(Adds statement from wife of infected doctor and confirmation of Ebola vaccine test in humans)
By Julie Steenhuysen and Colleen Jenkins
CHICAGO/WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., July 31 (Reuters) – A U.S. aid worker who was infected with the deadly Ebola virus while working in West Africa will be flown to the United States to be treated in a high-security ward at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, hospital officials said on Thursday.
The aid worker, whose name has not been released, will be moved in the next several days to a special isolation unit at Emory. The unit was set up in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Reynolds said the CDC is not aware of any Ebola patient ever being treated in the United States, but five people in the past decade have entered the United States with either Lassa Fever or Marburg Fever, hemorrhagic fevers similar to Ebola.
News of the transfer follows reports of the declining health of two infected U.S. aid workers, Dr. Kent Brantly and missionary Nancy Writebol, who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia on behalf of North Carolina-based Christian relief groups Samaritan’s Purse and SIM.
“I remain hopeful and believing that Kent will be healed from this dreadful disease,” Amber Brantly, the wife of Dr. Brantly, said in a statement.
Earlier on Thursday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the State Department was working with the CDC on medical evacuations of infected American humanitarian aid workers, but he did not name them.
The outbreak in West Africa is the worst in history, having killed more than 700 people since February. On Thursday, the CDC issued a travel advisory urging people to avoid all non-essential travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the epicenter of the outbreak.
Brantly and Writebol “were in stable but grave” condition as of early Thursday morning, the relief organizations said. A spokeswoman for the groups could not confirm whether the patient being transferred to Emory was one of their aid workers.
CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said in a conference call there is no vaccine or effective treatment for Ebola, and transferring gravely ill patients has the potential to do more harm than good.
But the National Institutes of Health plans in mid-September to begin testing an experimental Ebola vaccine on people after seeing encouraging results in pre-clinical trials on monkeys, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH’s allergy and infectious diseases unit, said in an email.
In its final stages, Ebola causes external and internal bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea. About 60 percent of people infected in the current outbreak are dying from the illness.
Writebol, 59, received an experimental drug doctors hope will improve her health, SIM said. Brantly, 33, received a unit of blood from a 14-year-old boy who survived Ebola with the help of Brantly’s medical care, said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse.
Frieden could not comment on the specifics of either treatment, but said, “We have reviewed the evidence of the treatments out there and don’t find any treatment that has proven effectiveness against Ebola.” (Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Will Dunham and Sandra Maler)
By David Lawder
WASHINGTON, July 31 (Reuters) – With time running out to avert cutbacks in federal transportation money due to start on Friday, Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate agreed to accept a Republican plan to extend funding for highway and transit construction through May 2015.
Senate Majority Harry Reid said he would put the House of Representatives’ $10.9 billion funding plan to a vote on Thursday evening after the House rejected a shorter, $8.1 billion extension passed by the Senate.
The legislative ping-pong has heightened uncertainty over the dwindling Highway Trust Fund as Congress prepares to start a five-week summer recess this weekend.
The Department of Transportation has said it will start on Friday reducing payments to states by as much as 30 percent from the dwindling Highway Trust Fund.
Lawmakers and transportation officials say that failure to approve new funding would cause work slowdowns at the height of summer road construction season and halt planning for new projects, putting thousands of construction jobs at risk.
The Senate on Tuesday approved the shorter extension, lasting only through the end of 2014, because Democrats wanted to force Congress to act on a long-term funding plan during the post-election, lame duck session of Congress in November.
But in a vote that Democratic aides said was engineered to “jam” the Senate just before the recess, the House earlier on Thursday rejected the Senate plan and sent back its original version. That left senators little choice but to take the House plan or face criticism for allowing the trust fund to be depleted.
Representative Peter DeFazio, a Democrat, complained that the Republican extension bill would discourage Congress from passing a multi-year transport funding plan until next year.
“We’ll limp along until next May and there’ll be incredible uncertainty about the next construction season,” DeFazio said. “There won’t be major new projects planned.”
State transportation directors and business groups have been clamoring for a long-term solution that would eliminate uncertainty over the funding of road and rail transit projects that benefit the heavy construction industry and its suppliers, including Fluor Corp, Vulcan Materials, LaFarge SA and Caterpillar Inc.
The Highway Trust Fund has suffered chronic shortfalls in recent years as revenue from fuel taxes, unchanged since 1993, have failed to keep pace with rising construction costs and been hit by improved vehicle fuel economy. Some lawmakers have advocated a fuel tax increase and believe this may be easier to achieve after November’s congressional elections.
The House funding plan relies heavily on a controversial revenue source known as “pension smoothing” – an accounting maneuver that allows companies to reduce near-term contributions to employee pensions, thus increasing taxable profits. (Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
WASHINGTON — Efforts by Congress to approve money for what most deem a crisis along the southern border were in shambles on Thursday evening, after the Senate failed to approve its funding bill and the House was forced to rework its plans to win more Republican votes.
The Senate legislation would have provided $2.7 billion to care for and help deport many of the more than 57,500 unaccompanied minors who have been apprehended crossing the border illegally since October. That was $1 billion less than President Barack Obama had requested. But the bill still lacked provisions that many Republicans said were vital to earning their support, such as changes to existing law so that minors could be deported more quickly without seeing a judge.
The bill failed in a procedural vote, with 50 senators voting to continue to a final vote and 44 opposing. Sixty votes were needed to proceed.
Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia joined with Republicans in opposing the bill.
The Senate Democrats’ bill would have also provided funding to fight wildfires and to buttress Israel’s Iron Dome defense system. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) warned before the vote that the bill was needed to fund these measures and to keep agencies from running out of money to deal with the border crisis.
“Failing to act is irresponsible,” she said.
Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), two of the most vocal opponents of the border package, argued that it needed provisions to end current Obama policies that protect some undocumented young people from deportation and to prevent the president from expanding similar relief in the future.
“Congress, as an institution, must not support any border package that does not expressly prohibit the president’s executive amnesty and block funds for its implementation,” Sessions said on the Senate floor Thursday. “How can we not take this position? Are we really to recess for August having done nothing, said nothing, offered nothing to oppose the president in this way?”
The House was set to vote earlier Thursday on a bill to provide $659 million in funding to address the border crisis, coupled with measures such as sending National Guard troops to the border, adding immigration judges and changing a 2008 law that provides unaccompanied minors from countries other than Mexico and Canada with a lengthier process in which to argue they should be allowed to stay.
Despite House Republican leaders adding to the schedule another opportunity to vote against a policy that prevents some young undocumented immigrants from being deported, the House could not get 218 votes to approve the $659 million for the border crisis. House leaders are reworking their plan on Friday and aim to hold a vote on a new or revised package that would provide funding to address the unaccompanied minors situation.
But even if they do, the Senate won’t be around to pass it — although the upper chamber almost certainly wouldn’t anyway on policy grounds — because of the August recess. The White House had already issued a veto threat on the initial House Republican bill, which is now expected to become even more conservative.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday that the administration was encouraged that the number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border appeared to be decreasing, but said they still hope Congress will approve additional funding. Agencies working on the crisis have said they are close to running out of already stretched funding.
“We continue to believe that those resources are necessary, simply because we have seen in the past that these numbers can be pretty volatile,” Earnest said at a press briefing.
NEW YORK — New York students with disabilities will be held to the same academic standards and take the same standardized tests as other kids their age next school year, the U.S. Education Department said Thursday, spurning the state’s efforts to change the policy.
Some special education advocates hailed the Education Department decision, saying it will enable students with disabilities to continue receiving the same opportunities as peers. “We think it’s a victory for the potential of every child,” said Denise Marshall, executive director of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates Inc. “We thank the department for sticking to their guns.”
The Education Department said Thursday that New York, as well as Minnesota, South Carolina, Delaware and Georgia, could hold onto waivers from the No Child Left Behind Act for another year. A federal official told New York schools chief John King in a letter that the state “may continue to implement” flexibility of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act though the 2014-15 school year, keeping state standards for students with disabilities the same as they had been.
King had proposed allowing up to 2 percent of New York students with severe disabilities to be tested at their instructional ability — not their chronological grade year — up to two full grade levels below current grade level. The change would, for example, allow a 5th grader with autism to be tested on exams written for third graders.
King made the proposal after taking heat for months over the state’s implementation of the Common Core State Standards, a set of learning benchmarks being adopted by most states. State officials had said the outcry from special education teachers was especially loud.
The schools chief’s idea for testing students with disabilities was part of his bid to renew the loophole that allowed the state to evade some sanctions of the No Child Left Behind Act, the 2001 law that mandated regular standardized testing. The law expired in 2007. After Congress failed to rewrite it, President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told states in 2011 they could escape some of its components by agreeing to policies preferred by the Education Department.
New York’s initial waiver from the law was approved in 2012. In an October 2013 letter preparing his request for an extension, King outlined “smarter testing options” that proposed new testing for students with disabilities.
The controversial proposal revived a concept known as out-of-level testing. Some civil rights and special education advocates opposed the proposal, saying it would shortchange vulnerable students, who they said should be tested alongside peers their own age so they don’t slip behind. Proponents, including some teachers, argued that testing students with disabilities at levels out of their reach dooms their academic progress. King’s idea sparked a letter-writing campaign by some advocates, and many met with federal officials this summer.
The Education Department had previously said students with disabilities should be held to the same standards as peers, so opponents of King’s proposal had reason to expect they would prevail.
For years, federal officials had allowed states to test up to 2 percent of students with disabilities at lower standards. But last summer, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said he would seek to abolish the rule and allow only 1 percent of students with the most severe disabilities to take a modified test.
The change in New York’s proposal stemmed from negotiations between New York and the federal government, according to sources. Education Department press secretary Dorie Nolt told The Huffington Post that New York voluntarily removed the testing language from its request for the waiver extension.
The New York State Education Department said it was pleased with the extension, and plans to press forward with alternative testing proposals. “The extension reflects modest but important adjustments to our implementation of the initial waiver,” said spokesman Tom Dunn. “However, we continue to seek significant changes … in policies governing assessments for students with disabilities and English Language Learners to ensure the assessments best inform instruction.”
Advocates said they had feared approval of New York’s testing change would have prompted other states to follow, segregating special education kids similar to “the Old South.”
Advocates said they would continue to keep a close eye on New York. “Given the history, we will consider any proposals very carefully,” said Lindsay Jones, who directs policy and advocacy for the National Center for Learning Disabilities. “Lowering standards for students with disabilities isn’t the way go. Tinkering with assessments isn’t either. We need to get serious about providing accommodations and helping teachers have the tools they need to instruct.”
I just returned from a trip to India, where I was teaching at the Delhi Indian Institute of Technology, interacting with an eager group of future environmental scientists and engineers. As we discussed water pollution, a July 13 New York Times article reported on an emerging hypothesis that poor sanitation in India may be more responsible than lack of food for current rates of childhood malnutrition.
In spite of India’s rapid economic development, childhood malnutrition remains a serious problem in that country, even as parents are better able to feed their children. What lies behind this cruel conundrum? The population is highly exposed to untreated water that is contaminated with fecal waste. Lacking toilets, sewers and sewage treatment, the sanitation situation is a public-health crisis.
The High Cost of Poor Sanitation
A 2014 United Nations report notes that 82 percent of people who practice open defecation live in middle-income, populous countries such as India and Nigeria. Poor sanitation may extract a heavy toll on childhood health in these areas. Jean Humphrey, professor of human nutrition at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, is quoted in the Times article as saying:
These children’s bodies divert energy and nutrients away from growth and brain development to prioritize infection-fighting survival. When this happens during the first two years of life, children become stunted. What’s particularly disturbing is that the lost height and intelligence are permanent.
The Times claims that stunting affects 65 million Indian children under the age of 5, including a third of children from the country’s richest families. Indian children are more malnourished than their poorer counterparts in sub-Saharan Africa. Economist Dean Spears points out:
The difference in average height between Indian and African children can be explained entirely by differing concentrations of open defecation. There are far more people defecating outside in India more closely to one another’s children and homes than there are in Africa or anywhere else in the world.
Channels and rivers are used as open sewers. (Photo credit: Joan Rose)
Waste water is discharged directly to streets. (Photo credit: Joan Rose)
Untreated surface water is used for washing and drinking. (Photo credit: Joan Rose)
Well water is stored in plastic open containers, which easily become contaminated. (Photo credit: Joan Rose)
A New Cycle of Good Sanitation
The situation in India reveals startling information about the link between waste pollution and stunted growth, even in a food-secure world. To help ensure a brighter future for India’s youth, the nation requires an investment in waste-treatment infrastructure, including toilets and waste-water treatment. Disinfection must play a role to lower disease risks. To achieve this, India will need professionally trained operators and engineers, chemists, microbiologists, doctors and nurses trained in public health, and managers to implement universal sanitation. This new crop of professionals must come from India’s youth, the segment of the population currently most at risk. The developed world must commit to sharing information and technology as part of efforts to achieve both the UN Millennium Development Goals’ target on sanitation and the new post-2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Doing so will help set in motion a new cycle of good sanitation and much-improved public health in India.
According to the United Nations, more children die in India than anywhere else in the world. In 2012 some 1.4 million Indian children died before reaching their fifth birthday. (Photo credit: UNICEF)
U.S. Historical Perspective
By 1860 about 125 U.S. cities had piped water and underground sewers. While clean water was known to be important, the role of contaminated water in disease transmission was not understood, and there were few options for treating water. Chlorination, for example, would not be widely implemented until it was shown to be effective in reducing typhoid-fever rates in Jersey City, New Jersey, beginning in 1908. Nevertheless, water and waste-water treatment technology implemented in the U.S. kept pace with scientific discovery, enabling public-health protection for millions of residents.
We must celebrate and continually support the building and upgrading of our toilets, sewers and treatment plants in the U.S. that protect our water and our health. India, with its 1.2 billion people, now faces a water and sanitation crisis that will take decades to address.
Joan Rose, Ph.D., is the Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research at Michigan State University and a member of the Water Quality and Health Council (WQHC). This post came about as a result of a discussion with the WQHC.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress has passed a landmark bill to help veterans avoid long waits for health care and fix other problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Senate easily approved the $16.3 billion compromise measure Thursday night, a day after it was overwhelmingly passed by the House. The measure now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.
The bill provides $10 billion in emergency spending to enable veterans who can’t get prompt appointments at VA hospitals and clinics or live more than 40 miles from one of them to obtain care from a private doctor.
The legislation also includes $5 billion to hire more VA doctors, nurses and other medical staff and $1.3 billion for opening 27 new VA clinics across the country.
Remember Arthur, the bespectacled little Anteater who reminded us via PBS to study hard, imagine, and most importantly believe in ourselves? Chance the Rapper just recorded a cover of the theme from the show and as the title suggests, it’s just wonderful.
Novels aren’t going to write themselves, you know. But when they don’t, simply turn to Twitter. A new book features tweets by would-be authors who are totally working on their novels, but had to stop working on their novels so they could post something to Twitter about working on their novels.
The moat that surrounds the Tower of London has long stood empty and dry. This summer, it’s getting filled with 888,246 red ceramic poppies, one for each British and Colonial soldiers who perished during World War I.
Remember Howard the Duck? Probably not in detail, but the unusual, somewhat existentialist Marvel character is about to make a comeback with an apparent cameo in the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie. And he actually looks pretty bad ass.
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.