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News, Page 33

Sierra Leone marks grim Ebola anniversary

On May 24 last year a pregnant woman and an older housewife staggered into Kenema hospital in eastern Sierra Leone and were diagnosed within a day as the country's first Ebola cases. Both women had attended the funeral of a widely-respected faith healer known as Mendinor, whose “powers” were renowned on both sides of Sierra Leone's border with Guinea. The grandmother, whose real name was Finda Nyuma, had been treating sick patients in her home village, a diamond-mining town just a few hours' walk from Gueckedou in Guinea, where the outbreak began in December 2013.

British anti-slavery chief enlists Vatican in global pact to end slavery

By Chris Arsenault VATICAN CITY (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Britain’s anti-slavery commissioner received the backing of the Catholic Church on Saturday for a campaign to push for a global pact vowing to eradicate slavery in the next 15 years. Kevin Hyland, who took up the new role last year, is lobbying world leaders to support a commitment to end forced labor and slavery of all forms in a set of global development goals to be adopted at the United Nations in September. While slavery is illegal in every country on earth, an estimated 36 million people are trapped in modern slavery.

U.S. bird flu causing egg squeeze, emergency measures

By P.J. Huffstutter and Bill Berkrot CHICAGO and NEW YORK (Reuters) – As a virulent avian influenza outbreak continues to spread across the Midwestern United States, some egg-dependent companies are contemplating drastic steps: importing eggs from overseas or looking to egg alternatives. A spokeswoman for grain giant Archer Daniels Midland Co said that, as egg supplies have tightened and prices risen, the company has received numerous inquiries from manufacturers about the plant-based egg substitutes it makes. “The U.S. has never imported any significant amount of eggs, because we’ve always been a very low-cost producer,” said Tom Elam of FarmEcon, an agricultural consulting company.

Rugby-Concussion-prone Wallabies hooker Polota-Nau gets more rest

Wallabies hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau, who said earlier this month he might retire if he was badly concussed again, will be rested from Super Rugby for another three weeks to ensure he has fully recovered from a head knock. The hard-running rake suffered the latest in a long string of concussions in the New South Wales Waratahs’s win over the ACT Brumbies in Canberra on May 1 and has not played since. Michael Cheika, both Waratahs and Australia coach this year, said the 29-year-old would not play against Canterbury Crusaders this weekend or on the two-match tour of South Africa that follows the 2014 Super Rugby final re-match.

Mozart-loving chickens may answer quest for healthier nugget

By Naveen Thukral and Gavin Maguire YONG PENG, Malaysia (Reuters) – In barns filled with classical music and lighting that changes to match the hues outside, rows of chickens are fed a diet rich in probiotics, a regimen designed to remove the need for the drugs and chemicals that have tainted the global food chain. As food giants face growing pressure to offer healthier produce, Southeast Asian poultry firm Kee Song Group says its use of “good” bacteria in feed and water means it can meet one the industry's biggest challenges: how to mass produce drug and hormone-free poultry at a reasonable price. A series of scandals in the last few years from melamine-tainted milk powder in China, horse meat supplied as beef in Europe and growth drugs causing lameness in U.S. cattle has triggered a consumer backlash over food standards and safety. Recently, Tyson Foods Inc pledged to eliminate the use of human antibiotics in chicken by 2017, one of the most aggressive timetables yet by a U.S. poultry firm.

Exclusive: Sysco sees U.S. bird flu hurting egg supply up to 18 months

By Anjali Athavaley NEW YORK (Reuters) – Food distributor Sysco Corp said on Friday that a record U.S. outbreak of avian flu would limit its supply of eggs and chickens that lay them for nine to 18 months, based on information provided to the company by its suppliers. Sysco is the biggest U.S. food distributor, whose clients include restaurants, hotels and hospitals. The company is discussing options with its customers, including creating alternative menu items during the period, a Sysco spokesman said in an email. It is too soon to tell whether the supply squeeze will have a material impact on financial results, spokesman Charley Wilson said.

Experts urge $2bn global fund to develop antibiotics

The global pharmaceutical industry should set up a $2.0 billion (1.8-billion euro) global innovation fund to help kickstart research into developing more resistant antibiotics, experts said on Thursday. The report was by the British government appointed Review on Antimicrobial Resistance committee, which has warned that drug-resistant microbes could kill 10 million people a year worldwide by 2050. “We need to kickstart drug development to make sure the world has the drugs it needs,” the review's author, economist Jim O'Neill, told the BBC. O'Neill, who used to work at Goldman Sachs investment bank, has also warned that antimicrobial resistance — when bugs become immune to existing drugs — could cost $100 trillion in lost economic output.

AstraZeneca digs into precision medicine with lung, heart deals

By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) – AstraZeneca is diving deeper into personalized healthcare with two projects that move the concept beyond cancer into respiratory disorders and heart disease. Personalized or precision medicine, which tailors treatment to a patient's genetic profile, is an increasing focus for drug companies, especially after an initiative from U.S. President Barack Obama in January. “Up to now the science of personalized healthcare has been slower to reach those common disease areas such as cardiovascular and respiratory disease.” To redress the balance, AstraZeneca said on Wednesday it had signed two deals, one with Abbott Laboratories for a diagnostic test to accompany an experimental asthma drug and another with Canadian scientists on genes associated with heart disease.

Experts denounce WHO’s slow Ebola response

A UN-sponsored independent report by experts on Monday denounced the World Health Organization's slow response to the Ebola crisis. WHO only declared a global public health emergency on August 8 after the outbreak had taken hold in west Africa.