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  • The U.S. Hasn’t Seen Syphilis Numbers This High Since 1950

    The U.S. Hasn’t Seen Syphilis Numbers This High Since 1950


    NEW YORK — The U.S. syphilis epidemic isn’t abating, with the rate of infectious cases rising 9% in 2022, according to a new federal government report on sexually transmitted diseases in adults.

    But there’s some unexpected good news: The rate of new gonorrhea cases fell for the first time in a decade.

    It’s not clear why syphilis rose 9% while gonorrhea dropped 9%, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, adding that it’s too soon to know whether a new downward trend is emerging for the latter.

    They are most focused on syphilis, which is less common than gonorrhea or chlamydia but considered more dangerous. Total cases surpassed 207,000 in 2022, the highest count in the United States since 1950, according to data released Tuesday.

    And while it continues to have a disproportionate impact on gay and bisexual men, it is expanding in heterosexual men and women, and increasingly affecting newborns, too, CDC officials said.

    Syphilis is a bacterial disease that can surface as painless genital sores but can ultimately lead to paralysis, hearing loss, dementia and even death if left untreated.

    New syphilis infections plummeted in the U.S. starting in the 1940s when antibiotics became widely available and fell to their lowest by 1998.

    About 59,000 of the 2022 cases involved the most infectious forms of syphilis. Of those, about a quarter were women and nearly a quarter were heterosexual men.

    “I think its unknowingly being spread in the cisgender heterosexual population because we really aren’t testing for it. We really aren’t looking for it” in that population, said Dr. Philip Chan, who teaches at Brown University and is chief medical officer of Open Door Health, a health center for gay, lesbian and transgender patients in Providence, Rhode Island.

    The report also shows rates of the most infectious types of syphilis rose not just across the country but also across different racial and ethnic groups, with American Indian and Alaska Native people having the highest rate. South Dakota outpaced any other state for the highest rate of infectious syphilis at 84 cases per 100,000 people—more than twice as high as the state with the second-highest rate, New Mexico.

    South Dakota’s increase was driven by an outbreak in the Native American community, said Dr. Meghan O’Connell, chief public health officer at the Great Plains Tribal Leaders’ Health Board based in Rapid City, South Dakota. Nearly all of the cases were in heterosexual people, and O’Connell said that STD testing and treatment was already limited in isolated tribal communities and only got worse during the pandemic.

    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last year convened a syphilis task force focused on stopping the spread of the STD, with an emphasis on places with the highest syphilis rates—South Dakota, 12 other states and the District of Columbia.

    The report also looked at the more common STDs of chlamydia and gonorrhea.

    Chlamydia cases were relatively flat from 2021 to 2022, staying at a rate of about 495 per 100,000, though there were declines noted in men and especially women in their early 20s. For gonorrhea, the most pronounced decline was seen in women in their early 20s as well.

    Experts say they’re not sure why gonorrhea rates declined. It happened in about 40 states, so whatever explains the decrease appears to have occurred across most of the country. STD testing was disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and officials believe that’s the reason the chlamydia rate fell in 2020.

    It’s possible that testing and diagnoses were still shaking out in 2022, said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention.

    “We are encouraged by the magnitude of the decline,” Mermin said, though the gonorrhea rate is still higher now than it was pre-pandemic. “We need to examine what happened, and whether it’s going to continue to happen.”



    Mike Stobbe/AP

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  • U.S., China Launch Talks to Stem Flow of Fentanyl

    U.S., China Launch Talks to Stem Flow of Fentanyl


    BEIJING — American and Chinese officials met Tuesday to discuss joint efforts to stem the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., a sign of cooperation as the two global powers try to manage their contentious ties.

    The two-day meeting was the first for a new counternarcotics working group. One focus of the talks was fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that is ravaging America, and in particular ingredients for the drug that are made in China.

    Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to restart cooperation in a handful of areas, including drug trafficking, when he and U.S. President Joe Biden met outside San Francisco in November. The agreements were a small step forward in a relationship strained by major differences on issues ranging from trade and technology to Taiwan and human rights.

    The U.S. wants China to do more to curb the export of chemicals that it says are processed into fentanyl, largely in Mexico, before the final product is smuggled into the United States.

    Chinese Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong said the two sides had in-depth and pragmatic talks.

    “We reached common understanding on the work plan for the working group,” he said at a ceremony marking the inauguration of the group.

    The head of the U.S. team, Jen Daskal, a deputy homeland security advisor in the White House, said that Biden had sent a high-level delegation “to underscore the importance of this issue to the American people.”

    China used to be a major supplier of fentanyl, and the U.S. has credited Beijing for a 2019 crackdown that led to “a drastic reduction in seizures of fentanyl shipments … from China.” Now it wants Beijing to stop the export of the ingredients known as “precursors.”

    Synthetic opioids are the biggest killers in the deadliest drug crisis the U.S. has ever seen. More than 100,000 deaths were linked to drug overdoses in 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than two-thirds involved fentanyl or similar synthetic drugs.

    China had previously rebuffed U.S. appeals for help as relations between the two global powers deteriorated, often responding that the U.S. should look inward to solve its domestic problems and not blame them on China.

    Talks were formally put on ice in 2022, when China suspended cooperation in several areas including narcotics to protest a visit to Taiwan by then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

    The ice began to thaw in the lead-up to the Biden-Xi meeting in November 2023. A U.S. Senate delegation pressed the fentanyl issue on a visit to Beijing in October and said that Chinese officials expressed sympathy for the victims of America’s opioid crisis.

    But China refused to discuss cooperation unless the U.S. lifted sanctions on the Public Security Ministry’s Institute of Forensic Science. The Commerce Department had imposed the sanctions in 2020, accusing the institute complicity in human rights violations against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in China’s Xinjiang region.

    The U.S. quietly agreed to lift the sanctions to get cooperation on fentanyl. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi acknowledged “the removal of the obstacle of unilateral sanctions” in a speech on China-U.S. relations earlier this month.

    State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller called it “an appropriate step to take” given what China was willing to do on the trafficking of fentanyl precursors.



    Ken Moritsugu / AP

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  • Japan Police Accused of Racial Profiling

    Japan Police Accused of Racial Profiling


    Three men are suing the Japanese government, citing a pattern of racially motivated police harassment and asking for improved practices and about ¥3 million ($20,330) each in compensation.

    The suit is unusual in Japan, a historically homogeneous place with little precedent for punishing racial discrimination. The plaintiffs—two permanent residents and one a foreign-born Japanese citizen—are seeking to show that disparate treatment based on race violates the constitution and international human rights agreements.

    Read More: Meet the Multi-Ethnic Millennial Who Just Might Represent the Future of Japanese Politics

    Plaintiffs say they have been repeatedly stopped for questioning by police for no apparent reason, and had their belongings searched, according to a summary of the case provided by lawyers. One, an African American who has lived in Japan for more than a decade and has a Japanese family, said he’d been stopped more than 15 times before he decided to join the suit. Another, a Pacific Islander, said he’d been questioned about 100 times. 

    “If police officers are allowed to discriminate, then it creates this image from the top to the citizens that discrimination is OK,” said Moe Miyashita, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs. “On the other hand, if the police, the national government and other public organizations tell people that they can’t do this, it sends a strong message to the general public that discrimination is wrong.”

    The suit names the Japanese government and the Tokyo Metropolitan and Aichi prefecture governments. All three declined to comment on the case.

    The National Police Agency said in an email that officers do not question people on the basis of race or nationality, and they are not aware of such cases of discrimination. The agency added it would refrain from commenting on the lawsuit because it has not received details. 

    The lawsuit adds to simmering questions about how Japan will manage the growing diversity of its population. To make up for its shrinking workforce, the country is increasingly reliant on immigrants. Foreign workers now number a record-high 2 million, according to the most recent government data.

    Awareness of racism and racial profiling has been rising since a 2021 viral video showed a police officer admitting he’d searched a mixed-race man because “many people with dreadlocks carry drugs.” The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo warned U.S. citizens about racial profiling by Japanese police on their X account.

    Japan’s constitution explicitly bans race-based discrimination, and the country is a signatory to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. 

    Nevertheless, a study by the Tokyo Bar Association showed that among 2,000 respondents of foreign background, over 60% said they had been questioned by police and about 77% of those questioned said there was no apparent reason other than the fact they appeared foreign.

    “More people are starting to recognize that these issues are happening,” Miyashita said. “I think this is just the beginning.”





    Mia Glass / Bloomberg

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  • China Evergrande Ordered to Liquidate: What to Know

    China Evergrande Ordered to Liquidate: What to Know


    China Evergrande Group received a liquidation order from a Hong Kong court, setting off what’s likely to be a daunting process to carve up one of the biggest victims of a years-long and nationwide property debt crisis.

    A wind-up will end up in the company being managed by provisional liquidators and addressing issues, including control by founder and Chairman Hui Ka Yan, Judge Linda Chan said in the city’s High Court on Monday morning. Trading in Evergrande shares was suspended after the stock tumbled 21%, giving it a market value of just HK$2.15 billion ($275 million).

    The ruling cements the homebuilder — carrying 2.39 trillion yuan ($333 billion) of liabilities — as the most prominent symbol so far of China’s real estate crisis, which has crimped economic growth and hurt consumer confidence. The developer had failed to reach an agreement with creditors even after years of negotiations, with Hui placed under police control in September on suspicion of committing crimes.

    Read More: How China’s Government Keeps Inadvertently Hurting Its Own Economy

    The order “is a milestone for the restructuring of China’s property sector, and how the authorities draw the line between offshore and onshore stakeholders will be a crucial issue to watch for investors,” said Homin Lee, an Asia macro strategist at Lombard Odier Singapore.

    Most of Evergrande’s dollar notes were traded at around 1.5 cents on the dollar as of last Friday, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.

    While creditors weren’t seeking a wind-up order, Judge Chan noted the lack of progress. “The company said it will do one, two, three,” she said. “None of that has been done.” 

    Still, “even after a wind-up, it’s still possible for the company to put forward a scheme of arrangement,” said Judge Chan.

    Evergrande, which first defaulted on a dollar bond in December 2021, was for a time in the last decade the country’s largest builder by sales. The petition for liquidation was filed in June 2022 by Top Shine Global Limited of Intershore Consult (Samoa) Ltd., which was a strategic investor in the homebuilder’s online sales platform.

    Judge Chan, who has presided over a string of developer hearings, will conduct a hearing on a potential regulating order at 2:30pm Monday, according to information on the city’s judiciary website. Such orders mean that the court would regulate the winding-up process, potentially including appointing a liquidator.

    Read More: China’s Real Estate Crisis Has No Easy Fix—Just Ask Chinese Soccer Fans

    Since its default in 2021, Evergrande has proposed several restructuring plans. But the process has run into various troubles. It scrapped its creditor meetings at the last minute in late September, saying the latest plans requires reassessment.

    The company has proposed its last restructuring plan in January and aims to present new term sheets by March, according to participants in the Monday hearing that included legal representatives from Evergrande and its ad hoc bondholder group. But that effort failed to buy Evergrande more breathing room. 

    Even with the wind-up order, the liquidator is likely to face a tricky process in dealing with Chinese developers. Most Evergrande projects are operated by local units, which could be hard for the offshore liquidator to seize. And construction work, housing delivery and other activities in mainland China likely will continue while the process unfolds.

    The property market has continued to sag even as China introduced a slew of new measures to stem sinking prices and sluggish demand.

    Evergrande’s winding-up petition case number is HCCW 220/2022. 



    Dorothy Ma, Alice Huang and Lorretta Chen / Bloomberg

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  • Biden Aide Urges Beijing to Press Iran Over Houthis’ Attacks

    Biden Aide Urges Beijing to Press Iran Over Houthis’ Attacks


    U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan pressed Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during talks in Thailand to use China’s influence with Iran to ease tensions in the Middle East. The officials also agreed to work toward arranging a call between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

    The meetings Friday and Saturday in Bangkok, which followed up on the presidents’ discussions in November in California, took place after a ruling-party candidate opposed by Beijing won Taiwan’s recent presidential election and U.S. and Chinese military officials resumed a once-frozen dialogue. They played out as attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen continue to threaten global shipping in the Red Sea.

    A senior U.S. official said Sullivan cited China’s extensive economic leverage over Iran and emphasized that the destabilizing effect of the Houthi attacks on international commerce. The official noted that China has publicly called for lower tensions, but said it was too soon to tell whether Beijing was using its diplomatic muscle to press Tehran on the matter. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the private conversations between Sullivan and Wang and spoke on condition of anonymity.

    The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Wang said Washington should stand by a commitment not to support independence for Taiwan. Wang said Taiwan’s election, won by Lai Ching-te, the current vice president, did not alter the Chinese position that the island is part of China and that the biggest challenge in U.S.-China relations is the issue of “Taiwan independence,” according to a statement from the ministry.

    Biden has said he does not support independence, but U.S. law requires a credible defense for Taiwan and for the U.S. to treat all threats to the island as matters of “grave concern.”

    The U.S. official said it was not clear when the next Biden-Xi conversation would happen, but that the officials hoped it would take place in the coming months.

    Wang and Sullivan previously met on the Mediterranean island nation of Malta and in Vienna last year before the Biden-Xi meeting in California.

    In November, both sides showcased modest agreements to combat illegal fentanyl and reestablish military communications, keeping the relationship from growing any worse. The U.S.-China Counternarcotics Working Group is set to hold its first meeting on Tuesday. American officials say fentanyl and its precursors are largely manufactured in China.

    China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory and in recent years has shown its displeasure at political activities in Taiwan by sending military planes and ships. Earlier Saturday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said China had sent more than 30 warplanes and a group of navy ships toward the island during a 24-hour period, including 13 warplanes that crossed the midline of the Taiwan Strait — an unofficial boundary that’s considered a buffer between its territory and the mainland.

    Wang also said China and the U.S. should use the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries this year as an opportunity to reflect on past experiences and treat each other as equals, rather than adopting a condescending attitude.

    The countries should “be committed to mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation, building a correct way for China and the U.S. to interact,” the statement quoted Wang as saying.

    Taiwan has said six Chinese balloons either flew over the island or through airspace just north of it, days after the self-governing island held its election. Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party largely campaigned on self-determination, social justice and a rejection of China’s threats.

    Apart from cross-strait issues, Sullivan and Wang also discussed Russia’s war against Ukraine, the Middle East, North Korea, the South China Sea, and Myanmar, the White House said. Sullivan and Wang talked about progress toward holding a dialog this spring between U.S. and Chinese officials on artificial intelligence.

    Sullivan highlighted that although Washington and Beijing are in competition, both sides have to “prevent it from veering into conflict or confrontation,” according to a White House summary of the meeting.



    KANIS LEUNG and ZEKE MILLER / AP

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  • U.S. Suspends Funding to U.N. Agency Amid Serious Claims

    U.S. Suspends Funding to U.N. Agency Amid Serious Claims


    The United Nations fired several staffers at its Palestinian refugee agency over Israeli allegations that they took part in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, news that prompted the U.S., the U.K. and other countries to suspend funding.

    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “is horrified by the news” that workers with the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, may have been involved in the attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel, and urged the agency’s chief to refer the accused for potential prosecution, his office said in a statement Friday. According to the statement, there will be an “urgent and comprehensive independent review” of the agency.

    The claims come as a black eye for UNRWA, which provides humanitarian assistance and protection to Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank. It has long been regarded with suspicion by Israel and Republicans in the U.S., who argue that it only fuels the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and money going to food, education and health care frees up Hamas to fund hostilities against Israel.

    “These shocking allegations come as more than 2 million people in Gaza depend on lifesaving assistance that the agency has been providing since the war began,” UNRWA Director-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement Friday. “Anyone who betrays the fundamental values of the United Nations also betrays those whom we serve in Gaza, across the region and elsewhere around the world.”

    Israel said it will seek U.S. and European Union support to halt UNRWA operations in Gaza. Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote in a post on X that his ministry wants to ensure the agency “will not be part of the day after.”

    He urged the U.N. to take “immediate personal actions” against the UNRWA leadership.

    While criticism over UNRWA’s role in the Israel-Palestinian conflict became even more charged after Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israel, the group has also paid a heavy price in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, with more than 150 of its staff killed in the violence. 

    A vast majority of UNRWA’s 30,000 staff is Palestinian, with 13,000 of those in Gaza. The U.S. State Department said in a statement Friday that 12 UNRWA staff had been accused of links to the attacks.

    The U.S. — UNRWA’s main donor — also announced Friday it was suspending additional funding for the organization in the wake of the allegations. “There must be complete accountability for anyone who participated in the heinous attacks of Oct. 7,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in the statement. The US contributed more than $296 million to the group in 2023.

    The U.K., Australia, Canada, Italy and Finland also said they are pausing additional funding to UNRWA.

    Senator James Risch, an Idaho Republican who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he had warned the Biden administration for years about funding the agency, which he said “has a history of employing people connected to terrorist movements like Hamas.”

    Despite the recent allegations, the U.S. signaled it continues to support the agency. UNRWA plays “a critical role in providing lifesaving assistance to Palestinians, including essential food, medicine, shelter, and other vital humanitarian support,” Miller said in the statement.

    The EU also expressed concern over the allegations, and said it expects UNRWA “to provide full transparency on the allegations and to take immediate measures against staff involved.”



    Augusta Saraiva and Courtney McBride / Bloomberg

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  • World’s Largest Cruise Ship Begins Maiden Voyage From Miami

    World’s Largest Cruise Ship Begins Maiden Voyage From Miami

    MIAMI — The world’s largest cruise ship is set to begin its maiden voyage Saturday as it gets underway from the Port of Miami.

    Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, which runs nearly 1,200 feet (365 meters) from bow to stern, is roughly as long as the Empire State Building is high: 1,250 feet (381 meters) – not counting the spire and antenna.

    The ship, which is leaving South Florida for its first seven-day island-hopping voyage through the tropics, was officially christened Tuesday with help from soccer legend Lionel Messi and his Inter Miami teammates.

    “Icon of the Seas is the culmination of more than 50 years of dreaming, innovating and living our mission – to deliver the world’s best vacation experiences responsibly,” Royal Caribbean Group President and CEO Jason Liberty said earlier this week. “She is the ultimate multigenerational family vacation, forever changing the status quo in family travel and fulfilling vacation dreams for all ages on board.”

    When the Icon of the Seas was first revealed in October 2022, the ship spurred the single largest booking day and the highest volume booking week in Royal Caribbean’s then 53-year history, according to the cruise line.

    The Icon of the Seas is divided into eight neighborhoods across 20 decks. The ship includes six waterslides, seven swimming pools, an ice skating rink, a theater and more than 40 restaurants, bars and lounges. The ship can carry up to 7,600 passengers at maximum capacity, along with 2,350 crew members.

    Associated Press

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  • Experimental Gene Therapy Allows Kids with Inherited Deafness to Hear

    Experimental Gene Therapy Allows Kids with Inherited Deafness to Hear

    Gene therapy has allowed several children born with inherited deafness to hear.

    A small study published Wednesday documents significantly restored hearing in five of six kids treated in China. On Tuesday, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia announced similar improvements in an 11-year-old boy treated there. And earlier this month, Chinese researchers published a study showing much the same in two other children.

    So far, the experimental therapies target only one rare condition. But scientists say similar treatments could someday help many more kids with other types of deafness caused by genes. Globally, 34 million children have deafness or hearing loss, and genes are responsible for up to 60% of cases. Hereditary deafness is the latest condition scientists are targeting with gene therapy, which is already approved to treat illnesses such as sickle cell disease and severe hemophilia.

    Children with hereditary deafness often get a device called a cochlear implant that helps them hear sound.

    “No treatment could reverse hearing loss … That’s why we were always trying to develop a therapy,” said Zheng-Yi Chen of Boston’s Mass Eye and Ear, a senior author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Lancet. “We couldn’t be more happy or excited about the results.”

    More From TIME

    The team captured patients’ progress in videos. One shows a baby, who previously couldn’t hear at all, looking back in response to a doctor’s words six weeks after treatment. Another shows a little girl 13 weeks after treatment repeating father, mother, grandmother, sister and “I love you.”

    All the children in the experiments have a condition that accounts for 2% to 8% of inherited deafness. It’s caused by mutations in a gene responsible for an inner ear protein called otoferlin, which helps hair cells transmit sound to the brain. The one-time therapy delivers a functional copy of that gene to the inner ear during a surgical procedure. Most of the kids were treated in one ear, although one child in the two-person study was treated in both ears.

    The study with six children took place at Fudan University in Shanghai, co-led by Dr. Yilai Shu, who trained in Chen’s lab, which collaborated on the research. Funders include Chinese science organizations and biotech company Shanghai Refreshgene Therapeutics.

    Researchers observed the children for about six months. They don’t know why the treatment didn’t work in one of them. But the five others, who previously had complete deafness, can now hear a regular conversation and talk with others. Chen estimates they now hear at a level around 60% to 70% of normal. The therapy caused no major side effects.

    Preliminary results from other research have been just as positive. New York’s Regeneron Pharmaceuticals announced in October that a child under 2 in a study they sponsored with Decibel Therapeutics showed improvements six weeks after gene therapy. The Philadelphia hospital — one of several sites in a test sponsored by a subsidiary of Eli Lilly called Akouos — reported that their patient, Aissam Dam of Spain, heard sounds for the first time after being treated in October. Though they are muffled like he’s wearing foam earplugs, he’s now able to hear his father’s voice and cars on the road, said Dr. John Germiller, who led the research in Philadelphia.

    “It was a dramatic improvement,” Germiller said. “His hearing is improved from a state of complete and profound deafness with no sound at all to the level of mild to moderate hearing loss, which you can say is a mild disability. And that’s very exciting for us and for everyone. ”

    Columbia University’s Dr. Lawrence Lustig, who is involved in the Regeneron trial, said although the children in these studies don’t wind up with perfect hearing, “even a moderate hearing loss recovery in these kids is pretty astounding.”

    Still, he added, many questions remain, such as how long the therapies will last and whether hearing will continue to improve in the kids.

    Also, some people consider gene therapy for deafness ethically problematic. Teresa Blankmeyer Burke, a deaf philosophy professor and bioethicist at Gallaudet University, said in an email that there’s no consensus about the need for gene therapy targeting deafness. She also pointed out that deafness doesn’t cause severe or deadly illness like, for example, sickle cell disease. She said it’s important to engage with deaf community members about prioritization of gene therapy, “particularly as this is perceived by many as potentially an existential threat to the flourishing of signing Deaf communities.”

    Meanwhile, researchers said their work is moving forward.

    “This is real proof showing gene therapy is working,” Chen said. “It opens up the whole field.”

    LAURA UNGAR/AP

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  • Robitussin Cough Syrup Is Recalled Due to Contamination

    Robitussin Cough Syrup Is Recalled Due to Contamination

    WASHINGTON — The maker of Robitussin cough syrup is recalling several lots of products containing honey due to contamination that could pose a serious risk to people with weakened immune systems.

    Haleon’s recall covers eight lots of Robitussin Honey CF Max Day Adult and Robitussin Honey CF Max Nighttime Adult, which were distributed to stores and pharmacy suppliers. The Food and Drug Administration posted the company’s announcement to its website Wednesday.

    The products have the potential to cause “severe or life-threatening adverse events,” if taken by people with weakened immune systems, such as organ transplant recipients or those with HIV. Several million people in the U.S. have conditions that impair the immune system’s ability to fight off infections. For most healthy individuals, any infections resulting from the products are unlikely to be serious, the company said.

    Haleon did not disclose the nature of the contamination but said use of the products could result in severe fungal infections. The company did not immediately respond to requests for additional details Thursday morning.

    New Jersey-based Haleon said it has not received any reports of injury or infection linked to the products.

    The affected products have expiration dates ranging from October 2025 to June 2026.

    People who have used the product should contact a health provider if they think they’re experiencing any problem related to the recall. They can also report the problem to the FDA’s online system.

    Matthew Perrone/AP

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  • HP Enterprise Discloses Hack, Suspects Russian Group

    HP Enterprise Discloses Hack, Suspects Russian Group

    (BOSTON) — Hewlett Packard Enterprise disclosed Wednesday that suspected state-backed Russian hackers broke into its cloud-based email system and stole data from cybersecurity and other employees.

    The provider of information technology products and services said in a Securities and Exchange Commission regulatory filing that it was informed of the intrusion on Jan. 12. It said it believed the hackers were from Cozy Bear, a unit of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service.

    Microsoft reported last week that it also discovered an intrusion of its corporate network on Jan. 12. The Redmond, Washington, tech giant said the breach began in late November and also blamed Cozy Bear. It said the Russian hackers accessed accounts of senior Microsoft executives as well as cybersecurity and legal employees.

    Cozy Bear was behind the SolarWinds breach and focuses stealth intelligence-gathering on Western governments, IT service providers and think tanks in the U.S. and Europe.

    “Based on our investigation, we now believe that the threat actor accessed and exfiltrated data beginning in May 2023 from a small percentage of HPE mailboxes belonging to individuals in our cybersecurity, go-to-market, business segments, and other functions,” HPE, which is based in Spring, Texas, said in the filing.

    Company spokesman Adam R. Bauer, reached by email, would not say who informed HPE of the breach. “We’re not sharing that information at this time.” Bauer said the compromised email boxes were running Microsoft software.

    In the filing, HPE said the intrusion was “likely related to earlier activity by this threat actor, of which we were notified in June 2023, involving unauthorized access to and exfiltration of a limited number of SharePoint files.” SharePoint is part of Microsoft’s 365 suite, formerly known as Office, which includes email, word-processing and spreadsheet apps.

    Bauer said HPE is unable to say whether the breach of its network was related to the hack that Microsoft disclosed last week as “we do not have the details of the incident Microsoft disclosed.”

    He did not specify the seniority of the HPE employees whose accounts were accessed by the hackers. “The total scope of mailboxes and emails accessed remains under investigation.” HPE said in the filing that it has so far determined that the hack has had no material impact on its operations or financial health. Both disclosures come a month after a new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule took effect that compels publicly traded companies to disclose breaches that could negatively impact their business. It gives them four days to do so unless they obtain a national-security waiver.

    HPE was spun off in 2015 from the storied Silicon Valley computing company Hewlett-Packard Inc., which is best known today for its printer business.

    Frank Bajak / AP

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  • Unexplained Weight Loss Is Linked to Cancer

    Unexplained Weight Loss Is Linked to Cancer

    People who lose a significant amount of weight without dieting, exercise, or other lifestyle changes may also be at higher risk of some cancers, according to researchers who say a sudden drop may be an early indicator of the disease.

    Those who spontaneously shed more than 10% of their body weight developed cancer at a rate of about 1,362 per 100,000 over a 12-month period, according to a study released Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association, while the rate of diagnosis among people who hadn’t recently lost weight without explanation was 869 per 100,000.

    While often seen as a positive step toward better health, a large drop in weight sometimes precedes a cancer diagnosis. Treating weight as an important vital sign may help doctors spot cancer earlier, when it’s more likely to be cured with available treatments.  

    “Unexplained weight loss is where we say you should tell your doctor,” said Brian Wolpin, a medical oncologist at the Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and co-senior author of the study. It’s hoped to “help primary care physicians have a better sense of the spectrum of cancers that may be present in someone who has this unintentional weight loss.” 

    Tumors of the esophagus, stomach, and pancreas were among the most elevated among people who had recently shed pounds without trying. This may be related to trouble or pain swallowing, symptoms of upper GI cancers that can make it hard for patients to get adequate nutrition.

    The researchers analyzed data from the Nurses’ Health Study, a research effort that began almost 50 years ago at Harvard, and the all-male Health Professionals Follow-Up Study that began in 1986. The studies looked at the weight of 157,474 participants every two years over an average of 28 years, while screening for all cancer types. 

    The overall risk of being diagnosed with cancer remained low at 3.2% among those who had experienced significant weight loss compared to 1.3% who had not. Many types of cancer including breast, brain, and melanoma, had no significant associations with recent weight loss, the researchers found.

    “Weight is something that should be measured well,” in doctors’ practices, said Michael Rosenthal, a doctor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital who helped write the study. “It should be a review of the weight as it has been charted over the last couple of years to see if there is a longitudinal decline that needs further evaluation.” 

    Jemima Denham/Bloomberg

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  • IDF Just Experienced Its Worst Single-Day Death Toll in Gaza

    IDF Just Experienced Its Worst Single-Day Death Toll in Gaza

    Israel said 21 of its soldiers were killed in Gaza on Monday, the worst single-day death toll for the military since the war against Hamas began in October.

    At around 4 p.m. local time in central Gaza, militants fired on an Israeli tank and, at the same time, there were massive explosions at two nearby buildings, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday.

    “The buildings collapsed as a result of this explosion, while most of the soldiers were inside and around the buildings,” the spokesman said. “The buildings likely exploded from ordnance that our forces set up there to blow up the buildings and the terror infrastructure in the area.”

    Israeli forces are advancing deeper into the southern and central parts of Gaza and fighting remains intense. Around 200 Israeli soldiers had been killed in Gaza before the latest incident, according to the military.

    Israel is facing mounting international pressure to wind down the fighting and reach a diplomatic agreement with Hamas — designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union — to release more than 100 hostages still held by the group.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the war will continue until Hamas is destroyed and all of the captives are freed. He’s said the best way to achieve the latter goal is to keep putting military pressure on Hamas.

    The group killed around 1,200 people when its militants invaded southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7. Israel’s retaliatory bombardment and ground assault has killed more than 25,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.

    Marissa Newman / Bloomberg

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  • Magnitude 7.0 Earthquake Rocks Rural Western China

    Magnitude 7.0 Earthquake Rocks Rural Western China

    BEIJING — A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck a sparsely populated part of China’s western Xinjiang region early Tuesday, downing power lines, destroying at least two homes and prompting authorities to suspend trains, local authorities and state media reported. No fatalities or injuries were immediately reported.

    Read More: Rescuers Search for Dozens of Villagers Buried by Deadly Landslide in Southwest China

    Xinhua News Agency cited the China Earthquake Networks Center as saying the quake rocked Uchturpan county (Wushi county in Mandarin) in Aksu prefecture shortly after 2 a.m.

    Two houses collapsed, Aksu authorities said, and around 200 rescuers were dispatched to the epicenter, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The Xinjiang railway authority suspended dozens of trains and sealed off the affected sections, CCTV reported. The quake downed power lines but electricity was quickly restored to the region, Aksu authorities reported.

    The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured 7.0 magnitude and occurred in the Tian Shan mountain range, “a seismically active region, though earthquakes of this size occur somewhat infrequently.” It said the largest quake in the area in the past century was a 7.1-magnitude one in 1978 about 200 kilometers (124 miles) to the north of one early Tuesday.

    State broadcaster CCTV said there were 14 aftershocks since the main quake, with two registering above 5 magnitude.

    The earthquake struck in a rural area populated mostly by Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnicity that is predominantly Muslim and has been the target of a state campaign of forced assimilation and mass detention in recent years.

    Read More: How Beijing Is Redefining What It Means to Be Chinese, from Xinjiang to Inner Mongolia

    Uchturpan county at the quake’s epicenter is recording temperatures well below freezing, with lows down to negative 18 degrees C (just below zero F) forecast by the China Meteorological Administration this week. Parts of northern and central China have shivered under frigid cold snaps this winter, with authorities closing schools and highways several times due to snowstorms.

    The tremors were felt hundreds of kilometers (miles) away. Ma Shengyi, a 30-year-old pet shop owner living in Tacheng, 600 kilometers (373 miles) from the epicenter, said her dogs started barking before she felt her apartment building shudder. The quake was so strong her neighbors ran downstairs. Ma rushed to her bathroom and started to cry.

    “There’s no point in running away if it’s a big earthquake,” Ma said. “I was scared to death.”

    Chandeliers swung, buildings were evacuated and a media office building near the epicenter shook for a full minute, Xinhua reported. A video posted by a Chinese internet user on Weibo showed residents standing outside on the streets bundled in winter jackets, and a photo posted by CCTV showed a cracked wall with chunks fallen off.

    Tremors were felt across the Xinjiang region and in the neighboring countries Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. In the Kazakh capital of Almaty, people left their homes, the Russian news agency Tass reported.

    Videos posted on the Telegram messaging platform showed people in Almaty running down the stairs of apartment blocks and standing outside in the street after they felt strong tremors. Some people appeared to have left their homes quickly and were pictured standing outside in freezing temperatures in shorts.

    Earthquakes are common in western China, including in Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, as well as the Xinjiang region and Tibet.

    An earthquake that struck Gansu in December killed 151 people and was China’s deadliest earthquake in nine years.

    Associated Press

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  • China Says It May Retaliate Against U.S.’s ‘Hegemonic’ Chip War

    China Says It May Retaliate Against U.S.’s ‘Hegemonic’ Chip War

    The European Union can avoid getting swept up into China’s response to U.S. chip-equipment curbs, Beijing’s ambassador in The Hague said in an interview with a Dutch newspaper.

    “If the Americans treat us in a hegemonic manner, we will of course respond,” said Tan Jian, Chinese ambassador to the Netherlands, in an interview with NRC published Sunday. “But our relationship with the E.U. should not be affected.”

    The Netherlands is home to ASML Holding NV, which makes the world’s most advanced chipmaking gear and has been drawn into a geopolitical spat as the Biden administration seeks to curtail Beijing’s ambitions in the semiconductor industry. An expanded ban on the company’s sales of certain high-end equipment to China took effect this month. 

    “The U.S. has stretched its idea of ​​security far, too far, even to matters that have nothing to do with military risks,” he said in the interview. “And they are putting pressure on their allies to do the same.”

    Earlier this month, ASML said it canceled shipments of some machines to China after the Dutch government partially revoked export licenses. The move was at the request of U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration and came weeks before the ban took effect, Bloomberg reported earlier this month.

    Tan said dialog with the Dutch government needs to improve to prevent the situation from getting worse. Chinese companies were finding it more difficult to operate in the bloc due to increased controls, political pressure and disinformation, according to Tan.

    “European China policy is confusing,” he said. “China is referred to as a cooperation partner, an economic competitor and a systemic rival.”  

    Sarah Jacob / Bloomberg

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  • Cameroon Starts World-First Malaria Vaccine Program for Kids

    Cameroon Starts World-First Malaria Vaccine Program for Kids

    Cameroon will be the first country to routinely give children a new malaria vaccine as the shots are rolled out in Africa.

    The campaign due to start Monday was described by officials as a milestone in the decades-long effort to curb the mosquito-spread disease on the continent, which accounts for 95% of the world’s malaria deaths.

    “The vaccination will save lives. It will provide major relief to families and the country’s health system,” said Aurelia Nguyen, chief program officer at the Gavi vaccines alliance, which is helping Cameroon secure the shots.

    The Central Africa nation hopes to vaccinate about 250,000 children this year and next year. Gavi said it is working with 20 other African countries to help them get the vaccine and that those countries will hopefully immunize more than 6 million children through 2025.

    In Africa, there are about 250 million cases of the parasitic disease each year, including 600,000 deaths, mostly in young children.

    Cameroon will use the first of two recently approved malaria vaccines, known as Mosquirix. The World Health Organization endorsed the vaccine two years ago, acknowledging that that even though it is imperfect, its use would still dramatically reduce severe infections and hospitalizations.

    The GlaxoSmithKline-produced shot is only about 30% effective, requires four doses and protection begins to fade after several months. The vaccine was tested in Africa and used in pilot programs in three countries.

    GSK has said it can only produce about 15 million doses of Mosquirix a year and some experts believe a second malaria vaccine developed by Oxford University and approved by WHO in October might be a more practical solution. That vaccine is cheaper, requires three doses and India’s Serum Institute said they could make up to 200 million doses a year.

    Gavi’s Nguyen said they hoped there might be enough of the Oxford vaccines available to begin immunizing people later this year.

    Neither of the malaria vaccines stop transmission, so other tools like bed nets and insecticidal spraying will still be critical. The malaria parasite mostly spreads to people via infected mosquitoes and can cause symptoms including fever, headaches and chills.

    Associated Press

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  • At Least 25 Dead in Shelling of Ukraine Market: Local Report

    At Least 25 Dead in Shelling of Ukraine Market: Local Report

    KYIV, Ukraine — At least 25 people were killed Sunday by shelling at a market on the outskirts of the city of Donetsk in Russian-occupied Ukraine, local officials reported Sunday.

    A further 20 people were injured in the strike on the suburb of Tekstilshchik, including two children, said Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian-installed authorities in Donetsk. He said that the shells had been fired by the Ukrainian military.

    Kyiv has not commented on the event and the claims could not be independently verified by The Associated Press.

    Emergency services continue to work on the scene, Pushilin said.

    Also Sunday, fire broke out at a chemical transport terminal at Russia’s Ust-Luga port following two explosions, regional officials said. Local media reported that the port had been attacked by Ukrainian drones, causing a gas tank to explode.

    The blaze was at a site run by Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer, Novatek, 165 kilometers southwest of St. Petersburg.

    In a press statement to Russian media outlet RBC, the company said that the fire was the result of an “external influence.” It also said that it had paused operations at the port.

    Yuri Zapalatsky, the head of Russia’s Kingisepp district, where the port is based, said in a statement that there were no casualties, but that the area had been placed on high alert.

    News outlet Fontanka reported that two drones had been detected flying towards St Petersburg Sunday morning, but that they were redirected towards the Kingisepp district. The Associated Press could not independently verify the reports.

    The Russian Ministry of Defense did not report any drone activity in the Kingisepp area in its daily briefing. It said that four Ukrainian drones had been downed in Russia’s Smolensk region, and that two more had been shot down in the Oryol and Tula regions.

    Russian officials previously confirmed that a Ukrainian drone had been downed on the outskirts of St. Petersburg on Thursday.

    Associated Press

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  • Women and Children Are Main Victims of the Israel-Hamas War

    Women and Children Are Main Victims of the Israel-Hamas War

    UNITED NATIONS — Women and children are the main victims in the Israel-Hamas war, with some 16,000 killed and an estimated two mothers losing their lives every hour since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel, the United Nations agency promoting gender equality said Friday.

    As a result of the more than 100-day conflict, UN Women added, at least 3,000 women may have become widows and heads of households and at least 10,000 children may have lost their fathers.

    In a report released Friday, the agency pointed to gender inequality and the burden on women fleeing the fighting with children and being displaced again and again. Of the territory’s 2.3 million population, it said, 1.9 million are displaced and “close to one million are women and girls” seeking shelter and safety.

    UN Women’s executive director, Sima Bahous, said this is “a cruel inversion” of fighting during the 15 years before the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. Previously, she said, 67% of all civilians killed in Gaza and the West Bank were men and less then 14% were women.

    She echoed U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ calls for a humanitarian cease-fire and the immediate release of all hostages taken captive in Israel on Oct. 7.

    “However much we mourn the situation of the women and girls of Gaza today, we will mourn further tomorrow without unrestricted humanitarian assistance and an end to the destruction and killing,” Bahous said in a statement accompanying the report.

    “These women and girls are deprived of safety, medicine, health care, and shelter. They face imminent starvation and famine. Most of all they are deprived of hope and justice,” she said.

    The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says nearly 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, 70% of them women and children. The United Nations says more than a half million people in Gaza — a quarter of the population — are starving.

    In Israel, around 1,200 people were killed during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the war, and some 250 people were taken hostage by militants. More than 100 hostages are believed to still be held captive in Gaza.

    Bahous said UN Women had heard “shocking accounts of unconscionable sexual violence during the attacks” by Hamas, and she echoed U.N. calls for accountability, justice and support for all those affected.

    Despite escalating hostilities in Gaza, the agency said women-led and women’s rights organizations continue to operate. It found that 83% of women’s organizations surveyed in the Gaza Strip are at least partially operational, mainly focusing on the emergency response to the war.

    But UN Women said its analysis of funding from last year’s flash appeal for Gaza found that just 0.09% of funding went directly to national or local women’s rights organizations.

    Bahous said there is a need for much more aid to get to Gaza, especially to women and children, and for an end to the war.

    “This is a time for peace,” she said. “We owe this to all Israeli and Palestinian women and girls. This is not their conflict. They must no longer pay its price.”

    EDITH M. LEDERER / AP

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  • Prince Harry Drops Daily Mail Libel Case

    Prince Harry Drops Daily Mail Libel Case

    LONDON — Prince Harry dropped his libel lawsuit Friday against the publisher of the Daily Mail tabloid following a ruling in which a judge cast doubt on his case as it was headed to trial.

    Lawyers for the Duke of Sussex notified the High Court in London that he would not continue the suit against Associated Newspapers Ltd.

    No reason was given, but it came the day he was due to hand over documents in the case and after a punishing ruling last month in which a judge ordered Harry to pay the publisher nearly 50,000 pounds (more than $60,000) in legal fees after he failed to achieve victory without going to trial.

    The action will leave him on the hook to pay the publisher’s legal fees, which the Daily Mail reported to be 250,000 pounds ($316,000). A spokesperson for the duke said it was premature to speculate about costs.

    Read More: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix Doc Appears to Deepen the Royal Feud With Prince William

    The case involved a Mail on Sunday article that said Harry tried to hide his efforts to retain publicly funded protection in the U.K. after walking away from his role as a working member of the royal family.

    Harry’s lawyers claimed the article attacked his honesty and integrity by purporting to reveal that court documents “contradicted public statements he had previously made about his willingness to pay for police protection for himself and his family whilst in the U.K.” He said the article would undermine his charity work.

    The publisher argued the article expressed an honest opinion and caused no serious harm to his reputation.

    In March, Harry sought summary judgment — to win the case without going to trial — and tried to knock out the Mail’s defense but a judge didn’t buy it.

    Justice Matthew Nicklin ruled Dec. 8 that the publisher had a “real prospect” of showing statements issued on Harry’s behalf were misleading and that the February 2022 article reflected an “honest opinion” and wasn’t libelous.

    Read More: These Are the Most Shocking Revelations in Prince Harry’s Memoir Spare

    “The defendant may well submit that this was a masterclass in the art of ‘spinning,’” Nicklin wrote, in refusing to strike the honest opinion defense.

    Harry, 39, the estranged younger son of King Charles III, has broken ranks with the royal family in his willingness to go to court and it has become the main forum for his battles with the British press.

    Associated Newspapers is one of three tabloid publishers he’s suing over claims they used unlawful means, such as deception, phone hacking or hiring private investigators, to try to dig up dirt on him.

    He also has a lawsuit pending against the government’s decision to protect him on a case-by-case basis when he visits Britain. He claims that hostility toward him and his wife on social media and relentless hounding by the news media threaten their safety. He cited media intrusion for his decision to leave life as a senior royal and move to the U.S.

    Harry’s spokesperson said his focus remains on that case and his family’s safety.

    Associated Press

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  • Tokyo Overwhelmed by High Demand for New Fertility Subsidy

    Tokyo Overwhelmed by High Demand for New Fertility Subsidy

    The Tokyo government has been overwhelmed by interest in its new fertility subsidy program, one of several pilot programs across the country designed to address one of the lowest birth rates in the world.

    Read More: China Is Desperate to Boost Its Low Birth Rates. It May Have to Accept the New Normal

    More than 7,000 women have registered for information sessions about the new program, which offers up to ¥300,000 ($2,023) toward the costs of egg-freezing, and 1,800 women have applied since October, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. 

    The government estimated demand would be far lower. It budgeted ¥60 million for subsidies, enough to award the maximum amount to 200 women.

    The program is open to all women between the ages of 18 and 39, a departure from earlier fertility policies that excluded unmarried women. There’s no deadline for the application and no pre-established limit to the number of subsidies that will be awarded. Tokyo Mayor Yuriko Koike told NHK the city plans to increase the budget significantly. 

    The Japanese government is increasingly concerned by its record-low birthrate, now at 1.3. A rate of 2.1 is considered optimal to keep a population stable. In 2022, the government agreed to reimburse 70% of the costs of in-vitro fertilization (IVF).

    Egg freezing is one of several assisted reproductive technologies that can help extend a woman’s fertility, but it’s expensive. In Japan, costs typically run from around ¥300,000 to 600,000 but can reach into the millions.

    Read More: The Truth About Freezing Your Eggs

    The technology is also far from a panacea. Only about 8.4% of people used their frozen eggs to give birth, according to a survey of 87 clinics and hospitals conducted by the Tokyo government in August. The success rate of pregnancy using frozen eggs also drops with maternal age.

    Still, keeping young eggs and increasing the odds of pregnancy is a vital option for women who aren’t ready to have children, according to Noriko Taniyama, who works in the city government’s Bureau of Social Welfare, Children and Child-Rearing Support Division.

    Tokyo plans to assess the effects of egg freezing on birthrate by accumulating data from subsidy recipients.

    Momoka Yokoyama and Min Jeong Lee / Bloomberg

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  • Severe Obesity Is Increasing in Young U.S. Children

    Severe Obesity Is Increasing in Young U.S. Children

    A new study adds to evidence that severe obesity is becoming more common in young U.S. children.

    There was some hope that children in a government food program might be bucking a trend in obesity rates — earlier research found rates were dropping a little about a decade ago for those kids. But an update released Monday in the journal Pediatrics the rate bounced back up a bit by 2020.

    The increase echoes other national data, which suggests around 2.5% of all preschool-aged children were severely obese during the same period.

    “We were doing well and now we see this upward trend,” said one of the study’s authors, Heidi Blanck of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We are dismayed at seeing these findings.”

    The study looked at children ages 2 to 4 enrolled in the Women, Infants and Children program, which provides healthy foods and other services to preschool-aged children in low-income families. The children were weighed and measured.

    The researchers found that 2.1% of kids in the program were severely obese in 2010. Six years later, the rate had dipped to 1.8%. But by 2020, it was 2%. That translates to about 33,000 of more than 1.6 million kids in the WIC program.

    Significant increases were seen in 20 states with the highest rate in California at 2.8%. There also were notable rises in some racial and ethnic groups. The highest rate, about 2.8%, was in Hispanic kids.

    Experts say severe obesity at a very early age is nearly irreversible, and is strongly associated with chronic health problems and an early death.

    It’s not clear why the increase occurred, Blanck said.

    When WIC obesity rates dropped, some experts attributed it to 2009 policy changes that eliminated juice from infant food packages, provided less saturated fat, and tried to make it easier to buy fruits and vegetables.

    The package hasn’t changed. But “the daily hardships that families living in poverty are facing may be harder today than they were 10 years ago, and the slight increases in the WIC package just weren’t enough,” said Dr. Sarah Armstrong, a Duke University childhood obesity researcher.

    The researchers faced challenges. The number of kids in WIC declined in the past decade. And the study period included 2020, the year the COVID-19 pandemic hit, when fewer parents brought their children in to see doctors. That reduced the amount of complete information available.

    Despite it’s limitations, it was a “very well done study,” said Deanna Hoelscher, a childhood obesity researcher at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, “It gives you a hint of what’s going on.”

    What’s happened since 2020 is not yet known. Some small studies have suggested a marked increase in childhood obesity — especially during the pandemic, when kids were kept home from schools, eating and bedtime routines were disrupted and physical activity decreased.

    “We are thinking it’s going to get worse,” Hoelscher said.

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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