Ethiopia’s highlands traditionally have a built-in protection for the people who live there. The elevation and the cool temperatures have meant that malaria, the deadly mosquito-borne illness, cannot be transmitted.

But climate change may be putting an end to that safeguard. A new study led by a researcher at the University of Maine found that since 1981, the elevation needed to protect people from malaria has risen by 100 meters.

For the first time, people living in Ethiopia’s highlands could be vulnerable to the disease.

“What’s happening is the conditions, at least in terms of temperature, that are suitable for malaria are slowly creeping up at higher elevations,” said Bradfield Lyon at Maine’s Climate Change Institute and School of Earth and Climate Sciences. “The same thing would be true in other highland locations throughout the tropics.”

“It’s sort of eroding this natural buffer,” he said.

The two most common types of parasites that cause malaria in the region require consistent temperatures above 18 degrees Celsius and 15 degrees Celsius respectively.

Lyon’s study found that temperatures in the Horn of Africa are rising by an average of 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade due to climate change. He said this may not sound like a major change, but that over the course of the years studied (1981 to 2014), more than 6 million people who once lived areas protected from malaria may have lost that protection.

Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, at 2,300 meters above sea level, still sits well above the threshold for malaria. Lyon said the communities potentially at risk are at elevations between 1,200 and 1,700 meters.

Still, he emphasized that this is simply a meteorological study. He has not seen evidence that people in the described areas actually contracted malaria. But the research is pointing out that it is possible.

“It does not mean that these people, therefore, are going to get malaria. It just says that it is slowly enhancing the risk if we leave all other factors alone,” Lyon said. “I mean the hope is through interventions and so forth that we can, in fact, eradicate malaria in this and other regions of the tropics.”

In 2015, about 212 million people worldwide fell ill with malaria and about 429,000 died, according to the World Health Organization. About nine-tenths of the cases and deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.

Worldwide, about 214 million people fall ill with malaria each year and 438,000 people die as a result, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most vulnerable are children living in sub-Saharan Africa.
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More than 75 people, mostly young children, have gotten measles in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Nearly all were unvaccinated.

Measles is one of the most highly contagious diseases that exists. All it takes is a sneeze or a cough to spread the virus in tiny droplets through the air.

One person can infect up to 18 others. Each one of those people infects another dozen or so people, and it spreads from there.

Ninety percent of those exposed will get the virus, unless they have been vaccinated or have already had measles.

The measles virus can linger on doorknobs, tables, any surface for up to two hours. Touch it and you’re exposed.

‘Not a trivial disease’

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, says, “Measles is not a trivial disease. If you have a measles outbreak, a proportion of people are going to have serious complications.”

The complications can be as serious as permanent brain damage. It can leave a child blind or deaf. Measles also kills.

Dr. Peter Hotez is a professor at Baylor College of Medicine. He’s also the director of Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.

Hotez told VOA, “In the pre-vaccine era, we had about 500 kids die of measles every year in the U.S. and 50,000 hospitalizations.”

And that’s not all. Dr. Flavia Bustreo at the World Health Organization says measles can have lingering consequences.

“Measles can lead to pneumonia, and a reduction in immune function for some time after the infection, so the child becomes weaker and more susceptible to other infections,” Bustreo said.

The U.S. was declared measles free in 2000. Last year the World Health Organization declared the Americas measles free. This came after a 22-year campaign to eradicate this disease in both North and South America. The achievement was considered a historic milestone.

International hub

So, why, you could ask, have more than 75 people, mostly children, gotten measles in the Midwestern state of Minnesota?

All cases of measles in the Americas are imported. In Minnesota, the outbreak started among the Somali-American community and spread because this group had low vaccination rates for measles.

Minneapolis is an international hub where people arrive from countries around the world. As of now, no one knows the identity of the first patient with measles, whether it was someone visiting from abroad or if an unvaccinated American brought the disease home after traveling overseas.

Like most pediatricians in the U.S., Dr. Hope Scott counts herself lucky to have never seen a case of measles. “The kids who get measles are really, really sick. It’s a pretty big deal to get measles,” she says.

The first signs of measles are a runny nose, cough and a fever followed by a blotchy rash that starts on the face and then spreads all over the body. Once the rash appears, the fever spikes.

An infected person can spread the virus to others about four days before the rash appears and for about four more days afterward.

Hospitalizations

About a third of the children who have acquired measles in Minnesota have been hospitalized. There is no treatment that can get rid of a measles infection, but doctors can treat the symptoms.

Patsy Stinchfield, a nurse practitioner who’s overseeing care at Children’s Minnesota, where these children have been treated, says they are exhausted and dehydrated when they arrive. But, she told VOA, that so far none of the children has suffered any complications.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has asked doctors to work with parents who are reluctant to get their children vaccinated.

Reston Town Center Pediatrics in Virginia allows parents to set up a delayed vaccine schedule for their children, to a point.

Scott says the practice will work with the parents until the child is about 2 years old. Then, if the child is not vaccinated and the parents don’t have a plan to do so, Scott said the office sends them a letter saying their children can no longer be treated at the practice.

Measles is not just a childhood disease. Adults can get it, too, and adults are also at risk for complications. 

The best protection is to get two doses of the measles vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends children get the first dose after their first birthday and the second when they are 4 to 6 years old. The two doses together provide 97 percent protection against measles.

Stinchfield said Children’s Minnesota has a walk-in clinic for measles vaccinations. She said before the outbreak, about 500 children would get vaccinated against the virus in a week. Since the outbreak, 3,000 people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds get vaccinated each week.
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More than 75 people, mostly young children, have gotten measles in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Nearly all were unvaccinated. The same is true in every other country worldwide. That’s why pediatricians and public health doctors want every child to get vaccinated against this virus. VOA’s Carol Pearson takes a look at measles to find out why.
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We know that forests are carbon sinks. That means they absorb a lot of planet-warming carbon dioxide. But researchers are trying to find out just how good they are at storing carbon, and if there is a limit to how much they can absorb. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Chief lieutenants in the Koch brothers’ political network lashed out at the Senate Republican health care bill on Saturday, becoming a powerful outside critic as GOP leaders try to rally support for their plan among rank-and-file Republicans.

“This Senate bill needs to get better,” said Tim Phillips, who leads Americans for Prosperity, the Koch network’s political arm. “It has to get better.”

Phillips called the Senate’s plans for Medicaid “a slight nip and tuck” over President Barack Obama’s health care law, a modest change he described as “immoral.”

The comments came on the first day of a three-day private donor retreat at a luxury resort in the Rocky Mountains. Invitations were extended only to donors who promise to give at least $100,000 each year to the various groups backed by the Koch brothers’ Freedom Partners — a network of education, policy and political entities that aim to promote small government.

No outside group has been move aggressive over the yearslong push to repeal Obama’s health care law than that of the Kochs, who vowed on Saturday to spend another 10 years fighting to change the health care system if necessary. The Koch network has often displayed a willingness to take on Republicans — including President Donald Trump — when their policies aren’t deemed conservative enough.

Big-budget push

Network spokesman James Davis said the organization would continue to push for changes to the Senate health care bill over the coming week.

“At the end of the day, this bill is not going to fix health care,” Davis declared.

The network’s wishes are backed by a massive political budget that will be used to take on Republican lawmakers, if necessary, Phillips said.

He described the organization’s budget for policy and politics heading into the 2018 midterm elections as between $300 million and $400 million. “We believe we’re headed to the high end of that range,” he said.

On Friday, Nevada Republican Dean Heller became the fifth GOP senator to declare his opposition to the Senate health care proposal. Echoing the other four, Heller said he opposed the measure “in this form” but did not rule out backing a version that was changed to his liking.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, has said he’s willing to alter the measure to attract support, and promised plenty of backroom bargaining as he tries pushing a final package through his chamber next week.

Republican leaders have scant margin for error. Facing unanimous Democratic opposition, McConnell can afford to lose just two of the 52 GOP senators and still prevail.

At least two of the current opponents, Utah Senator Mike Lee and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, were among 18 elected officials scheduled to attend the Koch donor conference.

The Senate measure resembles legislation the House approved last month that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said would mean 23 million additional uninsured people within a decade and that recent polling shows is viewed favorably by only around 1 in 4 Americans.

Meeting with Pence

Billionaire industrialist Charles Koch and his chief lieutenants met privately with Vice President Mike Pence for nearly an hour Friday. Pence, a longtime Koch ally, was in Colorado Springs to address a gathering of religious conservatives.

Phillips said it was “a cordial discussion” about policy.

Also Saturday, retired football star Deion Sanders announced plans to partner with the Kochs to help fight poverty in Dallas.

The unlikely partnership aims to raise $21 million over the next three years to fund anti-poverty programs in the city where Sanders once played football. The outspoken athlete also defended Koch, who is often demonized by Democrats, as someone simply “trying to make the world a better place.”

“I’m happy where I am and who I’m with because we share a lot of the same values and goals,” Sanders said when asked if he’d be willing to partner with organizations on the left.
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A cholera outbreak in war-ravaged Yemen could infect more than 300,000 people by the end of August, up from nearly 180,000 cases today, the United Nations said Friday. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports on the dire situation resulting from the 27-month-long conflict, which pits Houthi rebels against government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition.
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A deadly heat wave that has claimed at least six lives in parts of the American Southwest continues.

While temperatures cooled off Friday in Los Angeles, residents are bracing for a long, hot summer.

Planes were grounded for a time in Phoenix earlier this week, as temperatures in parts of the U.S. Southwest soared to 45 degrees Celsius and higher, from Tucson, Arizona, to Palm Springs, California.

Cooling stations, community centers

People have tried their best to stay cool, using community cooling stations in parks and community centers throughout the region.

An air-conditioned senior center in the Los Angeles suburb of Canoga Park offered companionship and relief from the heat.

Four women relaxed over a game of dominoes, while in another part of the center, a dozen women kept active in a tap-dancing class.

They are fine indoors, center director Karin Haseltine said, but she warned too much activity outside on hot days could be hazardous for both seniors and young children.

Haseltine said many seniors also worry about the cost of air-conditioning. 

“They can’t turn it on because the bill is so expensive,” she said.

Inside the center, where it is cool, seniors were staying active, taking tap dancing classes and doing yoga.

Deaths blamed on heat

Scattered fires have burned throughout the West, and several deaths in Nevada, Arizona and California have been blamed on intense heat.

Animals are in danger, too.

Zoo workers have been hosing down the elephants at the Phoenix Zoo. Authorities also warn parents and pet owners not to leave animals or children in cars, where temperatures can quickly soar to deadly levels.

At an air-conditioned center in Los Angeles, senior volunteer Rosalie said people are making the best of being indoors.

“The don’t have to worry about being uncomfortable, getting ill,” she said, and can have lunch and activities with friends.

Others are doing what they can to stay cool outdoors, from lounging in the shade to splashing in public fountains.

Makeshift hydration stations are offering bottled water. Near-record-high temperatures are expected through early next week, and people say they are prepared for more heat this summer.
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A deadly heat wave continues in parts of the American Southwest. In Los Angeles, temperatures cooled off Friday, but residents are bracing for a long, hot summer.VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan reports.
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The Zika virus made headlines last year because it caused microcephaly in many babies whose mothers were pregnant while they had the virus. Microcephaly keeps the brain from developing normally in children but is relatively harmless to adults. That got cancer researchers thinking about the possibility the virus could be used to attack cancer cells in the brain. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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