The number of measles cases in the United States has soared to more than 460, the highest number since 1991. More than half of the cases are in New York, where 21 people had to be hospitalized, five of them in intensive care. Last week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared measles a public health emergency, and has ordered mandatory vaccination in parts of the city. VOA Zlatica Hoke reports measles cases are up 300 percent worldwide this year, according to the World Health Organization.
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Scientists on Monday provided the most comprehensive look to date at one of the solar system’s most exotic features: prime lakeside property in the northern polar region of Saturn’s moon Titan — if you like lakes made of stuff like liquid methane.

Using data obtained by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft before that mission ended in 2017 with a deliberate plunge into Saturn, the scientists found that some of frigid Titan’s lakes of liquid hydrocarbons in this region are surprisingly deep while others may be shallow and seasonal.

Titan and Earth are the solar system’s two places with standing bodies of liquid on the surface. Titan boasts lakes, rivers and seas of hydrocarbons: compounds of hydrogen and carbon like those that are the main components of petroleum and natural gas.

The researchers described land forms akin to mesas towering above the nearby landscape, topped with liquid lakes more than 300 feet (100 meters) deep comprised mainly of methane. The scientists suspect the lakes formed when surrounding bedrock chemically dissolved and collapsed, a process that occurs with a certain type of lake on Earth.

The scientists also described “phantom lakes” that during wintertime appeared to be wide but shallow ponds — perhaps only a few inches (cm) deep — but evaporated or drained into the surface by springtime, a process taking seven years on Titan.

The findings represented further evidence about Titan’s hydrological cycle, with liquid hydrocarbons raining down from clouds, flowing across its surface and evaporating back into the sky. This is comparable to Earth’s water cycle.

Because of Titan’s complex chemistry and distinctive environments, scientists suspect it potentially could harbor life, in particular in its subsurface ocean of water, but possibly in the surface bodies of liquid hydrocarbons.

“Titan is a very fascinating object in the solar system, and every time we look carefully at the data we find out something new,” California Institute of Technology planetary scientist Marco Mastrogiuseppe said.

Titan, with a diameter of 3,200 miles (5,150 km), is the solar system’s second largest moon, behind only Jupiter’s Ganymede. It is bigger than the planet Mercury.

“Titan is the most Earth-like body in the solar system. It has lakes, canyons, rivers, dune fields of organic sand particles about the same size as silica sand grains on Earth,” Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory planetary scientist Shannon MacKenzie said.

The research was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
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Doctors from the United States and Venezuela are working together to help patients in Venezuela. Dr. Gabriela Blohm lives in Gainesville, Florida and physician Alberto Paniz-Mondolfi lives 2,000 kilometers away in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. VOA’s Christina Caicedo Smit reports, their team work may save some lives today, and in the future.
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The number of measles cases worldwide nearly quadrupled in the first three months of the year compared to last year, the World Health Organization reported Monday.

The United Nations agency, citing preliminary data, said that more than 112,000 cases of the preventable but highly contagious disease have been reported across the globe in the January-to-March period.

WHO called for better vaccination coverage against measles, which can kill or leave a child disabled for life.

Over recent months, WHO said spikes in the disease have occurred “in countries with high overall vaccination coverage, including the United States … as well as Israel, Thailand, and Tunisia, as the disease has spread fast among clusters of unvaccinated people.”

“While this data is provisional and not yet complete, it indicates a clear trend,” WHO said. “Many countries are in the midst of sizeable measles outbreaks, with all regions of the world experiencing sustained rises in cases.”

The agency said the reported number of cases often lags behind the number of actual cases, meaning that the number of documented cases likely does not reflect the actual severity of the measles outbreaks.

For three weeks in a row, U.S. health authorities have added dozens of new reports of measles to its yearly total, now at 555, the biggest figure in five years. Twenty of the 50 U.S. states have now reported measles cases.

More than half of the U.S. total — 285 cases — have been reported in New York City. Officials in the country’s largest city last week ordered mandatory measles vaccinations to halt the outbreak that has been concentrated among ultra-Orthodox Jews in the city’s Brooklyn borough.

City health department officials blamed anti-vaccine propagandists for distributing misinformation in the community.
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The submersible dropped from the ocean’s surface faster than I had expected. With a loud “psssssss” the air escaped from the ballast tanks and the small craft suddenly tilted forward.

Within seconds, aquanaut Robert Carmichael and I were enveloped by a vibrant shade of blue, watching streaks of sunlight pierce the water’s surface. Soon a large manta ray appeared from the darkness below, gently gliding toward our small craft before vanishing into the distance.

The dive took place off a coral atoll called St. Joseph in the outer islands of Seychelles on a mission to explore the Indian Ocean. This body of water is poorly studied and few scientists have ever ventured deeper than the maximum scuba depth of 100 feet.

For more than a month researchers from Nekton, a British-led scientific research charity, have been using submersibles to dive deep below the waves to document the ocean’s health.

We arrived at St. Joseph Island in the early hours of the morning, and this was the first submersible dive at the new site. The sea bed suddenly appeared beneath our craft, a landscape no one had ever seen before.

I quickly scribbled down in the mission report the depth and time at which we sighted the bottom: “165 feet, 1144 UTC.” Carmichael, a veteran of the sea, relayed the information to the surface via an underwater telephone. Its loud static noise would be a constant of our dive.

We moved across a seabed of rock and sand and scattered soft coral until a great darkness opened ahead. Carmichael lowered us over the side of an underwater cliff. Our target depth was 400 feet.

Oceans cover over two-thirds of the Earth’s surface but remain, for the most part, unexplored.

Their role in regulating our climate and the threats they face are underestimated by many people, so scientific missions are crucial to take stock of the health of underwater ecosystems.

Able to operate down to 1,000 feet, these manned submersibles give scientists a unique understanding of changes in habitats as sunlight diminishes through the different layers of ocean. We glided with the current as six cameras mounted around the craft recorded its journey. In the months to come, researchers at Oxford will comb through the footage frame by frame, noting each species encountered.

Suddenly a drop of cold water landed on my arm, triggering alarm. Water is best kept on the outside of a submersible. Carmichael quickly put me at ease: The difference in temperature between the water around us and our submersible had created a layer of condensation on the hatch. We quickly soaked it up with towels.

It was curiosity that drew Carmichael to the ocean. “I just wanted to know what was down here,” he said. “It’s stunning in so many ways.”

This curiosity has attracted mankind for centuries. “The human mind is naturally drawn to grandiose notions of supernatural beings, and the sea is the ideal medium for them,” wrote Jules Verne, author of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” possibly the greatest submarine novel of all time, which opens with fears over a mysterious sea monster sinking ships and harvesting the lives of sailors.

Thirty years after reading the novel as a child, I’m sitting in a tiny glass bubble observing the underwater world like Captain Nemo on board the novel’s submarine, Nautilus. We are foreigners to this realm, objects of fascination for the reef shark that approaches us, as curious of us as we are of it.

Even in the 19th century, Verne feared the extinction of numerous species of marine life. The fears have been proven true. A WWF report found that marine vertebrate populations have declined by almost half since the 1970s.

Fishing is no longer the sole cause. Man-made pollution, global warming and the acidification of the oceans are new challenges.

As the oceans slowly soak up heat from the atmosphere, marine species will be affected in different ways. Some will adapt. Some will migrate to cooler waters. Others will disappear, leaving a gap in ecosystems that have existed for millennia.

“I came into the Indian Ocean hoping I’d see a giant Napoleon wrasse,” Carmichael said of one of the world’s largest reef fish. “Here we are, 35 days into the mission and I still haven’t seen one.”

Maybe we’re just not diving in the right places. Maybe the reality is bleaker.

As the surveys ended and the currents became too strong to fight, the surface vessel ordered our submersible to return to the surface.

With the lights off, we floated a few minutes in the semi-darkness before the sound of ballast tanks emptying marked our slow ascent. The dark blue water around us lightened.

“The oceans are all connected and important to the quality of life for all humans,” Carmichael said. “It’s worth protecting because the air we breathe and the food we eat and the oceans we swim in really do have a meaningful impact on everyone’s life.”

 
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As recently as a half-century ago, young American students would spend many lessons writing curved loops and diagonal lines, as they learned how to write in cursive. Over the years, though, computer keyboards and voice to text programs have replaced pens and pencils, and made handwriting — especially cursive — less relevant. 

But it hasn’t disappeared. St. Luke Catholic School in McLean, Virginia, still teaches cursive. Several times a week, students work on their handwriting skills, clutching their pencils and pens as they practice forming neat loops and curls.

Teacher Grace O’Connor says eventually, all of them will have a style all their own. “The great thing about cursive is everyone has his own little spin to it, like, you know how to form your letters, but as you get older you, kind of, develop your own flow to your cursive writing, and it’s yours,” she says. “You can take ownership of it, which is really great.”

Cursive engages multiple senses

Cursive handwriting is emerging as a learning tool for students with dyslexia, a disorder that makes it difficult to read or interpret letters, words and other symbols.

Thirteen-year-old Joseph was diagnosed with dyslexia four years ago, when he was in third grade. “It was hard,” he recalls. “At first, I hadn’t known anything about it. So, I thought it was like the end of the world. So, I was, like, scared, but I had also known that eventually there would be a way for me to get past it.”

He’s “getting past it” with help from therapist Deborah Spear. She visits Joseph’s school several times a week for extra one-on-one practice sessions on cursive writing. 

Spear says practicing handwriting, especially cursive, helps these kids become better readers. The distinct curves and shapes are more likely to be retained in memory.

“We always teach the students that their hands will help them read,” she adds. “They’re very aware they learn through all of their senses. So, we always start with sky writing.”

For that, the students write a letter in the air with their fingers and name the letter at the exact same time they are writing it.

“We’re using the large shoulder muscle at that point,” Spear explains. “Then, we start with very large papers sometimes. So, we start to establish the gross motor movement before we let them hold the pencil, and they have to hold the pencil correctly. The other piece of it is that every handwriting letter is integrated into the letter’s name and that letter’s sound.”

In addition to handwriting, Spear finds that spelling is a useful learning tool. 

“So, when their spelling is smooth, they are integrating that sense in breaking a word down, then they’re able to read it back after they’ve been able to break it down,” she adds.

Why cursive?

Connecting the letters on paper helps students see each letter more distinctly, a benefit Spear says they don’t get from typing.

“Even if you’re able to touch type, just waggling the fingers is not the same as engaging the whole muscle of the arm in handwriting. When you wiggle your fingers, you’re not really differentiating between a ‘b’ and a ‘d’, for example, or an ‘m’ and an ‘n’. But when you’re handwriting, you’re making that distinction.”

Joseph says that’s exactly how practicing handwriting helped him read better and faster.

“When I do the handwriting motions, it’s like my hand remembers it,” he explains. “So, my brain starts remembering the letters and the words. Then, when I see these words, I remember the words when I’m reading. So, that helped a lot.”

Better writers, better students

Teacher Grace O’Connor says the extra handwriting practice helped the students gain confidence and perform better in class.

“I feel like they have a heightened sense of pride at their work from getting this extra help because it’s allowing them the opportunity to use strategies they’re learning one-on-one. So, they can be more confident in the classroom and working with the whole group on cursive writing.”

St. Luke staffer Kevin Cyrow says learning to write in cursive can help all students, not only dyslexic ones.

“A lot of memory issues are involved in it,” he says. “So, in order for a student to do well in a test or just remember things in general, it’s really important for them to write down. So I hope we’ll never lose it.”

Lessons for life, no matter how much they will use cursive handwriting in the years to come.
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Just 50 years ago, the Aral Sea, which straddles the nations of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was the fourth largest lake in the world. But today it is mostly desert, and environmental groups are trying to save what is left. VOA’S Kevin Enochs reports.
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Experts meeting in emergency session at the World Health Organization agree the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo does not constitute a public health emergency of international concern.

The experts say the Ebola outbreak does not pose a global threat since the deadly virus has not crossed any international borders.  But they warn this is no time to sit back as the epidemic continues to spread.  It says efforts to contain the disease must be redoubled.

The assessment follows a warning issued Friday by top Red Cross official Emanuele Capobianco who expressed concern about a possible regional spread of the Ebola virus after a recent spike in cases in the DRC.

The recent spike in Ebola infections has seen the number of cases rise to 1206, including 764 deaths. The current upsurge has occurred in remaining epicenters of the disease in conflict-ridden North Kivu province, notably in Butembo, Katwa, Vuhove and Mandima.  

The WHO says these areas have been off limits because of insecurity, seriously hindering the Ebola response.  Because of the lack of access, Executive Director of WHO Health Emergency Program, Mike Ryan, says the WHO has fallen behind in starting vaccination rings.

“Vaccination is proving to be a highly effective way of stopping this virus.   But if we cannot vaccinate people, we cannot protect them.  We can also not get people out to Ebola treatment units.  If someone stays in the community with Ebola and begins to have diarrhea or bleeding, they will infect their families.  So, getting an Ebola patient to safe and effective treatment center is also very important,” Ryan said.

In the last few days, Ryan says aid workers have been able to get back into these Ebola-affected communities. He says they have been able to begin vaccinations and implement other crucial Ebola-control measures.

The current Ebola outbreak is the worst ever in DRC and the second largest recorded after the 2014 epidemic in West Africa, which killed more than 11,000 people.

The WHO expert committee recommends scaling up community dialogue and participation of traditional healers to lessen community mistrust and gain its acceptance.

Because of the high risk of regional spread, the committee advises neighboring countries to accelerate current preparedness and surveillance efforts.

The WHO is appealing to the international community to support its Ebola-control operation.  It says it desperately needs $148 million to keep the operation running until July.  It warns it will not be able to end the epidemic if it does not have the money to implement essential programs.

 
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For months, New York City has been fighting a measles outbreak in the Orthodox Jewish community. The mayor finally declared a public health emergency April 9 because measles continue to spread among unvaccinated children. Parents who refuse to vaccinate now face heavy fines.

Brooklyn is a borough in New York City known for its tight-knit, ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Women wear long, modest dresses, and the men are recognizable in large-brimmed hats and long black coats.

Vaccine mandatory

About 100,000 Orthodox Jews live in Brooklyn. It’s in this community where measles has been spreading since an unvaccinated child brought the virus back from a visit to Israel last October. The inability to contain the outbreak prompted Mayor Bill de Blasio to declare a public health emergency.

“We have a situation now where children are in danger,” de Blasio said.

De Blasio ordered mandatory vaccinations in the Orthodox neighborhoods. Unvaccinated children will not be allowed to attend school, and their parents may face steep fines.

WATCH: Anti-Vaccine Parents Fuel Worst Measles Outbreak in 30 Years

Their religion does not prohibit immunization, and city health commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot says the duration of this outbreak is alarming.

“We’ve worked closely with the community religious leaders and schools to make sure that vulnerable people are kept safe during this outbreak and to challenge the dangerous misinformation that is being spread by a group of anti-vaxxers,” she said.

Schools honor emergency

The ParCare Community Health Network caters to Orthodox families. Gary Schlesinger is its chief executive. He told VOA that the private, religious schools these children attend will honor the terms of the emergency declaration.

“They were very clear that they will unequivocally deny any parent who does not vaccinate their children,” he said.

Schlesinger says about 100 families are solidly against vaccines because they mistakenly believe vaccines cause autism or even death. These are some of the same beliefs people in other, secular communities hold.

Safe vaccine

Dr. Camille Sabella at the Cleveland Clinic says multiple studies involving hundreds of thousands of children prove that the measles vaccine is safe.

“It really is an incredibly safe vaccine. We’ve been using it since the 1960s in this country, and it has an outstanding safety record,” he said.

There have been more than 400 measles cases in 19 states just this year, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials are concerned because measles outbreaks can also be a sign that children aren’t being vaccinated against other deadly diseases, as well.
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New York City has declared a public health emergency amid an alarming spike in the number of measles cases among largely unvaccinated children. VOA’s Carol Pearson looks at why these parents are reluctant to vaccinate in the face of a serious measles outbreak.
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