United News of Bangladesh

Kenya recorded its second Ebola-related death on Friday after a 65-year-old woman, a close relative of the country’s first confirmed patient, died while in quarantine after developing symptoms, the Health Ministry said. The woman began showing symptoms 10 days ago and was receiving supportive treatment at an infectious disease unit in Nairobi, the capital. Despite efforts by medical staff to save her life, she died on Friday evening, the ministry said, adding that her family had been informed. Authorities will arrange a safe and dignified burial in consultation with her relatives. The seven other Ebola patients were receiving treatment at two isolation facilities, while no new infections had been reported, according to the ministry. Kenya confirmed its first-ever Ebola case on October 6 after a 40-year-old Kenyan man living in Congo travelled to Kenya through Uganda, arriving on October 3. A relative took him to Nairobi Hospital, where he tested positive for the virus on October 5 and died the same day. Authorities have identified around 135 people who had contact with the first patient, with 118 placed in quarantine. Eight of them later tested positive, including four healthcare workers and four close family members. The Health Ministry said some contacts who completed the mandatory 21-day quarantine without developing symptoms would begin to be released from Saturday. Nigerian Patient Had No Travel History to CongoIn Nigeria, health authorities said on Friday that they had yet to establish how the country’s first Ebola patient contracted the virus. The woman tested positive after returning to Abuja, the capital, from Uganda. Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) told The Associated Press that the woman, who is married to a Swiss diplomat in Nigeria and had travelled with him, had not visited Congo. She was believed to have contracted the virus while travelling to Uganda, the department said. Her husband had shown no symptoms and remained in isolation, according to the FDFA. Nigerian Health Minister Muhammad Pate said the patient’s infection appeared to have similarities to Kenya’s first case. However, he noted that further findings could alter current understanding of how the virus had spread, as the pathogen takes time to undergo changes. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) earlier reported that the first patients in both Nigeria and Kenya had travelled through Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport on October 3. US Tightens Screening for International TravellersUS health authorities have introduced additional screening requirements for international passengers travelling to the United States amid concerns over the outbreak. Under the new protocol announced this week, all passengers boarding international flights to the US, regardless of their point of departure, must sign a declaration confirming they have not been in Congo during the previous 21 days. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday that travellers who had visited Congo within the three weeks before their planned journey would not be permitted to board flights bound for the United States, including American citizens. Ebola is a highly contagious disease transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, such as blood and vomit, or through contaminated materials and surfaces, including bedding and clothing. Congo is facing its deadliest Ebola outbreak, with at least 4,000 deaths reported since May, according to the report.     

Researchers in Australia have developed new visual tests that could help detect early signs of dementia associated with Parkinson's disease, potentially enabling earlier diagnosis. The researchers at Australia's University of Queensland (UQ) led the development of the tests to detect early signs of dementia in Lewy body disease, which includes Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, according to a UQ statement released on Wednesday. Lewy body disease is the second most common form of degenerative dementia and occurs when Lewy bodies, abnormal clumps of a protein called alpha-synuclein, build up in the brain's nerve cells and interfere with how they work. Difficulty processing visual information is an early feature of Lewy body disease and can appear before other obvious symptoms, said neurologist Professor Peter Nestor from UQ's Queensland Brain Institute, who led the development of the tests. The researchers examined two visual pathways: one involved in recognizing what we are looking at, and the other in processing where something is located. The study, published in the Journal of Neurology, examined visual processing across the full spectrum of Lewy body disease, including in people with Parkinson's disease who were not experiencing any cognitive symptoms, as well as people with Alzheimer's disease. Results showed that visual problems were worse for those with Lewy body disease than Alzheimer's disease, with the two conditions affecting visual processing pathways differently. Visual hallucinations, a common symptom of Lewy body disease, were also closely linked to visual processing difficulties, the study showed. Nestor said the new tests can detect the very earliest signs of emerging dementia in Lewy body disease, including in some people with Parkinson's disease who were not yet aware of their visual processing difficulties.

Confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo have exceeded 9,000, with more than 4,300 deaths, as health authorities struggle to contain an outbreak spreading across seven provinces, according to government figures released Tuesday. The Health Ministry reported 9,066 confirmed cases and 4,381 deaths, putting the death toll close to half the number of confirmed infections. The rising number of deaths has alarmed health workers and authorities, particularly as many fatalities have occurred outside treatment centres. The latest report recorded 88 new cases and warned that community transmission remained a concern. The outbreak has spread to more communities, creating new hotspots. A total of 65 health zones across seven provinces have been affected. Officials estimate that confirmed cases account for only about one-third of the actual infections, with many cases going undetected. The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, for which no approved vaccine or treatment is available. Efforts to contain the virus have been hampered by fighting between government forces and rebel groups, widespread disregard for health precautions, population movements, and shortages of medical supplies and treatment centres. The conflict has also contributed to one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises. The outbreak has surpassed the scale of Congo's previous 16 Ebola outbreaks and is on course to exceed the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak, which killed around 11,000 people. “I feel that the government is overwhelmed by events. But there is nothing else to say. The government needs to fully shoulder its responsibilities to ensure the effectiveness of the response against Ebola,” said Samuel Buju, a resident of Bunia, the provincial capital of Ituri, one of the worst-affected areas. Last week, Kenya became the second country after Uganda to report an Ebola case imported from Congo, heightening concerns about the virus spreading across national borders.

More than 4,000 people have died in Congo's Ebola outbreak, with health authorities reporting 4,018 deaths from 8,300 confirmed cases as efforts to contain the rapidly spreading virus face growing challenges. The latest figures released by the Health Ministry on Thursday show that deaths account for nearly half of the confirmed cases in what has become the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history. Congo declared the outbreak on May 15 after detecting the rare Bundibugyo virus, for which there is currently no known treatment or vaccine. Meanwhile, health workers gathered in Bunia, the capital of northeastern Ituri province and the epicentre of the outbreak, to protest unpaid wages. The protesters, including members of surveillance teams responsible for identifying people who may have been exposed to infected patients, were quickly dispersed by officials. They carried placards reading, “No money, no data!” and “No payment for months.” Front-line health workers have staged several strikes since the outbreak began, demanding payment of their outstanding wages, further disrupting efforts to control the disease. An aid worker with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, has contracted Ebola while working in Congo, the organisation said. The worker was flown to the Netherlands on a special medical flight and arrived late Thursday before being transferred to a high-level isolation unit at the Leiden University Medical Center. MSF said the crisis had imposed an unprecedented human cost on the Democratic Republic of Congo, with communities facing the country's largest Ebola outbreak on record. More than 50 health workers have died after contracting the virus. The World Health Organization has warned of the rapid spread of Ebola into new health zones, putting additional pressure on already limited resources. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said the number of newly confirmed cases was declining, although the drop could partly be linked to insecurity and difficulties in securing community cooperation in some affected areas. Tensions surrounding the outbreak were further highlighted by the killing of a Congolese politician who had supported government measures to tackle the disease. Marie-Célestin Karondwa, a local official of the ruling Union for Democracy and Social Progress party, was attacked at his home in Butembo, an Ebola hotspot in eastern North Kivu province, on Sunday. His house was later set on fire, and he died in hospital from injuries sustained in the attack. Widespread mistrust of health workers and government authorities has complicated efforts to contain Congo's 17th Ebola outbreak. Authorities launched a village-centred response approach last month, but the initiative has encountered resistance from some residents who reject Ebola as a hoax. Distrust of the government also remains deep, fueled by concerns over its handling of previous Ebola outbreaks and longstanding allegations of corruption.

Alcohol companies are more than twice as likely to tell consumers to "drink responsibly" than to warn them about health risks, with current voluntary alcohol warnings largely hidden, uninformative and ineffective, an Australian study has found. The study analyzed more than 6,000 alcohol labels across three major Australian retailers, examining the type and placement of voluntary health warnings and messages, according to a statement released Wednesday by the Public Health Association of Australia. It found only 25 percent of products carried a voluntary health warning, with 99 percent of those advising specific groups, including minors, pregnant women and drivers, not to drink. The findings, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, showed that 65 percent of products carried responsible consumption messages without providing information about health harms, such as alcohol's links to at least seven types of cancer and liver disease. Health warnings or messages were almost always hidden from view on the back or bottom of packages, according to the study led by Australia's George Institute for Global Health. Lead author Asad Yusoff from the George Institute said current lax alcohol labeling rules allowed alcohol companies to "feign corporate responsibility while keeping consumers in the dark about the real health harms of drinking." The findings come after an Australian parliamentary committee last week recommended mandatory regulation of alcohol advertising and marketing. 

Losing musce mass as people age could be an important warning sign for dementia risk, new Australian-led research has found. Researchers analyzed more than 80 studies examining links between body weight, body fat, muscle health and dementia, finding that people with sarcopenia had a 42 percent higher risk of dementia, according to a statement released Wednesday by Australia's Curtin University. Sarcopenia is a condition where people lose a greater amount of muscle mass, strength and physical function, often as they get older, according to the study published in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. The study also found that the relationship between obesity and dementia depends on age: People with obesity in middle age, or before 65, had a 9 percent higher risk of dementia, while obesity among people aged 65 and over was linked to a 17 percent lower dementia risk, but researchers cautioned against interpreting the finding as a benefit of gaining weight. The findings showed a complex relationship between body weight, ageing and dementia, with more long-term research needed to understand whether low muscle mass and excess body fat together increase dementia risk, said corresponding author Professor Mario Siervo from Curtin's School of Population Health. Lead researcher Uraiporn Booranasuksakul from Thailand's Burapha University said body weight alone did not fully reflect dementia risk, with muscle strength and function also important as people age. The researchers from Australia, Britain, Canada, Thailand and Italy said the findings reinforced the importance of taking a life-long approach to maintaining healthy body composition, including maintaining muscle strength and function as people get older.   

Taking fewer daily steps at a faster pace may substantially lower the risk of early death by up to 43 percent, new research finds. The study analyzed movement data from over 64,000 middle-aged participants in the UK Biobank who wore activity trackers for seven consecutive days between 2013 and 2015 to monitor the number and intensity of daily steps taken, according to a statement released Wednesday by Australia's Monash University. Published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the research found that walking at a brisker pace may be the sweet spot for those with sedentary lifestyles. The findings could help people who struggle to increase their daily step count due to lack of time, disability or environmental restraints, said lead author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis from the Monash School of Psychological Sciences. "We found that the risk (of early death) was substantially lower among those achieving a higher stepping pace but fewer than 5,000 daily steps," Stamatakis said, adding the risk was also significantly reduced among those taking 5,000 to 7,500 daily steps at a slower pace. The findings did not support the popular theory that everyone must take at least 10,000 steps a day to get fit, researchers said, adding that "every step counts" and how people take those steps can also matter.

Researchers in Australia have discovered why breast cancer treatment stops working for some patients, uncovering an unexpected role of a key cancer-fighting protein. The study, published in Nature, found that the retinoblastoma (Rb) protein, long viewed as a natural brake on cancer growth, can unexpectedly activate genes that respond to the hormone estrogen. Some of these genes can help cancer cells withstand treatment and retain the ability to regrow, according to a statement released Thursday by Australia's Peter MacCallum Cancer Center. The research team found that Rb does more than switch off genes that drive cell division. It can also "switch on biological programs that partially work against its own protective effects," said Peter Mac Associate Professor Shom Goel, the study's senior author. The findings help explain why medicines known as CDK4/6 inhibitors work particularly well with endocrine therapy in hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, the most common subtype. "The CDK4/6 inhibitor activates Rb to stop cancer cells dividing, while endocrine therapy blocks the unwanted estrogen-driven signals that Rb can also trigger. Together, they allow the tumor-suppressing effects of Rb to dominate," Goel said. However, when cancers become resistant to endocrine therapy, the estrogen-related gene program continues despite treatment, reducing the effectiveness of CDK4/6 inhibitors, researchers found. "Understanding this previously unknown role of Rb gives us an important new way to think about drug resistance," Goel said, adding the discovery could guide new combination therapies that keep these treatments working for longer and improve outcomes for breast cancer patients. 

More than 2,000 people have died in the Ebola outbreak in Congo, which is spreading at the fastest rate recorded in the country, according to the latest government data. The data released early Tuesday showed that the outbreak has so far recorded 4,381 confirmed cases, including 2,011 deaths. The outbreak was officially declared on May 15, although health authorities said genetic sequencing indicated that it had begun months earlier, in February. The death toll reached 1,000 within about nine weeks, but doubled in only around three more weeks, highlighting how rapidly the disease is spreading and outpacing efforts to contain it. Dr. Jean-Marie Akandabo, who is involved in treating patients at a clinic in Ituri province, described the death toll as alarming and called for intensified response efforts in affected areas. The outbreak is already the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record, after the 2014-16 epidemic in West Africa, which infected more than 28,000 people and killed over 11,000. The current outbreak is caused by the relatively rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments. Clinical trials for potential vaccines and treatments have begun in Ituri, the epicenter of the outbreak in eastern Congo. Aid workers said response efforts have struggled to keep pace with the spread of the virus across five affected eastern provinces. Rebel conflict, poor roads, disrupted communications and work stoppages by health workers over unpaid wages have hampered efforts to reach patients and monitor the spread. The World Health Organization (WHO) said most new cases are still being detected among people who were not being monitored as contacts, suggesting that transmission remains largely beyond the control of health authorities. The outbreak has so far recorded a case fatality rate of 45.9%, higher than the 39.6% rate recorded during the 2014-16 West Africa outbreak. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, said that without an effective vaccine, controlling Ebola depends heavily on identifying patients early and treating them in secure facilities. He said ongoing conflict and poor communications in remote areas make disease surveillance extremely difficult and can prevent cases from being identified early enough to stop further transmission. Dr. Akandabo said limited access to medical care and poor community engagement remain major challenges. The WHO said some cases were initially misdiagnosed as malaria or typhoid, while early testing focused on a more common Ebola strain. WHO Africa Regional Director Dr. Mohamed Yakub Janabi said health workers were struggling to keep up with the virus, noting that they were effectively “chasing” an outbreak that was staying ahead of them. The first Ebola virus was identified in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now Congo. The current outbreak is the country’s 17th and its largest.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus visited the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday as the country struggles to contain its rapidly expanding Ebola outbreak, while some frontline health workers have gone on strike over unpaid wages. Tedros was scheduled to meet President Félix Tshisekedi and other partners in the capital, Kinshasa, during his second visit since the outbreak was declared in mid-May, according to the WHO's country office. The outbreak has so far infected 3,874 people and claimed 1,751 lives, according to figures released by Congo's Ministry of Health on Monday. The epidemic is centred in the eastern province of Ituri, where healthcare access has already been disrupted by armed conflict. Local residents say the strike by some frontline health workers has further complicated efforts to contain the disease. Although some workers have begun receiving overdue payments in recent days, many continue to demand better wages. Residents have expressed concern that the disruption to health services is hampering the response. One resident of Bunia, the provincial capital, said two of his brothers died from Ebola during the strike and urged authorities to resolve the issue quickly. The current outbreak is the fastest-spreading Ebola epidemic on record and the second-largest overall after the 2014-16 West Africa outbreak, which infected more than 28,000 people and killed over 11,000. The outbreak is being driven by the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, for which there is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment. Health officials believe the virus had been circulating in remote communities before the outbreak was officially declared on May 15. Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned on Wednesday that the outbreak continues to spread at an "alarming and unprecedented rate," saying response efforts have yet to reach affected communities quickly enough to interrupt transmission. Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Director-General Dr Jean Kaseya said contact tracing remains ineffective, with 60 to 70 percent of new infections occurring outside known monitoring networks. Health officials say delayed detection of cases has contributed to a fatality rate of about 45 percent. The Health Ministry reported 77 new cases in the previous 24 hours, including 44 deaths. Currently, 717 patients remain in isolation, while 749 people have recovered.