Habibou Iba’s twin sons are wasting away at the age of seven months after existing on a diet of millet and water.

The family was forced out of their home in January when their village in northern Burkina Faso was attacked as jihadist and ethnic violence escalated in the West African nation.

Aid agencies have distributed the typical rations of dry cereals, oil and beans, but what the children really need is milk, said Iba who is too weak to breastfeed.

“I am forced to beg in the village to buy them powdered milk,” Iba, 27, said by phone from the town of Dori, where her sons are being treated for malnutrition by the medical charity Medecins du Monde.

Although awareness about malnutrition has increased in the last few decades, aid agencies still struggle to provide a balanced diet in poor, remote places, said several nutrition advisors for international charities.

With U.N. figures showing wars, persecution and other violence have driven a record 68.5 million people from their homes, more people than ever are dependent on food aid – and for longer periods, making it critical for rations to be nutritious.

In West Africa’s Sahel region, which includes northern Burkina Faso, climate change and conflict have kept people in displacement camps for years with no end in sight. Mali has been in crisis since 2012, while Nigeria has been battling the Boko Haram insurgency for a decade.

“Historically, the concern has been about providing enough food in the context of emergencies, and this idea that an emergency is a short-term thing,” said Corinna Hawkes, director of the Centre for Food Policy at City University of London.

“But the modern-day crises are not short-term. There’s no question that the current world of food aid is not fully caught up with that modern reality.”

U.N. figures show that the number of people in the world without enough nutritious food has been rising since 2014, reaching 821 million in 2017 compared to 784 million three years earlier. The vast majority live in Africa.

Poor diet has overtaken smoking as the world’s biggest killer, according to the latest Global Burden of Disease study, causing 20 percent of deaths in 2017.

Difficult decisions

Malnutrition, or a lack of proper nutrition, occurs when there is not enough food or not enough of the right food.

About one in 10 children in Burkina Faso has acute malnutrition, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), when insufficient food or illness causes rapid weight loss.

Acute malnutrition kills, but a bigger long-term threat is chronic malnutrition, also known as stunting, which happens when a child has food but not enough nutrients to develop properly.

It affects about 20 percent of children under five worldwide.

Children who grow up eating rice or millet with no meat, milk, or vegetables, are at risk of stunting, which hinders cognitive as well as physical growth, said Fidele Rima, a UNICEF nutrition advisor in Burkina Faso.

“We have enough food, but we lost our animals,” said Aibata Diallo, an older woman living in Barsalogho camp, a collection of tents set up in scrubland for people who fled violence.

Like other residents, she is surviving off basic rations: 400 grams of cereals, 100 grams of beans and 25 grams of oil per day, according to WFP, the U.N.’s food assistance agency.

Small children and pregnant or breastfeeding women receive fortified cereals, which partly replace the missing vitamins and minerals in their diet, but WFP said it still expects to see malnutrition spike among people who have left home.

“We’re covering the basics. If we could do more we would want to do more,” said David Bulman, WFP country representative for Burkina Faso, citing funding as the main constraint.

Aid agencies cannot distribute meat, milk or vegetables because it is too costly and even fortified cereals are not always available, aid workers said.

“In an emergency response it really depends on where we’re getting the food that’s being donated – that will matter for how much we can control the level of fortification and nutritional value,” said Allison Oman Lawi, a senior policy advisor for East and Central Africa at WFP.

Sometimes donors send food or specify it should be sourced from a country in which fortified cereals are not produced.

Cost restrictions often mean choosing between quantity and quality, since cutting rations or targeting a smaller group can be the trade-off to afford nutritious foods, said Lawi.

“I have to make really difficult decisions,” she said.

Long-term thinking

Distribution of rations was never intended to be a long-term solution but an interim until people start growing or buying food again, said Mamadou Diop, West Africa representative for global charity Action Against Hunger.

“What happens is that often we propose a minimalist approach, and the populations are obliged to turn to other mechanisms to regain their eating habits,” said Diop.

These other mechanisms were still up for debate, he said.

Should people be given cash to buy meat and vegetables? What if there is none in the market or they spend it on something else?

Other aid workers agreed the goal was to move toward self-sufficiency – helping people plant gardens or start an activity that can generate income, even in a camp.

But the rising malnutrition rates in Africa suggest few people were phasing out of food aid. One fifth of people on the continent are undernourished, about the same as in 2005.

“I don’t think we should be looking at providing assistance for years,” said Bulman, WFP’s Burkina Faso representative.

Aid experts noted malnutrition depended on more than food.

Children with diarrhea or worms from unclean water will not benefit from any amount of supercereals while aid workers know that recipients often sell rations to buy medicine or fuel.

“It’s not as easy as just giving food and then there will be no more malnutrition,” said Nathalie Avril, a nutrition advisor for medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Diversification and allowing people to choose food themselves should be priorities in long-term aid situations, she said, perhaps by using vouchers although this has challenges.

The last paved road disappears miles before it reaches Barsalogho camp, which is surrounded by sunbaked, barren land.

“I think everybody knows what to give, the point is that it’s not easy to get it,” Avril said.

 
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A draft report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is under final review in Paris this week. The report was three years in the making and is expected to lay out a rescue plan for the world’s vanishing biodiversity. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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A major power shortage at the International Space Station has delayed this week’s SpaceX supply run. 

SpaceX was supposed to launch a shipment Wednesday. But an old power-switching unit malfunctioned at the space station Monday and knocked two power channels offline. The six remaining power channels are working normally, according to NASA.

NASA stressed Tuesday that the station and its six astronauts are safe. But because of the hobbled solar-power grid, the SpaceX launch is off until at least Friday. NASA wants to replace the failed unit to restore full power, before sending up the SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule.

The breakdown has left the station’s big robot arm outside with one functioning power channel instead of two. Two power sources are required — one as a backup — when the robot arm is used to capture visiting spacecraft like the Dragon.

Flight controllers will use the robot arm to replace the bad unit with a spare later this week, saving the astronauts from going out on a spacewalk.

There’s no rush for this delivery. Northrop Grumman launched supplies two weeks ago.

Solar wings collect and generate electricity for the entire space station. Any breakdown in this critical system can cut into power and affect operations.

SpaceX, meanwhile, is still investigating this month’s fiery loss of its new Dragon capsule designed for astronauts.

Six weeks after a successful test flight without a crew to the space station, the crew Dragon was engulfed in flames during a ground test. SpaceX was in the process of firing the capsule’s thrusters on a test stand. The April 20 accident — which occurred right before or during the firing of the launch-abort thrusters — sent thick smoke billowing into the sky.

SpaceX and NASA have offered few details. But the accident is sure to delay launching a crew Dragon with two NASA astronauts on board. SpaceX had been aiming for a summertime flight.

The company still needs to conduct a launch-abort test, before astronauts strap in. The Dragon that flew last month was supposed to be used for this test in June.
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A space rock left a massive crater on the moon during January’s total lunar eclipse.

Spanish scientists reported Tuesday the meteoroid hit the moon at 38,000 mph (61,000 kph), carving out a crater nearly 50 feet (15 meters) across. It was the first impact flash ever observed during a lunar eclipse.

The scientists — who operate a lunar impact detection system using eight telescopes in Spain — believe the incoming object was a comet fragment up to 2 feet (60 centimeters) across and 100 pounds (45 kilograms). The impact energy was equivalent to 1 { tons of TNT.

Astrophysicist Jose Maria Madiedo of the University of Huelva says it was “really exciting” to observe the event, after many unsuccessful tries.

The findings appear in the Royal Astronomical Society’s Monthly Notices.
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Some people told they have Alzheimer’s may instead have a newly identified mimic of the disease — and scientists say even though neither is yet curable, it’s critical to get better at telling different kinds of dementia apart.

Too often, the word dementia is used interchangeably with Alzheimer’s when there are multiple types of brain degeneration that can harm people’s memory and thinking skills.

“Not everything that looks like Alzheimer’s disease is Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. Julie Schneider, a neuropathologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. And among all the known dementias, this newly identified kind “is the most striking mimic of Alzheimer’s,” she added.

It’s not clear how many people have this particular type, which an international team of scientists defined Tuesday in the journal Brain. But there could be a sizeable number, said Dr. Peter Nelson of the University of Kentucky, the paper’s lead author.

The dementia was dubbed “LATE,” an acronym chosen in part because the oldest seniors seem at greatest risk.

Here’s a look at various dementias in the confusing Alzheimer’s-or-not mix:

Scientists stumbled onto newest disorder

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, and autopsies have long found its telltale signs in the brain: sticky plaque from an abnormal buildup of amyloid protein, and tangles of another protein named tau. Only recently have scientists developed special, pricey scans that can measure that buildup in living brains.

Then studies with those scans found about a third of people with Alzheimer’s symptoms lack amyloid buildup — ruling out Alzheimer’s, said Schneider, senior author of Tuesday’s paper. What else could cause their dementia?

Another toxic protein found

It turns out another protein, named TDP-43, also can run amok in the brain. Scientists knew it plays a role in a completely different disorder, Lou Gehrig’s disease. Then, they linked TDP-43 buildup to severe shrinking of the hippocampus, a brain region key for learning and memory.

Nelson said about a quarter of people over age 85 have enough abnormal TDP-43 to affect their memory or thinking abilities. For now, it takes an autopsy to spot — the symptoms seem like Alzheimer’s until a specialist can peer inside the brain.

“What is now clear is that a lot of dementia is caused by gloppy proteins. We used to think it was just two gloppy proteins, amyloid and tau,” Nelson said.

The next step: Finding better ways to measure abnormal TDP-43 and diagnose LATE. (It stands for an unwieldy scientific name — Limbic-predominant Age-related TDP-43 Encephalopathy.)

“Our ultimate goal is to test people hopefully in a very noninvasive way,” said National Institute on Aging dementia specialist Nina Silverberg. That’s key to eventually developing treatments.

Other culprits also are overlooked

— Strokes, sometimes small “silent” ones, can trigger what’s called vascular dementia, something scientists at the National Institutes of Health think might be prevented with better blood pressure control.

— Lewy body dementia, named for clumps of still another abnormal protein, can cause Alzheimer’s-like symptoms along with movement and other problems.

— Frontotemporal dementia often triggers changes in personality and tends to strike at a younger age than Alzheimer’s, yet can still be misdiagnosed.

Many older patients probably have “mixed dementia,” several brain changes that combine to cause trouble, Dr. Walter Koroshetz, head of NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, told a recent meeting about non-Alzheimer’s dementias.

Tuesday’s paper about TDP-43-caused disease adds to the complexity, said Alzheimer’s Association chief science officer Maria Carrillo, who wasn’t involved with the new research.

“We must learn more about each contributing cause of dementia so we can understand how these changes begin and interact and co-occur, and how to best diagnose, treat and prevent them,” she said.

Why is it important to tell one dementia from another?

Current treatments for Alzheimer’s and other dementias temporarily ease symptoms. But there are other reasons for a precise diagnosis. A list of medications common for seniors can harm people with Lewy body dementia, for example. Knowing the specifics also can help people plan care, as some types of dementia worsen faster than others.

And it’s critical for developing better dementia treatments. Testing a treatment that targets, say, the tau tangles or amyloid plaques of Alzheimer’s won’t stand a chance if patients who only have TDP-43 are allowed into the study.

“If you have a dementia percolating in your brain, the only hope we have right now is to participate in a clinical trial to try to stop it,” Nelson said.
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Children in Ghana are starting to get a new vaccine designed to stop malaria. Ghana is the second African country to get the vaccine, which is expected to reduce cases of the mosquito-borne and sometimes fatal disease. But experts caution that other malaria-prevention measures are still necessary.

It took more than thirty years and almost one billion dollars to develop the malaria vaccine launched in Ghana today.  

The vaccine, known as RTS-S, reduces cases of the mosquito-spread disease in children by up to 40 percent.

Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi are participating in a pilot vaccination program, which began last week in Malawi. Over the next four years about one million babies are expected to be vaccinated with four doses of RTS-S.  

Cape Coast is a city in one of three regions Ghana is targeting due to high levels of malaria.

The vaccine is considered an additional tool in the fight against the disease, alongside bed nets and indoor insecticide spraying. The World Health Organization’s Richard Mihigo said the vaccine is needed because progress has stalled in recent years.

“This is really something we are considering in public health as a dream coming true, because so far when you look at the intervention that has been used to fight the disease, we believe that this new vaccine is going to add a significant boost to the fight against malaria,” he said.

The WHO says malaria infected 219 million people in 2017 and killed 435,000.

The disease remains one of the world’s leading killers, claiming the life of one child every two minutes. Most of these deaths are in Africa and more than a quarter million of them are children.

Ghanaian officials launched the vaccination program Tuesday with patients from the Ewim Polyclinic in Cape Coast. The clinic serves low-income Ghanaians, many of whom live in cramped conditions and prefer to sleep outside, where they are vulnerable to mosquito bites.

Since 2016 the clinic has seen over a thousand cases of malaria each year in children under five.

Nurse Agnes Morgue-Duncan is hopeful the vaccine will protect children and help eradicate malaria.

“Our communities are the main fisherfolks and there are a lot of people.  We have a densely populated area. So sometimes you will see one room and so many people in one room and sometimes they mostly sleep outside before getting inside, so automatically or definitely they will be bitten by the mosquito and infected,” said Morgue-Duncan.

The vaccine will be rolled out in Kenya in the coming weeks, and doctors will watch closely to see if malaria rates decline.
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Nearly half of the glaciers in World Heritage sites will disappear by the end of this century if greenhouse gas emissions continue unchecked, a report said Tuesday.

The new study from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) focused on the 46 World Heritage sites where glaciers are found, including Grosser Aletschgletscher in the Swiss Alps, Greenland’s Jakobshavn Glacier and Khumbu Glacier in the Himalayas.

Using a variety of data and advanced modelling, the authors “predict glacier extinction by 2100 under a high emission scenario in 21 of the 46 natural World Heritage sites where glaciers are currently found,” IUCN said in a statement.

That “high emission scenario” refers to the status quo, where the commitments made under the 2015 Paris climate pact are not met.

Sites likely to see the most severe ice-loss are Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina and Waterton Glacier International Peace Park, which straddles the Canada-US border.

The disappearance of small glaciers in the Pyrenees – Mont Perdu World Heritage site could happen before 2040, according to IUCN projections.

Even if nations deliver on the terms of the Paris agreement, eight of the 46 World Heritage sites analysed in the report will still be ice-free by the year 2100, IUCN added.

“Losing these iconic glaciers would be a tragedy and have major consequences for the availability of water resources, sea level rise and weather patterns,” Peter Shadie, director of IUCN’s World Heritage Programme, said in the statement.

IUCN, widely-known for its “red list” of endangered species, has developed the first ever inventory of the 19,000 glaciers spread across 46 World Heritage sites.
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A Dublin-based company plans to erect “mechanical trees” in the United States that will suck carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air, it said on Monday, in what may be prove to be biggest effort to remove the gas blamed for climate change from the atmosphere.

The company, Silicon Kingdom Holdings (SKH), will build 1,200 carbon-cleansing metal columns within a year with which it hopes to capture CO2 more cheaply than other methods, following a successful test in Arizona over a two-year period, it said.

That is enough to suck up nearly 8,000 cars worth of emissions per year of CO2.

“We have to figure out how to act to get to a climate that is safe,” said the technology’s inventor, Klaus Lackner, a professor at Arizona State University.

SKH’s pilot would be the world’s largest “direct air capture” operation to date, said Jennifer Wilcox, a professor of chemical engineering at the U.S.-based Worcester Polytechnic Institute, who is not involved in the project.

Carbon capture is gradually gaining momentum, with the United Nations saying in a report last year that the technology is likely needed to keep the rise in global temperatures below catastrophic levels.

SKH expects its two-year pilot, possibly in California, to capture about 36,500 metric tons of CO2 a year, it said – the equivalent of nearly 7,750 vehicles driven for a year. 

Full-scale farms would be 100 times bigger.

The company’s “mechanical trees”, as the firm has dubbed them because they are tall and slender and absorb CO2 just like trees, are fitted with filter-like components to absorb the CO2, a photo of a prototype showed.

The device uses wind to blow air through its system rather than an energy-intensive mechanism, it said.

While capturing CO2 from industrial facilities and power plants has a decades-long commercial history, “direct air capture”, which pulls the gas directly from the atmosphere is a burgeoning field with only a handful of players, said Wilcox.

Swiss firm Climeworks has so far led the market, alongside Canada-based Carbon Engineering and U.S.-based Global Thermostat, she said.

The companies compress the high-concentration CO2 they capture and then can sell it for use in industrial applications, including making drinks fizzy, creating fuel and extracting oil.

While the high price of direct air capture has long been viewed as an impediment to scaling up the technologies, SKH’s costs is less than $100 per metric ton for pure CO2, it said.

“The $100 a ton is important because I think that’s the point where things start to get economically interesting,” Lackner told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “You can buy liquid CO2 which is delivered by truck in order to fill fire extinguishers and myriad other things for prices between $100 and $200 a ton.”

SKH would not provide information about how much building the pilot would cost. It said it was “in discussions with a range of potential funders and strategic partners from the aviation, energy and food and beverage industries.”
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Democratic Republic of Congo registered a one-day record of 27 new confirmed Ebola cases on Sunday, raising last week’s number of cases to 126, the biggest since the current outbreak was declared last August, the health ministry said.

The previous record was 110 confirmed cases a couple of weeks ago.

The outbreak in the country’s eastern regions is now spreading at its fastest rate, due largely to a spate of attacks by militiamen and others distrustful of the international response.

In the past two months, five Ebola centers have been attacked and a senior World Health Organization official was killed by militiamen 10 days ago.

The assailants have mostly been unidentified but are believed to comprise both local militiamen and community members who oppose the response efforts. Many believe that Ebola is a conspiracy cooked up by the government or foreign countries.

The current outbreak of the virus, which causes severe vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding, is the second largest in history behind the 2013-16 West African epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people.

The Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo’s North Kivu and Ituri provinces is believed to have killed at least 891 people and infected over 500 more so far.
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Scientists in the United States say they have taken a step toward developing a possible diagnostic test for chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition characterized by exhaustion and other debilitating symptoms.

Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine said a pilot study of 40 people, half of whom were healthy and half of whom had the syndrome, showed their potential biomarker test correctly identified those who were ill.

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis or ME, is estimated to affect some 2.5 million people in the United States and as many as 17 million worldwide.

Symptoms include overwhelming fatigue, joint pain, headaches and sleep problems. No cause or diagnosis has yet been established and the condition can render patients bed- or house-bound for years.

The research, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analyzed blood samples from trial volunteers using a “nanoelectronic assay” — a test that measures changes in tiny amounts of energy as a proxy for the health of immune cells and blood plasma.

The scientists “stressed” the blood samples using salt, and then compared the responses. The results, they said, showed all the CFS patients’ blood samples creating a clear spike, while those from healthy controls remained relatively stable.

“We don’t know exactly why the cells and plasma are acting this way, or even what they’re doing,” said Ron Davis, a professor of biochemistry and of genetics who co-led the study.

“[But] we clearly see a difference in the way healthy and chronic fatigue syndrome immune cells process stress.”

Words of caution

Other experts not directly involved in this work cautioned, however, that its findings showed there is still a long way to go before a biomarker is found that can establish CFS diagnosis and distinguish it from other conditions with similar symptoms.

Simon Wessely, chair of psychiatry at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry Psychology & Neuroscience, who has worked with CFS patients for many years, said the study was the latest of many attempts to find a biomarker for CFS, but had not been able to solve two key issues:

“The [first] issue is, can any biomarker distinguish CFS patients from those with other fatiguing illnesses? And second, is it measuring the cause, and not the consequence, of illness?” he said in an emailed comment. “This study does not provide any evidence that either has finally been achieved.”
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The U.S. reported a total of 704 cases of measles so far in 2019 – the greatest number since 1994.

Seventy-eight new cases were reported last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Monday. Though no deaths have been reported, 66 people were hospitalized.

Thirteen specific outbreaks have been identified by the CDC, and of those six were associated with “underimmunized close-knit communities”, which accounted for 88% of all cases, according to Monday’s CDC report.

One such example is the outbreak in New York, which has been traced to Orthodox Jews who contracted the disease while traveling overseas. Cases have been reported in 22 states.

The CDC recommends vaccinations for everyone over a year old, except those who contracted measles as children and have since become immune.

The vaccine, which first became available in the 1960s, is considered safe and effective by most public health experts. Measles spreads through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. The disease was considered eradicated from the United States in 2000.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping says people in China want bluer skies, greener mountains and clearer water. In his address Sunday at the opening ceremony for the 2019 Beijing International Horticultural Expo, Xi said the country has embarked on the construction of “ecological civilization.” China is the world’s worst polluter but has made efforts to cut down on carbon emissions in the past decade. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Adults in the United States who were vaccinated against measles decades ago may need a new dose depending on when they received the shot and their exposure risk, according to public health experts battling the nation’s largest outbreak since the virus was deemed eliminated in 2000.

Up to 10 percent of the 695 confirmed measles cases in the current outbreak occurred in people who received one or two doses of the vaccine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The figure illustrates what can happen when a large number of individuals, even those who have been vaccinated, are exposed to the measles. CDC recommends that people who are living in or traveling to outbreak areas should check their vaccination status and consider getting a new dose.

Dr. Allison Bartlett, an infectious disease expert at the University of Chicago Medicine, said the “continued vulnerability to infection” is why high-risk adults such as healthcare workers are routinely advised to get a second dose of the measles vaccine if they have not had one.

But knowing your vaccination status can be tricky, experts said.

“It’s complicated and often futile because it’s very difficult to resurrect those old records,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

People vaccinated in the United States since 1989 would most likely have received two doses of the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot under federal guidelines, and that is still considered the standard for protection.

Anyone vaccinated between 1963 and 1989 would likely have received only one dose, with many people immunized in the earlier years receiving an inactivated version of the virus. Americans born before 1957 are considered immune as they would have been exposed to the virus directly in an outbreak.

Merck & Co Inc is the sole U.S. provider of the MMR vaccine. The company said in a statement that it has “taken steps to increase U.S. supply” of the vaccine due to the current outbreak.

HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS

The measles virus is highly contagious and can cause blindness, deafness, brain damage or death. It is currently spreading in outbreaks in many parts of the world.

According to the World Health Organization, 95 percent of a population needs to be vaccinated to provide “herd immunity,” a form of indirect protection that prevents infection in people too young or sick to be vaccinated. U.S. public health officials have blamed the current outbreak in part on rising rates of vaccine skepticism that have reduced measles immunity in certain communities.

For travelers to outbreak areas abroad, the CDC recommends adults consider getting another dose of MMR unless they have proof of receiving two prior doses, take a blood test showing immunity, or were born before 1957.

In general, the CDC says two doses of the measles vaccine should provide 97 percent protection; one dose should offer 93 percent protection. However, immunity can wane over time.

This has occurred even in adults with two documented doses of the vaccine, said Dr. Michael Phillips, chief epidemiologist at NYU Langone Health, which serves parts of New York City, a hot spot in the U.S. outbreak.

He said in kids, “the vaccine is really effective,” but in some adults, memory T-cells, which recognize and attack germs, do not fight the virus as effectively as they once did.

Rapid blood tests are available that can detect whether a person is immune based on the level of measles antibodies, but the tests are not 100 percent reliable.

Adults who have any doubt about their immunity should get another dose, Schaffner said: “It’s safe. There’s no downside risk. Just roll up your sleeve.”

 
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Nearly 700 people possibly exposed to measles at two Los Angeles universities are still quarantined three days after health officials ordered the precautions to contain the spread of the highly contagious disease.

A spokesman for California State University, Los Angeles, said Saturday that 106 staff members and 550 students have been told to stay at home and avoid contact with others. 

Thirty students and employees from the University of California, Los Angeles, remain quarantined.

Those under quarantine were possibly exposed to a person with measles on each campus earlier this month. 

Many people have been cleared after proving their immunity with medical records or tests. 

The quarantines mark one of the most sweeping efforts by health officials to contain the nation’s measles outbreak, where cases have reached a 25-year high.
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Pakistani health officials say the country has suspended a nationwide anti-polio campaign after a health worker and two policemen escorting vaccination teams were killed in separate attacks across the country in less than a week.

Pakistan is one of three countries in the world where polio is still endemic. The other two are Afghanistan and Nigeria.

But militant threats and deep-rooted superstition have spurred many parents to refuse to vaccinate their children.

Officials say unidentified gunmen targeted polio workers and police assigned to protect them in three separate attacks this past week, in the heavily rural western regions bordering Afghanistan, before fleeing.

Saturday’s decision to halt the campaign against the crippling disease comes after two new polio cases were reported in the country’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
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Pakistani health officials say the country has suspended a nationwide anti-polio campaign after a health worker and two policemen escorting vaccination teams were killed in separate attacks across the country in less than a week.

Pakistan is one of three countries in the world where polio is still endemic. The other two are Afghanistan and Nigeria.

But militant threats and deep-rooted superstition have spurred many parents to refuse to vaccinate their children.

Officials say unidentified gunmen targeted polio workers and police assigned to protect them in three separate attacks this past week, in the heavily rural western regions bordering Afghanistan, before fleeing.

Saturday’s decision to halt the campaign against the crippling disease comes after two new polio cases were reported in the country’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
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More than 1,000 students and staff members at two Los Angeles universities were quarantined on campus or sent home this week in one of the most sweeping efforts yet by public health authorities to contain the spread of measles in the U.S., where cases have reached a 25-year high.

By Friday afternoon, two days after Los Angeles County ordered the precautions, about 325 of those affected had been cleared to return after proving their immunity to the disease, through either medical records or tests, health officials said.

 

The action at the University of University of California, Los Angeles, and California State University, Los Angeles, which together have more than 65,000 students, reflected the seriousness with which public health officials are taking the nation’s outbreak.

Those under the quarantine were instructed to stay at home and avoid contact with others, though it wasn’t clear how those orders might be enforced or what penalties violators might face.

“Measles actually kills people. So we have to take that really seriously,” said Dr. Armand Dorian, chief medical officer at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital.

​Measles cases climb

The number of measles cases in the U.S. has climbed to nearly 700 this year, including five in Los Angeles County and 38 altogether in California. The surge is blamed largely on parents not getting their children vaccinated because of misinformation about the supposed dangers.

Cal State-LA reported 875 students, staff, faculty and visitors were placed under quarantine after possibly being exposed to measles earlier this month. About 250 had been cleared by Friday after proving they are immune to the disease.

At UCLA, 129 students and faculty were quarantined. All but 46 had been cleared by Friday.

Cal State-LA is primarily a commuter school, while many UCLA students live on campus. Some UCLA students were provided a quarantine area to stay in, university officials said, though they gave no details. Only one person remained there Friday.

Those covered by the quarantine were singled out based on their possible exposure to either an infected UCLA student who had attended classes in two buildings over three days earlier this month, or a person with measles who visited a Cal State-LA library on April 11, officials said.

Given the amount of time a person can remain contagious, officials said the quarantine would end at UCLA on Tuesday and at Cal State-LA on Thursday.

Lawmakers take action

Around the country, lawmakers in California, New York, Washington state and Oregon have responded to the outbreak by moving to crack down on exemptions to vaccinating children. On Friday, President Donald Trump urged everyone to get vaccinated.

Most of the cases are centered in two ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in New York, one in Brooklyn, the other in suburban Rockland County.

In Rockland County, officials declared a state of emergency and at one point tried to bar unvaccinated children from schools and other public places, but a judge overturned the order.

Authorities ordered mandatory vaccinations earlier their month in the affected Brooklyn neighborhoods and threatened fines of $1,000. City officials said earlier this week that 12 people had been issued summonses.

Measles usually causes fever and an all-over rash but in a small number of cases can lead to deadly complications such as pneumonia and swelling of the brain.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the vaccine for everyone older than 1 year, except for people who had the disease as children. Those who have had measles are immune.
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More than 1,000 students and staff members at two Los Angeles universities were quarantined on campus or sent home this week in one of the most sweeping efforts yet by public health authorities to contain the spread of measles in the U.S., where cases have reached a 25-year high.

By Friday afternoon, two days after Los Angeles County ordered the precautions, about 325 of those affected had been cleared to return after proving their immunity to the disease, through either medical records or tests, health officials said.

 

The action at the University of University of California, Los Angeles, and California State University, Los Angeles, which together have more than 65,000 students, reflected the seriousness with which public health officials are taking the nation’s outbreak.

Those under the quarantine were instructed to stay at home and avoid contact with others, though it wasn’t clear how those orders might be enforced or what penalties violators might face.

“Measles actually kills people. So we have to take that really seriously,” said Dr. Armand Dorian, chief medical officer at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital.

​Measles cases climb

The number of measles cases in the U.S. has climbed to nearly 700 this year, including five in Los Angeles County and 38 altogether in California. The surge is blamed largely on parents not getting their children vaccinated because of misinformation about the supposed dangers.

Cal State-LA reported 875 students, staff, faculty and visitors were placed under quarantine after possibly being exposed to measles earlier this month. About 250 had been cleared by Friday after proving they are immune to the disease.

At UCLA, 129 students and faculty were quarantined. All but 46 had been cleared by Friday.

Cal State-LA is primarily a commuter school, while many UCLA students live on campus. Some UCLA students were provided a quarantine area to stay in, university officials said, though they gave no details. Only one person remained there Friday.

Those covered by the quarantine were singled out based on their possible exposure to either an infected UCLA student who had attended classes in two buildings over three days earlier this month, or a person with measles who visited a Cal State-LA library on April 11, officials said.

Given the amount of time a person can remain contagious, officials said the quarantine would end at UCLA on Tuesday and at Cal State-LA on Thursday.

Lawmakers take action

Around the country, lawmakers in California, New York, Washington state and Oregon have responded to the outbreak by moving to crack down on exemptions to vaccinating children. On Friday, President Donald Trump urged everyone to get vaccinated.

Most of the cases are centered in two ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in New York, one in Brooklyn, the other in suburban Rockland County.

In Rockland County, officials declared a state of emergency and at one point tried to bar unvaccinated children from schools and other public places, but a judge overturned the order.

Authorities ordered mandatory vaccinations earlier their month in the affected Brooklyn neighborhoods and threatened fines of $1,000. City officials said earlier this week that 12 people had been issued summonses.

Measles usually causes fever and an all-over rash but in a small number of cases can lead to deadly complications such as pneumonia and swelling of the brain.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the vaccine for everyone older than 1 year, except for people who had the disease as children. Those who have had measles are immune.
…

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More than 900 students and staff members at two Los Angeles universities were quarantined on campus or sent home this week in one of the most sweeping efforts yet by public health authorities to contain the spread of measles in the U.S., where cases have reached a 25-year high.

By Friday afternoon, two days after Los Angeles County ordered the precautions, about 200 of those affected had been cleared to return after proving their immunity to the disease, through either medical records or tests, school officials said.

The action at the University of University of California, Los Angeles, and California State University, Los Angeles, which together have more than 65,000 students, reflected the seriousness with which public health officials are taking the nation’s outbreak.

Those under the quarantine were instructed to stay at home and avoid contact with others, though it wasn’t clear how those orders might be enforced or what penalties violators might face.

“Measles actually kills people. So we have to take that really seriously,” said Dr. Armand Dorian, chief medical officer at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital.

​Measles cases climb

The number of measles cases in the U.S. has climbed to nearly 700 this year, including five in Los Angeles County and 38 altogether in California. The surge is blamed largely on parents not getting their children vaccinated because of misinformation about the supposed dangers.

Cal State-LA reported 656 students and staff still under quarantine, while UCLA said it had fewer than 50.

Cal State-LA is primarily a commuter school, while many UCLA students live on campus. Some UCLA students were provided a quarantine area to stay in, university officials said, though they gave no details. Only one person remained there Friday.

Those covered by the quarantine were singled out based on their possible exposure to either an infected UCLA student who had attended classes in two buildings over three days earlier this month, or a person with measles who visited a Cal State-LA library on April 11, officials said.

Given the amount of time a person can remain contagious, officials said the quarantine would end at UCLA on Tuesday and at Cal State-LA on Thursday.

Lawmakers take action

Around the country, lawmakers in California, New York, Washington state and Oregon have responded to the outbreak by moving to crack down on exemptions to vaccinating children. On Friday, President Donald Trump urged everyone to get vaccinated.

Most of the cases are centered in two ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in New York, one in Brooklyn, the other in suburban Rockland County.

In Rockland County, officials declared a state of emergency and at one point tried to bar unvaccinated children from schools and other public places, but a judge overturned the order.

Authorities ordered mandatory vaccinations earlier their month in the affected Brooklyn neighborhoods and threatened fines of $1,000. City officials said earlier this week that 12 people had been issued summonses.

Measles usually causes fever and an all-over rash but in a small number of cases can lead to deadly complications such as pneumonia and swelling of the brain.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the vaccine for everyone older than 1 year, except for people who had the disease as children. Those who have had measles are immune.
…

your ads here!

More than 900 students and staff members at two Los Angeles universities were quarantined on campus or sent home this week in one of the most sweeping efforts yet by public health authorities to contain the spread of measles in the U.S., where cases have reached a 25-year high.

By Friday afternoon, two days after Los Angeles County ordered the precautions, about 200 of those affected had been cleared to return after proving their immunity to the disease, through either medical records or tests, school officials said.

The action at the University of University of California, Los Angeles, and California State University, Los Angeles, which together have more than 65,000 students, reflected the seriousness with which public health officials are taking the nation’s outbreak.

Those under the quarantine were instructed to stay at home and avoid contact with others, though it wasn’t clear how those orders might be enforced or what penalties violators might face.

“Measles actually kills people. So we have to take that really seriously,” said Dr. Armand Dorian, chief medical officer at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital.

​Measles cases climb

The number of measles cases in the U.S. has climbed to nearly 700 this year, including five in Los Angeles County and 38 altogether in California. The surge is blamed largely on parents not getting their children vaccinated because of misinformation about the supposed dangers.

Cal State-LA reported 656 students and staff still under quarantine, while UCLA said it had fewer than 50.

Cal State-LA is primarily a commuter school, while many UCLA students live on campus. Some UCLA students were provided a quarantine area to stay in, university officials said, though they gave no details. Only one person remained there Friday.

Those covered by the quarantine were singled out based on their possible exposure to either an infected UCLA student who had attended classes in two buildings over three days earlier this month, or a person with measles who visited a Cal State-LA library on April 11, officials said.

Given the amount of time a person can remain contagious, officials said the quarantine would end at UCLA on Tuesday and at Cal State-LA on Thursday.

Lawmakers take action

Around the country, lawmakers in California, New York, Washington state and Oregon have responded to the outbreak by moving to crack down on exemptions to vaccinating children. On Friday, President Donald Trump urged everyone to get vaccinated.

Most of the cases are centered in two ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in New York, one in Brooklyn, the other in suburban Rockland County.

In Rockland County, officials declared a state of emergency and at one point tried to bar unvaccinated children from schools and other public places, but a judge overturned the order.

Authorities ordered mandatory vaccinations earlier their month in the affected Brooklyn neighborhoods and threatened fines of $1,000. City officials said earlier this week that 12 people had been issued summonses.

Measles usually causes fever and an all-over rash but in a small number of cases can lead to deadly complications such as pneumonia and swelling of the brain.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the vaccine for everyone older than 1 year, except for people who had the disease as children. Those who have had measles are immune.
…

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President Donald Trump urged Americans Friday to get vaccinated against measles, amid an outbreak of the highly contagious virus in the U.S. that has forced two U.S. universities to quarantine hundreds of students, faculty members and other employees.

Trump told reporters at the White House citizens “must get their shots” to protect themselves against the virus that was deemed eradicated in the U.S. nearly 20 years ago.

There were nearly 700 cases in 22 states, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported Wednesday, the highest level in 25 years. The CDC partially attributed the surge to misinformation about the safety of the measles vaccine.

The beginning of the outbreak has been traced to Orthodox Jews who contracted the disease while traveling overseas. The cases have been concentrated in a small number of states, including New York, New Jersey, Michigan and Washington.

Cases also have been confirmed in California, where public health officials ordered dozens of people to be quarantined Tuesday at the University of California at Los Angeles and California State University, Los Angeles following an exposure to the virus earlier this month. Los Angeles County public health officials said some people may have to be quarantined up to one week until proof of immunity is established.

The CDC recommends vaccinations for everyone over a year old, except those who contracted measles as children and have since become immune.

The vaccine, which first became available in the 1960s, is considered safe and effective by most public health experts.

 
…

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President Donald Trump urged Americans Friday to get vaccinated against measles, amid an outbreak of the highly contagious virus in the U.S. that has forced two U.S. universities to quarantine hundreds of students, faculty members and other employees.

Trump told reporters at the White House citizens “must get their shots” to protect themselves against the virus that was deemed eradicated in the U.S. nearly 20 years ago.

There were nearly 700 cases in 22 states, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported Wednesday, the highest level in 25 years. The CDC partially attributed the surge to misinformation about the safety of the measles vaccine.

The beginning of the outbreak has been traced to Orthodox Jews who contracted the disease while traveling overseas. The cases have been concentrated in a small number of states, including New York, New Jersey, Michigan and Washington.

Cases also have been confirmed in California, where public health officials ordered dozens of people to be quarantined Tuesday at the University of California at Los Angeles and California State University, Los Angeles following an exposure to the virus earlier this month. Los Angeles County public health officials said some people may have to be quarantined up to one week until proof of immunity is established.

The CDC recommends vaccinations for everyone over a year old, except those who contracted measles as children and have since become immune.

The vaccine, which first became available in the 1960s, is considered safe and effective by most public health experts.

 
…

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