Record high temperatures reportedly measured in Antarctica will take months to verify, the U.N. weather agency said Sunday.A spokesman for the World Meteorological Organization said the measurements made by researchers from Argentina and Brazil earlier this month have to undergo a formal process to ensure that they meet international standards.”A formal decision on whether or not this is a record is likely to be several months away,” said Jonathan Fowler, the WMO spokesman.Scientists at an Argentine research base measured a temperature of 18.3° C (nearly 65° F) Feb. 6 on a peninsula that juts out from Antarctica toward the southern tip of South America. Last week, researchers from Brazil claimed to have measured temperatures above 20° C on an island off the peninsula.Fowler said both measurements would need to be transmitted to Prof. Randall Cerveny, a researcher at Arizona State University who examines reported temperature records for WMO.Cerveny then shares the data with a wider group of scientists who “will carefully evaluate the available evidence (including comparisons to surrounding stations) and debate the merits and problems of the observation,” said Fowler.The evaluation normally takes six to nine months, after which Cerveny would “formally either accept or reject the potential extreme,” giving official WMO approval to the new record, he said.Climate change is causing the Arctic and the Antarctic to warm faster than other parts of the planet. 
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U.S. health officials are preparing for a second wave of the winter flu season, complicated this year by similarities between flu symptoms and those of the coronavirus that has killed more than 1,500 in China and spread fear around the world. A first round of seasonal flu, caused by a strain of influenza B, named B-Victoria for the city in which it was discovered, peaked in the United States in late December and then dropped off, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.  However, the CDC says a second round of flu began in late January, caused by a strain of influenza A that is related to the swine flu that first appeared in 2009, and cases continue to increase. While there have only been 15 confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States as of Friday, health officials have expressed concern that if the virus were to spread in the country, it could initially look like the spread of seasonal flu. FILE – Passengers arrive at LAX airport from Shanghai, China, before restrictions were put in place to halt the spread of the coronavirus, in Los Angeles, Jan. 26, 2020.Coronavirus testingIn part to address these concerns, U.S. health officials announced they would begin testing some patients who have flulike symptoms for coronavirus in several U.S. cities. The testing will initially be carried out by public health labs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and New York, which are already testing for seasonal flu. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters in a telephone briefing Friday that labs will conduct the coronavirus test on patients who show flulike respiratory symptoms, but who test negative for the seasonal flu. Both the seasonal flu and coronavirus cause respiratory illness, fever and cough. Other typical flu symptoms include sore throat, muscle aches, runny nose and fatigue, according to the CDC. While scientists have studied the flu for decades, little is known about this coronavirus, dubbed COVID-19, because it is so new. Health officials are still trying to understand all the symptoms related to the new virus, as well has how it spreads and how often cases are severe. There have been few studies on the symptoms of coronavirus, however, research suggests patients most commonly suffer from fever, cough and shortness of breath and are less likely than flu patients to suffer from a sore throat and runny nose. To prevent the spread of the coronavirus to the United States, CDC officials have put in place travel restrictions and quarantine policies for people who recently visited China. However, officials say that strategy would change if the virus were to spread quickly in the United States. Messonnier said if there were an outbreak of coronavirus in the United States, the CDC would call for “social distancing” strategies that would include online schooling, teleworking, and canceling mass gatherings, in an effort to prevent people from spreading the virus. Flu kills 14,000 in USWhile health officials put plans in place for any possible outbreak of coronavirus, doctors around the United States continue to help patients battle the seasonal flu. The CDC estimates that 26 million Americans have gotten sick with flu this season and around people 14,000 have died. Health officials say the first wave of the flu, a B strain, has hit children particularly hard this season, causing 92 deaths in children. B strains are more likely to cause a more severe illness and death in children. Cases of the flu among the elderly have been down this season. The CDC says concern about coronavirus might have prompted more people with flu symptoms to go their doctor for testing this season, although they say there is nothing in their data to confirm this. Messonnier said if more people are going to the doctor that is a good thing. “People being a little worried and seeking care doesn’t especially worry me, because that’s the point,” she said.
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A U.S.-funded charity has started installing solar panels to provide electricity to the maternity wards of rural hospitals in Zimbabwe. The move should come as a relief to new and expecting mothers, as power cuts have left many Zimbabwean hospitals without working lights. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Beatrice Government Hospital, about an hour’s drive south of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.
 
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(Warning: This story includes content of a sexual nature and descriptions that some may find disturbing.) Cynthia, who for privacy does not wish to use her real name, was 12 years old when a senior female teacher announced that girls at her school — more than 100 — would undergo genital stretching. Under pressure from the girls’ parents, the school arranged for older women to instruct the girls on how to stretch their labia and to use traditional herbs to make it permanent. “It was painful,” Cynthia said. “It wasn’t really something pleasant for me as a person. Because at that time, you’re something like 12 years, 11 years — you’re not sexually active. So why are you doing this thing? Honestly, why are you doing this so-called ‘pulling,’ whatever people call it?  I didn’t know why, but because we were many, some days they would say, ‘Get a partner. Get a partner, you do it to each other.’ ” Bantu traditionLabia stretching is a pre-marriage tradition in southeastern Africa among Bantu-speaking tribes, who believe it gives greater sexual pleasure to both men and women. But Peace Mutuuzo, Uganda’s minister for culture and gender, sparked controversy this month by calling labia stretching a type of female genital mutilation. She said that while FGM that involves cutting, or circumcision, does much greater physical damage, labia stretching should not be forced on girls. “Children between 8 to 12 are being sensitized, initiated, and the practice takes effect from that time,” she said. “These are basically babies, who we’ve taken to schools for empowerment — for purposes of full growth, to actualize their potential.” For the last 20 years, Hamida Namatovu has been showing girls and women how to stretch their labia. She defends the cultural practice, claiming that unlike FGM, labia stretching has no negative effects, only positive ones. “Once you do it, and you have a marriage partner, that’s the only thing that will show him that you are ready,” she said.  Not true, doctors sayBut doctors dismiss the claims. Dr. Vincent Karuhanga said that just like FGM, labia stretching is more about pleasing men than women. “Much as it’s claimed that pulling can ease birth pain or even make a woman warmer, there’s no scientific evidence in this,” he said. “But what is true is that pulling can actually make the men involved sexually with the women happier with their sexual act.” Nonetheless, labia stretching practitioners are demanding that Mutuuzo apologize for undermining their tradition. But she dismisses their call, saying she will continue to speak for the voiceless and discourage the practice until girls reach the age of consent.  
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Last month was the warmest January ever recorded, U.S. government forecasters say, with human-led climate change the leading cause.Global temperatures were 1.13 degrees Celsius higher than the 20th century average, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Thursday — the highest in at least 141 years.Record-high heat was felt in parts of Latin America, Asia, Scandinavia, and over parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.Parts of Russia were 5 degrees higher and sea ice around Antarctica was nearly 10% below average.The outlook for all of 2020 also points to a warming planet, with experts predicting the year will rank among the five hottest ever recorded.Global warming can cause floods and more powerful storms in some parts of the world while others will suffer droughts, eventually leading to what a United National panel says will be food shortages and a widespread refugee crisis.
 
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After the death of a young girl in upper Egypt during a botched circumcision, women and doctors in Cairo launched a number of protests in recent days to decry the practice, which has been officially outlawed since 2008. Government officials say, however, that they can only step in when someone formally launches a complaint.A crowd of mostly women took to the streets of Cairo to protest the enduring but now illegal practice of female circumcision. Egypt has the largest percentage of circumcised women of any country in the world.The protests began after 12-year-old Nada Hassan Abdel Maqsoud died from a botched circumcision in the Upper Egypt town of Assyout. Both the girl’s father and uncle were arrested and held for questioning for four days, along with the retired doctor who performed the procedure.  Since 2003, at least six Egyptian young women have died as a result of being circumcised.Writer and sociologist Nawal Sadawi decried the practice at a recent women’s forum.She said that circumcising women is ghastly, both medically, socially and psychologically. It is deceitful, she said, to cut off a part of a girl’s body on the pretext of morality. Even in Saudi Arabia, which is the center of Islam, she stressed, they do not do such things.Dr. George Nashed, who heads the good practices committee of the Egyptian Doctors’ Syndicate, told Egyptian media that female circumcision continues, despite having been outlawed in 2008.He said that Egyptian law now bans the procedure, but it remains a customary practice, even if it is not based in religion. He said the practice is less common in Cairo, but widespread in the provinces and villages.  One middle-aged woman in Sharqiya province, north of Cairo, however, said Islam calls for the procedure, but gave no evidence to support the claim.She said that grandmothers and mothers and all of women have been circumcised and that’s the custom. Her husband adds that all four of his daughters have been circumcised, because – in his words – “it’s the right thing to do.”    Hatem el Gamasy, who wrote a book on female genital mutilation, says that religious hardliners in parliament even tried to tried to annul the law banning female circumcision when the Muslim Brotherhood was in power from 2012 to 2013.More than 87% of Egyptian women from ages 15 to 49 are circumcised. The figure is almost as high in Sudan. By contrast, only 18.5% of Yemeni women and just 7.4% of Iraqi women are circumcised.A group of women doctors, including Dr. Souhair, spent a day in a Cairo metro station to educate passersby about the ills of female circumcision.She said that a woman who has been circumcised will suffer a chronic deficiency in her intimate relations. 
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A World Health Organization Emergency Committee warns the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo remains a global health threat despite significant progress in containing the spread of this deadly virus.   WHO reports a total of 3,431 cases of Ebola, including 2,253 deaths in North Kivu and Ituri provinces.The Emergency Committee declared the outbreak in DRC a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, or PHEIC, last July.  In reviewing the current situation, members of the Committee decided it was premature to declare the global threat over.FILE – Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a news conference after a meeting of the Emergency Committee on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Geneva, Jan. 30, 2020.WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says he accepts the Committee’s advice.“As long as there is a single case of Ebola in an area as insecure and unstable as eastern DRC, the potential remains for a much larger epidemic,” he said. WHO has revised its risk assessment from very high to high at national and regional levels, and low at the global level.  Last week, it reports only three new cases of the disease in North Kivu’s Beni Health Zone.  Tedros calls these signs extremely positive.“But even as we near the end of this outbreak, we must act now to prevent the next one…Only half of health facilities have access to water.  Strengthening a health system may not be as sexy as responding to an outbreak, but it is equally important,” he said. Tedros is traveling to DRC’s capital Kinshasa on Thursday.  The WHO chief says he will meet President Felix Tshisekedi and other senior ministers to explore ways to strengthen DRC’s health system.  Chair of the Emergency Committee, Robert Steffen explains why the group decided to maintain the PHEIC despite cautious optimism that the Ebola epidemic was winding down.  “We do see a risk of some resurgence and also a risk of complacency if we would now suddenly abandon this PHEIC despite of the fact that we still occasionally still see new cases,” he said. Another problem, Steffen says, is lack of money.  He says WHO needs $83 million to carry out its Ebola operation until June.  So far, less than half of the required amount has been received. 
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Epilepsy,  a neurological disorder typically associated with seizures, affects millions in the United States alone.  Now, patients are helping scientists find new treatments by donating living brain tissue for research.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi takes us into the operating room.
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The tiny southern African mountain nation of Lesotho made history in 2017 by becoming the first on the continent to issue licenses for the production of medical cannabis. It made history again, when it signed tens of millions of dollars worth of deals with foreign investors to develop the lucrative marijuana industry and to manufacture the complete products in Africa. VOA’s Anita Powell visited one of the country’s medical marijuana farms, in the hills of Marakabei, to learn more.
 
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Chinese health officials reported Wednesday the number of dead from a coronavirus outbreak has risen to more than 1,100.The National Health Commission figures included 97 new deaths and a total of 44,653 people confirmed infected since the outbreak began last month.  Some experts have cast doubts about whether the total number of cases are being counted.If the figures are accurate, there would be some semblance of optimism with the 2,105 new cases confirmed Tuesday, a number that was lower than those reported the past few days.While most of the coronavirus cases are within mainland China, hundreds have been confirmed sick in dozens of other countries, usually after traveling from China.The biggest grouping of cases is on board a cruise ship in Yokohama, Japan, where 174 of the 3,700 people on board have tested positive as the ship remains under quarantine orders.China has put several areas on lockdown in an attempt to stop the virus from spreading.On Tuesday, state media reported that the government in Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, dismissed its top two health officials.Medical workers in protective suits attend to novel coronavirus patients at the intensive care unit (ICU) of a designated hospital in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, Feb. 6, 2020.The World Health Organization officially named the virus COVID-19 at a meeting Tuesday, one day after WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the spread of coronavirus between people who had no history of travel to China could be “the spark that becomes a bigger fire.””In recent days, we have seen some concerning instances of onward transmission from people with no travel history to China,” he said, citing new cases in Britain and France.The U.S. State Department said Tuesday it will permit non-essential employees and their families to voluntarily leave the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong “out of an abundance of caution related to uncertainties” about the coronavirus. The State Department made similar announcements last month for diplomatic staff in Chinese cities, including Beijing. U.S. consular employees were ordered last month to leave Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei province.The death toll from the coronavirus is higher than the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002-03, which is believed to have killed 774 people and sickened nearly 8,100 in China and Hong Kong.
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China’s health care system is struggling to cope with the surging number of patients infected by the deadly coronavirus despite that Chinese President Xi Jingping has re-emerged in public to call for greater confidence in his government.   FILE – A man bowing in front of flowers and a photo of the late ophthalmologist Li Wenliang outside the Houhu Branch of Wuhan Central Hospital in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province, Feb. 7, 2020.The death toll Tuesday totaled 1,018 worldwide among the more than 43,000 confirmed infections; 974 deaths, or 96% of the total, occurred in Wuhan city, in China’s Hubei province — signs that hospitals in the epic center of the outbreak have been overwhelmed.The latest report on the American Medical Association’s website found that out of the city’s 138 virus-infected patients 30% were medical professionals — an alarming rate that suggests the city’s medical system treating over 30,000 patients may be collapsing, said Vincent Su, a thoracic surgeon in Taipei.Medical system collapsing
“It’s a vicious cycle that the more medical professionals infected, the less patients well-treated. With patients flooding in, the frontline [in Wuhan] appears to be broken. This is what we call a collapsing medical system,” Su said.FILE – Workers set up infrastructure at the Wuhan International Conference and Exhibition Center to convert it into a makeshift hospital to receive patients infected with the coronavirus, in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, Feb. 4, 2020.With an overwhelming workload in hospitals, the number of patients in Wuhan is likely under-reported, the surgeon estimated.Mr. Sun’s father is probably one such case.Sun, currently working in Henan province, told VOA that his father in Wuhan remains a suspected case although he has suffered from severe symptoms — infected lungs, lasting fever and chest pains.  Insufficient medical careYet, the elder Sun is given little medical attention.“He goes to the hospital every day to receive shots. But not a hospital bed is available for him although the doctor said his condition has worsened,” Sun said.China has added thousands of beds in some 15 shelter-like hospitals in Wuhan.  But many who checked in complained of a lack of medical care and isolation wards there to avoid cross infection. 
“Fangchang shelters are for those who haven’t been severely infected. But my father is a highly suspected case who needs to be hospitalized for immediate treatment. Frankly speaking, home quarantine is probably better than going to those shelters,” he added.  The father of Ms. Lo, another Wuhan resident, is a confirmed patient and has no choice but to check into a Fangchang shelter soon.
“It’s arranged that he will first check into a Fangchang shelter. We were told earlier that he will be transferred to another hospital if his symptoms deteriorate. I’m not sure of the shelter’s condition since he hasn’t checked into,” Lo said.   Decisive measures to comeChinese President Xi Jinping inspects the novel coronavirus prevention and control work at Anhuali Community in Beijing, China, Feb. 10, 2020. (Xinhua via Reuters)Appearing in a public inspection tour in Beijing, President Xi pledged on Monday that “more decisive measures” will be taken to combat the epidemic amid criticism and suspicion that China has taken action too late and too little to stop its spread and under-reported its death toll.  Spiked levels of sulfur dioxide emissions in Wuhan were recently used to suggest that tens of thousands of bodies might have been cremated.
“If a super spreader emerges to speed up contagion by ten-fold, China may be overtaken by the virus and further pushed into the hell of fire,” said Chen Bingzhong, a former health official.Taiwan, on Sunday, confirmed its first asymptomatic patient with a high viral load, fueling worries that a super spreader may be on the horizon to worsen the outbreak.  
  
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As the death toll from the coronavirus continues to mount in China and elsewhere, thousands of African students in China count the hours hoping that their governments will evacuate them.Solomon Yohannes of Ethiopia, a third-year engineering student at Wuchang Technology University in the Wuhan region of China, the epicenter of the outbreak, sat in a room in a nearly deserted campus. He said virtually all of Wuchang’s 15,000 students have left, but about 200 foreigners, mostly Africans, remain. “We are counting on the next two to three days for some solution,” he told VOA’s Afaan Oromo service. Until then he and others will remain secluded. “If you leave, you have to wear all the protective gear,” he said.Another student at Wuchang called on the Ethiopian government to take action. “We want the government to take us out of the country as every other government is doing,” the student told VOA’s Amharic service. “America, India, took their whole citizens out of the country. We also want to tell the government to at least take us out of the city where the crisis is right now.”There are an estimated 61,000 African students studying in China and they now face food shortages, isolation and uncertainty. Last week a 21-year-old student from Cameroon studying in the city of Jingzhou tested positive, becoming the first reported African student to contract the virus.Hermes Koundou, a third-year engineering student from the Central African Republic studying at Nankin University, about 530 kilometers east of Wuhan, said students there are cautious.“We buy food online, you see, and we cook inside our rooms because it is not easy to get to the common kitchen over there, as many people are there cooking,” he told VOA’s French to Africa service. “And you never know, you could be in contact there, with a student already infected with the coronavirus. So, we stay in our rooms.”Antony Waigwa of Kenya, a Ph.D. student of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan, said he and fellow students have been offered masks and given free wi-fi and access to an emergency hotline. While they wait for information, they are keeping the thermostat high in the belief that it may decrease the ability of the disease to be transmitted. A doctor (L) talks with a patient during his rounds at the ward of a quarantine zone in Wuhan, the epicenter of the new coronavirus outbreak, in China’s central Hubei province, Feb. 3, 2020.“The situation is tense. We’re just afraid of contracting the disease,” Waigwa told VOA’s Swahili service. “You cannot say that you are fully safe because you can get it. The disease is transmitted via air. It’s an airborne disease as much as it is contagious. But it is manageable by keeping ourselves safe by not getting out of the school compound.”Ethiopian Ambassador to China Teshome Toga Chanaka said the embassy is closely monitoring the situation and added there are approximately 100 Ethiopian students in Wuhan city and about 300 in Hubei province. He said they are in contact with student associations but said neither the government of China nor the World Health Organization is advising evacuation right now. “This is a very serious matter. We are very much concerned, of course, about the situation. But we also have confidence in the prevention and control measures the government of China is taking,” he told VOA’s Amharic service.He added that evacuation is a complicated process requiring clearance from various Chinese ministries and agencies and then preparation in Ethiopia to receive the students. He said many African embassies are in touch with one another and ready to act, if needed. “We are not alone in this, literally all African countries have students in Wuhan city. So, I don’t think Ethiopia is alone in this,” he said. “We are also making consultation among the Beijing belt of African embassies so that, when the push comes to shove, certainly we will be taking action.”This story originated in the Africa division with reporting contributions from Horn of Africa Amharic service’s Eden Geremew and Afaan Oromo service’s Sora Halake, Swahili service’s Patrick Nnduwimana and Idd Ligongo, and French to Africa service’s Timothée Donangmaye.
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The head of the World Health Organization’s says there are “concerning instances” of coronavirus transmission from people who have not traveled to China, a development that could mean there is a bigger problem. This comes as a WHO team of medical experts arrived in China on Monday and the death toll surpassed that of the SARS’ epidemic in 2002/2003. According to WHO’s latest data, there are now over 40,000 confirmed cases in China and more than 1,000 deaths. Outside of China, there are 319 confirmed cases and there has been one death in Philippines. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports.
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While waiting for his 5-year-old twins to get out of school one afternoon, Raj Rajoo got their child safety seats ready.
“My kids, their lives are very important for me so I invested in the car seats,” he said.Malaysia has been requiring the use of child safety seats — also known as child restraint systems — since January 1 but Rajoo and his wife, Jay Menon, have been using them since shortly after their children were born.
“Anything can happen in a split second and we don’t want to regret anything further on down the road,” Menon said.A study conducted last year in Malaysia found that less than half of the cars on the roads with children ages 12 and under had child safety seats. (Dave Grunebaum/VOA)Researchers in Malaysia found last year that fewer than half of the cars on the roads with children ages 12 and under had child safety seats.“For many years, people have not been having car seats here, quite a number of people have not,” Menon said, “so it’s  a change of mindset and it will take time.”Data shows that children secured properly in a child safety seat are up to 71-percent less likely to die in a car accident. (Dave Grunebaum/VOA)The Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research says more than 1,500 children under the age of 10 died in road accidents in Malaysia from 2007 to 2017. Statistics show that children secured properly in a child safety seat are up to 71% less likely to die in a car accident.“A seat belt only, it is actually designed for an adult,” the institute’s director-general, Siti Zaharah Ishak, said.A child restraint system, she said, “is actually appropriate for a child to use in a car because it’s designed for a child to protect them to restrain them whenever there is a motor crash or an accident.“Omar Mohamad recently looked for a child safety seat for his 2-year-old son at a store in Kuala Lumpur. He said his family already has one in his wife’s car and he’s buying another one for his.Child safety seats became a requirement in Malaysia on Jan. 1. The government says after a six-month phase in period violators will be fined.(Dave Grunebaum/VOA)“Every time we want to move into my car, I have to prepare half an hour before, take out the car seat, put it in my car, fix it properly then we can go,” he said.
“So now I’m buying a new one, one more to put in my car so that one in each car and we are ready to go at any time.”After a six-month phase-in period, the government says violators will be fined, although the amount has not been announced yet.Large families are exempted from the requirement if they cannot fit safety seats for all of their children in their car. This decision came after complaints that many large families would otherwise need to buy new, bigger cars, but as child restraint systems do so much to protect children, safety advocates hope parents will make them a priority.
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Two experimental drugs failed to prevent or slow mental decline in a study of people who are virtually destined to develop Alzheimer’s disease at a relatively young age because they inherited rare gene flaws.The results announced Monday are another disappointment for the approach that scientists have focused on for years — trying to remove a harmful protein that builds up in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s, the leading cause of dementia.”We actually don’t even know yet what the drugs did” in term of removing that protein because those results are still being analyzed, said study leader Dr. Randall Bateman at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.But after five years on average, the main goal of the study was not met: people on either of the drugs scored about the same on thinking and memory tests as others given placebo treatments. 
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The World Health Organization reports progress is being made in combating the Ebola epidemic in the conflict-ridden North Kivu and Ituri provinces in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.  The latest number of reported cases stands at 3,429, including 2,251 deaths — a fatality rate of 66%. FILE – Burial workers dressed in protective gear carry the remains of an Ebola victim in Beni, DRC, July 14, 2019.The global fixation on the evolution of the novel coronavirus has knocked the DRC’s Ebola epidemic out of the media’s spotlight.  However, health officials working in the shadows have been making steady progress in slowing the transmission of this deadly virus.WHO’s regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, tells VOA the situation in the country is very different now than it was a few months ago.“What I can say with a great deal of hope and optimism is that … we are seeing, for example, in a week something like five cases.  So, the number of cases per day is very much reduced than they were a few weeks ago, soon after we had some violent attacks and had to stop essentially the interventions in the hotspots in the DRC,” said Moeti. More than 100 armed groups reportedly are active in North Kivu and Ituri provinces.  The United Nations has recorded more than 300 attacks on Ebola health workers last year, killing six people and wounding 70, some of them patients.Moeti acknowledges that instability in the region and pockets of local resistance toward international efforts to contain the spread of the virus continue to cause problems.  She notes, though, that the atmosphere has greatly improved.  People understand the gravity of the disease and cooperate more.  She says new infections are being detected and treated earlier.Moeti says WHO has also modified its strategy and is working through local people and capacities more.  Judging from recent trend, she says this new strategy appears to be paying off.  FILE – A health worker dressed in a protective suit talks to medical staff at the newly constructed MSF (Doctors Without Borders) Ebola treatment center in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Aug. 4, 2019.“We are cautiously optimistic that we are reaching the end of this Ebola outbreak.  What is very important really is the security aspect.  That we have stable security support and that hopefully, as well … violent attacks be addressed, so that they do not continue to be a hindrance to finishing this outbreak,” said Moeti. This Ebola outbreak has been going on since August 2018.  It is the 10th to hit the DRC since 1976, and the second-largest ever recorded, after the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa.   By the time that epidemic had ended in 2016, the virus had infected nearly 30,000 people and killed more than 11,000 in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.  
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With a knife, a razor blade, scissors or a needle, half of Indonesia’s girls are circumcised, and a new study found that it is a tradition more rooted in family folkways than religion.“Cultural reproduction occurs in the household,” said Sri Purwatiningsih, a researcher of Center for Population and Policy Studies at Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta. “Circumcised grandmothers tend to circumcise their daughter. A mother who was circumcised by the grandmothers will most likely circumcise their daughter.”Purwatiningsih presented her findings Thursday, the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, at the university, where the center refers to the procedure as female genital mutilation or cutting.Indonesia ranks third in the world, at 49%, for the rate of prevalence of female circumcision, after Mali, at 83%, and Mauritania, at 51%. According to an FILE – A man shows the logo of a T-shirt that reads “Stop the Cut” referring to Female Genital Mutilation during a social event advocating against harmful practices such as FGM at the Imbirikani Girls High School in Imbirikani, Kenya, April 21, 2016.UN definition Female genital mutilation refers to “any procedure involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genitals for nonmedical reasons,” according to the This picture taken in Bandung, Feb. 10, 2013, shows an Indonesian doctor preparing to circumcise a female child. The Indonesian government has come under fire after the UN General Assembly in November passed its first resolution condemning FGM.The survey also found that traditional Indonesian birth attendants were responsible for 45% of female circumcisions, midwives or nurses conducted 38%, female circumcision specialists performed 10%, and doctors performed 1%.Hamim Ilyas, a professor at the Faculty of Sharia and Law at Islamic National University Sunan Kalijaga in Yogyakarta told VOA Indonesia that only those who interpret Islam in the most literal way can find justification for female circumcision in its teachings.He considers the best approach to the issue to be “state based,” meaning families should obey Indonesia’s laws. He used traffic lights as an example, religion never taught a person to stop at a red light, but the signal represents a law that drivers know to obey.“The minister of health’s regulation has forbidden FGM. … However, the government seems to be hesitant under pressure,” from fundamentalist sectors of Indonesian society, he said. “If the government is determined, if the government is brave, the practice can be eradicated. But the government seems not ready yet [to enforce the law] because the people are not ready yet. We have to change our society, to be a society that anti-FGM. It is through the transformation of religious understanding — not [by] changing the teaching, but changing the understanding of it.”FILE – An Indonesian toddler waits to be circumcised in Bandung, Indonesia, Feb. 10, 2013.Indonesian lawIka Ayu, an activist at the Jaringan Perempuan Yogyakarta, or Yogyakarta Female Network, criticized the government’s indecisiveness on FGM, as even Majelis Ulama Indonesia, the country’s top Muslim clerical body, rejected the practice in 2008.Despite the Ministry of Health regulations, she said, “The government has not ever been clear in regulating FGM, while we know FGM has been listed as harmful practice as part of [the U.N.’s] Sustainable Development Goals.”She urged the government to be more decisive and added, “Today, we commemorate zero tolerance for female genital mutilation, but in practice, it is still being done. We should ask, ‘How can a country guarantee the fulfillment of every citizen’s rights?’ Female circumcision violates individual rights because it was done without the girls’ consent.”Dr. Mukhotib, a reproductive health activist who, like many Indonesians uses only one name, told VOA that the many reasons to reject female circumcision include the fact that it has no medical benefit, countering traditional beliefs.“There is no benefit to FGM. It does not make women healthier,” he said. “If there is no medical benefit, why bother?”Virginia Gunawan contributed to this report which originated in VOA’s Indonesian Service.
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The World Health Organization is scaling up measures to keep Africa free of the deadly coronavirus by shoring up the continent’s fragile health system and increasing preparedness efforts to tackle the potential spread of the dangerous virus to the continent.    In its latest update on February 8, the WHO reported 34,958 cases, including 724 deaths inside China and 270 cases in 24 countries, including two deaths outside mainland China, in the Philippines and Hong Kong.The novel coronavirus has been moving with breathtaking speed since it was first detected in China’s city of Wuhan in December. While the number of cases of the pneumonia-like illness has been expanding to more countries around the world, so far it has not gained a foothold in the African region.  But that is of little comfort to Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “We are very concerned about it as we have watched it reach other continents around the world.“We know that there is quite significant travel of people from China to Africa and back … business people working in different African countries. And we have an intense travel of African business people, particularly going to China,” she said.  Moeti told VOA her team had begun working with member states to help them “get ready for the possible onset of the coronavirus.” She said the WHO was providing overall guidance to ministers of health on how to manage possible cases and prevent the further spread of the disease.She said the experience gained in tackling the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo could be usefully applied to a possible outbreak of the coronavirus on the continent.“We recognize that our countries have invested quite a bit in preparedness on the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the DRC,” she said. “And we are seeing that in some of the key areas, that readiness is now being deployed in relation to this coronavirus outbreak.”  Moeti was elected as WHO Regional Director for Africa in February 2015 at the peak of the historic Ebola epidemic in West Africa. At the time, the WHO was widely criticized for its delay in sounding the alarm over Ebola and for failing to warn the world of the dangers posed by the disease, which infected nearly 29,000 people and killed more than 11,000.The WHO has been careful not to repeat that mistake. It declared the coronavirus a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on January 30, one month after the disease was first reported in Wuhan City.Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said the decision to declare a PHEIC “was taken primarily because of the signs of human-to-human transmission outside China, and our concern of what might happen if the virus were to spread in a country with a weaker health system.”He added that “both the coronavirus and Ebola outbreaks underscore once again the vital importance for all countries to invest in preparedness, not panic.”The WHO chief noted that more than $1 billion has been spent trying to stop the Ebola outbreak in the DRC. “By comparison, just $18 million was spent on preparedness in Uganda. But when Ebola did cross the border, they were ready, and stopped it.”The U.N. health agency has released $9 million from its emergency fund to provide essential supplies, such as masks, gloves, respirators and diagnostic tests to countries at risk.On February 5, it launched an appeal for $675 million to prevent the global spread of the deadly coronavirus.Moeti said she and her team were working hard to help countries with their preparedness plans. “One of the major areas in which we are working with our countries is to improve the diagnostic capacity because that is the first intervention, in a way that will tell you what situation you have.”Until earlier this week, she said only two laboratories — one in South Africa and the other in Senegal — were capable of testing samples. She said four more countries — Ghana, Madagascar, Nigeria and Sierra Leone — now have the capacity to conduct tests as well.The WHO has identified 13 top priority African countries, which either have direct links or a high volume of travel to China. They include important hubs in countries such as Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia.  Moeti said screening methods developed to detect people who might carry the Ebola virus now are being deployed at airport points of entry to spot people who might be infected with the novel coronavirus.  “It is one of our highest priorities. We are beefing up the screening capacity in countries,” said Moeti.“Happily, in some of the countries,” she said, “it is happening in addition to what is already being done in relation to the risk of Ebola. But it is being reinforced.”She said African countries now are in a better position to deal with a major disease outbreak than a few years ago. She warned, though, this could not be done without “significant resources, domestic investment, as well as international solidarity in supporting African countries.”Moeti said a sustainable response and commitment from the international community is needed to bring the coronavirus to heel.“I really do hope that this coronavirus outbreak stimulates and encourages those types of investments, so that we do not peak and go back to square one, and then peak again when an outbreak actually happens in countries,” she said.
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A new spacecraft built jointly by U.S. and European space agencies is ready for a blazing journey to the sun to capture an unprecedented view of its two poles, an angle that could help researchers understand how the star’s vast bubble of magnetic energy affects Earth.The Solar Orbiter spacecraft will lift off from a Florida launch pad Sunday at 11:03 p.m. EST (0400 GMT Monday) and autonomously unfold an array of solar panels and antennas before carrying on toward the sun for a 10-year mission mapping its polar regions.Mapping the sun’s poles could allow scientists for the first time to observe the concentrated source of solar wind — a stream of plasma and charged particles that beam outward and sustains the solar system’s protective outer bubble that breathes in and out in harmony with the solar wind.European Space Agency Solar Orbiter Project Manager Cesar Garcia listens as Airbus Defense and Space Solar Orbiter Project Manager Ian Walters discusses the agency’s science mission to the sun, Feb. 7, 2020, at Kennedy Space Center.“Where did that plasma, the solar wind come from? At any one point, the majority of it during our solar cycle comes from the polar regions we’ve never imaged,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, the head of NASA’s science directorate.A suite of 10 instruments, including six telescopes, are intricately tucked behind a protective heat shield that can withstand temperatures of nearly 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit as the spacecraft reaches 26 million miles from the sun.Using a gravity assist from Earth and Venus, the orbiter will sling itself closer to the sun and eventually sync with its rotation, once every 25 days, when the probe reaches its closest point, and opens up a cluster of tiny windows on the heat shield to capture and surveil how the surface of the sun changes over time.The fruits of the mission will inform how NASA can protect its astronauts from the radiation whizzing around the cosmos, which can cause DNA damage and changes in gene expression.Scientists will also learn how space weather wreaks havoc on satellites and electronics on and around Earth.Launched in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe will journey closer to the sun than any other human-made object, 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km), and find out how the sun churns space weather in our solar system.
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A smoking ban in all Malaysian eateries is sparking controversy particularly now that it’s being enforced. The ban officially began a year ago, but violators started being penalized only recently. Dave Grunebaum has the story.
 
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About 4,000 meters below the surface of the Indian Ocean hides the Midnight Zone.  It’s barely lit but beaming with life, and scientists hope to gauge the effects of climate change there.
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Researchers at a base in the Antarctic say they have recorded the hottest temperature there since readings began more than 60 years ago.The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Friday the Argentine research base recorded a high of 18.3 C (64.9 F) on Thursday. The agency said that tops a former record of 17.5 C in March 2015.A WMO official, Randal Cerveny, said Friday the agency still must verify the recording taken at the base but said, “Everything we have seen thus far indicates a likely legitimate record.”He said the high temperature appears to have been caused by a rapid warming of air coming down a mountain slope.Researchers at Argentina’s Esperanza base on the northern tip of Antarctica, near South America, have been recording temperatures there since 1961.The WMO says the Antarctic Peninsula where the base is located is among the fastest warming regions on the globe, with temperatures rising almost 3 degrees Celsius over the past 50 years.Scientists believe that global warning is causing an increase in the melting of ice sheets around Antarctica, which in turn is causing sea levels to rise.Researchers at Argentina’s Marambio base say temperatures there also spiked Thursday, reaching 14.1 degrees Celsius, the hottest February day since 1971.
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U.N. agencies warn that the widespread prevalence of female genital mutilation is exacting a heavy toll in both human and economic terms. The U.N. is calling for an end to the practice by 2030. Around 200 million girls and women alive today are suffering the physical and psychological effects of female genital mutilation. The practice mainly occurs in Africa and the Middle East.The director of the U.N. Population Fund’s Geneva office, Monica Ferro, said FGM has no medical benefits, only devastating consequences. She told VOA that women and girls who have undergone the procedure suffer long-term physical and psychological harm.”It often leads to bleeding, to infections, to infertility and to complications that will endure a lifetime, be it by urinal infections, by complications while delivering, while giving birth … sometimes it even leads to death,” Ferro said.  Besides the heavy human toll, there is a steep economic cost. A new report by the World Health Organization estimates that medical care necessitated by FGM totals $1.4 billion a year. For some countries, the costs represent nearly 10 percent of total health care spending annually. In a few nations, the WHO says, the figure is as high as 30 percent.Ferro said an estimated 61 million girls will be mutilated between now and 2030 in countries where FGM is prevalent. Despite this prospect, she said, huge progress has been made in the regions and countries where the U.N. is working to end the practice.”But due to the fact that the countries with the highest prevalence of FGM are, at the same time, countries with high population growth, that actually makes the absolute number of girls at risk higher than before. But the rate is improving,” she said.  Activists say support for FGM is dwindling. In countries where female genital mutilation is prevalent, they noted that adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 are less supportive of the practice than are women aged 45 to 49, adding that young people can play a critical role in accelerating FGM’s demise.  
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February 6 is the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. The practice, also known as female circumcision or cutting, poses serious health risks but remains common in many countries, particularly in West Africa.More than 200 million women and girls who are alive today have been cut, according to the World Health Organization, putting them in danger of excessive bleeding, infection and death.As circumcised girls enter adulthood, they are at risk of chronic problems such as mental health disorders and pain during urination or sex. FGM also may cause life-threatening complications during childbirth.Despite these risks, the practice has continued largely in the name of culture and tradition. Some communities believe FGM helps prevent premarital sex and helps ensure a wife’s fidelity by reducing her libido.FGM is practiced in 30 countries throughout Africa, the Middle East and Asia, as well as among migrants from those regions.FILE – A counselor talks to a group of women to try to convince them that they should not have female genital mutilation performed on their daughters, in Minia, Egypt, June 2006.Within West Africa, the prevalence of FGM ranges from 2 percent in Niger to 97 percent in Guinea, according to data from UNICEF. Gambia, Burkina Faso, Mali and Sierra Leone also have rates at above 75 percent.”The prevalence is still quite high in a number of countries,” said Christina Pallitto, a research scientist with the WHO. “There’s a lot of variation between countries, even within countries. We do see positive trends, trends of decreased rates of FGM in a number of countries.”Twenty-six countries in Africa and the Middle East have laws that prohibit FGM, but legislation can be difficult to enforce and may unintentionally push the practice underground.”For the last 20 years, we have a law against the practice in this country,” said Amadou Moreau, founder of Global Research and Advocacy Group, a Senegal-based nonprofit working to end FGM. “It’s the most controversial law in this country. Because, when you’re dealing with people’s faith and beliefs and culture and tradition, executive order has no place to guide people on how they should behave, how they should act.”Moreau and Pallitto said the most effective solutions combine both grass-roots efforts and policy change.But it’s especially important to engage local communities and address the beliefs that are driving the practice, says the WHO’s Pallitto.”We do find that people, once they realize that it is harmful, once they realize that by stopping the practice it can improve health, it can improve the well-being of girls in the community,” she said.When people know others who have stopped the practice, she added, it can “be a very powerful way to bring about change.”
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