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CDC investigating TB cases linked to tainted bone repair product used in more than 100 patients

WASHINGTON – Federal and state health officials are investigating a rare tuberculosis outbreak among more than 100 patients who may have been infected after having spinal surgery or fracture repairs this spring with a bone product contaminated with the bacteria that causes TB.

The manufacturer of the bone repair product has recalled 154 containers of the material – a malleable bone putty that includes human cells and is used in a variety of orthopedic procedures. The products were shipped to 37 facilities in 20 states between March 3 and April 2, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Aziyo Biologics Inc. has recalled 154 containers of a malleable bone putty, known as FiberCel, commonly used in orthopedic procedures. The company’s building is pictured on June 17, 2021. Photo by Michael Blackshire for The Washington Post

The product, made by Aziyo Biologics Inc., a regenerative medicine company, came from a single donor, or cadaver, the company said.

Of the total, 136 were implanted into 113 patients, according to CDC officials. Eight patients died after their procedures, but the cause of death is still being determined, CDC spokeswoman Martha Sharan said Thursday.

Aziyo said in a statement it is “continuing to collaborate with FDA and the CDC on an investigation into the matter and at the appropriate time, we will provide more information.”

In the meantime, public health officials are recommending that the remaining patients who received these bone repair products be treated for tuberculosis even if they are not showing symptoms. Health-care providers are contacting 105 patients who used this product and all but four are being treated for the disease, the CDC said in a statement Thursday.

States were able to sequester 18 of the affected products to prevent additional surgeries, the CDC said. The agency is investigating the outbreak with state health departments, the Food and Drug Administration and the companies that manufactured and distributed the product.

Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It usually affects the lungs, but can attack any part of the body, including the kidney, spine and brain. Not everyone infected becomes sick, but if not treated properly, the disease can be fatal. Typical treatment for TB that is not drug-resistant is a six-month course of antibiotics.

Aziyo, which processes the bone product, is responsible for ensuring it is free of contamination. But testing for the bacteria that causes tuberculosis is not currently conducted because that infection is so rare in bone grafts, said Beverly Bliss, vice president of accreditation and standards for the American Association of Tissue Banks. The last known case of this kind occurred in 1953, according to the CDC.

Typically, laboratories hired by processing companies test for HIV, hepatitis C and other infections that are more commonly spread by implantation of human tissue, Bliss said.

In addition, the organizations that collect bone and human tissue assess donors and interview family to determine the risk of infection and prevent pathogens from entering the system, she said.

Recovered tissue is typically frozen in 48 hours, Bliss said. The product, called FiberCel, is shipped frozen, according to a description of the product.

A spokesman for Medtronic, the exclusive distributor of FiberCel, said it has quality controls in place but does not test the material. The company has suspended distribution until the investigation is complete, said spokesman Ben Petok.

Aziyo said it issued a voluntary recall June 2 for a single lot of FiberCel. The company said it received a complaint from an unidentified hospital that reported post-surgical infections in seven of 23 patients who received FiberCel from one lot of the product, according to the FDA’s urgent recall notification. Four patients tested positive for tuberculosis, the FDA said.

Aziyo said its voluntary recall was issued to hospitals that received product from the specific lot after the company learned of post-surgical infections in patients treated with FiberCel, “including some patients that tested positive for tuberculosis.”

Genetic sequencing from some of the patients show the bacteria came from the same source, CDC officials said.

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Indiana and Delaware have reported the most cases.

Indiana state health officials said they are working with local health departments and providers to investigate 30 individuals in 19 counties who received the bone repair product.

“All affected individuals have been notified, and appropriate public health actions have been taken,” Indiana Department of Health spokeswoman Megan Wade-Taxter said in a statement. “There is no risk to the public.”

In Delaware, 23 patients received the bone repair products, according to an official familiar with the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing probe.

In late May, Delaware health officials received notification from a health-care system of a cluster of patients who developed tuberculosis after surgery “involving a specific product,” Delaware Division of Public Health spokeswoman Mary S. Fenimore said in a statement.

One Delaware patient who tested positive for tuberculosis is Richard Williams, 74, who filed a lawsuit this week seeking damages from Aziyo and Medtronic. Williams, a retired corrections officer, says he contracted tuberculosis during a spinal fusion operation at a ChristianaCare hospital that used the contaminated bone graft.

Petok, the Medtronic spokesman, said the company has not seen the lawsuit and could not comment on it. Aziyo did not comment on the lawsuit.

Williams had his surgery on April 13, 2021, according to his lawsuit. Five days after Aziyo issued its recall, Williams had a second surgery to remove the contaminated product and to insert new bone, the lawsuit states.

Williams was not available to comment because he is “still suffering greatly after a second unnecessary surgery,” said Lawrence Cohan, one of his attorneys. Lawyers for Williams said the man received his diagnosis and learned that the product was contaminated before the official recall.

Williams is being treated with antibiotics, and will require “extensive and invasive medical protocols to manage manifestation of disease,” the lawsuit states.

“We believe our client and likely others were infected with tuberculosis due to the contaminated surgical bone product which should have been fully tested to ensure it was disease-free and suitable for implantation,” Cohan said in a statement.

Cohan said there are additional clients but declined to specify a number. The health-care system used the product in nearly two dozen orthopedic surgeries, according to the law firms’ news release.

Shane Hoffman, a spokesperson for ChristianaCare, said in late May the health system identified “a small number of patients who tested positive for tuberculosis infection” following surgery involving a specific product. Hoffman said the health system’s infection prevention team alerted patients, state health officials and the FDA, and is working with the state and the CDC to ensure patient safety.

FiberCel is made from human bone and “engineered to be like natural tissue,” according to the company’s website.

The CDC is working with the FDA, which regulates bone and tissue designed for implantation into humans, to determine how the contamination happened.

“At this point, the available evidence suggests that TB was transmitted through the product,” according to the CDC statement.

It’s possible for the bacteria to infect bone, and for someone infected to die without being treated. Once that bone is harvested and transplanted into someone, “the body becomes a nurturing environment” for TB to grow, said a CDC official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

About 80% of TB cases that occur in the United States happen when bacteria that have been living quietly in a person’s body reactivate and cause disease. Many people who have a latent tuberculosis infection never develop the disease. For people with weakened immune systems, especially those with HIV infection, the risk of developing tuberculosis is much higher than for people with normal immune systems.

Someone with an active TB infection may have symptoms that include a bad cough that lasts three weeks or longer, pain in the chest, coughing up blood, weakness or fatigue, weight loss, lack of appetite, fever and chills, and night sweats.

The United States reported nearly 9,000 cases of tuberculosis in 2019. Up to 13 million people in the United States are estimated to be living with latent TB infection, according to the CDC.

Published : June 19, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Lena H. Sun, Lenny Bernstein

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Heat wave raises fears Western U.S. states could face severe fire season

The punishing heat wave that baked the western United States this week has intensified fears that the region is heading into another severe wildfire season, pressuring emergency officials and residents still recovering from last years historic blazes once again to prepare for the worst.

Record high temperatures and a worsening drought have parched vast tracts of brush, timber and grasses, leaving an abundance of potential fuels for the flames to consume. The vegetation has dried out faster than usual in some places after an early snow melt and months with little precipitation. The triple-digit heat this week has only compounded the problem.

“We’re going into fire season with fuels that are already much drier than we’d expect at this time of year,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, a fire adviser with the University of California Cooperative Extension. “Everything is kind of primed. If we get those ignitions, everything will be ready to burn easily.”

Preventive work has been underway for months. Fire crews spent the winter and spring clearing flammable materials, engaging in public outreach campaigns and conducting controlled burnings of vegetation to manage the hazards. Officials have called on residents to fireproof their homes and businesses, and more communities are participating in the national Firewise program, which aims to reduce wildfire risks.

But the tinderbox conditions mean that even small blazes could quickly spiral out of control.

In Arizona, where firefighters were battling a mix of small and large fires this week, one blaze was so erratic that a retardant dropped by heavy air tanker had almost no effect on the flames, according to Tiffany Davila, a spokeswoman from the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management.

“The fire was just blowing right through the retardant,” she said. “These conditions are just explosive.”

Already, the state has experienced more high-intensity blazes, known as Type 1 fires, than usual, Davila said, with two occurring in May before Arizona’s fire season typically peaks. Relief usually comes in July during the state’s monsoon season, but last year’s monsoon was light. Without more rain, Davila said, “anything that didn’t burn last year is burning this year.”

In California, where wildfires charred a record 4.3 million acres last year, state fire officials are pleading with residents to take greater personal responsibility for preventing blazes. The vast majority of wildfires – upward of 90% by some estimates – are caused by human activity, so reaching residents is a priority.

“We’re going to do our best to extinguish all fires, but we need the public to do their part,” said Jon Heggie, fire battalion chief at Cal Fire. “If someone starts an accidental fire, it really has a devastating effect on the whole community.”

California officials are desperate to stave off a repeat of last year, when dry lightning strikes ignited thousands of fires around the state over a two-day period during a mid-August heat wave. Fire crews were strained to the limit. Electricity providers initiated rolling blackouts to prevent further blazes from fallen wires.

“My top concern after what we saw last year is that we’re hit with a weather system that produces the same amount of lightning,” Heggie said. “It’s going to stretch the resources of any organization, and we’re no exception.”

In Marin County, Calif., dry conditions combined with an overgrowth of vegetation have forced fire workers to speed up their prevention work. The county has mobilized a large corps of firefighters to protect its residents and limit the spread of wildfires in the region, hoping to draw on some of the tactics it has used in past years to mitigate the risks, fire Battalion Chief Graham Groneman said.

“We’re looking at all the fuels that are about a month to a month and a half ahead of schedule – so ahead in their dryness,” Groneman said. “What we would normally see fires do in late July, early August is what we’re seeing fires do here in mid-June.”

Los Angeles, too, is grappling with blazing heat that puts the hillsides at higher risk for ignition. Fire Department spokesperson Brian Humphrey said the city is trying to help residents make evacuation plans if fires like last year’s close in on the region, but officials are facing some resistance. Displacement is taxing, particularly in historically marginalized communities. This, coupled with misconceptions regarding the actual threat of wildfires in Los Angeles, is worrying officials, he said.

“People have to be prepared to evacuate,” Humphrey said. “People are reluctant to do so in the city.”

In Southern Nevada, the lack of rain has firefighters on edge as they prepare for what could be high-intensity burns that would be difficult to contain.

“Without having a true winter in Southern Nevada this year, we’re seeing record lows in all the live moistures in our vegetation, which results in higher fire risk,” said Tyler Hecht, a fire management officer for the Bureau of Land Management in Southern Nevada.

One of the main issues is the bone-dry conditions of the region’s pinion and juniper pines, he said. “The pinions and junipers are just above the dormant phase as far as the amount of moisture that they have right now. They’re just barely staying alive, so that’s very concerning for us,” Hecht said. “With the extreme heat we had over the past week, it’s contributing to a lot of fire growth. It’s making these fires resistant to control, making them harder to fight.”

High winds in the region Friday and potential thunderstorms or dry lightning also pose risks. “The hotter it gets and the lower the relative humidity, the harder it is to contain these fires,” Hecht said.

The concerns in the western states are beginning to register in Congress, where a group of lawmakers this week called on President Joe Biden to unlock resources for states that have been affected by wildfires and extreme drought. In a letter, they noted that some 95% of the West was either abnormally dry or in a drought, the largest geographical spread in two decades. They urged Biden to request disaster funding to respond to the crisis.

“The scale and nature of the problem is quickly outpacing the availability of funding and authorities of federal agencies,” the lawmakers said in the letter.

The problem is also having a deepening impact on communities in California, as well as other parts of the country where the threat of wildfires has become a fact of daily life.

“It takes a huge emotional, physical and psychological toll to be always on edge,” said Rebecca Miller, a wildfire policy expert at Stanford University. “When weather is in the triple digits and there’s high winds and risk of wildfires and risk of having power shut off, all of this exacerbates anxiety and fear around what to do if or likely when a fire does occur.”

Published : June 19, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Derek Hawkins, David Suggs

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Brazil sets new daily COVID-19 vaccination record, the Ministry of Health said .

The Brazilian government broke its daily record for vaccinations against COVID-19, after accelerating its immunization pace in recent days, the Ministry of Health said on Friday.

According to the ministry’s vaccination website, which is supplied with information from Brazilian states, a new vaccination record was set on Thursday when 2,561,553 vaccine doses were administered in 24 hours.

So far, Brazil has administered 84.1 million doses, with 60.06 million people receiving their first dose and 24.03 million their second.

The federal government has distributed about 109.29 million vaccine doses to states and municipalities, Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said.

The South American country began its immunization plan in January using the CoronaVac vaccine from the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac, which was later joined by the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Brazil has accumulated 17,702,630 COVID-19 cases and 496,004 deaths to date.

Published : June 19, 2021

By : xinhua

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New Covid cases in Asean hit a new high

Southeast Asia reported the highest number of Covid-19 cases in over a month on Friday.

Asean saw 30,715 new cases, higher than Thursday’s 29,658, while 512 people died, down from Thursday’s 534.

The total number of Covid-19 cases crossed 4.47 million and the death toll rose to 87,028.

Singapore reported 16 new cases on Friday, bringing cumulative cases in the country to 62,382. Of these, 61,987 people have been cured and discharged.

From June 21, the government will allow dining at restaurants at not more than two people per table. The original plan was to allow five people to dine together per table but was reduced to two after new cases were found in a residential area.

Cambodia reported 799 cases and 14 deaths on Friday, taking cumulative cases in the country to 41,851 and deaths to 394.

The public health office of Banteay Meanchey province said that some of the new infections in the province were workers returning from Thailand and were found with delta and beta variants.

Published : June 19, 2021

By : THE NATION

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Experts and media worldwide marvel at Chinas manned space mission

As Chinas Shenzhou-12 manned spaceship successfully docked with the Tianhe space station core module on Thursday, experts and media worldwide applauded the landmark progress in Chinas manned space expeditions.

Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo, members of the three-man space crew, are scheduled to stay in orbit for three months, the longest in China’s manned mission to date, to build the country’s space station.

“This is a great moment,” said Philippe Coue, a French space expert, when commenting on the Chinese astronauts’ rendezvous with the station’s core module.

“And I am extremely amazed at the speed of development. There is a real dynamic in China, it is very impressive,” he told Xinhua on Thursday.

In recent months, the world has witnessed the fruitful results of China’s building of the space station and the country is moving steadily forward in this regard, said Vitaliy Egorov, a Russian journalist and popular writer about space research, adding he believed China’s space research would advance to a new stage.

China has made great efforts in the field of aerospace and has “managed to excel” in the realm, said Ali Sarosh, associate professor with the Institute of Avionics and Aeronautics at the Air University in Islamabad, Pakistan.

“The successful launch of the Shenzhou-12 manned spaceship is another big achievement made by China in the aerospace field,” he said.

In recent years, China’s space programme has had a very successful series of launches and landings, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. “These successful endeavours have added to the likelihood that China will keep to its proposed timelines for other deep space missions,” an article in the newspaper said.

“Keeping the station up and running smoothly involves much detailed and complicated work, as we saw on the International Space Station during its early days,” Chen Lan, an analyst at GoTaikonauts, an online news portal about China’s space programme, told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Tuesday.

The astronauts will aim to “get their new home in space kitted out and ready to use”, said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “It’s a practical goal rather than a groundbreaking one,” he told AFP reporters.

“They build a space station, go to the moon, and probe Mars because they want to demonstrate China’s technological advancements to its [the Chinese] people and the international community,” Kazuto Suzuki, professor of space security at the University of Tokyo was quoted by a Nikkei commentary as saying.

A platform for joint ventures

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Coue said the project would provide fresh opportunities for international cooperation, as “there are countries that China naturally cooperates with that I think will join the station”.

“That can be an important vector of cooperation,” he said.

Egorov noted that Russia’s space authority has laid out plans for cooperation with China, whose success in aerospace will also help Russia’s research and development in the field.

Any scientific achievements would ultimately benefit mankind as a whole, he said, adding that China’s success also contributes to enhancing humankind’s understanding of the surrounding world, the universe and even humankind itself.

The successful launch of Shenzhou-12 “is going to be a great benefit to the country in the future, as it will act as a platform for the country to carry out various experiments in space, besides acting as a launch pad for astronauts for research on the moon and space,” Sarosh said.

In the coming years, “many of the existing and new experiments will be shifted to the Chinese space station, which will promote China’s cooperation with international partners in conducting experiments in space”, he added.

Published : June 18, 2021

By : Xinhua

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Steep jump in new Covid-19 cases and deaths in Asean

Southeast Asia saw the highest number of Covid-19 cases in over a month on Thursday, while the death toll was the second highest, collated data showed.

Asean saw 29,658 new cases, much higher than Wednesday’s 24,344, while 534 people died, up from Wednesday’s 476. On June 3, there were 537 deaths.

The number of Covid-19 cases in the region crossed 4.44 million, and the death toll rose to 86,517.

The Philippines reported 6,637 new cases and 155 deaths on Thursday, bringing cumulative cases in the country to 1,339,457 and total deaths to 23,276. The National Covid-19 Committee urged the president to issue an order to make the wearing of face shields mandatory in addition to the mandatory face mask rule, to be enforced at closed public areas such as hospitals, schools, public transport and religious places.

Cambodia reported 625 cases and 12 deaths on Thursday, taking cumulative cases in the country to 40,782 and deaths to 380. Private educational institutions called for the reopening of schools as soon as possible, but the Ministry of Education insists on keeping schools closed to prevent the outbreak from spreading.

Published : June 18, 2021

By : THE NATION

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U.S. pumps $3.2 billion into covid-fighting antiviral effort

The U.S. is investing $3.2 billion into developing antiviral medicines to combat covid-19 and other viruses with pandemic potential. The aim: develop treatments to be taken at home soon after someone gets sick.

Dubbed the Antiviral Program for Pandemics, the effort led by U.S. health agencies will support the discovery, development and production of antiviral treatments for covid-19 and future viral threats, the Health and Human Services Department said Thursday.

Though vaccines are significantly slowing the spread of covid in wealthy nations, doctors around the world need treatments that can be quickly and easily deployed to those who get sick from the virus and its variants. There exists no simple, inexpensive pill that can prevent those at the earliest stages of infection from later needing to be hospitalized.

Antiviral medicines could serve as an “important complement to existing vaccines,” said Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser on the pandemic at a briefing Thursday. That’s especially true for people with compromised immune systems for whom the shots may not be as effective, he said.

An orally-administered treatment, like Tamiflu for influenza, is seen as the gold standard to ease the burden of disease on health systems, domestically and abroad. Fauci also noted that antiviral medicines could serve as an extra line of defense against emerging virus variants.

The program will help advance such antiviral candidates through early-stage safety studies, positioning them to be able to quickly move into late-stage efficacy studies.

The collaboration brings together the National Institutes of Health and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

Of the funds allocated to the effort, $1 billion will go to conducting pre-clinical and clinical trials, $300 million will go to research and lab support, and nearly $700 million will be directed to Barda and NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases unit to aid with development and manufacturing.

The remaining $1.2 billion will go to biomedical partnerships initially geared at discovering drugs to combat coronaviruses, called Antiviral Drug Discovery Centers for Pathogens of Pandemic Concern.

The amount the U.S. has spent developing antiviral treatments for covid-19 pales in comparison to the many billions it has spent on vaccine trials and production.

Francis Collins, the director of the NIH, said the U.S. had sifted through hundreds of antiviral candidates but come up short. Its one covid-fighting antiviral, Gilead Sciences’ IV drug remdesevir, speeds the recovery of hospitalized patients but hasn’t been proven to reduce deaths.

“I wish I could say that we got those home runs, but we got some singles and doubles,” Collins said at a Wednesday event held by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, an industry trade group.

Around the world, other governments are also looking to bolster their antiviral pipelines. In April, the U.K. launched a new Antivirals Taskforce, which aims to approve two covid-19 antivirals for use this fall. A month later, the European Commission announced it will seek to make available three new antiviral medicines to combat the disease this October.

On Thursday, Fauci said the U.S. government’s new program could accelerate promising covid-fighting candidates already in development, such as pills being tested by Merck, Pfizer and Roche.

Earlier this month, the U.S. entered a $1.2 billion agreement with Merck for 1.7 million courses of its experimental antiviral pill, called molnupiravir, should it be authorized by U.S. regulators.

Developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, the oral treatment is in a final-stage study of non-hospitalized patients with confirmed cases of covid-19 and at least one risk factor associated with poor disease outcomes.

Merck expects data from the trial in September or October, executives said in April, and could approach the Food and Drug Administration for authorization within the year.

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“Having additional FDA-authorized antiviral medicines available within a year would be a major breakthrough in ongoing efforts to combat covid-19 and protect the public,” HHS said in statement.

Published : June 18, 2021

By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Riley Griffin, Rebecca Torrence

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Colombia reopens economy as Covid deaths surge toward 100,000

Protest-wracked Colombia is fast on track to surpass 100,000 deaths from Covid-19 as the government tries to balance letting citizens work — and eat — with protecting them from the pandemic by reopening large swathes of the economy.

Aslow vaccination rollout and social upheaval have meant that infections and mortality in Colombia continue to rise. Just in the past five days, the country of 50 million has marked new records in daily deaths, registering as many as 599 fatalities on Tuesday alone. At the current rate, Colombia will hit 100,000 deaths as soon as Sunday.

Colombia has the fourth-highest per-capita death rate in the world over the past week, among more than 125 countries tracked by Bloomberg. New daily cases have topped 29,000 this month, threatening to overwhelm the health system, which is already facing shortages of supplies, including precious oxygen. Lockdowns and the closing of borders with neighboring countries failed to ease the crisis, but hobbled the economy.

Latin America has seen more than 35 million infected with the coronavirus, and more than 1 million reported dead. Pan American Health Organization Director Carissa Etienne said recently that this year has been worse than last for the region. She called for an urgent increase in vaccination, warning that controlling the virus will take years otherwise. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization asked wealthy nations that have pledged to donate 1 billion vaccine doses to prioritize Latin America.

The situation is particularly fraught in Colombia, where the proportion of those living in poverty swelled during the pandemic to more than 42%. Colombia’s economy suffered the deepest crash in its history last year, leaving millions no longer able to afford three meals per day, according to the national statistics agency.

Since April, the Andean nation has been roiled with weeks of anti-government protests. Set off by a plan to raise taxes on the middle class, which was later withdrawn, the demonstrations have morphed into a mass movement with a range of grievances including police brutality, corruption and inequality.

Thousands went into the streets, and clashes with security forces left more than 40 dead. There have been billions of dollars in losses after roadblocks hit supply chains and forced thousands of companies to shut, threatening to derail the fragile recovery.

Now, with mortality rising to 193.8 deaths per 100,000 people, President Ivan Duque said recently that “we need to be aware that in the last weeks this situation has deteriorated, given the mass gatherings that have happened in different parts of our geography.”

To soothe the restive population, the government is reopening the economy and began easing mobility restrictions this month. Schools, universities and most businesses can operate without schedule restrictions. Cities with intensive-care-unit occupancy below 85% are allowed to hold sports events and concerts as long as no more than a quarter of the venue’s capacity is used.

Demonstrators take cover while clashing with police during a protest in Bogota, Colombia, on May 28, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Nathalia Angarita.

The government is correcting an “erroneous” policy that resulted in the loss of 5 million jobs, of which only half have been recovered, according to Jorge Restrepo, an economics professor at Bogota’s Javeriana University.

“This shift in the health policy is right in seeking the economy’s recovery,” he said. “Lockdowns aren’t effective, especially in an economy where the majority live hand to mouth.”

But doctors and scientists say the nation is facing the worst of the pandemic. More than 100 medical and scientific associations published a letter June 7 pointing to a health system that is overwhelmed and warned that deaths could soon reach more than 800 a day if the economy’s reopening isn’t delayed.

The population is suffering from shortages of oxygen and other medical supplies as well as health personnel, they said in the letter. Reopening the economy “will imply that the population won’t have the health care it requires,” they said.

Colombia, like many other nations in the region, has had a slow rollout of shots, with only 8% of the population fully vaccinated, as the government struggles to hasten the pace. As of Wednesday, nearly 14 million doses of the more than 19 million that have reached the country had been administered.

Jorge Martin Rodriguez, a professor of public health policy at Javeriana University, blamed bureaucratic barriers that made it hard for people to be eligible for inoculation. But with more mass vaccination sites, some of those obstacles are being lifted, he said.

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Still, ICU usage in some of the largest cities is above 95%, and Rodriguez is dubious about easing restrictions.

“We’re at the worst moment,” said Rodriguez. “To think that at this time, with a health system that has collapsed, we should reopen and the economy will recover? Maybe, but at what cost?”

Published : June 18, 2021

By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Andrea Jaramillo

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New COVID-19 variant of interest identified in 29 countries : WHO

First identified in Peru, the new variant, named Lambda, was classified as a global Variant of Interest on Monday due to an “elevated prevalence” in South America, the WHO said in its weekly update.

Lambda has been rampant in Peru where 81 percent of COVID-19 cases since April 2021 were associated with the variant.

GENEVA, June 16 (Xinhua) — The World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday that a new variant of COVID-19, named Lambda, was identified in 29 countries and notably in South America where it is believed to have originated.

First identified in Peru, the Lambda lineage was classified as a global Variant of Interest on Monday due to an “elevated prevalence” in South America, the WHO said in its weekly update.

Lambda has been rampant in Peru where 81 percent of COVID-19 cases since April 2021 were associated with this variant, authorities reported.

In Chile, it was detected in 32 percent of all submitted sequences in the last 60 days, and only outclassed by the Gamma variant which was first identified in Brazil. Other countries such as Argentina and Ecuador have also reported elevated prevalence of the new variant.

The WHO reported that the Lambda lineage carries mutations that might increase transmissibility or strengthen the virus’s resistance to antibodies.

However, evidence is too limited for the moment, the Geneva-based organization said, and more studies are required to understand better the Lambda variant.

Variants of Interest, unlike Variants of Concern that have made headlines in newspapers worldwide, are monitored by health organizations but are not proved yet to be significant threats to public health.

The most recent example is the Delta variant. It was first identified in India and was labeled as a Variant of Interest until May 11, 2021, when its rapid spread around the world prompted the WHO to classify it as a Variant of Concern.

Published : June 17, 2021

By : Xinhua

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China launches first crewed mission for space station construction

China on Thursday successfully launched the crewed spacecraft Shenzhou-12, which is expected to send three astronauts to its space station core module Tianhe for a three-month mission.

It is China’s seventh crewed mission to space and the first during the construction of China’s space station. It is also the first in nearly five years after the country’s last manned mission.

The spacecraft, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China’s Gobi Desert at 9:22 a.m. (Beijing Time), according to the China Manned Space Agency 

the first during the construction of China’s space station, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). It is also the first in nearly five years after the country’s last manned mission.

The three astronauts are commander Nie Haisheng, a 56-year-old veteran who participated in the Shenzhou-6 and Shenzhou-10 missions, Liu Boming, 54, who was part of the Shenzhou-7 mission, and Tang Hongbo, 45, who is in his first space mission.

They are expected to set a new record for China’s manned space mission duration, exceeding the 33 days kept by the Shenzhou-11 crew in 2016.

After entering orbit, the Shenzhou-12 spaceship will dock with the in-orbit space station core module Tianhe, forming a complex with Tianhe and the cargo craft Tianzhou-2. The astronauts will be stationed in the core module.

Their work will be more complicated and challenging than previous crewed missions, according to Hao Chun, director of the CMSA.

The Shenzhou-12 crew will complete four major tasks in orbit, said Ji Qiming, assistant to the CMSA director, at a press conference held at the launch center on Wednesday.

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First, they will operate and manage the complex, including the in-orbit test of the Tianhe module, verification of the recycling and life support system, testing and operation training of the robotic arm, as well as management of materials and waste.

Second, they will move, assemble and test extravehicular spacesuits and perform two extravehicular activities for work including assembling an extravehicular toolbox, lifting the panoramic camera and installing extended pump sets.

Third, they will carry out space science experiments and technology experiments, as well as public outreach activities.

Fourth, they will manage their own health through daily life care, physical exercise, and regular monitoring and assessment of their own health status. 

Published : June 17, 2021

By : Xinhua