Remembering to take medications can be challenging for some people. But one day an implant may replace medications that need to be taken orally in certain cases. One lab in Houston is developing refillable implants placed under the skin to potentially deliver life-saving medicine at a low cost for various diseases. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee reports from the Houston Methodist Research Institute.
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Many people on medication may find it challenging to remember to take the drugs. For some illnesses, an implant may one day replace the need to ingest the medicines.

A lab at Houston Methodist Research Institute is developing unique implants that can potentially deliver lifesaving medication, at a low cost for a variety of diseases.

Unlike current drug delivery implants that use pumps, the implants Alessandro Grattoni and his team are developing use nanochannels to release medication at the molecular level.

“This implant is inserted under the skin of the patient and then delivers the drugs for an extended period of time, for months and potentially years. And they continue releasing the drug until the drug is completely gone,” said Grattoni, chairman of the Department of Nanomedicine at Houston Methodist Research Institute.

The medicines are dispensed in a manner that is similar to the way sand moves in an hourglass. The drugs are released through membranes with the nanochannels inside the implants that range in shapes and sizes from around 2 centimeters to the size of a grain of rice. The differences would help accommodate different implantation sites and different drugs for specific diseases.

“They end up acting like the glands are like artificial glands inside of the body that do the things that the glands in the body normally do — secrete the necessary molecules when they are needed,” said Mauro Ferrari, president and chief executive officer at Houston Methodist Research Institute and an expert in biomedical nanotechnology.

Remote access

The nanochannel delivery system can either deliver a steady and constant dose of a drug, or it can be controlled remotely via a phone or Bluetooth, so drug administration can be increased, decreased or suspended over a period of time.

When treating hypertension or rheumatoid arthritis, Grattoni said, it has been shown that giving the medication at specific times during the day would provide the best efficacy with minimal side effects.

“When you want to deliver the drug at a specific time point, then an implant that can be self-modulating the drug release would make a huge difference,” said Grattoni.

A nanochannel delivery system would allow a patient to live a normal life and receive medication at the same time every day.

HIV prevention, obesity, cancer

Another area of advanced research in Grattoni’s lab involves using the implant for HIV prevention. Patients who do not take medication to prevent HIV would be at risk of being exposed to the virus that causes AIDS. Prevention medication placed inside the implant would ensure the protection of the person at risk and be most helpful in developing countries where access to a medical facility is limited. Refilling the implant would only involve a two-needle injection under the skin.

“Having an implant that would allow you to deliver the medication for maybe an entire year would also be welcome, of course, because in that case, you don’t need to have the patient directly close to a health care facility,” said Grattoni.

Another application fights obesity. A drug that has been found effective with this delivery method could help patients lose fat tissue without having to change their diets.

Grattoni said an implant the size of a grain of rice can help fight solid tumors such as triple-negative breast cancer and melanoma.

“They can be inserted via a needle, just a simple needle, inside of a tumor mass and deliver immunotherapy straight inside of the tumor,” said Grattoni.

NASA’s role

With the help of NASA, research on implants using nanotechnology reached new heights with an experiment conducted in space to solve the problem of astronauts experiencing muscle atrophy because of microgravity.

This application is also beneficial for patients on Earth who experience muscle wasting due to disease or injury. Over a period of two months, a drug that can potentially maintain muscle was placed in an implant containing nanochannel membranes and placed in mice. Researchers are now analyzing the data.

Using the implant for HIV prevention could enter the clinical trial phase within three years. It may take several more years before other applications of the implant are tested on humans as the research continues.
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New research suggests obesity may be a factor in the transmission of the influenza virus.

In a study conducted in Managua, Nicaragua, obese adults spread the influenza virus for significantly longer than non-obese individuals. The findings have significant ramifications, given that worldwide obesity has nearly tripled since 1975, according to the World Health Organization.

Epidemiologist Aubree Gordon at the University of Michigan started looking into the correlation between obesity and the flu nine years ago. Gordon explained that “during the 2009 influenza pandemic, it became quite clear that obese individuals were at higher risk for severe influenza. And more recently, some studies have shown that obese individuals don’t respond as well to the influenza vaccine.”

Gordon collaborated with the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health on a three-year research program that followed 1,783 individuals in 320 households. The researchers visited homes where at least one member reported symptoms of influenza. Researchers collected samples every few days for two weeks, tracking infected individuals and others in the home who agreed to enroll in the study.

When Gordon and her colleagues analyzed the samples, they found that obese adults shed the influenza virus 42 percent longer than non-obese adults — or about a day and a half longer period of shedding the virus.

Weaker immune system

Previous research found that obesity led to chronic inflammation and a poorer functioning immune system. Will Green, a doctoral candidate at the University of North Carolina’s School of Public Health who was not involved in the study, explained how the immune system works to combat the virus.

“There’s an innate first responder. They’re the ones that immediately show up to fight. And then there’s the adaptive T- and B-cell memory response. You need both pieces, but the adaptive response is really the one that’s been shown to be impaired in obesity,” Green said.

Because obese people have a weakened immune system, there were concerns that the obese people in the study were shedding more of the virus simply because they were sicker. However, scientists imposed strict controls by studying only those adults who were infected but had few symptoms.

“In people who were either asymptomatic — having no symptoms — or just had one minor symptom, obese adults still shed for significantly longer than non-obese adults,” Gordon said. “In fact, they shed [viral DNA] for about twice as long.

“I think this is another piece of evidence that obese individuals really have an altered immune system, and they’re having trouble potentially clearing the infection, which could lead to higher severity,” Gordon added.

Infection rates

Nikhil Dhurandhar, chair of nutritional sciences at Texas Tech University, cautions that further research is needed. He told VOA that scientists still don’t understand how much the duration of viral shedding is linked to infection rates.

“Is it a huge amount of virus that is getting excreted? Is it very little?” Dhurandhar asked. “And also, what we don’t know is how infectious that is.”

Green also noted that if shedding the virus means that obese people either remain sick or infectious longer, “you can also equate that to the greater loss of work time and higher health care costs.”

Gordon and her colleagues’ study, published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, highlights a risk of obesity that isn’t going away anytime soon.

As Gordon told VOA, “Obesity is a growing epidemic, unfortunately, and becoming a huge problem worldwide.”
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State prosecutors who pre-emptively sued months ago to block anticipated efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to weaken car fuel-efficiency standards blasted the Trump administration Thursday for doing so and vowed to continue their fight in the courts.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the rollback of Obama-era mileage standards would imperil the state’s efforts to curb greenhouse gases and clean up some of the nation’s most polluted air.

Becerra also promised another lawsuit if the administration makes good on plans to revoke a longstanding waiver allowing California and other states to set their own stricter auto emissions standards. At least twelve other states and the District of Columbia follow California’s rules.

Becerra connected climate change to the deadly wildfires burning out of control throughout the state.

“The Earth is not flat, and climate change is real,” Becerra said at a news conference. “Can someone please inform the folks at the White House and our federal government of those facts?”

Officials in the Trump administration said their actions would make autos more affordable and that would make roads safer because more motorists would be driving newer cars with the latest safety features.

Becerra and attorneys general from 16 other states sued in May to stop the EPA from scrapping standards that would have required vehicles by 2025 to achieve 36 miles per gallon (58 kilometers per gallon) in real-world driving, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) over the existing standards. The Trump proposal would freeze standards at 2020 levels when vehicles will be required to hit an average of 30 miles per gallon (48 kilometers per gallon) in real-world driving.

States that joined the lawsuit said the change would end up costing more money at the pump because vehicles won’t go as far on a gallon of gas, and more misery for those suffering pollution-exacerbated maladies such as asthma.

“This has to be absolutely one of the most harmful and dumbest actions that the EPA has taken,” Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said. “It’s going to cost drivers here and across the country hundreds of millions of dollars more at the pump.”

Pollution from cars, trucks and other on-road vehicles is California’s single-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, according to state data.

California has set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. It met its 2020 goals four years early, but hitting the next target will be much harder without cleaner vehicles. The state has struggled to rein in vehicle pollution. Transportation accounts for the biggest chunk of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and is the only sector where emissions went up in 2016, the most recent data available.

The lawsuit filed in May in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia alleged the plan to dump the mileage standards violated the federal Clean Air Act and didn’t follow the agency’s own regulations.

The lawsuit is proceeding, and Becerra said lawyers will now pore over the documents filed with the proposal to help make their case.

Other states that joined in the lawsuit were: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia. All have Democratic attorneys general.
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The World Health Organization says expert staff and equipment have been sent to northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo to quick-start the process of combating a new outbreak of Ebola.The last outbreak of this fatal virus in Congo was declared over just a week ago.

Ebola is a constant threat in the Democratic Republic of Congo as the virus thrives in heavily forested areas. This latest outbreak is the 10th since the first one was discovered in 1976.

The World Health Organization says this new outbreak in North Kivu province is 2,500 kilometers away from Equateur Province, the site of the previous outbreak, and there is no link between the two.

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic says the DRC Ministry of Health informed WHO Wednesday that four of six samples taken in North Kivu tested positive for Ebola virus.

He says it is crucial to gain access to the area as quickly as possible.He says having people and material in the country from the outbreak in Equateur is very helpful in tackling the outbreak.

“We really need to get into the area to do epidemiological investigations, try to find cases, try to work with health workers, to strengthen infection prevention and control measures and also to start with the contact tracing,” he said. “It is, on the other hand, worrying that this area is a conflict zone.It is an area with lots of displacement, so the access can be hampered in that way.”

The virus was discovered in a village near the city of Beni in North Kivu, which hosts more than one million displaced people. The province shares borders with Rwanda and Uganda, with a lot of cross border movement due to brisk trade.

Jasarevic says WHO will work with these neighboring countries to try to prevent the virus from crossing over.

He says identifying the type of Ebola virus that is circulating is a priority, as that will tell scientists whether the vaccine used to help contain the outbreak in Equateur province can also be used in North Kivu.
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The population of the white-backed vulture, which inhabits Africa and parts of South and Southeast Asia, has declined significantly over the past several decades to the point that it is now considered an endangered species. But a decade-long conservation effort in Pakistan appears to have stopped the vulture’s decline, as Ayaz Gul reports from Islamabad.
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Imagine this – a fully autonomous 3D-printed mobile house that can survive any weather and is completely self-powered. This is not a technological dream – it’s the ambitious project of a Ukrainian company called PassivDom. It’s working on the prototype of a printed home in Reno, Nevada. VOA’s Iuliia Iarmolenko gives us a look inside the 3D-printed walls of the futuristic house.
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Canines have served as working dogs for thousands of years. They guard our homes, help in search and rescue missions and assist people with disabilities. But now scientists are training a special group of Australian dogs to use their sensitive noses — and ears — to help find one of Australia’s most endangered creatures. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
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A winner of the Fields Medal, often called the “Nobel Prize of mathematics,” had his prize stolen shortly after receiving it during a ceremony in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday.

Caucher Birkar, a Kurdish refugee from Iran teaching at Cambridge University, put the gold medal, worth around $4,000, in a briefcase and soon afterward realized that it had been stolen, according to event organizers. Four mathematicians shared this year’s honor.

Security officials at the Riocentro venue, Riocentro, found the empty briefcase in a nearby pavillion. Police reviewed security tapes and identified two potential suspects.

“The International Congress of Mathematicians is profoundly sorry about the disappearance of the briefcase belonging to mathematician Caucher Birkar, which contained his Fields Medal from the ceremony this morning,” organizers said in a note.

It was the first time that the awards, held every four years, were hosted in the southern hemisphere.
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Add plastics to the list of causes for global warming.

Scientists writing in the journal PLOS One said Wednesday that plastics emit the greenhouse gases methane and ethylene when they are exposed to sunlight and degrade.

The researchers carried out tests on such common plastic products as water bottles, shopping bags and food containers.

“Plastic represents a source of climate-relevant trace gases that is expected to increase as more plastic is produced and accumulated in the environment,” said senior researcher David Karl of the University of Hawaii.

Methane gas, both man-made and naturally occurring, is said to be a major cause of climate change.

The manufacturing and use of plastics have come under scrutiny in recent years after environmentalists discovered a massive island of garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean — threatening sea life and the food supply.

Plastic drinking straws are the latest target of activists, who say they are used once and discarded because most cannot be recycled.

A graphic video of doctors pulling a plastic straw out of the bloody nose of a large sea turtle has prompted some U.S. cities and companies to phase out the straws.
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The Trump administration is clearing the way for insurers to sell short-term health plans as a bargain alternative to pricey Obama-law policies for people struggling with high premiums.

But the policies don’t have to cover existing medical conditions and offer limited benefits. It’s not certain if that’s going to translate into broad consumer appeal among people who need an individual policy.

 

Officials say the plans can now last up to 12 months and be renewed for up to 36 months. But there’s no federal guarantee of renewability. Plans will carry a disclaimer that they don’t meet the Affordable Care Act’s requirements and safeguards. More details were expected Wednesday.

 

“We make no representation that it’s equivalent coverage,” said Jim Parker, a senior adviser at the Health and Human Services Department. “But what we do know is that there are individuals today who have been priced out of coverage.”

 

Unable to repeal much of the Obama-era law, Trump’s administration has tried to undercut how the law is supposed to work and to create options for people who don’t qualify for subsidies based on their income.

 

Officials are hoping short-term plans will fit the bill. Next year, there will be no tax penalty for someone who opts for short-term coverage versus a comprehensive plan, so more people might consider the option. More short-term plans will be available starting this fall.

 

Critics say the plans are “junk insurance” that could lead to unwelcome surprises if a policyholder gets sick, and will entice healthy people away from the law’s markets, raising premiums for those left. Under the Obama administration, such plans were limited to three months’ duration. Some states do not permit them.

 

President Donald Trump has been enthusiastic. “Much less expensive health care at a much lower price,” he said, previewing the plans at a White House event last week. “Will cost our country nothing. We’re finally taking care of our people.”

 

The administration estimates that premiums for a short-term plan could be about one-third the cost of comprehensive coverage. A standard silver plan under the Obama law now averages $481 a month for a 40-year-old nonsmoker. A short-term plan might cost $160 a month or even less.

 

But short-term insurance clearly has fewer benefits. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey of current plans found none that covered maternity, and many that did not cover prescription drugs or substance abuse treatment — required under the Obama law. They can include dollar limits on coverage and there’s no guarantee of renewal.

 

At a hearing Tuesday, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., called the administration’s anticipated action “a new sabotage step that will do even more to let insurance companies offer junk plans.”

 

Short-term plans have been a niche product for people in life transitions: those switching jobs, retiring before Medicare eligibility or aging out of parental coverage.

 

Some in the industry say they’re developing “next generation” short-term plans that will be more responsive to consumer needs, with pros and cons clearly spelled out. Major insurer United Healthcare is marketing short-term plans.

 

Delaware insurance broker Nick Moriello said consumers should carefully consider their choice.

 

“The insurance company will ask you a series of questions about your health,” Moriello said. “They are not going to cover anything related to a pre-existing condition. There is a relatively small risk to the insurance company on what they would pay out relative to those plans.”

 

Nonetheless, the CEO of a company that offers short-term plans says they’re a “rational decision” for some people.

 

“It’s a way better alternative to not being insured,” said Jeff Smedsrud of Pivot Health. “I don’t think it’s permanent coverage. You are constantly betting that for the rest of your life you won’t have any health issues.”

 

Smedsrud said most plans restrict coverage for those who have sought treatment for a pre-existing condition over the past five years.

 

Short-term plans join “association health plans” for small businesses as the administration promotes lower-cost insurance options that cover less. Federal regulations for association health plans have been approved. Such plans can be offered across state lines and are also designed for self-employed people.

 

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that roughly 6 million more people will eventually enroll in either an association plan or a short-term plan. The administration says it expects about 1.6 million people to pick a short-term when the plans are fully phased in.

 

About 20 million are covered under the Obama law, combining its Medicaid expansion and subsidized private insurance for those who qualify.

 

Enrollment for the law’s subsidized private insurance is fairly stable, and HealthCare.gov insurers are making money again. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina just announced it will cut Affordable Care Act premiums by 4 percent on average next year.

 

But a recent Kaiser Foundation analysis found turmoil in the unsubsidized market.

 
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U.S. scientists have determined that the Gulf of Mexico’s annual “dead zone” — an area with low oxygen that can kill fish and marine life — is the fourth smallest since they started mapping the area in 1985.

Scientists supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in a report Tuesday that the area is only about 40 percent the average size predicted earlier this year based on nitrogen and other nutrients flowing down the Mississippi river.

“Although the area is small this year, we should not think that the low-oxygen problem in the Gulf of Mexico is solved. We are not close to the goal size for this hypoxic area,” said lead scientist Nancy Rabalais of Louisiana State University and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. 

 

This year’s dead zone off Louisiana is about 7,040 square kilometers, rather than the 15,000 square kilometers predicted by the NOAA. 

Every year the oxygen depletion begins as snowmelt and spring rains bring fresh water to the gulf. Fresh water is lighter than salt water causing two layers to develop. Nitrogen and other nutrients in the fresh water feed a growth spurt of algae and microorganisms at the top. The microorganisms die and fall to the bottom, where their decay consumes oxygen from the bottom up, creating the dead zone. 

“The data collected from this annual, long-term research program is critical to our understanding of a wide range of Gulf issues including hypoxia and beyond,” said Steven Thur, director of NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. “Not only is measuring the size of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone vital to informing the best strategy to reduce its size, but also to reduce its impacts.”
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The number of people dying from heat waves is likely to rise sharply in some regions by 2080 if policymakers fail to take mitigating steps in climate and health policies, according to the results of a study released Tuesday.

Deaths caused by heat waves could increase dramatically in tropical and subtropical regions, the study found, followed closely by Australia, Europe and the United States.

Published in the journal PLOS Medicine, the study’s results suggest stricter mitigation policies should be applied to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, because lower greenhouse gas emissions are linked with fewer deaths due to heat waves.

Antonio Gasparrini, an expert from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who co-led the research, noted that several countries around the world are currently being hit by deadly heat waves and said it was “highly likely” that heat wave frequency and severity would increase under a changing climate.

“The good news is that if we mitigate greenhouse gas emissions … then the projected impact will be much reduced,” he said.

The researchers said they hoped their research, which used mathematical modeling, would help decision-makers in planning strategies for climate change.

Different scenarios

The model used different scenarios characterized by levels of greenhouse gas emissions, preparedness and adaption strategies, as well as population density to estimate the number of deaths related to heat waves in 412 communities across 20 countries from 2031 to 2080.

The results found that compared with the period 1971 to 2020 and under the extreme scenario, the Philippines would suffer 12 times more excess deaths caused by heat waves in 2031 to 2080.

Under the same scenario, Australia and the United States could face five times more excess deaths, with Britain potentially seeing four times more excess deaths from heat waves in the same period.

These predictions improved, however, when scenarios were modeled with policies implemented to fulfill the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Under the least extreme scenario, and compared with the period 1971 to 2020, the study predicted that Britain would see only around double the number of excess deaths caused by heat waves in 2031 to 2080.

The researchers note that their work had some limitations, since it could model only relatively simple assumptions of how countries may or may not adapt climate policies.

The findings “should therefore be interpreted as potential impacts under hypothetical scenarios, and not as projections of [the] future,” they said in a statement.
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As Americans head outdoors for barbeques or hiking in the woods, danger might be lurking in the grass. The bite of the lone star tick, which lives in many eastern U.S. states, has been known to cause an allergic reaction to red meat. New research suggests that meat allergy may be on the rise.

Mammalian meat allergy, also known as the alpha-gal allergy, refers to an allergic reaction caused by a complex sugar found in many mammalian cell membranes. The galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose sugar isn’t found in primates (including humans), but is common to red meats such as pork and beef.

Symptoms of meat allergy can include hives, stomach trouble, and a sudden drop in blood pressure. It can lead to anaphylaxis, a severe and potentially life-threatening allergic reaction. New research by Dr. Jay Lieberman at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center finds one-third of anaphylaxis cases in a recent 10-year period were caused by this arachnid-induced allergy.

Lieberman and his co-authors were interested in assessing the breakdown of various causes of anaphylaxis, including the alpha-gal (red meat) allergy.

Anaphylaxis is usually defined as a reaction involving at least two different organ systems.

“For example, if you have full body hives and you vomit,” Lieberman said, “that can be anaphylaxis, as long as you know that it’s not associated with an infection or virus.”

The researchers evaluated 218 cases of anaphylaxis in patients ranging from as young as 9 years old to 78-year-old retirees who visited their university-affiliated Tennessee clinic over a 10-year period.

By reviewing the patients’ medical records, the doctors could identify the cause of the allergic reactions with high certainty in 85 of the cases and relative certainty in an additional 57 cases.

Researchers found that of the 85 highly certain cases, 28 — or about one-third — were caused by the tick-bite-induced alpha-gal allergy, more than any other source including other food allergies like peanuts or shellfish.

In the 57 cases where the researchers were less certain of the cause of the allergic reaction, they found more than a quarter of the cases were most likely caused by alpha-gal. Taken together, the meat allergy was the most commonly identified source of anaphylaxis in those 142 cases.

Lieberman told VOA not every tick bite leads to an immune system reaction and not everyone with antibodies caused by the tick bite ends up with this meat allergy. “Clearly there are many people who get bitten by ticks that probably never develop the allergy to alpha-gal.”

However, experts say that knowledge of the tick-borne allergy since its formal recognition in the early 2000s, as well as an antibody blood test that helps identify it, has helped spread awareness about it. This comes as the range of the lone star tick is also spreading, north and west from the eastern United States and Mexico.

Lieberman noted that while the number anaphylaxis cases caused by alpha-gal has increased, the number of unidentified cases has also decreased.

“These patients were there before and we didn’t know what it was,” he said. Lieberman further explained that with the advent of a testing method for alpha-gal allergy, these patients are now getting the diagnosis they would have missed before.

Researcher Onyinye Iweala, at the University of North Carolina Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, who was not involved in the study, said the findings might be due to two reasons.

“I think [the alpha-gal allergy] has been present for a while, but it’s increasing in its prevalence,” Iweala told VOA. “And also we have better diagnostics to identify that people have this condition.”

However, Lieberman warns it can be hard for an afflicted person to recognize the symptoms because they have up to several hours delayed onset.

Speaking on the uniqueness of the alpha-gal allergy, he said, “It’s the only one we know of that’s a delayed allergy, so it can even present in the middle of the night. You eat dinner at 8 p.m., you go to bed at 11 and you wake up at 1 a.m. with these symptoms.”

 

Although Lieberman’s research was conducted in the heart of lone-star tick country in Tennessee, Iweala notes that the meat allergy isn’t a uniquely American problem.

“Meat allergy has been discovered in multiple countries in Europe, Australia, Japan and also in South Africa,” she said. “They’re different tick species that have been identified in Europe and in Australia that have been associated with the alpha-gal allergy,” but the resulting allergy to red meat remains the same.

While people affected can still eat fish and poultry, the allergy might make neighborhood barbecues with hotdogs and hamburgers less enjoyable. Researchers note that the allergy can lessen or even disappear in some people over time. Still many questions remain, including why the allergy seems to be on the rise.

This research was published Monday by the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, where Dr. Lieberman is the vice chair of the food allergy committee.
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Breastfeeding babies within an hour of birth significantly increases their chances of survival, the World Health Organization reports, citing data from 76 countries that find that mother’s milk is rich in health-giving nutrients and antibodies.

However, only 40 percent of infants are breastfed in the first hour of life, according to WHO’s infant and young child feeding specialist, Laurence Grummer-Strawn.

“The delay of breastfeeding puts the babies at increased risk of infection and ultimately increases their risk of death. Just delaying beyond the first hour can increase mortality by about one-third, and waiting until the second day doubles the rate of mortality,” he said.

The worst rates are found in East Asia and the Pacific, where only 32 percent of babies are breastfed in the first hour after birth, Grummer-Strawn said. He added that the numbers are much better in Africa, with eastern and southern Africa seeing average rates of 65 percent.

“What is interesting is this varies tremendously from country to country,” he said. “As we look across Africa, you can see some countries that have very low rates, as low as 20 percent, but other countries, as high as 90 percent. Similarly, in Asia, a substantial difference from one country to another country in these rates.” 

Grummer-Strawn says the difference in rates is not driven by regional patterns, but is mainly driven by the kind of education and medical care prevalent within a country.

The report warns that formula or other drinks must not be given to newborns unless absolutely necessary. It says formula can be dangerous because it sometimes is mixed with contaminated water and delays the infant’s first critical contact with his or her mother.
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The world’s largest colony of king penguins has declined by nearly 90 percent in 35 years, according to an alarming study published in Antarctic Science.

In the 1980s the colony on Pig Island in the sub-Antarctic archipelago of Crozet, about halfway between the tip of Africa and Antarctica, was estimated to contain some two million of the flightless birds.

But recent satellite images show the “colony has declined by 88 percent, from about 500,000 breeding pairs to 60,000 pairs,” the study found.

“It is completely unexpected, and particularly significant since this colony represented nearly one third of the king penguins in the world,” said lead author Henri Weimerskirch, an ecologist at the Center for Biological Studies in Chize, France, who first saw the colony in 1982.

The reason for the dramatic decline is still a mystery to the scientists.

Weimerskirch speculated that it could have been affected by a particularly strong El Nino weather event that warmed the southern Indian Ocean in 1997. The event temporarily pushed the fish and squid on which king penguins depend beyond their foraging range.

“This resulted in population decline and poor breeding success” for all the king penguin colonies in the region, Weimerskirch said.

While the other colonies in the region have bounced back, the one on Pig Island continues to decline, stumping scientists.

But until Weimerskirch and other researchers return to Pig Island — hopefully, he said, in early 2019 — they won’t know for sure.
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Japanese scientists said Monday they will start clinical trials next month on a treatment for Parkinson’s disease, transplanting “reprogrammed” stem cells into brains, seeking a breakthrough in treating the neurodegenerative disorder.

Parkinson’s is caused by a lack of dopamine made by brain cells, and researchers have long hoped to use stem cells to restore normal production of the neurotransmitter chemical.

The clinical trials come after researchers at Japan’s Kyoto University successfully used human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) to restore functioning brain cells in monkeys last year.

So-called iPS cells are made by removing mature cells from an individual — often from the skin or blood — and reprogramming them to behave like embryonic stem cells. They can then be coaxed into dopamine-producing brain cells.

“This will be the world’s first clinical trial using iPS cells on Parkinson’s disease,” Jun Takahashi, professor at Kyoto University’s Centre for iPS Cell Research and Application, told a news conference.

The center is headed by Shinya Yamanaka, who in 2012 shared a Nobel Prize for medicine with a British scientist, John Gurdon, for the discovery that adult cells can be transformed back into embryo-like cells.

“We intend to carry on conducting our research carefully, yet expeditiously, in coordination with Kyoto University Hospital, so that new treatment using iPS cells will be brought to patients as soon as possible,” Yamanaka said in a statement.

The fact that the clinical trial uses iPS cells rather than human embryonic cells means the treatment would be acceptable in countries such as Ireland and much of Latin America, where embryonic cells are banned.
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The so-called blood-brain barrier around our brains prevents germs and other damaging substances from leaching in through the bloodstream. But it also blocks drugs for Alzheimer’s, brain tumors and other neurological diseases from getting to where they’re needed. Faith Lapidus has details about how researchers are trying to find a way through the barrier.
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Not counting certain types of skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women in the U.S. and worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Now researchers in Europe have come up with a robotic device that may speed detection of cancer tumors, potentially saving thousands of lives. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
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Astronomers and local residents gathered to gaze in awe at the longest lunar eclipse of the 21st century: 1 hour, 43 minutes. During eclipses, the moon turns a red or brownish color because the light that reaches it passes through the earth’s atmosphere. In Cairo, astronomers with their telescopes volunteered to wow stargazers
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How late is too late to become a mother? Actress Brigitte Nielsen has had her fifth child at 54, reopening debate on the growing number of women using IVF to have babies later in life.

Fertility experts say the average age of mothers is steadily rising across the world, with women increasingly turning to fertility treatments to extend their childbearing years.

Some have renewed calls for women to prioritize having children in their younger and more fertile years, but others said health providers needed to take into account the pressures that led women to put off starting a family.

“We should trust women to make this decision for themselves,” Katherine O’Brien, head of policy research at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), a charity.

“What we need is a health care service that supports their decisions rather than trying to cajole women into children at a time that’s not right for them,” she told Reuters.

Nielsen said she conceived using eggs she had frozen in her 40s, an increasingly popular choice among women seeking to extend their fertile years.

Given that the quantity and quality of eggs declines with age, most women trying to conceive in their mid-40s or above would be advised to consider using donor eggs taken from a younger woman.

A recent analysis of fertility treatments in 1,279 institutions across Europe found almost a third of births through egg donation in 2014 were to women aged 40 or older.

One Indian woman thought to be in her 70s gave birth last year using a donor egg, according to Britain’s Guardian newspaper, a case that promoted debate over the ethics of older women using treatment to conceive.

“There is a global trend for women choosing to have their children later in life,” said Richard Kennedy, the president of the International Federation of Fertility Societies.

“Certainly, in the UK and western Europe it’s personal choices: It’s lifestyle, it’s women pursuing their professions and [they] are making lifestyle choices to delay having families to until their late 30s or early 40s,” he said.

Kennedy said pregnancies of women in their 50s or older “is not something that should necessarily be encouraged,” citing the heightened risks of cardiac and other health problems during pregnancy.

“I think that women should be conscious of their fertility,” he added. “A woman should be encouraged to consider that when she is making decisions around her career and personal life.”

O’Brien, however, said much of the debate around fertility “just ignores the reality of women’s lives.”

She pointed to research by BPAS that found women were aware that fertility declined with age, but were often waiting to have children for practical reasons — such as concern over their financial stability or the impact on their careers.

“The fact that women are able to have children at that stage of their life should be celebrated,” she said. “All this finger-wagging is directed solely at women and that ignores that this is largely a decision taken by two people.”
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Skywatchers around much of the world are looking forward to a complete lunar eclipse that will be the longest this century.

The so-called “blood moon” Friday, when it turns a deep red, will be visible at different times in Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe and South America when the sun, Earth and moon line up perfectly, casting Earth’s shadow on the moon.

The total eclipse will last 1 hour and 43 minutes, with the entire event lasting closer to four hours.

In a special treat, Mars is in opposition on Friday — meaning the planet and the sun will be on exact opposite sides of the Earth and will shine its best. Mars is also at its closest approach to Earth this week since 2003, making it appear bigger and brighter.
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A Lebanese lawmaker has introduced a draft bill in parliament that would legalize the use of cannabis for medical purposes.

Speaking to the Associated Press, Antoine Habchi said he is proposing using the plant as alternative medicine to fight addiction and at the same time as a way to help Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley restore its economy and generate much needed income.

Habchi said that under the bill, cultivation would be tightly controlled.

However, it will likely take months of discussions before the draft bill would come to a vote.

Lebanon is the third largest cannabis producer in the world, after Morocco and Afghanistan, according to the United Nations.

Centered on the Bekaa Valley, known for narcotics production, Lebanon produces some of the finest quality cannabis, mostly processed into hashish.
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In Malawi, pregnant women and new mothers who live in remote villages are getting medical help thanks to a toll-free hotline and text messaging service known as “Chipatala cha pa Foni” or Heath Center by Phone. Run by the nonprofit VillageReach, the program connects expecting mothers in rural areas with health workers. More pregnant women are receiving prenatal care and birth planning thanks to the medical hotline, as Lameck Masina reports for VOA from Lilongwe.
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