Month: July 2022

Regional authorities, medical professionals and residents of Ethiopia’s Afar region say they are in dire need of medical aid with hundreds of hospitals and health centers destroyed by conflict. The World Health Organization says it is struggling to fulfill the country’s needs as crises around…

A report Monday in the British newspaper The Guardian said a growing number of people in the Mahama refugee camp in Rwanda are registering in health centers for non-communicable diseases, or NCDs, that are usually seen in older people and in urban areas. Examples cited…

Virtually all the contiguous United States experienced above normal temperatures in the past week, with more dangerously hot weather forecast.  The U.S. heat wave followed record heat that killed hundreds if not thousands of people and sparked wildfires in Europe. Following is an explanation of…

China on Sunday launched the second of three modules to its permanent space station, in one of the final missions needed to complete the orbiting outpost by year's end. A live feed on state broadcaster CCTV showed the 23-ton Wentian ("Quest for the Heavens") laboratory…

Maverick's next wingman could be a drone. In the movies, fighter pilots are depicted as highly trained military aviators with the skills and experience to defeat adversaries in thrilling aerial dogfights. New technologies, though, are set to redefine what it means to be a "Top…

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus used his authority Saturday to declare Monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern. The action comes after an Emergency Committee convened to review the situation was unable to reach consensus. When the Emergency Committee last met a…

The rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak represents a global health emergency, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a media briefing Saturday. The WHO label - a "public health emergency of international concern" - is designed to sound an alarm that a coordinated international…

Two children have been diagnosed with monkeypox in the U.S., health officials said Friday. One is a toddler in California and the other an infant who is not a U.S. resident but was tested while in Washington, D.C., according to the Centers for Disease Control…

The spread of monkeypox in the U.S. could represent the dawn of a new sexually transmitted disease, though some health officials say the virus that causes pimple-like bumps might yet be contained before it gets firmly established. Experts don't agree on the likely path of…

India and Namibia have signed an agreement to bring cheetahs to the forests of the South Asian country, where the large cat became extinct 70 years ago. According to the agreement signed Wednesday, eight African cheetahs will be transferred from Namibia to India in August…

Ukrainian therapist Svitlana Kutsenko thought she was making progress with her patients — army veterans recovering from mental trauma suffered during fighting with Russia in 2014. Then, war erupted again. Now, five months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Kutsenko says the situation looks bleaker than ever.…

The White House says President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing "very mild symptoms." The president's diagnosis comes amid another wave of the coronavirus in the United States, driven this time by the BA.5 variant.  VOA's Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine…

New cases of COVID-19 have been sweeping across the United States in recent weeks. On Thursday, President Joe Biden tested positive. His symptoms of tiredness, a runny nose and dry cough are considered mild. The highly infectious and transmittable BA.5 subvariant of the coronavirus’s omicron…

An unvaccinated young adult from New York recently contracted polio, the first U.S. case in nearly a decade, health officials said Thursday.  Officials said the patient, who lives in Rockland County, had developed paralysis. The person developed symptoms a month ago and did not recently…

A private spaceflight company launches its way into history. Plus, a look back at the start of what is now a tenuous stellar partnership, and we remember the first manned mission to the moon. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space. ...

Preparations are underway for the mass rollout of the world’s first malaria vaccine to protect millions of children in Africa. The rollout is being funded by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, for nearly $160 million. The World Health Organization said Gavi’s multimillion-dollar funding marks a key…

A new study shines a light on the health risks, challenges, and barriers faced daily by millions of refugees and migrants who suffer from poor health because they lack access to the health care available to others in their host countries. The World Health Organization…

Drought can slightly increase developing world children’s risk of diarrheal disease, researchers have found, adding that wetter regions seem to be affected differently than drier ones.  Diarrhea is the second-leading cause of death among children worldwide, and climate change is making droughts longer, more frequent…

The world is bracing for more intense heat waves fueled by climate change this summer, and urban centers across the world are unprepared to face these brutal natural disasters. ...

Overdose deaths increased 44% for Blacks and 39% for Native Americans in 2020 compared with 2019, as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted access to care and exacerbated racial inequality, an official report showed Tuesday. "Racism, a root cause of health disparities, continues to be a serious…

Elon Musk lost a fight to delay Twitter's lawsuit against him as a Delaware judge on Tuesday set an October trial, citing the "cloud of uncertainty" over the social media company after the billionaire backed out of a deal to buy it. "Delay threatens irreparable…

Ghana's Health Service says more than a third of the people quarantined after an outbreak of the Marburg virus, a relative of Ebola, have been cleared to leave isolation. Authorities quarantined 98 people this week following two deadly cases of the virus in Ghana. It…

The James Webb telescope is giving the world the clearest ever images of our universe. For VOA News Antoni Belchi has the story.   ...

The U.S. Supreme Court's overturning the right to abortion has raised concerns among activists about a domino effect in developing countries, including in Africa. In Kenya, anti-abortion groups have welcomed the ruling while abortion rights supporters fear it could further restrict the reproductive health of…

The Indian government's COVID-19 vaccinations hit 2 billion on Sunday, with booster doses underway for all adults, as daily infections hit four-month high, official data showed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi extolled the vaccination milestone, celebrating the world's largest and longest-running inoculation campaign, which began last…