polio

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Somalia Polio Outbreak Is World's Worst

Thousands could have virus

(Newser) - A polio outbreak in Somalia is spreading, with 105 confirmed cases and another 10 confirmed in neighboring Kenya, the UN's humanitarian affairs office says. Health officials are responding with vaccination campaigns that have reached 4 million people since the outbreak began in May, but those health officials cannot access...

What It&#39;s Like to Live in a Hospital&mdash;for 45 Years
What It's Like to Live in a Hospital—for 45 Years
in case you missed it

What It's Like to Live in a Hospital—for 45 Years

BBC profiles Paulo Henrique Machado

(Newser) - Your eyes aren't deceiving you: The headline is correct. Paulo Henrique Machado has lived in a Brazilian hospital not for 45 days or 45 weeks, but for 45 years. The BBC speaks with the inspiring man, whose mother died just two days after he was born and who went...

Pakistanis Demand Electricity—by Refusing Kids' Polio Vaccine

Villagers call for mosquito spray, ambulance service

(Newser) - Pakistanis in the northwestern Lakki Marwat district are taking a stand to bring electricity to their region: They won't accept polio vaccinations for their children until they get power. In a protest yesterday, hundreds of villagers refused to let in vaccination teams, the Atlantic reports. The villagers are also...

Polio Vaccinators Murdered in Nigeria

Attacks said to be work of Islamic militant group Boko Haram

(Newser) - Two shootings in northern Nigeria have left nine female polio vaccinators dead, in what is thought to be the latest violence by militant Islamic group Boko Haram, reports the BBC . Both attacks were carried out by gunmen riding on a motor tricycle, though it is not clear yet if the...

Pakistan Halts Polio Effort After 8 Killings in 2 Days

But some Pakistan officials determined to continue without UN support

(Newser) - The UN and WHO are suspending an anti-polio campaign in Pakistan as the attacks against polio vaccination workers continue, with a total of eight dead in just two days and more injured. The latest attacks in the Peshawar region today killed a supervisor and her driver and critically injured a...

Pakistan Taliban Kills 5 Women Vaccinating for Polio

Terror group claims they gunned down US spies

(Newser) - Gunmen shot and killed five women who were administering polio vaccines to children in Pakistan today, in a pair of attacks likely intended to strike fear into health workers across the country. The Taliban has been a vocal opponent of the government's UN-backed drive to vaccinate children against polio,...

Taliban Bans Polio Vaccines Until US Drone Strikes End

North Waziristan commander halts vaccines in region

(Newser) - The Taliban has decided to use Pakistan's kids in the fight to end US drone strikes. It announced that it has banned polio vaccines in North Waziristan until said strikes are ended. "Almost every resident of North Waziristan has become a mental patient because of the drone strikes,...

Polio Outbreak Hits China
 Polio Outbreak Hits China 

Polio Outbreak Hits China

Strain is tied to one found in Pakistan

(Newser) - If you thought polio had been eradicated, you're at least 50% right: The highly infectious virus was "virtually eliminated" from the Western hemisphere in the last century, but remains endemic in Pakistan, among other places, reports the BBC —and a strain circulating there has been genetically tied...

'Vaccination Diplomacy': Taliban Helps UN, Karzai

In 'pact with the devil,' group helps get polio vaccine to far-flung regions

(Newser) - The Taliban may be pariahs to much of the world, but the group's indisputable hold on vast swaths of Afghanistan has produced an unusual arrangement: It's working with UN health officials and the Afghan government to wipe out polio. Volunteers travel to normally dangerous regions to vaccinate children, armed with...

Thomas Weller, Who Won Nobel for Polio Work, Dead at 93

Work paved way for Salk, Sabin vaccines

(Newser) - Thomas Weller, whose research on polio won him a share of a Nobel Prize in 1954, died this weekend at 93, the Boston Globe reports. Weller, along with colleagues John Enders and Frederick Robbins, discovered that the polio virus preyed on muscles, not nerve tissue as had been previously thought....

Arthur C. Clarke Is Dead at 90
 Arthur C. Clarke Is Dead at 90 

Arthur C. Clarke Is Dead at 90

'2001' author shaped space-age thought

(Newser) - Arthur C. Clarke, the sci-fi author who helped shape 20th-century scientific imagination, is dead at 90, the New York Times reports. The co-creator of 2001: A Space Odyssey faced post-polio syndrome in recent decades and died at his home in Sri Lanka due to breathing trouble. “No one can...

Gates Aims $100M at Polio
Gates Aims $100M at Polio

Gates Aims $100M at Polio

Foundation aims to eradicate disease

(Newser) - The world stands at the brink of eradicating polio, Bill Gates says, and his foundation yesterday awarded $100 million toward that end. One of the foundation's largest challenge grants will fund programs in four countries where the disease is still epidemic, notably Nigeria. The Rotary Foundation received the grant and...

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