Health
No direct evidence COVID started in Wuhan lab: US intelligence report
U.S. intelligence agencies found no direct evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic stemmed from an incident at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology, a report declassified on Friday said.
The four-page report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said the U.S. intelligence community still could not rule out the possibility that the virus came from a laboratory, however, and had not been able to discover the origins of the pandemic, Reuters reported.
"The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency remain unable to determine the precise origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, as both (natural and lab) hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting," the ODNI report said.
The report said that while "extensive work" had been conducted on coronaviruses at the Wuhan institute (WIV), the agencies had not found evidence of a specific incident that could have caused the outbreak.
"We continue to have no indication that the WIV's pre-pandemic research holdings included SARSCoV-2 or a close progenitor, nor any direct evidence that a specific research-related incident occurred involving WIV personnel before the pandemic that could have caused the COVID pandemic," the report said.
The origins of the coronavirus pandemic have been a matter of furious debate in the United States almost since the first human cases were reported in Wuhan in late 2019.
U.S. President Joe Biden in March signed a bill declassifying information related to the origins of the pandemic.
Biden said at the time of signing that he shared Congress' goal of releasing as much information as possible about the origin of COVID-19.
The debate was refueled by a Wall Street Journal report in February that the U.S. Energy Department had assessed with "low confidence" in a classified intelligence report that the pandemic most likely arose from a Chinese laboratory leak, an assessment Beijing denies.
FBI director Christopher Wray said on Feb. 28 his agency had assessed for some time that the origins of the pandemic were "most likely a potential lab incident" in the Chinese city of Wuhan. China said this claim had "no credibility whatsoever".
As of March 20, four other U.S. agencies still judged that COVID-19 was likely the result of natural transmission, while two were undecided.
Health
UNICEF ensures 6.1 million people have access to basic health services in Afghanistan
More than six million people accessed essential health and nutrition services at UNICEF-supported health facilities last month, the UN agency said in its latest Humanitarian Situation Report for September 1 to 30.
UNICEF said of the 6.1 million people who accessed essential health and nutrition services, half of them were children under the age of five.
In addition, 50 schools in 10 provinces gained access to safe water, handwashing facilities, and newly constructed or rehabilitated toilet facilities.
However, as of September, UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) appeal for children in Afghanistan is only 41 percent funded.
Afghanistan remains one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with 23.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance following decades of conflict, extreme climate shocks, and severe economic decline.
UNICEF also stated that this year, 33 percent of the population receives most of their income from unsustainable income sources, compared to 26 percent in 2023.
Health
Polio vaccination campaign kicks off in Afghanistan
Public Health Ministry officials have confirmed that a polio vaccine campaign across 16 provinces was launched on Monday.
Sharaft Zaman Amarkhil, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Health, says that the campaign got underway on Monday in a number of provinces including Kabul, Kandahar, Helmand, Uruzgan, Zabul, Farah, Nangarhar, Laghman, Kunar, Nuristan and some other provinces.
Amarkhil said the campaign will last for three days and an estimated 6.2 million children under the age of five will receive the anti-polio vaccine.
Zaman called on parents, religious scholars and ethnic elders to cooperate with the ministry's vaccinators in implementing the anti-polio vaccination campaign for children under five years old in the mentioned provinces.
The World Health Organization meanwhile published its latest Polio Bulletin on Monday and confirmed Afghanistan has recorded 23 cases of Wild Polio Virus so far this year.
Pakistan meanwhile reported two new cases this week - one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the other in Balochistan province.
Pakistan has recorded a total of 41 cases of polio so far this year, bringing the total between the two countries to 64, against last year’s total of 12 (Afghanistan 6 and Pakistan 6).
World Polio Day
Marking World Polio Day last week, UNICEF pointed out that the current data issues a stark warning that the life-threatening disease continues to thrive in areas where conflict, natural disasters, humanitarian crises, and other destabilizing factors make it difficult to deliver critical healthcare.
“In conflict, children face more than bombs and bullets; they are at risk of deadly diseases that should no longer exist,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
“In many countries, we are witnessing the collapse of healthcare systems, destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure, and the displacement of families, triggering a resurgence of diseases like polio. Children are being left paralyzed, unable to walk, play, or attend school."
A global decline in childhood immunization has also led to an increase in polio outbreaks, including in countries that had been polio-free for decades.
Nowhere is this more evident than in conflict-affected areas, with 15 out of 21 such countries – including Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen – currently battling polio.
In recent months, UNICEF and partners have intensified emergency responses to surges in polio outbreaks.
In Gaza, for example, UNICEF, in partnership with WHO, reached nearly 600,000 children under 10 years during the first round of a polio vaccination campaign in mid-September. The second and final round has been successfully implemented in south and central Gaza, but renewed mass displacement and bombings have delayed the process in the north.
The campaign follows the return of polio to Gaza for the first time in 25 years.
Health
AIJU seals deal with private hospital for Afghan media workers
The MoU was signed during a ceremony in Kabul on Tuesday, between Hojatullah Mujadadi, the head of the union, and the director of the private hospital Abdullah Yousafzai.
The Afghanistan Independent Journalists Union (AIJU) says it has signed a three-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a private hospital in Kabul to provide discounted health services to journalists.
The MoU was signed during a ceremony in Kabul on Tuesday, between Hojatullah Mujadadi, the head of the union, and the director of the private hospital Abdullah Yousafzai.
Mujadadi welcomed the move and said this was part of the union’s efforts to ensure media workers are provided with adequate health services.
According to the AIJU, media workers and their immediate families, which include their parents, siblings, spouse and children, will be entitled to substantial discounts for medical treatment at the hospital.
The AIJU said charges would be discounted by between 50% and 70% for media workers.
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