All five people aboard a medical transport flight, including a patient, were killed in a plane crash Friday night in a mountainous area in northern Nevada. The Lyon County Sheriff’s office said authorities began receiving calls about the crash near Stagecoach, Nevada, around 9:15 p.m. and found the wreckage two hours later. Stagecoach, a rural community home to around 2,500 residents, is about 45 miles (72 kilometers) southeast of Reno. Care Flight, which provides ambulance service by plane and helicopter, said the dead included the pilot, a flight nurse, a flight paramedic, a patient and a patient’s family member. Barry Duplantis, president and CEO of the company, said Saturday afternoon that relatives of all five victims had been notified, the Reno Gazette Journal reported. “We send our deepest condolences to their families,” Duplantis said. The crash occurred amid a winter storm warning issued by the National Weather Service in Reno for large swaths of Nevada, including parts of Lyon County. The weather service said it was expecting heavy snow, wind gusts of up to 65 mph (105 kph) and periods of whiteout conditions between 4 a.m. Friday and 4 a.m. Sunday. “It’s a pretty mountainous region,” Lyon County Sgt. Nathan Cooper said. “Especially with the weather being the way it is right now, it’s not very good.” Also Read: Flight data, voice recorders retrieved from Nepal site after deadly plane crash The National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday morning on Twitter that it is sending a seven-member team of investigators to the crash site. The NTSB is expected release more information Sunday at a news conference. Care Flight identified the downed aircraft as a Pilatus PC-12 airplane. Federal Aviation Administration records show the aircraft was manufactured in 2002. The company said in a statement that it is halting flights to focus on helping responding agencies, team members and the families.

A Nigerian man, who has contracted monkeypox and fled Thailand recently, was found here in the capital of Cambodia on Saturday evening, a deputy governor said. The 27-year-old man, identified as Osmond Chihazirim Nzerem, was found at Phsar Deum Thkov area in the Chamkarmon district after a report from the Thai authority, said Koeut Chhe, deputy governor of the Phnom Penh Municipality. "The Nigerian man was detained and sent to the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital," he told Xinhua via telephone. "We have also deployed our police force at the hospital to monitor the man as he does not cooperate with health staff." The Nigerian man was confirmed to be infected with monkeypox by the Thai health authority on Thursday. The patient, who entered Thailand's southern tourist island of Phuket in October 2021 with no departure record, had been sick for more than a week, developing symptoms including fever, sore throat, coughing and rashes, and sought treatment at a local hospital as an outpatient last week. Read: UN health agency chief declares monkeypox a global emergency According to the Phuket health authority, after the test result turned out to be positive, the patient refused to receive treatment, turned off his phone, did not contact the hospital and fled to Cambodia.  

A 60-year old woman who was sent to Chuadanga sadar hospital with blisters has not been tested positive for monkeypox. Dr Abul Hossain, head of a three- member medical board formed in this regard, confirmed it to the UNB reporter. He said, “The woman might have got the blisters as side effects of any medicine she was taking. She will be kept  kept under observation in a room until recovery.” The woman from Bhandardaha village was admitted to the hospital on Thursday with a number of marble sized blisters all over her body, said Dr Waliar Rahman sadar upazila health and family planning officer. READ: Monkeypox scare: India returnee sent to Jashore hospital On duty medical officer Wahid Mahmud Robin informed the matter to the civil surgeon and hospital supervisor as it seemed like a symptom of pox. She was sent home with guidelines to keep in isolation after giving primary treatment according to the authority’s suggestion. On Friday she was brought again to the hospital and the medical board formed in this regard collected her samples for testing. Dr Abul Hossain said, “We think the blisters might be effects of medicine reaction. We have sought suggestions from a dermatologist and hopefully she will recover soon.”

A 24-year-old dying cancer patient, who came to know that her disease is at an advanced stage recently at Chattogram Medical Centre, nevertheless married her boyfriend to fulfill her last wish. The groom Mahmudul Hasan, 27, and bride Fahmida Kamal were in a relationship and set an example by completing the step of marriage instead of surrendering their love to cancer at a hospital recently, said Saifuddin Saki, former official of Chattogram City Corporation and also the grandfather of Fahmida. The image of the bride and bridegroom, wearing traditional wedding dresses, went viral on social networking sites drawing the attention of the netizens. READ: 5-litre can of soybean oil: The best gift a newly married couple could get The bridegroom himself took the responsibility of his newly married wife and all medical expenses, drawing praise from different quarters. Mahmudul, son of Azizul Haque of Chakaria in Cox’s Bazar district completed his MBA from North South University (NSU) while Fahmida obtained her BBA and MBA degrees from International Independent University (IIUB). They met and fell in love during their university days.  In 2021, Fahmida was admitted to Dhaka Evercare Hospital and came to know that she has been suffering from cancer. Later, she went to India for treatment but the doctors informed her it was too late for them to do anything. She then returned home. She has been undergoing treatment in Chattogram Medical Centre for the past two months, although there was no let up in the deterioration of her physical condition. READ: School closure impact: over 3,000 girls married off in Bagerhat During this period, Mahmudul asked for Fahmida;s hand in marriage from her family, and having crossed all obstacles they finally tied the knot on March 9, just like they had always wanted to.  And despite the tragic circumstances, they celebrated the occasion by cutting a cake and providing sweets at the hospital.

In a medical first, doctors transplanted a pig heart into a patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life and a Maryland hospital said Monday that he's doing well three days after the highly experimental surgery. While it’s too soon to know if the operation really will work, it marks a step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants. Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center say the transplant showed that a heart from a genetically modified animal can function in the human body without immediate rejection. The patient, David Bennett, a 57-year-old Maryland handyman, knew there was no guarantee the experiment would work but he was dying, ineligible for a human heart transplant and had no other option, his son told The Associated Press. Also read: Chinese doctors complete lung transplant for COVID-19 patient “It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice,” Bennett said a day before the surgery, according to a statement provided by the University of Maryland School of Medicine. On Monday, Bennett was breathing on his own while still connected to a heart-lung machine to help his new heart. The next few weeks will be critical as Bennett recovers from the surgery and doctors carefully monitor how his heart is faring. There’s a huge shortage of human organs donated for transplant, driving scientists to try to figure out how to use animal organs instead. Last year, there were just over 3,800 heart transplants in the U.S., a record number, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation’s transplant system. "If this works, there will be an endless supply of these organs for patients who are suffering,” said Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, scientific director of the Maryland university's animal-to-human transplant program. But prior attempts at such transplants — or xenotransplantation — have failed, largely because patients’ bodies rapidly rejected the animal organ. Notably, in 1984, Baby Fae, a dying infant, lived 21 days with a baboon heart. Also read: In US 1st, baby is born from dead donor's transplanted womb The difference this time: The Maryland surgeons used a heart from a pig that had undergone gene-editing to remove a sugar in its cells that’s responsible for that hyper-fast organ rejection. Several biotech companies are developing pig organs for human transplant; the one used for Friday's operation came from Revivicor, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics. “I think you can characterize it as a watershed event,” Dr. David Klassen, UNOS’ chief medical officer, said of the Maryland transplant. Still, Klassen cautioned that it’s only a first tentative step into exploring whether this time around, xenotransplantation might finally work. The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees such experiments, allowed the surgery under what’s called a “compassionate use” emergency authorization, available when a patient with a life-threatening condition has no other options. It will be crucial to share the data gathered from this transplant before extending it to more patients, said Karen Maschke, a research scholar at the Hastings Center, who is helping develop ethics and policy recommendations for the first clinical trials under a grant from the National Institutes of Health. “Rushing into animal-to-human transplants without this information would not be advisable,” Maschke said. Over the years, scientists have turned from primates to pigs, tinkering with their genes. Just last September, researchers in New York performed an experiment suggesting these kinds of pigs might offer promise for animal-to-human transplants. Doctors temporarily attached a pig’s kidney to a deceased human body and watched it begin to work. The Maryland transplant takes their experiment to the next level, said Dr. Robert Montgomery, who led that work at NYU Langone Health. “This is a truly remarkable breakthrough," he said in a statement. "As a heart transplant recipient, myself with a genetic heart disorder, I am thrilled by this news and the hope it gives to my family and other patients who will eventually be saved by this breakthrough.” The surgery last Friday took seven hours at the Baltimore hospital. Dr. Bartley Griffith, who performed the surgery, said the patient’s condition — heart failure and an irregular heartbeat — made him ineligible for a human heart transplant or a heart pump. Griffith had transplanted pig hearts into about 50 baboons over five years, before offering the option to Bennett. “We’re learning a lot every day with this gentleman,” Griffith said. “And so far, we’re happy with our decision to move forward. And he is as well: Big smile on his face today.” Pig heart valves also have been used successfully for decades in humans, and Bennett’s son said his father had received one about a decade ago. As for the heart transplant, “He realizes the magnitude of what was done and he really realizes the importance of it,” David Bennett Jr. said. “He could not live, or he could last a day, or he could last a couple of days. I mean, we’re in the unknown at this point.”

One more dengue patient has been hospitalised in the past 24 hours in Dhaka, health authorities said Friday. Fortunately, no new death was reported during this period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). Similarly, no new dengue cases have been reported from outside the Dhaka division. The new patient is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Dhaka.  A total of 105 dengue patients -- 95 in Dhaka division alone, four in Mymensingh, two each in Chattogram and Khulna, and one each in Rajshahi and Barishal divisions -- have died so far since January 2021. READ: Dengue: 9 more patients hospitalised in 24 hrs Some 52 dengue patients are receiving treatment in the country, as of Friday. Of them, 31 are receiving treatment at different hospitals in the capital while the remaining 21 in hospitals outside Dhaka. This year, some 62 patients have been admitted to different hospitals with dengue so far and 10 dengue patients have left hospital after recovery, said the DGHS. READ: Dengue: 4 more patients hospitalised in 24 hrs

Health Secretary Md Lokman Hossain Miah on Friday visited Faridpur General Hospital to see the services provided to the patients. During the visit he told doctors, nurses and other staff to deliver their services effectively so no patient goes without treatment. Patients should not suffer due to damaged equipment and lack of supplies, he said. Read: Current booster effective against Omicron: Health Minister Regarding the Covid vaccine, he said there is no shortage of vaccines. “But we are concerned that many people have not been vaccinated yet.” Deputy Commissioner of Faridpur Atul Sarkar, Civil Surgeon Dr Siddiqur Rahman, Director of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical College and Hospital Dr Saifur Rahman and Additional Deputy Commissioner Deepak Roy were present among others.

A patient in Southern California is the third person in the U.S. to be diagnosed with the new pneumonia-like virus from China, health officials said.