Latest news with #HannahStephenson
Wales Online
2 hours ago
- Health
- Wales Online
RHS senior plant health scientist explains whether you should deter invasion of plant-covering flies
RHS senior plant health scientist explains whether you should deter invasion of plant-covering flies You may have noticed thousands of tiny flies covering your plants in recent weeks Aphids on a stem (Image: Alamy/PA ) The RHS was right about an invasion of sap-sucking aphids thanks to a warm spring, if my garden is anything to go by, writes Hannah Stephenson from the Press Association. In the past three weeks, I've seen wafts of greenfly smother the stems and buds of pretty flowering perennials and roses, while trademark trails of blackfly have appeared on my clematis. Back in May, the RHS reported that the warm spring has encouraged rapid and early colony growth, with many aphids to be found now on acers, roses and honeysuckle. In addition, some previously glasshouse-bound species are now thought to be venturing into beds and borders and finding new plant hosts to feed on. 'This is the time of year when you'd expect to see more aphids. Aphids will overwinter or there will be eggs which will hatch out and then populations build up,' says Dr Stephanie Bird, RHS senior plant health scientist. While last year, the slug population exploded in the warm, wet weather, 2025 is the year of the aphid, the RHS has reported, and the number of inquiries it has received up to May about these tiny sap-sucking insects has risen. 'A lot of the aphids we have on our garden plants will have a different summer host that they'll start moving to, and this is the point in the year when predators haven't actually started controlling populations,' says Dr Bird. Article continues below We have more than 500 species of aphid in the UK, in shades of red, yellow, black, green, brown or pink, some of which feed on specific plants, others which will suck the sap out of a wide host range. They are weather-dependent Weather will affect populations, as aphids will thrive in a warm, dry spring and summer. 'Aphids' life cycles are temperature dependent, and the slightly warmer weather means they they are able to reproduce and build up their numbers slightly quicker,' she explains. And warmer winters lead to earlier activity, she adds. Aphids on a rose bud (Image: Rachael Tanner/RHS/PA ) Aphids don't need a partner to reproduce 'They don't need to find a partner and can reproduce asexually. It's a bit like Russian dolls. Inside one aphid there is another aphid and inside that aphid there's another one,' says Dr Bird. Their populations can bloom rapidly. How much damage can aphids do? Many plants tolerate their feeding with no ill effects, but colonies can cause a lack of plant vigour, distorted growth and they often leave a coating of their sticky excretions called honeydew on which sooty moulds can grow. Some aphids also transmit plant viruses. 'They're unlikely to kill plants, especially established ones,' says Dr Bird. 'For instance, if you've a cherry tree which has distorted leaves which are black and sticky, and is covered in cherry black aphids, you will still get cherries off that tree.' Nor should they kill general garden plants – they just make them look unsightly, she adds. Who are their natural enemies? Parasitoid organisms such as wasp larvae develop inside the aphids and eventually kill them. Other predators include birds, predatory midges, earwigs, ladybirds and their larvae, lacewing larvae and hoverfly larvae. 'Hoverflies are beneficial pollinating insects and their larvae feed on aphids,' says Dr Bird. 'Having aphids in your garden is part of the natural garden ecosystem. You need these kinds of insects to feed things higher up in the food chain,' she adds. Hayley Jones, principal entomologist at the RHS, continues: 'Understanding how they can be managed through simple planting choices or encouragement of natural predators will help minimise damage and potential plant losses while maintaining a healthy garden ecosystem.' Aphids on the underside of a leaf (Image: Alamy/PA ) How can you deter them? The RHS advises gardeners to tolerate them where possible, but if you can't, use your finger and thumb to squash colonies and check plants frequently before the damage has developed. Don't use pesticides, it says, because they reduce biodiversity, including natural enemies, and impact soil health. Encourage natural enemies of aphids into your garden by planting pollinator-friendly plants. Article continues below Susceptible plants Aphids are attracted to many plants. Some are specific to which plant they will invade, such as rose aphids. Others will inhabit many different plants. 'They generally inhabit the same sorts of places, so you'll find them a lot of the time on the undersides of leaves, but they also like the developing softer tissues around flowers and buds,' says Dr Bird. Which plants are less susceptible? You won't notice aphids on plants such as ornamental grasses and ferns, Dr Bird points out.
Scoop
23-04-2025
- Health
- Scoop
Aid Cuts Threaten The Lives Of 110,000 Children With Severe Malnutrition Reliant On Emergency Treatment
Press Release – Save The Children Globally, one in five deaths among children aged under 5 are attributed to severe acute malnutrition, making it one of the top threats to child survival. At least 110,000- severely acutely malnourished children supported by Save the Children in 10 countries could be left without access to life-saving ready-to-use emergency food and nutrition programmes as aid cuts hit supplies in coming months, according to a Save the Children analysis. Globally, one in five deaths among children aged under 5 are attributed to severe acute malnutrition, making it one of the top threats to child survival. Community-based programmes combining medical treatment and therapeutic foods, including a fortified peanut paste, have a 90% success rate. Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) is an energy-dense, micronutrient paste typically made using peanuts, sugar, milk powder, oil, vitamins and minerals that is packaged in foil pouches with a long shelf life and no need of refrigeration. Over the past 30 years this emergency therapeutic food has saved the lives of millions of children facing acute malnutrition [1] [2]. At a time when global hunger is skyrocketing [3], the current global supply of RUTF is already not even meeting 40% of global needs, Save the Children said, leaving millions of children without access to this life-saving intervention. In 2024 there were large-scale breaks in the supply of RUTF as rising malnutrition rates drove up demand and due to disruptions in global supply chains and insufficient funding. This situation is expected to worsen in 2025. An analysis by Save the Children of the 10 countries forecast to have the biggest gaps in supplies found 110,000 malnourished children could miss out on this vital treatment by the end of the year. RUTF supplies are expected to run out in many locations from next month due to a lack of funding. Globally at least 18.2 million children were born into hunger in 2024, or about 35 children a minute, with children in conflict zones from Gaza to Ukraine, to Haiti, Sudan to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), struggling daily to get enough to eat. Famine has been declared in several parts of Sudan where people are resorting to eating grass to stay alive. Hannah Stephenson, Head of Hunger and Nutrition at Save the Children, said: 'Right now, funding shortfalls mean essential nutrition packs are not reaching the children who desperately need them. We know we have the expertise and the track record to reach children around the world but what we urgently need now is the funding to ensure children can receive life-saving treatment. We are running out of time, and t his will cost children's lives. 'We also need to see long-term commitments to tackle the root causes of hunger and malnutrition, or else we will continue to see the reversal of progress made for children.' In Kenya, one of the countries where Save the Children treats acute malnutrition cases, 18-month-old Ereng has just recovered from malnutrition with treatment from Community Health Promoter Charles, who was trained in basic healthcare by Save the Children. Lomanat and Daniel, Ereng's parents, walked for several kilometres to reach Charles' clinic. The family are pastoralists, but recent droughts have killed their livestock, and the family now has no sustainable income and no reliable food source. They know how important treatment is for children like Ereng, who gained 2.4 kgs (5.3 pounds) in two months once she started receiving nutrition treatment using the fortified peanut paste which has about 500 calories in each portion. Lomanat said: 'Our child was in a very bad shape, and the doctor helped by giving her peanut paste. I am very happy, because she is cured.' In Somalia, where Save the Children also treats child with acute malnutrition, 7-month-Mukhtar- arrived at a health centre in Puntland after contracting flu which led to breathing difficulties and malnutrition. His mother Shamso, 40, who has eight other children, feared her son would not survive with the family struggling after drought killed all but six of their herd of 30 goats. But after receiving medical care and treatment for malnutrition with peanut paste, Mukhtar recovered and returned home. 'His condition was serious when I brought him in and I didn't expect him to reach the town alive ,' said Shamso. 'My biggest worry is the children, whether my own, those of the relatives or those of my neighbours. When drought comes, it follows that hunger will strike.' Children are always the most vulnerable in food crises and, without enough to eat and the right nutritional balance, they are at high risk of becoming acutely malnourished. Malnutrition can cause stunting, impede mental and physical development, and increase the risk of contracting deadly diseases. About 1.12 billion children globally – or almost half of the world's children – are unable to afford a balanced diet now, according to data from Save the Children released last month. In 2025, Save the Children aims to treat 260,000 children for severe acute malnutrition at outpatient sites in 10 countries that are now experiencing therapeutic food shortages. Save the Children is urgently trying to raise $7 million to provide 110,000 severely malnourished children with life-saving RUTF and the critical services needed to treat malnutrition 1 including skilled health workers, community follow-up, immunizations, safe spaces for treatment, safe water, hygiene and sanitation support. In the United States, actress and Save the Children ambassador Jennifer Garner launched her #67Strong4Kids campaign on her birthday last week. For #67Strong4Kids she is running a mile a day for 67 consecutive days to raise awareness about Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). The amount $67 covers a six-week course of RUTF that treats a child suffering from severe acute malnutrition and potentially saves their life.
Scoop
23-04-2025
- Health
- Scoop
Aid Cuts Threaten The Lives Of 110,000 Children With Severe Malnutrition Reliant On Emergency Treatment
At least 110,000- severely acutely malnourished children supported by Save the Children in 10 countries could be left without access to life-saving ready-to-use emergency food and nutrition programmes as aid cuts hit supplies in coming months, according to a Save the Children analysis. Globally, one in five deaths among children aged under 5 are attributed to severe acute malnutrition, making it one of the top threats to child survival. Community-based programmes combining medical treatment and therapeutic foods, including a fortified peanut paste, have a 90% success rate. Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) is an energy-dense, micronutrient paste typically made using peanuts, sugar, milk powder, oil, vitamins and minerals that is packaged in foil pouches with a long shelf life and no need of refrigeration. Over the past 30 years this emergency therapeutic food has saved the lives of millions of children facing acute malnutrition [1] [2]. At a time when global hunger is skyrocketing [3], the current global supply of RUTF is already not even meeting 40% of global needs, Save the Children said, leaving millions of children without access to this life-saving intervention. In 2024 there were large-scale breaks in the supply of RUTF as rising malnutrition rates drove up demand and due to disruptions in global supply chains and insufficient funding. This situation is expected to worsen in 2025. An analysis by Save the Children of the 10 countries forecast to have the biggest gaps in supplies found 110,000 malnourished children could miss out on this vital treatment by the end of the year. RUTF supplies are expected to run out in many locations from next month due to a lack of funding. Globally at least 18.2 million children were born into hunger in 2024, or about 35 children a minute, with children in conflict zones from Gaza to Ukraine, to Haiti, Sudan to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), struggling daily to get enough to eat. Famine has been declared in several parts of Sudan where people are resorting to eating grass to stay alive. Hannah Stephenson, Head of Hunger and Nutrition at Save the Children, said: "Right now, funding shortfalls mean essential nutrition packs are not reaching the children who desperately need them. We know we have the expertise and the track record to reach children around the world but what we urgently need now is the funding to ensure children can receive life-saving treatment. We are running out of time, and t his will cost children's lives. "We also need to see long-term commitments to tackle the root causes of hunger and malnutrition, or else we will continue to see the reversal of progress made for children." In Kenya, one of the countries where Save the Children treats acute malnutrition cases, 18-month-old Ereng has just recovered from malnutrition with treatment from Community Health Promoter Charles, who was trained in basic healthcare by Save the Children. Lomanat and Daniel, Ereng's parents, walked for several kilometres to reach Charles' clinic. The family are pastoralists, but recent droughts have killed their livestock, and the family now has no sustainable income and no reliable food source. They know how important treatment is for children like Ereng, who gained 2.4 kgs (5.3 pounds) in two months once she started receiving nutrition treatment using the fortified peanut paste which has about 500 calories in each portion. Lomanat said: "Our child was in a very bad shape, and the doctor helped by giving her peanut paste. I am very happy, because she is cured." In Somalia, where Save the Children also treats child with acute malnutrition, 7-month-Mukhtar- arrived at a health centre in Puntland after contracting flu which led to breathing difficulties and malnutrition. His mother Shamso, 40, who has eight other children, feared her son would not survive with the family struggling after drought killed all but six of their herd of 30 goats. But after receiving medical care and treatment for malnutrition with peanut paste, Mukhtar recovered and returned home. "His condition was serious when I brought him in and I didn't expect him to reach the town alive ," said Shamso. "My biggest worry is the children, whether my own, those of the relatives or those of my neighbours. When drought comes, it follows that hunger will strike." Children are always the most vulnerable in food crises and, without enough to eat and the right nutritional balance, they are at high risk of becoming acutely malnourished. Malnutrition can cause stunting, impede mental and physical development, and increase the risk of contracting deadly diseases. About 1.12 billion children globally - or almost half of the world's children - are unable to afford a balanced diet now, according to data from Save the Children released last month. In 2025, Save the Children aims to treat 260,000 children for severe acute malnutrition at outpatient sites in 10 countries that are now experiencing therapeutic food shortages. Save the Children is urgently trying to raise $7 million to provide 110,000 severely malnourished children with life-saving RUTF and the critical services needed to treat malnutrition 1 including skilled health workers, community follow-up, immunizations, safe spaces for treatment, safe water, hygiene and sanitation support. In the United States, actress and Save the Children ambassador Jennifer Garner launched her #67Strong4Kids campaign on her birthday last week. For #67Strong4Kids she is running a mile a day for 67 consecutive days to raise awareness about Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). The amount $67 covers a six-week course of RUTF that treats a child suffering from severe acute malnutrition and potentially saves their life.
Reuters
31-01-2025
- Health
- Reuters
A generation at risk: Food crises in Gaza and elsewhere put millions of children in danger of lifelong harm
LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - A surge in the flow of aid into the Gaza Strip since the truce between Israel and Hamas took effect on Jan. 19 is likely to ease the acute food emergency afflicting people in the war-ravaged territory, especially its children. But even after relief reaches them, the hunger they have endured could cast a shadow over their health for years to come. More than 60,000 children in Gaza will need treatment for acute malnutrition in 2025, according to United Nations estimates from Jan. 22. Some have already died – estimates of how many vary widely. Survivors who are able to return to adequate levels of nutrition nonetheless face an insidious threat: the multiple long-term health problems linked to childhood malnutrition. This troubling prospect is of urgent global concern. As Reuters has reported in a series of articles, famine and other acute food crises have ravaged populations across the developing world over the past year, from Haiti to Afghanistan to Sudan and many other African nations, as well as Gaza. About 131 million children, nearly 40 million of them under age 5, live in areas experiencing acute food crises around the world, according to estimates provided exclusively to Reuters by the United Nations' World Food Programme. Nearly 4.7 million pregnant women live in these areas, the United Nations Population Fund said. The U.N. estimates are based on the most recent data from countries where assessments were possible. The lasting damage of childhood hunger is wide-ranging and can be profound, according to scientists, nutrition experts and officials at humanitarian organizations. Children who experience severe malnutrition may never reach their full cognitive or physical potential, according to multiple studies that have tracked survivors of past food shortages. Other studies have shown that undernutrition in childhood, and even in the womb, can be associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and other non-communicable illnesses later in life. 'People focus, quite rightly, on the short-term aspects of malnutrition,' said Marko Kerac, professor of nutrition for global health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 'What's missed … is that the damage done will not suddenly stop when the emergency stops.' Studies have shown that some effects of severe hunger can be mitigated if a child later gains access to good nutrition. But that is a big if. In many countries where food crises occur, poverty, war and civil strife persist long after the crisis has passed, limiting children's access to adequate food and healthcare. That makes it hard to get exact data on how many are affected in both the short and long-term, said Hannah Stephenson, head of nutrition with Save the Children. But 'the more severely malnourished a child is, the harder it will be to recover,' she said. The duration of malnourishment is also a crucial variable, she said. She and other experts stressed that while every malnourished child is a tragedy, famines and other food crises can do lasting harm to society as whole by leaving an entire generation with physical and cognitive deficits. 'It costs the person, the family, the country,' said Professor Mubarek Abera, a child and maternal nutrition and mental health researcher at Jimma University in Ethiopia who was born during that country's famine in the early 1980s. TYPES OF HARM In a food crisis, children are more vulnerable than adults to malnourishment and death from starvation or infectious diseases, which are more lethal to those weakened by hunger. Children are also more vulnerable than adults to long-term health problems from a period of extreme malnourishment, scientists said, because their bodies and brains are still developing. There are four different kinds of undernutrition, as defined by the World Health Organization. All can be present during a famine or other severe food crisis, leave lasting marks, and can also co-exist in one child: Wasting. This occurs when a child's weight is low for their height and often indicates a recent episode of intense hunger and weight loss. It is a medical emergency, but 90% of children can recover in the short-term if they get treatment, which involves therapeutic foods, antibiotics and deworming. In 2023, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF estimated that 73% of children in the most urgent need received treatment. Stunting. This is when a child's height is low for their age, and it is usually seen as a broad indicator of chronic undernourishment, putting a child at risk of not reaching full physical or cognitive potential. Nutritionists are divided, opens new tab over the extent to which children can recover from stunting if they later receive adequate nutrition. Many believe the effects are irreversible, particularly for those who experience deficiencies for a long time during their development. Underweight. A child is underweight when their weight is low for their age. An underweight child can be stunted or wasted or both. Micronutrient deficiencies. Sometimes described by WHO as 'hidden hunger,' this form of undernutrition occurs when vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients essential to healthy growth are missing from a child's diet. They can occur on their own or as part of stunting and wasting. Key micronutrient deficiencies include iodine, vitamin A and iron. A lack of dietary iodine is the leading cause of brain damage in childhood globally. Vitamin A deficiency can cause blindness. Iron deficiency also impacts brain development, the U.N. health agency says. The damage can be irreversible if the child cannot quickly access the needed nutrients. INCREASED VULNERABILITY Many variables can affect how a child's body copes with an extreme lack of food. A child who is already suffering with chronic malnutrition, or has a disability, is often more vulnerable to both the short-term and long-term impacts of a food crisis, said Amir Kirolos, a doctor with Britain's National Health Service who worked on a study, opens new tab in Malawi led by the University of Liverpool/Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust. In their study, Kirolos and his fellow researchers followed up on a group of 1,024 children in Blantyre, Malawi, one, seven and 15 years after they were treated in hospital for acute malnutrition between July 2006 and March 2007. Many of them had underlying conditions that made them more vulnerable to malnutrition. After one year, the team could confirm the survival of only 462, or 45%, of the children. A few of them had left the area or were untraceable, but 427 of them had died during treatment or shortly after. Mortality was greatest among the youngest and those who were the most malnourished when they came for treatment, as well as those with HIV or a disability. By 2021, 15 years after the initial hospitalization, only 168 of the original cohort were alive and traceable. In effect, they represented the very healthiest of those originally treated, but as adolescents, they still bore evidence of malnutrition. They were shorter compared to their siblings or adolescents in the community, and they had some signs of weaker grip strength, an indicator of reduced overall muscle strength. The gaps were smaller than they had been seven years after treatment, showing that some recovery and catch-up is possible, Kirolos said. BEFORE THEY WERE BORN A growing body of research has shown that babies born to women who were pregnant during a hunger crisis are also at risk of long-term damage. In a study published in Science magazine last August, opens new tab, scientists focused on the 1932-33 Ukraine famine engineered by the Soviet government of Joseph Stalin. That man-made disaster killed about 4 million people. And as the researchers found, it also had lingering health effects on the survivors, particularly among those who were exposed in utero. The researchers cross-referenced the birth records of 10 million Ukrainians born before, during and after the famine with diabetes diagnoses from a national registry seven decades later. They found that exposure to famine in early gestation increased the risk of type 2 diabetes two-fold. 'I'm now finally satisfied that there's something going on,' said Bertie Lumey, lead author of the study and a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. Studies of the Great Chinese Famine of 1958-62 and the Dutch Hunger Winter at the end of World War Two have yielded similar findings. Researchers have also shown that malnourishment in the womb resulted in higher rates of obesity and schizophrenia later in life. In a systematic review, opens new tab of dozens of studies, researchers found a strong association between exposure to severe malnutrition in childhood and a higher risk of some non-communicable diseases, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, later in life. LOOKING AT GENETICS Just how extreme malnutrition in childhood and the womb might lead to lifelong health effects isn't clear, Lumey and other researchers said. In utero, they suspect, it could be disruption in development of the brain and other vital organs, or exposure to high levels of stress hormones the undernourished mother is producing. Some scientists have suggested that epigenetics, the study of how genes can be switched on and off by environmental conditions, plays a role in some cases. These researchers theorize that some infants may have an epigenetic profile that helps them survive the lean times, but leaves them struggling to cope in times of plenty, putting them at risk of metabolic conditions like obesity and diabetes. Another idea is that a child's ability to process food is set early, and the metabolism of a child who is malnourished struggles to manage excessive eating later in life. Low birth-weight babies, another byproduct of a lack of nutrition during pregnancy, also face a higher risk of non-communicable diseases in adulthood. Scientists said much more research is needed to determine the precise causes of the many long-term impacts of malnutrition. Kerac, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine professor, said filling this 'important evidence gap' could help improve both the initial treatment and the long-term support for formerly malnourished children. Hovering over any analysis of the long-term repercussions of famine for children are legions of ghosts: the thousands, perhaps millions, who die during a food crisis, as well as those never born due to the chilling effect on fertility and reproduction. A severe food crisis often 'takes the choice away' from women because of its impact on fertility and infant survival, or because some can't bear to have a child they fear they can't feed, said Willibald Zeck, a maternal and child health expert at the UNFPA. His agency does not yet have data on the impact of current food crises on birth rates. Past famines provide a guide to what the impact might be: In parts of China during the peak of the 1958-1962 famine, the birth rate declined by 80%. In Ukraine, researchers have estimated that the population is around 10% smaller than it would be if the 1930s famine hadn't happened.
