Prayer. Bombs. Walls. Over the decades, people have tried all of them to stanch the flow of lava from Hawaii’s volcanoes as it lumbered toward roads, homes and infrastructure.

Now Mauna Loa — the world’s largest active volcano — is erupting again, and lava is slowly approaching a major thoroughfare connecting the Big Island’s east and west sides. And once more, people are asking if anything can be done to stop or divert the flow.

“It comes up every time there’s an eruption and there’s lava heading towards habited areas or highways,” said Scott Rowland, a geologist at the University of Hawaii. “Some people say, ‘Build a wall’ or ‘Board up,’ and other people say, ‘No, don’t!”

Humans have rarely had much success stopping lava and, despite the world’s technological advances, doing so is still difficult and dependent on the force of the flow and the terrain. But many in Hawaii also question the wisdom of interfering with nature and Pele, the Hawaiian deity of volcanoes and fire.

Prayers to Pele

Attempts to divert lava have a long history in Hawaii.

In 1881, the governor of Hawaii Island declared a day of prayer to stop lava from Mauna Loa as it headed for Hilo. The lava kept coming.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Princess Regent Lili’uokalani and her department heads went to Hilo and considered ways to save the town. They developed plans to build barriers to divert the flow and place dynamite along a lava tube to drain the molten rock supply.

Princess Ruth Ke’elikōlani approached the flow, offered brandy and red scarves and chanted, asking Pele to stop the flow and go home. The flow stopped before the barriers were built.

More than 50 years later, Thomas A. Jaggar, the founder of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, asked U.S. Army Air Services to send planes to bomb a Mauna Loa vent to disrupt lava channels.

Lt. Col. George S. Patton, who later became famous as a general in Europe during World War II, directed planes to drop 20 272-kilogram demolition bombs, according to a National Park Service account of the campaign. The bombs each had 161 kilograms of TNT. The planes also dropped 20 smaller bombs that only had black powder charge.

Jagger said the bombing helped to “hasten the end of the flow,” but Howard Stearns, a U.S. Geological Survey geologist onboard the last bombing run, was doubtful. In his 1983 autobiography, he wrote: “I am sure it was a coincidence.”

According to the park service, geologists today also are doubtful the bombing stopped the lava flow, which didn’t end with the bombing. Instead, the flows waned over the next few days and didn’t change paths.

 

Local advises to go with the flow

Rowland said authorities could use a bulldozer to pile a big berm of broken rock in front of Daniel K. Inouye Highway. If the terrain is flat, then lava would pile up behind the wall. But the lava may flow over it, like it did when something similar was attempted in Kapoho town in 1960.

Rapidly moving lava flows, like those from Kilauea volcano in 2018, would be more difficult to stop, he said.

“It would have been really hard to build the walls fast enough for them. And they were heading towards groups of homes. And so you would perhaps be sacrificing some homes for others, which would just be a legal mess,” he said.

He said he believes most people in Hawaii wouldn’t want to build a wall to protect the highway because it would “mess with Pele.”

If lava crosses the highway, Rowland said officials could rebuild that section of the road like they did in 2018 when different routes were covered. There are no current plans to try to divert the flow, a county official said.

Thinking you should physically divert lava is a Western idea rooted in the notion that humans have to control everything, said Kealoha Pisciotta, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner. She said people need to adjust to the lava, not the other way around.
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Britain’s Prince William capped a three-day visit to Boston by meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday, ahead of announcing his Earthshot Prize environmental award winners at a gala event.

The Prince of Wales shook hands with Biden and spoke quietly in the winter cold near the water outside of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library and Museum. He also met Caroline Kennedy, the late president’s daughter, and told her that the stories of the Earthshot Prize winners were an inspiration.

William once again paid homage to President Kennedy, “the man who inspired our mission,” and said the “game-changing” solutions were being offered to protect the planet.

Kennedy’s legacy loomed large during the visit by William and his wife, Kate. William named his environmental award the Earthshot Prize, drawing inspiration from Kennedy’s moonshot speech that mobilized the nation in 1962 by declaring astronauts would set foot on the moon before decade’s end.

William became heir apparent less than three months ago with his grandmother’s death, but he was already crowned Britain’s chief environmentalist.

During his visit to Boston, William drew praise for his drawing attention to pollution and climate change and the need to scale up solutions to address them. Those efforts were culminating Friday evening, when the five winners of the royal couple’s Earthshot Prize for environmental innovators were to be announced.

“I just appreciate that they are using platform and publicity to bring attention to meaningful climate work,” said Joe Christo, who is managing director of Stone Living Lab, which researches nature-based approaches to climate adaptation, and was among those who met the royal couple at Boston Harbor on Thursday.

“I do know his dad is a big environmentalist,” he said. “He seems to be doing a great job continuing that legacy.”

The Earthshot Prize offers 1 million pounds ($1.2 million) in prize money to each of the winners of five separate categories: nature protection, clean air, ocean revival, waste elimination, and climate change. The winners and all 15 finalists also receive help in expanding their projects to meet global demand.

The winners were to be announced at Boston’s MGM Music Hall as part of a glitzy show headlined by Billie Eilish, Annie Lennox, Ellie Goulding, and Chloe x Halle. The show will also feature videos narrated by naturalist David Attenborough and actor Cate Blanchett.

William is following in the footsteps of his environmentally minded grandfather Prince Philip — the late husband of Queen Elizabeth II — and more recently his father and Elizabeth’s successor, King Charles III.

In his capacity as prince, Charles was for decades one of Britain’s most prominent environmental voices, blasting the ills of pollution. Last year, he stood before world leaders at a U.N. climate conference in Scotland and suggested the threats posed by climate change and biodiversity loss were no different than those posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

But now that he is king, Charles is expected to be more careful with his words and must stay out of politics and government policy, in accordance with the traditions of Britain’s constitutional monarchy. This year, he did not attend the U.N. climate conference in Egypt.

The caution presents an opportunity for William to step into that role as the royal family’s environmental advocate and speak more forcefully about the issues once associated with his father.

There is no better example than the Earthshot Prize.

“It’s a huge deal to Prince William,” Joe Little, the managing editor of Majesty Magazine. “He knows he can attract attention from the most important people. That really is the core of the Boston trip.”

After attending a welcome event Wednesday at City Hall and then a Boston Celtics game, the royal couple spent much of Thursday hearing about the threats of climate change and solutions in the works.

They got a firsthand look at some innovations at a green technology startup incubator called Greentown Labs, in Somerville. Among them were solar-powered autonomous boats and low-carbon cement.

“Climate change is a global problem, so it’s so important to have global leaders talking about the importance of taking action,” said Lara Cottingham, vice president of strategy policy and climate impact for Greentown Labs.

William and Kate also chatted with Katherine Dafforn, co-founder of Living Seawalls, an Australian company that designs environmentally friendly ocean infrastructure. “For all of us, time is ticking,” William said.

The couple’s first trip to the U.S. since 2014 is part of the royal family’s efforts to change its international image. After Elizabeth’s death, Charles has made clear that his will be a slimmed-down monarchy, with less pomp and ceremony than its predecessors. William and Kate arrived in Boston on a commercial British Airways flight.
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The lava flowing from Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, which is the world’s largest active volcano and erupted this week, is edging closer to the Big Island’s main highway.

The U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported Friday that the main front of the lava flow was 5.2 kilometers away from the Daniel K. Inouye Highway, also known as Saddle Road, and could possibly reach it in a week.

But the USGS also said that because of the unpredictable nature of lava flows, it’s “difficult to estimate when or if the flow will impact” the highway, which is the island’s main east-west road.

If the main highway is cut off, Hawaii county officials say, traffic will be forced onto coastal roads, crowding them and adding hours onto a trip from Hilo, the largest city on the Big Island, to Kona, a tourist magnet, which takes just 90 minutes on the Daniel K. Inouye Highway.

Talmadge Magno, administrator of Hawaii County’s Civil Defense Agency, told reporters this week that if lava flows onto the highway it would likely take the federal government a few months to get it passable again once the flows halt.

After the eruption on Sunday, the lava initially moved quickly down steep slopes. Over the past day, it reached a flatter area and slowed significantly, moving at just 40 meters per hour. The sight has attracted visitors to the “once in a lifetime” spectacle.

The USGS says many variables influence exactly where the lava will move and at what speed. On flatter ground, lava flows spread out and “inflate” — creating individual lobes that can advance quickly and then stall.

Mauna Loa rises 4,169 meters above the Pacific Ocean, part of a chain of volcanoes that formed the islands of Hawaii. It last erupted in 1984.
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Cities across China further unwound COVID restrictions Friday, loosening testing and quarantine rules in the wake of nationwide protests calling for an end to lockdowns and greater political freedoms.

Anger and frustration with China’s hardline pandemic response spilled out onto the streets last weekend in widespread demonstrations not seen in decades.

In the wake of the unrest across China, a number of cities have begun loosening COVID-19 restrictions, such as moving away from daily mass testing requirements, a tedious mainstay of life under Beijing’s stringent zero-COVID policy.

At the same time, authorities are continuing to seek to contain protests with heavy security on the streets, online censorship in full force, and surveillance of the population heightened.

As of Friday, the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu will no longer require a recent negative test result to enter public places or ride the metro, instead only requiring a green health code confirming they have not travelled to a “high risk” area.

In Beijing, health authorities called Thursday on hospitals not to deny treatment to people without a negative PCR test taken within 48 hours.

In January, a pregnant woman in the city of Xi’an miscarried after being refused hospital entry for not having a PCR test result.

China has seen a string of deaths after treatment was delayed by COVID restrictions, including the recent death of a 4-month-old baby who was stuck in quarantine with her father.

Those cases became a rallying cry during the protests, with a viral post listing the names of those who died because of alleged negligence linked to the pandemic response.

Many other cities with virus outbreaks are allowing restaurants, shopping malls and even schools to reopen, in a clear departure from previous tough lockdown rules.

In northwestern Urumqi, where a fire that killed 10 people was the spark for the anti-lockdown protests, authorities announced Friday that supermarkets, hotels, restaurants, and ski resorts would gradually be opened.

The city of over 4 million residents endured one of China’s longest lockdowns, with some areas shut in early August.

Home quarantine

An analysis by state-run newspaper People’s Daily on Friday quoted a number of health experts supporting local government moves to allow positive cases to quarantine at home.

The shift would be a marked departure from current rules, which require that they be held in government facilities.

The southern factory hub of Dongguan on Thursday said that those who meet “specific conditions” should be allowed to quarantine at home. It did not specify what those conditions would be.

The southern tech hub Shenzhen rolled out a similar policy Wednesday.

Central government officials have also signaled that a broader relaxation of zero-COVID policy could be in the works.

Speaking at the National Health Commission Wednesday, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said the omicron variant was weakening and vaccination rates were improving, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

A central figure behind Beijing’s pandemic response, Sun said this “new situation” required “new tasks.”

She made no mention of zero-COVID in those remarks or in another meeting Thursday, suggesting the approach, which has disrupted the economy and daily life, might soon be relaxed.
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Former NBA star Jeremy Lin, who plays for a Chinese team, was fined 10,000 yuan ($1,400) for “inappropriate remarks” on social media about quarantine facilities ahead of a game, China’s professional league announced Friday, as the government tries to stop protests against anti-virus controls that are among the world’s most stringent.

Also Friday, more cities eased restrictions, allowing shopping malls, supermarkets and other businesses to reopen following protests last weekend in Shanghai and other areas in which some crowds called for President Xi Jinping to resign. Urumqi in the northwest, site of a deadly fire that triggered the protests, announced supermarkets and other businesses were reopening.

Lin, who plays for the Loong Lions Basketball Club, made “inappropriate remarks about quarantine hotel-related facilities” where the team stayed Wednesday ahead of a game, the China Basketball Association announced. It said that “caused adverse effects on the league and the competition area.”

The ruling Communist Party is trying to crush criticism of the human cost and disruption of its “zero-COVID” strategy, which has confined millions of people to their homes. Protesters have been detained and photos and videos of events deleted from Chinese social media. Police fanned out across Shanghai, Beijing and other cities to try to prevent additional protests.

The CBA gave no details of Lin’s comments and there was no sign of them on his account on the popular Sina Weibo platform.

The Shanghai news outlet The Paper reported Lin posted a video complaining about hotel workout facilities in the city of Zhuji, south of Shanghai in Zhejiang province, ahead of games next week.

“Can you believe this is a weight room?” Lin was quoted as saying. “What kind of garbage is this?” The Paper said the video was deleted after “the situation was clarified” that the hotel was only for a brief stay required by regulations.

A representative of Vision China Entertainment, which says on its website it represents Lin, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Phone calls to Loong Lions Basketball Club headquarters in the southern city of Guangzhou weren’t answered.

Lin, born in California to parents from Taiwan, was the first NBA player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent.

He played for California’s Golden State Warriors in 2010 before joining the New York Knicks in the 2011-12 season. He became the first Asian American to win an NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019. He played for the Beijing Ducks in 2019 before joining the Loong Lions.

On Friday, there were no signs of more protests.

The government reported 34,980 infections found in the past 24 hours, including 30,702 with no symptoms.

China’s case numbers are low, but “zero-COVID” aims to isolate every infected person. That has led local officials to suspend access to neighborhoods and close schools, shops and offices. Manufacturers including the biggest iPhone factory in central China use “closed-loop” management, which requires employees to live at their workplace without outside contact.

Demonstrations erupted Nov. 25 after a fire in an Urumqi apartment building killed at least 10 people.

That set off angry questions online about whether firefighters or victims trying to escape were blocked by locked doors or other anti-virus controls. Authorities denied that, but the deaths became a focus of public frustration.

Xi’s government has promised to reduce the cost and disruption of controls but says it will stick with “zero-COVID.” Health experts and economists expect it so stay in place at least until mid-2023 and possibly into 2024 while millions of older people are vaccinated in preparation for lifting controls that keep most visitors out of China.

Urumqi will “further increase efforts to resume production and commerce” by reopening hotels, restaurants, large supermarkets and ski resorts, the official newspaper Guangming Daily reported on its website, citing Sui Rong, a member of the Municipal Committee.

Elsewhere, the northern city of Hohhot in the Inner Mongolia region restarted bus service and allowed restaurants and small businesses to reopen, according to state media. Jinzhou in the northeast lifted curbs on movement and allowed businesses to reopen.

On Thursday, the metropolis of Guangzhou in the south, the biggest hotspot in the latest infection spike, allowed supermarkets and restaurants to reopen.

Other major cities including Shijiazhuang in the north and Chengdu in the southwest restarted bus and subway service and allowed businesses to reopen.
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China’s rulers are accusing “hostile forces,” including foreigners, of inciting street demonstrations in more than three dozen Chinese cities and many more universities in the biggest domestic political challenge for Beijing since 1989’s Tiananmen Square protests.

At stake is the legitimacy of the ruling Chinese Communist Party as protesters question its management of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government has used repressive methods such as repetitive mass testing, quarantines, and lockdowns resulting in large-scale unemployment and economic loss.

Jolted, the government is handling the new situation cautiously. Though several instances of police violence have taken place, state repression has not reached the magnitude initially feared. The government is depending more on propaganda to evoke nationalistic sentiments and using politically divisive methods to address some of the problems highlighted by protesters, according to analysts.

“We must resolutely crack down on infiltration and sabotage activities by hostile forces in accordance with the law, resolutely crack down on illegal and criminal acts that disrupt social order and effectively maintain overall social stability,” the CCP’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission (CPLAC) said in a statement released Tuesday.

Bucknell University political scientist Zhiqun Zhu said the statement is a direct reference to foreign forces attempting to fan the flames of political unrest.

“The definitions of ‘infiltration’ and ‘sabotage activities’ are very broad. Even a foreign journalist reporting on site is viewed with suspicion,” Zhu told VOA. “Social media postings and commentaries on the protests are also considered adding fuel to the fire.

“In this context, foreigners offering critical comments about the protests or making contacts with protesters are easily blamed for instigating, shaping and guiding the demonstrations,” he said.

By blaming unrest on foreigners and foreign governments, analysts said, Beijing can whip up nationalist sentiments that weaken the protest movement.

An estimated 43 protests across 22 Chinese cities unfolded between Saturday and Monday, according to the Canberra-based Australian Strategic Policy Institute, and some analysts say the protests have since spread to more cities and towns.

China’s leadership is trying to meet some protest demands to lift COVID-19 requirements such as lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines, and several locked-down areas and restaurants in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou — a manufacturing hub hit hard by the latest COVID-19 outbreaks — reopened Wednesday.

“I believe that in the next few days most of the locked-down areas across China will be reopened,” Hu Xijin, former editor in chief of the Global Times and a strong Communist Party voice, said in a video statement on the paper’s website.

Hu indicated this would likely be done to maintain social stability. “As lockdowns are coming to an end, the biggest factor for public discontent will be eliminated. It will have a very positive effect on maintaining social stability,” he said.

Instead of using batons to keep protesters in line — a normal strategy for Chinese riot officers — police are busy identifying possible rebels and troublemakers and checking phones to find out whether they have been circulating protest images on virtual private networks and accessing banned sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Tuesday’s statement by CPLAC said agency officials had emphasized that “political and legal organs must take effective measures to … resolutely safeguard national security and social stability.”

Will protests persist?

Analysts differ on whether the protests — which are demanding democratic freedoms and an end to censorship — are likely to continue.

“It is unlikely that there will be more large-scale protests in the near future,” Zhu said. “New policies are being rolled out to loosen COVID-19 controls. It is also expected that the ‘zero-COVID’ policy will be replaced by more scientific and pragmatic measures,” he said.

Others disagree.

“More protests will emerge in different parts of China in the coming days, although the authorities may try to suppress them,” said Jagannath Panda, head of the Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific affairs at the Institute for Security and Development Policy in Sweden. “The Communist Party’s image has taken a severe beating because of widespread unemployment and the government’s repression.”

Salih Hudayar, an activist leader of the Uyghur Muslims of Xinjiang, said China might even use the military to suppress the protest movement. The suppression of Uyghurs has drawn the attention of human rights activists and several foreign governments.

“The Chinese government has already started to crack down on the protests by intimidating protesters and arresting many of them,” said Hudayar, prime minister of the self-styled East Turkistan Government in Exile.

“Because there is not any meaningful political support from the international community, it’s highly likely that the Chinese government will use military force to suppress the protests in the coming weeks, if not days,” he said.
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In the highly conservative country of Pakistan, AIDS patients often face discrimination that keeps them from disclosing their diagnosis. Hundreds of HIV cases reported in Sindh Province in 2019 included children. That region was recently devastated by floods, making access to health care for HIV patients even more difficult. VOA’s Sidra Dar reports from Sindh Province, in this report narrated by Asadullah Khalid.
Camera: Muhammad Khalil
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The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said on Thursday it approved SpaceX’s bid to deploy up to 7,500 satellites but put on hold other decisions.

SpaceX’s Starlink, a fast-growing network of more than 3,500 satellites in low-Earth orbit, has tens of thousands of users in the United States so far, with consumers paying at least $599 for a user terminal and $110 a month for service. The FCC in 2018 approved SpaceX plans to deploy up to 4,425 first-generation satellites.

SpaceX has sought approval to operate a network of 29,988 satellites, to be known as its “second-generation” or Gen2 Starlink constellation to beam the internet to areas with little or no internet access.

“Our action will allow SpaceX to begin deployment of Gen2 Starlink, which will bring next generation satellite broadband to Americans nationwide,” the FCC said in its approval order, adding it “will enable worldwide satellite broadband service, helping to close the digital divide on a global scale.”

The FCC said its decision “will protect other satellite and terrestrial operators from harmful interference and maintain a safe space environment” and protect “spectrum and orbital resources for future use.”

In August, a U.S. appeals court upheld the 2021 decision of the FCC to approve a SpaceX plan to deploy some Starlink satellites at a lower Earth orbit than planned as part of its push to offer space-based broadband internet.

In September, SpaceX challenged the FCC decision to deny it $885.5 million in rural broadband subsidies. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in August that Starlink’s technology “has real promise” but it could not meet the program’s requirements, citing data that showed a steady decline in speeds over the past year and casting the service’s price as too steep for consumers.
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Tech billionaire Elon Musk said his Neuralink company is seeking permission to test its brain implant in people soon.

In a “show and tell” presentation livestreamed Wednesday night, Musk said his team is in the process of asking U.S. regulators to allow them to test the device. He said he thinks the company should be able to put the implant in a human brain as part of a clinical trial in about six months, though that timeline is far from certain.

Musk’s Neuralink is one of many groups working on linking brains to computers, efforts aimed at helping treat brain disorders, overcoming brain injuries and other applications.

The field dates to the 1960s, said Rajesh Rao, co-director of the Center for Neurotechnology at the University of Washington. “But it really took off in the ’90s. And more recently we’ve seen lots of advances, especially in the area of communication brain computer interfaces.”

Rao, who watched Musk’s presentation online, said he doesn’t think Neuralink is ahead of the pack in terms of brain-computer interface achievements. “But … they are quite ahead in terms of the actual hardware in the devices,” he said.

The Neuralink device is about the size of a large coin and is designed to be implanted in the skull, with ultra-thin wires going directly into the brain. Musk said the first two applications in people would be restoring vision and helping people with little or no ability to operate their muscles rapidly use digital devices.

He said he also envisions that in someone with a broken neck, signals from the brain could be bridged to Neuralink devices in the spinal cord.

“We’re confident there are no physical limitations to enabling full body functionality,” said Musk, who recently took over Twitter and is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.

In experiments by other teams, implanted sensors have let paralyzed people use brain signals to operate computers and move robotic arms. In a 2018 study in the journal PLOS ONE, three participants with paralysis below the neck affecting all of their limbs used an experimental brain-computer interface being tested by the consortium BrainGate. The interface records neural activity from a small sensor in the brain to navigate things like email and apps.

A recent study in the journal Nature, by scientists at the Swiss research center NeuroRestore, identified a type of neuron activated by electrical stimulation of the spinal cord, allowing nine patients with chronic spinal cord injury to walk again.

Researchers have also been working on brain and machine interfaces for restoring vision. Rao said some companies have developed retinal implants, but Musk’s announcement suggested his team would use signals directly targeting the brain’s visual cortex, an approach that some academic groups are also pursuing, “with limited success.”

Neuralink did not immediately respond to an email to the press office. Dr. Jaimie Henderson, a neurosurgery professor at Stanford University who is an adviser for Neuralink, said one way Neuralink is different from some other devices is that it has the ability to reach into deeper layers of the brain. But he added: “There are lots of different systems that have lots of different advantages.”
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Cameroonian health workers and people with HIV marched for World AIDS Day on December 1, calling for access to treatment for patients in conflict areas.

About half a million Cameroonians have HIV, and at least 1,000 live in troubled western regions and the border with Nigeria. The protesters urged Cameroon’s military, separatists, and militants to allow all HIV patients access to needed treatment.

Marie Chantal Awoulbe, who belongs to the Cameroon Network of Adolescents and Positive Youths, which encourages those with AIDS to get regular treatment, took part in the protest and World AIDS Day activities at Chantal Biya International Research Centre in Yaounde. The center carries out research on AIDS, and supports programs to treat and support vulnerable people with HIV.

Awoulbe said her network is asking both armed groups and government troops to stop deaths among people with AIDS where there are armed conflicts by allowing the patients access to regular treatment.

Cameroon’s public health ministry says similar protests and activities to encourage free screening took place in 70 hospitals, with at least 30 hospital workers and people with AIDS taking part at each of the hospitals.

The Cameroon government accuses separatists in the country’s west of attacking hospitals and abducting health care workers. Activists also accuse government troops of attacking and arresting hospital staff suspected of treating civilians the military believes are either fighters or sympathize with separatists.

In April, medical aid group Doctors Without Borders suspended work in Cameroon’s troubled Southwest region to protest the rearrest of four of its staff members. Authorities accused the staffers of cooperating with regional separatists, but the organization denied it.

Medical staff members say intimidation and abduction of health workers, and ceaseless battles between government troops and separatist fighters make it impossible for medical supplies to reach the troubled English-speaking regions.

Twenty-eight-year-old Betrand Lemfon said he and several dozen people with AIDS moved from Jakiri, an English-speaking northwestern town, to Bafoussam, a French-speaking commercial city. He said he and others with the disease were afraid of dying in Jakiri because they did not have access to regular treatment.

“There are a lot of persons out there who are in need of medications, so if we could have the opportunity and chance for medications to always reach every interior part of the North-West region, South-West region who are hit by the crisis, it will help the adolescents, young persons and children living with HIV to take their ARVs [antiretroviral medicines] and stay healthy,” he said.

Lemfon spoke via the messaging app WhatsApp from Bafoussam.

Cameroon’s military says it will protect all health workers and civilians in the troubled regions.

The government says the number of people with the disease in Cameroon has decreased from about 970,000 in 2010 to 500,000 in 2021.

Health officials say the decline is due to increasing awareness of the disease and its consequences. The government says sexual behavior is changing, with the number of people using condoms or abstaining from sex increasing.

Honorine Tatah, a government official in charge of AIDS control in Cameroon, said unlike in 2020 when there was resistance due to lack of awareness, many more civilians now accept systematic screening for HIV.

“During antenatal care, a woman is screened for a number of diseases including hepatitis B, HIV and if you are tested positive, you are eligible for treatment and that treatment will reduce the chances of a child getting infected with HIV. The treatment is free of charge,” Tatah said.

World AIDS Day was the first international day for global health, starting in 1988. It allows people all over the world to join in the battle against HIV, to support those with HIV, and to remember those who have died from an AIDS-related illness.
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NASA’s uber-expensive test dummy moon mission exceeds expectations. Plus, a lunar flashlight’s frosty mission, and a state visit to NASA headquarters. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.
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In October, Zimbabwe became to first African country to approve the use of the injectable HIV prevention drug known as cabotegravir. As Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare, Zimbabwe, many are eager for the drug to become available. Videography by Blessing Chigwenhembe.
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A new, long-lasting drug could be a game-changer for preventing HIV infections, experts say.

Advocates are hopeful that those who need it most in low- and middle-income countries will not have to wait for it as long as they have for previous HIV drugs. But questions remain about access and price.

The drug is called cabotegravir and is delivered as a shot once every other month. In clinical trials, it did a better job at preventing infection than another option — a pill taken once a day.

The bimonthly injection seems to be an easier treatment regimen to stick to than daily pills, according to Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, an HIV prevention advocacy organization.

“If you can take a pill every day, that’s great. But if you can’t, we see a lot of people who start [taking the pills] who don’t continue,” he said.

Aside from the inconvenience, there can be a stigma attached to taking the pills, Warren said. The drugs for prevention, called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, are the same as the drugs used to treat HIV infection.

“If you’re a young person and your parents find your pill bottle, they say, ‘Why are you taking this pill? Are you HIV infected?’ And the young person may say, ‘No, I’m protecting myself,'” Warren said. “And they say, ‘Well, why are you having sex?'”

Long-lasting drugs like cabotegravir or another new product, a once-a-month vaginal ring, offer patients more choices, he added.

About 1.5 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2021, according to the World Health Organization, about 60% of them in Africa.

Uganda and Zimbabwe approved cabotegravir for PrEP earlier this year. They are the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to do so.

These approvals come less than a year after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized it.

That’s progress, Warren said. FDA approved PrEP pills in 2012, but “it took three years before any African regulatory agency approved it. So, we’ve already seen a condensing of that timeline.”

Cabotegravir costs $22,000 per year in the United States. ViiV Healthcare, the company that makes the drug, has not officially announced what it will cost in low- and middle-income countries, but it is expected to be much lower. Some aid groups have indicated that ViiV will offer the drug at $250 per year.

“The problem is that actually that won’t be really affordable for countries who need to roll it out and scale up,” said Jessica Burry, a pharmacist with humanitarian group Doctors without Borders.

PrEP pills cost about $54 per year, Warren said.

“The hope is that early in 2023, we can see a price point that is much closer to that 54 [dollars] than to the 250 [dollars],” he said. “Hopefully, in the $100 range per year.”

ViiV said it is working with the U.N.-backed Medicines Patent Pool to allow generic manufacturers to produce cabotegravir at a lower price for low- and middle-income countries.

ViiV said cabotegravir is more complicated to manufacture than most HIV drugs. No generic manufacturers have been selected yet. Once they are, it will take about three to five years before a generic version is on the market.

The company has filed for regulatory approval in 11 countries so far. Burry says there should be more.

“If they’re going to be the only supplier for the next four or five years until generics are available, then they really need to step up to the plate and actually file, register and get that drug available,” she said.

Demand for the drug is unclear. PrEP pills have been slow to catch on.

About 845,000 people in more than 50 countries took them in 2020, but the United Nations was aiming for 3 million by that time.

“We don’t have a ton of PrEP users, so if you’re ViiV, you’re looking at a very small market,” Warren said.

Warren said providers and advocates need to help grow that market. They need to do a better job connecting people at risk with programs that offer PrEP, he added.

“Some of the early PrEP programs began with us thinking that if you just bought the product, people would magically show up,” he said.

Warren hopes to change that as part of a coalition that includes ViiV, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization and others.

“There’s a huge effort in this coalition to bring in civil society from day one, and the communities that this product is meant to help and support,” he said.

The slow uptake means PrEP has not yet shown that it can make much of a real-world impact, Warren noted. He hopes to see research programs launch next year to find the best ways to reach the communities most at risk and lower infection rates.

“If we can’t show that in the next three years, then we don’t necessarily need all these generic manufacturers, because there will not be a market for this product,” he said.
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