‘Don’t use religion to settle scores’ – From Linus Oota, Lafia
The Nasarawa State Youth Wing of the Christian Association yesterday warned politicians in the state against the use of religion to settle their scores, calling on all politicians in the state to demonstrate patriotism and avoid dragging the people into an unnecessary religious crisis for their selfish interests.
CAN Youth Chairman Solomon Inusa, Nigeria is currently going through difficult times occasioned by insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and other forms of criminality threatening the peace, Nasarawa State has its fair share in these disturbing happenings.
The Christian youth wing observed that dragging religion into politics at this time efforts by all men and women of goodwill are being required to redirect the nation’s course towards a peaceful society, will spell doom in particular and the country at large.
“As a handful of mischief makers who are bent on fanning the embers of disunity and violence are high at work to achieve their selfish aim, men of God and other Nigerians must rise against the trend” YOWCAN stated.
The group noted that the recent story in the media trending since August 23, 2020, with the claim that Governor Abdullahi Sule had joined forces with others to frustrate the appointment of the immediate past Deputy Governor Silas Ali Agara to head the National Population Commission for being a Christian in preference to Alhaji Kura Isa, a Muslim, was not only disturbing but quite unfortunate.
“The content and spirit of the story is a deliberate falsehood to cast aspersion on the person of the Governor with the aim to unsettle the Peace the State is beginning to build from the fragments it inherited from the past.
The authors of this falsehood ought to know that this is not the time to whip up religious sentiments to cause division among the Nasarawa People”, the group declared.
Unlike other parts of the world, Islam spread in Southeast Asia without a major conquest.
It came on ships and boats. It travelled with spices and silk. Swords remained in the scabbards, there was hardly any bloodshed. The benefit of aligning with rising Muslim powers was obvious, but sufis played an important role too.
Indonesia became the world’s largest Muslim country over a period spanning centuries, yet experts are still undecided on how it actually came about.
Looking back at the Islamic roots of the vast archipelago, which straddles the Indian and Pacific oceans, it has attained significance despite the ongoing debate about whether Indonesians are moving away from their so-called pluralistic version of Islam.
What is interesting about how the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad spread in Southeast Asia, says historian Dr Carool Kersten, is that it did not involve a conquest, and that it happened gradually and surprisingly very late.
“First evidences of the local people converting to Islam in present-day Indonesia does not date further than the 13th century. That’s when we find ground archelogical evidence namely tombstones of sultans with Arab names, which demonstrate that local leaders have embraced Islam,” he tells TRT World.
Muslim forces began venturing out of the Arab lands in the 8th century – they were in control of Spain by the 720s and the famed young military commander, Muhammad Bin Qasim, had just invaded Sindh and Multan, in what is now Pakistan, a few years earlier.
In Indonesia, Islam spread peacefully unlike in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, where it came under its sway as a result of Arab conquests, says Dr. Kersten, who teaches at Kings College London and authored A history of Islam in Indonesia.
A 13th century tombstone of a local ruler, Sultan Malik al Salih, found in Sumatra, is often cited as a historical marker for when Islam started to make inroads in the region.
Salih, who controlled a principality in the northernmost Indonesian island of Sumatra, had converted to Islam.
“The fact that he adopted an Arab title and called himself a Sultan rather than a Raja, which is a Sanskrit word for a ruler, is the first compelling evidence that someone from the Southeast Asia decided to embrace Islam and his population followed suit,” says Dr. Kersten.
What has really baffled historians and archeologists is his tombstone, which is designed with the motifs and patterns of what you can find in the Indian state of Gujarat.
What changed in the 13th century?
Gujarat is known for risk-taking traders and businessmen who would not have hesitated in travelling to far-off regions to find a livelihood. Among them were many Muslims.
Trade routes have been instrumental to the spread of Islam. For instance, there’s a large community of Hadrami Arabs from Yemen in Indonesia.
Muslims from China have also left an imprint. The 15th century Muslim Chinese admiral, Cheng Ho, is often credited for helping spread Islam in the Indonesian island of Java.
“It’s always been very tempting to assume that it were the traders who brought Islam. But you need to be careful here. Trade routes were maybe used as conduits but traders are businessmen, they are not propogaters or missionaries of religion,” says Dr. Kersten.
An alternative theory suggests that people belonging to the sufi orders might have travelled the same routes and helped spread Islam in the region. The Islam Tradisional — practised in the region — is closer to the mystic Barelvi sect prevalent in Pakistan and India.
Indonesians and Malays enjoyed trade links with the Arabs and Persians even before the advent of Islam. The answer to why it gained a foothold in Southeast Asia relatively late, might be found in the economics of the region.
Surrounded by water, Indonesia, which comprises thousands of islands, did not have the best land for cultivation and its inhabitants relied mainly on sea trade. They felt threatened by Hindu empires in Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand who had prospered on the back of their vast river plains that were suitable for growing rice.
“The people in Indonesia no longer wanted to pay tribute to Hindu and Buddhist rulers from the mainland. And so they looked for political allies in the Middle East and Africa,” says Dr. Kersten.
A tight hierarchical governing structure, where a ruler had the last word on important matters, might have helped speed up the conversion of the local population without too many skirmishes, experts say.
“Unlike the Mughals in much of India who appointed nizams, amirs and maharajas to do the ruling for them, a king in Southeast Asia was the center of power and wielded significant influence,” Nawab Osman, a Singapore-based Southeast Asia researcher, tells TRT World.
Besides taking up the role of a religious leader with the practice of building mosques next to their palaces, these new Muslim rulers also began to look towards the Ottomans for an alliance, he says.
After Constantinople’s conquest in the mid-15th century, Muslims controlled the international maritime routes and a lot of Indonesian rajas saw it as a mark of prestige and opportunity to be part of such a network should they have converted to Islam.
As Islam became a prominent reglion in parts of Souteast Asia, the local imams woud recite the Friday prayers not just in the name of the local king but also the Ottoman caliph, says Osman.
Orientalist misconceptions
Puppetry also helped spread Islam in Indonesia, where 90 percent of the population is now Muslim.
Like in South Asia, society has traditionally used puppet theatre and effigies to tell heroic tales of the Hindu scriptures such as the Ramayana.
“Puppet shows are a big part of Indonesian culture. So what the Muslim scholars did was they changed the characters of Ramayana to Muslim figures — showing the companions of the Prophet and so on. That was a very effective way for people to convert to Islam.”
But in the Indonesian history written primarily under Dutch colonial rule, which lasted between the 1800s and mid-1900s, such cultural appropriation of symbols was given a different meaning.
“So if you look at the orientalist writings from that period, it would seem that Muslims don’t practise Islam and continue to adhere to certain elements of Hindu belief. That’s quite untrue. Muslims would never do certain things such as worshiping a deity,” says Osman.
And Indonesian Muslims were not just passive receivers of the Islamic teachings. They actively participated in its attainment.
“Spread of Islam in Indonesia was a hybrid process. There was no one moment of conversion – it was a much more fluid system where locals did not give up all their practices and beliefs in one go,” says Dr. Kersten.
Once Islam was established, Indonesian Muslims travelled to Muslim learning centres around the world. The scholars were well versed in Arabic, Persian and vigorously sought Islamic knowledge, he says.
“Islam shouldn’t be seen as something varnished on the Southasian culture. These people were an integral part of the Muslim world.”
Reverse Islamisation
In recent years, Indonesia’s religious groups have come under the spotlight amid concerns that hardliners have started to dominate political discourse.
Jakarta’s 2017 gubernatorial race, in which a Christian of Chinese descent was defeated after a backlash from religious groups, is often cited as an example of rising intolerance.
Osman sees a problem when the current debate is framed around the question of whether ‘Islamists’ are on the rise – a narrative which, he says, was sparked after a strong showing of Islamic groups in the 1999 national elections.
Former Indonesian dictator Suharto, who ruled the country for 31 years between 1967 and 1998, enforced curbs on Muslim political groups and tried to reduce the role of religion in affairs of the state.
That does not mean that groups such as Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah have acquired millions of followers only after Suharto’s removal. Even in the previous openly contested election of 1955, Islamic groups had garnered some 40-45 percent of votes, says Osman.
These days even the moderate groups, such as NU, feel they are under threat from what they see as a creeping Arabisation of the Indonesian strain of religion — dubbed as Islam Nusantara.
“Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama both have been arguing that moderate Islam is under threat from the Salafis, Hizb ut Tehrir and the Muslim Brotherhood types.
“But I think what has happened over the years is that there’s been a rupturing within the ranks of the traditionalist muslim groups and some of their own members have started taking a harder Islamic position.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
As the Republican National Convention continues, Sputnik spoke to Pastor Mark Burns, an evangelical preacher and former Republican candidate for South Carolina’s 4th congressional district seat, who shared his opinion on the level of support for Trump among religious communities, people of color and the undecided, touching upon other topics.
Sputnik: The RNC includes several conservative Christian speakers. What do you think is the level of support for the president among the conservative Christian community? Will President Trump be able to keep conservative Christian votes?
Mark Burns: Support for President Trump among Christians and people of faith is extremely high. You got to remember that evangelical Christian’s community is the largest voters block in America. So this is the number one group. If you’re able to have their support it is very difficult for a Democrat to win on a national level. People of faith and Christians are the strongest groups here in America.
Sputnik: Democratic Georgia State Rep. Vernon Jones, who is African American, is planning to vote for Trump. He said that “The Democratic Party does not want Black people to leave their mental plantation”. Will this rhetoric resonate with black Democratic voters?
Mark Burns: I’ve been on the ground level since President Trump announced his candidacy in 2015. I was here watching the campaign grow from just a few people to this massive machine. I was just with the president yesterday and I can tell you that the rhetoric is causing a lot of black people to second guess their support to the Democratic Party. Now will the majority of black people vote Democrat? Yes, absolutely – that’s going to be the case. So it will take a longer time than rhetoric before the campaign or before the election to begin a change in mentality. Maybe they should take somebody like me and I should run for president (laughs).
But I‘ve seen with my own eyes that black Americans who start as Democrats are now questioning what exactly the Democratic party does for people of color and low income families and at risk communities in this nation. People who voted Democratic their whole life, now, because President Trump is doing more for African-Americans not with just good words or identity politics or playing to your color base, but he is actually doing things like giving money to HBCU’s (historically black colleges and universities), helping people who are getting out of prison or placed in prison by a failed 1994 Democrat policy of putting millions of black people in jail. The president is getting them out of jail. 98% of those that had been released from prison are black Americans. Not only is that he is getting them out of jail, but he is assuring that they have a way to go to work.
For the first time ever the president is working with the federal agencies to allow those who have been released from prison to be able to get a job in the federal system. That is getting people an opportunity to not get back in jail not to do more criminal activities after they are released. The unemployment level among African-Americans is at the historically low level, especially before coronavirus. The president is actually doing things. He is not going to play you to feel good like the Democrats do. They talk about slavery; they talk about Jim Crow, what the Democrats have done in the past, etc. Let’s just look at the cities that are led by the Democrats. When you look at them you’ll see that these cities are in ruins in America.
Sputnik: How much of the African American electorate do you think Republicans can attract?
Mark Burns: President Trump attracted 8% which is pretty high. It was higher than Mitt Romney’s 6%. The supposedly “racist” Donald Trump gets 8%, more than Mitt Romney. We’re looking between 13-15% of the African American votes here in America. It has grown from the 2016 Presidential Election.
Sputnik: Many topics were raised at the RNC ranging from health care to economics and race. In your opinion, will the Republicans be able to attract undecided voters?
Mark Burns: Without a question. I think one of the greatest things of the Democratic party is that they allowed the violence and riots to take place. Not the peaceful protests. Everybody knows that George Floyd should not have died. Donald Trump Jr. said during his speech that if you talk to any police officer in this country, they will all agree that George Floyd should not have died. We need to eliminate racism in America.
But what the liberal socialists have done – they have taken George Floyd’s death and it has been highjacked by socialist anarchists who want to destroy western culture. So the riots, looting and even a murder that has taken place – that is not America. So for those who are in the middle of the road, those who are undecided – they are certainly painting a picture of what a society, the socialist left Democrat party is leaning towards. They are celebrating these violent acts, they are not condemning them. Even those who are in the Black Lives Matter movement should be condemning those who have infiltrated themselves and have highjacked the peaceful protesters.
And you can see what is taking place in Milwaukee right now with this young man who is now paralyzed. He was walking away to his car and the cops shot him six to eight times and now this young man is paralyzed. That is a senseless death at the hands of the police, two people of color in this country and there is a right way to do it and the socialist Democratic Party is doing it the wrong way by burning, looting, killing.
Black Lives Matter, they absolutely matter, just like the black cops that are being killed. Just like the black sheriff that was assassinated while he was protecting his friend’s store while there was looting and burning, the black federal officer that was beaten badly while he was wearing uniform by these so-called BLM protesters. So black lives do matter. All lives matter – baby lives matter, unborn and born. Let’s talk about all black lives. All black lives matter.
Sputnik: The mainstream media is stating that the RNC is trying to “rewrite pandemic history,” saying that Trump supporters are trying to whitewash his actions in the fight against COVID-19. How would you assess such rhetoric and media attacks?
Mark Burns: It is clear that mainstream media has never been a fan of Donald Trump. Since day one they never gave him a fair shot. I am very happy today that President Trump sent a “thank you” tweet to CNN for at least covering the large part of RNC. I am saying some healing is beginning to take place in that matter but the mainstream media has never given President Trump a real chance in that matter and they are blaming this COVID-19 crisis on President Trump.
According to CDC and the doctors who are leading the calls against this horrible virus that is in America, they stated themselves that President Trump acted swiftly once this information began to bump America’s shores. But yet the mainstream media are trying to downplay Trump’s involvement and leadership ability and trying to portray this as this is his fault. This is not his fault. This is a ‘China virus’ and it happened when China refused to allow America, the WHO and other countries that tried to assist them, they tried to keep it quiet. It could have been prevented. It is China’s fault. And Joe Biden and the Democratic party are also downplaying the seriousness of this virus.
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The views and opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
<h2>Dr. Jake Shachar Laks<span class="s1"> has joined the surgical staff of Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, a hospital ranked ninth-best in the world by <i>Newsweek</i> magazine.</span></h2>
Jake Shachar Laks, 41, has spent his life moving between his birthplace in Israel, growing up in Farmington Hills, receiving his medical degree at the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, working at U.S. hospitals and now, finally, going back home to Israel.
For Laks, an oncology surgeon who specializes in treating pancreatic cancer, his aliyah is a dream come true.
“It’s always been a dream for me to go back home,” he said. “The medical community there was so difficult to enter. There were only a few positions I could move into.”
Laks, who was an associate professor at East Carolina State University before his move, has joined the surgical staff of Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, a hospital ranked ninth-best in the world by Newsweek magazine. He is now using his highly specialized robotic surgical training for the benefit of pancreatic cancer patients in Israel and is a faculty member of Tel Aviv University.
“It’s been really exciting,” Laks said about his move to Israel in the fall of 2019. “(Sheba Medical Center) has a really incredible innovation center I have never seen anywhere else. All you have to do is talk to people around the water cooler and you get ideas for cutting-edge research.”
Laks said he has also been impressed with Sheba’s response to the COVID-19 global pandemic and its ability to secure PPE devices and ventilators in the face of a worldwide shortage.
“The initial response of the hospital was perhaps the most impressive mobilization of resources I’ve ever seen,” he said. “The entire hospital switched to working in three separate pods around the clock to minimize the possibility of health care workers becoming infected and causing a shortage of health care staff while still being able to deliver quality and efficient health care.
“That type of mobilization of resources would have taken months of negotiations and board meetings to get approved in a hospital in the United states. (The mobilization) occurred essentially overnight in an Israeli hospital whose structural operation runs more like an army division than a hospital at times of emergency. This proved to be a great asset in the initial response.”
Laks obtained his bachelor’s of science degree in biology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. After receiving his medical education in Israel, he did his surgery residency at St. Louis University in Missouri and his surgical oncology fellowship at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He also spent six years at Columbia Surgical Associates and at the University of Missouri. He practiced for an additional three years at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C.
Laks’ family joined him on the move, including his wife, Meital, who is a veterinarian, and his two daughters, Noam Renee, 11, and Einav Elle, 10. Laks met Meital when he was going through medical school in Israel.
His daughters are becoming accustomed to Israel, which he said is very different from America in terms of schooling.
“My oldest daughter was struggling with Hebrew, but she is getting used to it,” he said, recalling with a laugh a Jewish phrase that goes something like, “learn to use your elbows.”
“She came from a very coddled Hebrew school in the states, where it was a very controlled environment,” he said. “She is learning to use her elbows.”
Laks said he is thrilled to have the opportunity to use his robotic surgical skills for his pancreatic cancer patients and that taking the “cancer journey” with them is humbling. It is one that he has personally taken, given that his eldest daughter was diagnosed with and survived rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer that develops in the soft tissue around the skeleton.
Laks has noticed the differences in the levels of communication that Israeli patients prefer, compared to American patients.
“In the states, we see a very solid line between the patients and the doctors, and it’s a line that is literally never crossed,” he said. “In Israel, that does not apply. It’s very informal. Patients have no qualms about giving you advice. It’s quite amusing. At the same time, that brings you closer to the patient and the family and it can make it difficult.”
Laks said it’s normal that all his patients have his cell phone number. And those patients take advantage of that fact. Laks said he doesn’t mind.
“If I don’t give them my number, they wouldn’t get the kind of answers or care they need,” he said. “Patients don’t really have the kind of resources they have in the states.”
Laks and his family, who are Reform, now live in Tel Mond. He says that realizing his dream of returning “home” brings him in greater connection with all aspects of Judaism, both the religion and the culture.
“One of the things I do feel is a special bond with the Jewish people and being able to take care of people who are my own,” he said. “It’s really quite rewarding to give back to a country that is a homeland to our people. It’s important we live in that home and it’s important to be part of that home. I wanted my children to grow up in Israel and feel like they belong.”
The independent Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) for Polio Eradication officially declared that the 47 countries in the UN World Health Organization (WHO) African Region are free of the virus, with no cases reported for four years.
“This is a momentous milestone for Africa. Now future generations of African children can live free of wild polio,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
Polio is a viral disease that can cause paralysis, and mainly affects children under five.
The virus is transmitted from person to person, mostly through contact with infected faeces, or less frequently through contaminated water or food. It enters the body through the mouth and multiplies inside the intestines.
While there is no cure for polio, the disease can be prevented through a simple and effective oral vaccine, thus protecting a child for life.
The ARCC certification entailed a decades-long process of documentation and analysis of polio surveillance, immunization and laboratory capacity, as well as field verification visits to each country in the region.
The last case of wild poliovirus in the region was detected in Nigeria in 2016.
“Today is a historic day for Africa,” said Professor Rose Gana Fomban Leke, ARCC Chairperson, announcing the certification.
A commitment by leaders
The journey to eradication began with a promise made in 1996 by Heads of State during the 32nd session of the Organization of African Unity held in Yaoundé, Cameroon, where they pledged to stamp out polio, which was paralyzing an estimated 75,000 children annually on the continent.
That same year, the late Nelson Mandela jumpstarted Africa’s commitment to polio eradication by launching the Kick Polio Out of Africa campaign, supported by Rotary International, which mobilized nations to step up efforts to ensure every child received the polio vaccine.
Nearly two million spared
Since then, polio eradication efforts have spared up to 1.8 million children from crippling life-long paralysis, and saved approximately 180,000 lives, WHO reported.
“This historic achievement was only possible thanks to the leadership and commitment of governments, communities, global polio eradication partners and philanthropists,” said Dr. Moeti.
“I pay special tribute to the frontline health workers and vaccinators, some of whom lost their lives, for this noble cause.”
Always remain vigilant
However, Dr. Moeti warned that Africa must remain vigilant against a resurgence of the wild poliovirus.
Keeping vaccination rates up also wards against the continued threat of vaccine-derived polio, or cVDPV2.
WHO explained that while rare, vaccine-derived polioviruses can occur when the weakened live virus in the oral polio vaccine passes among populations with low levels of immunization. Over time, the virus mutates to a form that can cause paralysis.
Adequate immunization thus protects against wild polio and circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses, the UN agency said.
Learning from polio eradication
WHO officials in Africa believe that the experience in eradicating wild poliovirus has other benefits for health on the continent.
Despite weak health systems, and significant logistical and operational challenges, countries collaborated effectively to achieve the milestone, according to Dr. Pascal Mkanda, Coordinator of WHO Polio Eradication Programme in the region.
“With the innovations and expertise that the polio programme has established, I am confident that we can sustain the gains, post-certification, and eliminate cVDPV2,” he said.
The experience also will inform response to other challenges, both new and ongoing, Dr. Moeti added.
“The expertise gained from polio eradication will continue to assist the African region in tackling COVID-19 and other health problems that have plagued the continent for so many years and ultimately move the continent toward universal health coverage,” she said. “This will be the true legacy of polio eradication in Africa.”
UNICEF works to ease the suffering of children whose lives have been ‘turned upside-down’ after Beirut blast
Through two airlifts and commercial cargo routes, vital personal protective equipment (PPE), medical, health hygiene and nutrition supplies were able to reach those in desperate need.
“Before the dust had begun to settle, UNICEF teams were working to ensure that urgently needed humanitarian supplies could reach children and families affected as soon as possible”, said UNICEF Lebanon Representative Yukie Mokuo.
Ten-year-old Mira was injured when the Beirut blast ripped through her house.
To scale up our response for children like Mira, we urgently need your support. Donate today.
On 4 August, a cache of ammonium nitrate caused a deadly explosion in Lebanon that rocked the capital of Beirut, causing devastation in a city already suffering from the global coronavirus pandemic.
The blast killed close to 200 people, injured thousands of others, left around a quarter of a million homeless, and sparked protests that prompted the resignation of Prime Minister Hassan Diab and his entire cabinet.
The UN agency’s immediate response was to distribute 18 shipments of pre-positioned supplies, which were in stock, while working to procure additional humanitarian items locally, including PPE, infection prevention and control (IPC) kits and other hygiene items, as well as provisions to support psycho-social assistance to affected children.
To compliment the locally procured supplies, additional materials were sent to Beirut from UNICEF’s global supply hub in Copenhagen, with further shipments planned in the coming days and weeks.
“Children have had their lives turned upside-down”, Ms. Mokou reminded. “Making sure that families have their basic needs met will allow them to start rebuilding their lives and look to the future”.
Much more needed
Against the backdrop that COVID-19 cases in the country continue to surge, and that the explosions destroyed 10 containers of PPE, it was critical that UNICEF was able to deliver more than $3.5 million worth of critical PPE and IPC kits.
“As families fight to rebuild after the chaos of the explosions, coupled with the ongoing economic crisis and the added threat of COVID-19, the support of our donors and partners has been absolutely critical”, she continued, “but much more is still needed”.
The humanitarian supplies were delivered with the assistance of the European Union’s European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) and the Government of Belgium and through a donation from the Sanofi Foundation.
However, UNICEF still requires $46.7 million to respond to the immediate needs of children and families over the next three months – with a focus on keeping children safe; rehabilitating basic essential services; and equipping young people with the skills they need to help rebuild their country – all while limiting the spread of COVID-19.
“Now is the time for the international community to stand with the people of Lebanon and ensure that they receive the help and assistance required”, concluded the UNICEF envoy.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva, World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris addressed concerns that the development could herald a new alert.
“The numbers are very, very small… This is one documented case in over 23 million.”
“We will probably see other documented cases. But it seems to be not a regular event – we would have seen many more cases.” – Dr Magaret Harris from @WHOpic.twitter.com/KjQjYfNQi9
“The important – other important – thing to note is the numbers are very, very small,” she said. “So this is one documented case in over 23 million and we will probably see other documented cases. But it seems to be not a regular event we would have seen many more cases.”
Nonetheless, Dr. Harris& noted that the reinfection signalled on Monday was significant.
According to the University of Hong Kong scientists who announced the development, the virus strains that infected the man more than four months apart were different.
“The important thing here is that this is clear documentation,” the WHO spokesperson said. “So, we’ve had anecdotal reports every now and then from people who’ve tested negative, then tested positive. And it hasn’t been clear up until this case whether that was simply a problem of testing or whether people were getting infected a second time.”
Priorities for the UN health agency include understanding “what this means in terms of (people’s) immunity”, Dr. Harris continued.
Tracking process ongoing
“This is why we have got a lot of research groups actually tracking people, measuring antibodies, trying to understand how long the immune protection lasts – the natural immune protection – and that should be understood as it is not the same as the immune protection that a vaccine provides.”
To date, the WHO has recorded nearly 23.5 million cases of COVID-19 infection globally, with more than 809,000 deaths. The Americas have been worst-hit by region, with more than 12.5 million people infected, followed by Europe (3.995 million), South-East Asia (3.666 million), Eastern Mediterranean (1.840 million), Africa (1.007 million) and Western Pacific (460,991).
Vaccine initiative gathers pace
In a related development, WHO said that more than 170 countries are cooperating on a global initiative to produce fairly priced COVID-19 vaccines once they are licensed and approved.
The COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) initiative involves countries and vaccine manufacturers; it is led by WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
In a statement, WHO said that COVAX has the world’s “largest and most diverse COVID-19 vaccine portfolio” with nine candidate vaccines, nine more “under evaluation and conversations underway with other major producers”.
WHO described the project as only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both higher-income and lower-income countries.
But it insisted that in order to secure enough doses of vaccines to protect the most vulnerable populations – such as health workers and the elderly – funding was needed by 31 August deadline.
More than one million people to benefit from improved access to life-saving services across the country
DAMASCUS, 24 August 2020 – The European Union has contributed €1.5 million to UNICEF’s COVID-19 response in Syria, supporting the most vulnerable children and families. This additional funding will help UNICEF raise awareness of COVID-19 prevention while ensuring improved access for over one million conflict-affected children and caregivers to protection, nutrition, education and water and sanitation services during the global spread of Coronavirus.
“Over nine years into the conflict in Syria, existing humanitarian needs of more than 5 million children in the country have been compounded by the global spread of COVID-19,” said UNICEF Representative in Syria Mr. Bo Viktor Nylund. “The regular and substantial support from the European Union has greatly assisted us in fulfilling our commitments to reaching the most vulnerable children and families in Syria and ensuring continuation of critical services.”
Since 2016, the European Union has provided more than €34 million in funding for UNICEF’s support to children in Syria, including a recent generous contribution of €7.5 million in September 2019.
“The European Union remains committed to responding to the most urgent humanitarian needs of children and families across Syria,” said EU Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič. “We are certain that our contribution will help children return to school, stay protected, keep healthy, and have access to safe water and proper sanitation during these challenging times.”
The multi-donor humanitarian action, supported by the European Union, will help UNICEF reach:
More than 350,000 children and mothers with life-saving curative and preventive nutrition services, including the provision of nutritional supplements and Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) counselling.
Nearly 450,000 people with access to safe water, through emergency rehabilitation of water systems.
36,600 vulnerable out-of-school children or those at risk of dropping out with access to education, through the provision of self-learning materials.
The new academic year has started this week in Mexico, but children remain at home, doing classes via the television or the internet.
Mexican Education Secretary Esteban Moctezuma says this is by far the best and the safest option for Mexico, pointing out that children in other countries have gone back to classes, and almost immediately new outbreaks have occurred.
Standing alongside Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Moctezuma says that the main educational reliance is on television, because it has more scope and range than the internet for public education. However, many private schools have gone back to the internet formula.
More than half of the country’s work force is employed in the informal economy, so they have to physically go to their jobs, often taking their younger children with them. The Education Ministry has established 160 telephone support lines, but with more than thirty million students, resources are thinly spread and sorely stretched.
President Lopez Obrador claims the virulence of the virus is now waning, yet Health Officials confirm the death toll now exceeds 60,000 victims. Testing for Covid-19 has now dropped to three people per one hundred thousand.
In June Deputy Health Minister and Covid Spokesman Hugo Lopez Gatell said that if deaths surpassed 60,000 by October it would be a catastrophe and the worst-case scenario. Now these words have come back to haunt him.
The African continent is now free from cases of wild polio, as global efforts to completely eradicate the virus continue to move in the right direction. Currently, only two countries in the world – Afghanistan and Pakistan – still report cases of polio.
On Tuesday, the Africa Regional Committee for Certification (ARCC), an independent regional body set up by the World Health Organisation (WHO), concluded that the transmission of the wild poliovirus strain has been interrupted in all 47 countries of the WHO African Region.
This certification comes after Nigeria, the last African country with polio cases, recorded no new cases for the past four consecutive years. This announcement means that five of the six WHO regions, representing 90 percent of the world’s population is polio-free.
Certification of polio eradication is done on a regional basis. A region is only eligible for certification after all countries in the area show proof of the absence of wild poliovirus for at least three consecutive years, and demonstrate a high standard of surveillance for any outbreaks.
Polio, a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease, has no cure but can be prevented by the administration of a vaccine. It is typically transmitted through contaminated water and usually affects children under five, sometimes leading to irreversible paralysis.
By 1996, more than 75,000 children across Africa were affected by polio. That same year, the late Nelson Mandela launched the “Kick Polio Out of Africa” program which mobilized health workers and organisations to put in renewed efforts to ensure a polio-free Africa.
The final efforts to eradicate polio in Africa were concentrated largely on northeastern Nigeria after an outbreak was reported in 2016. Before that, the country had gone two years without any cases identified and had even been taken off the global list of polio-endemic countries in 2015.
Leading virologist and chairman of the Nigeria Expert Review Committee on Polio Eradication and Routine Immunization, Professor Oyewole Tomori, said that the country’s journey to eradicating polio began in 1977 when the WHO adopted the Universal Child Immunization Program. The goal, he explained at a press conference on Tuesday, was to vaccinate every child in the world against measles, tetanus, whooping cough and polio by 1990. However, by that deadline, Nigeria was barely able to achieve the 80 percent target.
Tomori explained some of the challenges to achieving this global health milestone include difficulty in accessing some areas in order to reach some populations, as well as a 2003 boycott of vaccines by some states in Nigeria due to unfounded rumors that they caused infertility.
He recalled that in Kano state alone, approximately 3.7 million children went unvaccinated in 2004 due to the misinformation. The situation was further compounded by the outbreak of armed conflict in northern Nigeria which displaced millions of people. He said some of his colleagues were killed in the line of duty while trying to vaccinate children against polio.
Eradication: Looking ahead
This new certification does not mean that Africa is completely polio-free.
A vaccine-derived poliovirus – a rare mutated form of the virus – still remains in Africa with several dozen cases identified this year. Even though it is not the wild polio strain, it can still emerge among populations living in areas of low immunity.
In addition, immunization campaigns that have been effective in keeping numbers low have been significantly disrupted due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
