autism

Trump administration does about face on autism treatment

  • But on Tuesday the Food and Drug Administration backed off, citing insufficient evidence that it works for the condition.
  • The Trump administration did an about-face Tuesday on an autism treatment it had promoted with great fanfare.
  • But on Tuesday the Food and Drug Administration backed off, citing insufficient evidence that it works for the condition.
The Trump administration did an about-face Tuesday on an autism treatment it had promoted with great fanfare.
It had said back in September it would approve use of a drug called leucovorin -- synthetic vitamin B9 -- to treat the disorder. 
But on Tuesday the Food and Drug Administration backed off, citing insufficient evidence that it works for the condition.
The initial announcement came from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who for decades has spread debunked claims that vaccines cause autism.
Kennedy touted leucovorin, usually used to alleviate chemotherapy side effects, as an "exciting therapy" that could help children with autism, a disorder whose symptoms vary widely across a spectrum.
"This gives hope to the many parents with autistic children that it may be possible to improve their lives," President Donald Trump said in September at a press conference.
At the event he gave sweeping, unsubstantiated advice on autism, such as insisting that pregnant women should "tough it out" and avoid Tylenol over an unproven link to autism -- statements slammed by scientists.
Studies on a small number of patients have suggested that taking leucovorin can help ease some communication or personal-relations problems linked to autism, but experts say this issue needs more study.
On Tuesday the FDA said it was in fact approving use of leucovorin for a rare condition called cerebral folate deficiency but not for autism. 
The Trump administration's touting of it for autism ran the risk of raising false hopes, dozens of autism specialists said at the time in a joint letter.
"We don't have sufficient data to say that we could establish efficacy for autism more broadly," an FDA official told NBC News.
"It'll be up to patients to talk with their physicians to see if that might be right for them," said the official, whose name was not given.
cha/dw/md

Health

Huge numbers at imminent risk from S.Sudan army offensive: MSF

  • MSF says its facilities in South Sudan have been attacked 12 times in the past year, forcing the closure of three hospitals. 
  • Hundreds of thousands of people are at imminent risk from a government offensive in a South Sudan town, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Monday, after NGOs were ordered to evacuate. 
  • MSF says its facilities in South Sudan have been attacked 12 times in the past year, forcing the closure of three hospitals. 
Hundreds of thousands of people are at imminent risk from a government offensive in a South Sudan town, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Monday, after NGOs were ordered to evacuate. 
MSF said it pulled out of Akobo in Jonglei state on Saturday and its facilities were looted, a day after the army ordered foreign agencies to leave. 
Jonglei has been the focus of clashes between government and opposition forces since December, displacing at least 280,000 people, as a power-sharing agreement between President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival Riek Machar has broken down. 
The United Nations told AFP it had not complied with the order to leave.
"Our peacekeepers are maintaining their presence in Akobo and continuing to carry out their mandated responsibilities," said Priyanka Chowdhury, spokesperson for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. 
Akobo residents now face an "impossible choice" between fleeing "without protection or remain at risk of being killed", said MSF in a statement.
They include 17,000 people who had only just been displaced by fighting nearby, it said.
AFP visited Akobo hospital last month and found it in a desperate state -- a ramshackle collection of buildings, most without doors or windows, with only one overwhelmed surgeon.
"The consequences for people are devastating," said Christophe Garnier, MSF head of mission. "Families are being forced to abandon their homes repeatedly, with no safe alternatives."
Many residents have already fled across the nearby border with Ethiopia. 
MSF says its facilities in South Sudan have been attacked 12 times in the past year, forcing the closure of three hospitals. 
"We had made it clear that we intend to conduct offensive operations in Akobo and the surrounding areas," army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang told AFP, blaming opposition forces for looting the hospital.
"Now that the period we announced has passed (72 hours), it is up to the commanders leading our troops to decide the next course of action," he said. 
South Sudan gained independence in 2011 but soon descended into civil war between Kiir and Machar's forces. A 2018 power-sharing deal brought relative peace but has unravelled over the past year.
As the country tips back into civil war, massive corruption means the little healthcare that exists is almost entirely through foreign NGOs. 
er/kjm

conflict

Dead on arrival: South Sudan's devastated health system

BY ROSE TROUP BUCHANAN

  • Riek Gai Kok is the governor of Jonglei state, where conflict has once again exploded between government and opposition parties.
  • South Sudan's healthcare system has been so crippled by years of corruption that when a state governor experienced high blood pressure recently, he had to fly to Kenya for treatment.
  • Riek Gai Kok is the governor of Jonglei state, where conflict has once again exploded between government and opposition parties.
South Sudan's healthcare system has been so crippled by years of corruption that when a state governor experienced high blood pressure recently, he had to fly to Kenya for treatment.
Riek Gai Kok is the governor of Jonglei state, where conflict has once again exploded between government and opposition parties.
His trip to Nairobi was recounted by humanitarians as yet another example of how South Sudan's elite, ranked the most corrupt in the world by Transparency International, have allowed services in the country to collapse.
As the country tips back into civil war between rival parties, what little healthcare exists is almost entirely through foreign donors, with more than 80 percent provided by NGOs like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
In a hospital in the capital Juba, a soldier told AFP he was amazed to have been airlifted to hospital since most wounded are left to die.
"[When] I was shot, I thought I was dead," said Ajuong Deng, 33, wounded in the leg.
But it was the ICRC that rescued him -- not the army or the government -- treating him at their facility within the Juba Military Hospital where the NGO gives staff what it euphemistically calls "incentives" because it is not officially allowed to pay them.
"If we don't pay them then no one stays here," said one worker, speaking anonymously.
Government pay, normally just $10-50 monthly, has not arrived for months.
"This is not what we're supposed to be doing," said one senior humanitarian. 

Cycle of violence

In the Juba hospital, wounded lay on the floor in blood-stained bandages. A man shot in the neck struggled to breathe.
The clinicians fear these men will soon be sucked back into the country's multiple cycles of violence: the war between the government and opposition, currently raging to the north, or between various ethnic militias and cattle raiders that plague rural areas.
"I have actually had one patient who came back four times," said Angeth Jervas Majok, the ICRC's head physiotherapist. "On the fifth time, unfortunately we lost him."
With only 300 kilometres of paved roads, many impassable during rainy seasons, wounds often grow infected before they reach a doctor, so amputations are common.
Yet they are stigmatised: "There is a belief that (amputees) are not a human being anymore," said Majok. "A lot of patients cannot go back home."
The government will not say how many soldiers have died as fighting has ramped up in the past year. 
The UN says more than 5,100 civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced, and warns South Sudan is on the verge of "all-out civil war". The last one in the 2010s killed 400,000 people.

'Difficulties'

While much of east Africa has seen improving health outcomes, South Sudan is going the other way despite receiving $1.4 billion in foreign aid in 2024, the largest amount globally as a share of GDP.
Life expectancy is 58, according to the World Bank, unimproved since independence in 2011. Maternal mortality is 1,223 per 100,000 births, compared to 197 globally. Unicef says one in 10 children do not reach their fifth birthday.
South Sudan's oil revenues have exceeded $25 billion since 2011, yet only one percent of this year's budget was allocated to health and the UN has said that "vast amounts never reach the sector, let alone the population" in a country where 92 percent live beneath the poverty line. 
On top of all that, South Sudan is among the most dangerous places in the world to be a health worker. MSF facilities have been attacked 11 times in the past year. The ICRC surgical unit in Juba has blast doors, and stores biscuits and water next to medical equipment in case of a siege.
The US has warned it will pull funding if governance does not improve, and NGOs are pulling back as donations fall and patience runs thin with South Sudan's leaders.
The ICRC told AFP it planned to "draw down progressively" in one facility, while attempting to reinforce local capacity.
Information Minister Ateny Wek Ateny admitted to AFP there were liquidity "difficulties" but said the government was working on it.
He rejected Transparency International's latest report, saying: "I don't know what criteria they have used to rank South Sudan as the most corrupt country in the world."
rbu/er/rh

Global Edition

Thousands march for women's rights and against Mideast war

  • - 'No to war'- Spanish protesters were denouncing both violence against women and the war in the Middle East sparked by last weekend's US-Israeli strikes.
  • Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in cities across the world Sunday to mark International Women's Day and denounce the war in the Middle East.
  • - 'No to war'- Spanish protesters were denouncing both violence against women and the war in the Middle East sparked by last weekend's US-Israeli strikes.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in cities across the world Sunday to mark International Women's Day and denounce the war in the Middle East.
From Rio in Brazil, Caracas in Venezuela and cities across France, Spain, Turkey and other European countries, demonstrators marched to demand women's rights across a range of issues.
Thousands marched in cities across Spain to protest gender-based violence and call for an end to the war in the Middle East.
Rape survivor Gisele Pelicot led a women's rights march in Paris, one of 150 demonstrations in French cities.
"We won't give up," Pelicot, 73, told the crowd as she joined thousands in the French capital marching for women's rights, economic equality and an end to sexual violence.
Pelicot became a global symbol in the fight after she waived her right to anonymity during the 2024 trial of her ex-husband and dozens of strangers who raped her while she was unconscious.

'No to war'

Spanish protesters were denouncing both violence against women and the war in the Middle East sparked by last weekend's US-Israeli strikes.
Demonstrations took place in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Granada, Bilbao, and San Sebastian, among other cities.
Madrid hosted two demonstrations in the centre of the Spanish capital -- one for transgender rights and the other for the legalisation and regulation of prostitution.
Slogans written on placards at the protests included "No to war" and "Anti-fascist feminists against imperialist war".
Alexa Rubio, a 30-year-old Mexican living in Spain, cited pay and harassment as some of the most urgent issues.
"And in my country, gender-based violence, because women are being killed for being women," she told AFP.
Yolanda Diaz, Spain's second deputy prime minister, spoke out against the war in the Middle East at a Madrid rally.
"We proclaim ourselves in defence of peace, in defence of the Iranian people, in defence of Iranian women," she said, referring to the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Pedro Sanchez, Spain's socialist prime minister, has drawn the ire of the US administration for opposing the war and refusing the use of Spain's military bases for strikes against Iran.

Women defy Istanbul ban

Thousands of women marched through Istanbul, defying a ban on demonstrations.
Demonstrators packed the streets of Cihangir district, some carrying parasols garlanded in fairy lights, others waving a sea of colourful banners.
There were cheers, dancing and purple flares at the end as organisers read out a statement of support for women affected by the Middle East war.
Earlier Sunday, several thousand women had gathered on the Asian side of Istanbul, and demonstrations took place in nine other cities across Turkey, organisers said.
In Latin America, women marched in cities in Brazil, Chile and Mexico and other countries.
"When one woman advances, we all advance," said Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in a speech.
In a message posted on X to mark the day, French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the women of Iran.
"Their courage commands respect and reminds the world that freedom can never be silenced."
burs-ekf/jj/rlp

US

Tehran plunged into darkness by smoke from burning oil

  • Four oil depots and a petroleum logistics site in and around Tehran were hit.
  • Residents of Tehran woke up on Sunday morning to find it was still dark outside, an apocalyptic sight created by thick black smoke billowing from oil depots hit by Israeli strikes.
  • Four oil depots and a petroleum logistics site in and around Tehran were hit.
Residents of Tehran woke up on Sunday morning to find it was still dark outside, an apocalyptic sight created by thick black smoke billowing from oil depots hit by Israeli strikes.
With the Sun blotted out, disoriented people in the Iranian capital had to turn on their lights to see through the gloom. 
"I thought my alarm clock was broken," a driver in his fifties told AFP on condition of anonymity.
By 10:30 am local time (0700 GMT), cars still needed their headlights to drive along Valiasr Street, a main thoroughfare that runs north-south through the city.
Black smoke from the burning fuel depots mingled in the sky with heavy grey rain clouds, compounding the murky atmosphere.
The smoke spread across the sprawling city, normally home to more than 10 million people.
The fuel depot strikes are the first time Iranian oil infrastructure has been targeted during the nine-day war. 
The fighting began when the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran last weekend and has since engulfed the Middle East.
Israel's military confirmed it had struck "fuel storage facilities in Tehran" that it said were used "to operate military infrastructure".
Four oil depots and a petroleum logistics site in and around Tehran were hit. Local authorities said six people were killed and 20 wounded at one of the sites. AFP could not independently verify these numbers.
At one of the depots, the oil was still smouldering on Sunday.
Flames were flaring up and crackling more than 12 hours after the strikes, an AFP reporter witnessed.
Israel also attacked fuel depots in Tehran during a 12-day war last June.

Toxic fumes

On the streets of Tehran, security forces directed traffic while wearing special coats and masks to protect themselves.
Authorities warned that the noxious fumes can cause breathing problems and irritate eyes, urging residents to stay indoors. 
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said that "significant quantities of toxic hydrocarbons, sulfur and nitrogen oxides" were released into the air.
The windows of nearby buildings were blown out by the force of the explosions. 
Dozens of kilometres away from the fuel depots, residents swept their balconies, which were covered by a mix of rain and puddles of fuel.
Tehran's governor Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian said on Sunday morning that fuel distribution in the Iranian capital has been "temporarily interrupted".
"The problem is being resolved," he added.
For now, each vehicle in Tehran is limited to 20 litres of fuel.
On Sunday morning, there were long lines at petrol stations, with AFP counting around 40 cars queuing at one.
Sunday is the first day back to work in Iran after a week-long holiday was declared following the death of supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli air strikes last weekend.
During the 12-day war last June, around six million residents left Tehran, according to local media.
However this time around, the majority have stayed. The United Nations estimated on Tuesday that around 100,000 people had fled the capital.
In the first days after the new war broke out, Tehran had resembled a ghost town.
But this is no longer the case, with more pedestrians and cars now venturing onto the streets.
On Sunday, roughly half the shops in Tehran were open -- even in the darkness.
bur/dl/axn

demographics

Young Chinese parents tighten belts as childcare costs rise

BY MARY YANG

  • The government has also promoted the image of "the ideal Chinese family that is centred around heterosexual marriages" as it tries to boost birth rates, said Zhou, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.
  • New mother Zhang Xiaofei wanted to be financially secure before having a baby, wary of high childcare costs that have been softened only a little by Chinese government cash incentives to boost record-low births.
  • The government has also promoted the image of "the ideal Chinese family that is centred around heterosexual marriages" as it tries to boost birth rates, said Zhou, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.
New mother Zhang Xiaofei wanted to be financially secure before having a baby, wary of high childcare costs that have been softened only a little by Chinese government cash incentives to boost record-low births.
The world's second-most populous country is threatened with a demographic crisis after its birth rate halved over the past decade -- all while people rapidly age out of the workforce.
Beijing has made "building a childbirth-friendly society" a priority over the next five years, China's Premier Li Qiang said on Thursday as lawmakers gathered in the Great Hall of the People for their annual political conclave.
The government introduced a raft of financial incentives last year,including free pre-school education and annual subsidies of 3,600 yuan ($500) for each child born.
However, young Chinese say the measures do little to alleviate financial stress.
Zhang, 32, and her husband Zhu Yunfei, both manicurists, decided to save before having a child.
"We discussed it before. The two of us were aligned in wanting to (focus on) work first because our families' (financial) conditions aren't that good," she told AFP while on maternity leave in Hebei province.
"If we were to have a child, we would want to give them the very best life," she said, cradling her three-week-old daughter.

'Doesn't mean anything'

The new childcare subsidies have cost the government more than 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion), China's national health director told reporters on Saturday.
They were announced shortly after Zhang and Zhu learned they would be parents.
"We thought our kid was too lucky," Zhu, 36, said.
However, the handout -- roughly 1.5 percent of their pooled annual income -- doesn't come close to covering a year's worth of baby formula.
"People joke that it's like giving you a five-yuan voucher towards a Rolls-Royce," he told AFP. 
Zhu scours second-hand platforms for deals on diapers, while Zhang plans to return to work after her daughter turns one month old.
In Henan, soon-to-be father Li plans to take up a second job once his daughter is born.
To save money, he and his wife made a five-hour round trip to neighbouring Hubei province, where he said hospitals offer free prenatal genetic screening.
Li, using a pseudonym for fear of repercussions, was reluctant to have children and said he was indifferent to the incentives.
"This bit of cash doesn't mean anything," the 35-year-old told AFP.

Incompatible with careers

Social demographer Yun Zhou warned that subsidies "often do not lead to any meaningful rebound in fertility".
The government has also promoted the image of "the ideal Chinese family that is centred around heterosexual marriages" as it tries to boost birth rates, said Zhou, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.
"For young Chinese women, especially young highly educated Chinese women, there is also this inherent concern about the pervasive gender-based discriminations in the labour market that is front and centre on their mind."
In 2023, the government banned employers from withholding advancement based on marriage, pregnancy, or parental status, as well as the practice of including pregnancy tests as part of pre-employment physical exams.
However, some women still "feel like childbearing and having successful careers and having a life as a whole is fundamentally incompatible", Zhou said.
Lawmakers this week proposed measures such as extra cash for families with three children and lowering the legal marriage age from 22 for men and 20 for women to encourage earlier childbearing.
Chinese social media users slammed such proposals as "nonsense".
Being a parent in China is "very difficult", Yuan Limei, a 30-year-old mother of two, told AFP.
"There are all kinds of expenses. Everything requires money," she said, pushing her six-year-old on a swing in Beijing.
"And with kids, there's no way for you to work."
Yuan's oldest child is 10 but she does not plan on having a third.
"A kid is much harder to raise than a dog or cat," she laughed.
New father Zhu noted that, while subsidies have little impact in big cities like Beijing, they can make a dent in smaller villages.
"In the city, 3,600 yuan is hardly anything and can't even buy a baby pram, but in some rural areas it's not a small sum," he said.
mya/dhw/pbt

health

Japan approves stem-cell treatment for Parkinson's in world first

  • Pharmaceutical company Sumitomo Pharma said it received the green light for the manufacture and sale of Amchepry, its Parkinson's disease treatment that transplants stem cells into a patient's brain.
  • Japan has approved ground-breaking stem-cell treatments for Parkinson's and severe heart failure, one of the manufacturers and media reports said Friday, with the therapies expected to reach patients within months.
  • Pharmaceutical company Sumitomo Pharma said it received the green light for the manufacture and sale of Amchepry, its Parkinson's disease treatment that transplants stem cells into a patient's brain.
Japan has approved ground-breaking stem-cell treatments for Parkinson's and severe heart failure, one of the manufacturers and media reports said Friday, with the therapies expected to reach patients within months.
Pharmaceutical company Sumitomo Pharma said it received the green light for the manufacture and sale of Amchepry, its Parkinson's disease treatment that transplants stem cells into a patient's brain.
Japan's health ministry also gave the go-ahead to ReHeart, heart muscle sheets developed by medical startup Cuorips that can help form new blood vessels and restore heart function, media reports said.
The treatments could be on the market and rolled out to patients as early as this summer, reports said, citing the health ministry, becoming the world's first commercially available medical products using (iPS) cells.
Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka won the Nobel Prize in 2012 for his research into iPS, which have the potential to develop into any cell in the body.
"I hope this will bring relief to patients not only in Japan but around the world," health minister Kenichiro Ueno told a press conference. 
"We will promptly carry out all necessary procedures to ensure it reaches all patients without fail."
In a statement, Sumitomo Pharma said it had obtained "conditional and time-limited approval" for the manufacture and marketing of Amchepry under a system which is reportedly designed to get these products to patients as quickly as possible.
The approval is a kind of "provisional license", the Asahi newspaper said, after the safety and efficacy of the treatment was judged based on data from fewer patients than in ordinary clinical trials for drugs.
A trial led by Kyoto University researchers indicated that the company's treatment was safe and successful in improving symptoms.
The study involved seven Parkinson's patients aged between 50 and 69, with each receiving a total of either five million or 10 million cells implanted on both sides of the brain. 
The iPS cells from healthy donors were developed into the precursors of dopamine-producing brain cells, which are no longer present in people with Parkinson's disease.
The patients were monitored for two years and no major adverse effects were found, the study said. Four patients showed improvements in symptoms.
Parkinson's disease is a chronic, degenerative neurological disorder that affects the body's motor system, often causing shaking and other difficulties in movement.
Worldwide, about 10 million people have the illness, according to the Parkinson's Foundation.
Currently available therapies "improve symptoms without slowing or halting the disease progression," the foundation says.
iPS cells are created by stimulating mature, already specialised, cells back into a juvenile state -- basically cloning without the need for an embryo.
The cells can be transformed into a range of different types of cells, and their use is a key sector of medical research.
kh-aph/tc

US

Middle East war halts work at WHO's Dubai emergency hub

BY NINA LARSON

  • "Operations at WHO's logistics hub for global health emergencies in Dubai are currently on hold due to insecurity," he told a press conference.
  • The Middle East war has forced the World Health Organization to suspend operations at its global emergency logistics hub in Dubai, the UN agency's chief said Thursday.
  • "Operations at WHO's logistics hub for global health emergencies in Dubai are currently on hold due to insecurity," he told a press conference.
The Middle East war has forced the World Health Organization to suspend operations at its global emergency logistics hub in Dubai, the UN agency's chief said Thursday.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the impact of the conflict, sparked by the US-Israeli attacks on Iran on Saturday, "goes beyond the immediately affected countries".
"Operations at WHO's logistics hub for global health emergencies in Dubai are currently on hold due to insecurity," he told a press conference.
Last year, the Dubai logistics hub processed more than 500 emergency orders for 75 countries around the world, Hanan Balkhy, the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean regional director, told reporters.
"Humanitarian health supply chains are now being jeopardised," she warned.
Balkhy explained that "the hub's operations are temporarily on hold due to insecurity, airspace closures and restrictions affecting access to the Strait of Hormuz".
The disruption, she said, was "preventing access to $18 million in humanitarian health supplies while another $8 million in shipments cannot reach the hub".
It was affecting more than 50 emergency supply requests from 25 countries, as well as some $6 million in medicines destined for the war-torn Gaza Strip.

'Extremely important lifeline'

On top of that, $1.6 million in polio laboratory supplies were being held up, which could have dire impacts for Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the disease is endemic, she cautioned.
Balkhy said the WHO was discussing and coordinating with authorities in the United Arab Emirates on how to continue using the hub.
It was also in discussions with other countries and humanitarian partners on using other hubs in Nairobi, Dakar and Brindisi to establish other routes.
If the conflict draws out, Balkhy acknowledged there could be a need to discuss "all types of potential road routes or ground routes, potentially through the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia", but said the WHO hoped it would not need to do so.
"The Dubai hub is an extremely important lifeline for the humanitarian response," she said.

'Nuclear risks'

As for the direct impact of war, Balkhy said the UN health agency was coordinating the health response across 16 affected countries, and was supporting health ministries and partners "to sustain essential services".
The WHO was also "strengthening disease surveillance and preparing for potential mass casualties and displacement", she said.
Iran meanwhile had not made any "formal request for any specific supplies" from WHO, "as their system is withholding and withstanding the current situation", Balkhy said.
But she said the WHO was "scaling readiness for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear risks".
Tedros also pointed to the threats to nuclear facilities posed by the conflict. 
"Any compromise to nuclear safety could have serious public health consequences," he warned.
The WHO also sounded the alarm over the more than a dozen attacks on healthcare registered by Thursday in the not even one-week-old conflict.
The organisation said it had so far verified 13 attacks on healthcare in Iran, killing four people and injuring 25, while an attack in Lebanon killed three paramedics and injured six others.
"Under international humanitarian law, health care must be protected and not attacked," Tedros said.
nl/rjm/sbk