For nearly two decades, Vancouver, the epicenter of Canada’s increasingly deadly drug epidemic, has embraced an initiative that was once dismissed as a reckless experiment but has since won over some of its fiercest critics: a walk-in facility where addicts can inject heroin under the watch of medical professionals.

Allowed as an exemption under Canada’s drug laws, Insite operates out of a storefront in the drug- and crime-ridden neighborhood of Downtown Eastside. Inside is a quiet, spacious “injection room” with 12 booths where addicts can shoot up their own drugs using freely supplied clean needles and tourniquets.

Nurses keep watch from a nearby station. And in case of an overdose, a medical team is on hand to administer naloxone, the overdose-reversing drug.In the center’s 16-year history, not a single user has died of an overdose.

Now, as a deadly opioid epidemic wrecks American communities, Philadelphia, a city with over 1,100 overdose deaths last year and one of the most active heroin markets in the country, wants to be the first in the nation to adopt the Canadian model.

The mayor and the district attorney have endorsed the initiative. A former governor of Pennsylvania has incorporated a nonprofit organization called Safehouse to run the facility. And advocates have scouted locations with an eye on Kensington, an impoverished neighborhood that has borne the brunt of opioid-related deaths in recent years.

But the plan faces stiff opposition from federal prosecutors who say it violates a law against setting up facilities for illegal drug use. To prevent the facility from opening, William McSwain, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, last week asked a federal judge to declare the site illegal under a 1986 “crack house statute.”

“Normalizing the use of deadly drugs like heroin and fentanyl is not the answer to solving the epidemic,” McSwain told reporters.

Worth trying

McSwain wants advocates to change the laws not break them. But supporters of the project say changing the laws takes time and the time to embrace a concept with a proven track record of saving lives is now.

“All of these [facilities] have had a similar result: they’ve lowered the number of overdoses associated with the immediate area,” said Jose Benitez, a co-founder of Safehouse and executive director of Prevention Point, a needle exchange program. “We see the same thing happening in Philadelphia.

With more than 800 daily visits, Insite is the busiest facility of its kind in the world.In the 16 years since it opened its doors, Insite has recorded more than 1,000 overdoses, many potentially fatal without intervention. But not a single one has resulted in death. What’s more, researchers have found Insite users are more likely to seek out treatment.

“There are people who say that Insite sets a bad example and supports the initiation of drugs, but in fact what we found was that people who used Insite were more likely to stop using drugs,” said M-J Milloy, a research scientist at the British Columbia Center on Substance Use.

Milloy was part of a multiyear scientific evaluation of Insite mandated by the government of Canada. Among the study’s key findings: a 35 percent drop in overdose fatalities in the surrounding community.

He said scientists also examined whether the facility can encourage drug use and degrade the quality of life in the surrounding communities, as critics have claimed. They found the criticisms “to be wholly lacking in empiric support,” he added.

“There is a scientific consensus that these facilities can have important benefits, not only on the health and well-being of the clientele who use them, but also, indeed, in the surrounding community itself,” Milloy said.

“Based on our research, we believe Insite and other injection facilities to be important interventions that should be considered by any city or setting which is dealing with the negative consequences of injection drug use,” he added.

But Insite has not been without its critics who have questioned the scientific research. These critics say that while Insite has prevented overdose deaths, it has not led to a reduction in crime or drug use in the community.

The facility was designed as a three-year scientific experiment, but it has been allowed to operate indefinitely after a landmark ruling by Canada’s Supreme Court in 2011.

US cities interested

Inspired by the Insite’s success, nearly a dozen American cities and counties battling an opioid epidemic have taken up the idea in an apparent violation of federal law. In several cities, including New York, San Francisco and Seattle, local governments have worked out concrete plans for injection facilities, but it remains unclear if they can surmount opposition from federal and state authorities.

The controversy not only has pitted cities against the federal government but also localities against their state governments.

In California, the state Legislature last year passed a bill that would have allowed the city of San Francisco to operate a safe injection site on a pilot basis. But then-Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, vetoed the bill, citing the threat of federal prosecution.

Two state lawmakers reintroduced the bill recently, and current Governor Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat, has said he is “very, very open” to the idea.

Philadelphia, a storied Northeast city with a population of 1.6 million, has been hit especially hard by the opioid epidemic. Overdose deaths have more than doubled in the past five years.

Two years ago, Mayor Jim Kenney set up a task force to study the drug addiction scourge and make recommendations. Task force members traveled to Vancouver, to visit Insite, and Seattle, to learn about its plans to offer safe injection services out of a van. Among other recommendations, the task force suggested that the city explore a safe injection site on a pilot basis.

That led Ronda Goldfein, executive director of AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, and Benitez to set up Safehouse and enlist former Governor Ed Rendell’s support. Rendell, who as mayor of Philadelphia in the 1990s allowed the city’s first needle exchange program, agreed to incorporate Safehouse and sit on its board.

A study commissioned by the task force estimated that the opening of a safe injection site could potentially avert between 24 and 76 opioid overdose deaths each year.

“There are people who fear that we’re somehow promoting drug use, but there’s evidence from these facilities worldwide that they don’t encourage drug use,” Thomas Farley, the city’s health commissioner who sits on the board of Safehouse, told VOA last year. Many “people have an immediate negative reaction, but the evidence is quite strong that they have a real positive effect on users and in the neighborhoods,” he added.

Federal government hurdles

Unlike some other states, Pennsylvania doesn’t have a law against setting up a facility for drug use, and Safehouse is not seeking public funding. For those reasons, the initiative does not face state opposition, Goldfein said.

“Our biggest impediment is not the state government but the federal government,” Goldfein said, adding that the state governor has indicated that he won’t take any steps against the planned facility.

The federal opposition was long coming. In an op-ed in The New York Times last August, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wrote that safe injection sites were illegal and he threatened “swift and aggressive action” against cities and counties opening them.

Goldfein said the site’s primary purpose is to prevent overdose deaths, not facilitate drug use, which would be illegal under federal law.

“We’re opening up a facility for the purpose of saving lives and for the secondary purpose of getting people into treatment,” she said. “That is a completely different intent from the reasoning behind crack house laws.”

Safehouse has 30 days to file its response to the federal complaint. The case is being closely watched by other cities and counties considering safe injection facilities.

If the federal judge hearing the case rules in Safehouse’s favor, “it will certainly be an important piece of information for other jurisdictions to go forward with,” Goldfein said.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, not everyone is convinced that an injection facility run by Safehouse is a good idea. David Oh, a Philadelphia City Councilman At-Large, said the center could spell trouble for the city.

“We’re the largest, poor big city in America with a lot of poverty issues, job issues and education issues,” said Oh, a Republican. “We’re inviting people to come live in our city and do their drugs here, and we’re going to service and provide for them, and the communities are trying to exist and don’t want them there.”
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A team of Australian paleontologists and volunteers has saved a once-in a lifetime fossil discovery from devastating floods in Queensland state.

The dinosaur tracks give a rare insight into an ancient world.  Found on an outback farm near the Queensland town of Winton, 1,100 kms from Brisbane, they are estimated to be almost 100 million years old.

The footprints are stamped into a large slab of sandstone rock, and were made by a sauropod, a giant creature with a long neck and tail, and by two smaller dinosaurs.  Some of the footprints are up to a meter wide and come from the Cretaceous period.  

Scientists were alerted to the danger posed to this remarkable collection when it was partly damaged by severe flooding last year.

For three weeks scientists and volunteers worked to carefully dig up and relocate the dinosaur tracks.   

They are being stored at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum in Winton, where they will eventually go on display.

David Elliott is the museum’s executive chairman.

“We really want to preserve the integrity of the tracks.  We do not want to just tear them up and go and lock them on the ground somewhere.  You know, they have to be done a certain way.  We cannot just leave it here because that is, you know, [a] find of a lifetime.”

Dinosaur tracks are rare in Australia.

Steve Poropat, a paleontologist at Swinburne University in Melbourne says the footprints were saved from recent monsoonal flooding in Queensland.

“The imperative was to get those soft footprints out of the ground because they just would not have lasted in another flood now that they have been fully exposed.  To get it all out of the ground, to make sure that it is safe from future floods is fantastic,” he said. 

Monsoonal rains in Queensland have caused chaos, flooding hundreds of homes and drowning several hundred thousand livestock.  Officials said it was a one-in-100-year event, and they have warned it could take years to rebuild the local cattle industry.

As the floodwaters recede on land, they are polluting parts of the Great Barrier Reef.  Experts say plumes of polluted water are stretching up to 60 kms from the coast, putting more pressure on coral that has suffered mass bleaching in recent years.  When ocean temperatures increase, corals can expel the algae that live in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white.

The Great Barrier Reef is Australia’s greatest natural treasure and stretches 2,300 kms down Australia’s northeast coastline.
…

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A team of Australian paleontologists and volunteers has saved a once-in a lifetime fossil discovery from devastating floods in Queensland state.

The dinosaur tracks give a rare insight into an ancient world.  Found on an outback farm near the Queensland town of Winton, 1,100 kms from Brisbane, they are estimated to be almost 100 million years old.

The footprints are stamped into a large slab of sandstone rock, and were made by a sauropod, a giant creature with a long neck and tail, and by two smaller dinosaurs.  Some of the footprints are up to a meter wide and come from the Cretaceous period.  

Scientists were alerted to the danger posed to this remarkable collection when it was partly damaged by severe flooding last year.

For three weeks scientists and volunteers worked to carefully dig up and relocate the dinosaur tracks.   

They are being stored at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum in Winton, where they will eventually go on display.

David Elliott is the museum’s executive chairman.

“We really want to preserve the integrity of the tracks.  We do not want to just tear them up and go and lock them on the ground somewhere.  You know, they have to be done a certain way.  We cannot just leave it here because that is, you know, [a] find of a lifetime.”

Dinosaur tracks are rare in Australia.

Steve Poropat, a paleontologist at Swinburne University in Melbourne says the footprints were saved from recent monsoonal flooding in Queensland.

“The imperative was to get those soft footprints out of the ground because they just would not have lasted in another flood now that they have been fully exposed.  To get it all out of the ground, to make sure that it is safe from future floods is fantastic,” he said. 

Monsoonal rains in Queensland have caused chaos, flooding hundreds of homes and drowning several hundred thousand livestock.  Officials said it was a one-in-100-year event, and they have warned it could take years to rebuild the local cattle industry.

As the floodwaters recede on land, they are polluting parts of the Great Barrier Reef.  Experts say plumes of polluted water are stretching up to 60 kms from the coast, putting more pressure on coral that has suffered mass bleaching in recent years.  When ocean temperatures increase, corals can expel the algae that live in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white.

The Great Barrier Reef is Australia’s greatest natural treasure and stretches 2,300 kms down Australia’s northeast coastline.
…

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A huge shipping container in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado, is the home of some of the nation’s smallest livestock. Rocky Mountain Micro Ranch is Colorado’s first and only edible insect farm, and one of fewer than three dozen companies in the U.S. growing insects as human food or animal feed.

Wendy Lu McGill started her company in 2015, and today grows nearly 275 kilos of crickets and mealworms every month. “I want to be part of trying to figure out how to feed ourselves better as we have less land and water and a hotter planet and more people to feed,” she explains.  

Feeding the world’s appetite for protein through beef and even chicken is unsustainable, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.  Protein from bugs is more doable.

 

On the global menu

 

Edible insects are a great source of high quality protein and essential minerals such as calcium and iron. Edible grubs — insect larvae — offer all that, plus high quality fat, which is good for brain development.

 

Insects are part of the diet in many parts of the world. Analysts say the global edible insects market is poised to surpass $710 million by 2024, with some estimates as high as $1.2 billion. And while American consumers comprise a small percentage of that market today, there is growing demand for a variety of insect-infused products.

 

Thinking small

 

Amy Franklin is the founder of a non-profit called Farms for Orphans, which is working in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “What we do is farm bugs for food because in other countries where we work, they’re a really, really popular food,” she notes.

 

In Kinshasa’s markets, vendors sell platters of live wild-caught crickets plus big bowls of pulsating African Palm weevil larvae. These wild insects are only plentiful in certain seasons. 

Franklin’s group helps orphanages grow African Palm weevil larvae year round, in shipping containers. “Most of the orphanages don’t own any land. There really is no opportunity for them to grow a garden or to raise chickens. Insects are a protein source that they can grow in a very small space.”

 

Changing the American palate

 

It’s estimated that more than 2 billion people worldwide eat insects every day. And even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has confirmed that consumption of crickets and mealworms is safe and that they are a natural protein source, many Americans, like Denver grandfather Terry Koelling, remain skeptical. As he and his grandchildren take a tour of Rocky Mountain Micro Ranch, he admits, “I don’t think they are very appealing, as something to put in your mouth.  You see them around dead things, and it just does not appeal to me to eat something that wild.”

But his 5-year-old grandson Andrew is adventurous enough to try a baked salted mealworm and announces that it “tastes kind of crunchy and kind of yummy.”

 

Koelling gets adventurous at Linger, a Denver restaurant that has had an insect entree on its menu for three years.

 

Culinary director, Jeremy Kittelson, says Linger is committed to changing the American palate. “As much as we love beef,” he says, “there’s no scientist who will tell you cattle farming is a sustainable practice. We should eat more insects.”

 

And so Koelling takes a forkful of the Cricket Soba Noodle dish, with black ants, sesame seeds and crickets mixed in with green tea soba noodles, and garnished with Chapuline Crickets.

 

“The seasoning’s great!” he says with surprise, adding, “Seems to me there weren’t enough crickets in it!”
…

your ads here!

A huge shipping container in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado, is the home of some of the nation’s smallest livestock. Rocky Mountain Micro Ranch is Colorado’s first and only edible insect farm, and one of fewer than three dozen companies in the U.S. growing insects as human food or animal feed.

Wendy Lu McGill started her company in 2015, and today grows nearly 275 kilos of crickets and mealworms every month. “I want to be part of trying to figure out how to feed ourselves better as we have less land and water and a hotter planet and more people to feed,” she explains.  

Feeding the world’s appetite for protein through beef and even chicken is unsustainable, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.  Protein from bugs is more doable.

 

On the global menu

 

Edible insects are a great source of high quality protein and essential minerals such as calcium and iron. Edible grubs — insect larvae — offer all that, plus high quality fat, which is good for brain development.

 

Insects are part of the diet in many parts of the world. Analysts say the global edible insects market is poised to surpass $710 million by 2024, with some estimates as high as $1.2 billion. And while American consumers comprise a small percentage of that market today, there is growing demand for a variety of insect-infused products.

 

Thinking small

 

Amy Franklin is the founder of a non-profit called Farms for Orphans, which is working in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “What we do is farm bugs for food because in other countries where we work, they’re a really, really popular food,” she notes.

 

In Kinshasa’s markets, vendors sell platters of live wild-caught crickets plus big bowls of pulsating African Palm weevil larvae. These wild insects are only plentiful in certain seasons. 

Franklin’s group helps orphanages grow African Palm weevil larvae year round, in shipping containers. “Most of the orphanages don’t own any land. There really is no opportunity for them to grow a garden or to raise chickens. Insects are a protein source that they can grow in a very small space.”

 

Changing the American palate

 

It’s estimated that more than 2 billion people worldwide eat insects every day. And even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has confirmed that consumption of crickets and mealworms is safe and that they are a natural protein source, many Americans, like Denver grandfather Terry Koelling, remain skeptical. As he and his grandchildren take a tour of Rocky Mountain Micro Ranch, he admits, “I don’t think they are very appealing, as something to put in your mouth.  You see them around dead things, and it just does not appeal to me to eat something that wild.”

But his 5-year-old grandson Andrew is adventurous enough to try a baked salted mealworm and announces that it “tastes kind of crunchy and kind of yummy.”

 

Koelling gets adventurous at Linger, a Denver restaurant that has had an insect entree on its menu for three years.

 

Culinary director, Jeremy Kittelson, says Linger is committed to changing the American palate. “As much as we love beef,” he says, “there’s no scientist who will tell you cattle farming is a sustainable practice. We should eat more insects.”

 

And so Koelling takes a forkful of the Cricket Soba Noodle dish, with black ants, sesame seeds and crickets mixed in with green tea soba noodles, and garnished with Chapuline Crickets.

 

“The seasoning’s great!” he says with surprise, adding, “Seems to me there weren’t enough crickets in it!”
…

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Being surrounded by wild animals, feeding them and taking care of their little ones this is exactly what Tiffany Soechting wanted to do all her life. Anush Avetisyan met with the woman who is the human “mom” to the 500 animals that live on her family’s wildlife preserve in Texas.
…

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Being surrounded by wild animals, feeding them and taking care of their little ones this is exactly what Tiffany Soechting wanted to do all her life. Anush Avetisyan met with the woman who is the human “mom” to the 500 animals that live on her family’s wildlife preserve in Texas.
…

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A method millions of women have used to get pregnant could be what saves northern white rhino from extinction. Scientists are extracting eggs from southern white rhinos in European zoos as they fine-tune the IVF – in vitro fertilization – procedure. One day they plan to harvest eggs from northern white rhinos and create a northern white rhino embryo with a southern white rhino female acting as a surrogate. It may be the only chance these armored giants have. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
…

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A method millions of women have used to get pregnant could be what saves northern white rhino from extinction. Scientists are extracting eggs from southern white rhinos in European zoos as they fine-tune the IVF – in vitro fertilization – procedure. One day they plan to harvest eggs from northern white rhinos and create a northern white rhino embryo with a southern white rhino female acting as a surrogate. It may be the only chance these armored giants have. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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The ancient world of dinosaurs was a strange and dangerous place. Many of the animals that roamed the earth during the Cretaceous period 140 million years ago were all teeth and claws and spines. But even among all this natural weaponry, the Bajadasaurus stood out. VOA’s Kevin Enochs gives us a look.
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Nearly a year in space put astronaut Scott Kelly’s immune system on high alert and changed the activity of some of his genes compared with those of his Earth-bound identical twin, researchers said Friday. 

 

Scientists don’t know if the changes were good or bad, but results from a unique NASA twins study are raising new questions for doctors as the space agency aims to send people to Mars.  

 

Tests of the genetic doubles gave scientists an opportunity, not available before, to track details of human biology, such as how an astronaut’s genes turn on and off in space differently than at home. One puzzling change announced Friday at a science conference: Kelly’s immune system was hyperactivated. 

 

“It’s as if the body is reacting to this alien environment,” somewhat like the way a body would react with “a mysterious organism” inside, said geneticist Christopher Mason of New York’s Weill Cornell Medical College, who helped lead the study. He said doctors were now looking for that in other astronauts. 

 

Longtime research

Since the beginning of space exploration, NASA has studied the toll on astronauts’ bodies, such as bone loss that requires exercise to counter. Typically they’re in space about six months at a time. Kelly, who lived on the International Space Station, spent 340 days in space and set a U.S. record. 

 

“I’ve never felt completely normal in space,” the now-retired Kelly said in an email to The Associated Press, citing the usual congestion from shifting fluid, headaches and difficulty concentrating from extra carbon dioxide, and digestive complaints from microgravity. 

 

But this study was a unique dive into the molecular level, with former astronaut Mark Kelly, Scott’s twin, on the ground for comparison. Full results haven’t yet been published, but researchers presented some findings Friday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

​’Gene expression’

A number of genes connected to the immune system became hyperactive, Mason said. It’s not a change in DNA but in what’s called “gene expression,” how genes turn off and on and increase or decrease their production of proteins. Mason also spotted a spike in the bloodstream of another marker that primes the immune system. Yet at the same time, Kelly’s blood showed fewer of another cell type that’s an early defense against viruses. 

 

It’s not a surprise that gene activity would change in space — it changes in response to all kinds of stress. 

 

“You can see the body adapting to the change in its environment,” Mason said. 

 

The good news: Almost everything returned to normal shortly after Kelly got back on Earth in March 2016. Those immune-related genes, however, “seemed to have this memory or this need to almost be on high alert” even six months later, Mason said. 

 

“On the whole it’s encouraging,” said Craig Kundrot, who heads space life and science research for NASA. “There are no major new warning signs. We are seeing changes that we didn’t necessarily anticipate,” but they don’t know if those changes are consequential. 

Russian experience

 

From four Russians living in space for more than a year, NASA already knew prolonged time off Earth is possible, Kundrot said, adding, “We also aim for more than just possible. We want our astronauts to do more than just survive.” 

 

Ultimately, the twins study gives NASA a catalog of things to monitor on future missions to see if other astronauts react the same way. Astronauts on future missions will be able to do some of this testing in space instead of freezing samples for scientists back home, Mason said.  

Immune issues sound familiar to Dr. Jerry Linenger, an American astronaut who spent more than four months on the Russian space station Mir. He said he was never sick in orbit, but once he came back to Earth, “I was probably more sick than I was in my life.” 

 

Astronauts launch into orbit with their own germs and get exposed to their crewmates’ germs, and then after a week with nothing else new in the “very sterile environment” of a space station, “your immune system is really not challenged,” Linenger said. 

 

A human mission to Mars, which NASA hopes to launch in the 2030s, will take 30 months, including time on the surface, Kundrot said. 

Radiation exposure

 

Radiation is a top concern. The mission would expose astronauts to galactic cosmic radiation levels higher than NASA’s own safety standard. It’s “just a little bit over,” he said.  

 

On Earth and even on the space station, Earth’s magnetic field shields astronauts from lots of radiation. There would be no such shielding on the way to Mars and back, but tunnels or dirt-covered habitats could help a bit on Mars, Kundrot said. 

 

Kelly, who turns 55 next week, said he’d go to Mars. He said a trip that long “wouldn’t be worse than what I experienced. Possibly better. I think the big physical challenge, radiation aside, will be a mission where you are in space for years.”  
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It may sound gross to some, but edible insects are a great source of high quality protein and essential minerals such as calcium and iron. Edible grubs offer all that, plus high quality fat, which is good for brain development. Insects are part of the diet in many parts of the world. But not in the U.S., where bug phobias mean insect dishes are extremely rare. But that’s starting to change … and some steps are so small, they are micro-sized. From Denver Colorado, Shelley Schlender reports.
…

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U.N. agencies warn that more than 1 billion people ages 12 to 35 risk losing their hearing from listening to loud music on their audio devices.  The World Health Organization, and the International Telecommunication Union, are launching new international standards to make smartphones and other devices safer for listening.

Listening to music is one of life’s greatest pleasures. U.N. health experts say they do not want to deprive younger people of the enjoyable experience of listening to music regularly on their headphones.  But they warn listening to loud music is unsafe and can cause permanent damage to hearing.  

The World Health Organization says it has no clear evidence that 1.1 billion people are at risk of developing hearing problems. However, WHO technical officer for the prevention of deafness and hearing loss Shelly Chadha said the figure is based on a study conducted four years ago.

That study, she says, focused on the listening habits of young people and the volume of sound to which they were generally exposed.  She said this information has been valuable in working on solutions for preventing hearing loss.

“So, our effort through this standard is really to empower the user to make the right listening choice and decision,  either to practice safe listening or to take the risk of developing hearing loss and tinnitus down the line.

The main recommendations for safe listening include having software on personal audio devices that measures how long and how loudly a user has been listening to music.  They also call for automatic volume reduction systems on smartphones and other devices, as well as parental volume control.

The U.N. agencies say they hope governments and manufacturers will adopt the suggested standards, as disabling hearing loss is set to increase significantly in the coming years.

The WHO and ITU report 466 million people suffer from the disability, most in low- and middle-income countries. It estimates the number will rise to more than 900 million people by 2050. The agencies say half of all cases of hearing loss can be prevented through public health measures.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) says that measles outbreaks and deaths are surging globally, putting years of progress made in reducing the killer disease at risk. The WHO is calling for urgent action to stop the spread of the highly contagious but fully preventable disease. 

The WHO says a safe, effective vaccine, which has been around for 50 years, has protected millions of children. But WHO Director of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals Katherine O’Brien says progress is at risk because of the failure to vaccinate many children in all regions of the world.  

“Measles as a virus is one of the most contagious infections that there is.  For every case of measles that occurs in a setting where people are not immune, nine to 10 additional cases will occur simply because of exposure to that case,” she said.

O’Brien notes measles is spread by respiratory droplets that can live on surfaces for hours. Therefore, it is not necessary to have direct contact with an infected person to get sick.

The WHO says 229,000 cases of measles were reported worldwide last year. But it says the number of reported cases represents less than 10 percent of actual cases.  So, millions of cases are occurring.

Africa is one of the regional hot spots. Katrina Kertsinger, a WHO medical officer in the Expanded Program on Immunization, says there have been measles outbreaks of varying magnitude in all countries in this region.

“Madagascar is currently experiencing an outbreak from a period from 2018 to present.  There is over 66,000 cases that have been reported in that country alone…I personally was in Madagascar several weeks ago.  I can say as a clinician how heartbreaking it is to be in a context where there are measles cases which are entirely preventable,” Kertsinger said.  

The WHO says many children in poor countries are not being vaccinated because they live in marginalized areas where clinics are not easily reached.  

In wealthier countries, it says parents sometimes choose not to have their children immunized because of false claims that the vaccine is dangerous.

 

 
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your ads here!

Edible insects are a great source of high quality protein and essential minerals such as calcium and iron. Edible grubs, insect larvae, offer all that, plus high quality fat, which is good for brain development. Insects are part of the diet in many parts of the world. But not in the US, where bug phobias mean insect dishes are extremely rare. But that’s starting to change . . . and some steps are so small, they are micro-sized. From Denver Colorado, Shelley Schlender reports.
…

your ads here!

Edible insects are a great source of high quality protein and essential minerals such as calcium and iron. Edible grubs, insect larvae, offer all that, plus high quality fat, which is good for brain development. Insects are part of the diet in many parts of the world. But not in the US, where bug phobias mean insect dishes are extremely rare. But that’s starting to change . . . and some steps are so small, they are micro-sized. From Denver Colorado, Shelley Schlender reports.
…

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Insects are the most biodiverse group of living things on the planet. And it is a good thing there are so many of them because they are responsible for many of the fundamental processes that allow life on earth, from pollination to decomposition. But a new report suggests they are disappearing, and that could be catastrophic.

A new review of over 70 studies of insect populations suggests that human pressures are causing insect populations to plummet, by as much as a quarter every decade.

Max Barclay, an entomologist at London’s Natural History Museum, says, “Some of my colleagues have compared it to playing Jenga — you know, you move pieces from the Jenga tower and everything seems to be OK and then you remove one piece and the whole thing falls down and you don’t know which piece in advance that’s going to be, and once you’ve removed it you can’t put it back again, so the loss of species is inevitably concerning, because often we don’t know what those pieces are doing, we don’t know what other species are depending on them.”

Insects make up the largest class of animals on earth and represent more than half of all known living organisms. They are incredibly diverse and in many ways make life on earth possible.

Bees and butterflies pollinate our food, flowers and trees. They feed all kinds of larger animals, including humans.

And insects play a vital role in the decomposition of all kinds of organic matter from leaves to roadkill.

Their collapse is being driven by human activity: everything from traffic to industrial farming and pesticides to light pollution.

Scientists like Mark Wright, with the World Wildlife Fund, say doing nothing to solve the problem is not an option.

“A large number of the crops we eat and rely on are pollinated by insects, so imagine a world where that pollination process is not taking place. And there are some cases around the world already where we are having to pollinate by hand — at huge cost — at huge economic cost simply because the insects aren’t there to do the work that we would normally ask them to do for free. In some cases, if you are talking about food crops, just try to imagine the scale of what that would look like if insects weren’t doing that for us.”

One big caveat: all of the studies come from industrialized countries in Europe and North America.

The researchers say they simply don’t have the data to census the robust insect species in more tropical regions. But in these industrialized countries, the report predicts that all insect species could be gone in a century.

 
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Insects are the most biodiverse group of living things on the planet. And it is a good thing there are so many of them because they are responsible for many of the fundamental processes that allow life on earth, from pollination to decomposition. But a new report suggests they are disappearing, and that could be catastrophic.

A new review of over 70 studies of insect populations suggests that human pressures are causing insect populations to plummet, by as much as a quarter every decade.

Max Barclay, an entomologist at London’s Natural History Museum, says, “Some of my colleagues have compared it to playing Jenga — you know, you move pieces from the Jenga tower and everything seems to be OK and then you remove one piece and the whole thing falls down and you don’t know which piece in advance that’s going to be, and once you’ve removed it you can’t put it back again, so the loss of species is inevitably concerning, because often we don’t know what those pieces are doing, we don’t know what other species are depending on them.”

Insects make up the largest class of animals on earth and represent more than half of all known living organisms. They are incredibly diverse and in many ways make life on earth possible.

Bees and butterflies pollinate our food, flowers and trees. They feed all kinds of larger animals, including humans.

And insects play a vital role in the decomposition of all kinds of organic matter from leaves to roadkill.

Their collapse is being driven by human activity: everything from traffic to industrial farming and pesticides to light pollution.

Scientists like Mark Wright, with the World Wildlife Fund, say doing nothing to solve the problem is not an option.

“A large number of the crops we eat and rely on are pollinated by insects, so imagine a world where that pollination process is not taking place. And there are some cases around the world already where we are having to pollinate by hand — at huge cost — at huge economic cost simply because the insects aren’t there to do the work that we would normally ask them to do for free. In some cases, if you are talking about food crops, just try to imagine the scale of what that would look like if insects weren’t doing that for us.”

One big caveat: all of the studies come from industrialized countries in Europe and North America.

The researchers say they simply don’t have the data to census the robust insect species in more tropical regions. But in these industrialized countries, the report predicts that all insect species could be gone in a century.

 
…

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Insects are the most biodiverse group of living things on the planet. And it is a good thing there are so many of them because they are responsible for many of the fundamental processes that allow life on earth, from pollination to decomposition. But a new report suggests they are disappearing, and that could be catastrophic. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Insects are the most biodiverse group of living things on the planet. And it is a good thing there are so many of them because they are responsible for many of the fundamental processes that allow life on earth, from pollination to decomposition. But a new report suggests they are disappearing, and that could be catastrophic. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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“I declare the Opportunity mission is complete,” NASA official Thomas Zurbuchen said Wednesday of the U.S. Mars rover mission that outlasted its projected life span by more than 14 years.  

 

The Opportunity rover succumbed to a Martian dust storm and lost contact with Earth nearly eight months ago. NASA finally gave up on it after more than 800 attempts to re-establish contact. 

Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said at a news conference at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., that he shared the news “with a deep sense of appreciation and gratitude.”

Opportunity was launched in 2003 and reached Mars a year later, close on the heels of its “twin,” a rover named Spirit. Both rovers, roughly the size of golf carts, were tasked with activities that would last about 90 days, but both far outlasted their original missions, spending years exploring the planet’s rocky terrain while using solar panels for engine power.

First to fall silent

Spirit got stuck in 2009 and stopped communicating with NASA a year later. It is believed to have shut down for good during the harsh Martian winter.

Opportunity continued to explore until last year when a dust storm consumed the entire planet and blocked communication with Earth.

NASA scientists said they had hoped the wind would eventually clear debris off Opportunity’s solar panels and allow it to power up and re-establish contact. But repeated attempts to reach the rover failed.

Late Tuesday, NASA scientists made one last try to reach it. By Wednesday, the agency announced the long mission was finally over.

“It was an incredibly somber moment,” NASA scientist Tanya Harrison told The New York Times.  

At the end, the rover had covered a distance of 45.16 kilometers (28.06 miles) — a little longer than a marathon. 

But NASA’s work on Mars continues. The rover Curiosity has been exploring another part of the planet since 2012.

Next year, two more rovers — one from China and one from a combined effort by Russia and the European Union — are expected to begin their own voyages to the Red Planet.  
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“I declare the Opportunity mission is complete,” NASA official Thomas Zurbuchen said Wednesday of the U.S. Mars rover mission that outlasted its projected life span by more than 14 years.  

 

The Opportunity rover succumbed to a Martian dust storm and lost contact with Earth nearly eight months ago. NASA finally gave up on it after more than 800 attempts to re-establish contact. 

Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said at a news conference at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., that he shared the news “with a deep sense of appreciation and gratitude.”

Opportunity was launched in 2003 and reached Mars a year later, close on the heels of its “twin,” a rover named Spirit. Both rovers, roughly the size of golf carts, were tasked with activities that would last about 90 days, but both far outlasted their original missions, spending years exploring the planet’s rocky terrain while using solar panels for engine power.

First to fall silent

Spirit got stuck in 2009 and stopped communicating with NASA a year later. It is believed to have shut down for good during the harsh Martian winter.

Opportunity continued to explore until last year when a dust storm consumed the entire planet and blocked communication with Earth.

NASA scientists said they had hoped the wind would eventually clear debris off Opportunity’s solar panels and allow it to power up and re-establish contact. But repeated attempts to reach the rover failed.

Late Tuesday, NASA scientists made one last try to reach it. By Wednesday, the agency announced the long mission was finally over.

“It was an incredibly somber moment,” NASA scientist Tanya Harrison told The New York Times.  

At the end, the rover had covered a distance of 45.16 kilometers (28.06 miles) — a little longer than a marathon. 

But NASA’s work on Mars continues. The rover Curiosity has been exploring another part of the planet since 2012.

Next year, two more rovers — one from China and one from a combined effort by Russia and the European Union — are expected to begin their own voyages to the Red Planet.  
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