Global Pulse

分类： health

  • DR Congo sees early signs of Ebola stabilization

    DR Congo sees early signs of Ebola stabilization

    KINSHASA, July 23 — Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have announced encouraging early indicators that the ongoing Ebola outbreak across eastern parts of the country may be entering a phase of stabilization, though officials warn it is still too early to confirm the epidemic has hit its peak.

    Adelard Lufongola, operations manager for the DRC’s national Ebola response coordination, shared the update during a press briefing Wednesday in Bunia, the capital of eastern DRC’s Ituri province, which stands as the epicenter of the current outbreak. According to Lufongola, the rate of new confirmed Ebola cases in affected provinces has reached a statistical plateau, with a small but noticeable downward trend recorded in recent weeks.

    However, Lufongola emphasized that from an epidemiological perspective, drawing a definitive conclusion that the outbreak has passed its peak would be premature. The trajectory of viral outbreaks can shift rapidly, and sustained monitoring will be critical to confirm whether the current slowdown will hold.

    On a positive note, the country’s Ebola response capacity has continued to expand significantly since the outbreak was first declared in mid-May. As of the latest update, affected regions now host 23 dedicated Ebola treatment centers, 19 fully operational testing laboratories, and a total of nearly 800 patient beds to care for those infected. This expanded infrastructure has allowed response teams to isolate more cases quickly and deliver care to a greater share of the confirmed patient pool.

    Despite this progress in scaling up response capacity, Lufongola outlined three persistent major barriers to bringing the outbreak fully under control: widespread community resistance to public health measures, ongoing insecurity in conflict-affected eastern regions that hinders access for response teams, and the continued geographic spread of the virus across multiple provinces.

    To reverse the course of the outbreak, Lufongola stressed that three core priorities remain non-negotiable: rapid early detection of new cases, building and sustaining public trust in local health facilities, and broad community adherence to evidence-based preventive measures. These steps are the foundation of breaking ongoing chains of human-to-human transmission, he added.

    Official government data updated to July 20 puts the total number of confirmed Ebola cases at 2,473 since the outbreak began. Of those cases, 999 have resulted in death, while 482 patients have successfully recovered and been discharged. Currently, 737 confirmed patients remain either in isolation facilities or receiving inpatient hospital care.

    The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of ebolavirus, which was first declared by DRC authorities on May 15. To date, it has spread to impact five provinces across the eastern half of the country.

  • What is the mosquito-borne disease Sri Lanka is using drones to fight?

    What is the mosquito-borne disease Sri Lanka is using drones to fight?

    Sri Lanka is currently facing its most severe dengue outbreak in 10 years, prompting authorities to bring in military drones to locate mosquito breeding grounds as the virus continues to claim lives and overwhelm healthcare systems across the island nation. As of mid-2026, the mosquito-borne viral infection has killed 56 people and infected more than 77,000 Sri Lankans, with more than 25 percent of this year’s new cases recorded in July alone.

    Dengue fever, caused by the dengue virus and transmitted to humans through bites from infected female Aedes mosquitoes, is a longstanding endemic threat in tropical and subtropical regions. These mosquitoes lay their eggs in stagnant water, including common domestic spaces such as rooftop puddles, discarded containers, flowerpot saucers and water-filled vases. Most dengue infections are mild, with symptoms including high fever, intense headaches, muscle and joint pain, nausea and skin rashes that clear within one to two weeks; many infected people develop no noticeable symptoms at all. However, severe cases can progress to life-threatening complications including internal bleeding and organ damage. People infected a second time by a different strain of the virus face significantly higher risk of developing severe dengue, because immunity from one strain does not protect against the other three known viral variants.

    “That immunity does not extend to other strains of the virus. That means someone infected by one strain of the virus could still get dengue again if infected by a mosquito carrying another strain. This could mean that they get an even more serious infection,” explained Kapila Kannangara, director of Sri Lanka’s National Dengue Control Unit, in an interview with BBC Sinhala.

    Currently, no universal vaccine exists to protect against all four dengue strains, and treatment focuses on symptom management: over-the-counter pain relievers such as paracetamol for mild cases, and close inpatient monitoring for patients with severe symptoms, who may develop fatal complications. Sri Lankan health authorities trace the 2026 outbreak surge to December 2025’s destructive cyclone, which left widespread scattered debris across the island that quickly became new stagnant-water breeding grounds for Aedes mosquitoes.

    To reverse the outbreak’s growth, the Sri Lankan government has partnered with military forces to deploy drones that survey rooftops, construction sites and school grounds for hidden stagnant water pools, while police officers conduct door-to-door physical inspections of residential properties. As of the third week of July, health and security teams have cleared nearly 11,000 confirmed mosquito breeding sites and issued fines to more than 4,000 property owners found to be harboring unaddressed breeding grounds.

    While infections have been recorded across every region of Sri Lanka, the vast majority of cases are concentrated in dense urban centers, particularly the capital city of Colombo. Local hospitals have expanded capacity by adding extra beds and extending operating hours, but the influx of patients has pushed public health workforces to breaking point. “The number of patients is high, and the severity of the cases is high,” Kannangara told Reuters, noting that roughly 75 percent of 2026 infections are linked to a more virulent strain of the virus. With hospital capacity stretched thin, doctors have advised patients with mild symptoms to recover at home to free up beds for severe cases. Authorities are exploring potential rollout of existing limited dengue vaccines, though experts note the four distinct viral strains make widespread universal vaccination challenging.

    This is not the first major dengue epidemic to hit Sri Lanka: in 2017, heavy monsoon rains fueled an outbreak that killed 450 people across the country. But the threat of dengue is growing far beyond South Asia, driven by rising global temperatures that expand the habitable range of Aedes mosquitoes. Once confined almost exclusively to tropical and subtropical zones, disease-carrying mosquitoes are now spreading into new regions including Southern Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. Longer, wetter monsoon seasons in the tropics also extend the window for mosquito reproduction, accelerating transmission rates.

    Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) underlines this dramatic global growth: the number of reported dengue cases worldwide jumped from roughly 500,000 in 2000 to 14.4 million in 2024, representing a 30-fold increase in incidence over the past 50 years. The WHO now classifies dengue as one of the top 10 most pressing public health threats facing the world, with nearly half of the global population now living in areas at risk of infection. High-burden regions currently include South and Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

    Public health officials emphasize that the most effective community-level defense against dengue is breaking the mosquito breeding cycle by eliminating stagnant water sources: emptying flowerpot saucers, overturning unused containers, and clearing debris that can trap rainwater. Some countries have also successfully deployed Wolbachia, a naturally occurring bacterium common to many insect species, to reduce transmission: the bacteria inhibits mosquitoes’ ability to spread the dengue virus to humans, rather than killing mosquito populations outright.

  • What’s the deal with peptides? The hyped market under US review

    What’s the deal with peptides? The hyped market under US review

    Driven by viral hype from wellness influencers, celebrities and biohacking circles, synthetic peptides have exploded in popularity as miracle substances promising everything from wrinkle-free skin and deeper sleep to faster muscle repair and extended lifespan. But this booming, unregulated market is now under formal scrutiny in the United States, as a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel convenes this week to weigh whether seven of the most in-demand peptides should be cleared for pharmacy compounding – the custom formulation of drugs by pharmacists or specialized outsourcing facilities.

    The review comes as public interest in peptides has skyrocketed, even as leading medical researchers and safety advocates sound the alarm over a total lack of rigorous clinical evidence confirming the substances are either safe or effective for widespread use. “There’s just not enough clinical data to say whether these peptides are safe and effective,” Alexander Weber, chief of sports medicine at the University of Southern California and an orthopedic surgeon, told AFP. He added that peptides have become a regular topic of conversation in his daily patient consultations, a sign of how deeply mainstream the unproven trend has become.

    The seven peptides up for review – including popular compounds BPC-157, TB-500 and Semax – were already restricted from compounding by the prior Biden administration, primarily due to the absence of gold-standard human clinical trial data. Despite the restrictions, use of the substances has persisted widely: consumers can currently purchase the compounds online from chemical suppliers marketed strictly “for lab use only,” a loophole that enables off-label consumer use.

    Supporters of loosening restrictions, including wellness influencers, peptide industry advocates and even US Health Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (who has publicly stated he uses peptides to treat personal injuries), argue that the current restrictions have created an unregulated gray market flooded with low-quality products from unvetted overseas suppliers. “With the gray market you have no idea if you’re getting a good product,” Kennedy told podcast host Joe Rogan in a recent interview, adding that much of the available product on the market is substandard. However, critics have accused Kennedy of stacking the FDA advisory panel with individuals who hold deep financial and professional ties to the peptide industry, given his personal and political alignment with pro-peptide interests.

    “In ordinary circumstances, I would say that these products are dead,” said Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a former FDA official. “But given the way that the committee is stacked, I don’t have that confidence at all.”

    Peptides are naturally occurring short chains of amino acids, the fundamental building blocks of proteins, that act as signaling molecules to regulate core physiological processes ranging from tissue repair to metabolism. Well-known, widely studied peptides include insulin, a life-saver for people with diabetes, and GLP-1 weight loss and diabetes treatments such as Ozempic – both of which have passed extensive FDA testing for safety and efficacy. But the injectable synthetic peptides promoted by wellness influencers have never undergone the large-scale clinical trials the FDA requires to confirm safety and effectiveness.

    FDA career scientists have already published formal analyses warning that even amid the cultural hype, existing evidence is insufficient to justify rolling back restrictions. Their concerns align with a May joint white paper from nonprofits ECRI and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), which called the gap between the fast-growing commercial market and limited clinical research “an alarming safety concern.” “The commercial market has grown faster than the clinical evidence base, and the absence of adequate clinical evidence for use in humans is an alarming safety concern,” the paper read. Rita Jew, ISMP president, told AFP there is no new data that would justify approving the seven peptides for compounding.

    Not all medical providers oppose easing restrictions, however. Ed Lee, an Orlando-based endocrinologist and co-founder of the Clinical Peptides Society, has led a petition drive called “Save Peptides” that has collected nearly 10,000 signatures urging federal lawmakers to loosen peptide regulations. Lee is particularly optimistic about the tissue repair benefits touted for BPC-157, and argues that public demand for the compounds is already so high that regulators cannot reverse the trend. “I don’t know how they’re going to put the genie back in the bottle,” he said.

    But critics push back on the argument that consumer demand alone is enough to justify regulatory approval, given the extremely limited scientific backing. “If at the end of the day these products are approved, I see nothing good coming out of it,” Lurie said. Weber acknowledged that many of his patients report positive anecdotal results from peptide use, but warned that anecdotal experiences are not a substitute for rigorous research. Patients who pay out of pocket for the unproven treatments are often biased to believe they work, he noted: “If you’re paying for something, you want it to work.”

  • Teenager drops social media addiction lawsuit against Meta

    Teenager drops social media addiction lawsuit against Meta

    Growing public concern over the negative mental health impacts of social media use among adolescents has put major technology platforms under unprecedented legal scrutiny, with thousands of lawsuits across the United States alleging big tech knowingly designed harmful, addictive features that harm young users. The latest development in this wave of litigation sees a 15-year-old Florida plaintiff, identified only by the initials R.K.C., moving to dismiss his lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Instagram, just one week before his case was scheduled to be heard by a Los Angeles jury.

    R.K.C.’s legal action against Meta was part of a broader set of claims against the world’s largest social media platforms, and the teen has already reached confidential settlements with TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube in recent weeks. All four platforms are named in a sweeping multi-plaintiff lawsuit accusing them of building algorithmic features intentionally designed to hook young users and trigger compulsive, addictive use.

    In R.K.C.’s original filing, he argued that ubiquitous platform features including infinite scroll and automatic content autoplay drove unhealthy constant usage that developed into a clinical addiction. The teen claimed this addiction caused a range of harmful health outcomes, including chronic anxiety and severe sleep deprivation, disrupting his daily functioning and long-term wellbeing.

    This upcoming Los Angeles trial was not the first time Meta and YouTube have faced jury judgment over these claims. In an earlier landmark case, a jury found both companies legally liable for contributing to the mental health harm of a young female plaintiff, ordering the firms to pay $6 million in damages. That verdict marked the first time any social media platform was held legally responsible for youth mental health harms resulting from platform use. Both Meta and YouTube have since appealed that ruling, which remains pending.

    Meta’s communications team has framed the dismissal of R.K.C.’s suit as a victory, noting that the teen received no financial settlement for dropping the claim. A Meta spokesperson told the BBC that the original allegations against the company were never legally or factually valid, and that the outcome confirms the company will vigorously defend itself against what it calls baseless litigation targeting its platforms.

    R.K.C.’s legal team, however, framed the decision to drop the case as a successful step toward advancing accountability for big tech. In a statement to the BBC, attorneys Emily Jeffcott and Rahul Ravipudi said their client entered the legal process with two core goals: to hold social media companies responsible for their harmful design choices, and to push for industry changes that would better protect vulnerable young users like himself. The firm emphasized that R.K.C. achieved those goals through his participation in the litigation.

    The attorneys added that lengthy jury proceedings would have required weeks of extended court time, a burden R.K.C. was not prepared to carry as he prioritizes his recovery. They noted the teen is ready to close this chapter of his life, focus on ongoing mental health therapy, and work toward rebuilding a healthy, normal adolescent life.

    The R.K.C. case is just one of hundreds of similar addiction and harm lawsuits currently being managed by the Los Angeles Superior Court, as courts work through a massive backlog of claims against big tech. Court officials have selected a small number of test cases to proceed to trial to set legal precedent for the larger pool of claims, with the next trial scheduled to begin this coming October. Nationwide, thousands of individual and institutional lawsuits have been filed against Meta and other leading social media companies over harms to children and adolescents.

    In recent months, Meta has already faced major legal and financial consequences over these allegations. Just two months ago, the company reached a confidential settlement with a U.S. school district that sued over the negative impact of social media on student wellness, which forced districts to incur extra costs to address student mental health and behavioral issues. The district had originally sought $60 million in damages. That settlement came shortly after a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $375 million in penalties for misleading parents and users about how safe its platforms are for children and teens.

  • France recorded 5,700 more deaths than usual during its historic June heat wave

    France recorded 5,700 more deaths than usual during its historic June heat wave

    PARIS (AP) — A historic early-season heat wave that smashed temperature records across Western Europe last month caused at least 5,700 more deaths than normal in France alone, the country’s national public health agency confirmed Wednesday in a sharply upward revision of its initial death toll estimate.

    Public Health France’s analysis found that between June 17 and July 1, when the dangerous heat gripped most of the country, 21,674 deaths from all causes were registered across all French regions. Statistical modeling built on mortality data from previous years put the expected number of deaths for that same period at just 15,910. The gap between the projected and actual death counts, totaling 5,764 extra fatalities, is classified as excess mortality directly linked to the extreme heat event.

    The 36% rise in mortality compared to baseline averages marks the deadliest heat wave France has experienced since the catastrophic 2003 heat event, which killed an estimated 15,000 people across the country. This year’s heat wave set multiple unprecedented records: France logged its hottest ever national average temperatures on June 24 and 25, hitting a daily mean of 30°C (86°F). Nighttime temperatures also remained at record-breaking levels, and peak daytime temperatures surged above 40°C (104°F) across much of the nation.

    More than half of the excess deaths occurred in the three-day window between June 25 and 27, immediately after the peak of the heat, the agency confirmed. The Paris region was the hardest-hit area, with 1,999 excess fatalities — an 80% increase over the expected mortality rate for that period. Local funeral directors reported widespread strain on services, with multiple mortuaries hitting full capacity and turning away bodies awaiting burial or cremation.

    Nearly half of all deaths during the heat wave occurred in hospitals, which faced sudden surges in patients seeking care for heat-related illnesses. Roughly one-third of patients died at their residences, and most of the remaining fatalities occurred in elderly care facilities, where vulnerable populations face particular risk from extreme heat.

    Public health officials noted that this heat event was unique for its unusually early arrival on the calendar, paired with exceptional intensity and duration that exposed nearly the entire French population to dangerous conditions. Crucially, the heat struck when schools were still in session and most workplaces were operating at full capacity, unlike mid-summer heat events that occur when many people are on vacation.

    This deadly toll in France is part of a wider pattern across the European continent, where early and intense extreme heat this year has caused more than 10,000 total excess deaths as new mortality data continues to be compiled from affected countries. The event also sparked massive wildfires in neighboring Spain, threatened water infrastructure across the Western U.S. and Latin America as El Niño amplifies global heat trends.

    The current 5,700 excess death estimate is an updated figure that far surpasses the agency’s initial preliminary count of roughly 2,000 extra deaths for the peak heat week between June 22 and 28. Officials noted the final toll will be revised again later this year once full, finalized mortality data is available. Climate and health experts warn that full mortality counts from heat waves always take time to compile, as many heat-related deaths are never formally categorized as such on death certificates. For example, extreme heat often triggers fatal heart attacks in vulnerable older adults or people with preexisting conditions, but these deaths are typically listed only as heart attacks on official documentation, masking the heat’s role in the fatality.

  • Congo’s Ebola outbreak has killed nearly 1,000 people

    Congo’s Ebola outbreak has killed nearly 1,000 people

    BUNIA, Democratic Republic of Congo – A catastrophic Ebola outbreak sweeping through eastern Congo has crossed a devastating threshold, with official data released overnight Wednesday confirming at least 999 fatalities from the fastest-spreading Ebola event ever recorded by global health authorities.

    Updated figures from Congo’s Ministry of Health, current as of Monday, put the total number of confirmed and probable cases at 2,473, with 737 patients currently receiving care in isolation facilities and hospitals across the affected regions. First declared a public health emergency on May 15, this outbreak differs dramatically from most previous Ebola events in one critical detail: it is driven by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which no specifically approved vaccines or targeted treatments currently exist.

    Its speed of transmission has already outpaced every outbreak in recorded history, even outstripping the devastating 2013–2016 West African outbreak that remains the worst on record. That event, which killed more than 11,000 people across 28,000 confirmed cases, took roughly eight months to reach the 1,000-death mark. The current outbreak is on track to cross that threshold in a fraction of that time.

    Ebola, though rare globally, is an extremely contagious pathogen that spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids including blood, vomit, and semen. It causes severe acute illness that is fatal in a large majority of untreated cases.

    Health officials have issued urgent warnings that 80% of all new cases are being traced to unknown transmission chains, a clear indicator that the virus is spreading faster than response teams can track and contain it. This gap has persisted even as authorities have ramped up emergency response operations in Ituri province, the outbreak’s epicenter, as well as four additional affected provinces across the country.

    Compounding the crisis, repeated attacks on health facilities and frontline response teams have forced aid groups and medical workers to withdraw from hard-hit areas. In other locations, local health workers have launched strikes over unpaid wages, a longstanding issue that has gone unaddressed since the outbreak was first declared.

    Speaking Tuesday at the African Health Summit held in Accra, Ghana, Dr. Jean Kaseya, Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), called on global and regional bodies to dramatically scale up intervention efforts to slow the outbreak’s advance. “If we do not stop this outbreak today, it could become one of the worst Ebola outbreaks the world has ever documented,” Kaseya warned.

  • After an extremely rare pregnancy, an Australian woman gives birth to identical quadruplet girls

    After an extremely rare pregnancy, an Australian woman gives birth to identical quadruplet girls

    In an unprecedented medical event for Australia, 34-year-old Jenitar Sau Na’amoana has safely given birth to four identical quadruplet girls, a natural conception that experts call a one-in-15-million statistical anomaly.

    Na’amoana, who already shares four children with her husband Jorthan, never planned an expanded family — the couple was stunned when prenatal tests confirmed she carried four identical fetuses, all developed from a single fertilized egg that spontaneously split into four embryos. The delivery took place last week at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) in Queensland, marking the first recorded case of naturally conceived identical quadruplets in Australian history.

    Maternal-fetal medicine specialist Dr. Alexa Bendall, who led Na’amoana’s care team, called the case medically extraordinary. While the general odds of spontaneous quadruplet conception hover at roughly 1 in 700,000 worldwide, the subset of identical quadruplets from one fertilized egg is far rarer, with odds estimated at 1 in 15 million. The vast majority of higher-order multiple pregnancies today result from fertility assistance treatments, making this all-natural conception even more unusual.

    Multiple pregnancies carry inherently elevated health risks for both birthing parent and fetuses, particularly when multiple fetuses share a single placenta — a common trait in identical multiple births. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, people carrying multiple fetuses face far higher risks of preterm delivery, miscarriage, and congenital abnormalities than those carrying single fetuses. To mitigate these risks, RBWH assembled a large specialized care team that began closely monitoring Na’amoana starting at just 10 weeks gestation. By 25 weeks, she was admitted as an inpatient to receive around-the-clock observation to track the development of the four fetuses. On July 14, Na’amoana delivered the four girls via planned cesarean section at 28 weeks and four days gestation.

    In a post-delivery statement, Dr. Bendall emphasized just how positive the outcome has been for the family. “The fact that we’ve got four beautiful, healthy babies born at 28 weeks and four days is incredible,” she said. While Na’amoana experienced some mild blood loss during delivery, Bendall noted the amount was well within expected ranges for a quadruplet birth, and the mother is now recovering well.

    All four infants are currently being cared for in RBWH’s neonatal intensive care unit, where they are progressing steadily. In a touching gesture to the care team, the couple named their daughters Emily, Harriet, Catherine, and Alexa — with the youngest named in honor of Dr. Bendall. The specialist called the tribute deeply moving, saying she feels privileged to have supported the family through their unprecedented journey.

    “From an academic perspective, it’s really interesting,” Bendall said of the case. “But also from a human perspective, to be able to be part of the family’s journey and come out with four beautiful babies and a healthy mum is very precious.”

    This reporting from the Associated Press Health and Science Department was supported by funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, with the AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

  • UK humanitarian worker monitored for Ebola in London hospital

    UK humanitarian worker monitored for Ebola in London hospital

    A British-resident humanitarian worker deployed to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC to support local Ebola outbreak response operations has been evacuated to the United Kingdom for medical care following a potential occupational exposure to the deadly virus, public health officials confirmed this week.

    The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) emphasized in an official statement that the evacuated individual, who has not been publicly identified, is currently not showing any symptoms of Ebola infection. The evacuation and subsequent hospitalization were undertaken purely as a precautionary measure, the agency added. As of the latest update, the worker remains in good health while undergoing continuous assessment and monitoring at an undisclosed London hospital.

    While the facility has not been named, public health sources confirm the Royal Free Hospital in north London – which hosts the UK’s national high-level isolation unit and serves as the country’s primary treatment center for high-consequence infectious diseases – is the likely site of care. Per UK public health protocols, the worker will remain in isolation for the full duration of Ebola’s 2 to 21 day incubation period, the maximum window for symptoms to emerge after exposure.

    Ebola is classified as a high-risk pathogen that spreads exclusively through direct contact with infected bodily fluids, unlike respiratory viruses such as influenza or COVID-19 which transmit via airborne particles. Initial symptoms of infection typically onset suddenly, mirroring early signs of flu or malaria including fever, headaches and fatigue. As the infection progresses, patients often develop vomiting and diarrhea, which can progress to organ failure. While not universal for all cases, internal and external bleeding is a known complication of advanced Ebola infection.

    Richard Pebody, UKHSA’s director of epidemic and emerging infections, sought to reassure the public that the incident poses very little danger to the wider UK population. “The risk to the general public remains low,” Pebody said in the statement. “This individual has been transferred out of an abundance of caution, and we’re pleased they remain well.”

    UKHSA also confirmed that as of this update, there are no confirmed cases of active Ebola transmission within the UK. Previous Ebola exposure events in the UK occurred between 2014 and 2015, when three healthcare workers returning from West African outbreak zones tested positive for the virus. All three patients recovered fully, and no secondary transmission to the general public was recorded in any of those cases.

    The current evacuation comes amid a major ongoing Ebola outbreak centered in the DRC that has spread to neighboring Uganda. As of July 19, DRC government data collated by the World Health Organization (WHO) recorded 2,423 confirmed cases of Ebola since the outbreak was first declared in mid-May, including 967 fatalities and 469 recoveries. Uganda has reported an additional 20 confirmed cases and two deaths linked to the regional outbreak.

    This current outbreak is driven by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, a variant for which no licensed vaccine is currently available, although multiple candidate vaccines are in late stages of development. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has categorized the event as the third-worst Ebola outbreak recorded in modern history.

  • Venezuela confirms 3 people have died of hantavirus infections, with 2 more deaths suspected

    Venezuela confirms 3 people have died of hantavirus infections, with 2 more deaths suspected

    CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan health authorities announced Tuesday that three people have died from confirmed hantavirus infections, a rare rodent-borne illness that has seldom been recorded in human cases across the South American nation. Officials emphasized that no evidence has emerged to prove the virus can spread between humans in the currently detected cases.

    The nation’s Health Ministry added that two additional deaths of healthcare workers in southwestern Barinas state are currently suspected to be linked to hantavirus. Those cases remain active in investigation, and officials have confirmed no connection between these suspected deaths and the three confirmed fatalities in eastern Anzoátegui state, located roughly 655 kilometers (407 miles) northeast of Barinas. Notably, both affected regions escaped the most severe damage from back-to-back major earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela earlier this month.

    Health officials characterized the deaths in both states as isolated events that “do not represent a risk to the general community.” Despite this reassurance, the ministry noted that additional healthcare personnel will be deployed to the affected regions to “guarantee the health security of all Venezuelans,” though no further details on the scope or timeline of the deployment were provided.

    The Venezuelan Medical Federation, the country’s leading national professional association for physicians, confirmed the three fatalities in Anzoátegui belonged to the same family residing in the rural municipality of Miranda in the southern part of the state.

    Globally, hantaviruses are distributed across every inhabited continent, with primary transmission occurring through direct or indirect contact with wild rodents including rats and mice. Human-to-human spread is extremely uncommon, but severe infections can trigger life-threatening pulmonary inflammation or acute kidney failure. The World Health Organization has tracked growing attention to the pathogen following a deadly outbreak on an Atlantic cruise ship earlier this year that confirmed rare instances of person-to-person transmission.

    That May outbreak on the expedition vessel MV Hondius killed three passengers and infected multiple others, linked to the Andes hantavirus — a strain that remains poorly understood by the global scientific community. The outbreak sparked international concern due to the strain’s estimated mortality rate of up to 30 percent, paired with the current absence of targeted antiviral treatments or approved vaccines.

    The cruise ship departed from Argentina, and Argentinian public health officials have spent weeks working to trace the origin of the outbreak. Initial official hypotheses speculated that the index case, a Dutch ornithologist, contracted the virus in Ushuaia, Argentina’s southernmost city famous as the popular “end of the world” departure point for Antarctic cruises.

    However, recent field testing of wild rodents in the Ushuaia area by Argentinian scientists ruled out the city as the outbreak’s origin. The conclusion has been welcomed by local tourism leaders, as the Antarctic cruise hub relies heavily on international visitor revenue. Earlier this month, Argentine authorities also ruled out the major wine-producing province of Mendoza as the source of contagion, after joint investigations by local researchers and biologists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found no trace of Andes hantavirus in rodents collected from areas the Dutch researcher and his spouse visited before the voyage.

  • US actions harm global efforts to prevent and treat HIV in dozens of countries, new report says

    US actions harm global efforts to prevent and treat HIV in dozens of countries, new report says

    A new independent report released Tuesday has exposed severe, far-reaching damage to the world’s largest global HIV relief initiative, tracing the harm directly to administrative disruptions carried out under the Trump administration that have forced clinic closures, mass staff layoffs, and widespread cuts to life-saving care across dozens of low- and middle-income countries.

    Launched in 2003, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, better known as PEPFAR, is widely recognized as one of the most successful global public health initiatives in modern history, credited with saving at least 26 million lives from HIV/AIDS since its creation. But the report from amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, details how the program was systematically undermined last year through the Trump administration’s restructuring of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and cuts to thousands of global health grant awards.

    Elise Lankiewicz, policy associate at amfAR and lead contributor to the report, noted that service disruptions touched nearly every corner of the global PEPFAR network, with the most vulnerable groups – including young women, AIDS orphans, and children living with or exposed to HIV – bearing the brunt of the cuts.

    To compile their findings, research teams reached out to hundreds of local and international organizations that deliver frontline HIV services with PEPFAR funding. Between November 2024 and April 2025, 166 organizations across 46 countries completed the researchers’ electronic survey, sharing detailed data on funding flows, staffing levels, and service availability. The research team acknowledges methodological limitations: the survey did not reach all PEPFAR-funded groups, and organizations that experienced the most severe disruption or those that retained full U.S. funding may have been less likely to respond, creating potential for bias in estimates of overall harm. Even so, study authors emphasize the findings offer an unprecedented, clear look into the widespread operational struggles that many PEPFAR partner groups faced over the past year.

    Key takeaways from the survey paint a stark picture of systemic breakdown. More than 75% of responding organizations reported at least one grant award was terminated or experienced significant payment delays in 2024. These funding cuts directly led to the permanent closure of more than 1,700 clinics, community drop-in centers, and other HIV service delivery sites, and the elimination of more than 16,000 full-time frontline staff positions. Even though federal guidance officially required core services including HIV treatment, diagnostic testing, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) to remain operational, a majority of partner organizations still reported disruptive interruptions to these critical services.

    Cuts were disproportionately concentrated on services for the populations that are most disproportionately impacted by HIV globally. A majority of organizations that previously provided targeted care for sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender people, and people who inject drugs reported permanently ending at least one service for these groups. Notably, even some organizations that did not lose funding reported cutting services for these key populations to align with revised U.S. policy priorities under the Trump administration.

    HIV prevention programming saw the steepest reductions: many organizations halted free condom distribution programs and stopped providing pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the daily preventive medication that eliminates the risk of sexually transmitted HIV. Official PEPFAR expenditure data confirms the scale of this cut: total global prevention spending dropped 51% between fiscal years 2024 and 2025. The report also found that local, community-based organizations were far more likely to face grant terminations and forced site closures than large international non-governmental organizations, creating cascading instability across interconnected national HIV care systems.

    The report’s authors conclude that the cumulative effect of these disruptions has led to widespread degradation of the global HIV care infrastructure built up over more than two decades of PEPFAR investment, with the deepest harm falling on the communities and local partners that are most critical to ending the global epidemic. While the study does not break out data by individual country, amfAR officials confirmed that a majority of survey responses came from organizations based in sub-Saharan Africa, the region that bears more than two-thirds of the global HIV burden.

    The Trump administration has pushed back against these findings, releasing its own quarterly PEPFAR data covering July to September 2025 that presents a far more positive outlook. Administration officials noted that PEPFAR-supported programs provided continuous antiretroviral treatment to 20.6 million people across more than 50 countries, a figure they described as stable compared to the same quarter in 2024. They also highlighted an increase in PrEP access for pregnant and breastfeeding women, rising from 43,000 in 2024 to 103,000 in 2025.

    But independent analysis of full-year PEPFAR data by amfAR researchers and experts from the International AIDS Society contradicts the administration’s rosy assessment, confirming substantial service disruptions across all program areas. Separate independent research, published in the journal Nature Health in June 2025, echoes the amfAR report’s conclusions. That study, which analyzed full global PEPFAR treatment data, found that nearly two million fewer people living with HIV were accessing PEPFAR-supported antiretroviral treatment in fiscal year 2025 compared to 2024 – a roughly 10% year-over-year decline.

    Ramona Godbole, an author of the Nature Health study who was not involved in the new amfAR report, noted that the sharp drop in treatment access raises urgent questions about the long-term stability of the PEPFAR program. “That does raise really important questions about program stability,” Godbole said.

    To reverse the damage documented in the report, amfAR has put forward a series of policy recommendations. The organization calls on the U.S. government and PEPFAR leadership to immediately reinstate full funding and support for all HIV services, not just core treatment programming. It also urges other national governments to increase domestic investment in HIV care and expand partnerships with grassroots non-governmental organizations, including groups led by members of vulnerable key populations.

    Even with immediate new funding, however, amfAR’s research and policy director Jennifer Sherwood warned that rebuilding the broken care system will take significant time, and every day of delay brings avoidable harm. “Even if money is put back into the system, it will take time to get the services up and running and regain the trust of communities,” Sherwood explained. “And unfortunately, with HIV and infectious disease, each day is deadly. Each day that we don’t have those systems in place, you see new infections.”

    This reporting from The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives financial support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the AP retains full editorial control over all content.