Latest Epidemics News
Samoa’s capital deserted as teams battle measles epidemic
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Samoa’s main streets were eerily quiet on Thursday as the government stepped up efforts to curb a measles epidemic that has killed 62 people. The government told most public and private workers to stay home on Thursday and Friday and shut down roads to nonessential...
Health program offers free HIV prevention drug to uninsured
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government launched a new program on Tuesday to provide an HIV prevention drug for free to people who need the protection but have no insurance to pay for it. Taking certain anti-HIV drugs every day dramatically reduces the chances that someone who is still healthy becomes infected...
50 children killed by measles in Samoa as outbreak worsens
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Samoa’s government said Monday that another five children had died within the past day from a measles outbreak, bringing the death toll from the epidemic to more than 50 as authorities race to vaccinate the entire population. Samoa declared a national emergency last...
Complacency a concern as AIDS treatment improves in Africa
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — AIDS has no cure. HIV is still here. But some people are forgetting that. Those are some of the bold messages Uganda’s leader is emphasizing as health officials try to stem stubbornly high infection rates among young people in this East African country that years ago won...
Trump donates 3rd-quarter salary to help fight opioid crisis
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is donating his third-quarter salary to help tackle the nation’s opioid epidemic. A White House official says Trump has given the $100,000 he would be paid in the quarter to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health, which oversees federal public health...
Red Cross reports new outbreak of dengue fever in Yemen
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The International Committee of the Red Cross reported a new outbreak of dengue fever in war-torn Yemen on Monday, with thousands of cases reported and several dozen deaths. Robert Mardini, the ICRC’s U.N. observer, told journalists that while there has been a de-escalation of...
The Latest: Pope says parents cried over atom bombings
TOKYO (AP) — The Latest on Pope Francis’ visit to Japan (all times local): 7 p.m. Pope Francis has told Japanese Emperor Naruhito that he remembers seeing his parents cry over the news of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 74 years ago. The pope traveled on Sunday to the two Japanese...
Samoa measles epidemic worsens with 24 children now dead
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Authorities said Monday that a measles epidemic sweeping through Samoa continues to worsen with the death toll rising to 25, all but one of them young children. “We still have a big problem at hand,” Samoa’s Director General of Health Leausa Take Naseri...
UN: Spike in violence may jeopardize ending Ebola in Congo
GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization on Friday noted “a very dangerous and alarming development” in efforts to end the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo, warning that the eruption of violence may re-ignite the epidemic. Dr. Mike Ryan, who directs the U.N. health agency’s Ebola...
Fake doctors, pilfered medical records drive Oxy China sales
SHANGHAI (AP) — Thousands of lawsuits across the United States have accused a drug company owned by the billionaire Sackler family of using false claims to push highly addictive opioids on an unsuspecting nation, fueling the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history. Yet, even as its U.S. drugmaker collapses...
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