YCLOAK

Millions of people live with the constant pain of fibromyalgia. It’s a disorder that’s often misdiagnosed. And while lab tests can help identify a lot of diseases, until recently there was no test for fibromyalgia. Now, a simple blood test could finally give these patients scientific proof of their condition.

Constant pain is a symptom of fibromyalgia. Barb Hartong suffered from this disorder for a long time before she finally got the right diagnosis. 

“It was almost a relief because I finally knew what was wrong with me,” Hartong said.

Fibromyalgia is a disorder with symptoms of widespread muscle and joint pain, accompanied by fatigue and problems with sleep, memory and mood. Researchers believe that with fibromyalgia, the brain amplifies the pain signals it gets.

About 75 percent of those who suffer from fibromyalgia are undiagnosed. Some people live with pain for years. Many patients receive treatment that’s ineffective or even harmful.

Researchers at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center formed a multi-disciplinary team to see if they could develop a laboratory test to diagnose this disorder and make it easier for patients to get some relief.

Dr. Kevin Hackshaw led the study. 

“Many of the patients with chronic opiate use turn out to have underlying fibromyalgia. So in fact, if that was recognized then we could realize that we can stem the tide of treating them inappropriately with opiates,” Hackshaw said.

The result was a simple blood test that could diagnose fibromyalgia with nearly 100 percent accuracy. Hackshaw worked with researchers at the Ohio State food science and technology department. They found that same technology used to quickly analyze different components in food, like protein and fat, can also analyze chemicals in the blood. Dr. Luis Rodriguez-Saona was the study’s co-author. 

“We use infrared in many companies to determine protein, fat, moisture, starch levels, fiber in seconds,” Rodriguez-Saona said.

Rodriguez-Saona says each person’s blood is unique, like a fingerprint, and this test can show the intricate details of that fingerprint. It can distinguish fibromyalgia from other chronic pain conditions with nearly 100 percent accuracy.

The test uses a color-coded computer program. 

“The brown colored squares, these belong to the fibromyalgia, the red ones are rheumatoid arthritis and the green ones are lupus,” Rodriguez-Saona said.

Hackshaw says when people learn the results they feel relieved just like Barb Hartong did.

“A test like this provides confirmation and validation of the symptoms they’ve been suffering for years,” Hackshaw said.

There is no cure for fibromyalgia, but medication, exercise and stress reduction measures can help control the symptoms. Hartong takes medication and sticks to a daily routine.

“It’s not just giving me a pill, it’s how do I live? For me, it’s exercise,” Hartong said.

The researchers now want to use the test on a larger group of patients to see if they get the same results. If the test is approved, doctors will be able to diagnose fibromyalgia instantly and save patients years of suffering. 
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At the 27th annual Environmental Film Festival in the nation’s capital, over 100 hundred films were showcased in 25 locations around the city. Many of them focused on the human impact on Climate Change worldwide, pointing to severe weather phenomena already underway, such as rising sea levels, and disappearing biodiversity. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with filmmakers who came to DC to present their work.
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March 26 will mark the fourth anniversary of the Saudi-led coalition campaign to oust the Houthi rebels from parts of Yemen they had occupied. The fighting has caused what the UN calls “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” displacing people from their homes, creating food shortages, a growing civilian death toll and undermining children’s development. The UN estimates that about 10 children die every day in Yemen from preventable diseases caused by hunger. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has this story.
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Efforts to control the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ebola outbreak are hitting a roadblock, says Doctors Without Borders (MSF). The medical charity group says security forces and a climate of community mistrust are hampering efforts to combat the outbreak. Meanwhile the country of Madagascar is struggling to curb a measles outbreak. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports.
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Parts of our oceans routinely go through temperature swings. The El Nino and La Nina effects in the Pacific are perhaps the best known. But new research in Britain suggests that those heat waves are becoming more common and more extreme. And that spells trouble for the world’s waters. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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The World Health Organization says that on March 27, India’s 1.3 billion people and the entire WHO Southeast Asia region will celebrate five years of being polio-free.

Twelve years ago, the WHO said, India alone was responsible for almost 70 percent of all polio cases around the world. It called India’s success against polio one of the most significant achievements in public health.

WHO officials said India’s accomplishment proved the crippling disease could be eliminated in even the most challenging circumstances with a strong political commitment.

Worldwide, the number of cases due to wild poliovirus has decreased from an estimated 350,000 a year in 1988, when the WHO launched its global eradication campaign, to 33 in 2018. 

Trouble spots

WHO spokesman Christian Lindemeier told VOA that polio remained endemic in only three countries in two of the organization’s six regions: Nigeria in the African region and Pakistan and Afghanistan in the eastern Mediterranean region. 

 

“There has been no wild polio virus detected in Africa since 2016, and we are cautiously optimistic that AFRO, our African region, is on the path to certification as well,” Lindemeier said. “EMRO, our eastern Mediterranean region, has only those two countries, which have never stopped polio, unfortunately — Afghanistan, Pakistan.” 

Lindemeier said the countries are considered a joint reservoir of the virus. Therefore, he said, both are getting most of the focus and support from the WHO’s polio eradication program. He said tailored and innovative tactics were being put in place to deal with the challenges in each country. 

 

The strategies include identifying, tracking and vaccinating migrant and hard-to-reach populations. Lindemeier said community workers would be trained to go door to door to find children who haven’t been vaccinated and immunize them against polio.

The WHO said the polio virus does not respect borders. It said polio would not be eradicated until every last child was protected.
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Twenty-six-year-old Precious, as she has asked us to call her to protect her identity, is 16 weeks pregnant. And so is her best friend, also by Precious’ boyfriend. That event turned her life upside down and brought her to the difficult decision to seek an abortion.

She lives in South Africa, where abortion is legal without justification and available through a nurse through 12 weeks of pregnancy, and legal up to 20 weeks, when done by a doctor and with justification.

But when she tried to get an abortion in her home city of Johannesburg, she ran into problems.

“When I went to register my name, I simply said, ‘I want to do abortion,’ and then they said, ‘No,’” she told VOA.

“And there were two nurses there, and the older one said, ‘Oh, thank God, I’m not trained for this,’ whilst the other one said, ‘no, you have to do back to your place and do it there.’ Then we had a disagreement there, as, like, I’m being against God and more stuff like that.”

Hers is a common experience, and it’s what reproductive health advocates say drives 10,000 South African women to seek illegal, backstreet abortions every year.

The nation’s health department estimated that as many as 25 percent of maternal deaths from septic miscarriages were the result of such illegal abortions. More than half of all abortions in South Africa are unlicensed, despite the fact that half of all government hospitals offer the service for free.

Precious, who says she fears being judged by her neighbors, chose instead to travel to the dusty mining town of Rustenburg, where aid agency Doctors Without Borders has set up a free abortion clinic.

She said she was sure of her decision.

“I want this thing to be done as quickly as — because I can’t, I can’t take it anymore,” she said, her voice soft and wavering. “Because what I’m thinking is what happened. I can’t think of, like, of positive things. I think, if this thing failed, then what will I do? Should I end my life?”

‘We give women a choice’

Whitney Chinogwenya, head of marketing at South Africa’s best-known private abortion provider, Marie Stopes, says their clinics address a real need. The company recently launched a campaign to try to reduce the stigma around abortion care.

“When a woman wants to terminate a pregnancy, they’re going to terminate the pregnancy,” Chinogwenya told VOA from the organization’s office in downtown Johannesburg. “It doesn’t matter what methods they use, it doesn’t matter whether it’s legal, it’s illegal or it’s safe — they’re going to find a way to terminate the pregnancy.

“So what’s so great about South Africa and it being legal here is that there’s a safe place where you can get the procedure, where it’s not going to harm your body, where it’s not going to cause serious complications. And the most important thing is that we give women a choice.”

Another problem, she said, is that few women know that abortion is legal, and think backstreet providers — who advertise openly, but who are not licensed — are their only option.

Medical experts told VOA harrowing tales of the practices performed by such providers. Many don’t perform ultrasounds, don’t attempt to determine how far along the pregnancy is, don’t follow up after the procedure, give the wrong medication, give incorrect medical advice, or administer dangerous chemicals such as bleach and drain cleaner to desperate patients.

One particularly egregious provider, Chinogwenya told VOA, even tried to sexually assault a woman in his care.

‘Somebody has to do it’

Nurse Kgaladi Mphahlele, who heads the Doctors Without Borders project in Rustenburg, says demand for the clinic’s services is high. He estimates he performs as many as 100 first-trimester abortions each month, and says he sees women from as far away as Botswana, where abortion is illegal.

His patients, he said, range in age from teenagers to 50-year-olds. He began his career delivering babies, but switched course, and says he’s proud of his decision.

“I look back, ‘why did I get myself into this profession?’” he said, adding that his friends and family were initially worried, but have since become supportive of his choice.

“I said, ‘I want to be a health care provider because I want to help the people.’ And then, you see a gap, and this is part of health care service, and if no one is doing it, somebody has to do it. And I enjoy doing it, and I enjoy working with people.”

At the clinic in Rustenburg, nurse Christa Tsomele has been performing abortions for a decade, and says she is proud of her work. She says she thinks some of her colleagues are contributing to the stigma of abortion — and worse.

“If you can’t help a patient as a nurse, just refer the client to the relevant place so that the patient must get help,” she said. “Don’t just tell her, ‘no, I can’t do that, or ‘I can’t help you,’ and leave the patient stranded. That is why they end up going to the bogus [provider]. Because when you leave her stranded, now she decides to go out to the street, that is where she is going to die.”

It’s that, she says, that keeps her going, through the judgment, through the tears, through the difficult stories she hears day in and day out. Because, she says, whether people agree with her work or not, she’s saving women’s lives, and following the law.
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Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley found herself in a Twitter feud with the people of Finland on Thursday, after she commented unfavorably on their health care system.

Haley, a savvy politician who as President Donald Trump’s United Nations ambassador from 2017 until December 2018, regularly topped opinion polls as the most popular member of his administration, ignited the Finns when she tried to take a swipe at a tweet by Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders. 

Sanders, who has made universal health care one of his signature platforms, said it costs an average of $12,000 for a woman to have a baby in the United States, while in Finland it costs only $60. 

Haley, who is touted as a rising star in the Republican Party and a potential presidential candidate in 2024, shot back that, “Health care costs are too high that is true but comparing us to Finland is ridiculous. Ask them how their health care is. You won’t like their answer.”

It is more likely that it is the former U.N. ambassador who does not like their answer.

The reaction was immediate, with hundreds of people identifying themselves as Finns happy with their health care system offering statistics and anecdotes about how good it is. 

While personal income tax rates are very high — 51.60 percent — Finns get many services in return, not just health care. But for new mothers, the system offers comprehensive services. 

While the charge to the patient who gives birth is only $60, the government picks up the rest of the cost. In addition, new mothers receive a generous care package with clothes and baby care products. Mothers and their babies also get free medical checkups. Day care is heavily subsidized and mothers get at least four months’ paid maternity leave. 

And according to the World Health Organization, Finland has the lowest maternal mortality rate in the world.

South Carolina, which Haley governed from 2011-2017 when she left to join the Trump administration, has seen its maternal mortality rates drop slowly, but they still remain among the highest in the United States. There are also wide disparities in who is affected. Many more African-American mothers are likely to die from complications of childbirth than white mothers in the southern state.

Haley’s former counterpart at the United Nations, Finnish Ambassador Kai Sauer, also sent out a string of tweets touting his nation’s health care system. He noted in addition to its strong record on preventing maternal mortality, Finland has the world’s third-lowest infant mortality rate and the second-lowest mortality rate for cancer in the European Union.

​Sauer’s tweets came several hours after Haley’s original one and he apologized for that noting, “We were out celebrating our rank as the happiest country of the world.”

Since leaving her U.N. post at the end of December, Haley has been spending much of her time on the social media platform tweeting about lighter fare, including learning how to use the taxi service app Uber, her new favorite lipstick and her beloved dog, Bentley.

She has also set up a new advocacy group, “Stand for America” that will focus on “promoting public policies that strengthen America’s economy, culture, and national security.”

Last month, U.S. aerospace manufacturer Boeing announced that it had nominated Haley to join its board of directors. Company shareholders will vote on whether to give her a seat at their annual shareholders meeting on April 29.

Boeing has recently come under intense scrutiny after two of its 737 Max aircraft crashed in the space of five months, killing all aboard.

Haley, a strong advocate for Israel during her U.N. tenure, was recently honored by having a commemorative coin struck with her image on it by three Israeli religious organizations.

According to the Associated Press, the coin features Haley’s face set with the U.N. building in the background and goes for $65 in silver and $90 in gold.

While at the U.N., Haley was a vocal supporter of Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; to slash funding to the U.N. agency that cares for Palestinian refugees; and to withdraw from the U.N. Human Rights Council, which is seen by critics as overly focused on Israel.

Haley is also hitting the lucrative speakers’ circuit. Last week, she became the first woman to give the keynote address at the Society of The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, and June 3, she is scheduled to be the main speaker in Washington at the Campaign for Life Gala, which advocates against abortion. Last year, Trump delivered the keynote address. 

Haley’s post at the United Nations remains unfilled nearly three months after her departure. Trump’s first choice for the post, former State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, withdrew her name from the process. On Feb. 22, the president announced he would nominate Kelly Craft, a top Republican donor and U.S. ambassador to Canada, to the post, but her name has not yet been sent to the Senate for approval. 
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The European Parliament faced calls Thursday to strip ExxonMobil lobbyists of their access badges after the US oil giant missed the assembly’s first hearing into claims it knowingly misled the public on climate change.

Greens deputy Molly Scott Cato told the hearing in Brussels she would formally make the request later Thursday to deny ExxonMobil its six registered parliament access badges.

Activists and scientists told the hearing that ExxonMobil has for decades misled the public about the threat climate change poses to the world, comparing it the tobacco lobby’s past campaign.

Under parliamentary rules, Cato said, “lobbyists shall have their access badges denied” when they refuse without good reason to comply with a formal summons to attend a committee hearing or inquiry.

“I believe this provides us with grounds we need to withdraw Exxon’s lobby badges,” the British MEP said, adding she would write a letter to that effect later Thursday.

Her call was supported by MEP Eleonora Evi, who sits on the petition and environment committees that hosted the first EU public hearing into Exxon’s approach to climate change.

In a letter dated Wednesday, ExxonMobile said the oil company is “constrained from participating because of ongoing climate litigation in the United States.”

It said it was concerned that public commentary, including at the Brussels hearing, “could prejudice those pending proceedings,” according to a copy obtained by AFP.

Geoffrey Supran, a Harvard University researcher, told the panel that Exxon has known since 1959 that fossil fuel burning “was sufficient to melt the ice cap and submerge New York” but yet publicly cast doubt on the threat for years.

A peer-reviewed study of nearly 200 documents spanning decades and co-authored by Supran found that four-fifths of scientific studies and internal memos acknowledged global warming is real and caused by humans.

At the same time, a similar proportion of hundreds of paid editorials in major US newspapers over the same period cast deep doubt on these widely accepted facts, according to the study published last year.

“The most fundamental thing this [Brussels] hearing does is start to put the evidence on record,” Supran told AFP.

“It also adds momentum and precedent to calls for US Congress and other governments to hold similar hearings into what Exxon and the entire fossil fuel industry knew and did about climate change,” he said.

In 2017, the European Parliament decided to deny access to Monsanto executives and lobbyists after the US agro giant turned down an invitation to a hearing over claims Monsanto influenced scientific research on a weedkiller’s safety.
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March 22 is the annual observance of World Water Day. This year’s theme is “No One Left Behind.” But according to a report from UNICEF and the World Health Organization, nearly a billion people today live without access to clean drinking water. Arash Arabasadi reports.
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Hurricanes Florence and Michael, which caused widespread death and destruction in the United States last year, have earned the dubious distinction of having their names retired. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday that the two names will be replaced with Francine and Milton, starting with the 2024 hurricane season. 

The United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization maintains six lists with 21 names each that are organized alphabetically and alternate between male and female names. 

Each list is used once every six years. The current group goes from 2018 to 2023, with the cycle restarting in 2024. 

Names are retired when meteorologists determine that a hurricane has been so destructive that reusing its name would be insensitive.

The first hurricane name to be retired was Carol, in 1954. So far, 88 names have been dropped from the list. 
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Tuberculosis has plagued humans for thousands of years and continues to do so. In advance of this year’s World TB Day, March 24, the World Health Organization is issuing a call to action to eradicate the disease by 2030.  

As part of these efforts, the WHO is launching an oral drug regimen it says can more effectively treat people with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.  

TB remains the world’s deadliest infectious disease, killing nearly 4,500 people a day and infecting 10 million people a year.

 

Despite the grim statistics, much progress has been made in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of the disease.  The WHO says 54 million lives have been saved since 2000.  But the WHO also warns the gains risk being lost with the emergence of multidrug-resistant TB or MDR-TB.

 

The current treatment for MDR-TB involves a two-year treatment course of painful injections, which provoke many bad side effects.  

 

The WHO says it is hopeful the new oral treatment program it is launching will be more effective in controlling the spread of the particularly virulent form of tuberculosis.  

 

The director of the WHO’s Global TB Program, Tereza Kasaeva, told VOA the new oral drug treatment the WHO is recommending has far fewer adverse side effects.

 

“Of course, it will be definitely much, much easier and there will not be a need for regular frequent visits of the physicians or health workers for making these injections.  No doubt, as we see from the data, the effectiveness, the treatment success will be definitely much, much higher,” Kasaeva said.

 

The South African government has announced it plans to adopt the injection-free treatment.  Kasaeva said the cost of the oral treatment is around $2,000, which is largely unaffordable for low-income countries.   

 

She said South Africa is engaging in talks with pharmaceutical companies to drop the price to $400.

The WHO says South Africa is one of the 20 countries most affected by MDR-TB.  Others include Russia, China, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Vietnam.

 
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