Sunday, May 10, 2020

A pioneering study into the description of the architecture for a new standard for telecommunications

by Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Barcelona

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a United Nations Organization agency commissioned to regulate international telecommunications between different operating administrations and businesses. Pursuant to specific recommendations by this organization, on 1 July, standard Y.3172, an architecture for machine learning in future networks (5G and beyond), was approved for telecommunications networks. This new standard defines a logical network architecture that has been designed to include machine learning mechanisms intrinsically.

The agency StandICT.eu, which promotes the participation and contribution by academics to single digital market standards, such as 5G, cloud computing, cybersecurity, big data and IoT, granted members of the UPF Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC) a "Short Term" grant, thanks to which they have been involved in three meetings of the ITU's Focus Group on Machine Learning for Future Networks including 5G (FG-ML5G).

With this grant, the Wireless Networking and AI&ML research groups, led by Boris Bellalta and Anders Jonsson at the UPF DTIC, respectively, have studied how the application of machine learning can lead to a number of use cases that require transmissions of between 10 and 20 Gbps capacity, support large numbers of devices (1M/km2) or reduce latency to less than 5ms, with an error rate of less than 0.00001.

The research results were published by Francesc Wilhelmi, Sergio Barrachina, Boris Bellalta, Cristina Cano, Anders Jonsson, and Vishnu Ram in the IEEE Communications Magazine on 18 March. Their study also includes a use case that involves the association of users in dense networks using deep learning (i.e., neural networks). Thanks to the application of such techniques, it is possible to learn a series of complex patterns that current mechanisms cannot handle, as could be network load, interference received, or the status of each device.Researchers measure reliability, confidence for next-gen AI

More information: Francesc Wilhelmi et al, A Flexible Machine-Learning-Aware Architecture for Future WLANs, IEEE Communications Magazine (2020). DOI: 10.1109/MCOM.001.1900637

India uses drones to disinfect virus hotspot as cases surge

Indian authorities used drones and fire engines to disinfect the pandemic-hit city of Ahmedabad on Saturday, as virus cases surged and police clashed with migrant workers protesting against a reinforced lockdown.

The western city of 5.5 million people in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state has become a major concern for authorities as they battle an uptick in coronavirus deaths and cases across India.

Ahmedabad accounts for 343 of the almost 2,000 deaths reported nationwide and almost 10 percent of India's cases. Other cities in Gujarat have also been badly hit.

Locals watched from their balconies as drones sprayed disinfectant from the air while fire engines and other vehicles toured the empty streets sending out clouds of cleaning agent.

"All zones" of the city would be disinfected, according to acting chief administrator Rajiv Gupta.

India has been in the grip of the world's biggest lockdown since March 25, which was tightened in Ahmedabad on Friday because of the accelerated spread of the virus.

Hundreds of paramilitaries kept people off the streets and virtually all stores have been closed for at least a week.

On Friday night, security forces fired tear gas at stone-throwing residents who ventured out. At least 15 people were arrested and the police presence was stepped up Saturday.

Fresh clashes erupted Saturday between about 500 migrant workers and police in Gujarat's industrial hub of Surat.

Police fired tear gas while the protesters hurled stones and chanted slogans demanding to be allowed to return to their home towns. Around 50 were arrested for rioting, police said.

Surat, known for its diamond and textile industries, is home to over 800,000 migrant workers, many of whom have been left jobless after factories closed following the lockdown.

Some 900 coronavirus cases have been detected in the city, the second hardest-hit in the state.

Authorities have insisted the pandemic crisis is under control and have started to ease restrictions in many parts of the country to let agriculture and some companies get back to work.

Experts however have warned the toll is increasing despite the lockdown.

The virus is spreading particularly quickly in other major cities, including the capital New Delhi and the finance hub of Mumbai. And experts say the actual toll numbers are higher than reported because of the lack of testing and poor accounting for deaths.

While the number of fatalities is low compared to the United States and the worst-hit European nations, health specialists say India's pandemic curve may only peak in June and July.

Shamika Ravi, an economic advisor to the government, said Saturday that the "infection is way ahead of our knowledge" in Gujarat and Maharashtra, which includes Mumbai, because authorities were not carrying out enough tests.

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF NURSING HOMES

Canada PM 'worried' about situation in Montreal

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Saturday for caution and expressed concern about loosening lockdown measures in Montreal, the epicenter of Canada's coronavirus outbreak.

"We need to make sure that we go progressively, and slowly and gradually on any reopening," Trudeau said, reminding reporters that he is himself a Quebecer.

"Of course, I'm worried," Trudeau said.

While several Canadian provinces, including Quebec, are preparing reopening measures and a gradual revival of their economies, Trudeau stressed prudence and said that the country is not yet out of danger.

"Our focus right now is on recognizing that we are not in the recovery phase yet. We are not even fully into the restarting phase yet. We are still in the emergency phase," Trudeau said.

"Being very careful, step by step, is going to be so important," he said.

Quebec is the worst-hit province in Canada, with more than half of both the country's 67,000 cases of coronavirus and 4,700 deaths.

Montreal and its surroundings have suffered an elevated number of cases, especially at care homes for the elderly.

Authorities in Quebec on Thursday delayed the reopening of Montreal's schools and shops for a second time, pushing the date to May 25.

Canada's elderly have paid a particularly heavy price for the disease, the country's chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said Saturday, calling the scale and impact "nothing short of a national tragedy."

She said that 20 percent of coronavirus cases in Canada were linked to long-term care homes and that 80 percent of deaths are "in seniors in these settings."

"We've got to do better as a nation," she said, reiterating that issues with retirement homes should be addressed following the pandemic.

Touching the asteroid Ryugu revealed secrets of its surface and changing orbit

by Paul K. Byrne, The Conversation

On Feb. 21, 2019, we shot an asteroid.

More precisely, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft, built and operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, fired a 5-gram metal projectile into the surface of the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, a spinning-top-shaped body about 1 kilometer across and some 350 million kilometers from Earth. This projectile disrupted the surface of the asteroid, allowing Hayabusa2 to capture some of the lofted material and tuck it safely away on board. Having departed from Ryugu in November 2019, Hayabusa2 is expected to fly past Earth in late 2020 and release its samples in a reentry capsule for detailed analyses in labs across the world.

In a new paper published in Science, the Hayabusa2 team reports on their observations of the sampling process itself, and what measurements of Ryugu's surface generally can tell us of its evolution. These observations paint a remarkable story of a cosmic traveler that traveled from the main asteroid belt, taking a short-lived excursion near the Sun, before ultimately settling into an orbit in our neighborhood as a near-Earth asteroid.

I'm a planetary scientist, and I'm fascinated by why planetary bodies look the way they do. By understanding better how and why Ryugu gained its current appearance, we'll have a more comprehensive model for how solar system bodies form and develop—including common, "C-type" carbonaceous asteroids, of which Ryugu is on

The new paper describes how some parts of Ryugu are "bluer" and others are "redder."

These terms relate to subtle variations in color of the asteroid surface across the visible spectrum. The Hayabusa2 team found that the equator and poles of the asteroid are bluer, whereas the midlatitudes are redder. Intriguingly, this color difference may be tied to age—or, rather, how long material is directly exposed to space. That's because exposed surfaces are darkened and reddened by space weathering—bombardment by micrometeorites, solar and cosmic particles—and heating by the Sun, which is the primary mechanism for Ryugu.

When Hayabusa2 fired its projectile from a distance of about a meter, and then its thrusters to move away from the asteroid, a cloud of redder, dark pebbles and fine grains blew outward before falling back onto the surface. The mission team concluded that these particles, originally only on the exposed surfaces of boulders, landed all over the sampling site, turning it from a slightly blue color to slightly red.

https://phys.org/news/2020-05-asteroid-ryugu-revealed-secrets-surface.html Animation created from CAM-H and ONC-W1 data obtained during the 1st touchdown operation (Feb. 21, 2019). Credit: JAXA/U. Tokyo/Kochi U./Rikkyo U./Nagoya U./Chiba Inst. Tech./Meiji U./U. Aizu/AIS

This observation offered the team an insight into the latitudinal "stripes" on Ryugu. Exposed material, reddened by the Sun and by space weathering, slowly moves under the asteroid's weak gravity from the topographically high equator and poles to the topographically low midlatitudes. This movement exposes fresher, bluer material at the equator and poles and deposits the reddened material in between.

What I found most exciting was that, from the analysis of the size and colors of craters on Ryugu, the Hayabusa2 team concluded that at some point the asteroid must have been closer to the Sun that it is now. That would explain the amount of reddening of the surface. Using two different models for calculating the age of craters, the team estimated that this solar heating-induced reddening must have happened either eight million years ago or as recently as 300,000 years ago—a mere blink of an eye, cosmologically speaking.

These crater statistics, based on images collected by Hayabusa2, even show that the age of the overall asteroid surface itself is likely no more than around 17 million years, much younger than the time when the main-belt parent asteroids of Ryugu are thought to have broken apart, which happened hundreds of millions to over a billion years ago

And so it is that the simple act of firing a small pellet of metal into a rather unremarkable asteroid has revealed a detailed story of that asteroid's life, from formation, through its journey across the inner solar system, to the processes that continue to shape its surface today. That we can learn so much from visiting an asteroid and characterizing its surface is astonishing. What more will we learn when we get those samples back next year?

Initial findings of artificial impact on asteroid Ryugu

More information: T. Morota et al. Sample collection from asteroid (162173) Ryugu by Hayabusa2: Implications for surface evolution, Science (2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz6306

Journal information: Science

Provided by The Conversation

Researchers find human-driven pollution alters the environment even underground

by University of South Florida

The Monte Conca cave system on the island of Sicily is a vast system of springs and pools, sitting below a nature preserve. It might be presumed to be one of the few places untouched by human-driven pollution.

But new research published by a USF microbiology and geoscience team has found that even below ground, the microbial communities in the pools of water in the Monte Conca cave show signs of being altered by pollution from above.

Publishing in the prestigious journal, PLoS One, the team found that water flowing through the vast cave system produced changes in the microbial communities between the wet and dry seasons, with the microbial communities differing in bacterial composition and ecological functions. The study suggests that as surface water flows through agricultural and urban areas, it collects bacterial contaminants before entering cave systems.

The purpose of the study was to determine the impact surface runoff has on cave microbial communities using the Monte Conca spring pool as a model. The long-term impacts of these surface-derived bacterial contaminants or their impact on groundwater sources is currently not well known, said lead author Dr. Madison Davis of USF's Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology.

The project was led by USF Professor James Garey of the Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, and Professor Bogdan P. Onac of USF's School of Geosciences. USF graduate and undergraduate students Madison C. Davis, Melvin D. Baker IV, Christiana K. S. Mayne, Chelsea M. Dinon and Christina J. Moss are co-authors on the paper.

The group collaborated with Italian colleagues Maria A. Messina, Giuseppe Nicolosi and Salvatore Petralia of Centro Speleologico Etneoa.

The scientists found that the dry season microbial community was dominated by sulfur-oxidizing bacteria because of their ability to utilize oxygen from the cave and hydrogen sulfide from the spring pool. After a heavy rainfall, the sulfur-oxidizing community was displaced by surface-derived bacteria that were primarily identified as human contaminants, including Escherichia coli and other fecal bacteria.

Caves like Monte Conca—which is Sicily's longest and deepest gypsum karst system and was formed by sulfuric acid dissolution—have been identified worldwide. To carry out their work, researchers traveled into the cave system to retrieve samples in four missions spanning 2015 and 2016.

Sulfur oxidizers comprised more than 90 percent of the microbial community during the dry season and were replaced by potential human-influenced contaminants such as Escherichia and Lysinibacillus species after heavy rains, the researchers said. One sampling appeared to show a transition between the wet and dry seasons when potential man-made contaminants, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria and nitrogen-fixing bacteria all were present within the spring pool.

The study demonstrates the impact of surface runoff on the microbial community structure and function of endemic cave communities, the researchers said.Only above-water microbes play a role in cave development

More information: Madison C. Davis et al. Surface runoff alters cave microbial community structure and function, PLOS ONE (2020). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0232742

Journal information: PLoS ONE

New study shines light on mysterious giant viruses

THEY ARE A BIOLOGICAL FACTORY

by Adrian De Novato, Michigan State Universit y

New study shines light on mysterious giant viruses — Cartoon schematic of Samba infecting a cell. Credit: Cryo-EM facility

In recent years, giant viruses have been unearthed in several of the world's most mysterious locations, from the thawing permafrost of Siberia to locations unknown beneath the Antarctic ice. But don't worry, "The Thing" is still a work of science fiction. For now.

In a new study, a team of Michigan State University scientists shed light on these enigmatic, yet captivating giant microbes and key aspects of the process by which they infect cells. With the help of cutting-edge imaging technologies, this study developed a reliable model for studying giant viruses and is the first to identify and characterize several key proteins responsible for orchestrating infection.

Giant viruses are bigger than 300 nanometers in size and can survive for many millennia. For comparison, the rhinovirus—responsible for the common cold—is roughly 30 nanometers.

"Giant viruses are gargantuan in size and complexity," said principal investigator Kristin Parent, associate professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at MSU. "The giant viruses recently discovered in Siberia retained the ability to infect after 30,000 years in permafrost."

The outer shells—or capsids—are rugged and able to withstand harsh environments, protecting the viral genome inside. The capsids of the species analyzed in this study—mimivirus, Antarctica virus, Samba virus and the newly discovered Tupanviruses—are icosahedral, or shaped like a twenty-sided die.

These species have a unique mechanism for releasing their viral genome. A starfish-shaped seal sits atop one of the outer shell vertices. This unique vertex is known as the 'stargate.' During infection, the 'starfish' and 'stargate' open to release the viral genome.

During the study, several roadblocks needed to be addressed. "Giant viruses are difficult to image due to their size and previous studies relied on finding the 'one-in-a-million' virus in the correct state of infection," Parent said.

To solve this issue, Parent's graduate student Jason Schrad developed a novel method for mimicking infection stages. Using the university's new Cryo-Electron Microscopy microscope and the university's Scanning Electron Microscope, Parent's group subjected various species to an array of harsh chemical and environmental treatments designed to simulate conditions a virus might experience during the infection process. "Cryo-EM allows us to study viruses and protein structures at the atomic level and to capture them in action," Parent said. "Access to this technology is very important and the new microscope at MSU is opening new doors for research on campus."

The results revealed three environmental conditions that successfully induced stargate opening: low pH, high temperature and high salt. Even more, each condition induced a different stage of infection.

With this new data, Parent's group designed a model to effectively and reliably mimic stages of infection for study. "This new model now allows scientists to mimic the stages reliably and with high frequency, opening the door for future study and dramatically simplifying any studies aimed at the virus," Parent said.

The results yielded several novel findings. "We discovered that the starfish seal above the stargate portal slowly unzips while remaining attached to the capsid rather than simply releasing all at once," Parent said. "Our description of a new giant virus genome release strategy signifies another paradigm shift in our understanding of virology."

With the ability to consistently recreate various stages of infection, the researchers studied the proteins released by the virus during the first stage. Proteins act as workers, orchestrating the many biological processes required for a virus to infect and hijack a cell's reproductive capabilities to make copies of itself.

"The results of this study help to assign putative—or assumed—roles to many proteins with previously unknown functions, highlighting the power of this new model," Parent said. "We identified key proteins released during the initial stages of infection responsible for helping mediate the process and complete the viral takeover."

As for future study? "The exact functions of many of these proteins and how they orchestrate giant virus infection are prime candidates for future study," Parent said. "Many of the proteins we identified matched proteins that one would expect to be released during the initial stages of viral infections. This greatly supports our hypothesis that the in vitro stages generated in this study are reflective of those that occur in vivo."

That many of the different giant virus types studied responded similarly in vitro leads the researchers to believe they all share common characteristics and likely similar proteins.

Whether giant viruses are capable of infecting humans - unlike the coronavirus - is an evolving topic of discussion amongst virologists.New method captures early viral-host protein interactions

More information: Jason R. Schrad et al, Structural and Proteomic Characterization of the Initiation of Giant Virus Infection, Cell (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.032

Journal information: Cell

Provided by Michigan State University

Potentially fatal combinations of humidity and heat are emerging across the globe

by Earth Institute at Columbia University

All-time maximum wet-bulb temperatures at selected cities, represented as differences from 35ºC, at weather stations (left bars) and estimated from ERA5 reanalysis (right bars). Values are shown as lengths (according to the scale at right) and additionally as colors, according to the following scheme: blue, <30 green="" orange="" red="">=35ºC. As discussed in the paper, the highest values in both the mid-latitudes and deep tropics are near 30ºC, with more intense humid heat primarily limited to subtropical coastlines. Exceedances of 35ºC have occurred only along the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Indus River Valley, but reanalysis products are not able to represent this. Credit: Colin Raymond (Apirl 2020) with dataset used in paper

Most everyone knows that humid heat is harder to handle than the "dry" kind. And recently, some scientists have projected that later in the century, in parts of the tropics and subtropics, warming climate could cause combined heat and humidity to reach levels rarely if ever experienced before by humans. Such conditions would ravage economies, and possibly even surpass the physiological limits of human survival.

According to a new study, the projections are wrong: such conditions are already appearing. The study identifies thousands of previously rare or unprecedented bouts of extreme heat and humidity in Asia, Africa, Australia, South America and North America, including in the U.S. Gulf Coast region. Along the Persian Gulf, researchers spotted more than a dozen recent brief outbreaks surpassing the theoretical human survivability limit. The outbreaks have so far been confined to localized areas and lasted just hours, but they are increasing in frequency and intensity, say the authors. The study appears this week in the journal Science Advances.

"Previous studies projected that this would happen several decades from now, but this shows it's happening right now," said lead author Colin Raymond, who did the research as a Ph.D. student at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "The times these events last will increase, and the areas they affect will grow in direct correlation with global warming."

Analyzing data from weather stations from 1979 to 2017, the authors found that extreme heat/humidity combinations doubled over the study period. Repeated incidents appeared in much of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan; northwestern Australia; and along the coasts of the Red Sea and Mexico's Gulf of California. The highest, potentially fatal, readings, were spotted 14 times in the cities of Dhahran/Damman, Saudi Arabia; Doha, Qatar; and Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, which have combined populations of over 3 million. Parts of southeast Asia, southern China, subtropical Africa and the Caribbean were also hit.

The southeastern United States saw extreme conditions dozens of times, mainly near the Gulf Coast in east Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. The worst spots: New Orleans and Biloxi, Miss. Such conditions also reached inland into Arkansas and along the southeastern coastal plain.

In Bangladesh, one of the most vulnerable countries, a crew excavates a riverbed for a new bridge. Outdoor labor is a way of life in many of the regions subject to the worst heat and humidity. Credit: Kevin Krajick/Earth Institute

Not surprisingly, incidents tended to cluster on coastlines along confined seas, gulfs and straits, where evaporating seawater provides abundant moisture to be sucked up by hot air. In some areas further inland, moisture-laden monsoon winds or wide areas of crop irrigation appear to play the same role.

Prior climate studies failed to recognize most past incidents because climate researchers usually look at averages of heat and humidity measured over large areas and over several hours at a time. Raymond and his colleagues instead drilled directly into hourly data from 7,877 individual weather stations, allowing them to pinpoint shorter-lived bouts affecting smaller areas.

Humidity worsens the effects of heat because humans cool their bodies by sweating; water expelled through the skin removes excess body heat, and when it evaporates, it carries that heat away. The process works nicely in deserts, but less well in humid regions, where the air is already too laden with moisture to take on much more. Evaporation of sweat slows. In the most extreme instances, it could stop. In that case, unless one can retreat to an air-conditioned room, the body's core heats beyond its narrow survivable range, and organs begin to fail. Even a strong, physically fit person resting in the shade with no clothes and unlimited access to drinking water would die within hours.

Meteorologists measure the heat/humidity effect on the so-called "wet bulb" Centigrade scale; in the United States, these readings are often translated into "heat index" or "real-feel" Fahrenheit readings. Prior studies suggest that even the strongest, best-adapted people cannot carry out normal outdoor activities when the wet bulb hits 32 C, equivalent to a heat index of 132 F. Most others would crumble well before that. A reading of 35—the peak briefly reached in the Persian Gulf cities—is considered the theoretical survivability limit. That translates roughly to a heat index of 160 F. (The heat index actually ends at 127 F, so these readings are literally off the charts.) "It's hard to exaggerate the effects of anything that gets into the 30s," said Raymond.

Areas in the U.S. Southeast where heat/humidity mixtures have driven temperatures to 'wet-bulb' readings of 31 degrees C (equivalent to 125 degrees F on the "real feel" heat index). Green markers show one occurrence from 1979-2017; orange, 3; red, 10. Credit: Colin Raymond

The study found that worldwide, wet-bulb readings approaching or exceeding 30C on the wet bulb have doubled since 1979. The number of readings of 31— previously believed to occur only rarely—totaled around 1,000. Readings of 33—previously thought to be almost nonexistent—totaled around 80.

A heat wave that struck much of the United States last July maxed out at about 30C on the wet bulb, translating into heat indexes approaching 115 F in places; the highest was 122 F, in Baltimore, Md., and a similar wave hit in August. The waves paralyzed communities and led to at least a half-dozen deaths, including those of an air-conditioning technician in Phoenix, Az., and former National Football League lineman Mitch Petrus, who died in Arkansas while working outside.

It was a modest toll; heat-related illnesses already kill more U.S. residents than any other weather-related hazard including cold, hurricanes or floods. An investigation last year by the website InsideClimate News revealed that cases of heat stroke or heat exhaustion among U.S. troops on domestic bases grew 60 percent from 2008 to 2018. Seventeen soldiers died, almost all in the muggy U.S. Southeast. High-humidity heat waves in Russia and Europe, where far fewer people have air conditioning, have killed tens of thousands.

A new study shows that extreme, sometimes potentially fatal, mixtures of heat and humidity are emerging across the globe. This map shows documented instances, with hotter colors from yellow to red signifying the worst combinations as measured on the Centigrade "wet bulb" scale. An interactive version of this map is at https://bit.ly/2SA6KXq Credit: Map by Jeremy Hinsdale; adapted from Raymond et al., Science Advances, 2020

"We may be closer to a real tipping point on this than we think," said Radley Horton, a Lamont-Doherty research scientist and coauthor of the paper. Horton coauthored a 2017 paper projecting that such conditions would not take hold until later in the century.

While air conditioning may blunt the effects in the United States and some other wealthy countries, there are limits. Before the new study, one of the previously highest heat/humidity events ever reported was in the Iranian city of Bandar Mahshahr, which almost reached a 35C wet-bulb reading on July 31, 2015. There were no known deaths; residents reported staying inside air-conditioned vehicles and buildings, and showering after brief sojourns outside. But Horton points out that if people are increasingly forced indoors for longer periods, farming, commerce and other activities could potentially grind to a halt, even in rich nations-a lesson already brought home by the collapse of economies in the face of the novel coronavirus.

In any case, many people in the poorer countries most at risk do not have electricity, never mind air conditioning. There, many rely on subsistence farming requiring daily outdoor heavy labor. These facts could make some of the most affected areas basically uninhabitable, says Horton.

Kristina Dahl, a climatologist at the Union of Concerned Scientists who led a study last year warning of increasing future heat and humidity in the United States, said the new paper shows "how close communities around the world are to the limits." She added that some localities may already be seeing conditions worse than the study suggests, because weather stations do not necessarily pick up hot spots in dense city neighborhoods built with heat-trapping concrete and pavement.

Steven Sherwood, a climatologist at the Australia's University of New South Wales, said, "These measurements imply that some areas of Earth are much closer than expected to attaining sustained intolerable heat. It was previously believed we had a much larger margin of safety."

The study was coauthored by Tom Matthews, a lecturer in climate science at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom. Colin Raymond is now a postdoctoral researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Explore further

From U.S. South to China, heat stress could exceed human endurance
More information: C. Raymond el al., "The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance," Science Advances (2020).

advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/19/eaaw1838

Journal information: Science Advances

Provided by Earth Institute at Columbia University

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Madagascar coronavirus herbal mix draws demand from across Africa despite WHO misgivings

Lovasoa Rabary

ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar is putting its self-proclaimed, plant-based “cure” for COVID-19 on sale and several countries in Africa have already put in orders for purchase, despite warnings from the World Health Organisation that its efficacy is unproven.

Last month President Andry Rajoelina launched the remedy at a news conference, drinking from a sleekly-branded bottle filled with an amber liquid which he said had already cured two people.

On Friday, a Tanzanian delegation arrived in Madagascar to collect their consignment.

The tonic, based on the plant Artemisia annua which has anti-malarial properties, has not undergone any internationally recognised scientific testing. While Rajoelina extolled its virtues, the WHO cautioned it needs to be tested for efficacy and side effects.

Madagascar has been giving away thousands of bottles of “COVID-19 Organics”, developed by the state-run Malagasy Institute of Applied Research.

Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Guinea Bissau have all already received thousands of doses of COVID-19 Organics free of charge.

A worker holds a sample of the CovidOrganics; the plant-based "cure", promoted by Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina as a remedy against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Antananarivo, Madagascar May 8, 2020. REUTERS/Gertruud Van Ettinger

A legal adviser in the president’s office told Reuters on Wednesday that Madagascar would now begin selling the remedy, which domestically can be bought for around 40 U.S. cents per bottle.

“This remedy can be put on the market,” Marie Michelle Sahondrarimalala, director of Legal Studies at the Presidency, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. “Madagascar has already received orders from state authorities in other countries, but also from private individuals.”

Heads of other African countries said they were placing orders.

Isolated compounds extracted from Artemisia are effective in malaria drugs, the WHO noted, but the plant itself cannot treat malaria.

WHO Africa head Matshidiso Moeti said she was concerned people who drank the product might feel they were immune to COVID-19 and engage in risky behaviour.

“We are concerned that touting this product as a preventive measure might then make people feel safe,” she said.

Guinea Bissau has received over 16,000 doses which it is distributing to the 14 other West African nations. Liberia’s deputy Information Minister Eugene Farghon said this week there was no plan to test the remedy before distribution.

“It will be used by Liberians and will be used on Liberians,” he said, noting WHO had not tested other popular local remedies. “Madagascar is an African country ... Therefore we will proceed as an African nation and will continue to use our African herbs.”

Slideshow (7 Images) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-madagascar/madagascar-coronavirus-herbal-mix-draws-demand-from-across-africa-despite-who-misgivings-idUSKBN22K1HQ?il=0

By Thursday, Madagascar had a total 225 confirmed coronavirus cases, 98 recoveries, and no deaths.

The African Union (AU) said on Monday that it was trying to get Madagascar’s technical data on the remedy, and would pass that to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention for evaluation.

“This review will be based on global technical and ethical norms to garner the necessary scientific evidence,” the AU said.

Additional reporting by David Lewis in Nairobi; Alphonso Toweh and James Giahyue in Monrovia; Writing by George Obulutsa and Ayenat Mersie; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky

Venezuela says troops seize abandoned Colombian combat boats, weapons

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela’s military said it seized three abandoned Colombian light combat vessels that soldiers found on Saturday while patrolling the Orinoco river, several days after the government accused its neighbor of aiding a failed invasion.

In a statement, the Defense Ministry said the boats were equipped with machine guns and ammunition, but had no crew, adding they were discovered as part of a nationwide operation to guarantee Venezuela’s “freedom and sovereignty.”

According to a preliminary investigation the boats were dragged away by strong river currents, Colombia’s Navy said in a statement.

Colombia’s Navy said it is talking with its counterparts in Venezuela to recover the boats.

In televised comments Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said the military would return the boats if the Colombian government made an official request for them.

Venezuela will make an official complaint to the United Nations accusing Colombia and the United States of violating international law for the failed invasion attempt, Maduro added.

On Wednesday, Venezuelan state television broadcast an interrogation video of a former U.S. soldier, in which he said a Florida security firm had hired him to train dissident Venezuelan troops in Colombia for an operation to seize control of Caracas’ airport and capture Maduro.

Authorities said they arrested the man, Luke Denman, along with a second U.S. citizen and 11 others, as they attempted to enter Venezuela by boat on Monday from Colombia. The government said a separate raid attempt the day before left eight people dead.

Maduro on Wednesday accused Colombian President Ivan Duque of enabling the operation, which Duque denied.

Reporting by Corina Pons and Angus Berwick; Additional reporting by Oliver Griffin in Bogota; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Chris Reese

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

China 'shocked' by U.S. reversal on U.N. coronavirus action: diplomat

AMERICA THE TWO FACED

NEW YORK (Reuters) - China and the United States both supported a draft United Nations Security Council resolution confronting the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday and it was “shocking and regretful” that Washington changed its mind on Friday, a Chinese diplomat said.

For more than six weeks the 15-member council has been trying to agree on a text that ultimately aims to back a March 23 call by U.N. chief Antonio Guterres for a ceasefire in global conflicts so the world can focus on the pandemic.

But talks have been stymied by a stand-off between China and the United States over whether to mention the World Health Organization. The United States does not want a reference, China has insisted it be included, while some other members see the mention - or not - of WHO as a marginal issue, diplomats said.

Washington has halted funding for the WHO, a U.N. agency, after President Donald Trump accused it of being “China-centric” and promoting China’s “disinformation” about the outbreak, assertions the WHO denies.

It appeared the Security Council had reached a compromise late on Thursday, diplomats said and according to the latest version of a French- and Tunisian drafted-resolution.

Instead of naming the WHO, the draft referenced “specialized health agencies.” The WHO is the only such agency. But the United States rejected that language on Friday, diplomats said, because it was an obvious reference to the Geneva-based WHO.

“The United States had agreed to the compromise text and it’s shocking and regretful that the U.S. changed its position,” said the Chinese diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, on Saturday, adding that China supported the draft.

The U.S. diplomat, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no U.S. agreement on the text, which the U.S. mission to the United Nations had sent to Washington for review on Thursday.

Diplomats said that during negotiations both China and the United States had raised the prospect of a veto on the issue of whether WHO is mentioned or not. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by France, Russia, Britain, the United States or China to pass.

A State Department spokesperson said on Friday the United States had worked constructively and accused China of repeatedly blocking compromises during negotiations.

While the Security Council - charged with maintaining international peace and security - cannot do much to deal with the coronavirus itself, diplomats and analysts say it could have projected global unity by backing Guterres’ ceasefire call.

French U.N. Ambassador Nicolas de Rivière on Friday said “we are still trying to achieve a positive result and trying to see if there is a possible compromise.”

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