vaccines

India moves closer to dengue vaccine as final trials underway

BY UZMI ATHAR

  • If approved, DengiAll would become one of the world's first single-dose dengue vaccines, following Brazil's approval of a similar shot last year. 
  • As dengue surges globally, an Indian vaccine candidate has entered the final stage of testing, raising hopes for one of the world's first single-dose shots against the deadly mosquito-borne disease.
  • If approved, DengiAll would become one of the world's first single-dose dengue vaccines, following Brazil's approval of a similar shot last year. 
As dengue surges globally, an Indian vaccine candidate has entered the final stage of testing, raising hopes for one of the world's first single-dose shots against the deadly mosquito-borne disease.
Dengue, which causes severe flu-like symptoms and debilitating body aches, has exploded globally, fuelled by rising temperatures and densely populated cities. 
The World Health Organization (WHO) says that almost half the world's population is now at risk, with 100–400 million infections every year. India alone has recorded over one million cases and at least 1,500 deaths since 2021.
Hoping to stem the global epidemic, Panacea Biotec has begun final Phase III trials of its vaccine, DengiAll, which has been pursuing for nearly 15 years. 
More than 10,000 volunteers across the country are enrolled in the study, overseen by the Indian Council of Medical Research, with the vaccine on track for rollout as early as next year if the trial results are favourable.
"We will try to get this vaccine out there as soon as possible," Syed Khalid Ali, chief scientific officer of Panacea, told AFP in New Delhi.
Doctor Ekta Gupta, professor of clinical virology at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences in New Delhi, said dengue was now considered hyperendemic in India, with all four virus serotypes circulating simultaneously.
"This vaccine is very much needed right now to control the occurrence of these cases, or at least prevent the severity."

Climate change

Monsoon outbreaks regularly push Indian hospitals to their limits, crowding urban wards and leaving rural regions grappling with late diagnoses and poor access to care.
Higher temperatures and changing rainfall patterns create ideal conditions for Aedes mosquitoes -- the vectors of dengue -- to reproduce and spread the virus.
Children are particularly vulnerable to the more severe form, called dengue hemorrhagic fever, as they are more likely to suffer low platelet counts and shock.
Participants in Phase III trials, which started in 2024, were randomly assigned to receive either the vaccine or a placebo, with the results expected later this year.
Vaccines against all four dengue serotypes have long posed a scientific challenge. Immunity to one strain does not protect against others, and secondary infections can be more severe. 
Most existing candidates require multiple doses.
If approved, DengiAll would become one of the world's first single-dose dengue vaccines, following Brazil's approval of a similar shot last year. 
It would also be the first such vaccine available in India, where no dengue shot is currently licensed for public use.
"We will be the second (single-dose) vaccine to come out... But in India and several lower-middle-income countries, we will be the first ones to roll out the dengue vaccine," Ali said.
The candidate is based on a tetravalent strain originally developed by the US National Institutes of Health. 

'Hope for future'

Panacea is the most advanced of three Indian firms licensed to use the strain, having developed its own formulation and secured a process patent.
Inside the company's research labs, doctor Priyanka Priyadarsiny, head of biological R&D, said vaccine development involves several steps, from proof-of-concept studies to regulatory checks. 
"We are extremely cautious about purity, safety and adverse effects," she said. "Only after meeting regulatory specifications can a product be considered safe for public use."
At present, the WHO recommends only one dengue vaccine, Qdenga, produced by Japan's Takeda for children aged six to 16 in high-transmission settings. 
Qdenga, which requires two doses administered three months apart, is not currently available in India.
Ali said DengiAll could be given to people aged one to 60 and is expected to offer long-term protection.
In India, final approval would come from the Drug Controller General of India, while WHO prequalification would be required for large-scale international use.
Experts say a successful Indian-made vaccine could be key to affordability and mass rollout in lower-income countries. 
Virologist and Oxford University fellow Shahid Jameel -- who is not connected with the trial--warned dengue incidence could rise by 50–75 percent by 2050 under current climate change trends.
Still, he cautioned that only Phase III results would determine whether a candidate meets the criteria for a safe and effective dengue vaccine.
"Phase III testing and follow-up are needed to show if the above conditions are met," he told AFP. 
"Only then can we have a useful dengue vaccine. It is still early days, but there is hope for the future."
uzm/abh/lb

media

US plaintiff decries harmful social media addiction

BY ROMAIN FONSEGRIVES

  • "I was at a young age and I would spend all my time on it," Kaley testified when asked to explain why she thought she was addicted to YouTube.
  • The young woman at the center of a landmark social media addiction lawsuit testified on Thursday that YouTube and Instagram fueled her depression and suicidal thoughts as a child, a decline in her mental health that the defense attributed to a dysfunctional family and offline troubles.
  • "I was at a young age and I would spend all my time on it," Kaley testified when asked to explain why she thought she was addicted to YouTube.
The young woman at the center of a landmark social media addiction lawsuit testified on Thursday that YouTube and Instagram fueled her depression and suicidal thoughts as a child, a decline in her mental health that the defense attributed to a dysfunctional family and offline troubles.
Visibly nervous in her pink floral dress, Kaley G.M. told jurors that she became hooked on social media, starting with YouTube videos at the age of six.
"I was at a young age and I would spend all my time on it," Kaley testified when asked to explain why she thought she was addicted to YouTube. "Anytime I tried to separate myself from it, it just didn't work."
Even when she was bullied on Instagram, she still stayed on the app. "If I was off, I would just feel like I was missing out."
Under cross examination, however, Kaley talked about feeling neglected, berated and picked on by family members, causing depression and anxiety that had nothing to do with social media.
In the highly anticipated testimony, Kaley's lawyer sought to portray her as an emotionally fragile user who was ensnared as a child by YouTube and Instagram and whose use of those apps caused her lasting harm.
Kaley described scenes from her childhood in which her mother would have her leave her phone in the living room at night, only for her to retrieve it once her mom went to bed and return it before morning.
"I would be really upset," she said, when she was denied access to the apps.
Her lawyer Mark Lanier said court records indicate that on one day she was on Instagram for 16 hours.
She said her mother pushed her into therapy at around age 12, and that during the first session she said she could not engage with her family at home because of "excessive worrying because of social media."
"I stopped engaging with them as much because I was spending all my time on social media," she recalled.
She also described her heavy use of filters on Instagram from a young age to make her eyes bigger and her ears smaller. The jury was shown a video in which she complained about being fat.
Shown a banner featuring dozens of her Instagram pictures, Kaley said "almost all of them have a filter on."
When asked if her life, health, sleep and grades would have been better without social media, Kaley answered: "Yes."
But Kaley was also shown messages from her younger days in which she contended she did not feel safe in her home and was relentlessly yelled at by her mother.

Seeking job in social media

In a surprising twist, Kaley said she would like to become a social media manager and capitalize on the skills she has built since a young age.
Kaley's case is the first of three trials expected in the same court that will help determine whether Google and Meta deliberately designed their platforms to encourage compulsive use among young people, damaging their mental health in the process.
The landmark trial is expected to last until late March, when the jury will decide whether Meta, which owns Instagram, and Google-owned YouTube knowingly designed addictive apps that harmed her mental health.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand last week and pushed back against accusations that his social media company had done too little to keep underage users off his platform and had profited from their presence.
The outcome of the Los Angeles trial is expected to establish a standard for resolving thousands of lawsuits that blame social media for fueling an epidemic of depression, anxiety, eating disorders and suicide among young people.
Similar lawsuits, including some brought by school districts, are making their way through federal court in Northern California and state courts across the country.
rfo-arp-gc/jgc

justice

'A crime scene': US researchers examine unmarked graves of dozens of Black children

BY VICTORIA LAVELLE

  • - 'A crime scene' -  In the 1930s, the state of Maryland took over the facility, after the shooting of a Black minor by a white guard drew national attention.
  • Mark Davis was just 13 years old when he perished in a juvenile detention facility for Black boys in the eastern US state of Maryland some 140 years ago.
  • - 'A crime scene' -  In the 1930s, the state of Maryland took over the facility, after the shooting of a Black minor by a white guard drew national attention.
Mark Davis was just 13 years old when he perished in a juvenile detention facility for Black boys in the eastern US state of Maryland some 140 years ago.
Today, his remains lie in an abandoned graveyard in the woods, covered by dead leaves and snow, along with the graves of some 200 other Black boys and teenagers held in conditions that researchers describe as inhumane.
A team from Georgetown University is investigating their deaths at the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children, a segregated juvenile detention facility in Cheltenham, Maryland, and memorializing them.
Known as the Forgotten Children Initiative, the project aims to document the identities of the children buried here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mostly in unmarked graves, in order to preserve their legacies and locate any living relatives.
"Some of those children that (were) just picked up for just truancy and just never made it back home," said Tyrone Walker, who heads a reintegration program for former inmates at Georgetown. "What did they tell their parents? Or do their parents even know? They probably thought they ran away."
Walker, an African American who in the 1990s was himself a juvenile inmate at Cheltenham, added: "Nobody's been brought to justice. Since this happened to young Black boys, it seemed like nobody cared."
- 'Severely neglected' - 
Opened in 1873, the privately operated detention facility housed petty delinquents and orphans, said Marc Schindler, a professor at Georgetown who leads the project. 
Some were held on loitering charges, while others were detained over their perceived "incorrigibility."
Officially, the buried children were listed as having died of tuberculosis, pneumonia, or exhaustion, between 1877 and 1939. 
All of them were Black, and researchers believe many actually died because they were overworked, underfed and denied proper care.
Crystal Foretia, a former policy administrator at the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services (DJS), said the House of Reformation has a "vast history of physical abuse, forced labor, lack of educational opportunities."
Numerous testimonies, as well as reporting by the Baltimore newspaper the Afro-American, detail the terrible conditions in which these children were incarcerated and made to work in fields.
According to Schindler, two boys who were kept in an unheated cell in freezing temperatures had their legs amputated due to frostbite, something that was not reflected in their death certificates. 
"Now we know that he was very, very severely neglected, if not abused, and that resulted in his death," Schindler said of one of the youths.
Rosie Clark, a Maryland volunteer who did some genealogical research on the Cheltenham burial site, asserts that many official documents were forged.
"These death certificates were filled out by the people who were in charge," she told AFP. "If a child was beaten to death, they're not going to say it on the death certificate."
- 'A crime scene' - 
In the 1930s, the state of Maryland took over the facility, after the shooting of a Black minor by a white guard drew national attention. The modern facility now sits several hundred meters from the original site.
"I had no idea that just across the fence, there was a crime scene," said Walker, the former inmate. "This could have been me in one of those graves."
Nearby, a well-maintained veterans cemetery can be seen, its tombstones decorated with wreaths and flowers.
"They recognize those veterans, rightfully so, but shouldn't these children be recognized and honored in the same way?" Walker asked.
He added: "I definitely want to see a memory project done and see the families involved. Many families never received the closure they deserved."
The Forgotten Children Initiative has already located the descendants of six of the buried children.
Schindler has also identified dozens of similar sites across the United States, including one in Florida that inspired Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize–winning 2020 novel "The Nickel Boys."
But the Maryland site is believed to be the largest in the country.
Maryland's DJS has just received funding to identify how many children were buried at the site and to restore their graves, and a bill has been introduced in the state legislature to create a commission of inquiry into the House of Reformation.
vla/ev/md/jgc

abortion

EU says member states can use bloc's funds for 'safe' abortion access

BY UMBERTO BACCHI

  • "What is historic today is that for the first time, the European Commission is very vocal that European Union funds can be used to guarantee access to safe abortion," Nika Kovac, one of the petition organisers, told a Brussels news conference.
  • The European Commission affirmed Thursday that member states can tap EU funds to pay for safe abortions in answer to a million-strong petition, but stopped short of steps to actively facilitate access across the bloc.
  • "What is historic today is that for the first time, the European Commission is very vocal that European Union funds can be used to guarantee access to safe abortion," Nika Kovac, one of the petition organisers, told a Brussels news conference.
The European Commission affirmed Thursday that member states can tap EU funds to pay for safe abortions in answer to a million-strong petition, but stopped short of steps to actively facilitate access across the bloc.
Responding to the "My Voice, My Choice" campaign, commission vice-president Roxana Minzatu said countries can "voluntarily" draw from existing EU social funds "to support access to abortion care for girls and women in vulnerable situations".
"We wish that every woman can live confidently and freely. This is what member states can commit to, with EU support," said Minzatu, the bloc's commissioner for social rights.
Liberalised across most of the 27-nation bloc, the right to end pregnancies remains severely restricted in some countries -- notably Malta and Poland.
As a consequence, more than 20 million women in the European Union do not have access to safe abortion care, women's rights campaigners say.
Launched last year, the petition urged Brussels to help women from EU countries where abortion is not readily available to undergo the procedure elsewhere in the bloc.
After studying their demands, Brussels said there was no need for new legislation or funding, but that countries could draw from already allocated funds to facilitate travel and access to healthcare for women from other member states seeking to terminate a pregnancy.
Campaigners celebrated the announcement as a victory and a big step forward, despite disappointment it did not allocate new funds for advancing bloc-wide access.
"What is historic today is that for the first time, the European Commission is very vocal that European Union funds can be used to guarantee access to safe abortion," Nika Kovac, one of the petition organisers, told a Brussels news conference.

'Revolutionary'

Rather than requiring changes in national laws, the petitioners had asked Brussels to legislate to set up a financial mechanism to help liberal member states provide abortions to women from other EU countries.
The initiative secured more than one million signatures -- forcing the European Commission to issue a reply outlining the actions it intended to take.
Left-wing EU lawmaker Manon Aubry, while also welcoming Thursday's news, was more vocal in vowing to push the commission for more.
"We're going to fight," she said, "until not a single woman is dying in Europe because she cannot access abortion."
Malta allows abortion only in cases where the mother's life is in danger or the foetus has no chance of survival, whereas in Poland ending a pregnancy is only permitted in cases of rape, incest or if the mother's life is in danger.
Katrine Thomasen of the Center for Reproductive Rights legal advocacy group said it was important that Brussels had outlined how member states could benefit from EU funding to improve access to abortion -- but that further action was needed to turn that into a reality.
"We need the commission to give guidelines to member states about how to develop these programmes, to provide information to patients," she told AFP.
In an interview with AFP ahead of the announcement, the EU's equality commissioner Hadja Lahbib presented the commission's move as "revolutionary". 
"It will change women's lives," she said. "A woman who does not have the means to travel, to buy a train or plane ticket, or to pay for safe healthcare to have a proper abortion, will be able to go anywhere in the European Union". 
ub/raz/cc

death

Canadians are choosing when to die, often with a smile

BY MARION THIBAUT

  • "I don't want my daughters to have to answer the question: 'Do we pull the plug?'"
  • Jacques Poissant's suffering stopped the day he asked his daughter if it would be "cowardly to ask to be helped to die".
  • "I don't want my daughters to have to answer the question: 'Do we pull the plug?'"
Jacques Poissant's suffering stopped the day he asked his daughter if it would be "cowardly to ask to be helped to die".
The retired Canadian insurance adviser was 93, and "was wasting away" after a long battle with prostate cancer.
"He no longer had any zest for life," Josee Poissant told AFP.
Last year her mother made the same choice at 96 when she realised she would not be getting out of hospital.
She died surrounded by her children and their partners listening to the music she loved. "She was at peace. She sang until she went to sleep."
Josee Poissant remembers it as a beautiful and moving moment. "There isn't a good way to die, but for me this was the best" and it was "a privilege to have the time to say goodbye".
- One Canadian in 20 - 
One in 20 Canadians who died in 2023 chose themselves when they would go.
Assisted dying has been legal since 2016 for people at the end of life. The right was extended to those suffering from serious and incurable illness in 2021, even if death was not "reasonably foreseeable."
While Britain and France are considering similar measures, Canada is preparing to go even further.
A parliamentary committee is set to start work next month on whether assisted dying should be extended to those suffering exclusively from mental illness.
Claire Brosseau hopes this will be her final battle. She took her right-to-die case to the courts after struggling for decades with bipolar disorder.
"I've been treated by psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors and 12-steps rehab in Montreal, New York City, Toronto and Los Angeles," she said.
"I've tried antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, benzos, sleeping pills and stimulants, cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy... tai chi, reiki, meditation, veganism, art therapy and music therapy," the former stand-up comedian said.
"There's nothing really that I haven't tried. It's just been too much for too long," she told AFP.
Every day is a trial for the 49-year-old who lives alone with her dog Olive in a little apartment in Toronto.
"I have about 10 to 30 minutes a day where I'm OK. But the rest of it is just terrible," Brosseau said.
She only goes out to walk Olive when the streets are deserted, has very limited contact with her family, no longer sees her friends, and has her groceries delivered. Even her appointments with her psychiatrists are done by video from her neat, minimalist home.
A change in the law would allow her to "go in peace and safety, surrounded by love. It won't be violent. I won't be alone," she said.
- Trivialised 'as therapy' - 
Canada was to allow assisted dying regardless of illness by 2024. But this was pushed back by three years, with the government saying it wanted to make sure that the already overwhelmed mental health system was ready.
Eight out of 10 Canadians support assisted dying, but some worry about widening it further.
The issue has been trivialized to the point of being "presented as a form of therapy", argued Trudo Lemmens, a health law professor at the University of Toronto.
"We have already seen a sharper rise in cases than in other countries" like Belgium and the Netherlands, which pioneered the practice.
"The desire to commit suicide is often an integral part of a psychiatric disorder," and it is extremely difficult to predict how a mental illness will develop, he said.
But Mona Gupta, a psychiatrist who chaired an expert panel that advised the government, insisted "there is no clinical reason to draw a line separating people with mental disorders from those with chronic physical illnesses.
"We are talking about a very small number of people" who have chronic, severe, treatment‑resistant mental disorders, Dr Gupta said.
"We have to acknowledge that there are people who have been ill for decades and have undergone all kinds of treatments, and that the suffering caused by certain mental illnesses is sometimes just as unrelievable as physical pain," she argued.

'Keeping control' to the end

Quebecker Rachel Fournier, who has brain cancer, has just learned that her request to die has been approved.
"When you're suffering, you feel like it's never going to end," the 71-year-old told AFP.
"Knowing that there will be an end, and that I can choose the moment, is an immense relief.
"I'm keeping control over my life even though I can't control what's happening to my body," said the mother of two and grandmother of four as she admired the winter sun on the snow outside her room in a palliative care centre.
Two doctors examined her request, making sure all the criteria required by law were met.
The applicant must be an adult, "have decision-making capacity", suffer from a serious or incurable illness, and "experience constant, unbearable physical or psychological suffering that cannot be relieved under conditions deemed tolerable".
Only then is a doctor authorized to administer the lethal drugs on the date and time the patient has chosen. 
Fournier said she is proud to live in a country that allows patients to decide for themselves. She watched her mother sink into dementia without being able to ask to leave "with dignity", as she had wished, because the law was not yet in force.
"I don't want my daughters to have to answer the question: 'Do we pull the plug?'"

'Celebrate my life'

For weeks now, the former gallerist has been spending part of her days "revisiting my life" through old photo albums, smiling about everything she "had the chance to experience".
She said it's a pity "that society wants to hide aging and death". 
Yet in Canada, more and more families are choosing to turn their loved one's last day into a moment of celebration with music, singing, speeches and a buffet.
"Come celebrate my life," read the invitations one man sent out for his last day on Earth.
Doctors who have accompanied these patients talk of beautiful and moving ceremonies in gardens, a family's vacation cabin by a lake and even on a boat.
Now undertakers are offering dedicated spaces to families.
"We noticed that people were going to hotels or renting Airbnbs," said Mathieu Baker, whose Quebec funeral complex rents out a room overflowing with plants and paintings.
Baker remembered one woman who asked to watch a horror movie one last time before she passed and another who opted for a few final beers and cigarettes. "These are very beautiful moments, very powerful ones," he said.

Don't 'deny my humanity'

"It is often a celebration," confirmed Georges L'Esperance, a doctor who has been providing assisted dying since the early days.
"Thanks to medicine, we have added years to people's lives, but not always life to those years," he said.
"The decision to end life must rest with the patient," he argued, adding that medical paternalism long ago took a back seat in Canada.
Claire Brosseau rails against the idea that people with mental illness are incapable of making informed decisions. "We're allowed to get married, write a will, make decisions that affect our entire lives. But not this one?"
She wants to be recognized as a whole person, capable of deciding, worthy of compassion and respect. "To deny me this right is to deny my humanity," she said.
tib/dp/fg/phz

health

15 states sue Trump administration over child vaccine policy

  • Vaccine skepticism has risen in the United States since Trump returned to the presidency 13 months ago. 
  • Fifteen Democratic-run US states announced Tuesday they are suing President Donald Trump's administration over its reduction in the number of recommended pediatric vaccines, which they criticize as contrary to science.
  • Vaccine skepticism has risen in the United States since Trump returned to the presidency 13 months ago. 
Fifteen Democratic-run US states announced Tuesday they are suing President Donald Trump's administration over its reduction in the number of recommended pediatric vaccines, which they criticize as contrary to science.
The reform, announced in January by the US Department of Health and Human Services led by long-time vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr, means the country is no longer recommending that every child receive immunizations against several diseases, including rotavirus, influenza and Covid-19.
Instead the seven vaccines in question are being recommended only for those children at particular risk, a move that upends years of scientifically backed recommendations that reduced disease with routine shots.
"Secretary RFK Jr. and his CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) are flouting decades of scientific research, ignoring credible medical experts, and threatening to strain state resources and make America's children sicker," California Attorney General Rob Bonta, leading the lawsuit with his Arizona counterpart, said at a press conference.
Kennedy is named as a defendant, along with the CDC and Department of Health and Human Services.
The other vaccines stripped of their universally recommended status are for hepatitis A, meningococcal disease, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and the highly infectious hepatitis B virus.

'Leaves kids unprotected'

Washington's reorientation of the childhood vaccination schedule has raised concerns within the medical community. 
The Trump administration justified its actions last month by saying it was putting the US vaccination policies more in line with those of other countries, citing Denmark as an example.
Some health experts point to Denmark as being a small, homogeneous country with a low prevalence of disease and a centralized health care system that guarantees universal access to care.
Such conditions do not apply to the United States, where the largely privatized health care system is less comprehensive than in northern Europe and has left millions of Americans uninsured.
"Copying Denmark's vaccine schedule without copying Denmark's health care system doesn't give families more options -- it just leaves kids unprotected from serious diseases," Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said at the press conference.
Vaccine skepticism has risen in the United States since Trump returned to the presidency 13 months ago. 
Vaccination rates have been declining since the Covid pandemic, raising fears of a resurgence in deadly and contagious diseases like measles.
The issue has become deeply political, with California Governor Gavin Newsom, a fierce Trump critic and potential 2028 presidential candidate, weighing in.
"California is going back to court because the Trump administration is violating federal law and pushing a reckless, unscientific childhood vaccine schedule that puts kids' lives at risk," Newsom said in a statement. 
The 58-year-old Democrat said undermining confidence in vaccines will lead to lower vaccination rates and more cases of infectious disease.
Other states filing the lawsuit include Colorado, Michigan, New Jersey and Wisconsin.
rfo/eml/mlm/jgc

health

Post-it maker 3M on trial in Belgium over 'forever' chemicals

BY MATTHIEU DEMEESTERE

  • Often called forever chemicals as they take an extremely long time to break down, PFAS are human-made chemicals that repel heat, water and oil, and are used in nonstick pans, stain-proof carpets, and other products. 
  • Belgians living near a 3M plant called for justice Tuesday at the opening of a trial against the US multinational maker of Post-it and Scotch tape over pollution from so-called forever chemicals.
  • Often called forever chemicals as they take an extremely long time to break down, PFAS are human-made chemicals that repel heat, water and oil, and are used in nonstick pans, stain-proof carpets, and other products. 
Belgians living near a 3M plant called for justice Tuesday at the opening of a trial against the US multinational maker of Post-it and Scotch tape over pollution from so-called forever chemicals.
Hundreds of people are demanding almost 30 million euros ($35 million) in total in potential damages in the latest in a series of legal cases worldwide centring on the harm caused by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
"Those responsible must take responsibility. A company can't pollute and not care, take the profits and leave; it's not possible," Petra Praet, one of the plaintiffs, told AFP upon arriving at the hearing in Antwerp.
Abnormal levels of groundwater and soil pollution were detected near a 3M site in Zwijndrecht, outside the port city, in 2021.
A blood-sampling campaign later confirmed that hundreds of people living nearby had been exposed to very high concentrations of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), a member of the PFAS family used as a waterproofing agent.
3M said it has not produced PFAS at the plant inaugurated in the 1970s since 2024 and has launched a soil remediation operation in the area.
But Geert Lenssens, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said about 1,400 locals are seeking 20,000 euros each in compensation in anticipation of future needs, accusing the US group of "excessive neighbourhood disturbances".
"An illness can take several decades to develop, as we saw with asbestos," Lenssens said, adding his clients' properties in the area also stood to lose value.
- Human-made chemicals - 
Many of the plaintiffs huddled in the small courtroom, where a judge is to hear the case over three days. 
An elderly couple sitting in the first row said they expected an apology from 3M, complaining about health issues. 
"It's poison that we received in our garden, in our blood, in our bodies," added Praet, who has lived less than two kilometres from the plant for 25 years.
Along with her two children, she was among the locals who underwent blood testing. She said she has since stopped eating the eggs from her hens and abandoned plans for a vegetable garden, in accordance with the recommendation of local authorities.
The case follows the successful lawsuit brought by another local family against 3M before the same court, according to Lenssens.
A verdict is not expected before a month.
Often called forever chemicals as they take an extremely long time to break down, PFAS are human-made chemicals that repel heat, water and oil, and are used in nonstick pans, stain-proof carpets, and other products. 
They are increasingly being restricted across the world due to adverse health effects. 
Chronic exposure to even low levels has been linked to liver damage, high cholesterol, reduced immune responses, low birth weights and several kinds of cancer. 
3M told AFP it is currently carrying out a large-scale clean-up operation in Zwijndrecht, following a 2022 agreement with local authorities, under which the firm committed to spending half a billion euros on remediation measures.
The company, which has also been sued in the United States over its use of PFAS, said it would end all PFAS manufacturing by the end of 2025. 
mad/ub/ec/rl

Greenland

Healthcare crisis looms over Greenland's isolated villages

BY FLORENT VERGNES

  • The lack of regular check-ups means that diseases such as cancers -- the leading cause of mortality in Greenland -- are often detected late.
  • The Greenlandic settlement of Kapisillit has no defibrillator -- which, given it is only accessible via a two-hour boat ride or by helicopter, means that if you go into cardiac arrest while there, you could be in real trouble.
  • The lack of regular check-ups means that diseases such as cancers -- the leading cause of mortality in Greenland -- are often detected late.
The Greenlandic settlement of Kapisillit has no defibrillator -- which, given it is only accessible via a two-hour boat ride or by helicopter, means that if you go into cardiac arrest while there, you could be in real trouble.
"It would be too late" by the time help arrives, village leader Heidi Nolso -- who is fighting to bring in the much-needed medical device for the 35 inhabitants -- told AFP.
The situation facing Kapisillit underscores the challenges to the healthcare system in the vast Arctic island, recently called out by US President Donald Trump.
On Saturday Trump -- who has backed off threats to seize the autonomous Danish territory, but still insists it must come under US control for security reasons -- proposed sending a "great hospital boat" to Greenland.
It would provide care to the "many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there".
The proposal was soundly rejected by Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nelson and by Copenhagen, both touting Greenland's free public healthcare system. 
Nevertheless, Trump's statements touched "a sensitive nerve," Greenland's Health Minister Anna Wangenheim acknowledged in a post to Facebook.
"Many citizens have experienced that serious illness means long and difficult journeys away from family and home," she said -- though she added that such "structural challenges are not solved by isolated, symbolic initiatives from the outside."
There are five regional hospitals across Greenland, which is home to just 57,000 people but is roughly the size of western Europe. The hospital in the capital Nuuk serves patients from all over the territory.
But for the 35 residents of Kapisillit, getting to that care is an obstacle course.
The village does have a medical office -- but it has stood empty for months due to lack of staff, and traveling to receive care elsewhere is expensive.
A trip to Nuuk on the weekly shuttle costs over $100, and the average price for a night in a hotel in the capital is in the same range.
The lack of regular check-ups means that diseases such as cancers -- the leading cause of mortality in Greenland -- are often detected late.
Nolso, who suffers from high blood pressure, does her own medical follow-ups.
"I know that I should have blood samples taken, but no one is checking up on me," the leader, who is in her 40s, said. 
– Rifles to prevent rabies –
Kaaleeraq Ringsted, the catechist of the tiny parish, lives alone at 74. 
His teeth are in very poor condition and, as he ages, he knows the risk of cancer and other diseases is increasing.
Doctor consultations only take place via online video calls. Those who don't have internet access make use of the small town hall.
Once a year, a dentist comes to visit, but many dental procedures are not covered by the universal healthcare. 
Wangenheim says one of the primary challenges is the "recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals".
For Nolso, the requirement to master Danish in order to work in the healthcare system makes it harder for foreign doctors to come and help make up for the shortfall.
The problems are compounded by an exodus towards cities by young people, leaving remote settlements such as Kapisillit disproportionately populated by older people. 
Wangenheim has conceded there is a "significant backlog in Greenland's healthcare system," estimated at about one billion kroner ($158 million).
The island "needs long-term capacity building, stronger local services, and investments that reduce inequality" in relation to Denmark, she said.
Official statistics show that life expectancy on the Arctic island is 69.6 years for men and 73.5 for women -- far lower than in Denmark, where people on average live 10 years longer.
But Wangenheim also said that funding has been secured for those improvements, and work is "well underway". 
In the meantime, residents of villages such as Kapisillit do what they can to prevent disease. 
In a village where nature and the outdoors form the backbone of daily life, for example, few people are vaccinated against rabies.
Instead, residents walk around with rifles, ready to shoot any wildlife exhibiting odd behaviour.
fv/cbw/jll/st

US

'No thanks': Greenland, Denmark reject Trump's hospital ship offer

  • "President Trump's idea to send a US hospital ship here to Greenland has been duly noted.
  • Denmark and its territory Greenland on Sunday rejected Donald Trump's offer to send a naval hospital ship to the Arctic island coveted by the US leader. 
  • "President Trump's idea to send a US hospital ship here to Greenland has been duly noted.
Denmark and its territory Greenland on Sunday rejected Donald Trump's offer to send a naval hospital ship to the Arctic island coveted by the US leader. 
A day earlier, Trump said he was sending "a great hospital boat to Greenland to take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there".
But Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who heads the autonomous territory's government, wrote on his Facebook page: "That will be 'no thanks' from us."
"President Trump's idea to send a US hospital ship here to Greenland has been duly noted. But we have a public health system where care is free for citizens," he said.
"This is not the case in the United States, where going to the doctor costs money."
Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen likewise told Danish broadcaster DR: "The Greenlandic population receives the healthcare it needs. They receive it either in Greenland, or, if they require specialised treatment, they receive it in Denmark."
He added: "It's not as if there's a need for a special healthcare initiative in Greenland."
On the day that Trump made his proposal, Danish forces evacuated a crew member of a US submarine off the coast of Greenland's capital Nuuk after the sailor requested urgent medical attention. 
Denmark's Joint Arctic Command said in a post on Facebook that the crew member was flown to a hospital in Nuuk after an unspecified medical emergency on board the vessel.

AI-generated hospital ship

In Greenland, as in Denmark, access to healthcare is free for citizens. There are five regional hospitals across the vast Arctic island, with the one in the capital Nuuk serving patients from all over the territory.
Without explicitly mentioning the US proposal, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she was "happy to live in a country where access to healthcare is free and equal for all. Where insurance or wealth does not determine whether one receives dignified treatment".
Trump, in his Truth Social message on Saturday about the hospital ship, posted an AI-generated image of a US Navy medical vessel, USNS Mercy. 
"It's on the way!!!" he added.
It was not immediately clear if that meant he was deploying that ship to Greenland.
The US president indicated the deployment was being carried out in coordination with Jeff Landry, appointed in December as the US Special Envoy to the Arctic island.
Aaja Chemnitz, who represents Greenland in the Danish Parliament, wrote on Facebook that, while Greenland's health system had its share of problems, they were best resolved through cooperation with Denmark.
Denmark, she noted, "is one of the wealthiest and most educated countries, for example in the field of healthcare," contrasting it with "the United States, which has its own healthcare system problems".
Earlier this month, Greenland signed an agreement with Copenhagen to improve the treatment of Greenlandic patients in Danish hospitals. 
Denmark's central bank had warned in January that the Arctic island's public finances were under pressure from demographic trends, pointing to its ageing population and shrinking workforce. 

'New normal'

Trump has repeatedly said he believes the United States must control Greenland to ensure US national security.
Earlier threats he made to seize the territory, by force if necessary, have ebbed since he struck a "framework" deal with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to ensure greater US influence.
The defence minister, Lund Poulsen, told DR he was not aware of a possible arrival of the suggested US hospital ship. 
"Trump is constantly tweeting about Greenland. So this is undoubtedly an expression of the new normal that has taken hold in international politics," he said. 
Meanwhile, in Nuuk, where a third of the island's 57,000 inhabitants live, people are tired of the US president's repeated jabs. 
"I don't care," a man said under sparse, icy snowfall when asked by AFP about Trump's recent remarks, while most people avoided journalists' questions. 
cbw/thm/rh/sbk

US

Greenland does not need US hospital ship: Danish minister

  • Separately, early on Saturday Denmark's Arctic Command announced that it had evacuated a crew member of a US submarine off the coast of Nuuk after the sailor requested urgent medical attention.  
  • Denmark on Sunday rejected a US claim that Greenland needs healthcare help, on the same day its forces evacuate a US sailor from a submarine off the coast of the Arctic island for medical treatment. 
  • Separately, early on Saturday Denmark's Arctic Command announced that it had evacuated a crew member of a US submarine off the coast of Nuuk after the sailor requested urgent medical attention.  
Denmark on Sunday rejected a US claim that Greenland needs healthcare help, on the same day its forces evacuate a US sailor from a submarine off the coast of the Arctic island for medical treatment. 
A day earlier, US President Donald Trump said he was sending a hospital ship to the autonomous Danish territory that he covets.
But Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told Danish broadcaster DR: "The Greenlandic population receives the healthcare it needs. They receive it either in Greenland, or, if they require specialised treatment, they receive it in Denmark."
He added: "It's not as if there's a need for a special healthcare initiative in Greenland."
In Greenland, as in Denmark, access to healthcare is free. There are five regional hospitals across the vast Arctic island, with the one in the capital Nuuk serving patients from all over the territory.
Without explicitly mentioning the US proposal, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she was "happy to live in a country where access to healthcare is free and equal for all. Where insurance or wealth does not determine whether one receives dignified treatment."
Separately, early on Saturday Denmark's Arctic Command announced that it had evacuated a crew member of a US submarine off the coast of Nuuk after the sailor requested urgent medical attention.  

AI-generated hospital ship

Trump, in his Truth Social message on Saturday proposing a hospital ship, posted an AI-generated image of a US Navy medical vessel, USNS Mercy. 
It was not immediately clear if that meant he was deploying that ship to Greenland.
"We are going to send a great hospital boat to Greenland to take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there," Trump wrote.
"It's on the way!!!" he added.
 The US president indicated the deployment was being carried out in coordination with Jeff Landry, appointed in December as the US Special Envoy to the Arctic island.
Greenland already has five regional hospitals, with the one in the capital Nuuk serving the whole territory, whose population is 57,000.
Aaja Chemnitz, who represents Greenland in the Danish Parliament, wrote on Facebook that while Greenland's health system had its share of problems, they were best resolved through cooperation with Denmark -- "which is one of the wealthiest and most educated countries, for example in the field of healthcare. Not with the United States, which has its own healthcare system problems."
Trump has repeatedly said he believes the United States must control Greenland to ensure US national security.
Earlier threats he made to seize the territory, by force if necessary, have ebbed since he struck a "framework" deal with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to ensure greater US influence.
The defence minister, Lund Poulsen, told DR he was not aware of a possible arrival of the suggested US hospital ship. 
"Trump is constantly tweeting about Greenland. So this is undoubtedly an expression of the new normal that has taken hold in international politics," he said. 
cbw/thm/gv/rmb

science

New study probes why chronic pain lasts longer in women

BY MAGGY DONALDSON AND CHARLOTTE CAUSIT IN WASHINGTON

  • For decades women were excluded from clinical trials, and most pain studies analyzing animals only used males, Midavaine noted -- a medical bias that operated on the notion that female hormones created "too much variability."
  • To all the women who've heard the frustrating "it's all in your head" in response to medical maladies, a new study out Friday feels your pain.
  • For decades women were excluded from clinical trials, and most pain studies analyzing animals only used males, Midavaine noted -- a medical bias that operated on the notion that female hormones created "too much variability."
To all the women who've heard the frustrating "it's all in your head" in response to medical maladies, a new study out Friday feels your pain.
Research published in the journal Science Immunology shows that women actually do experience exacerbated chronic pain compared to men -- a gap that can be explained by biological differences in the immune system.
"The pain of women has been overlooked in clinical practice," lead author Geoffroy Laumet told AFP, "with the idea that it's more in the mind, or that it's because women are softer and more emotional."
"But here, our study shows that the difference is real... it's not a social construct. It has a real biological mechanism that is behind it."
Pain occurs when neurons react to stimuli: stubbing your toe, or tripping and skinning your knee, for example. 
But chronic pain persists with mild to no stimulation -- and women constitute 60 to 70 percent of the patients experiencing it, Laumet said.
The scientist at Michigan State University said his team set out to explore how hormone-regulated immune cells, known as monocytes, impacted pain resolution.
Researchers learned those monocytes play a key role in communicating with the neurons that sense pain -- and then working to shut down those pain-sensing neurons by producing the anti-inflammatory interleukin 10, or IL-10.
Their studies weren't originally aimed at exploring potential differences related to sex, but the data was clear: it took longer for pain to resolve in female mice, and the monocytes producing IL-10 were less active in them.
Those cells are more active in males, according to the study, which cited higher levels of sex hormones like testosterone as an explanation why.
Laumet is hopeful the new research could open new doors to improved pain treatment.
In the long-term, he said research can probe how to stimulate the monocytes and boost IL-10 production to "enhance the body's ability to resolve pain."
And in the short-term, he sees the potential for topical testosterone to prove a viable option to alleviate localized suffering.

'More equitable care'

Elora Midavaine -- a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco who also studies chronic pain -- told AFP the new study adds "important nuance" to how we understand the interactions of hormones and the immune system, and their influence on pain.
Midavaine, who was not involved in the study, said it fits into a broader movement focused on intersections of neuroscience with both immunology and endocrinology -- an approach she said "has potential to advance our understanding of chronic pain in women."
Laumet said he hopes that improved understanding and potential new treatment avenues could reduce prescriptions of opioid painkillers, which have high risks of side effects and addiction.
And more broadly, both researchers voiced optimism that as our knowledge of women's health improves, they will receive better treatment.
"I hope that we can contribute to erase this common idea that women's pain is exaggerated," Laumet said. "The standard of care should be adapted to the sex."
But why has it taken so long to begin understanding the bodies of half the population?
For decades women were excluded from clinical trials, and most pain studies analyzing animals only used males, Midavaine noted -- a medical bias that operated on the notion that female hormones created "too much variability."
Diagnosis of pain relies almost wholly on reporting from patients -- and the symptoms of women are "often interpreted as emotional or mood-driven rather than rooted in biology," Midavaine said.
But "the landscape is changing," Midavaine said. "As the science advances, I believe it will help shift outdated cultural beliefs and lead to more equitable care for women."
mdo/msp