Global Pulse

分类： health

  • Firefighters say this antioxidant helped them – their union warns it could be risky

    Firefighters say this antioxidant helped them – their union warns it could be risky

    Against the backdrop of increasingly destructive wildfires raging across the American West, a growing divide has emerged over an untested alternative treatment that hundreds of firefighters have turned to ease smoke-related health symptoms: inhaled glutathione.

    For veteran Pasadena Fire Captain David Marquez, the solution came just days after he helped battle the devastating Eaton Fire, a blaze that etched its place as the second most destructive in California history, leaving 17 dead and more than 9,000 structures reduced to ash. Standing on the shoulder of a road outside Pasadena’s Rose Bowl Stadium, Marquez inhaled his first dose of the antioxidant, months after he and his crew had been reeling from persistent post-fire health issues. “We were having trouble sleeping, dealing with chronic coughs, headaches, crippling fatigue — it was just a really rough set of symptoms after the fire,” Marquez explained in recent testimony. The 25-year firefighting veteran said relief was almost immediate, even after what he calls the worst toxic exposure of his career. With crew members desperate for any reprieve from their debilitating symptoms, “we were willing to try pretty much anything,” he added.

    Marquez’s experience is far from unique. For years, public health researchers have confirmed that repeated inhalation of toxic wildfire smoke puts first responders like firefighters at drastically elevated risk of long-term illness, including multiple forms of cancer. Data from the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety puts that risk in concrete terms: firefighters face a 14% higher chance of dying from cancer than the general American public. As awareness of these occupational hazards has grown over the past decade, so too has interest in unproven, sometimes risky alternative interventions that promise to mitigate damage after fire exposure.

    Glutathione, an antioxidant produced naturally in the human body, has been offered as an on-site treatment by volunteer groups at many of the largest U.S. wildfires in recent years, from last summer’s blazes near Spokane, Washington, to earlier outbreaks across Northern California. Anecdotal accounts from frontline clinicians and fire department crews have offered encouraging early signals: many users report rapid relief from common post-exposure symptoms, and some proponents claim it helps flush carcinogenic toxins absorbed through smoke inhalation out of the body. But to date, no large-scale, peer-reviewed clinical research has confirmed its safety or effectiveness for this use, and public health and firefighter advocates have raised serious alarms about supply contamination, unregulated dosing, and the risks of promoting an untested treatment to vulnerable workers.

    Last month, the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), which represents more than 360,000 active and retired firefighters across the U.S. and Canada, issued a rare public warning about the growing unregulated use of inhaled glutathione. The organization highlighted two recent product recalls linked to contaminants at compounding pharmacies that produce the injectable and inhalable versions of the supplement. While the association stressed that past scares involving naturally occurring vitamins that ended up increasing cancer risk are not directly tied to glutathione, the case underscores the danger of rolling out untested treatments to at-risk workers.

    “We don’t know if glutathione actually delivers on the benefits its proponents claim,” said Sean DeCrane, assistant to the IAFF general president for health and safety. “We don’t know if the reported improvements are just a placebo effect, and we have no data on the long-term health impacts of regular inhaled use.” DeCrane criticized the aggressive promotion of glutathione to frontline crews, pointing to incidents in Spokane where fire chiefs included recommendations for crews to visit volunteer treatment tents during morning briefing sessions. “The total lack of rigorous research is what really raised red flags for our organization,” he said, adding that the IAFF has already heard from multiple members who reported feeling worse, not better, after receiving glutathione treatment. In many of those cases, DeCrane said, treating clinicians told users their worsening symptoms were just a sign that toxins were being flushed from their bodies.

    The current push to bring glutathione treatment to wildfire crews traces its origins back to 2017, when a group of naturopathic practitioners banded together in Santa Rosa, California, to offer support to crews battling the destructive Tubbs Fire. That initial effort grew into the Integrated Health Action Network (IHAN), previously known as the Integrative Healers Network, which now deploys volunteer clinicians to major wildfire events across the country to provide glutathione alongside other complementary treatments including acupuncture and massage therapy.

    In response to the IAFF’s warning, IHAN released a statement acknowledging the critical need for further formal research, and said the organization is eager to partner with academic researchers to generate rigorous data on glutathione’s effectiveness. Jen Riegle, a licensed naturopath and IHAN co-founder, noted that the group’s treatment has consistently led to what she calls “clinically meaningful improvements” in the most common post-fire symptoms: headaches, fatigue, and brain fog that leave crews unable to work effectively. Riegle stands by the claim that glutathione helps eliminate harmful contaminants from firefighters’ bodies, and acknowledged that mild short-term side effects are common immediately after treatment.

    Riegle said she hopes the anecdotal data her group has collected over nearly a decade of work will help secure funding and support for large-scale clinical trials to confirm the treatment’s value, with the goal of making it a standard long-term health intervention for firefighters. At the same time, she emphasized that the group’s current evidence is entirely anecdotal, and far from the conclusive data required for formal regulatory approval. “I want to be really clear that what we are collecting is program-level data from our treatment work,” she said. “It shouldn’t ever be misconstrued as clinical trial data, double-blind placebo-controlled data, or peer-reviewed research. It’s just a starting point to build support for future formal studies.” It is important to note that full clinical trials for new medical interventions typically take years of rigorous testing and evaluation before winning regulatory approval.

    The debate over glutathione burst into the public sphere last year, when California’s State Board of Pharmacy proposed new rules that would have severely restricted compounded production of the supplement. The proposal sparked a massive wave of pushback from firefighters across the state, who traveled to Sacramento to testify in person about the improvements they had experienced after using the treatment. The board ultimately abandoned the proposed restrictions. Marquez was among the uniformed firefighters who traveled to the capital to testify, and he said he is grateful that glutathione is now more widely available to crews, including at every fire station in his home city of Pasadena. He dismisses critics who argue that his reported improvement is nothing more than a placebo effect. “I don’t care if it’s a placebo — it worked,” he said. “Guys were saying they felt better, I felt better, and that made me want to keep accessing the treatment.”

    The debate over glutathione also highlights a longstanding gap between emerging understanding of occupational risks for firefighters and regulatory protection that matches that knowledge. As recently as last year, U.S. National Forest Service firefighters were banned from wearing protective face masks on the job over unfounded concerns that the gear would impair their ability to operate in rugged mountain terrain. Today, there is a growing consensus across the fire service that improved respiratory protection and routine decontamination are critical to reducing the elevated cancer risk that comes with the job.

    Dr. Coralynn Sack, an occupational pulmonologist at the University of Washington who specializes in the health impacts of air pollution, confirmed that wildfire smoke is a well-documented inhalational hazard that causes lasting damage to first responders. “There’s been a lot of broad interest in using antioxidant supplements to mitigate damage from air pollution overall, but studies have returned very mixed results — some have even found that antioxidant use leads to worse health outcomes,” Sack explained. While Sack said there is biological plausibility to the idea that glutathione could reduce smoke-related damage, she added that she is “very underwhelmed by the existing data” to support its use for firefighters. No peer-reviewed clinical trials of inhaled glutathione for firefighter smoke exposure have ever been completed, she noted. What’s more, Sack argued that the current debate over glutathione distracts from proven, evidence-based interventions that are already known to reduce risk, like widespread access to high-quality personal protective equipment.

    For Greg Fonts, a fire captain in West Sacramento and vice president of his local IAFF chapter, the growing conversation around glutathione is part of a much larger shift in fire service culture around occupational health. Gone are the days, he said, when firefighters would leave ash caked on their helmets and jackets to brag about the blazes they had fought, and write off cancer as an unavoidable part of the job. “When I joined the fire service in 2000, that was the prevailing attitude: cancer was just something that came with the work,” Fonts, who has used glutathione himself, explained. “The culture has changed drastically. Younger firefighters take their long-term health way more seriously now, and that’s a good thing.”

  • Suspected measles cases kill nearly 1,000 as Bangladesh struggles to contain outbreak

    Suspected measles cases kill nearly 1,000 as Bangladesh struggles to contain outbreak

    In a overcrowded pediatric ward in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, 8-month-old Rojatun Jannat Ramisa fights for every breath, her small body wracked by the effects of measles. Beside her bed, her helpless parents watch, their hopes pinned on scarce medical care after traveling hundreds of kilometers for specialized treatment. Ramisa is far from alone: she is one of tens of thousands of children falling ill during a catastrophic measles outbreak that has claimed hundreds of young lives, after years of disruptions to the nation’s routine childhood immunization efforts left a large gap in population protection.

    Ramisa’s mother, Ranu Akhter, recalled the alarming scale of the crisis she witnessed at her local district hospital before being referred to Dhaka Shishu Hospital, the country’s leading specialized children’s facility. “Fourteen days ago, when we were at the district hospital, every other child being treated alongside my daughter had the same telltale signs: red rashes covering their bodies, painful sores in their mouths, and raging fevers,” Akhter told the Associated Press. “It was then I understood just how far this outbreak has spread.”

    As of this week, the crisis has grown steadily worse: official data from Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Health Services puts the death toll from suspected measles cases at 999 since January 1, 2025. Since the outbreak began accelerating in March, the Ministry of Health has recorded more than 166,000 suspected infections across the country, with just under 20,000 cases confirmed by laboratory testing. The outbreak first triggered alarm in March, when more than 100 children died in less than four weeks, prompting authorities to launch an emergency response.

    In partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Gavi vaccine alliance, the Bangladeshi government rolled out a mass emergency vaccination campaign starting in March. The effort initially targeted children between 6 months and 5 years of age, the group most vulnerable to severe measles complications, before expanding in phased stages to cover all at-risk communities nationwide.

    Public health experts emphasize that measles is an extremely contagious airborne pathogen that causes high fever, respiratory distress, and a distinctive full-body rash. While many cases are mild, the disease can trigger life-threatening complications including pneumonia, brain swelling, and organ damage, particularly in infants and young children. Two doses of the measles vaccine provide robust, long-lasting protection, but public health protocols require 95% of a population to be fully immunized to achieve herd immunity — a threshold that stops transmission and protects people who cannot be vaccinated, including infants too young for the shot and immunocompromised individuals.

    Just a few years ago, Bangladesh had effectively controlled measles through a decades-old routine immunization program that successfully protected generations of children from a range of preventable diseases including tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, polio, and measles. After reporting 2,410 cases in 2020, the nation saw annual cases drop to just 100 to 300 between 2021 and 2024, a public health success story that has now been upended by successive disruptions to immunization services.

    Two major events created the gap in vaccination coverage that allowed the current outbreak to take hold. First, widespread lockdowns and disruptions to healthcare access during the COVID-19 pandemic left many children without their routine scheduled shots. Then, political upheaval in 2024 derailed the nation’s quadrennial mass measles vaccination campaign, a routine effort that had previously kept coverage high.

    Atiqul Islam, a leading neonatal and child specialist at Dhaka Shishu Hospital and Institute, explained that the missed doses have created a large susceptible population of young children. “During 2021 and 2022, at the height of pandemic disruptions, many families were unable or afraid to bring their children in for routine vaccinations,” Islam said. “So now, children who are four or five years old have largely missed their required doses. That created a critical immunity gap. Even after the pandemic, during the previous interim government, many local vaccination centers reported consistent vaccine shortages that left the gap unaddressed.”

    The crisis has also become a flashpoint for political blame-games between rival factions. Bangladesh’s current elected government, led by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, argues that systemic planning failures under ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and interim leader Muhammad Yunus left the country with depleted vaccine stockpiles and far below target immunization coverage. The 2024 mass vaccination campaign was directly disrupted by the mass political uprising that led to Hasina’s ouster from power in August 2024. Hasina fled into exile in India, and Yunus took over as head of an interim administration that oversaw a February 2025 election that transferred power to the current elected government. From her exile in India, Hasina has pushed back, blaming the Yunus-led interim government for the public health disaster.

    At Dhaka Shishu Hospital, where frontline clinicians have been working nonstop for six months to treat infected children, Islam says the emergency response has led to modest improvements, but progress remains far too slow to stem the death toll. Many children arrive at the hospital already suffering from severe complications including pneumonia, severe diarrhea, and encephalitis — swelling of the brain that can cause permanent damage or death. “For the past six months, we have been treating measles patients continuously, without a break,” Islam said. “Our entire team is exhausted.”

  • Cheaper CAR-T therapy drawing global cancer patients to China

    Cheaper CAR-T therapy drawing global cancer patients to China

    At just 25 years old, New Zealand native Michael Walters had already exhausted multiple unsuccessful lymphoma treatment options in his home country. When an Australian hospital in Melbourne quoted him nearly $600,000 USD for the cutting-edge CAR-T cancer therapy, the cost was out of reach. Turning to a medical facility in Shanghai, Walters paid less than half that quoted price, and on August 18, he received the life-changing news: his cancer had entered complete remission.

    Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, better known as CAR-T, is a personalized immunotherapy that works by re-engineering a patient’s own immune T-cells to identify and attack malignant cancer cells. On the surface, Walters’ success story highlights a stark global pricing gap: CAR-T therapies in China typically cost between $150,000 and $230,000, compared to $550,000 to $850,000 for comparable treatments in the United States. But low prices are far from the full picture of the growing trend of cross-border medical travel for CAR-T treatment.

    As the director of the CAR-T program at MD Anderson, who has advised some international patients to pursue treatment in China, notes: China has not simply undercut global prices for CAR-T—it has scaled and industrialized the production of this personalized therapy far faster than many peer nations. Currently, nine CAR-T products have received full regulatory approval from Chinese authorities, more than any other country worldwide. Local supply chains are also tightly integrated: production laboratories are located within close proximity to major Shanghai hospitals, allowing engineered T-cells to be prepared and returned to patients for treatment in just days. For patients battling aggressive, fast-growing cancers, this reduced waiting time can make a life-or-death difference in treatment outcomes. Just this past June, Chinese regulators approved satri-cel, the world’s first CAR-T therapy indicated for a solid tumor, for use in treating certain advanced forms of stomach cancer.

    That said, the rapid growth of cross-border CAR-T travel to China raises important caveats that patients and clinicians must not overlook. Two key distinctions shape the safety and efficacy of this care: regulatory clarity and realistic statistical expectations.

    First, from a regulatory perspective, all hospitals offering cross-border treatment must clearly distinguish between three categories of care: treatment for an approved indication, off-label use of approved therapies, and participation in an experimental clinical trial. Patients must receive a transparent explanation of the available clinical evidence for their treatment, an independent assessment from a neutral specialist, and a detailed, credible aftercare plan before committing to travel for care.

    Second, from a statistical perspective, an early complete remission for individual patients like Walters is not definitive proof that one country’s cancer care system is universally superior. Patients who can afford to travel abroad and meet eligibility criteria for CAR-T are a self-selected, non-representative group. When small boutique hospitals report that most of their few dozen international patients are cancer-free post-treatment, this is not equivalent to data from a controlled clinical trial. It cannot confirm how long remission will last, or how Chinese CAR-T outcomes compare to alternative treatments available in other nations.

    Even for patients who achieve immediate remission, the treatment journey does not end after they leave the hospital. CAR-T is a living cell therapy, not a one-and-done medical procedure—it requires ongoing, coordinated care throughout a patient’s life. The therapy carries well-documented risks of severe inflammatory responses, neurological complications, and secondary infections. For many CAR-T products used to treat blood cancers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration even mandates lifelong monitoring for secondary new cancers.

    For patients who return to their home countries after treatment in China, this ongoing care often breaks down. Many returning patients lack transferable, digitized treatment records that local clinicians can easily interpret, a reliable point of contact at the Shanghai treating hospital, or a pre-arranged plan for covering costs if complications arise. Without integrated cross-border systems for sharing treatment records and follow-up data, the treating institution never gains access to long-term outcome data, and patients are left without the support they need.

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already recommends that patients arrange all follow-up care and financing before traveling abroad for medical treatment. Even with that guidance, local clinicians are often hesitant to take over care when treatment records, clinical responsibilities, and liability arrangements are unclear. It is critical to note that these gaps represent risks of fragmented cross-border care, not evidence that Chinese CAR-T treatment is inherently unsafe.

    The core challenge now is shifting the burden of logistics away from vulnerable sick patients and their families, and making proper pre-treatment preparation a binding obligation for the institutions offering cross-border care. A small, targeted network of cross-border hospital partnerships could pilot three practical reforms to address current gaps:

    First, before the CAR-T infusion is administered, the treating hospital, the patient, and a designated lead clinician at the patient’s home institution should sign a formal shared-care agreement. This agreement should explicitly outline which provider is responsible for reviewing routine test results, responding to urgent adverse events at key post-treatment milestones (30 days, 180 days, and five years, for example), and coordinating with the therapy manufacturer. This agreement should be paired with a standardized “treatment passport” that includes full details of the product used, its batch number, all pre-infusion medications, any acute complications experienced during treatment, and the full recommended monitoring schedule. This document should be shared with the patient’s home care team in a language accessible to emergency department clinicians before the patient returns home. When home countries lack specialized expertise in CAR-T management, the treating institution should help arrange specialized support rather than leaving the problem to patients and their families. Clarifying responsibilities ahead of treatment eliminates confusion when complications arise after care.

    Second, all pricing for cross-border treatment should be fully transparent. Upfront quotations should break down all costs, including the therapy itself, inpatient hospitalization, potential intensive care needs, patient and family accommodation, and planned follow-up. Explicit terms for covering the cost of complication management should be included: this is not to guarantee a fixed, low price, but to make any exclusions clear before a patient commits to treatment. Where legally permitted, public and private insurance payers could pilot coverage agreements with vetted overseas CAR-T centers, requiring verifiable clinical evidence for the proposed treatment, confirmation of adequate facility standards, and pre-arranged funding for aftercare. Cross-border price comparisons should evaluate total treatment cost and long-term outcomes, not just rely on advertised base prices. Patients should never be pressured to travel abroad to cut payer costs, but they also should not be abandoned by their home care system if they choose to pursue this option.

    Third, global cell therapy registries should be opened to cross-border data sharing. Existing national registries for cell therapies provide a ready foundation for this work. With explicit patient consent and compliance with global data protection laws, participating hospitals should link data from treatments administered abroad to follow-up care in the patient’s home country, and report standardized outcomes including overall survival, cancer relapse, serious adverse events, and cases of lost follow-up—not just positive early remission results. This system would allow a hematologist in Maryland, for example, to access full verified data about a specific therapy batch administered in Shanghai, and outcomes from dozens of international patients would contribute to rigorous clinical evidence rather than just anecdotal success stories.

    None of these reforms require global harmonization of drug approvals, nor do they demand that any nation declare China’s CAR-T system superior or untrustworthy. They simply require acknowledging the new reality: patients are already moving across borders to access cutting-edge care far faster than global medical institutions have adapted to support them. A therapy is only as good as the long-term care and follow-up that accompanies it.

    China has the opportunity to set a global standard for responsible cross-border CAR-T care, and any other nation seeking to attract international medical travelers should be required to meet that same standard. The most meaningful metric to track progress is not how many foreign patients arrive in Shanghai on medical visas, but how many of those patients can be traced and have their long-term outcomes counted five years after treatment.

  • Congo’s Ebola burial teams battle community anger, fatigue and fear of infection

    Congo’s Ebola burial teams battle community anger, fatigue and fear of infection

    In the conflict-battered province of Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo, the ground zero of the deadliest Ebola outbreak on record, a small group of frontline workers confronts an unrelenting, life-threatening workload every single day. Yuma Adolphe leads one of these specialized burial teams, tasked with laying Ebola victims to rest safely and with dignity — a job that has pushed him and his colleagues to their breaking points as the out-of-control epidemic continues to claim more lives.

    As of the latest reporting, the outbreak has recorded more than 6,500 confirmed and suspected cases, with nearly 3,200 deaths already recorded. Since the epidemic first emerged in mid-May, regional health authorities have deployed dozens of small, specialized burial teams across high-transmission hotspots to manage the steady stream of fatalities. Each team member earns just $20 a day for work that exposes them to the deadly virus on a constant basis, places them in conflict with grieving local communities, and leaves them physically and mentally exhausted.

    The core of the conflict between burial teams and local populations stems from a collision between infectious disease protocol and centuries-old cultural tradition. Public health rules require trained workers to handle all remains of Ebola victims, because the virus spreads through direct contact with infected blood and bodily fluids — and experts confirm that deceased victims still carry high levels of active virus that can trigger new chains of transmission. For local communities, however, this restriction means they are barred from carrying out the traditional burial rites that are central to honoring their dead.

    This cultural rift has erupted into violence on multiple occasions across the outbreak’s front lines. Since May, Adolphe’s team and similar burial crews have faced repeated assaults from bereaved family members angry at being stripped of their ability to practice their customs. “Under normal circumstances, families would receive their loved one’s body and carry out all the rituals our African traditions demand,” Adolphe explained in an interview with The Associated Press. “But in this crisis, we cannot allow families to handle the body as they normally would. They are denied their sacred customs, and that’s what creates the deep misunderstandings that put us at risk.” Jeanne Alasha, health and humanitarian affairs advisor to Ituri’s military governor, warned that those who attack burial teams will face legal prosecution under regional emergency rules.

    Ituri’s already dire crisis is compounded by overlapping layers of instability: the province is not only the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak, but also the heart of an ongoing rebel insurgency in eastern Congo, and is governed by a military administration appointed by national authorities in Kinshasa. The outbreak has now spread to six eastern Congolese provinces, spread by rebel violence, mass population displacement, and constant large-scale population movement. Weak local healthcare and surveillance systems, incomplete contact tracing, and limited laboratory capacity have further hampered response efforts. Making matters worse, the outbreak is being driven by the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no fully approved vaccine or targeted treatment exists. While frontline workers have been given the Ervebo vaccine, which the World Health Organization confirms offers some protection against other Ebola strains, there is no definitive data that it works against the current outbreak’s strain.

    The true scale of the crisis is even larger than official figures reflect: health officials estimate the actual number of cases and deaths is likely three times higher than what has been recorded, as the virus continues to outpace containment efforts. The WHO has warned the outbreak could soon surpass the 2014-2016 West African Ebola epidemic, the current deadliest on record which killed more than 11,000 people. Compounding these challenges, frontline health workers have held multiple strikes over unpaid wages, slowing critical response work across the region.

    The human cost of the crisis is visible in even the most recent burials. Shortly before noon on a recent Friday, 36-year-old Justine Habineno, a church chorister, was laid to rest in Ituri after dying from Ebola. Her mother, Sofia Wanito, recalled that Habineno only complained of mild headaches before being admitted to hospital and diagnosed with the virus. Under outbreak rules, Wanito was only allowed to see her daughter’s body through a hospital ward window, and was barred from touching the coffin. “We never had to deal with dying like this before,” Wanito said. “I couldn’t even cover her body with a sheet myself, couldn’t give her a final goodbye.” A lay catechist led the shortened ceremony, attended by dozens of community members, while Adolphe’s team — clad in full protective scrubs and boots — stood by to oversee the safe burial.

    For the burial team members, the danger of infection and community hostility is paired with constant physical and mental exhaustion, yet most say protecting their communities remains their top priority. Benjamin Muhindo, another team member, said his own family lives in constant fear he will bring the virus home, but he still shows up for work every day to ensure victims are buried properly. “Burial work during this epidemic is incredibly complicated,” Muhindo said. “We work under constant pressure, racing against the clock to stop the spread every single day.”

    Trauma experts note that the outbreak’s impact stretches far beyond the official case and death count, leaving deep psychological scars on both bereaved communities and the frontline workers who respond to the crisis. “The trauma of this outbreak doesn’t end when we count the latest case number,” said Rose Tchwenko, country director for the humanitarian organization Mercy Corps in Congo. Breaking the chain of transmission, she added, requires far more than medical intervention: “We need an integrated, holistic response that includes mental health and social support for both grieving families and the frontline workers who carry this heavy load.”

    After finishing Habineno’s burial last Friday, Adolphe acknowledged he is exhausted, but said his biggest concern remains the safety of his community. “We have no other choice,” he said. “We are here to protect our people, even when we have to push past our own limits to do it.”

    This reporting was contributed by Ope Adetayo from Lagos, Nigeria. The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation, and maintains full editorial independence over all content.

  • Transplanted pig kidney works in US man’s body for record 271 days

    Transplanted pig kidney works in US man’s body for record 271 days

    A groundbreaking development in organ transplantation has set a new record: a kidney harvested from a genetically modified pig has functioned normally in a human patient for 271 days, the longest successful duration ever recorded for this experimental procedure, according to medical teams at Mass General Brigham in the United States. The case, recently published in the *Lancet* medical journal, offers a glimmer of hope amid a persistent global crisis of organ donor shortages that leaves thousands of patients waiting for life-saving treatment every year.

    The recipient of the experimental transplant was 66-year-old Tim Andrews, who was living with end-stage kidney disease caused by type 2 diabetes. Like thousands of patients across the United States and the United Kingdom, Andrews faced a years-long wait for a human donor kidney. He was told it could take up to seven years to reach the top of the transplant waiting list, while the average life expectancy for a patient on long-term dialysis is just five years. “I had a little bit of a shortage of time… it becomes very depressing,” Andrews recalled of his ordeal before the procedure. When offered the option of a pig kidney xenotransplant—an organ sourced from another species—he described the opportunity as “hope” and the “light at the end of the tunnel.”

    The transplant was performed on January 25, 2025. From the moment surgeons connected the pig kidney to Andrews’ blood vessels, the organ began working to filter his blood, eliminating the immediate need for regular, time-consuming dialysis appointments that had upended his daily life. The pig kidney continued to function without critical failure for 271 days, a new global benchmark for the field of xenotransplantation. Although early signs of immune rejection were detected, clinicians successfully managed the reaction by adjusting Andrews’ immunosuppressant medication. Eventually, after approximately six months, the pig kidney began to fail as inflammation developed and damage accumulated in its blood vessels. It was removed in October 2025, after which Andrews returned to short-term dialysis for 82 days. In January 2026, he received a donor human kidney, which has continued to function well as of the latest clinical updates.

    Notably, clinicians report that the pig kidney’s failure was not triggered by the acute antibody-mediated immune rejection that has doomed early xenotransplant attempts. The exact cause of the organ’s decline remains under investigation, marking a key area for future research.

    Pigs have long been identified as the most promising candidate species for human xenotransplantation: their organs are roughly the same size as human organs, and controlled farming of pigs for medical use has been refined over decades of research. However, using unmodified pig organs in humans triggers an immediate, devastating immune response, where the body identifies the foreign tissue and launches an attack that destroys the organ within minutes. To overcome this barrier, researchers developed genetically modified Yucatan miniature pigs, with 69 genomic edits designed to “humanize” their organs:
    – These edits remove molecular markers on pig cells that the human immune system recognizes as foreign
    – They add human genetic material that acts as biological camouflage, hiding the pig tissue from immune detection
    – Additional modifications disable endogenous retroviruses embedded in pig DNA, eliminating the risk of cross-species viral infection

    Mass General Brigham’s transplant team emphasizes that their successful 271-day outcome proves that genetically modified pig kidneys can act as a life-saving “bridge” for patients waiting for a human donor organ. For patients like Andrews, this bridge means freedom from the relentless cycle of dialysis while they wait, and a far higher chance of surviving long enough to receive a permanent human transplant.

    Dr. Leonardo Riella, from the center for transplantation sciences at Mass General Brigham, framed the ongoing organ shortage as a public health crisis. “We are working really hard to bring hope and we truly feel that xenotransplantation can be an alternative for patients who don’t have a living donor where we could potentially bypass dialysis and get them to a transplant,” he said.

    g the milestone, the research team’s published analysis acknowledges that the case highlights both the enormous promise of xenotransplantation and the critical challenges that remain to be solved before the procedure can become widely available to patients in need. Across the globe, 100,000 people are currently waiting for a kidney transplant in the U.S. alone, with only around 25,000 transplants performed annually. More than 7,000 patients are on the UK’s kidney waiting list, making the search for alternative organ sources a pressing public health priority.

  • 5 challenges Congo faces in containing its fast-moving Ebola outbreak

    5 challenges Congo faces in containing its fast-moving Ebola outbreak

    In a sobering update on the escalating Ebola crisis ravaging eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) announced Thursday that local health authorities are pivoting to a new village-centered strategy to curb transmission, after the virus outpaced existing containment and tracking efforts.

    According to the continental public health agency, the current outbreak has not yet reached its peak, marking a far more severe public health emergency than the devastating 2014–2016 West African Ebola epidemic, which remains the deadliest on record with more than 11,000 fatalities. Africa CDC data confirms the current outbreak has already recorded six times as many confirmed cases and five times as many deaths as that prior crisis.

    Since the outbreak was declared in mid-May, the virus has jumped from just three initial health zones to 60 across the country, with 6,250 total confirmed cases and 3,039 deaths as of the latest government count. Ongoing insecurity, mass population displacement, and frequent large-scale population movements have been the primary drivers of the virus’s rapid spread. The outbreak is concentrated in Ituri province, which is also the epicenter of a persistent rebel conflict in eastern Congo – a dual crisis that has complicated nearly every aspect of outbreak response.

    A new analysis this week from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. CDC) identifies five critical gaps that continue to undermine Congo’s Ebola response, even as authorities adjust their strategy.

    First, community-based surveillance systems remain drastically underdeveloped. Rapid investigation of potential cases, early detection, contact tracking, and transmission slowdown are all hampered by this gap. Delayed case detection, widespread community reluctance to report suspected infections, and insufficient engagement with local populations have all led to entirely preventable deaths. Recent Africa CDC data underscores this failure: at least 63% of all fatalities recorded in the past week occurred outside of dedicated Ebola treatment centers, meaning most infected people never accessed life-saving care.

    To address this foundational gap, authorities are now rolling out the new village-centered approach, which centers on partnering directly with local community leaders to build trust and improve collaborative work with residents. But Yap Boum, head of emergency preparedness and response at Africa CDC, noted that trust-building in the middle of an active conflict and outbreak is far from simple. “Building that trust in the middle of an outbreak is quite complex,” Boum explained, referencing the ongoing insecurity that leaves residents deeply suspicious of outside actors.

    The second critical gap is persistent failure to scale up effective contact tracing, an essential tool for stopping Ebola chains of transmission. While response teams have followed up with 81% of *officially listed* contacts of confirmed cases, this statistic hides a stark reality: thousands of unrecorded contacts have never been reached for monitoring. Africa CDC estimates that confirmed cases recorded in the three weeks prior to the update should have generated approximately 97,600 total contacts, based on an average of 60 contacts per confirmed case. To date, only 19% of these total expected contacts have successfully been traced, leaving hundreds of potential transmission chains unmonitored.

    Third, experts warn that existing treatment and isolation capacity remains insufficient to meet projected need. By late August, treatment centers had expanded their total capacity to more than 1,300 beds, with a current occupancy rate of 67% (holding 869 patients). However, public health teams are calling for additional treatment and isolation centers and beds across affected health zones to prepare for the wave of undetected cases that experts expect to emerge. Many high-risk health zones are located in areas inaccessible to response teams, while widespread community distrust of health authorities leads to many cases going unreported for weeks.

    Fourth, limited laboratory testing capacity continues to delay case confirmation and timely treatment. The World Health Organization reported last month that many treatment and transit centers in Ituri, the outbreak’s epicenter, are already operating at full saturation, while North Kivu – the second-most affected province – lacks enough specialized referral facilities for severe cases. Frontline health workers at existing treatment centers are also suffering from extreme burnout. Jeannot Krikeija, who works at an Ebola treatment center in Bunia, Ituri’s capital, described the relentless toll of the crisis: “Ebola is tiring us all the more because we don’t know when this scourge will end. This ordeal is unbearable for me.”

    The fifth and final gap identified by the U.S. CDC lies in safe burial practices, a critical intervention given that Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids, and the bodies of deceased victims remain highly infectious. While authorities have deployed safe burial teams to respond to the more than 3,000 Ebola deaths to date, major gaps remain in execution across affected health zones. In Ituri and other high-risk areas, burial teams have been attacked multiple times, often by grieving family members who wish to carry out traditional burial customs for their loved ones. It remains common for community members to gather within meters of Ebola victim coffins during burials, putting hundreds of people at risk of new infections.

    As the new village-centered strategy rolls out, public health agencies across the continent continue to warn that the outbreak’s trajectory remains unpredictable, with sustained transmission expected for the foreseeable future without targeted investment to close the remaining response gaps.

    AP writers Constant Same Bagalwa in Bunia, Congo and Mike Stobbe in New York contributed reporting to this article.

  • Congo’s Ebola outbreak shows no signs of slowing as deaths top 3,000

    Congo’s Ebola outbreak shows no signs of slowing as deaths top 3,000

    BUNIA, Democratic Republic of Congo – A rapidly expanding Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo has outpaced international and local containment efforts, crossing a grim milestone this week with more than 3,000 fatalities recorded across over 6,100 confirmed cases, new government data released Wednesday confirms.

    According to figures from Congo’s Ministry of Health, the outbreak has reached 6,186 confirmed infections since the World Health Organization declared it a global public health emergency in mid-May, with 3,007 confirmed deaths to date. Health officials confirm this is now the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in recorded history, with transmission accelerating far more quickly than contact tracing and public health teams can respond.

    The crisis has upended daily life for communities across affected regions, forcing many residents to flee high-transmission zones to seek safety. Jean-Claude Angwanzia, a Bunia resident who relocated from Mambassa in the Ituri province epicenter, described widespread insecurity and a lack of visible public health support. “I had to flee the area because of the danger looming over us,” he said, noting infected bodies were often mishandled and health workers were rarely seen in the hardest-hit communities.

    Local economic and daily activity has slowed dramatically as fear of transmission spreads. Papy Baraka, a public transportation driver based in Bunia, told reporters he has been forced to reduce the number of passengers he carries per trip to lower exposure risk. “The disease puts everyone at risk, and daily life has slowed to a crawl. We are afraid,” he said.

    In recent weeks, the virus has expanded its reach at an alarming rate: just last week, two additional health zones in North Kivu province reported their first cases, pushing the total number of affected jurisdictions to 60 across six Congo provinces. The fatality rate in North Kivu is significantly higher than in other impacted regions.

    A new assessment released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) echoed on-the-ground accounts of failing containment, concluding current response efforts “remained below established response targets.” The report warned that the virus’s spread across dozens of health zones signals “uncontrolled expansion of the outbreak.” CDC data shows only 15% to 20% of new confirmed cases stem from known transmission chains, meaning the vast majority of new infections are occurring through unknown, untraced contacts.

    Multiple interconnected factors have fueled the outbreak’s unrelenting spread. The eastern Congo region where the virus is concentrated has long grappled with ongoing armed conflict, which disrupts access to impacted communities. Health care workers responding to the crisis have also faced repeated targeted attacks, and have staged multiple strikes over delayed pay and inadequate working conditions. A highly mobile population of artisanal miners moving across regional borders, combined with long-underfunded and underdeveloped local health infrastructure, has further hampered response efforts. Even the recent reopening of schools in the outbreak’s epicenter has sparked widespread concern about rapid transmission among crowded student populations.

    The World Health Organization warns the outbreak is on track to surpass the deadliest Ebola event in history: the 2014-2016 West African regional outbreak that killed more than 11,000 people across three countries. The Africa CDC added that official case counts are likely a significant undercount, estimating the actual number of infections could be three times higher than reported due to weak surveillance and contact tracing systems. Even at the current confirmed count, this is already the deadliest Ebola outbreak in Congo’s history.

    Unlike previous Ebola outbreaks that have been effectively contained with existing vaccines, the current outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo Ebola virus, for which no fully approved vaccine or targeted treatment currently exists. A small number of vaccine candidates are in late-stage development, however, and last week the Congolese government launched distribution of the Ervebo vaccine – which successfully controlled previous Ebola outbreaks – to front-line health workers in Kisangani, the capital of northeastern Tshopo province. WHO officials note Ervebo may provide at least partial protection against the current variant.

  • Congo authorities report more than 6,000 confirmed Ebola cases and nearly 3,000 deaths

    Congo authorities report more than 6,000 confirmed Ebola cases and nearly 3,000 deaths

    In a grim update released Monday, Democratic Republic of Congo health authorities confirmed that the nation’s unprecedented fast-spreading Ebola outbreak has crossed a devastating threshold, with more than 6,000 confirmed cases and 2,911 fatalities recorded to date. Amid the rising death toll, authorities did highlight one small positive development: over 1,360 patients have successfully recovered from the virus, a trend officials described as encouraging for frontline response teams.

    The outbreak, which is centered in eastern Congo, is expanding against a backdrop of extraordinary operational challenges. Chronic regional insecurity, mass population displacement, a recent strike by frontline health workers, and constant large-scale population movements have all combined to accelerate transmission. Displacement camps, where residents already live in overcrowded, unsanitary and precarious conditions, are emerging as particularly high-risk sites for widespread infection. Just last week, health officials confirmed the virus has reached two more previously unaffected health zones, bringing the total number of impacted areas across the region to nearly 60.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has repeatedly warned that the outbreak remains completely out of control, and current projection models indicate it could soon overtake the 2014–2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic as the deadliest outbreak on record. That earlier outbreak killed more than 11,000 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

    Complicating response efforts further, violent attacks against response teams have become increasingly common. On Saturday, an Ebola response team deployed to the outskirts of Mambasa, a town in Ituri province, came under attack while working to safely recover an Ebola-related death. A group of young men armed with machetes stormed the funeral site where the team was operating, forcing all responders to evacuate the area and leaving one team member injured. Floribert Magene, a member of the response team, told the Associated Press that frontline workers are urgently calling for improved protection. “We demand greater security so we can operate in the field and do our work without endangering our lives,” Magene said.

    Unlike many previous Ebola outbreaks, this current event is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, a rare variant of the virus for which no officially licensed vaccine or specific treatment currently exists. In a proactive step last week, Congolese health authorities launched a vaccination campaign for health care workers and other frontline response staff using Ervebo, a vaccine that proved effective against Zaire Ebola — the more common strain that caused previous major outbreaks. Clinical trials for a Bundibugyo-specific vaccine are currently ongoing to develop a targeted tool for fighting this outbreak.

    Health officials retroactively determined that while the outbreak was formally declared in mid-May, the virus had begun spreading quietly through communities as early as February. It has since expanded from just 3 initial health zones to 60, with data showing that the majority of new cases and deaths are occurring outside of monitored contact tracing networks, spreading undetected within local communities.

    Public health control measures, including limits on large public gatherings, social distancing guidelines, and airport closures, have upended daily life across six affected Congolese provinces. Ituri province, which is also grappling with persistent rebel violence that has displaced thousands of residents, has been hit particularly hard by these disruptions. While the Congolese government has rolled out limited interventions, including installing sanitary and medical screening equipment at high-traffic sites, public health advocacy groups emphasize that far more work is needed to build trust with local communities and expand access to care.

    Although neighboring Uganda declared itself officially Ebola-free last month after containing a small cross-border outbreak, the WHO warned last week that the risk of future cross-border spread remains elevated, as long as the large-scale outbreak continues to rage in eastern Congo.

  • Africa’s male midwives are rare but increasing in the fight against pregnancy deaths

    Africa’s male midwives are rare but increasing in the fight against pregnancy deaths

    On a crisp, cold morning in the mountainous Southern African kingdom of Lesotho, Ntlhane Sehloho slung his backpack stuffed with critical medical gear over his shoulders and set off on a three-hour trek along winding, unpaved gravel roads. His destination: Mpharane Health Center, a small clinic tucked into a remote valley that serves scattered rural communities with limited access to advanced care.

    Sehloho occupies a role once almost unheard of in this part of the world: he is a male midwife. When he stepped through the clinic’s doors on this particular morning, a group of waiting women exhaled in relief — some expecting their first child, others balancing fussy infants on their backs, all seeking the routine prenatal and postnatal care Sehloho has provided for 20 years.

    For generations, midwifery has been strictly regarded as women’s work in Lesotho’s largely conservative society. But facing one of the world’s worst maternal mortality crises, the country has launched an urgent push to recruit more men into the profession, upending long-held cultural norms to save lives. According to United Nations data, Lesotho records roughly 530 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births — a rate more than two and a half times the global average of 200.

    This crisis is not unique to Lesotho. Sub-Saharan Africa, the world’s fastest-growing region, accounts for 70% of all global maternal deaths, with roughly 180,000 pregnancy-related fatalities recorded across the continent each year. Severe staffing shortages in remote rural clinics, where most of Lesotho’s population lives, have only worsened the crisis. With just over 2 million people nationwide, the country’s rural health posts are chronically understaffed, leaving thousands of pregnant women without access to skilled care during childbirth.

    Global health bodies have sounded the alarm for years over this shortage. World Health Organization data estimates that men make up less than 1% of the global midwifery workforce. Both the WHO and UNICEF have called for expanding recruitment to all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, to close gaping gaps in emergency obstetric care.

    Sehloho is one of an estimated 300 male midwives now practicing across Lesotho — a milestone that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. The Lesotho government does not track midwifery data by gender, so an exact count is not available, but recruitment efforts over the past two decades have steadily grown the share of men in the field. Sehloho never set out to become a midwife: as a high-achieving student, he originally planned to work as a nurse, driven by childhood memories of preventable tragedy in his rural home village.

    “Our village was far away from the health facility, so most pregnant women delivered at home. We were still young, we were not supposed to see that, as some were dying,” he recalled. “I didn’t understand how far they had to travel just to get care.”

    After he finished his nursing training, Lesotho’s health authorities encouraged Sehloho and other male nursing graduates to pursue additional midwifery training, part of a targeted strategy to expand care access to underserved rural areas. The strategy has already delivered measurable results: UNICEF data shows that 92% of births in Lesotho now are attended by a trained health provider, up from a far lower share just two decades ago.

    Lesotho’s government says the core goal is saving lives, and that gender should never stand in the way of that mission. “I think the system and the community is starting to slowly accept that gender should not matter when it comes to this issue of delivery,” explained Dr. Llang Maama, acting director of health services at Lesotho’s Ministry of Health. She acknowledged that a small number of patients still report discomfort with male midwives, and the health system formally accommodates those requests when possible. “But in the urgency of childbirth, there isn’t always time to choose,” Maama added.

    For Sehloho, acceptance comes down to building trust, one patient at a time. A talkative, quick-witted provider, he makes a point of putting pregnant women at ease from their very first prenatal visit, often sharing his own background growing up in a rural Lesotho community and highlighting his 20 years of experience delivering babies. “We are a very cultural and traditional African society,” he said.

    Blandina Motaung, a representative for the United Nations Population Fund, which partners closely with Lesotho’s midwifery community, said public reactions to male midwives remain mixed, but many patients are surprised by the unique strengths men bring to the role. Many patients report that male midwives tend to be more gentle and less strict than their female counterparts during consultations, she said. During prenatal checks, Sehloho routinely pauses after taking blood pressure or measuring fetal progress to ask patients if they are comfortable, a small habit that has won him loyalty among the community he serves.

    Motaung noted that while most female midwives have personal experience with childbirth, men’s lack of that firsthand experience often makes them more attentive to small changes and warning signs that can signal complications. “For the men, because they have not been through the process, they become more vigilant and more attentive to the nitty gritties, and that in itself improves the quality of care that they provide,” she explained.

    Patients across the country are slowly adapting to the new norm. Mpolokeng Mafereka, a 21-year-old patient at Mpharane Health Center, said she still prefers care from a female provider, but has grown accustomed to seeing Sehloho when he is the only clinician available. “I’m used to being treated by women,” she said.

    But 21-year-old Bonolo Tebello, another patient at the clinic, said she has never had concerns about seeing a male midwife. “I’m happy to be treated by a male because they still provide the same level of care,” she said. “Even when one arrives late for a check-up, they just treat you like any other person who arrived on time.”

    This reporting is part of AP News’ Africa Pulse series, supported by a grant from the Gates Foundation. The Associated Press maintains full editorial control over all funded content.

  • Dutch institute issues ‘red alert’ over Trump-shaped ecstasy pills

    Dutch institute issues ‘red alert’ over Trump-shaped ecstasy pills

    A leading Dutch research institute focused on drug addiction and mental health has sounded an urgent nationwide warning over a dangerous batch of counterfeit ecstasy pills molded into the shape of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s head, which carry potentially fatal health risks for users.

    The Trimbos Institute, headquartered in Utrecht, confirmed that multiple units of the illicit pills were submitted to official drug testing facilities across the Netherlands throughout August 2026. Laboratory analysis confirmed that the tablets contain an extremely high concentration of PMMA, short for para-methoxymethamfetamine, a synthetic stimulant chemically similar to MDMA—the primary active compound in recreational ecstasy.

    In an unambiguous public safety advisory, the institute stressed that the pills must never be consumed, warning that ingestion can lead to rapid, life-threatening overheating of the body that often results in fatal outcomes. Officials have released public images of the contraband to help users identify the dangerous tablets: one side bears a sculpted likeness of Trump’s face, while the reverse is stamped with the words “Trump” and “NL” to mark its presumed origin in the Netherlands. Two variant designs have been identified so far: one with yellow and blue coloring, and a second featuring red and green detailing.

    Unlike standard MDMA, which produces almost immediate psychoactive and stimulating effects, PMMA acts much more slowly on the body and often lacks the characteristic energizing high users expect from ecstasy. This delayed reaction creates a critical risk of overdose, the institute explained, as users frequently take additional doses believing the first pill did not work, resulting in a toxic buildup of the chemical in the system. Symptoms of PMMA poisoning include severe nausea, elevated heart rate, and uncontrollable convulsions, which can set in several hours after consumption.

    Anniek Groothuis, a spokesperson for the Trimbos Institute, told the Associated Press that as of the advisory’s release, the institute has not received reports of deaths or life-threatening illness linked to this specific batch of pills. Even so, public health officials have emphasized the urgent need for awareness to prevent preventable fatalities.

    While the production, distribution, and possession of ecstasy remain illegal under Dutch law, a 2024 official government report highlights the drug’s persistent popularity as a common party substance across the country. The report noted that in 2022 alone, a record 550,000 Dutch residents reported using ecstasy at least once that year, underscoring the ongoing public health risk posed by adulterated illicit drugs.

    This is not the first incident of Trump’s likeness being used to brand illegal ecstasy pills. Back in 2017, German law enforcement seized roughly 5,000 carrot-colored Trump-shaped ecstasy tablets that investigators believe were marketed online under the provocative slogan “Trump makes partying great again.”