ETIDIOH - NEW

  F AST FACTS • On September 4, the DRC Ministry of Health officially declared an outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the Bulape and Mweka health zones in Kasai province. • According the the World Health Organization (WHO), as of September 15 there are 81 suspected cases and 28 deaths , including four nurses . However, data reporting has been challenging, with conflicting statistics reports being circulated by various health authorities. • Kasai is extremely isolated , sometimes requiring multiple days of driving from Kinshasa to Tshikapa, the provincial capital, during the rainy season. Very few air routes reach the province, though an airstrip in Bulape is being established. • Significant gaps exist in the response to EVD , including adequate case management capacity, blood supplies, IPC/WASH support, and more. OUR RESPONSE • International Medical Corps has been responding in the DRC since 1999, and currently has offices in Goma and Kinshasa. • Our Rapid Response Team (RRT) ...

  Abstract Human influenza viruses rapidly acquire mutations in their hemagglutinin (HA) protein that erode neutralization by antibodies from prior exposures. Here, we use a sequencing-based assay to measure neutralization titers for 78 recent H3N2 HA strains against a large set of children and adult sera , measuring ~10,000 total titers . There is substantial person-to-person heterogeneity in the titers against different viral strains, both within and across age cohorts. The growth rates of H3N2 strains in the human population in 2023 are highly correlated with the fraction of sera with low titers against each strain. Notably, strain growth rates are less correlated with neutralization titers against pools of human sera, demonstrating the importance of population heterogeneity in shaping viral evolution . Overall, these results suggest that high-throughput neutralization measurements of human sera against many different viral strains can help explain the evolution of human influen...

  16 September 2025  Senior independent rights investigators appointed by the Human Rights Council alleged on Tuesday that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide, a charge flatly rejected by Tel Aviv . In a new report published against the backdrop of intensifying Israeli military operations in Gaza City , the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory , including East Jerusalem, and Israel, urged Israel and all countries to fulfil their obligations under international law “to end the genocide ” and punish those responsible. “The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza ,” insisted Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission . “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.” At a press conference in Geneva, the panel’s members - who are not UN staff but instead appointed by the Human Rights Cou...