ReportWire

Tag: SciDev.Net

  • WHO chief warns of deadlier post-COVID disease

    WHO chief warns of deadlier post-COVID disease

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — The leader of the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasized the need for global readiness in addressing a disease outbreak with a potential even greater than COVID-19. This statement came following the launch of a worldwide network by the UN agency to closely monitor and respond to threats posed by various diseases.

    During his address at the World Health Assembly (WHA) held in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday, May 22, the Director-General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, cautioned that the conclusion of the COVID-19 pandemic as a global health emergency did not imply that the global health risks had subsided.

    Addressing the annual decision-making meeting of the World Health Organization’s 194 member states, he stressed that the possibility of another variant arising and leading to fresh waves of illness and fatalities persists.

    Furthermore, the persistent risk of another pathogen emerging, possessing an even greater capacity for devastation, continues to loom.

    Commencing the 76th session of the World Health Assembly (WHA) on Saturday, May 20, the WHO inaugurated the International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN). This global initiative leverages genomics to facilitate the detection and timely response to emerging disease threats.

    Genetic data derived from viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens responsible for diseases plays a vital role in enabling scientists to identify and monitor diseases, as well as in developing effective treatments and vaccines. This information provides insights into the infectiousness and lethality of specific strains, as well as their patterns of transmission.

    During the launch, Tedros emphasized that the objective of the network is to provide every country with access to pathogen genomic sequencing and analytics as an integral component of their public health system.

    The IPSN Secretariat, which will be housed within the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, will serve as a collaborative platform uniting genomics and data analysis experts from various regions across the globe. This inclusive network will comprise governments, philanthropic foundations, multilateral organizations, civil society, academia, and the private sector.

    [ad_2]

    SciDev.Net

    Source link

  • Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill Imperils HIV Fight

    Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill Imperils HIV Fight

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — [KAMPALA] Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill, if signed into law, could lead to the withdrawal of foreign aid and threaten goals to end HIV/AIDS by 2030, advocates warn.

    Uganda’s parliament passed the revised Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), which criminalises homosexual conduct, with minimal amendments this week (2 May).

    The legislation was first passed at the end of March but revised in April after President Yoweri Museveni returned it to parliament for amendments.

    “If it becomes law, it will increase stigma and discrimination against LGBTQ people and men who have sex with men, further limiting prevention and treatment services.” – Richard Lusimbo, director-general, Uganda Key Populations Consortium

    The bill includes a punishment of life imprisonment for same-sex sexual conduct and up to ten years behind bars for attempted same-sex sexual acts. It also imposes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” and criminalises the “promotion” of homosexuality, which many people fear will encourage homophobia.

    UNAIDS had warned that passing the bill into law would jeopardise progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS and undermine fundamental human rights including the right to health and the right to life. 

    “Uganda’s new Anti-Homosexuality bill is an outrage,” said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS.

    “Access to timely and quality health care is a human right – sexual orientation should not determine one’s rights.”

    Anne Githuku-Shongwe, director of the UNAIDS support team for eastern and southern Africa, said Uganda had made “excellent progress” in tackling the AIDS pandemic. “This new bill, if passed into law, would undercut that progress,” she warned.

    Human rights ‘disaster’

    According to a study published in The Lancet, HIV prevalence is significantly higher among men who have sex with men (MSM) and in African countries with laws that criminalise same sex relationships.

    “If it becomes law, it will increase stigma and discrimination against LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer] people and men who have sex with men, further limiting prevention and treatment services,” said Richard Lusimbo, director-general of Uganda Key Populations Consortium, a human rights organisation.

    Lusimbo explained that the bill, if passed into law, would be a disaster to the human rights of LGBTQ people, to public health and the fight against HIV/AIDS.

    The US government has threatened to withdraw funding for Uganda through its President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) if the law is passed.

    “At this time, we are reviewing the possibility that the AHA, if signed, might prevent us from providing lifesaving prevention, care and treatment services equitably to all Ugandans receiving PEPFAR support,” said a US State Department spokesperson.

    PEPFAR’s annual HIV/AIDS response investment in Uganda is about US$400 million.

    Despite the pressure from the US and other governments, there is speculation that President Museveni will most likely sign the bill into law. However, the power of ascension of a bill does not lay primarily with the president.

    The Ugandan parliament can also pass the bill into law if the president does not assent to or veto a bill after it is passed by parliament within 30 days or if the bill is returned to parliament twice.

    In his speech on April 22, at conference themed ‘Protecting African culture and family values’, President Museveni thanked members of the Ugandan parliament for passing the bill.

    “It is good that you rejected the pressure from the imperialists,” he said, reflecting his support for what has been described by activists and advocates as a draconian law.

    The bill is setting the pace for other African nations as countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and others indicate readiness to introduce similar bills in solidarity with Uganda.

    Charles Brown, executive director of Preventive Care International (PCI), a Ugandan non-governmental organisation that focuses on HIV, says the bill is harsh and not well thought through. He fears it will further entrench inaccessibility of health services for people in same sex relationships.

    “Already, the landlady of one of my offices in western Uganda called me saying that she was told that our organisation promotes homosexuality and she is scared of being arrested,” Brown told SciDev.Net, fearing eviction.

    “We hope that the president doesn’t sign it into law,” he added.

    This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.

    [ad_2]

    SciDev.Net

    Source link

  • India Schools Erase Darwinism from Textbooks

    India Schools Erase Darwinism from Textbooks

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — Science educators in India are urging the government to restore material on Darwinian evolution which has been removed from science textbooks on the grounds that the study load on schoolchildren needs to be lightened after the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The theory of the 19th century English naturalist Charles Darwin, which centres on the concept that species adapt and evolve over time through a process of natural selection, is fundamental to our understanding of the biological world.

    From this month – the start of the academic year – material on evolution no longer figures in grade nine and ten science textbooks in India, following deletions by the National Council for Education, Research and Training (NCERT).

    The chapter ‘Evolution and Heredity’, taught to grade 11 and 12 students, has been reduced to ‘Heredity’, and a box on Charles Darwin and his work erased.

    An open appeal, signed on by hundreds of leading scientists and science educators and released on 22 April, said the “changes introduced as a temporary measure during the Corona pandemic, are being continued even when schooling has gone back to offline mode”.

    In a pointed reference to the COVID-19 rationale given by NCERT, the statement stressed the relevance of Darwin’s theory today. “The principles of natural selection help us understand how any pandemic progresses or why certain species go extinct, among many other critical issues,” it said.

    T V Venkateshwaran, a scientist at Vigyan Prasar, a Department of Science and Technology body that aims to popularise science, said the deletions were symptomatic of the handling of science education in India.

    “Subjects and topics are added or deleted from textbooks with no reference to evidence from educational psychology or science education,” he told SciDev.Net. “So, when there is a hue and cry that textbooks are heavy, especially after COVID, deletions are made randomly.”

    Venkateshwaran believes science education should be about communicating key concepts about the world through modern science. “Otherwise, we will be living with 14th century perceptions that can generate friction and lead to violence,” he said.

    “The human genome project, for example, has shown that humankind is one — it has pulled the rug on divisive ideas of race and caste. Also, evolution points to the interconnection among all living beings in the world.”

    Objections to the theory of evolution by the ruling pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party were first made known in 2018 when Satya Pal Singh, then minister of state in the education ministry, declared in Parliament that “nobody, including our ancestors, in writing or orally, has said they saw an ape turning into a man”.

    “Darwin’s theory is scientifically wrong. It needs to change in school and college curricula,” he added.

    Singh was then taken on by India’s three main science academies, the Indian Academy of Science, the Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences, which issued a joint statement that said: “It would be a retrograde step to remove the teaching of the theory of evolution from school and college curricula or to dilute this by offering non-scientific explanations or myths.

    “The theory of evolution by natural selection as propounded by Charles Darwin and developed and extended subsequently has had a major influence on modern biology and medicine, and indeed all of modern science. It is widely supported across the world.”

    Opposition in India to Darwinism is similar to Christian orthodoxy’s problem with the idea that humans evolved from ape-like bipeds, rather than the Biblical idea that god created man in his own image, says D. Raghunandan, member of the All India Peoples Science Network and the Delhi Science Forum, a public interest group.

    “Historically, there has never been any conflict between Hindu religious orthodoxy and the theory of evolution simply because there has never been an orthodox view of creationism until the votaries of Hindutva, a politicised version of Hinduism, began propagating their own interpretation of Hindu mythology and legends,” said Raghunandan.

    According to Raghunandan, Hindu mythology holds that the deity Vishnu descends to Earth as an “avatar” (form) whenever the cosmic order is disturbed. Vishnu first descended as a fish, then as a tortoise, a boar, a half-man-half-lion, a dwarf, as a warrior-god and finally as Krishna, a preceptor.

    “While Hindu mythology sees avatars as stages of consciousness, Hindutva jingoists interpret it as a theory of evolution that long preceded Darwin,” Raghunandan explained.

    Islamic orthodoxy also frowns on Darwinism and countries that have banned the theory completely include Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Algeria and Morocco. Lebanon has removed evolution from the curriculum while in Jordan the subject is taught within a religious framework.

    This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Asia & Pacific desk.

    [ad_2]

    SciDev.Net

    Source link