Reporters Pick Their Favorite Global Stories Of The Decade - Capital Public Radio News
Reporters Pick Their Favorite Global Stories Of The Decade - Capital Public Radio News |
- Reporters Pick Their Favorite Global Stories Of The Decade - Capital Public Radio News
- The year in health - New Straits Times
- Travel Alerts Issued for Africa’s Dengue Outbreaks - Vax Before Travel
- Polio makes a 'comeback', 27 years after eradication - New Straits Times
| Reporters Pick Their Favorite Global Stories Of The Decade - Capital Public Radio News Posted: 31 Dec 2019 11:22 AM PST It was quite a decade. Ebola swept through Africa as never before – and has returned again just this past year. Polio was almost wiped out – but not quite. The issue of menstruation became a headline topic. And a selfie debate began --- what are the ethics of posing for pictures in developing countries. Our global health and development blog, Goats and Soda, did not start until 2014, but many of our contributors have been on their global beats for the full decade. We asked them to pick one story from the 2010s that was a personal favorite – and that captured a pivotal moment in global health and development. Here are their selections. Jason Beaubien: Taliban In Pakistan Derail World Polio Eradication (July 28, 2014) If I had to choose one of my pieces it would be this one from 2014 — about the Taliban's efforts to stop polio vaccine teams in Pakistan. In the multibillion-dollar effort to wipe polio off the face of the planet, the persistence of the virus in Pakistan remains a primary obstacle to success. That was true in 2014 and is still true today. In fact, this year, the number of cases in that country has spiked dramatically. There were eight in 2018; the total in 2019 is 101. Ben de la Cruz: Life After Death: The World Is Starting To Forget About Ebola. The Village Of Barkedu Can't (February 20, 2015) NPR was one of the first U.S. media organizations on the ground in West Africa after the Ebola outbreak of 2014-15. Our teams of reporters and photographers filed more than 200 stories and won a Peabody award for their efforts. Ben de la Cruz, the lead visuals editor for our Ebola coverage, selected this story because its photos and text (by NPR's John Poole with additional images by freelancer Tommy Trenchard) and audio (by NPR's Sami Yenigun) offer an intimate look at a town ravaged by the virus. The story of Barkedu serves as a reminder that epidemics don't end after the last case: A catastrophic outbreak can cause trauma and disruption that affects the lives of survivors and their families for years to come. Nurith Aizenman: People Are Finally Talking About The Thing Nobody Wants To Talk About (June 16, 2015) The premise of this story — that talking about menstruation is a big taboo — seems almost quaint today. But at the time – almost the exact midpoint of this past decade – it was still rare for the media to cover the difficulties that girls and women in low-income countries face around managing their periods, let alone how these difficulties might hampering their ability to get an education or well-paying work. Back then even many global health advocates were, at best, oblivious to the issue and, at worst, squeamish about exploring it. The reader response to this piece offered a hint of the change that was brewing. It was among the most widely read stories in Goats and Soda history. And over the ensuing months the topic of menstruation burst into the public discourse in such a big and varied way that by year's end NPR's health team declared 2015 "The Year of the Period." Since then activism on this topic has only accelerated — including campaigns to lift taxes on menstrual products across the United States, end bans in India that prevent menstruating women from entering temples and stop the practice in Nepal of requiring girls to wait out their periods in "menstrual sheds." Early this year a movie about tampons even won the Oscar for best documentary short. Rhitu Chatterjee: So Maybe Washington, D.C., Should Ask Delhi How To Run A Metro System (March 17, 2016) Back in 2016, the Washington D.C. metro was shut down for about a day for critical maintenance work. My editor emailed me – I was living in New Delhi at the time — to ask if there was a story to write about metro rail systems in India. I jumped on the assignment because I'd been looking for an excuse to write about the Delhi metro. The New Delhi metro system is a great example of how stories about developing countries don't have to be about things that are terrible, like disease, corruption, violence, pollution. Developing countries often innovate to solve their own problems, and sometimes, their creativity and innovation far outpaces what's happening in the West. Tim McDonnell: How Water Gets From The Nile To Thirsty Refugees (April 2, 2017) In early 2017, northern Uganda was the setting of one of the world's fastest-growing refugee crises, as hundreds of thousands of people fled civil war in neighboring South Sudan. When they reached safety in Uganda, there was a new challenge: the lack of access to water. As aid workers struggled to drill wells and truck water in from the Nile River, refugees like Leya Jogo, a schoolteacher supporting several children, waited in line all day, every day, for a few gallons for cooking, drinking and bathing. This profile touched on two key challenges of the decade: The unprecedented number of displaced people globally, and the growing specter of water shortages. Leya's story touched me deeply on a personal level. I became much more conscious of my own water consumption. The day I finished reporting this story, I went back to my hotel, which didn't have running water, and was handed a bucket of water. I used half of it just for a shower. Leya would have spent all day searching for that much water. That was a humbling moment. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton: To Save Her Children, She Pretended To Be Crazy (October 14, 2017) Ingenuity, inspiration, an elaborate ruse and a touch of madness. That is what it took for Zainabu Hamayaji to protect her family from Boko Haram. Her husband was killed by the terror network. And then the 47-year-old mother of 10 — four biological and six orphaned children ranging from age 5 to 15 — had to feign insanity to keep the insurgents away. Her story speaks to the great pain inflicted by terrorists — but it's not just a tale of suffering. It's a reminder that even in the face of terrible events, which were all too frequent in the 2010s, the human spirit is truly, deeply resilient. Malaka Gharib: Volunteering Abroad? Read This Before You Post That Selfie (November 26, 2017) One of my favorite (and most popular) stories explored a guide on how to take ethical selfies while volunteering in low-income countries. Created by a group of international development students and academics in Norway, the guide urges people to think before they post photos of themselves with those they are trying to help – especially children – warning that these images perpetuate the idea that only Western aid, charity and intervention can save the world. The how-to clearly resonated with NPR readers, pulling in more than 1.3 million views. But what I liked about the story most is that it reflects changing attitudes about how volunteers should act in these parts of the world – and a willingness to show respect to the places they visit. Kamala Thiagarajan: In Interviews With 122 Rapists, Student Pursues Not So Simple Question: Why? (December 16, 2017) As a woman, living in India, I've given great thought to my country's struggle to deal with the rising number of rape cases. Since 2012, India has been engaged in meaningful conversations about how to keep women safe. Our laws have been strengthened and so have our punishments, and yet, we're still reeling under reports of violent rapes. This story, in which a young woman tries to assess the mindset of the rapist, without judgement and condemnation, holds some key answers as to why rape occurs. What are the ingredients that brew the personality of the rapist? Criminal reform should be an important conversation in the decades ahead. It matters when it comes to keeping our communities and our women safer. Michaeleen Doucleff: Is There A Ticking Time Bomb Under The Arctic? (January 24, 2018) To do this story, I walked through a door to a red shed a short drive north of Fairbanks, Alaska, and came face-to-face with a ticking time bomb. The door leads to a tunnel that goes 1,000 feet deep so scientists can study the potential risks posed by permafrost that thaws out. As the temperature at some permafrost sites rises because of climate change, ancient bacteria, frozen for 25,000 years, could come back alive again "given the right environmental conditions," said my guide, Dr. Thomas Douglas, a geochemist at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I hope that this story had an impact on the way people think about the Arctic and climate change. And it doesn't look as if the temperature will dip in the near future. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has reported: "Arctic shows no sign of returning to reliably frozen region of recent past decades." Marc Silver: How Can A Burden Be A Joy? Ask A Community Health Worker (April 29, 2018) Community health workers play a vital role in health care but are an underappreciated group. In fact, people may not quite understand who they are. They're not certified medical professionals. They may have only a high school education, if that. And they are vital to keeping a community informed and healthy, whether during a crisis like Ebola or the day-to-day tasks of making sure kids get vaccinated and people are treated for diseases. Consolata Agunga, a community health worker in her Kenyan village, sums up her work: "I feel good because I have the burden of serving my people." Susan Brink: A Promising Anti-HIV Drug Poses A Dilemma (April 19, 2019) The story I'd select is about the HIV drug dolutegravir — a breakthrough that is changing the face of AIDS. But because a very small number of women taking the drug had babies with severe birth defects, it's not being given to women of childbearing age in poor countries where there may not be access to reliable birth control. Because dolutegravir is so undeniably good at not only treating HIV patients but controlling the spread of disease, countries in the years ahead will have no choice but to beef up their health systems so that young women can obtain reliable birth control that will enable them to take dolutegravir. The two go hand-in-hand: a gold standard AIDS drug and reliable birth control. Share with us: What was your favorite Goats and Soda story this decade? Email us at goatsandsoda@npr.org and your response may be featured in our weekly newsletter. Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDA2Mjc5MzcwMDEyODc3ODU1ODgyZGI5MA001))  |
| The year in health - New Straits Times Posted: 30 Dec 2019 05:35 PM PST Kasmiah Mustapha looks back at the issues that made headlines in 2019. THE year has seen many health issues plaguing the country and while some of them are not new — such as the rise of non- communicable diseases and obesity — a few incidences did make headlines, capturing public attention. Earlier this month, news that polio has returned shocked everyone because Malaysia had been declared polio-free since 2000. The return of this vaccine-preventable disease raised the question of making vaccination compulsory. This year also saw the worst haze crisis since 2015. For two months, the whole country was blanketed by thick smoke that caused some areas to be categorised as hazardous. Here's a closer look at some of the health issues that made headlines in 2019. POLIO RETURNS On Dec 8, the first case of polio after 27 years was confirmed. A 3-month-old baby in Tuaran, Sabah, developed fever and paralysis and tests conducted by the World Health Organisation's Regional Polio Reference Laboratory in Melbourne, Australia, confirmed that the poliovirus was the cause of the child's illness. The baby was infected by a rare strain of poliovirus called circulating vaccine-derived polio Type 1. According to WHO, these polio viruses only occur if a population is seriously under-immunised. The strain in this case is genetically linked to the ongoing poliovirus circulation in the southern Philippines, which declared an outbreak of polio on Sept 19. Tuaran has several settlements of Filipino immigrants, some of whom have been living there since the 1970s. In a bid to prevent the spread of infectious diseases such as polio, Malaysia will vaccinate overseas visitors in the country. The Health Ministry is seeking cooperation from Unicef to get subsidised vaccine supplies, and plans to work with the Philippines to secure less expensive treatment. Some 20 to 30 per cent of overseas visitors, especially in Sabah and Sarawak, enter the country without screening, which can result in the return of more infectious diseases. HAZE CRISIS Between August and September, Malaysians breathed in toxic air — smoke from open fires in Indonesia. The hazy conditions worsened to levels not seen since 2015. Many areas recorded Air Pollution Index (API) readings of between unhealthy, very unhealthy and hazardous. A reading of between 101 and 200 is categorised as unhealthy, 201 until 300 is very unhealthy, while 300 and above is hazardous / dangerous. One of the worst hit areas was Sri Aman in Sarawak, which recorded its highest API at 36 — well into the hazardous range. Schools were closed and flights were cancelled due to the haze. It was reported that haze-related illnesses such as conjunctivitis, asthma, respiratory infections and rashes soared by 40 per cent nationwide. Areas with higher API readings have more frequent cases of respiratory infections, conjunctivitis and skin rashes. The trans-boundary haze, which has become an almost annual crisis since 1997, brings a potentially carcinogenic cocktail of chemicals including carbon monoxide, cyanide and formaldehyde. MENTAL HEALTH With one in three Malaysians having mental health problems, the challenges are to ensure they get early diagnosis and proper treatment. Mental illness is projected to be the second biggest health issue affecting Malaysians next year. To help tackle this, a mental health handbook has been introduced by the Health Ministry that provides information on how to recognise early warning signs and symptoms of mental illness, as well as the treatment and management of the ailment. The handbook, developed by a private-public partnership, is written for easy reading and supplemented with visuals. It touches on four mental disorders — depression, anxiety, bipolar and schizophrenia. It includes information on how to reach out to someone with mental health problems, steps to manage one's mental well being and a directory on mental health services in Malaysia. BEST HEALTHCARE Malaysia's healthcare received first ranking in the Best Healthcare in the World category in the 2019 International Living Annual Global Retirement Index. According to the International Living website, Malaysia scored 95 out of 100 for its healthcare services and infrastructure. It said of the 13 hospitals in the country accredited by the Joint Commission International, almost all doctors were trained in the United Kingdom, United States or Australia, and are fluent in English. This has also led to Malaysia being the top medical tourism destination, according to the report. Affordable healthcare is another positive point for the country as expatriates can choose either private or public hospitals. While more expensive, the treatment in private hospitals was still affordable, the report said. DRUG DECRIMINALISATION The government has proposed decriminalising drug addiction and possession for personal use. Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the significant game-changing policy will help the country battle drug addiction. He said drug addiction is a complex, relapsing medical condition and throwing an addict in jail will not cure him/her. Drug decriminalisation is the next step towards achieving a rational drug policy that puts science and public health before punishment and incarceration, he added. However, he stressed that the move is not about legalising drugs as drug trafficking will remain a crime. While there is no date yet on when the policy will be in place, it was announced in October that a committee will be be formed to speed up the process. The committee will be spearheaded by the Home Ministry and the Youth and Sports Ministry. Malaysia's penalties for drug possession are among the world's most severe. A person in possession of 200g of cannabis, 1kg of opium, 40g of cocaine, or 15g of heroin or morphine faces being charged with drug trafficking, which carries the death penalty. Currently most of the 70,000 prisoners in jails are drug addicts. More than 1,200 prisoners on death row were convicted of drug crimes.  |
| Travel Alerts Issued for Africa’s Dengue Outbreaks - Vax Before Travel Posted: 31 Dec 2019 11:08 AM PST  The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Level 1 Travel Alert regarding various Dengue outbreaks in Africa. On December 23, 2019, the CDC's 'Practice Usual Precaution' Travel Alert said 'the countries listed below are reporting higher-than-usual numbers of dengue cases, and travelers visiting these countries may be at increased risk: The CDC said in the Travel Alert 'because dengue is spread by mosquito bites, all travelers to risk areas should prevent mosquito bites by using an EPA-registered insect repellent, wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants when outdoors, and sleeping in an air-conditioned room or room with window screens or under an insecticide-treated bed net.' Moreover, there is no specific treatment for dengue, but early detection and access to proper medical care lowers fatality rates to below 1 percent, says the CDC. Dengue is common in more than 100 countries around the world, with about 3 billion people living in areas with a risk of contracting dengue. Dengue disease can take up to 2 weeks to develop with illness generally lasting less than a week. > Dengue Testing at UltaLabs < The health effects of dengue include fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, rash, muscle and joint pain, and minor bleeding. Dengue can become severe within a few hours. Sponsored Links: Severe Dengue is a medical emergency, usually requiring hospitalization. In severe cases, health effects can include hemorrhage, shock, organ failure, and death says the CDC. On December 26, 2019, a new study reported the 'screen and vaccinate' strategy is more effective in reducing the number of hospitalized and Severe Dengue cases. Regarding diagnosing a potential dengue patient, the CDC suggests healthcare providers should review the patient's past medical history, recent travel history. The Dengvaxia vaccine is the only approved dengue vaccine in the USA and in about 20 other countries. Dengvaxia is indicated for the prevention of dengue disease caused by dengue virus serotypes 1, 2, 3 and 4. The CDC suggests anyone considering a dengue vaccination should first speak with a qualified healthcare provider. Previously, the CDC issued travel notices regarding various disease outbreaks in Africa, such as the following: Dengue vaccine news is published by Vax-Before-Travel  |
| Polio makes a 'comeback', 27 years after eradication - New Straits Times Posted: 08 Dec 2019 12:00 AM PST KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported its first polio case in nearly three decades today, after a three-month-old boy from Tuaran, Sabah was confirmed with the disease on Friday. Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah regretfully announced the resurgence of the highly infectious viral disease in Malaysia today, 27 years after it was eradicated. "The infant who was admitted with a high fever is in the intensive care unit in a hospital and he is confirmed as being infected with vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1 (VDPV1) on Friday." He said lab tests by the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that the virus has a genetic affiliation with the polio virus that was traced in the Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) case in the Philippines. "The patient is still being treated in the isolation ward and is stable. But he still needs help with breathing, we hope the public and the media will not disturb the health personnel in the hospital while their doing their job and treating the disease," said Dr Noor Hisham while declining to name the facility the child was at. He said VDPV1 is from "circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus" or from the polio virus which has been weakened by the polio vaccine and is disposed from the human body through feces. "In unsanitary surroundings it can infect others who do not have immunity towards polio and spread in communities where immunization is under 95 per cent. It genetically mutates and becomes active, aggravated by the length of time it spreads in the community. "This virus is called VDPV and can cause poliomyelitis. Those who have been vaccinated for poliomyelitis will however be protected from infection." Dr Noor Hisham further said that the search for AFP cases, a proxy to polio, was done at the child's residential area. "Until Dec 5, 646 people were tested and none with AFP were found. Investigations are however ongoing by taking stool samples from those who were in close contact with the child as well. We are also taking samples from the area's surroundings." He said that for now the Health Ministry would continue vaccination exercises in the area and other risk areas to ensure that immunization is above the rate of 95 per cent. Dr Noor Hisham reminded Malaysians that polio spreads through the fecal oral route and urged the public to get treatment at health facilities if they display AFP symptoms. Malaysia's last polio case was in 1992, before it was declared polio-free in 2000 together with other Western Pacific region countries.  |
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