Health officials praise Laos after coronavirus-free declaration

BANGKOK - International health organizations on Thursday praised Laos' early response and countrywide networks for containing the novel coronavirus after the Southeast Asian nation declared itself free of the virus earlier this month.

But they said the country with a border with China, which is tackling a new outbreak, must remain vigilant.

Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith declared Laos free of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 on June 10 after the last of the country's 19 cases recovered and 59 days with no new infections. The country has suffered no fatalities.

Howard Sobel, acting World Health Organization representative in Laos, issued a statement on Thursday commending Thongloun, the COVID-19 Task Force and the Emergency Operations Center.

He also thanked "frontline health staff for their tireless efforts (including weekends and holidays) to enhance early warning and early detection systems, contact tracing, and prepare the Lao health system, borders and quarantine centers to respond to COVID-19."

He warned imported cases remain a threat.

"The measures put in place for these initial wins, must remain and continue to be strengthened," he said.

The low number of cases in Communist-run Laos had prompted skepticism, but a representative of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Laos said there were few unofficial reports of illnesses or deaths on social media or in villages.

"It's difficult to hide, so yes, I believe it," said Ludovic Arnout, the IFRC's Asia Pacific Coordinator for Water, Sanitation, Health and Care, based in Laos.

He praised the government's community information campaign that reached remote areas.

He also credited awareness among Lao people, who willingly embraced the cancellation of April's annual Laos New Year water festival and accepted wearing face masks to prevent spread of disease.

"The masks were widely used quite quickly," he said. 

-reuters-

Multidrug-resistant malaria spreading in Southeast Asia: study

LONDON - Strains of malaria resistant to two key anti-malarial medicines are becoming more dominant in Vietnam, Laos and northern Thailand after spreading rapidly from Cambodia, scientists warned on Monday. 

Using genomic surveillance to track the spread of drug-resistant malaria, the scientists found that the strain, known as KEL1/PLA1, has also evolved and picked up new genetic mutations which may make it yet more resistant to drugs.

"We discovered (it) had spread aggressively, replacing local malaria parasites, and had become the dominant strain in Vietnam, Laos and northeastern Thailand," said Roberto Amato, who worked with a team from Britain's Wellcome Sanger Institute and Oxford University and Thailand's Mahidol University.

Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites which are carried by mosquitoes and spread through their blood-sucking bites.

Almost 220 million people were infected with malaria in 2017, according to World Health Organization estimates, and the disease killed 400,000 of them. The vast majority of cases and deaths are among babies and children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Malaria can be successfully treated with medicines if it's caught early enough, but resistance to anti-malarial drugs is growing in many parts of the world, especially in Southeast Asia.

The first-line treatment for malaria in many parts of Asia in the last decade has been a combination of dihydroartemisinin and piperaquine, also known as DHA-PPQ. Researchers found in previous work that a strain of malaria had evolved and spread across Cambodia between 2007 and 2013. This latest research, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, found it has crossed borders and tightened its grip.

"The speed at which these resistant malaria parasites have spread in Southeast Asia is very worrying," said Olivo Miotto, who co-led the work.

"Other drugs may be effective at the moment but the situation is extremely fragile and this study highlights that urgent action is needed," he said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Desperate search for 12 children trapped in Thailand cave

MAE SAI, Thailand - Desperate parents led a prayer ceremony outside a flooded cave in northern Thailand where 12 children have been trapped for days as Navy rescue divers packing food rations resumed their search Tuesday.

Hundreds of people have been mobilized to find the young football team and their coach who went into the cave on Saturday and were trapped when heavy rains are believed to have flooded the cave's main entrance.

Anxious relatives camped out at the cave near the border with Myanmar and Laos praying for the children's safe return.

"My child, I'm here to get you now," one crying parent said, according to footage from local media.

Another wailing mother screamed: "Come home my child!".

The children, aged between 11 and 16, are believed to have retreated further into the cave as monsoon rains fell and flooded the cave, believed to be several kilometers (miles) long.

Park officials, police and soldiers were dispatched on foot, while an aerial team was also being prepped to scour the scene, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.

Navy SEAL divers equipped with oxygen tanks and food rations entered the cave early Tuesday in northern Chiang Rai province, where light rains continued to fall.

"Our team in the area went inside the cave early morning and will continue to walk to the cave's end," Thai Navy SEAL said on its Facebook page.

Information coming out of the area was spotty with cellphone signals blocked inside the cave, and the Navy urged patience from the public as it searched for the children and their coach.

An underwater robot is set to be dispatched later Tuesday to help survey the Tham Luang cave, a popular site among local tourists.

"We will bring the underwater robot to help survey the area to know how big and how deep the cave is to help the diver," said Sawangtit Srikitsuwan, an aerospace and marine engineer at Bangkok's King Mongkut's University of Technology.

Rescuers found bicycles and a motorbike at the entrance of the cave Monday, and divers said they spotted footprints in one of the cave's chambers.

Heavy rains are common in the area during Thailand's monsoon season from May to October, with flooding and landslides routinely reported.

bur-jv/mtp

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Clinton: Obama made right decision on Duterte

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Wednesday said U.S. President Barack Obama made the right decision to cancel his meeting with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

"With respect to the Philippines, President Obama made exactly the right choice," Clinton told reporters on her campaign plane. "When you meet with anyone, ally or adversary, you come in with a list of issues that are important to be raised. You determine what they are."

Expletive-laden comments made by Duterte regarding the U.S. and Obama before he left for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit on Monday have resulted in Washington calling off a bilateral meeting between the two nations.

Duterte threatened to curse at Obama if the American leader voices concern over the Philippines' brutal campaign against drugs and crime. Duterte later sought to defuse the row, voicing regret.

The two had been scheduled to meet on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Laos.


 Clinton said Obama wanted to raise the issue of extra-judicial killings in the Philippines under the Duterte administration's ongoing war on illegal drugs.

"On the other side, they determine what they want to raise. And clearly the president was going to raise concerns that are global about what is going on in the Philippines with extrajudicial killings of alleged drug dealers, that is now somewhere up near 2,000 killings," she said.

"When the president of the Philippines insulted our president, it was appropriate and a very low key way to say: sorry, no meeting. And since then there's been an apology and an expression of regret, which is appropriate," Clinton added.

'Words matter'

Obama's planned meeting with his Philippine counterpart was canceled because the tone of Duterte's rhetoric raised questions about the chances for a productive talks, the U.S. State Department also said on Tuesday.

"Words matter, and we want to see an atmosphere that is cordial and open to strong cooperation," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

Clinton's Republican rival, Donald Trump, on the other hand took to Twitter to take potshots at Obama over Duterte's expletive and China's treatment of the current U.S. president.

"China wouldn't provide a red carpet stairway from Air Force One and then Philippines President calls Obama 'the son of a whore.' Terrible!' Trump said.

    China wouldn't provide a red carpet stairway from Air Force One and then Philippines President calls Obama "the son of a whore." Terrible!

 — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2016

Duterte's regret

Duterte has issued a statement saying he hopes to resolve his spat with Washington, a long-time ally of the Philippines.

"While the immediate cause was my strong comments to certain press questions that elicited concern and distress, we also regret that it came across as a personal on the US President," he said in a statement read by Presidential spokesperson Ernest Abella.

"Our primary intention is to chart an independent foreign policy while promoting closer ties with all nations, especially the US with which we have a had long standing partnership," he said. "We look forward to ironing out differences arising out of national priorities and perceptions, and working in mutually responsible ways for both countries."

Duterte clarified that he gave his consent to the cancellation of what would have been his first meeting with the US leader.

"The meeting between the United States and the Philippines has been mutually agreed upon to be moved to a later date," he said.

But Presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza admitted that the meeting has yet to be rescheduled.

"It's being moved to a later date, so let's wait when that date will be announced," he said.

The perceived strain on the US-Philippine relations comes as Manila seeks to reinforce a tribunal ruling that invalidated the historic claims of China to the resource-rich South China Sea. - with reports from Reuters

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com