NEW YORK: Health officials said Saturday they have confirmed the first US case of a new form of mpox that was first seen in eastern Congo.
The person had traveled to eastern Africa and was treated in Northern California upon return, according to the California Department of Public Health. Symptoms are improving and the risk to the public is low.
The individual was isolating at home and health workers are reaching out to close contacts as a precaution, the state health department said.
Mpox is a rare disease caused by infection with a virus that’s in the same family as the one that causes smallpox. It is endemic in parts of Africa, where people have been infected through bites from rodents or small animals. Milder symptoms can include fever, chills and body aches. In more serious cases, people can develop lesions on the face, hands, chest and genitals.
Earlier this year, scientists reported the emergence of a new form of mpox in Africa that was spread through close contact including through sex. It was widely transmitted in eastern and central Africa. But in cases that were identified in travelers outside of the continent, spread has been very limited, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 3,100 confirmed cases have been reported just since late September, according to the World Health Organization. The vast majority of them have been in three African countries — Burundi, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Since then, cases of travelers with the new mpox form have been reported in Germany, India, Kenya, Sweden, Thailand, Zimbabwe, and the United Kingdom.
Health officials earlier this month said the situation in Congo appears to be stabilizing. The Africa CDC has estimated Congo needs at least 3 million mpox vaccines to stop the spread, and another 7 million vaccines for the rest of Africa. The spread is mostly through sexual transmission as well as through close contact among children, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups.
The current outbreak is different from the 2022 global outbreak of mpox where gay and bisexual men made up the vast majority of cases.
US health officials report 1st case of new form of mpox in a traveler
https://arab.news/whspy
US health officials report 1st case of new form of mpox in a traveler
- Mpox is a rare disease caused by infection with a virus that’s in the same family as the one that causes smallpox
Biden likely to talk with Netanyahu; hostage deal ‘very close,’ security adviser says
Jake Sullivan told CNN’s “State of the Union” program that the parties were “very, very close” to reaching a deal to halt the fighting in the enclave and free the remaining 98 hostages held there, but still had to get it across the finish line.
Biden was getting daily updates on the talks in Doha, where Israeli and Palestinian officials have said since Thursday that some progress has been made in the indirect talks between Israel and militant group Hamas, Sullivan said.
“We are still determined to use every day we have in office to get this done,” he said, adding that Biden “is likely, in the near term, to engage with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and we are not, by any stretch of imagination, setting this aside.”
He said there was still a chance to reach an agreement before Biden leaves office, but that it was also possible “Hamas, in particular, remains intransigent.”
Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and gripped by a humanitarian crisis, and most of its population displaced.
Vice President-elect JD Vance told the “Fox News Sunday” program in an interview taped on Saturday that he expects a deal for the release of US hostages in the Middle East to be announced in the final days of the Biden administration, maybe in the last day or two.
President-elect Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel, has strongly backed Netanyahu’s goal of destroying Hamas. He has promised to bring peace to the Middle East, but has not said how he would accomplish that.
Sri Lankans rally to stop deportation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar
- Activists stage protests in northeastern Mullaitivu district and capital Colombo
- Rohingya risk deadly sea crossings as fighting intensifies in Myanmar
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan civil society groups and activists are mobilizing to save more than 100 Rohingya refugees rescued off the Indian Ocean island nation last month following a government announcement that they will be deported.
A group of about 100 Rohingya refugees, which reportedly included over two dozen children, was rescued off the coast of the northeastern Mullaitivu district on Dec. 19.
Several protests were recently organized in Mullaitivu and the capital Colombo after Sri Lanka’s Minister of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs Ananda Wijepala announced on Jan. 3 that the government was in talks with Myanmar authorities over the deportation of the Rohingya refugees.
“These are stateless people, they don’t have a home to go to,” social activist Thasneema Dahlan, who took part in a protest in Colombo on Friday, told Arab News.
“The Rohingya are massacred and chased and terrorized in their own home, and that is why they fled their own country looking for greener pastures elsewhere.”
The mostly Muslim Rohingya — the “world’s most persecuted minority,” according to the UN — have faced decades of oppression in Myanmar.
In 2017, more than 730,000 Rohingya from Rakhine State were forced to flee to neighboring Bangladesh to escape a brutal military crackdown that UN experts have referred to as a “genocidal campaign,” amid evidence of ethnic cleansing, mass rape, and killings.
As Rakhine became a focal point in Myanmar’s intensifying nationwide civil war, hundreds of Rohingya have been fleeing the country in recent weeks through dangerous sea crossings, often on rickety boats. Last year, more than 7,800 people made such attempts, according to the UN refugee agency — an 80 percent increase compared with 2023.
“Their objective wasn’t to get to Sri Lanka. Their objective was to get somewhere, anywhere where they could survive,” Dahlan said. “We are urging the government to … please not send them back, not repatriate them, not deport them, because that is just sending them back to death.”
Sri Lanka, which is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and its 1967 protocol, is a transit point for refugees until the UNHCR helps them resettle in another country.
In 2022, its navy also rescued about 100 Rohingya refugees, who have been under the care of local NGOs as they await resettlement.
Sri Lankan activists have also filed petitions with the government, urging authorities to relocate the new group of refugees from the Keppapulavu Air Force base in Mullaitivu, where they have stayed since Dec. 23. According to protesters, aid agencies, including the UN, have been stopped from meeting the Rohingya.
“Sheltering the refugees under a militarized environment is incompatible with international humanitarian norms and basic human values,” the North-East Coordinating Committee, which organized the Mullaitivu protest on Thursday, said in a letter.
Ruki Fernando, a human rights activist based in Colombo, said the Rohingya refugees should be “kept in a place under civil administration,” not military.
“Many Sri Lankans have been refugees. We need to help others. It’s our legal obligation … under customary international law, non-refoulement is prohibited. It means no one fleeing a well-founded fear of persecution should be sent back,” Fernando told Arab News, referring to the hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils who fled the country’s civil war between 1983 and 2009.
“We also have moral, ethical obligations to welcome, care and support those in distress. Our religious and spiritual values teach us this.”
Islam ‘places no restrictions’ on girls’ education, forum told
- Muslim World League, global leaders focus on gender equality at Islamabad meeting
ISLAMABAD: Islam places no restrictions on girls’ education, Dr. Mohammed Al-Issa, secretary-general of the Muslim World League, told an international conference in Pakistan on Saturday focusing on the issue.
The MWL leader added that anyone opposing education for women deviates from the global Muslim community.
Pakistan and the MWL co-hosted the two-day conference, “Girls’ Education in Muslim Communities: Challenges and Opportunities,” under the patronage of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad.
Sharif commended the MWL for its dedication to education, saying that ensuring equal access to education for girls remains one of the most pressing challenges of the present time.
“Entrenched societal norms intensify the problem of a lack of education for girls, leading to a cycle of deprivation that affects more than one generation,” he said.
The initiative aims to raise awareness in Muslim communities about the importance of girls’ education through various themes, joint programs, and collaborative agreements.
“Our Islamic faith has always celebrated the education of every Muslim, both male and female, because the message of Islam was to enlighten all, regardless of gender,” Al-Issa told participants.
“Therefore, Muslim women in Islam have had a significant and active presence in all spheres of life — in religious matters, the sciences, politics, economics, and societal affairs throughout history.”
The MWL chief said any reservations about girls’ education must be understood as stemming from non-Islamic customs that have no basis in the Muslim faith.
He lauded the initiative as a transformative step for advancing girls’ education, emphasizing its practical and results-oriented approach.
The forum addressed the issue by signing a consensus document, “the Islamabad Declaration for Girls’ Education,” reaffirming that Islam does not prohibit women’s education in any way.
It will be presented to international governmental and nongovernment organizations. The declaration calls for the establishment of an international day dedicated to advancing its primary goal.
Al-Issa said that the declaration will serve to solidify and strengthen the initiative.
The initiative also includes the launch of a platform for international partnerships, along with the signing of several agreements with regional and international organizations focused on women’s empowerment and girls’ education.
The summit brought together over 150 dignitaries from 44 Muslim and other friendly states, according to Pakistan’s Foreign Office. It was also attended by Hissein Brahim Taha, secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Taha affirmed the organization’s readiness to support the initiative and contribute to its success for the benefit of girls across the Islamic world.
“Education forms the cornerstone of a strong society and represents a shared responsibility that facilitates progress and prosperity. At the OIC, we categorically oppose any policies or practices that violate Islam’s respectful and honorable teachings regarding women,” he said.
Trump calls California leaders ‘incompetent’ over fire response
- ‘The fires are still raging in L.A. The incompetent pols (politicians) have no idea how to put them out’
- The fires have so far killed at least 16 people, displaced 150,000 more, and destroyed more than 12,000 structures
LOS ANGELES, United States: US President-elect Donald Trump accused California officials on Sunday of incompetence over their handling of deadly wildfires raging around Los Angeles.
“The fires are still raging in L.A. The incompetent pols (politicians) have no idea how to put them out,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
“This is one of the worst catastrophes in the history of our Country. They just can’t put out the fires. What’s wrong with them?” he wrote.
The speed and intensity of the blazes ravaging Los Angeles have tested its firefighting infrastructure and given rise to questions and criticism about the state’s preparedness.
Hydrants ran dry in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood as it was ravaged by one of the region’s five separate fires, while water shortages additionally hampered efforts elsewhere.
With just over a week before he returns to the White House, Trump has launched a series of evidence-free broadsides accusing California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom of failings in response to the blazes.
Newsom has meanwhile invited Trump to visit Los Angeles and survey the devastation with him.
The fires have so far killed at least 16 people, displaced 150,000 more, and destroyed more than 12,000 structures according to state officials.
“Thousands of magnificent houses are gone, and many more will soon be lost. There is death all over the place,” Trump said in his post.
Despite firefighters’ heroic efforts, including precision sorties from aerial crews, the Palisades Fire has continued to push east toward the priceless collections of the Getty Center art museum and north to the densely populated San Fernando Valley.
Manila deploys coast guard ship to counter China patrols
- Beijing claims most of the strategic waterway despite a 2016 international tribunal ruling that went against it
- There have been frequent clashes or tense standoffs between Philippine and Chinese vessels
MANILA: The Philippines said Sunday it had deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea.
Beijing claims most of the strategic waterway despite a 2016 international tribunal ruling that went against it, and there have been frequent clashes or tense standoffs between Philippine and Chinese vessels.
Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to the waters.
Commodore Jay Tarriela, a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman, said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111 kilometers) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon.
“Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement.
He later told reporters Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area to challenge the “unlawful” Chinese patrols.
He said the deployment aimed to ensure Chinese patrols “are not normalized, and that this bullying behavior does not succeed.”
Tarriela said the Chinese coast guard deployed three vessels from its Guangdong and Hainan bases to Philippine waters between December 30 and January 11.
The South China Sea confrontations have sparked concern they could draw the United States, Manila’s long-time security ally, into armed conflict with China.
