(2020-03-28). Possible COVID-19 Outbreak in Libya to Be 'Catastrophic' Amid Protracted Conflict, UN Warns. sputniknews.com MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Should a COVID-19 outbreak begin in Libya, it will overwhelm the war-torn country's already overstretched healthcare system, Jennifer Bose Ratka, public information officer at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Libya, said.
(2020-03-28). COVID-19 continues to spread in Arab countries. yenisafak.com Morocco's online bulletin that announces new COVID-19 cases said the total number of the cases in the country increased to 358, with 13 new patients.According to the website, the death toll in the country is now 23.It also said 11 people were discharged from hospitals after recovering from the virus.In Palestine, government spokesman Ibrahim Melhem reported six more confirmed cases of the virus in the country, bringing the total to 97.Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti Health Ministry said the total number of confirmed cases rose to 235, with 10 new cases confirmed.It also said that the number of discharged people from hospi…
(2020-03-28). Coronavirus cases rise in five Arab states. yenisafak.com Health authorities in five Arab countries reported fresh coronavirus cases on Saturday.In a statement, Morocco's Health Ministry said 13 coronavirus cases were recorded, taking the total infections in the country to 358.The ministry put the death toll from the disease at 23 and 11 recoveries.In Palestine, six new coronavirus infections were reported, taking the total cases to 97, according to a spokesman for the Palestinian government.In Oman, the Health Ministry said 21 new infections were registered, bringing the total coronavirus cases in the Gulf state to 152.According to the ministry, a total of 23 patients…
(2020-03-28). Three UAE cargo planes arrive in Haftar's airbase in Libya. yenisafak.com Libya's UN-recognized government said Saturday it has detected the arrival of three military cargo planes from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to an airbase controlled by warlord Khalifa Haftar in eastern Libya.In a statement, the government-led Volcano of Rage Operation said the planes took off from the Sweihan airbase in Abu Dhabi and arrived in Al-Khadim airbase in the city of Al-Marj.The internationally recognized government said previously that it had detected the arrival of several foreign cargo planes to airbases controlled by Haftar.Since the ouster of late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, two seats of power…
(2020-03-27). U.S. Is #1 in Pandemic: Rep. Omar Blasts Trump for "Wrong Kind of American Exceptionalism" democracynow.org 
As much of the United States is under lockdown, the House votes today on a $2 trillion emergency relief package to address the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. It will generate payments to most Americans and includes protections for workers, but it is also a massive bailout for a number of industries and corporations, and the vote comes as a record 3.28 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits. We speak with Congressmember Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, the first Somali American elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and one of the first Muslim women in Congress, about the bill, Trump's response t…
(2020-03-27). Rep. Omar Blasts Trump's "American Exceptionalism" as US Leads in COVID-19 Cases. truthout.org As much of the United States is under lockdown, the House votes today on a $2 trillion emergency relief package to address the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. It will generate payments to most Americans and includes protections for workers, but it is also a massive bailout for a number of industries and corporations, and the vote comes as a record 3.28 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits. We speak with Congressmember Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, the first Somali American electe…
(2020-03-27). Peacekeeping radio stations provide COVID-19 information to vulnerable communities in conflict-affected countries. news.un.org UN Peacekeeping radio stations have in recent decades helped build support for peace process in a dozen countries around the world including Cambodia, Croatia, Namibia and Timor-Leste.
(2020-03-26). Scientists at Glasgow University discover deep-sea fish seasonal migration for the first time. thecanary.co Scientists have documented seasonal migrations of deep-sea fish across the seabed for what is said to be the first time. | Researchers analysed more than seven years of deep-sea photographic data from two observatory platforms, 1,400m (4,593ft) deep, off the coast of Angola in west Africa for the project. | They based their analysis on all the seafloor fish they saw in the photographs, which included species from 11 different families, including eels, grenadier fishes and sharks. | They linked seasonal patterns in primary productivity — the amount of energy produced by phytoplankton in the surface ocean abo…
(2020-03-25). Debt relief milestone in Somalia, as World Bank, IMF, call for global payment suspension in light of COVID-19. news.un.org The top United Nations official in Somalia congratulated the Horn of Africa nation on Wednesday for achieving the benchmark set by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), confirming its eligibility for debt relief.
(2020-03-24). UN in Nigeria strengthens COVID-19 containment and care, mobilizes $2 million for key support to Government. news.un.org The United Nations system in Nigeria has mobilized $2 million to help the Government's efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak and care for those in the West African country stricken by the virus.
(2020-03-23). Headlines for March 23, 2020. democracynow.org Global COVID-19 Death Toll Passes 15,000 as Italy Drafts Military to Enforce Lockdown, Angela Merkel to Self-Quarantine After Her Doctor Tests Positive for COVID-19, First COVID-19 Cases Reported in Occupied Gaza, War-Stricken Syria and Afghanistan | , Coronavirus Cases Mount Across Africa, Two Nigerians Overdose Self-Medicating with Chloroquine After Trump Praised Anti-Malaria Drug as Possible COVID-19 Treatment, Coronavirus Leads to Lockdowns, Travel Bans in Latin America, as a Colombian Prison Riot Turns Deadly | , Fate of Tokyo Olympics Still Unknown as Canada, Australia Refuse to Send Athletes | , India Lock…
(2020-03-20). Doctor: As Coronavirus Cases Spike Worldwide, We Need Global Cooperation to Halt Spread. democracynow.org 
As the worldwide death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has topped 10,000, with over 250,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, we speak with Stanford University's global health expert Dr. Michele Barry, an infectious disease doctor. Italy has surpassed China in coronavirus deaths, and cases are rising in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, as the governor of California has ordered all 40 million residents to shelter in place.
(2020-03-20). Headlines for March 20, 2020. democracynow.org Worldwide COVID-19 Death Toll Tops 10,000 as Italian Nurses "Stop Counting the Dead", Refugee Groups Warn of COVID-19 "Carnage" in Camps Housing Millions, Coronavirus Multiplies Across Australia, Latin America, Africa and Middle East, California Gov. Gavin Newsom Issues Statewide "Stay at Home" Order for 40 Million, New York Mayor Calls on Trump to Mobilize Military to Aid Overwhelmed Hospitals, Georgia State Legislators Urged to Self-Quarantine; Spring Break Revelers Party On in Florida, Demands Grow to Empty ICE Jails as NJ Detention Center Worker Tests Positive, Trump Blasts "Corrupt" Media at Rambling Coronav…
(2020-03-18). [Research Paper] A phase 1b randomized study of the safety and immunological responses to vaccination with H4:IC31, H56:IC31, and BCG revaccination in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-uninfected adolescents in Cape Town, South Africa. thelancet.com BCG revaccination administered as a single dose ID and both H4: IC31 and H56: IC31 administered as 2 doses IM had acceptable safety profiles in healthy, QFT-negative, previously BCG-vaccinated adolescents. Characterization of the assays and the immunogenicity of these vaccines may help to identify valuable markers of protection for upcoming immune correlates analyses of C-040-404 and future TB vaccine efficacy trials.
(2020-03-17). [Comment] COVID-19: towards controlling of a pandemic. thelancet.com During the past 3 weeks, new major epidemic foci of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), some without traceable origin, have been identified and are rapidly expanding in Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East, with the first confirmed cases being identified in African and Latin American countries. By March 16, 2020, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China had increased drastically and the number of affected countries, states, or territories reporting infections to WHO was 143.1 On the basis of "alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction", on March 11, 2020, the…
(2020-03-12). The Government Has a Secret Plan to Track Everyone's Faces at Airports. We're Suing. aclu.org U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration are putting us on an extraordinarily dangerous path toward the normalization of face surveillance. But because key facts about this surveillance are still secret, the public lacks the information it needs to hold these agencies to account. We're
(2020-03-04). [Commentary] We all progress through progress towards gender equality. thelancet.com Ubuntu — often translated as "I am because we are" — is an African humanist philosophy asserting that we are all interconnected and derive our humanity from each other [1]. It follows that we progress through the progress of others. Archbishop Desmond Tutu put it this way [2]: "We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity."
(2020-03-03). [Research Paper] Violence-related knife injuries in a UK city; epidemiology and impact on secondary care resources. thelancet.com Knife injuries constitute 12 ∑9% of trauma team workload. Violence recidivism and intoxication are common, and females are predominantly injured in a domestic setting, presenting opportunities for targeted violence reduction interventions. 13 ∑9% of injuries involved machetes, with implications for law enforcement strategies.
(2020-02-24). [Articles] Effects of updated demography, disability weights, and cervical cancer burden on estimates of human papillomavirus vaccination impact at the global, regional, and national levels: a PRIME modelling study. thelancet.com HPV vaccination provides greater health benefits and is more cost-effective than was previously estimated. The demography update, which incorporates population aging, has the largest effect on the health impact estimates. The WHO African region is expected to gain the greatest health benefits and should be prioritised for HPV vaccination.
(2020-02-10). [Research Paper] Outcomes of a nine-month regimen for rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis up to 24 months after treatment completion in nine African countries. thelancet.com The close to 80% relapse-free success indicates the good outcome of the regimen in low-and middle-income settings. Results confirm the lesser effectiveness of the regimen in patients with initial resistance to fluoroquinolones and support the use of high-dose isoniazid, but do not support exclusion of patients for resistance to drugs other than fluoroquinolones.
(2020-01-07). [Comment] Relaunching human bornavirus research from encephalitis cases with unclear cause. thelancet.com Borna disease virus 1 (BoDV-1), the first bornavirus to be discovered, was identified as a causative agent of Borna disease, a fatal encephalitis occurring in horses and sheep. BoDV-1 is highly neurotropic and can cause both fatal immune-mediated encephalitis and behavioural disturbances in a broad range of infected animals.1 These observations prompted researchers to investigate the presence of BoDV-1 in patients with psychiatric disorders on the basis of the hypothesis that BoDV-1 might also cause behavioural abnormalities in humans.