 while the virus’ new omicron variant spreads, India is testing using drones to deliver vaccines to people in mountainous Jammu and Kashmir, where more than 70% of the population lives in rural areas.

It typically takes a couple hours by road to deliver vaccines from one of the region’s main medical centers in Jammu to a hospital located in Marh, a village in mountains nearby. Last month, officials said the delivery took just 20 minutes by the “Octacopter” drone.

Doctors say immunization campaigns have long been challenged by the region’s mountains and weather, which can thwart efforts to reach those living in remote areas.

Director of Health Services Jammu, Dr. Renu Sharma, told VOA that the trial last month delivering 200 doses gave hope that drones could be a useful delivery option.

“If the project is given [approved] it will be very helpful for remote areas especially in Jammu division given the difficult terrain,” Sharma said.

Other parts of Kashmir remain inaccessible for vehicles at times, making drones a better option.

“The areas like Sikardar, Safaid Aab, and Marno are challenging especially in winters. It takes us six to eight hours on foot from Dawar to reach to these areas,” Bashir Ahmad Peroo, a health worker from Gurez area, told VOA.

A spokesperson for the Directorate of Health Services Kashmir, Dr. Mir Mushtaq, told VOA that doctors now often stock enough medicine in the summer to last the local population all winter. Drones could help bolster supplies during the cold months.

Its creators say the Octacopter can carry a payload of 10 kilograms, with a range of 20 kilometers, and a maximum speed of 36 kph.

India’s CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories developed the Octocopter drones and the country’s minister of state for science and technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh, said they hope they will be able to deliver more than just COVID-19 vaccines, including medical supplies, equipment, and critical packages to remote communities.

Indian health statistics indicate more than 4,400 people have died from coronavirus in Jammu and Kashmir, and doctors say since late last month there has been a rise in the number of new positive tests each day, making the vaccination campaign ever more important.

Source: Voice of America