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Study setting, design and period
A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Shebel Berenta district in northwest Ethiopia between January 2022 and February 2022. Shebel Berenta is one of the 22 districts in Northwest Ethiopia, located 372km from Bahir Dar, the capital city of Amhara National Regional State. It is bordered on the south by Dejen District, on the north by Enarj Enawuga, and on the east by the Abay River32. It is located at an elevation of 18002150m above sea level. Approximately 72.3% of the district is desert (kola), with Woyinadega accounting for the rest (
Figure1)33, and the map of the study area of interest, Shebele Berenta was generated. Based on the 2021 population projection, the district has an estimated population of 136,948. Of those, 68,200 are males and 68,748 are females. There are nineteen kebels (15 rural and 4 urban kebeles) in the district. There are 6 health centers, 23 health posts, 1 primary hospital, 4 private clinics, and 3 drug stores that provide community health services34.
Map of the study area (Shebel Berenta district) (generated using GIS software version 10.5; URL: https://arcgis.software.informer.com/10.5/).
The source population was all mothers or caregivers with children aged less than 60months who have been residing in Shebel Berenta for at least six months. Whereas mothers/caretaker with children aged 2435months who lived in selected kebeles of Shebel Berenta district for at least six months and received the first dose of the measles vaccine were the study population. We exclude mothers/caretakers with children aged 2435months who did not receive the first dose of measles vaccination, were ill or unable to respond, and/or residents of less than six months in the study area.
The sample size was calculated using the single population proportion formula by considering the following assumptions of sample size determination in a cross-sectional study: 50% proportion of MCV2 uptake (since there are no previous studies in the study area of interest), a 95% level of confidence interval (CI), and a margin of error of 5%. Then, the sample size of the study was determined using the general formula:
$${text{n}}=frac{{({text{Z}}1-mathrm{alpha }/2)}^{2}*pq}{{(d)}^{2}}=frac{{(3.84)}^{2}*0.5*0.5}{{(0.05)}^{2}}=385$$
where n=minimum required sample size, p=proportion of MCV2 uptake, q=1-p=50%, d=a margin of error (5%), Z1-/2=level of confidence interval, 1.96 (95% CI).
Then, by considering 10% non-response rates, the required final sample size was 424.
There are a total of nineteen kebeles in Shebel Berenta district. Out of the total, eight kebeles were selected using a computer-generated random sampling system. The study participants were mothers who had children aged 2435months in the selected kebeles. Then, the sample size was proportionally allocated to each selected kebele. A sampling frame (a list of mothers who had children aged 2435months) was prepared at the health post, which was obtained from the family folder (community health information system). Finally, the required subjects were chosen by a simple random sampling technique using a list of children aged 2435months.
It is the uptake of the measles second dose vaccine after being vaccinated for measles first dose 35.
The proportion of children aged 2435months who had received the measles second dose of vaccine before the age of 24months35.
Measles second dose vaccine utilization.
Family size, educational status, marital status, religion, age of the mother, residence, occupation, age of the child, sex of the child, number of births, birth order, distance to health facility, place of delivery, antenatal care service, awareness of measles second dose schedule, knowledge on vaccine preventable disease, utilization of other vaccine antigen such as BCG, MCV1, Pentavalent3, OPV3, Pneumococcal vaccine3, MCV1 and vitamin A supplementation.
A structured, pretested face-to-face interviewer-administered questionnaire adapted from different published literature17,25,26,27,28,29,36 and Ethiopia Mini Demographic Health Survey 201922 was used to collect socio-demographic, socioeconomic, and maternal and health facility-related variables, and child vaccination status. Participants were approached and interviewed after explaining the purpose of the study and requesting to participate. Six well-trained public health professionals with previous experience in data collection have participated in the data collection. The data collection process started immediately after preparing the list of children aged 2435months at the health post from the selected kebeles. The vaccination information of the children was obtained by requesting mothers or caregivers to show the vaccination cards to the data collectors and mothers' or caregivers' verbal reports if the vaccination cards were not available.
The data collection tool was prepared in English, translated into the local language (Amharic), and then returned to English to ensure consistency. Supervisors and data collectors have received two-day data collection training. The training mainly focused on data quality, confidentiality, and privacy. Sampling procedures and instruction sheets were prepared and given to data collectors and supervisors. One week before the actual fieldwork, a pretest was conducted on 5% of mothers/caregivers with children aged 2435months from other kebeles that did not participate in the actual study, and amendments were made based on the results of the pretest. The data were checked for completeness and accuracy by investigators and supervisors daily.
The data was cleaned manually, coded, and entered into Epi Data 6.4 and exported to SPSS version 25 software for further analysis. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, mean, median and proportion were used to describe the study population concerning relevant variables. Before the analysis was done, the assumptions of the binary logistic regression model were checked. Then, bivariate analysis was carried out to find candidate variables for multivariate analysis. Those variables with a p-value<0.25 in the bivariate analysis were included in the multivariate analysis to adjust for confounders. An adjusted odd ratio with 95% CIs was estimated to identify factors associated with measles second dose vaccine uptake, and they were declared statistically significant at a p-value<0.05. HosmerLemeshows goodness of fit test model coefficient was found to be insignificant with a large p-value (0.89), which indicates the fitness of the model.
This study involves human subject and all research methods and procedures were performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Debre Markose University Health Science College Institutional Research Ethics Review Committee (IRERC). Further supporting letters were also obtained from the Shebel Berenta district health office. After the purpose and objective of the study had been explained, informed consent was obtained from each subject. Confidentiality of information was maintained, and the collected data was kept in the form of a file in a secure place where no one could access it except the investigators. Mothers/caretakers with unvaccinated or seriously ill children during data collection were advised by data collectors to go to the nearby health post and cluster health center.
All procedures involving human subject were approved by Debre Markose University, Health Science College Institutional Research Ethics Review Committee (IRERC). Verbal consent was obtained from all subjects.
Is it possible to develop an effective, long lasting flu vaccine? andreswd/Getty Images This article originally appeared on Medical News Today
Influenza viruses cause billions of flu infections and thousands of deaths across the globe each year.
Developing an effective, long-term flu vaccine is challenging because of viral mutations. Researchers are interested in what strategies they can use to get around this problem.
Results from a recent study suggest that targeting multiple areas of the virus proteins may be the key to creating a flu vaccine that offers long-term immunity, specifically focusing on an area that experiences less mutation.
Developing a long lasting flu vaccine could be highly beneficial for the health of society, and research is getting closer to this goal.
Astudypublished inScience Translational Medicinefound that developing a vaccine that additionally targets an area of the hemagglutinin (HA) glycoprotein that experiences less mutation may be how we reach long-term flu vaccination options.
Researchers tested their vaccine in mice and ferrets and found it offered better protection than conventional vaccination. While more research is required, this successful test directs how to proceed with creating a long-term flu vaccine.
The flu is a common infection, affectingbillions of peopleeach year. The World Health Organization also estimates that the flu is responsible for 3-5 million cases of severe illness and 290,000 to 650,000 respiratory deaths yearly. Certain people are more at risk for severe illness or complications from the flu, including children under five and older adults.
Influenza viruses cause the flu, and these viruses change. Currently, the strategy for protection from the flu is the use of annual flu vaccines. Expertscreate these vaccinesbased on what influenza viruses they believe will be most common during flu season.
Changes in influenza virusesin influenza viruses are part of the challenge of creating a long-term vaccine. These changes often occur in the viruss surface proteins, like hemagglutinin (HA).
Non-study authorYoshua Quinones, MD, board certified internist with Medical Offices of Manhattan, noted the following to Medical News Today:
The difficulties with flu vaccines include needing to update them every year because the flu virus changes, certain parts of the virus making the vaccine less effective, and not being able to protect against all types of the flu virus. Its also hard to make sure everyone can get the vaccine. But getting the flu shot can help reduce how many people get sick, help protect those who cant get the shot, and maybe one day there will be a vaccine that works for all types of the flu. Making the immune system respond better to the flu shot could also help protect against more types of the flu.
The researchers of the current study note that annual flu vaccines help create antibodies that target specific areas of HA globular head. However, this region often experiences frequent mutation.
Thus, if they could figure out a way to target an area of the HA that doesnt change as much, the stalk, they may be able to create a vaccine that could protect against many flu strains. However, while this has been tried in the past, it has not been effective in also eliciting an effective response in the head region.
Thus, researchers wanted to create a vaccine that could produce head and stalk-directed antibodies to offer long-term immunity against multiple flu strains. Ultimately, they made an HA antigenic mixturebased vaccine. This vaccine contained a mixture of HA proteins with a conserved stalk region and various mutations at a key site in the head.
Researchers in this study tested the vaccines effectiveness on mice and ferrets. They compared the response to conventional vaccine approaches.
They found that their vaccine elicited a better antibody response than the control vaccine option. The vaccine even offered protection when mice were exposed to lethal viral doses.It also offered protection against multiple H1 viral strains.
However, this newly developed vaccine appears most effective after receiving an initial prime dose and a booster rather than just a single dose.
Non-study authorLinda Yancey, MD, Infectious Disease Specialist, Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, commented with her thoughts on the study to MNT:
This is a nice step in the direction of a universal flu vaccine. Producing one has been the goal of researchers for years. It has proven to be a complex and difficult task, so it is nice to see solid progress being made towards it. At this time scientists are still working on developing the building blocks of a vaccine. We probably wont see any changes in clinical practice based on this for a few years. But every step in the right direction brings that universal vaccine a little closer.
This study has limitations, mainly because animal testing differs from testing something in people. These animals had also not experienced any previous flu vaccine or flu exposure, which could have affected the observed results. Researchers note that most people have some pre-existing immunity to influenza, which could minimize or influence the response to this type of vaccine. The study also only looked at one H1 HA, so its unclear how the approach would impact other HAs. In addition, not all animal experiments were conducted in a blinded manner.
Researchers also acknowledge that further study is required to understand more of the underlying mechanisms and confirm why they observed the response they did. They acknowledge that the protection from infection may not always be correlated with decreasing classical antigenic site-directed responses.
Even if this potential vaccine is developed, experts, government agencies, and health professionals will need to address distribution and acceptance. Non-study authorDavid Cutler, MD, board certified family medicine physician at Providence Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, noted the following:
While safety and effectiveness are the major concerns, vaccine uptake is also an important issue to consider. Presently, only about 50% of adults receive a flu vaccine. Any improvement in effectiveness could be offset be reluctance to receive a new vaccine. It is the role of our public health agencies to convince people that the benefits of approved vaccines greatly exceed their risks. So, while scientists may develop new, improved vaccines the benefit to society may not be realized if the vaccines do not get administered.
However, the research sets up the potential development of a long-term flu vaccine. This could make it easier to maximize the vaccines impact and ultimately minimize the detrimental health effects of the flu.
Quinones was hopeful about the results and noted the following:
The new flu vaccine might work better than the old ones. If it works in people like it did in animals, it could mean fewer people getting sick from the flu each year. It might also lead to a vaccine that works for all types of the flu, which would be a big deal for keeping people healthy.
View the original article on Medical News Today
There are H5 vaccines out there, and there are some stockpiled in some high-income countries, said Dr Nicole Lurie, executive director for preparedness and response at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi).
[But] a lot of things have been frozen for a pretty long time now and are quite old. I think we all hope that they will be fine, but we dont necessarily know.
Even the optimists point out that even if the stockpiled vaccines do work, existing supplies would barely be enough to cover healthcare workers.
Dr Richard Webby, director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in the US, said we were better prepared for H5N1 than other viruses but said it would take a while to gear up.
Are we going to have enough vaccine to meet demands in the first few weeks of such an outbreak? The answer to that is clearly no, he said.
There is also the important question of whether the vaccines we have today are a good match for the new strains of H5N1 circulating.
The limited data available is not convincing. Only two of the four vaccines currently stockpiled are thought to be a good match for the current H5N1 stain, and even they may not work especially well.
Former FDA official Dr Luciana Borio told the World Vaccine Congress in Washington last month that the efficacy is potentially as low as 45 per cent, based on studies looking at antibody responses.
A similar problem happened when H1N1 swine flu broke out in 2008/9. Although vaccine stockpiles covered the strain circulating, a study later found it protected young people but had no discernible impact on older adults.
In other words: theres no guarantee a shot would live up to expectations or arrive in time.
With swine flu, the vaccine rollout began in earnest only after the most significant wave of infections had peaked. Thankfully, the virus turned out to be very mild.
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A DJ who traveled the world before he suddenly became bedridden for a year with long Covid, causing memory loss and mobility issues, has since lost his career and now predominantly spends his days lying down.
Rowan Clarke, 32, a part-time video editor and sound designer from Colchester, contracted Covid-19 in 2021 and progressively got sicker and sicker to the point where he was in constant pain, could not remember his own phone number and could hardly walk.
On top of this, Rowan had constant headaches, meaning he could barely work and look at his emails, and ended up having to close his recording studio.
At the time, Rowan was the fittest he had ever been, running 15km a day, and was preparing to take a fire service exam to become a part-time firefighter he also had to give this up because of his condition.
When he went to the doctors about his symptoms, he said he felt like they were medically gaslighting him, and was told there was nothing wrong and it may just be anxiety one doctor even asked him Do you want me to wave my magic wand?
After going back and forth to the doctors for a year, he was eventually diagnosed with long Covid, chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, and prescribed low-dose naltrexone (LDN) to manage his pain and fatigue.
In recent months, he has been experimenting with alternative medicines, including a small earpiece that sends electrical signals to his brain, but he still spends most of the day lying down and admits he has lost a lot of friends since being unwell, and has almost given up trying to explain it to people.
Rowan told PA Real Life: I spend most of the day lying down, but I work now, not full time, but I can do that.
Its changed my entire life Ive lost a lot of friends from it, Ive lost my career, Ive lost everything.
(At the beginning) they told me it was just anxiety, they denied that anything was wrong with me the mental toll of that was awful, it was like medical gaslighting.
Immediately the doctors were like Theres nothing wrong with you the more I just listened to them, I believed them.
I had one doctor tell me Do you want me to wave my magic wand?
I just couldnt believe it, I just thought Why would I be here? You know, why would I quit my job and quit the fire service? It just didnt make any sense at all
You think having headaches every day for a year they would do brain scans or assume things would be taken seriously.
Before the pandemic, Rowan was living the dream travelling the world, DJing internationally and even presented television shows in the Philippines.
But this soon came crashing down in 2021, he contracted the delta variant of Covid-19.
At first, he had the usual symptoms of a sore throat and a cough when going to the doctors, he was told he may have an allergy, but after doing a Covid test, he realised he had the virus.
I tried going back to normal but I just got sicker and sicker and got to the point where I was completely bed-bound for a year, it was very confusing really, he explained.
I was in constant pain I had a headache for like a year straight and nothing worked at all.
It felt like my muscles were pushing out of my body I couldnt remember my phone number, I couldnt remember peoples names.
I was out of breath, like I couldnt walk downstairs and Id wake up and it felt like I had been hit by a bus.
It was just the most scary thing.
Rowan could also not look at screens or deal with sounds, meaning he could not look at emails and struggled to get any work done, so ended up closing his recording studio.
On top of this, around a month into being sick, he was meant to take a fire service exam as he was planning to become a part-time firefighter, but this also had to be put on hold.
Over time, Rowan unfortunately had to accept that he was not able to train as a firefighter, and decided to go to the doctors as his condition was not improving.
A year after Rowan first got sick, and continued going to the doctors, he was finally diagnosed with long Covid, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia.
He said: I was referred to a long Covid clinic but the advice was mainly just to pace myself which didnt really help at all.
My life is built around pacing myself, I try to have some kind of life.
Like right now its a beautiful sunny day and I really want to go for a run but I feel like Ive been hit by a car.
Its like prison.
You give up trying to explain it to people, and its been hard trying to have relationships.
However, Rowan has a girlfriend of one year, Rosie Helliwell, 27, and said: Shes known people with similar illness and could understand it so I was quite lucky to meet her I think, but you cant keep up with the expectations of a relationship, to be honest.
Rowan has since been privately prescribed low-dose naltrexone (LDN) to help with his chronic pain and fatigue, which has made him able to move around a lot more, but, he has still not been able to go on a run since contracting Covid.
Looking to the future, Rowan said: I have mixed emotions (about the future) because Im disabled and so much has changed, Ill never have the life I previously had.
But on the bright side, it looks like theres a lot of research coming out about long covid.
Theres a lot of people in this community that are very upset, angry and depressed but I just think you have to look at everything positively as much as you can.
Asked whether Rowan will one day get back behind the decks, he said: I dont know because I couldnt stand for that long.
I hope so, but I really dont know.
POCATELLO Bannock County Commissioners have set aside $17 million in American Rescue Plan Act Funds for 29 new projects.
ARPA was passed by Congress in 2021 to help local communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The commissioners finished committing these funds on April 15 when they voted against putting funding towards the proposed forensic pathology center. The $4.5 million that wouldve gone towards the center was redistributed throughout the rest of the ARPA projects.
RELATED | Bannock County commissioners vote down East Idaho Forensic Pathology Center
We wanted to have something that would be lasting and not just throw it into something that youre going to forget about next year, Commissioner Ernie Moser says.
Here are the projects that have been approved but have yet to be completed:
Here are the projects that have been completed so far:
Moser said all of these projects offer a variety of benefits.
One example he pointed to was The Village, a safety and recovery center for juveniles. In seven months of operation, its already served 500 people.
RELATED | The Village: Instead of criminalizing kids help them
He also pointed to projects that will benefit south Bannock County, one of which is the new ambulance bay in McCammon.
We felt like it would have great longevity, it would bring safety and it provides a lot of services for the south end of the county, and so that became a priority, Moser said.
The county received about $200 million worth of requests for ARPA funds. Due to the finite amount of funds, many people who put in requests were disappointed not to receive any.
Moser wishes they were able to provide funding for everyone who gave them a request. He felt everyone who came before them treated the process seriously, but they had to evaluate projects by the impact they would have for the county.
When it comes down to it, we had to look at county funds being spent to benefit all the people of the county, Moser said.
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These are the top stories on Fox 32's Week in Review.
CHICAGO - The Northern Lights were visible in Chicago Friday night amid a historic geomagnetic storm; a new group of COVID-19 variants has been on the rise across the country; and a Bolingbrook man reported missing in 2022 was found dead in Chicago.
These are the top stories on Fox 32's Week in Review.
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The Northern Lights were seen all over the Chicago area on Friday night.
For the first time in nearly 20 years, a Severe (G4) Geomagmetic Storm Watch was issued on Thursday, after a series of solar flares were observed.
According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, the Northern Lights could be visible as far south as northern Alabama overnight and early Saturday morning.
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A new group of COVID-19 variants is sweeping across the country right now. The new variants, nicknamed "FLiRT," are the new dominant strains in the United States, according to the CDC.
A new group of COVID-19 variants is circulating across the United States.
According to tracking by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the family of variants, nicknamed "FLiRT" after their mutations, are currently the dominant strains in the country.
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A 22-year-old Bolingbrook man who was reported missing in 2022 has been found dead in Chicago.
A 22-year-old Bolingbrook man who was reported missing in 2022 has been found dead in Chicago.
Edward "Eddie" Gardner was last seen in Woodridge, as well as Griffith, Indiana, on March 13, 2022.
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A historic geomagnetic storm brought the Northern Lights over Chicago on Saturday night. We made a timelapse video of our footage that captured the lights downtown.
The magnificent Northern Lights were captured in photos across the Chicago area on Friday night.
Photos of the aurora borealis were sent in by FOX 32 viewers from across the Chicago-area. Auroras occur when a solar storm emits extra charged particles into space, and those charged particles interact with Earth's atmosphere to create a natural colorful light display in the sky.
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A village board meeting was underway in Dolton Monday night, marking the first meeting since FBI agents delivered subpoenas that named Mayor Tiffany Henyard.
A village board meeting was held in Dolton Monday night, marking the first meeting since FBI agents delivered subpoenas that named Mayor Tiffany Henyard.
Outside the Village of Dolton, residents were eager to address Henyard and her administration.
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A Cinco de Mayo parade that celebrates Mexican heritage in Chicago was disrupted Sunday due to gang violence.
A Cinco de Mayo parade that celebrates Mexican heritage in Chicago was disrupted Sunday due to gang violence.
The long-running event was scheduled to start near Damen Avenue and Cermak Road at noon in the Little Village neighborhood.
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The Lake County Sheriff's Office is turning up the heat in their search for a drug dealer who's been on the run for three years.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office is turning up the heat in their search for a drug dealer who's been on the run for three years.
In a Fox 32 special report, Tia Ewing has the latest on the search for Anthony Brown.
The man fatally shot after getting caught in a "street takeover" in Chicago Lawn over the weekend has been identified.
At about 3:17 a.m. on Sunday, a 20-year-old man was driving in his black Honda Accord when he was caught in a "street takeover" at the intersection of West 59th Street and South Western Avenue.
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A Will County man was charged after he allegedly shot his neighbor outside his home in Unincorporated Lockport Township on Tuesday.
A Will County man was charged after he allegedly shot his neighbor outside his home in Unincorporated Lockport Township on Tuesday.
Will County Sheriff's deputies responded to a home near 144th Place and Rickerman Road at approximately 5:37 p.m. for reports of a shooting in the area.
A sign stands outside of a McDonald's restaurant February 9, 2009 in San Francisco, California. Fast food chain restaurant McDonald's reported a 7.1 percent increase in same store sales for January as people look towards cheaper food alternatives in
McDonalds reportedly planning to launch a $5 meal deal in the U.S. to attract customers deterred by rising fast-food prices, according to a source who spoke to Bloomberg anonymously.
The value meal will offer a choice between a McChicken or a McDouble, accompanied by fries and a drink.
MUMBAI: The state has identified 91 cases of the new Covid-19 Omicron subvariant KP.2 that has outpaced the previously circulating JN.1 variant and is now driving cases in many countries. Pune reported 51 cases and Thane 20 cases of KP.2, first detected globally in Jan. Currently, KP.2 is the dominant variant in the US. Maharashtra identified KP.2 cases in January. By March and April, it became the dominant strain in the region. However, there hasnt been any proportionate increase in hospitalisations or serious cases, said Dr Rajesh Karyakarte, states genome sequencing coordinator. KP.2 descended from JN.1, which was the predominant Covid strain by the end of 2023. In March, the state witnessed a slight surge in cases, averaging around 250 detections, which is likely attributable to the spread of the KP.2 variant. Besides Pune and Thane, seven cases each were identified in Amravati and Aurangabad. Solapur had two cases while Ahmednagar, Nashik, Latur and Sanglione each of the KP.2 variant. None was from Mumbai.
We also published the following articles recently
91 cases of new Covid variant KP.2 identified in Maharashtra
Maharashtra has detected 91 Omicron KP.2 cases, with Pune reporting 51 and Thane 20. The variant emerged globally in January and became dominant by March-April. Dr Karyakarte highlighted low hospitalization rates, with KP.2 being part of the FLiRT variants.
FLiRT, the new COVID variants are circulating fast: All about symptoms, severity
FLiRT variants, KP.2 & KP.1.1, dominate US infections with Omicron symptoms. KP.2's reproduction number surpasses JN.1. WHO monitors the variants' impact on vaccine immunity and advises close observation for major virus changes.
93 riots case: SC tells state to implement directions
Supreme Court directs Maharashtra to address 1992 Mumbai riots cases, compensate missing victims' families, implement police reforms, and comply with Justice B N Srikrishna Commission recommendations by July 19, including tracing 168 missing people.
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Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, who was jailed for her reporting from Wuhan in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, is set to be released after four years.
The lawyer-turned-citizen journalist was in Wuhan in February 2020 to document the Chinese governments efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus at the start of what was to become a global pandemic.
She spoke about the Chinese governments efforts to censor criticism against its response to the pandemic on several social media platforms, including YouTube, WeChat, and X formerly Twitter.
After 4 years in prison for her independent reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic, journalist Zhang Zhan is due for release on 13 May, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) shared on X.
China has faced accusations of delaying the release of crucial information during the initial outbreak and attempting to cover up the situation, actions that are believed to have facilitated the viruss spread to pandemic proportions.
Ms Zhang was arrested in May 2020 and subsequently convicted of picking quarrels and provoking trouble, resulting in a four-year prison sentence. Since then, she has remained incarcerated at Shanghai womens prison.
In a video posted in February 2020, Ms Zhang said Wuhan was paralysed because everything is undercover.
She continued: Thats what this country is facing now They imprison us in the name of pandemic prevention and restrict our freedom. We must not talk to strangers, its dangerous. So without the truth, everything is meaningless. If we cannot get to the truth, if we cannot break the monopoly of the truth, the world means nothing to us.
Ms Zhang also posted a video online showing a hospital overflowing with patients during the early phase of the pandemic, a time when much information on the viruss spread had not yet reached the rest of the world.
While in prison, she went on a prolonged hunger strike that impacted her health and prompted authorities to feed her forcibly.
Her lawyer told reporters that she became very thin during her stay in prison and had a tube up her nose for forced feeding.
International human rights groups have been calling for Ms Zhangs release with Amnesty International saying she should not have been jailed in the first place.
Sarah Brooks, Amnesty Internationals China director, said: We urge the Chinese authorities to ensure that Zhang Zhan is fully free from 13 May. She must be allowed to move freely, to communicate with people inside and outside of China, and to reunite with her family. She and her family must not be subjected to surveillance or harassment, and the Chinese authorities must also ensure there are no restrictions on her access to medical treatment after her traumatic ordeal in jail.
Additional reporting with agencies
Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) acknowledged the continued risk of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) infection, particularly in regions where the virus circulates among dromedaries, mainly in the Middle East.
While COVID-19 has dominated recent headlines, MERS remains a persistent concern. Unlike COVID-19, however, MERS lacks proven antiviral treatments, vaccines, or rapid diagnostics. This underscores the ongoing need for advancements in these areas.
Experts have praised Saudi Arabia's expertise in detecting and controlling healthcare-associated MERS transmission but warn that other regions may be less equipped. Efforts to trace the initial case are ongoing, and crucial for understanding and containing future outbreaks.
According to the World Health Organisation, MERS is a viral respiratory illness caused by the MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV). While not as widespread as some other respiratory viruses, MERS is a concern due to its potential severity.
MERS symptoms can range from mild to severe, and they typically appear within 2 to 14 days after exposure to the virus. Common symptoms include:
In severe cases, MERS can progress to pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), kidney failure, and even death. Individuals with underlying health conditions, such as diabetes, renal failure, or chronic lung disease, are at higher risk of developing severe complications.
Several factors increase the risk of contracting MERS as per the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention:
Preventing the spread of MERS involves a combination of personal and public health measures, shared a study published in the Lancet:
For travellers, staying informed about MERS outbreaks and following travel advisories can help mitigate the risk. Additionally, healthcare facilities should have protocols to identify and isolate suspected MERS cases promptly.
While MERS is not as widespread as other respiratory illnesses, understanding its symptoms, risk factors, and preventive measures is crucial for public health. By practising good hygiene, avoiding close contact with sick individuals, and staying informed, we can work towards minimising the impact of MERS and similar viral diseases.
Also Read:Long COVID Can Lower Your IQ, Finds Study: Here's How Long COVID Can Damage The Brain
The Saudi Arabian outbreak serves as a poignant reminder of the ongoing global battle against infectious diseases. As we navigate through pandemics like COVID-19, it's imperative to remain vigilant and invest in research and preparedness for diseases like MERS, ensuring a more resilient healthcare system for the future.
