Health experts are expressing alarm over the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s revision of its coronavirus testing guidelines. The CDC. announced Monday that people who have been in close contact with someone who has been infected by COVID-19 “do not necessarily need a test” if they are not exhibiting symptoms of the virus. The agency had previously recommended that anyone who has come into close contact — defined as being within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes — should be tested for the virus.   No explanation has been given for the sudden change.  Experts are worried the new recommendation could lead to a drop off in testing,    Members with the Washington, D.C. Dept. of Health, prepare to place new signs at their F Street COVID-19 testing location, Aug. 14, 2020, in Washington.Dr. Leena Wen, an emergency physician and a professor of public health at George Washington University, said contract tracing is necessary, since up to 50% of all COVID-19 transmissions are due to people who do not exhibit symptoms of the disease.   The CDC continues to recommend that “vulnerable” people get tested if they come into close contact with someone carrying the virus.  A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday people should consult with their doctor or with public health officials to decide if they need to be tested.One day after U.S. President Donald Trump praised it as “a truly historic announcement,” the head of Food and Drug Administration apologized for apparently overstating the benefits of using convalescent blood plasma from patients who have recovered from COVID-19.   President Donald Trump speaks, accompanied by Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn, center, during a media briefing in the James Brady Briefing Room of the White House, Aug. 23, 2020, in Washington.President Trump on Sunday announced the federal government had issued an emergency authorization for the use of convalescent blood plasma, which is rich in antibodies, and using it to treat people currently suffering from the virus.  During the public announcement, Dr. Stephen Hahn, the FDA commissioner, reaffirmed claims made by Trump and Health and Human Services Alex Azar of a 35% decrease in mortality among those younger than 80 who were not on a respirator, a month after receiving the treatment early in the course of their disease. A “35% improvement in survival is a pretty substantial clinical benefit,” he added. “We’ve seen a great deal of demand for this from doctors around the country.” FILE – Phlebotomist Jenee Wilson talks with Melissa Cruz, an ER technician for Valley Medical Center who has recovered from COVID-19, as she finishes donating convalescent plasma in Seattle, April 17, 2020.But critics say the claim made by the administration was a gross exaggeration of preliminary findings of a study conducted by the prestigious Mayo Clinic, noting that the study lacked a comparison group of untreated COVID-19 patients.   Dr. Hahn conceded this fact in a tweet Monday apologizing for his remarks, saying “The criticism is entirely justified.”  He explained that he should have said that the data shows “a relative risk reduction not an absolute risk reduction.”   That announcement came a day after Trump, on Twitter, declared that “The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics.” Plasma treatment has been used safely against other diseases, including Ebola and diphtheria, but scientists — including some who work for the U.S. government — are more cautious about it as a treatment for the coronavirus, saying the results are mixed and there is no proof yet that it works against COVID-19. The latest figures from Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracking website says more than 5.7 million people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus, and more than 178,500 have died — the most of any other country.   
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All of Africa has reached a very important milestone. The World Health Organization has declared that the entire continent is now free of the wild polio virus. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports that this is a time for celebration but not a time to rest.
Produced by: Bronwyn Benito 
 
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All of Africa has reached a very important milestone. The World Health Organization has declared that the entire continent is now free of the wild poliovirus.  This comes after four years without a single case.  With this historic milestone, five of the six WHO regions – representing over 90% of the world’s population – are now free of the crippling disease. The world is now closer to achieving global polio eradication. If it can be done, it will be the second infectious disease, after smallpox, to be eliminated.    It has not been easy. It’s taken decades and millions of health workers traveling by foot, boat, bus and bicycle to reach children in remote geographic areas. Health workers have even braved conflict to prevent children from enduring life-long disability and paralysis.    In 1996, South African President Nelson Mandela, with the support of service organization Rotary International, jumpstarted Africa’s commitment to polio eradication with the launch of the Kick Polio Out of Africa campaign. Mandela’s call mobilized African nations and leaders across the continent to step up their efforts to reach every child with the polio vaccine. At the time, polio was paralyzing an estimated 75,000 children, annually, on the African continent.  Since then, 9 billion oral polio vaccines have prevented nearly 2 million cases of wild poliovirus on the continent, according to the WHO.   Carol Pandak heads Rotary International’s Polio Plus Program. “We have made tremendous progress working with community leaders,” she told VOA, “sometimes with military officials, to help deliver vaccine to reduce the number of children that were inaccessible due to conflict, down to very, very small numbers.”
Other leaders, like former Nigerian Health Minister FILE – A boy receives drops of polio vaccine by a home-visit nurse in Kajiado, Kenya, July 11, 2018.Pate is now with the World Bank where he serves as the global director of a health program that focuses on women and children.In an interview with VOA, Pate said, “It took a lot of effort from many leaders, from national, government leaders, traditional leaders, religious leaders and families, as well as volunteers and health workers, who came together to make this tremendous feat possible.”   The Global Polio Eradication Initiative provided funding and logistical support. This initiative is led by national governments with five partners – the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi, the vaccine alliance.The effort also involved a huge disease surveillance network to check sewage for the virus and test cases of paralysis. But, Pandak says the work is not done.  She says it’s important that communities continue to immunize their children against polio.     Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 14 MB540p | 17 MB720p | 34 MB1080p | 70 MBOriginal | 217 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioPolio still exists along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and until the virus is knocked out of that region, children everywhere are at risk of contracting the disease.  There is also another danger: the oral polio vaccine most children get contains a weakened polio virus. In areas where the water is polluted and hygiene is poor, the virus can continue to circulate when it’s excreted. It’s rare, but sometimes the vaccine-derived virus infects children and causes paralysis. Rapid response teams then rush to the area to re-immunize the children and stop the vaccine-derived virus from spreading.    A different oral vaccine, one that’s more stable, will be introduced next year to prevent that from happening.   The polio eradication effort demonstrates two things: that people around the world can come together to accomplish great things, and, Pate says, it shows that vaccines work.  Now that polio prevention systems are in place throughout Africa, Dr. Pate hopes they can be used to hold on to this enormous gain and to continue routine immunizations, so every child is protected from vaccine preventable diseases. 
 
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As millions of children head back to school, the World Health Organization has issued its recommendation on whether they need to wear face masks.The WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have broken their new guidelines into age groups, and they say children younger than 6 should not wear them.”According to the limited available evidence, young children may have lower susceptibility to infection compared to adults, however available data suggests that this may vary by age among children,” WHO and UNICEF said.In this May 27, 2020, photo, teachers Jana Blair, right, and Aaron Rainboth, upper-center, wear masks as they work with kids at the Frederickson KinderCare daycare center, in Tacoma, Wash.Children 6 to 11 should wear masks, but what the experts call a “risk-based control” should be considered. This includes social and cultural environments, the child’s ability to comply, and the impact mask wearing has on disabilities or underlying diseases.Kids 12 and older need to be treated like adults when wearing masks.But the WHO and UNICEF said no child should be denied access to an education if a mask is unavailable.“Very few, if any, children or teenagers will come to long-term harm from COVID-19 due solely to attending school,’’ British medical officials have said. “This has to be set against a certainty of long-term harm to many children and young people from not attending school.’’While children who are infected with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, generally have mild or asymptomatic symptoms, they can still spread the virus to adults.Scientists at the University of Hong Kong said they have found the first known case of someone who was infected twice with COVID-19.The popular belief is that catching the coronavirus once makes people immune to a second case.But the doctors say genetic tests on a 33-year-old male COVID-19 patient found that the strain he had after returning from a trip to Spain several weeks ago is different than the coronavirus strain he had in March.“It shows that some people do not have lifelong immunity” to the virus if they’ve already had it, microbiologist Dr. Kelvin Kai-Wang To said. “We don’t know how many people can get reinfected. There are probably more out there.”“COVID patients should not be complacent about prevention measures,” To said, stressing that everyone needs to continue social distancing and wearing masks.But other experts said the silver lining is that the Hong Kong patient had mild symptoms in March and was asymptomatic the second time around. The virus was confirmed during a screening on his return home.Doctors said this could mean that the initial infection could protect the patient from a more moderate or severe second case.A sign outside the Michigan State University Student Union building alerts students to MSU’s face covering rule on Aug. 21, 2020.Meanwhile, Gaza reported its first cases of COVID-19 that didn’t come from the outside.A government spokesman said four cases from a single family living in a refugee camp were confirmed Monday and security forces have locked down the entire territory for at least two days.Until Monday, all the coronavirus cases found in Gaza were in quarantine centers.Gaza is the Palestinian territory government by Hamas, which Israel considers a terrorist group. Israeli and Egyptian blockades make it tough for people to move in and out of the territory.A WHO official said Monday the coronavirus cases in Gaza, along with the poverty and overcrowding, is a huge challenge and a “matter of concern.” 
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Kenyan authorities and aid agencies say rape and sexual abuse cases against girls have increased since the start of pandemic restrictions, and they say in most cases relatives are the offenders. Some safe shelters in Nairobi are overwhelmed by girls who need an escape from people meant to care for them.  Kenyan children have extra time off these days since schools closed in March because of the coronavirus pandemic. That is making them more vulnerable to sexual predators.  Thirty-three-year-old Judith Andiso said a 20-year-old man targeted her teenage daughter at home and got her pregnant.  “I started interrogating my daughter,” Andiso said. “She started to explain how the man will come in the house while I am away, give her 10-20 shillings, and take her to another dark building near our place.”  Some of the abused children end up in safe houses in central Nairobi. Florence Keya runs one of them. Her center hosts 26 girls, 17 of them came here between March and July.  Keya said  there are many more girls who need a safe home.  “We can only take the number we can manage,” Keya said. “We are so sad because sometimes we deny cases at the gate. So, we say we can’t take them in because we are full.”  Kenya’s Ministry of Health says it has received reports of at least 5,000 sexual violence cases across the country, 65% of them involve girls younger than 18, many of whom live in poverty.  Officials say in many cases the perpetrators are close to the victims and do not believe the abuse is a crime.     Fanis Lisiagali is the head of Healthcare Assistance Kenya, an organization that works closely with the ministry of gender on issues of women and girls. “Girls are being lured very easily by these perpetrators just because they know this family cannot afford to provide,” Lisiagali said. “So, they give them handouts and they end up having sex with these girls. They don’t know this is a punishable thing or punishable crime, but now they accept just because their parents cannot afford to provide certain items.”  Andiso, the mother of five, rarely leaves her house these days worried her children will be victim to more abuse.  
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Misbahu Lawan Didi became paralyzed in both legs after contracting the polio virus as a child. As a lover of games, he was unable to enjoy his favorite sports with his able-bodied counterparts. In 1988, he founded para-soccer for disabled polio survivors to play. Not long after, he also played a part in creating Nigeria’s Polio Survivors’ Association. The aim was to use survivors’ stories to drive awareness and vaccinations.”Many people were rejecting treatment based on what they believed. Some believed it is Western manipulation to reduce the number of Nigerians; some believed in the religion of Islam that it is not accepted,” Didi said. “Everybody had their own beliefs and the government always found it difficult to get to some people because they have already decided not to take the oral polio vaccination.” The game which Lawan started as a young man has become a national sport with a major tournament held each October to mark World Polio Day. A boy wears a cap during a news conference marking the 3-year-polio-free milestone in Abuja, Nigeria, Aug. 21, 2019.Polio survivors like Bello Abdullahi, who have been a part of the game since 1997, are para-soccer stars. He has also made enough money to do business and support his family.”Through the sport I got a house in FCT (Abuja), I have been doing small business,” Abdullahi said. “If you look down there,” he points, “you’ll see my refrigerators — two of them. I got the money to buy the refrigerators through sports.”A 43-nation region in Africa was certified polio-free on August 24 after Nigeria, the last country on the continent to report cases, had not seen an instance since 2016, when cases surged during unrest in the Borno region.Faisal Shuaib is executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency. He said an insurgency involving Boko Haram militants stalled progress made against polio. Boko Haram has been fighting to carve out an Islamic caliphate based in Nigeria.”We could not access kids behind the enemy lines,” Shuaib said. “When the kids started coming out then it became obvious that there was still some transmission going on in Borno around the lake Chad region. But beyond all of that, there was insecurity as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency, that is what created many communities that were inaccessible.A player for the Kano Pillars para-soccer team holds his son Khalid after a training session in Kano, northwestern Nigeria, on April 22, 2017.The victory for the African region comes more than two decades since Nigeria joined the fight to eradicate polio in Africa.While many celebrate, Shuaib said it’s important to remain vigilant. ”As long as we continue to have two endemic countries — Pakistan and Afghanistan, then there’s always that potential that there’ll be importation of the wild polio virus to any African country, to Nigeria as it were,” Shuaib said. “So, of course, that concern is there.”A disability rights group in Nigeria estimates 40% of people with disabilities in the country are polio survivors, and that most of them live in abject poverty. Beyond Nigeria’s polio eradication, polio survivor Misbahu Lawan Didi says he will keep working to give other survivors hope through sports. 
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A new study suggests researchers have developed a method to significantly improve “anti-solar” panels – a new clean, sustainable way to generate energy at night.   Solar panels work because they are colder than the light given off by the sun, so they can capture that heat and convert it into electrical energy. “Anti-solar” panels work by being cooler than heat radiated by the Earth at night, gathering that heat and converting it into electricity using a thermoelectric generator.  Developers of the anti-solar panels say they can generate about a quarter of the electricity as solar panels. But authors of a new study published Monday in the journal Optics Express say they have developed a method that, in simulations, has improved energy generation in these anti-solar panels by as much as 120%. The team of researchers from Stanford University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology said they achieved their results by improving the thermoelectric generator. They used a more efficient material to allow the generator to more efficiently dump excess heat. The researchers say that after they analyzed these upgrades, their redesign of the anti-solar generator was able to produce 2.2 watts of energy per square meter – 120 times the energy produced by previous anti-solar models. The researchers are quick to point out there is a difference between simulations and an actual physical system. But they also say their design uses technology and materials that are currently available. Their design works well enough to, theoretically, convert heat for energy from other sources, such as running cars, and could be used during the day.  They suggest this design might fill the gaps from other sustainable sources and provide reliable energy in remote and underdeveloped areas.  
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