Latest news with #infectious diseases
Telegraph
7 hours ago
- Health
- Telegraph
‘Deliveroo dogs' bringing diseases to Britain
Imported rescue dogs being sold to British owners 'like Deliveroo' are bringing diseases to Britain, the RSPCA has warned. Thousands of the animals are brought into the UK each year from countries such as Romania, Ukraine and North Macedonia, before being sold to the British public by dog rescue organisations. Many dogs are sold via websites and social media posts without significant checks or matching processes, which has been linked to the spread of infectious diseases and aggressive behaviour. David Bowles, a spokesman for the RSPCA, likened the industry to Deliveroo, the food delivery app, which sees customers order from restaurants on their phones. He told the BBC: 'The RSPCA 's major concern is these dogs are essentially ticking time bombs, coming over, not being health tested. 'Diseases are now coming in through these dogs. They're affecting not just the dogs that are being imported, they could also affect the dogs already in this country and their owners. They've almost set up a Deliveroo for dogs, and that is a real problem.' The RSPCA has called for all dog rescue organisations to be licenced, with rescue organisations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland currently not needing a licence to operate. A BBC investigation found multiple rescues operating through social media only carried out basic checks on owners, including a short phone call, completion of an application form and a video check of a property, before providing a dog. It claimed to have analysed 150 adverts for rescue dogs and found the majority were offering animals from Eastern European countries. The UK Government has linked a rapid increase in the disease Brucella canis to dogs imported into the UK from Eastern Europe. The rare disease, which is transmitted through a dog's reproductive fluids and can be passed to humans, was only diagnosed in three dogs before 2020, according to the UK Health Security Agency. This had risen to 97 diagnoses in 2023. The BBC said testing had increased and that 333 cases were being investigated last year. Trudy Cain, from Alfreton, Derbyshire, adopted a rescue dog, Nola, from Romania that was later diagnosed with Brucella canis. She has refused a vet's offer to put down Nola but is worried about the health of the dog and her family. 'My brain does not compute having a dog that looks healthy put to sleep,' she told the BBC. 'It just breaks my heart. It's been so hard. I wanted to do a good thing and now I feel like I've done a bad thing.' Government figures show 32,391 dogs entered the UK in 2024 as commercial imports, which includes many rescue dogs. A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs said animal rescue organisations 'must meet statutory welfare requirements'. The spokesman said the public could check if a rescue was a member of the Association of Dogs and Cats Homes, which had 'set clear standards', adding: 'The Government is developing an overarching approach to animal welfare.'
The Guardian
17-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Sudan's children face growing threat of deadly infectious diseases as vaccination rates halve
Children in Sudan, caught up in what aid organisations have called the world's largest humanitarian crisis and threatened by rising levels of violence, are increasingly vulnerable to deadly infectious diseases as vaccinations in the country plummet. In 2022, more than 90% of young children in Sudan received their routine vaccinations. But that figure has nearly halved to 48%, the lowest in the world, according to the World Health Organization. Globally, more than 14 million infants remain unvaccinated and the world is not on track to meet goals of halving the number of these 'zero-dose' children compared with 2019 levels by 2030, the WHO reported on Tuesday. While misinformation and vaccine hesitancy have driven falls in immunisation in some countries, 'that has not been the problem here', said Dr Tedbabe Degefie Hailegebriel, chief of health for Unicef Sudan. 'This plummeting coverage is driven entirely by the war.' The country's civil war began two years ago and has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions more, in what the International Rescue Committee has called 'the biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded'. There were 838,000 children in Sudan last year who did not receive a single dose of vaccine – the third-highest figure in the world, behind only Nigeria (2.1 million) and India (909,000). The proportion of children who have received a DTP-1 jab – the first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine – is seen as a key indicator of access to essential healthcare. Missing it, Hailegebriel said, meant a 'child, and most probably also their parents, have almost zero contact with the health system'. She said the war had hit Sudan's health service hard, with people displaced and the physical destruction of health facilities, supply lines and information systems 'that makes the health service functional'. 'Health workers – doctors, nurses, midwives, community volunteers – have not been paid in months. And just the basic infrastructure – the clean water available to health facilities, the electricity availability to health facilities – is totally destroyed,' she said. Disease outbreaks in Sudan tend to affect people who have 'lost your safe place, your home, your protection, however modest that might be', and find themselves in camps or temporary accommodation. 'When that is coupled with an already vulnerable child who is not vaccinated, the vulnerability is compounded,' she said. Diseases that can be prevented with vaccination, including measles, not only kill but can leave survivors with long-term complications, Hailegebriel said, adding that these were 'children who are robbed of their future'. The WHO said war and conflicts around the world were a major threat to immunisation progress, with children living in one of 26 countries 'affected by fragility, conflict or humanitarian emergencies' being three times more likely to be unvaccinated than their counterparts in stable countries. However, there were 'emerging signs of slippage' or stalling progress in many parts of the world, said Dr Kate O'Brien, director of the WHO's immunisation, vaccines and biologicals department. 'Even the smallest drops in immunisation coverage as measured at the country level can have devastating consequences. It opens the door to deadly disease outbreaks and puts even more pressure on health systems that are already stretched,' she said. And while access to vaccination remains the main issue worldwide, 'we're extremely concerned about mis- and disinformation because of the threat it has to worsen the situation'. O'Brien said she expected cuts to aid funding to affect vaccine coverage in future years, with countries struggling to raise domestic finance. Humanitarian efforts had succeeded in boosting vaccination rates in the first half of this year in Sudan, said Hailegebriel, but Unicef's appeal for the country remained unfunded. The charity has shipped in containers to rebuild the country's 'cold chain', vital for keeping vaccines and other essential medicines at the right temperature so they remain effective on the journey from factory to patient. But when conflict flares those efforts have to stop. 'In areas where there was active fighting, active conflict, of course we will not be able to deliver,' she said. 'But when the situation changes, that's when we move in. 'The destruction is unspeakable. The whole infrastructure gets damaged, medicines get looted. So whenever you go into those new areas, it is again rebuilding to make sure the already shaking health system doesn't collapse further. 'The situation of Sudan has not received the world's attention it deserves,' she said. 'It is our hope that this will change, and these hostilities stop so that children get the peaceful environment they need to live and thrive.' Abdallah Idriss Abugarda, who leads the Darfur Diaspora Association in the UK, said the situation in the Darfur region was becoming more difficult, particularly in the besieged city of El Fasher. That meant, Abugarda said, that most families he spoke to in Sudan had more pressing concerns than vaccination. 'It's not a priority to them – they want to have food delivered, and medicine for malaria and fever for the children.'
The Guardian
17-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Sudan's children face growing threat of deadly infectious diseases as vaccination rates halve
Children in Sudan, caught up in what aid organisations have called the world's largest humanitarian crisis and threatened by rising levels of violence, are increasingly vulnerable to deadly infectious diseases as vaccinations in the country plummet. In 2022, more than 90% of young children in Sudan received their routine vaccinations. But that figure has nearly halved to 48%, the lowest in the world, according to the World Health Organization. Globally, more than 14 million infants remain unvaccinated and the world is not on track to meet goals of halving the number of these 'zero-dose' children compared with 2019 levels by 2030, the WHO reported on Tuesday. While misinformation and vaccine hesitancy have driven falls in immunisation in some countries, 'that has not been the problem here', said Dr Tedbabe Degefie Hailegebriel, chief of health for Unicef Sudan. 'This plummeting coverage is driven entirely by the war.' The country's civil war began two years ago and has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions more, in what the International Rescue Committee has called 'the biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded'. There were 838,000 children in Sudan last year who did not receive a single dose of vaccine – the third-highest figure in the world, behind only Nigeria (2.1 million) and India (909,000). The proportion of children who have received a DTP-1 jab – the first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine – is seen as a key indicator of access to essential healthcare. Missing it, Hailegebriel said, meant a 'child, and most probably also their parents, have almost zero contact with the health system'. She said the war had hit Sudan's health service hard, with people displaced and the physical destruction of health facilities, supply lines and information systems 'that makes the health service functional'. 'Health workers – doctors, nurses, midwives, community volunteers – have not been paid in months. And just the basic infrastructure – the clean water available to health facilities, the electricity availability to health facilities – is totally destroyed,' she said. Disease outbreaks in Sudan tend to affect people who have 'lost your safe place, your home, your protection, however modest that might be', and find themselves in camps or temporary accommodation. 'When that is coupled with an already vulnerable child who is not vaccinated, the vulnerability is compounded,' she said. Diseases that can be prevented with vaccination, including measles, not only kill but can leave survivors with long-term complications, Hailegebriel said, adding that these were 'children who are robbed of their future'. The WHO said war and conflicts around the world were a major threat to immunisation progress, with children living in one of 26 countries 'affected by fragility, conflict or humanitarian emergencies' being three times more likely to be unvaccinated than their counterparts in stable countries. However, there were 'emerging signs of slippage' or stalling progress in many parts of the world, said Dr Kate O'Brien, director of the WHO's immunisation, vaccines and biologicals department. 'Even the smallest drops in immunisation coverage as measured at the country level can have devastating consequences. It opens the door to deadly disease outbreaks and puts even more pressure on health systems that are already stretched,' she said. And while access to vaccination remains the main issue worldwide, 'we're extremely concerned about mis- and disinformation because of the threat it has to worsen the situation'. O'Brien said she expected cuts to aid funding to affect vaccine coverage in future years, with countries struggling to raise domestic finance. Humanitarian efforts had succeeded in boosting vaccination rates in the first half of this year in Sudan, said Hailegebriel, but Unicef's appeal for the country remained unfunded. The charity has shipped in containers to rebuild the country's 'cold chain', vital for keeping vaccines and other essential medicines at the right temperature so they remain effective on the journey from factory to patient. But when conflict flares those efforts have to stop. 'In areas where there was active fighting, active conflict, of course we will not be able to deliver,' she said. 'But when the situation changes, that's when we move in. 'The destruction is unspeakable. The whole infrastructure gets damaged, medicines get looted. So whenever you go into those new areas, it is again rebuilding to make sure the already shaking health system doesn't collapse further. 'The situation of Sudan has not received the world's attention it deserves,' she said. 'It is our hope that this will change, and these hostilities stop so that children get the peaceful environment they need to live and thrive.' Abdallah Idriss Abugarda, who leads the Darfur Diaspora Association in the UK, said the situation in the Darfur region was becoming more difficult, particularly in the besieged city of El Fasher. That meant, Abugarda said, that most families he spoke to in Sudan had more pressing concerns than vaccination. 'It's not a priority to them – they want to have food delivered, and medicine for malaria and fever for the children.'
