A fake doctor treating poor villagers in northern India for colds, coughs and diarrhea has infected at least 21 of them with HIV by using contaminated syringes and needles, a health official said Tuesday.

Sushil Choudhury, the official, said police were looking for Rajendra Yadav, who fled Bangarmau, a small town in Uttar Pradesh state, after the HIV infections were detected in December last year.

The villagers said they rarely saw Yadav changing the needles. Choudhury said that probably led to the spread of HIV.

With India’s health care system facing a massive shortage of doctors and hospitals, millions of poor people seek fake doctors for cheap treatment.

India had 2.1 million people living with HIV at the end of 2016, according to a UNAIDS report. Of those, 9,100 were children under age 15. India has registered a 20 percent annual decline in new infections over the past few years, according to the report.

Yadav would visit villages on his bicycle and treat patients outdoors. Villagers complained that he would give injections for almost all ailments for meager payments, Choudhury said.

A sudden spurt in HIV cases in and around Bangarmau detected in December last year alerted state authorities. “An investigation showed that almost all of them had taken injections from one person,” Choudhury said. “This was an important lead. We set up special medical camps in villages in the area and checked 566 people, and 21 were found to be HIV positive.”

Mehtab Alam, a project manager for Raza Hussain Memorial Charitable Trust, said that fake doctors do not use disposable syringes, instead using glass syringes and one needle to inject hundreds of patients. The group works with HIV and AIDS patients in the region.

“Villagers are ignorant about hygiene,” he said.

HIV — or the human immunodeficiency virus — is transmitted through blood transfusion, use of infected needles and syringes, unprotected sex, or from mother to child. It weakens the body’s immune system, making it susceptible to various infections. Over time, an HIV infection can develop into AIDS, a progressive failure of the immune system that leaves the body open to life-threatening infections and cancers.

 
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There are nearly 44 million people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. But a highly experimental new treatment may slow the advance of the disease. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Malawi farmers are under attack by armyworms, and government-provided pesticides are not effective. So farmers are fighting back with home-made concoctions. Faith Lapidus reports.
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SpaceX is bucking decades of launch tradition for the first test flight of its new megarocket.

The Falcon Heavy is set to become the world’s most powerful rocket in use Tuesday when it blasts off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. None of the usual, no-big-deal-if-it’s-destroyed launch ballast — like steel or concrete slabs, or mundane experiments — for this curtain raiser.

Instead, the rocket will be hauling a red sports convertible with a space-suited dummy at the wheel and David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” on the soundtrack. It’s the inspiration of Elon Musk, the high-tech, science fiction-loving maverick who heads SpaceX and electric carmaker Tesla.

On the eve of the launch, Musk said he’s at peace with whatever happens, be it a successful test flight or an explosive failure.

“It’s guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another,” Musk said Monday in a phone conference with reporters.

Musk said he normally feels “super stressed out” the day before a launch. “This time I don’t, so that may be a bad sign.”

The hope is that any failure comes far enough into the flight “so we at least learn as much as possible along the way.”

More about Tuesday afternoon’s planned launch:

Rocket Stats:

The Falcon Heavy has three first-stage boosters, strapped together with 27 engines in all. Stretching 40 feet (12 meters) at the base and standing 230 feet (70 meters) tall, the Heavy is a triple dose of the Falcon 9, the company’s frequent flyer with just a single booster. At liftoff, the Heavy packs about 5 million pounds of thrust. That’s more liftoff punch than any other rocket currently operating in the world — by a factor of two — but less than NASA’s old space shuttles and Saturn V moon rockets. Two of the Heavy’s boosters are recycled; they have flown on previous Falcon 9 launches. Once spent, they will aim for side-by-side vertical touchdowns at Cape Canaveral. The brand new, center core will attempt to land on an ocean barge.

Car Stats:

SpaceX’s Elon Musk also runs the electric carmaker Tesla. So in a bit of cross-marketing, he’s put his own cherry-red Tesla Roadster on the Heavy’s inaugural flight. It is one of the car company’s original Roadsters.

No car has ever rocketed into space before, if you don’t count NASA’s Apollo-era moon buggies, still parked on the lunar surface. The Federal Aviation Administration had to sign off on the Heavy-Tesla combo. It’s at the top of the rocket, enclosed for liftoff. The protective cover will drop away, allowing the car to travel on its way. Three cameras are mounted on the Roadster that should provide “some epic views if they work and everything goes well,” Musk said.

Destination:

SpaceX is targeting a long, oval orbit around the sun for the Roadster that will take the car as far out as Mars, and have it making laps for a billion years. If the convertible makes it into space in one piece, it still must endure several hours of deep-space coasting through the high-energy Van Allen radiation belts encircling Earth. Musk said Monday that the car could come fairly close to Mars and that there’s an “extremely tiny” chance it could crash into the planet. But he quickly added, “I wouldn’t hold your breath.” Musk’ intent on establishing a city on the red planet, with hordes of Earthlings and building materials flying there on a super-extra-mega SpaceX rocket that is still in development.

Historic Departure Point: 

The Falcon Heavy is flying from the same launch pad used by NASA to send men to the moon. SpaceX leases Launch Complex 39A from NASA. Not only did LC-39A, as it’s known, serve as the departure point for all the Apollo moonshots from 1968 to 1972, it was the scene for most of the space shuttle liftoffs. It’s location at Kennedy Space Center keeps people at least three miles away, a distance determined by NASA in the 1960s to be safe just in case the Saturn V exploded on the pad.

Competition: 

Blue Origin, an aerospace company run by another billionaire, is developing a large orbital-class rocket that promises to give Heavy an out-of-this-world run for its money. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, the force behind Blue Origin, offered Musk “best of luck” Monday. “Hoping for a beautiful, nominal flight!” Bezos wrote via Twitter. In the language of rocket scientists, “nominal” means the rocket behaves and the cargo reaches its target. NASA, meanwhile, is sinking billions of dollars into a massive new rocket called the Space Launch System, or SLS, that’s meant to return astronauts to the moon and also get them one day to Mars.

Future Flights: 

SpaceX already has customers lined up for the Falcon Heavy. The rocket is designed to hoist supersize satellites as well as equipment to the moon, Mars or other far-flung points. The private company’s online flight manifest shows the U.S. Air Force as already signed up. SpaceX has changed its mind about carrying people on the Heavy, Musk said, preferring to use the super-duper rocket under development.
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If you are not a fan of spiders, you may not like the creepy little arachnid scientists found entombed in chunks of amber from northern Myanmar. Unlike its spider cousins alive today, this guy had a tail.

Scientists on Monday described four specimens of the arachnid, called Chimerarachne yingi, that inhabited a Cretaceous Period tropical forest about 100 million years ago during the dinosaur age. Alongside modern spider traits such as a silk-producing structure called a spinneret, it possessed a remarkably primitive feature: a whip-like tail covered in short hairs that it may have used for sensing predators and prey.

“It is a key fossil for understanding spider origins,” said paleontologist Bo Wang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “Our new fossil most likely represents the earliest branch of spiders, and implies that there was a lineage of tailed spiders that presumably originated in the Paleozoic (the geological era that ended 251 million years ago) and survived at least into the Cretaceous of Southeast Asia.”

Despite its fearsome appearance, the fanged Chimerarachne was only about three-tenths of an inch (7.5 mm) long, more than half of which was its tail.

University of Kansas paleontologist Paul Selden said Chimerarachne represents “a kind of missing link” between true spiders and earlier spider forerunners that had tails but lacked spinnerets.

“Chimerarachne could be considered as a spider. It all depends on where we decide to draw the line,” Selden said. “I am sure arachnophobes would not like this animal, except that it is only a few millimeters long, so it would be living almost unseen by them.”

The earliest arachnids, a group including spiders, scorpions, mites, ticks and others, dates to about 420 million years ago. The oldest-known true spiders lived about 315 millions year ago.

Numerous animals and plants have been found beautifully preserved inside amber, which is fossilized tree resin. Many important amber finds have been made in Myanmar. Chimerarachne may have lived under bark or in the moss at the foot of a tree.

“All four specimens are adult males, which would have been roving around looking for females at this point in their lives,” Selden said.

“Chimerarachne most likely wove a sheet web, and possibly a burrow lined with silk. Spiders use silk for a great many purposes, of which prey-capture webs is just one. Egg-wrapping is a vital function for spider silk, as well as laying a trail to find its way back home.”

The research was published in the journal “Nature Ecology & Evolution.”
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Three quarters of women among India’s Dawoodi Bohra sect have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM), according to a study published on Monday which comes just weeks after government officials said there was no data to support its existence.

Campaigners hope the survey – the largest of its kind – will bolster calls for a law to ban the secretive ritual which they say causes physical, emotional and sexual harm.

One mother told how she feared her daughter would bleed to death after she was cut. A third of women believed the procedure had damaged their sex lives. Others spoke of emotional trauma.

Traditional circumcisers told researchers they had cut thousands of girls.

Masooma Ranalvi, founder of campaign group WeSpeakOut which commissioned the study, said the stories were “heartwrenching”.

“This report not only proves FGM does exist in India, but also shows how harmful it is,” Ranalvi told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Children are still being cut today. This must end.”

The year-long study – published on the eve of International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM – includes 94 interviews with supporters and opponents of the practice.

The Dawoodi Bohra, a Shi‘ite Muslim sect thought to number up to 2 million worldwide, considers the ritual, known as khafd, a religious obligation although it is not mentioned in the Koran.

The procedure, which entails cutting the clitoral hood, is performed around the age of seven.

India’s Supreme Court is considering a petition to ban FGM. Campaigners were shocked in December when the women’s ministry told the court there was no official data or study supporting its existence.

FGM is more commonly linked to a swathe of African countries where cutters may remove all external genitalia.

Supporters of khafd told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the ritual was a “harmless” cultural and religious practice.

The Dawoodi Bohra Women’s Association for Religious Freedom said the study did not represent the views of most Bohra women.

A spokeswoman said in an email that khafd and FGM were “entirely different” practices, and that there was “no place for any kind of mutilation” in the Bohra culture.

But the World Health Organization says FGM includes any injury to the genitalia.

One gynaecologist told researchers it would be easy to damage the clitoris if a girl struggled during the procedure which is done without anaesthesia.

Ranalvi said khafd was rooted in beliefs a woman’s sexual desire must be curbed, but it was “mired in secrecy” and few women dared speak out for fear of ostracisation.

The practice made headlines in 2015 when three members of the Bohra diaspora in Australia were convicted of FGM-related offences. Bohras in the United States face similar charges.

Respondents to the survey said Bohra girls from diaspora communities were now travelling to India to be cut.
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The #MeToo campaign against sexual abuse should include the stories of survivors of female genital mutilation (FGM), activists said ahead of a global day on Tuesday to raise awareness about the internationally condemned ritual.

Leyla Hussein, one of the first FGM survivors to come forward in Britain, urged people to use the #MeToo hashtag when posting about the practice on social media on Feb 6, the annual International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM.

“It’s a shame the #MeToo campaign doesn’t include FGM,” said Hussein, founder of the London-based Dahlia Project, which provides counseling for women who have been cut.

“FGM is a form of sexual abuse, but yet again we’ve been left out,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

At least 200 million women and girls globally have undergone FGM, U.N. data shows. The ritual, involving the partial or total removal of the external genitalia, is practiced in about 30 African countries and parts of Asia and the Middle East.

Campaigners say the tradition – often justified for cultural or religious reasons – is underpinned by the desire to control female sexuality. It can cause serious health problems.

Hibo Wardere, a British activist who was cut as a child in Somalia, said both the #MeToo campaign and the global drive to end FGM were about “women having ownership of their bodies”.

Countless women and girls have taken to social media in recent months using the #MeToo hashtag to talk about their experiences of sexual harassment, abuse and rape.

The campaign was sparked last year after a slew of sexual harassment and assault allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. The scandal has since engulfed many other celebrity figures across various industries.

”FGM is a form of sexual violence – of course it should be part of #MeToo,“ Wardere said. ”Being attacked because of our gender unites us.

“FGM is a way of controlling our sexuality, our bodies, our thoughts,” she added. “It’s a way to make you feel like nothing but a commodity that belongs to a man … That’s what we’re all fighting against.”

Some campaigners said conflating FGM with the sexual abuse highlighted by the #MeToo campaign could wrongly imply there was sexual gratification involved with the ritual.

They said FGM should be seen as child abuse, not sex abuse.

But Hussein said sexual assault was not about gratification.

“It’s about having power over someone,” she said. “When someone does FGM, it’s all about power.”
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Working for long hours as an IT consultant, Daniel Turissini used to always feel tired by the middle of his workday. He asked other business professionals around him about what they do and where they go to re-energize. The answers varied, from having a nap in their cars in the garages or a nearest hotel lobby, to just falling asleep at their work desk. Seeing a need and an opportunity he founded recharj, a place where professionals can go to take a quick rest. 

Need to Recharge?

Washington DC, the nation’s capital, is home to government agencies, financial institutions and all kinds of firms and corporations.

In the heart of this busy city, where people work for long hours, recharj opened a few months ago. People drop by from around the city for a break. 

After turning off all electronic devices, customers go to any of the sleep “cocoons,” separated by white curtains hanging from the ceiling. Inside these pods, bean bag beds, blankets and lavender scented eye-masks allow them to fall asleep to soft music. 

After a 20-minute nap, they’re awakened and go back to work refreshed.

recharj founder, Daniel Turissini, says his place offers the answer to our fast-paced lifestyle; an opportunity to slow down. 

“Some of the distractions that we’re facing today we’ve never seen before, like the smartphones tethered to our belts 24/7 so your boss can contact you at all hours at night or when you’re on vacation,” he says. “There is a challenge we really never had a generation ago. There’s a load of other challenges we’re facing today that wellness and life style changes, habit changes are critical to a sustainable life, to a long happy life.”

Sounds Invite Relaxation

To help clients improve their physical and mental wellness, recharj also offers guided sessions on meditation and mindfulness. Senior teacher, Page Lichens, uses different tools to help her students stay mindful of the moment.

“Listening to relaxing sounds allows them to step into a place of putting away other thoughts and lay back and listen,” she explains. “The sounds specifically have different areas where they’re working into different vibrations on the person’s body. So beyond that a lot of them would end up talking about the experience of lightness or floating. They were uncertain where they were, but they just relaxed deeper than having just to lay down, trying to sleep.”

The rejuvenating experience keeps customers coming back. Connor Garitty, an IT consultant, says he comes to recharge almost every day.

“I feel, I guess, like the day is just beginning instead of (thinking) ‘Oh my God how am I going to get through the rest of the day?’ I come here a lot at the middle of the day and after work. And even that is just as helpful because you’re energized,” he says.

Mari Aponte, a lawyer, says she feels tired and stressed out after hours of sitting down working. “What I like most about coming here is that I can breathe, whereas my morning is very crazy. I drink a lot of coffee and I’m like moving too much, too fast. So, I come here, it helps stop time and just balance my day.” Guided meditations help Aponte relieve her physical tension as well.

“A lot of the things that they do includes a full body scan,” she says. “So, you can check and see which areas you’re carrying more stress, and which areas you can soften. My problem is usually here, in my jaws. This is where I hold my tension. So, it helps me loosen this area.”

Recharging Workplace 

recharj’s experts also offer wellness workshops at workplace. 

“The companies now are understanding that not only is there so much goodwill involved in treating your employees and educating them on health and wellness and lifestyle, but also there is a bottom line to it, there is a return on investment that the companies get from ensuring and promoting health, wellness activities with in organizations,” recharj’s Turissini says. “So, we teach them different tools that are attainable in an office environment so that they can find a little of calm in the middle of the day, but more than that, they can learn to manage their angry thoughts and they can actually be more productive.”

As the trend of promoting wellness and healthy habits continues, the business of midday breaks is expected to grow and thrive. Daniel Turissini, recharj founder, is proud to be one of the pioneers.
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To mark World Cancer Day, the World Health Organization urges the adoption of healthy life styles as a way to lower cancer risks. WHO also emphasizes that early diagnosis and treatment for cancer can save many lives.

Much progress has been made in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. But, the statistics regarding this disease remain terrible. Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally, killing nearly nine million people yearly, with about 14 million new cases being diagnosed.

The most common causes of cancer death include lung, liver, colorectal, stomach and breast cancers. The World Health Organization reports tobacco use is the most important risk factor, followed by alcohol use, unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity.

WHO technical officer for cancer control, Andre Ilbawi says approximately 70 percent of cancer deaths are in low-and middle-income countries, while the number of cases in these countries is increasing at a fast and worrying rate.

He agrees this is a cause of concern, but tells VOA simple actions can be taken even by the poorest countries to address this issue.

“First and foremost, the greatest priority is to diagnose cancer early.This is a more significant intervention than, as you mentioned, the advanced technologies and the expensive medicines that can be prohibitive in low-income countries.Identifying cancer early is the most effective way to treat it and by offering that population basic treatment, you can, in fact, save a large percentage of cancer patients even with minimal resources,” he said.

Ilbawi says important actions that developing countries can take to improve cancer outcomes include improving community awareness of the disease, early detection through better diagnosis in primary health care and accessing affordable treatment.

The World Health Organization also stresses the importance of a healthy lifestyle. It says eating more fruits and vegetables, regular exercise, no tobacco use and moderate alcohol intake can cut cancer deaths by one third.
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Finding a cure for Alzheimer’s is an extremely complex task. Scientists still do not know what causes the disease. Once the symptoms appear, the gradual memory loss is inevitable and available drugs can only slow down the process. Researchers, however, believe the disease develops slowly, over years, so detecting it before the symptoms appear may give the patients a better chance of a longer life. VOA’s George Putic reports.
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