Ronin the rat sets new landmine-sniffing record
Ronin, an African giant pouched rat, has uncovered 109 landmines and 15 items of unexploded ordnance since 2021, charity Apopo, which trains the animals, said in a statement.
Cambodia remains littered with millions of unexploded munitions following about 20 years of civil war that ended in 1998.
The Guinness Book of World Records said that Ronin's "crucial work" is making a real difference to people who have had to live with the "fear that one misstep while going about their day-to-day lives could be their last."
Apopo, which is based in Tanzania, currently has 104 rodent recruits, or HeroRATS, as the non-profit likes to call them.
The rats are trained to sniff out chemicals that are found in landmines and other weapons abandoned on battlefields. Because of their small size, the rats are not heavy enough to detonate the mines.
The rats can check an area the size of a tennis court in about 30 minutes, the charity says, whereas a human with a metal detector might take four days to clear the same land.
They can also detect tuberculosis, an infectious disease that commonly affects the lungs, far quicker than it would be found in a lab using conventional microscopy, Apopo says.
Ronin's impressive work in Cambodia's northern Preah Vihear province has surpassed the previous record held Magawa, a rat who sniffed out 71 mines and was presented with a gold medal for his heroism in 2020.
Since Apopo's work began 25 years ago, the organisation has cleared 169,713 landmines and other explosives worldwide - more than 52,000 have been in Cambodia. The charity also works in other countries affected by war, including Ukraine, South Sudan and Azerbaijan.
There are still an estimated four to six million landmines and other exploded munitions buried in Cambodia, according to the Landmine Monitor.
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8 hours ago
- Yahoo
New malaria drug for newborn babies offers hope to parents, health workers in Uganda
Alice Nekesa did not know she was infected with malaria-causing parasites until it was too late. She was in the fourth month of pregnancy last year when she started bleeding, a miscarriage later attributed to untreated malaria in her. The Ugandan farmer said recently that she regretted the loss of what would have been her second child 'because I didn't discover malaria and treat it early'. Variations of such cases are commonly reported by Ugandan health workers who witness stillbirths or feverish babies that die within days from undiagnosed malaria. The deaths are part of a wider death toll tied to the mosquito-borne disease, the deadliest across Africa, but one easily treated in adults who seek timely medical care. Until recently, a major gap in malaria treatment was how to care for newborns and infants infected with malaria who weren't strong enough to receive regular medication. That changed last month when Swiss medical regulators approved medicine from the Basel-based pharmaceutical company Novartis for babies weighing between 2 and 5 kilograms (about two to five kilograms). Swissmedic said the treatment, a sweet-tasting tablet that dissolves into a syrup when dropped into liquids like breast milk, was approved in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) under a fast-track authorisation process to help developing countries access much-needed treatment. Africa's 1.5 billion people accounted for 95 per cent of an estimated 597,000 malaria deaths worldwide in 2023, according to the WHO. More than three-quarters of those deaths were among children. Related Malaria cases surged to 263 million last year amid stalled progress to stop mosquito-borne illness In Uganda, an east African country of 45 million people, there were 12.6 million malaria cases and nearly 16,000 deaths in 2023. Many were children younger than five and pregnant women, the WHO said. Nigeria, Congo, and Uganda – in that order – are the African countries most burdened by malaria, a parasitic disease transmitted to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes that thrive and breed in stagnant water. The drug approved by Swiss authorities, known as Coartem Baby in some countries and Riamet Baby in others, is a combination of two antimalarials. It is a lower dose version of a tablet previously approved for other age groups, including for older children. Before Coartem Baby, antimalarial drugs designed for older children were administered to small infants with careful adjustments to avoid overdose or toxicity. Ugandan authorities, who have been working to update clinical guidelines for treating malaria, say the new drug will be rolled out as soon as possible. It is not yet available in public hospitals. How the medicine could change malaria treatment The development of Coartem Baby has given hope to many, with local health workers and others saying the medicine will save the lives of many infants. Ronald Serufusa, the top malaria official for the district of Wakiso, which shares a border with the Ugandan capital of Kampala, said he believes Coartem Baby will be available 'very, very soon' and that one priority is sensitising the people adhering to treatment. Some private pharmacies already have access to Coartem Baby, 'flavored with orange or mango' to make it palatable for infants, he said. Related Scientists discover drug that could make human blood deadly to mosquitos in fight against malaria During the so-called malaria season, which coincides with rainy periods twice a year, long lines of sick patients grow outside government-run health centres across Uganda. Many are often women with babies strapped to their backs. Health workers now are trained to understand that 'malaria can be implicated among newborns,' even when other dangerous conditions like sepsis are present, Serufusa said. 'If they don't expand their investigations to also suspect malaria, then it goes unnoticed,' he said, speaking of health workers treating babies. The Malaria Consortium, a global nonprofit based in London, in a statement described the approval of Coartem Baby as 'a major leap forward for saving the lives of young children in countries affected by malaria'. In addition to Uganda, the drug will be rolled out in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Tanzania, the group said. Related West Nile virus, chikungunya, dengue: Tracking mosquito-borne illnesses across Europe Jane Nabakooza, a pediatrician with Uganda's malaria control programme, said she expects the government will make Coartem Baby available to patients free of charge, even after losing funding when the United States shrank its foreign aid programme earlier this year. Some malaria funding from outside sources, including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, remains available for programmes such as indoor spraying to kill mosquitoes that spread the malaria-causing parasite. Because of funding shortages, 'we are focusing on those that are actually prone to severe forms of malaria and malaria deaths, and these are children under five years,' Nabakooza said.
Time Magazine
16 hours ago
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I lead the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, a public health agency of the African Union. Along with the World Health Organization and our other partners, we mobilized response teams and intervened with disease surveillance, vaccination, case management, and risk communication to stem the spread of mpox. The armed conflict in eastern DRC severely hampered our efforts to contain the outbreak. Disease surveillance teams had to grounded after travel became too dangerous. Clinics were looted. Health workers were attacked. Cold-chain vaccines never reached their destinations. For the communities living in regions affected by the conflict, the promise of vaccination remained a mirage. Read More: It Has Never Been Harder to Be a Humanitarian The mpox outbreak spread beyond the DRC's borders by July and affected lives and livelihoods in more than 25 African countries. In 2024, 72,506 cases of mpox and 1,288 deaths were reported by 20 African Union countries. By late July, 89,566 mpox cases were reported by 25 African Union countries, and 720 deaths were reported by eight member states. On July 19, the DRC government and M23 rebels signed a Declaration of Principles in Qatar, committing to a peace agreement, which offers the opportunity to rebuild health systems, restore early warning mechanisms, and reach vulnerable communities with lifesaving care. Without peace, diseases spread unchecked. With peace, outbreaks can be contained at their source. What happens in eastern DRC could determine whether the next pandemic is prevented or allowed to spread globally. Waging peace, preventing epidemics Health security cannot be achieved without peace. We welcome the DRC peace agreement signatories have committed to increasing cross-border public health cooperation, including joint disease prevention in border areas, coordinating epidemic outbreak control, and sharing information to advance scientific research and health-related commercial opportunities. Peace enables the vaccination of vulnerable children, testing and treatment of diseases like malaria and mpox, and restoration of early warning systems that have long been underperforming. Peace helps rebuild trust, which helps people decide whether to seek care, accept vaccines, or report symptoms. Without it, even the best interventions fail. And peace means mobile clinics can finally reach forgotten communities. Peace creates the conditions to rebuild and transform the DRC's health system into a resilient, inclusive, and community-centered system that can withstand future shocks and serve generations to come. To achieve all this, we need urgent investments in peace, health infrastructure, and equitable access to care. We at the Africa CDC proposed a regional health investment plan to the United States positioning health as a core driver of economic growth, peacebuilding, and regional integration, a plan that would bring together the DRC, Rwanda, Angola, and Zambia. Our proposal, aligned with the U.S.–Africa health security partnerships, seeks $645 million to finance health systems in and around mining corridors—disease surveillance labs, emergency responses, worker and community health services—to reduce risks of future epidemics shutting down mines and critical mineral supply chains. The funding for this health finance initiative would serve as a springboard to raise $3 billion in co-financing from development banks, private sectors and philanthropic organizations for health-related mining infrastructure. Our proposal presents a model for connecting biosecurity with economic resilience by integrating health infrastructure into vital mineral corridors, deploying advanced bio-surveillance technologies, and creating up to 100,000 jobs through local manufacturing. It would ensure that mineral security is supported by strong health systems across Central and Southern Africa. Rebuilding Africa's health systems The government of the DRC must place health at the center of its recovery agenda. Along with rebuilding healthcare facilities, it requires investing in a skilled health workforce, strengthening disease surveillance systems, and ensuring communities have access to timely care. Outbreaks must be detected and contained early, before they spiral into crises. Cross-border coordination and disease surveillance are essential as viruses do not respect borders. An outbreak in a remote village can become a global emergency, as the mpox epidemic has shown. International donors and global health agencies must shift their approach from emergency aid to helping rebuild health systems. That means funding malaria prevention, mpox response, and resilient, community-based surveillance networks. Read More: Cutting mRNA Research Could Be Our Deadliest Mistake Yet And finally, the negotiating parties—the DRC, Rwanda and M23 rebels—must uphold humanitarian access and protect the right to health as a cornerstone of peace. A permanent ceasefire must be implemented and respected. When diseases are allowed to spread in silence and mistrust and misinformation fester, we risk the next global pandemic. When communities are empowered, when health systems are strong, when peace is more than a promise, it becomes a platform for health security and progress. The peace agreement in the DRC has the potential to shape the future for generations. The next outbreak can be stopped before it starts. A child with malaria can survive. And epidemics like mpox can be controlled at their origin. Peace is the beginning of healing, rebuilding, resilience. The United States and the world must not look away.
a day ago
New malaria drug for babies offers hope to health workers in Uganda
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