The Irrawaddy dolphins that cruise through their namesake river in Myanmar are an endangered species. The Wildlife Conservation Society says there are only about 76 left in the Irrawaddy River. That number has risen from a low of 69 over the past few years thanks to conservation societies working alongside local fishermen. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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The Irrawaddy dolphins that cruise through their namesake river in Myanmar are an endangered species. The Wildlife Conservation Society says there are only about 76 left in the Irrawaddy River. That number has risen from a low of 69 over the past few years thanks to conservation societies working alongside local fishermen. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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It does not yet have office space, staff or even Republican members, but Florida Rep. Kathy Castor is confident that a special House committee on climate change will play a leading role on one of the most daunting challenges facing the planet.

Castor, who chairs the new panel, says those early obstacles can be overcome as lawmakers move to reduce carbon pollution and create clean-energy jobs.

“The Democratic caucus is unified under the belief we have to take bold action on the climate crisis,” Castor said in an interview.

While that can take many forms, the transition to renewable energy such as wind and solar power is “job one,” she said.

Castor, who’s in her seventh term representing the Tampa Bay area, said Congress has a “moral obligation” to protect future generations from the costly effects of climate change, including more severe hurricanes, a longer wildfire season and a dangerous sea-level rise.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi named Castor to lead the panel in December, saying she brings experience, energy and urgency to what Pelosi called “the existential threat of the climate crisis” facing the United States and the world.

The climate panel is similar to one Pelosi created when Democrats last controlled the House from 2007 to 2010. The panel was eliminated when Republicans took the majority in 2011.

While the previous panel played a key role in House approval of a landmark 2009 bill to address global warming, Castor said the new panel is likely to focus on a variety of actions rather than a single piece of legislation.

She and the eight other Democrats named to the panel “are ready to stand up to corporate polluters and special interests” as they press for action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and move toward a clean-energy economy, Castor said.

“Climate deniers, fossil fuel companies and other special interests have had an outsized influence” in Congress in recent years, she said, promising to “stand up” to those forces to protect the environment and create green jobs.

The climate panel is separate from an effort by Democrats to launch a Green New Deal to transform the U.S. economy and create thousands of jobs in renewable energy.

Castor dismissed the idea that the Green New Deal — put forth by freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and veteran Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts — will conflict with the climate panel.

“My job and the committee’s job is to take the general concepts (of the Green New Deal) and turn them into a real policy framework and legislative language and eventually law,” she said.

Pelosi agreed, saying in a statement that the climate panel will “spearhead Democrats’ work to develop innovative, effective solutions to prevent and reverse the climate crisis.”

Pelosi invited Ocasio-Cortez, a social media star and the best-known member of the large class of freshman Democrats, to join the climate panel, but she declined, saying she wants to focus on the Green New Deal and other committee assignments.

Three freshmen — Sean Casten of Illinois, Mike Levin of California and Joe Neguse of Colorado — serve on the panel, along with veteran lawmakers such as Rep. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, the fourth-ranking House Democrat, and Californians Julia Brownley and Jared Huffman, both close Pelosi allies.

“We need their passion and energy, and we need support from all corners all across the country,” Castor said of the freshmen members. “It’s all hands on deck right now.”

Republicans have not named anyone to the climate committee, but six GOP members are expected to join the panel this month.

While she would have preferred that the committee be given subpoena power and legislative authority to draft their own bills, the panel’s more limited power “is not going to hamper us,” Castor said. Most invited witnesses will be eager to testify, she said, and those who resist — including members of the Trump administration — can be compelled to appear by other committees such as Energy and Commerce or Natural Resources.

While the earlier climate panel focused on establishing the threat posed by climate change, Castor said the time to debate climate science is long past.

“People understand the problems,” she said. “They see the effects of sea rise and more dangerous storms. They understand it. They look at Washington and kind of throw up their hands and say, ‘Why don’t you guys do something?’ ”

The committee’s challenge, she added, will be “to restore the faith of people and show them Washington can do some things.”

 
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Many more Americans may be getting opioids for their pets, and veterinarians appear to be prescribing increasingly potent versions of these drugs to animals, a small study suggests. 

The researchers examined data on opioid tablets and patches dispensed or prescribed by 134 veterinarians at an academic small-animal hospital in Philadelphia from 2007 to 2017. Over the decade, the amount of opioids used for creatures like rabbits, birds and reptiles surged 41 percent even though visits to the hospital increased by only 13 percent. 

“We have no way of knowing if any of these prescriptions were obtained by pet owners for themselves, and most were likely not,” said senior study author Dr. Jeanmarie Perrone, a toxicologist with the emergency medicine department at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. 

“However, the risk to humans is that leftover opioid prescriptions to animals end up in the same medicine cabinets as leftover opioids for people, leading to opportunities for misuse by teenagers or unintentional exposures in children that can be lethal,” Perrone said by email. 

The study included 366,468 pet visits to the animal hospital. During these visits, veterinarians prescribed a total of 105.2 million tablets of tramadol, more than 97,000 tablets of hydrocodone, almost 39,000 tablets of codeine and 3,153 fentanyl patches. 

Most were for dogs

Dogs got the most drugs, accounting for 73 percent of these prescriptions, followed by cats at 22.5 percent and exotic animals at 4.5 percent. 

A major factor contributing to the growing opioid crisis in the U.S. is the increasing availability of these drugs, which addicts often get from friends or relatives when they aren’t able to obtain a prescription, researchers note in JAMA Network Open. 

Although medical and dental health providers are the biggest source of these opioids, the current study suggests that veterinary prescriptions may also be part of the problem, they write. 

Veterinarians and animal hospitals can be registered with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and in many states vets can prescribe, stock and dispense opioids without the same reporting requirements that are in place at many retail outlets. 

Only 20 states require veterinarians to report opioid prescribing as medical doctors do to a registry designed to limit misuse, the study authors note. 

Pennsylvania is one of many states without reporting requirements, and results from the study may reflect what happens in other states that lack registries to help curb abuse, Perrone said. 

It’s not clear if the increase in prescriptions in Pennsylvania might be due to an increased push to better manage pain for animals and pets, said Dr. Lee Newman, a researcher at the Colorado School of Public Health in Aurora, or if it is due to the growing number of people with substance abuse problems trying to get medications from veterinarians, or both. 

Switch surmised

“It’s speculation on my part, but it could be that when a human patient stops getting opioid prescriptions from their doctor that they next turn to the veterinarian to try to get drugs,” Newman, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. 

While the study suggests that opioid prescribing from veterinarians represents only a small fraction of the overall opioid prescribing in the country, it also suggests that veterinary practices may be an overlooked part of the problem, said Kirk Evoy, an assistant professor in both the College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin, and at the School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

“This study brings to light that this is yet another potential source of access to opioids that many clinicians and policymakers may not be thinking about in their efforts to curtail the country’s opioid abuse epidemic,” Evoy, who wasn’t 

involved in the study, said by email. 

“Furthermore, while human opioid prescribing has begun to level off in recent years in response to the opioid epidemic, this data seems to indicate that, at least in the specific hospital being studied, prescribing of opioids for animals has continued to climb,” Evoy said. 
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Many more Americans may be getting opioids for their pets, and veterinarians appear to be prescribing increasingly potent versions of these drugs to animals, a small study suggests. 

The researchers examined data on opioid tablets and patches dispensed or prescribed by 134 veterinarians at an academic small-animal hospital in Philadelphia from 2007 to 2017. Over the decade, the amount of opioids used for creatures like rabbits, birds and reptiles surged 41 percent even though visits to the hospital increased by only 13 percent. 

“We have no way of knowing if any of these prescriptions were obtained by pet owners for themselves, and most were likely not,” said senior study author Dr. Jeanmarie Perrone, a toxicologist with the emergency medicine department at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. 

“However, the risk to humans is that leftover opioid prescriptions to animals end up in the same medicine cabinets as leftover opioids for people, leading to opportunities for misuse by teenagers or unintentional exposures in children that can be lethal,” Perrone said by email. 

The study included 366,468 pet visits to the animal hospital. During these visits, veterinarians prescribed a total of 105.2 million tablets of tramadol, more than 97,000 tablets of hydrocodone, almost 39,000 tablets of codeine and 3,153 fentanyl patches. 

Most were for dogs

Dogs got the most drugs, accounting for 73 percent of these prescriptions, followed by cats at 22.5 percent and exotic animals at 4.5 percent. 

A major factor contributing to the growing opioid crisis in the U.S. is the increasing availability of these drugs, which addicts often get from friends or relatives when they aren’t able to obtain a prescription, researchers note in JAMA Network Open. 

Although medical and dental health providers are the biggest source of these opioids, the current study suggests that veterinary prescriptions may also be part of the problem, they write. 

Veterinarians and animal hospitals can be registered with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and in many states vets can prescribe, stock and dispense opioids without the same reporting requirements that are in place at many retail outlets. 

Only 20 states require veterinarians to report opioid prescribing as medical doctors do to a registry designed to limit misuse, the study authors note. 

Pennsylvania is one of many states without reporting requirements, and results from the study may reflect what happens in other states that lack registries to help curb abuse, Perrone said. 

It’s not clear if the increase in prescriptions in Pennsylvania might be due to an increased push to better manage pain for animals and pets, said Dr. Lee Newman, a researcher at the Colorado School of Public Health in Aurora, or if it is due to the growing number of people with substance abuse problems trying to get medications from veterinarians, or both. 

Switch surmised

“It’s speculation on my part, but it could be that when a human patient stops getting opioid prescriptions from their doctor that they next turn to the veterinarian to try to get drugs,” Newman, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. 

While the study suggests that opioid prescribing from veterinarians represents only a small fraction of the overall opioid prescribing in the country, it also suggests that veterinary practices may be an overlooked part of the problem, said Kirk Evoy, an assistant professor in both the College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin, and at the School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

“This study brings to light that this is yet another potential source of access to opioids that many clinicians and policymakers may not be thinking about in their efforts to curtail the country’s opioid abuse epidemic,” Evoy, who wasn’t 

involved in the study, said by email. 

“Furthermore, while human opioid prescribing has begun to level off in recent years in response to the opioid epidemic, this data seems to indicate that, at least in the specific hospital being studied, prescribing of opioids for animals has continued to climb,” Evoy said. 
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Lawmakers in the U.S. Northwestern state of Washington, which is battling a measles outbreak, are considering a bill that would prohibit parents from claiming a personal or philosophical exemption to their children receiving vaccinations.

Hundreds of people opposed to the bill lined up early Friday to attend a hearing in Olympia, the state capital, where lawmakers heard testimony from both supporters and opponents of the proposed bill.

The measure came after health officials reported at least 52 known cases of the measles in the state and four cases in the neighboring state of Oregon.

Current law

Washington state law requires children to be vaccinated for nearly a dozen diseases, including measles, before they can attend schools or child care centers. However, exemptions are allowed for parents based on personal beliefs, including medical, religious and philosophical views.

The proposed bill would eliminate that personal exemption, meaning all children would have to be vaccinated for a range of diseases before enrolling in schools or child care facilities.

The bill has the support of the state medical association as well as Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who declared a state of emergency last month because of the measles outbreak. 

Opponents testifying against the bill Friday included environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has questioned vaccine safety standards.

The Associated Press cited state Department of Health records that showed 4 percent of Washington secondary school students had nonmedical vaccine exemptions. The records showed that 3.7 percent of those exemptions were personal, while the remainder were religious exemptions.

Arguments for, against

Proponents of eliminating the personal exemption argue that schools must be safe and protect vulnerable children. Opponents of the eliminating the exemption argue that the vaccines come with a medical risk and that therefore people must have a choice about whether to use them. 

Both California and Vermont have removed personal belief vaccine exemptions for schoolchildren.  
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Lawmakers in the U.S. Northwestern state of Washington, which is battling a measles outbreak, are considering a bill that would prohibit parents from claiming a personal or philosophical exemption to their children receiving vaccinations.

Hundreds of people opposed to the bill lined up early Friday to attend a hearing in Olympia, the state capital, where lawmakers heard testimony from both supporters and opponents of the proposed bill.

The measure came after health officials reported at least 52 known cases of the measles in the state and four cases in the neighboring state of Oregon.

Current law

Washington state law requires children to be vaccinated for nearly a dozen diseases, including measles, before they can attend schools or child care centers. However, exemptions are allowed for parents based on personal beliefs, including medical, religious and philosophical views.

The proposed bill would eliminate that personal exemption, meaning all children would have to be vaccinated for a range of diseases before enrolling in schools or child care facilities.

The bill has the support of the state medical association as well as Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who declared a state of emergency last month because of the measles outbreak. 

Opponents testifying against the bill Friday included environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has questioned vaccine safety standards.

The Associated Press cited state Department of Health records that showed 4 percent of Washington secondary school students had nonmedical vaccine exemptions. The records showed that 3.7 percent of those exemptions were personal, while the remainder were religious exemptions.

Arguments for, against

Proponents of eliminating the personal exemption argue that schools must be safe and protect vulnerable children. Opponents of the eliminating the exemption argue that the vaccines come with a medical risk and that therefore people must have a choice about whether to use them. 

Both California and Vermont have removed personal belief vaccine exemptions for schoolchildren.  
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In 2001, the government of Nigeria, along with all African Union countries, pledged to spend 15 percent of its annual budget on health care. But the country has never come close to reaching that goal.

The result is that up to 70 percent of medical spending in Nigeria is out of pocket, forcing many with sudden health problems into debt or poverty.

Ajayi Taiwo is one of those people. Taiwo was involved in a car accident a year ago that injured his right leg and pelvis three weeks before his wedding.

Today, he’s still recovering.

“I actually spent like two … close to two months in the hospital and all the resources we had gathered together for the wedding to make it good actually went into hospital bills,” he said.

Discounts promised, not granted

The government hospital where Taiwo was taken would not grant him discounts promised under Nigeria’s national health care plan.

So he had to sell his car and other valuables to pay for care.

“Imagine — I went to a government hospital and I was paying heavily as if I was in a private hospital,” he said.

​Health care pledge

The 2001 health care pledge made by Nigeria and its fellow African Union countries is called the Abuja Declaration.

But 18 years later, Nigeria’s highest-ever budget share for health care was just 7 percent. Last year, it dropped to less than 4 percent.

The impact is that 70 percent of hospital spending in Nigeria is out-of-pocket, which pushes Nigerians like Taiwo into debt or poverty.

“Having to pay out of pocket is a huge, devastating effect on any family,” said Elijah Miner, a consultant surgeon. “I mean you’ve got to look out for food first for the family, school fees, and other things, just basic things to live and that’s why you find out that a lot of people that end up in the hospital come only when it is late simply because they don’t have the funds.”

Out-of-pocket costs

Nneka Orji is a financial officer in Nigeria’s Ministry of Health. She said the government is partnering with international and private affiliates to make health care more affordable.

“Our out-of-pocket expenditure was estimated at over 70 percent and even the estimate we have for 2017 is even higher,” she said. “So our goal is to use this strategy from the basket funding and making sure with basic minimum package of care to reduce the out-of-pocket expenditure.”

But until Nigeria dramatically increases its health care budget, patients like Taiwo likely face a struggle to stay physically and financially healthy.
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The World Health Organization reports it is scaling up efforts to try to control an outbreak of Lassa fever, which is escalating at a rapid pace.  

Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic illness that occurs after human exposure to the urine or feces of infected Mastomys rats. It is also transmitted person to person. About 80 percent of those infected show no symptoms. The disease can be effectively treated in its early stages with the antiviral drug Ribavirin.

West Africa is in the midst of a seasonal outbreak, which usually flares between December and March. The disease is endemic in the region so, the current outbreak was expected. But, WHO spokesman Tarek Jasarevic says what is alarming is the scale and speed with which the disease is spreading.

“Right now, since the beginning of the outbreak until now, we already have one-third of the number of cases that we had last year,” said Jasarevic. “And already last year was the biggest Lassa fever outbreak. So, basically, we are seeing more cases than usual.” 

Nigeria declared an outbreak on January 22.  The disease so far has affected 16 states. The Nigeria Center for Disease Control confirms 213 cases, including 42 deaths in what is seen as the largest outbreak in West Africa.  

While Nigeria is the source of the most anxiety, WHO reports a total of 12 cases, including two deaths have been confirmed in Benin, Guinea, Liberia and Togo, with more suspected cases being investigated.

Jasarevic says the Lassa fever season is expected to last another four months. He tells VOA it is crucial that communities take certain preventive hygienic measures.

“For example, to store grain and other food in rodent-proof containers, disposing of garbage far from their home, maintaining clean households and keeping cats,” said Jasarevic. “Because this particular type of rat is abundant in endemic areas, it is not really possible to completely eliminate them from the environment.” 

Jasarevic says the WHO is intensifying its technical assistance, enhancing surveillance, and mobilizing experts to the region to support case management and infection prevention and control. He says the agency is also supporting prevention and readiness activities in six other countries at risk of outbreaks.

 
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Rainwater is essential for life.

It helps plants and food crops flourish, and it keeps grasslands green and lush.

But too much of it, especially in the city, can lead to flooding, causing sewers to overflow and carry pollutants and contaminants to nearby streams and waterways.

To combat the problem in urban areas of the country, a growing number of cities across the U.S. are initiating programs like rooftop gardens.

​A labor of love

To help with that initiative in the nation’s capital, a team at the University of the District of Columbia has created a rooftop garden on campus with a wide variety of vegetation to help absorb excess rainwater and grow food at the same time.

Architect David Bell, who designed five “green roofs” on the campus, says he’s excited about the project because “it meant doing something more than just dealing with storm water management.”

“It took advantage of a resource above the city that you see all over where you have these flat roofs that aren’t doing anything and really made it into something that was about urban agriculture,” he said.

Rainwater is distributed through an irrigation system and collected in cisterns for the rooftop garden. It is also used in other parts of the campus.

The result is a picturesque sea of green vegetation and patches of brightly colored plants and flowers that attract pollinating insects and other wild creatures.

​Urban agriculture

“In an urban environment, you don’t have that many spaces to choose from, and so rooftops are just unutilized space,” said Caitlin Arlotta, a graduate student in the school’s Urban Agriculture program. “So it’s a really good way to not have to restructure your city necessarily and be able to incorporate green roofs.”

The project, she points out, is part of a research initiative to see which plants are best suited for rooftop environments, both for food as well as pollination. They include hibiscus, strawberries, tomatoes and sweet potatoes.

“We have the same experiment running with tomatoes as we do with strawberries, so we’re doing variety trials and we’re trying to see which variety grows the best in a green roof setting,” she said.

A community affair

She pointed out that plants grow in a variety of different systems on campus, not just on the rooftop.

“We have a hydroponic experiment, aquaponics experiment, we have a couple of bucket experiments going on with partner rooftops, and then we also have our own farm experiments,” Arlotta said. “Within each of those growing systems, we want to be able to tell people which varieties of these crops grow the best.”

A main goal of the program she explained, is to have “food justice.”

“So bringing fresh food into cities where you wouldn’t necessarily have that access,” she said.

And that includes produce for immigrant members of the community as well.

“In the U.S., it may not seem very common to use hibiscus leaves and sweet potato leaves as food, but in many places around the world it is,” Arlotta said.

An excess of riches

Sandy Farber Bandier coordinates UDC’s Master Gardener program, which seeks to “enhance the ecological health and aesthetics of urban environments by training District of Columbia residents to become Master Gardeners.”

She says she’s been surprised by the garden’s bountiful harvest.

“We produced 4,250 pounds (about 1,928 kilos) of produce the first year and were able to disseminate that to people in need,” she said.

Grateful recipients included a number of area food banks and charities.

Spreading the wealth

Another benefit, Bandier says, was being able to show D.C. residents and people beyond the nation’s capital what — and how — food can be grown on a rooftop.

“It’s a wonderful feeling,” she said. “This is the future for food. What we have established here at this college is the food hub concept: you grow it here, you prepare it in a commercial kitchen, you distribute through farmers markets, food trucks, and then you recycle, you recycle, you compost.”

While D.C. is home to one of the largest numbers of green roofs in the country, not all of them are designed to grow food. Architect David Bell hopes that over time, that will change.

“I’d like to see this becoming more of the standard, where people design and build buildings with farming on the roof, with the ability to actually go up there and enjoy it and have a better connection to nature, but also to provide better fresh food to people in urban areas,” he said.
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The National Institutes of Health is investigating whether a dozen researchers there failed to report taking funding from foreign governments, specifically China.

Last August, NIH sent a letter to more than 10,000 research institutions urging them to ensure that NIH grantees are properly reporting their foreign ties. The agency also said it is investigating about a half-dozen cases in which NIH-funded investigators may have broken reporting rules, and it reminded researchers who review grant applications that they should not share proposal information with outsiders.

NIH is also getting pressure from Congress.

Sen. Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, last month requested the NIH Inspector General’s office investigate “threats posed by foreign actors seeking to steal U.S. intellectual property by exploiting U.S. research institutions and the vetting processes in place regarding researchers and public grants [supported] by taxpayer-funded research.”

“The threats to our academic institutions from foreign governments are well known,” Grassley wrote. “Our government must take all reasonable and necessary steps to protect the integrity of taxpayer-funded research.” 

Grassley inquired about the background checks of the researchers conducted by the FBI, as well, asking if “federal law enforcement has taken to educate various government agencies and institutions of higher learning about the threat and a history of investigatory and prosecutorial steps taken by the department in the last five years.”

The senator pointed to testimony in December 2018 from Justice Department witness John Demers, who testified that some “researchers in labs, universities, and the defense industrial base … may have undisclosed ties to Chinese institutions and conflicted loyalties.” 

​In February 2018, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about worldwide threats that the Chinese are “exploiting” and “taking advantage” of our academic institutions. 

The same month, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio wrote to four Florida universities imploring them to sever their relationship with “Confucius Institutes,” or language and cultural programs sponsored by the Chinese government, and in the past few years, accused of spreading Chinese propaganda.

“There is mounting concern about the Chinese government’s increasingly aggressive attempts to use Confucius Institutes … to influence foreign academic institutions, and critical analysis of China’s past history and present policies,” Rubio wrote.

​Several educational institutions have severed ties with “Confucius Institutes” in their countries, including France, Japan, Germany, Canada and Australia. In 2014, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) published a statement titled “Confucius Institutes Threaten Academic Freedom.”

“Confucius Institutes function as an arm of the Chinese state and are allowed to ignore academic freedom,” AAUP wrote.

Grassley’s correspondence cited recent convictions of Chinese nationals who have stolen research from American universities. 

“In simple terms, it’s called cheating,” Grassley wrote. “And it’s only getting worse.”
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Measles is spreading in the U.S. As of Feb. 5, there were 50 cases in Washington state and five in Houston. New cases are being added daily. Health officials, including the U.S. surgeon general, are urging parents to get their children vaccinated.

Measles was eliminated in the U.S. 19 years ago. The cases that occur here now are imported from other countries. But that is happening in the U.S. with greater frequency. Dr. Camille Sabella is a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Cleveland Clinic.

“Measles is incredibly contagious,”he said. “Once it gets around the community it’s very difficult because it’s airborne.”

18 state allow exemptions

Eighteen states allow parents to not vaccinate their children if they have moral, personal or philosophical objections to it.

A measles outbreak in the U.S. northwestern state of Washington has state health officials scrambling to contain it. Dr. Jason Hanley sees emergency cases at the medical center, PeaceHealth.

“I hope I’m wrong, but I think the cases are going to get more frequent and spread throughout the country from this epicenter,” he said.

Rural areas in the U.S. tend to be have higher numbers of unvaccinated children. But there are significant numbers in cities such as Houston, Austin and Seattle, where immunization rates are lower than in other U.S. cities.

Houston just reported two new cases of measles in children younger than 2, bringing the total to five as of Feb. 6.

Doctors, including U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, are urging parents to get their children vaccinated.

“As United States Surgeon General, I want everyone to know that the best protection is getting vaccinated,” he said.

The measles vaccine is almost 100 percent effective. Doctors recommend that children get two doses.

“With one dose of vaccine, about 95 percent of children will become protected against measles. The reason that we give a second dose is because about 5 percent of children do not respond to the first dose. So with two doses over 99 percent of children are protected against measles.”

Measles can be fatal

Measles makes people very sick, and it is especially dangerous for young children. At Children’s National Medical Center, Dr. Roberta DeBiasi works as an infectious disease specialist.

“One-third of those cases will end up hospitalized, and that may be due to a variety of complications,” she said.

Complications such as pneumonia or encephalitis, a swelling of the brain, can be fatal or lead to permanent disability.

That’s why doctors urge parents to get their children vaccinated.
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Melania Trump, addressing an anti-drug conference, says “recovery is possible.”

The first lady traveled to Maryland on Thursday to address the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America’s annual youth leadership forum. Her signature “Be Best” campaign focuses on a number of issues, including the opioid crisis.

Mrs. Trump spoke about a former opioid and substance abuse addict who joined her for Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

The first lady says Ashley Evans received treatment at an Ohio facility, has been in recovery for over a year and looks forward to being reunited with her daughter.

Mrs. Trump says Evans’ story shows “recovery is possible” and that community programs can help make a difference.

The first lady was also visiting the Office of National Drug Control Policy for a briefing.
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Melania Trump, addressing an anti-drug conference, says “recovery is possible.”

The first lady traveled to Maryland on Thursday to address the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America’s annual youth leadership forum. Her signature “Be Best” campaign focuses on a number of issues, including the opioid crisis.

Mrs. Trump spoke about a former opioid and substance abuse addict who joined her for Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

The first lady says Ashley Evans received treatment at an Ohio facility, has been in recovery for over a year and looks forward to being reunited with her daughter.

Mrs. Trump says Evans’ story shows “recovery is possible” and that community programs can help make a difference.

The first lady was also visiting the Office of National Drug Control Policy for a briefing.
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The World Meteorological Organization says 2018 was the fourth hottest year on record confirming, what it calls a clear sign that long-term climate change is going on.

Of the four past record-breaking years, 2016 was the hottest. The World Meteorological Organization says temperatures that year reached a global average of 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.  It says the increased warming in the atmosphere was influenced by a strong El-Nino event, which causes sea temperatures to rise in the tropical Pacific.   

Temperatures in 2018 dipped to 1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels.  But meteorologists say the ranking of individual years is less important than the long-term temperature trend in gauging climate change.

The WMO says other factors besides temperature are involved in changing climate.  WMO spokeswoman Claire Nullis says extreme weather events also play an important role.

“Obviously, as we continue in 2019, we are seeing more extreme weather… in different parts of the world, including dangerous and extreme cold in North America, record heat and wildfires in Australia, high temperatures and rainfall in parts of South America,” Nullis said.

While Australia was baking in its warmest January on record, a cold weather front was gripping parts of the eastern United States. Nullis says freezing temperatures do not disprove climate change is happening.

“We do not just have climate change.  We have the daily weather.  It is summer in the southern hemisphere right now.  So, we do expect to see high temperatures.  It is winter in the northern hemisphere.   We expect to see cold temperatures.  But, in the southern hemisphere, we have seen extreme heat.  A lot of records broken,” she said.  

Nullis added that every single heat wave cannot be attributed to climate change.  But she noted that extreme heat is one symptom of climate change.  It is one of the phenomena expected from a changing climate.

 
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The World Meteorological Organization says 2018 was the fourth hottest year on record confirming, what it calls a clear sign that long-term climate change is going on.

Of the four past record-breaking years, 2016 was the hottest. The World Meteorological Organization says temperatures that year reached a global average of 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.  It says the increased warming in the atmosphere was influenced by a strong El-Nino event, which causes sea temperatures to rise in the tropical Pacific.   

Temperatures in 2018 dipped to 1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels.  But meteorologists say the ranking of individual years is less important than the long-term temperature trend in gauging climate change.

The WMO says other factors besides temperature are involved in changing climate.  WMO spokeswoman Claire Nullis says extreme weather events also play an important role.

“Obviously, as we continue in 2019, we are seeing more extreme weather… in different parts of the world, including dangerous and extreme cold in North America, record heat and wildfires in Australia, high temperatures and rainfall in parts of South America,” Nullis said.

While Australia was baking in its warmest January on record, a cold weather front was gripping parts of the eastern United States. Nullis says freezing temperatures do not disprove climate change is happening.

“We do not just have climate change.  We have the daily weather.  It is summer in the southern hemisphere right now.  So, we do expect to see high temperatures.  It is winter in the northern hemisphere.   We expect to see cold temperatures.  But, in the southern hemisphere, we have seen extreme heat.  A lot of records broken,” she said.  

Nullis added that every single heat wave cannot be attributed to climate change.  But she noted that extreme heat is one symptom of climate change.  It is one of the phenomena expected from a changing climate.

 
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At sunset every day, an almost deafening sound from the sky can be heard in a community just east of Los Angeles. It is the sound of parrots that have become a familiar part of life here.

“There’s poop everywhere,” said Havolynn Rose Owaleon. But she and many of the residents in this area have gotten used to the parrots. 

“They’re not quiet at all, but you know, it’s something that you listen for, ’cause if I didn’t hear them on a daily basis, then I know something is really wrong,” Owaleon said.

Feathered immigrants

Red-crowned parrots, now a part of the ecosystem in Southern California, are descendants of immigrants. They are originally from Tamaulipas, Mexico, where they are now endangered.

They were poached in their native habitat, arrived in the United States and sold as pets. Some of the parrots escaped or were released and have since multiplied and thrived in an urban environment.

“They are good at making a habitat for themselves in major cities, and this is what happened in Pasadena and East L.A. So, these are birds that live pretty much exclusively off of trees that are also not native to our area,” explained Ursula Heise, who teaches at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Department of English and at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.

As transplants to Southern California, the red-crowned parrots have become such permanent fixtures that they are on the California Bird Records Committee’s list of birds in the state.

“They’ve been naturalized as California citizens,” Heise said.

​Cold-blooded immigrants

Often seen basking under the California sun near a body of water, red-eared slider turtles also are not native to the U.S. West Coast but originally immigrated here as pets, then were released or escaped into the wild. Native to the central United States, the turtles have adapted and thrived across the United States and around the globe.

“Because this species is so commonly exploited for food and the pet industry, it’s the one that gets released the most often,” said Brad Shaffer, UCLA distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and director of the La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science.

Urban haven

The success of the red-eared slider turtles and red-crowned parrots in the Los Angeles area have some academics wondering whether a city can be a place to help endangered non-native animals, similar to the role of a zoo but better.

“At least it’s living in the wild. It’s making its own living. It’s having the lifestyle that turtles or that parrots should have; it’s just doing it in a different place,” Shaffer said.

“We have put up major buildings. We’ve put up expanses of concrete. We’ve introduced a completely different vegetation, and in many cases, that’s led to a reduction of biodiversity because a lot of our created habitat is not hospitable to the native species. But the other side of that is that we’ve created new ecological niches and new kinds of habitats,” Heise said.

These artificial habitats could become new homes for birds, bugs or other creatures whose native home may be threatened.

Shaffer said any non-native species that is introduced would have to be carefully picked to minimize the risk of causing harm to the existing wildlife population in the city and beyond.

“There’s always that danger, and I think the real question is, can we minimize that danger by doing sort of the best possible ecological science to be able to identify species that will thrive in cities and won’t thrive outside of cities?” Shaffer said.

Even without human intervention, Shaffer warns that species will migrate outside of their native environment, potentially causing harm.

“I think we will have a lesser chance of that going on if we have some strong science behind it, compared to if we just sit back with our heads in the sand and wait,” Shaffer said.
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In Southern California, there are some special creatures that have adapted and thrived in an urban environment. Some advocates for conservation and the environment say a city may be the perfect man-made space for some endangered species. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee reports from Los Angeles.
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Kenyan health officials say unsafe abortions are common in the east African nation with nearly half a million in one recent year. 

Abortion is prohibited unless, in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger. 

Advocates for less restrictive policies argue that unsafe abortions contribute to a high level of maternal deaths.

One woman’s story

Meet Martha Hope, that’s not her real name. She was married with three children when she became pregnant again in 2010. The 33-year-old woman said her husband told her he was not ready to bring up another child in poverty. 

At six months, she visited a neighborhood clinic that was willing to provide an illegal abortion. The doctor mixed some concoctions for her to take.

Martha says she started bleeding and that she sat in a bucket full of cold water.

“I was sweating and losing strength, the fetus came out, but now the problem was that the placenta did not. I passed out,” she said.

Martha is now on medication for depression as a result of the trauma she experienced.

Thousands of unsafe abortions

A 2018 report indicated that nearly half a million unsafe abortions occurred in Kenya in 2012.

Josephine Kamau, a nurse at Provide International Hospital in Dandora, says back alley abortions are all too common.

“We get three to four cases in a month in our facility,” she said, “but remember, there are others who die at home, who may have no one to bring them to the facility. Maybe they opted not to tell anybody.”

Maternal health services

For the last 30 years, the Marie Stopes organization has provided a wide range of maternal health services including family planning, safe abortion and post-abortion care in Kenya.

The organization says seven women in Kenya die daily from unsafe abortions.

“There are multiple causes for this,” said Dana Tilson, the Marie Stopes’ Kenya country director, “including restrictions in the law for safe abortion including lack of information on where to get safe services. There are also particularly for young people, limited access to contraception, and when you have a situation where contraception is limited, there is a stigma around younger people getting pregnant and having sex before marriage.”

Last year, the Kenya Film Classification Board banned a Marie Stopes media campaign that sought to raise awareness about unsafe abortions. 

According to the board, the campaign encouraged teenagers to obtain the procedure. Marie Stopes was then temporarily banned from providing safe abortions in that country.

Adoption

Virginia Nehemiah of Crisis pregnancy, a faith-based, Christian organization in Kenya, says her group helps women make a different choice.

“The issue of choice only considers two choices: carry or abort,” she said. “There are other choices, but people don’t always talk about them. There is adoption. How many families are out there not getting babies and they want children…”

Tilson, of Marie Stopes, says women terminate pregnancies for various reasons.

“When they have an unwanted or an unintended pregnancy, they are often desperate and they do not know where to go, and no matter what, they are going to terminate that pregnancy; they will do anything to do that and often they will go to a backstreet abortionist and these quacks are very dangerous,” she said.

Loss of US funding

For decades, the U.S government has been a big donor for family planning services in Africa; however, the global gag rule that President Donald Trump signed when he took office in 2017 bans the U.S. from giving any money in development aid to any overseas organization that promotes or provides abortions. 

This has affected operations of NGOs such as Marie Stopes.

When the gag order was signed, Marie Stopes said it lost about $30 million for multiple countries where it had been receiving U.S. funding for family planning.

The World Health Organization estimates 25 million unsafe abortions take place globally each year with almost all in developing countries.
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F.A. Cole was 11 when her stepmother told her to dress up for a special occasion near her hometown of Freetown, Sierra Leone. 

 

It was, instead, a traumatic occasion, Cole recalls 34 years later. Her stepmother turned her over to a small group of women, who led her into a forest and bound and blindfolded her. Then someone put a razor blade to her genitals.  

 

“Two or four of the women held me down. They spread my legs open and pinned me down, and then the woman who was the cutter, she sat on my chest,” Cole recounts. “As she began to cut my clitoris, I began to fight and scream and wriggle under her, just looking for somebody to help me, somebody to come to my rescue.” 

 

No one came then. But the United Nations has been working to eradicate female genital mutilation. To raise awareness, the U.N. since 2003 has sponsored an International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM to raise awareness. The annual observance was on Wednesday.  

 

FGM is widespread in parts of Africa and also practiced here in the United States. The procedure has sparked a global clash between those who define it as a cultural tradition and those who say it’s a dangerous ritual that should end. 

 

Lingering questions 

 

Cole recalls days of excruciating pain and years of wondering why she was cut.  

 

“When I came to America and I started doing research, and I started talking about my story, that’s when I realized the damage — not just the sexual damage, but the psychological damage that was done,” says Cole, who now lives in Washington and campaigns to end FGM.   

The World Health Organization identifies three types of FGM most common in Africa. In type one, the clitoris is partially or totally removed. Type two goes further, including the labia. And type three involves removing the labia and stitching to narrow the vaginal opening. 

 

The cultural practice can have serious medical consequences. Physicians at major U.S. medical centers and teaching hospitals worry whether American doctors are equipped — medically and culturally — to treat women who have been circumcised.  

Dr. Ranit Mishori, a professor of family medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, recalls an experience in the second month of her residency. A woman from Djibouti, in East Africa, was in labor.  

 

“I was getting ready to do a pelvic examination, and I put my gloves on and suddenly I realize I can’t put my fingers in there because the whole area is closed off,” Mishori said of the patient’s vagina. “I had no idea what that meant. I called my senior physicians and they had no idea what was going on. The bottom line is a lot of doctors don’t know what to expect, don’t know how to handle these types of emergencies.” 

 

A call for communication and respect 

 

That experience inspired Mishori to teach other doctors about FGM, especially as they treat more immigrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.  

 

She stresses communication and cultural humility. 

 

“We can’t forget that some women are very proud [of being circumcised], because that ensures their marriageability and economic prospects,” Mishori says, adding that medical personnel must learn “to ask about it in a nonjudgmental way.” 

 

Respectful questioning, she says, is “more important than how to deal with the medical complications, even though they are there. In some women, the cutting has healed. There are no scars, maybe … but the long-term effects are here and here,” she adds, pointing first to her head, then her heart. 

 

Not everyone agrees the practice should be banned.  

Anthropologist Fuambai Ahmadu, who lives in Washington and also is from Sierra Leone, says she was circumcised, not mutilated. She was an adult when she chose to undergo the procedure — the most minimal type of circumcision. 

 

Ahmadu testified on behalf of Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, who was among eight people facing federal charges over the genital mutilations of nine girls from Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota. As the Associated Press reported, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman in November dismissed mutilation and conspiracy charges against the defendants, saying the 1996 law banning the practice was unconstitutional.       

 

A rite of passage 

 

Ahmadu says circumcision is a rite of passage into womanhood in Kono culture. She believes anti-FGM campaigners are putting African cultures under siege. 

 

“The grand narrative of mutilation is completely inappropriate,” says Ahmadu. “… It’s really important that FGM campaigners understand that the messages that they’re sounding out to women, they’re not working, they’re not effective,” she says. “What they’re doing is driving the practice underground.”  

 

She says some families are reacting to the pressure by bringing in their daughters for circumcision at younger ages — sometimes even as babies. She advocates that girls should have a choice in whether to undergo the procedure and that they should wait until at least age 16  to understand the cultural significance. 

 

“This is a coming-out ceremony, where they are celebrated and they are now women,” Ahmadu says. 

 

It was no celebration for Cole, who says her circumcision made her less desirable to men in Sierra Leone.  

 

“It was supposed to make me more marriageable, but I’m 45 and still single,” she says. “So what was that?” 

 

This report originated in VOA’s English to Africa service. 
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F.A. Cole was 11 when her stepmother told her to dress up for a special occasion near her hometown of Freetown, Sierra Leone. 

 

It was, instead, a traumatic occasion, Cole recalls 34 years later. Her stepmother turned her over to a small group of women, who led her into a forest and bound and blindfolded her. Then someone put a razor blade to her genitals.  

 

“Two or four of the women held me down. They spread my legs open and pinned me down, and then the woman who was the cutter, she sat on my chest,” Cole recounts. “As she began to cut my clitoris, I began to fight and scream and wriggle under her, just looking for somebody to help me, somebody to come to my rescue.” 

 

No one came then. But the United Nations has been working to eradicate female genital mutilation. To raise awareness, the U.N. since 2003 has sponsored an International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM to raise awareness. The annual observance was on Wednesday.  

 

FGM is widespread in parts of Africa and also practiced here in the United States. The procedure has sparked a global clash between those who define it as a cultural tradition and those who say it’s a dangerous ritual that should end. 

 

Lingering questions 

 

Cole recalls days of excruciating pain and years of wondering why she was cut.  

 

“When I came to America and I started doing research, and I started talking about my story, that’s when I realized the damage — not just the sexual damage, but the psychological damage that was done,” says Cole, who now lives in Washington and campaigns to end FGM.   

The World Health Organization identifies three types of FGM most common in Africa. In type one, the clitoris is partially or totally removed. Type two goes further, including the labia. And type three involves removing the labia and stitching to narrow the vaginal opening. 

 

The cultural practice can have serious medical consequences. Physicians at major U.S. medical centers and teaching hospitals worry whether American doctors are equipped — medically and culturally — to treat women who have been circumcised.  

Dr. Ranit Mishori, a professor of family medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, recalls an experience in the second month of her residency. A woman from Djibouti, in East Africa, was in labor.  

 

“I was getting ready to do a pelvic examination, and I put my gloves on and suddenly I realize I can’t put my fingers in there because the whole area is closed off,” Mishori said of the patient’s vagina. “I had no idea what that meant. I called my senior physicians and they had no idea what was going on. The bottom line is a lot of doctors don’t know what to expect, don’t know how to handle these types of emergencies.” 

 

A call for communication and respect 

 

That experience inspired Mishori to teach other doctors about FGM, especially as they treat more immigrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.  

 

She stresses communication and cultural humility. 

 

“We can’t forget that some women are very proud [of being circumcised], because that ensures their marriageability and economic prospects,” Mishori says, adding that medical personnel must learn “to ask about it in a nonjudgmental way.” 

 

Respectful questioning, she says, is “more important than how to deal with the medical complications, even though they are there. In some women, the cutting has healed. There are no scars, maybe … but the long-term effects are here and here,” she adds, pointing first to her head, then her heart. 

 

Not everyone agrees the practice should be banned.  

Anthropologist Fuambai Ahmadu, who lives in Washington and also is from Sierra Leone, says she was circumcised, not mutilated. She was an adult when she chose to undergo the procedure — the most minimal type of circumcision. 

 

Ahmadu testified on behalf of Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, who was among eight people facing federal charges over the genital mutilations of nine girls from Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota. As the Associated Press reported, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman in November dismissed mutilation and conspiracy charges against the defendants, saying the 1996 law banning the practice was unconstitutional.       

 

A rite of passage 

 

Ahmadu says circumcision is a rite of passage into womanhood in Kono culture. She believes anti-FGM campaigners are putting African cultures under siege. 

 

“The grand narrative of mutilation is completely inappropriate,” says Ahmadu. “… It’s really important that FGM campaigners understand that the messages that they’re sounding out to women, they’re not working, they’re not effective,” she says. “What they’re doing is driving the practice underground.”  

 

She says some families are reacting to the pressure by bringing in their daughters for circumcision at younger ages — sometimes even as babies. She advocates that girls should have a choice in whether to undergo the procedure and that they should wait until at least age 16  to understand the cultural significance. 

 

“This is a coming-out ceremony, where they are celebrated and they are now women,” Ahmadu says. 

 

It was no celebration for Cole, who says her circumcision made her less desirable to men in Sierra Leone.  

 

“It was supposed to make me more marriageable, but I’m 45 and still single,” she says. “So what was that?” 

 

This report originated in VOA’s English to Africa service. 
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The United Nations has declared Feb. 6 International Zero Tolerance Day for Female Genital Mutilation. 

Contrary to popular perception, female genital mutilation, or FGM, is relatively widespread in the United States as well. Indeed, according to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 500,000 women and girls have either undergone, or are at risk of undergoing the procedure. Most, but not all, are immigrants to the U.S. 

In November, a federal judge declared a 1996 federal law banning FGM unconstitutional. 

To find out more, VOA’s Adam Phillips spoke with Ghada Khan, coordinator of the U.S. End FGM/C Network. That’s an umbrella group of 26 grassroots American groups fighting to end the practice. 

Here is a transcript of the interview.

Phillips: What are the main ethnic or demographic groups that practice FGM in America today?

Khan: Female genital mutilation is something that cuts across socioeconomic status, different religions, different cultures and different areas.

There is no one set group that actually performs it. But the main underlying factor is control of female sexuality.

There is a lasting impact on women when they are physically harmed to control their sexuality, but also the messaging (is) that their sexuality is not something to be celebrated, and that there needs to be some control over their own bodies. 

Phillips: What does female genital mutilation actually involve for a woman, physically? 

Khan: In come cases, the entire outer and inner lips of the vagina are cut and the clitoris is also removed. And sometimes the entire outer lips of the vagina are sewn up to leave only a small hole for urination and menstruation. In some cultures, that hole is measured by the size of a corn kernel. You can imagine that sex after that type of procedure is done is extremely painful. 

Some cultures might just cut the top of the clitoris or the clitoral hood; even that can impact the woman’s sensation during sex. 

Phillips: But why would anyone want to limit the pleasure that women have during sex? How is that in anyone’s interest?

Khan: People want to control women and have them not be able to have sex except with their husbands. And also, controlling their experience during sex can also limit their desire for having extramarital relationships. But also (preventing women from) having pleasure during sex is in and of itself a form of control.

Phillips:  But it’s not just the sexual health of women that is affected, correct? It’s also their overall health, and even their mortality that can be at stake.

Khan: The plethora of adverse health outcomes that come with this are many. (They include) impacting women’s labor and delivery outcomes (and) ranging from infections to hemorrhaging, to even death. 

Phillips: Are there any other non-political, non-gender-based reasons for the practice?

Khan: There are cultures that think FGM is more hygienic, and that it keeps a woman clean. And in some cultures, it’s also seen as a way to increase fertility, when it fact it does not. These are all misconceptions and myths that come along with the practice. 

Phillips: I know in Africa at least, the rates of FGM have gone down enormously, thanks largely to activism that has gone on at the grassroots. 

Khan: We’re excited about that. It gives us hope that this can be stopped, and we thank them for their efforts. 

Phillips:  What was your reaction to the ruling in Detroit (Michigan) last November striking down the anti-FGM law?

Khan: At the U.S. End FGM/C Network, we were of course very disappointed in the judge’s decision to deem the federal statute against FGM unconstitutional.This law has been in place since 1996, and it’s been at the center of U.S. efforts, both nationally and internationally.

It really was a blow to all of us, but especially to survivors. However, we see some opportunities in that it raises awareness of the issue here.

We need to really unite on this to push for an appeal and to make sure that the evidence and the voices of survivors are amplified and are part of the main national conversation. 

This interview was edited for length and clarity.
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