Commentary: Vigilance, not universal smallpox vaccination, needed against monkeypox - CNA

LONDON: The Angel of Death was an oddly serene term for a disease that killed millions and left survivors disfigured by “small pocks”, or blisters on the skin. Smallpox, named in the 15th century to distinguish it from the “great pox” of syphilis, was officially eradicated in 1980 after a global vaccination campaign.

Now, a smallpox vaccine is being wheeled out again to combat an unusual outbreak of monkeypox, a milder disease caused by a related virus. As of Sunday (May 22), the World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded more than 250 confirmed or suspected cases of monkeypox in the biggest outbreak seen outside West and Central Africa, where it is endemic.

The United Kingdom is one of the worst-affected countries, with 71 confirmed cases as of May 25. For comparison, the country saw a total of seven cases from 2018 to 2021.

The smallpox vaccine, marketed as Jynneos or Imvanex, is also licensed for monkeypox and provides a good degree of cross-protection. The UK Health Security Agency, which has 5,000 doses and more on order from maker Bavarian Nordic, stated on Monday that it was immunising close contacts of confirmed cases and advising 21-day quarantines, reflecting the possible incubation period. 

This containment strategy recognises that some patients have no history of travel or contact with infected animals, implying community transmission. Scientists are now trying to work out whether the outbreak is due to human behaviour or a genetic change in the monkeypox virus.

HOW DANGEROUS IS MONKEYPOX?

The virus, first recorded in monkeys in 1958 and in humans in 1970, belongs to a family of DNA viruses called orthopoxviruses. Other members that can affect humans include smallpox (the variola virus), cowpox and vaccinia, a relatively mild virus used in the smallpox vaccine. Confusingly, chickenpox is not related.

There are two main virus clades, or branches: The current outbreak is of the West African clade, fatal in one per cent of cases, rather than the Central African (or Congo Basin) clade, which can kill up to 10 per cent. Children and those with compromised immunity, including pregnant women, are most at risk.

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2022-05-26 22:11:03Z
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Is Singapore at risk of a monkeypox outbreak? | THE BIG STORY - The Straits Times

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2022-05-26 10:33:17Z
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Badminton star Loh Kean Yew included in Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list - The Straits Times

SINGAPORE - Badminton player Loh Kean Yew is among 47 individuals in Singapore who have been included in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia - a list celebrating 300 young entrepreneurs and trailblazers under the age of 30 in various fields in Asia.

The honourees were selected across 10 categories, including the arts, social impact, consumer technology, and entertainment and sports.

Announcing the list on Thursday (May 26), Forbes said it features young people who are inspiring change and driving innovation in their respective fields amid challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The list's editor Rana Wehbe Watson said entrepreneurs and innovators on this year's list are working towards reconnecting Asia after the pandemic-induced disruption and isolation.

"From innovative ways of delivering e-commerce and online learning services to venturing into the Web3 space, they provide a glimpse into what the region's future may look like," she said, referring to decentralised internet services such as those based on blockchain technology.

Singapore is represented by 34 entries - co-founders of the same company are grouped together in one entry - its highest number of entries since the list's inception in 2016. It is the second-most represented country after India, having moved up from fourth place last year.

Loh, 24, was the first Singaporean to be crowned badminton world champion after winning the singles title at the 2021 BWF World Championship in December.

On his way to victory, he also beat Denmark's world No. 1 and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen, whose training camp he had attended a few months before. Loh, who was born in Malaysia and took Singapore citizenship in 2015, is currently No. 10 in BWF world rankings.

Other honourees include rapper Yung Raja, 26, who recently signed with US label Alamo Records, and Mr Ng Ming Wei, 27, a taekwondo athlete turned TikTok content creator and founder of digital marketing agency Boom Digital Media.

Mr Ng said he started Boom to help brands grow on TikTok and other social media platforms, especially since people are now are mostly using their mobile phones to access them. 

He founded the agency in June 2020, when he was a university student in his final year. The company now has a team of 15 full-time staff and its clients include fast food chain Nando’s and Giant supermarket. 

Boom also plans to set up overseas offices in Malaysia and Dubai to serve global clients, Mr Ng told The Straits Times. 

“Many brands want to grow on TikTok but they are not sure who to go to... People always think that a brand’s account is hard to grow and that’s where I try to take up this challenge,” he said. 

It also featured Ms Mia Deng, 26, the youngest partner at crypto asset firm Dragonfly Capital, as well as Mr Darshan Bathija, 28, and Mr Sanju Kurian, 29, who co-founded Singapore-based crypto exchange Vauld in 2018. The exchange also allows customers to borrow and lend cryptocurrencies and earn interest on their deposits.

Those who made the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list were selected from over 4,000 nominations - a record for the list - and vetted by industry veterans. Criteria for honourees include their demonstration of leadership, how they embody the entrepreneurial spirit, and their potential success in their industry.

Other factors like innovation, disruption, and size and growth of their ventures in some categories, also play a role.

South Korea's world No. 1 female golfer Ko Jin-young was also featured on the list, as were Chinese Olympic gold-medallist skier Eileen Gu and Australian Max Shand, who founded music NFT marketplace Serenade.

The list also spotlighted China's Zhang Zihao, who co-founded plant-based beverages firm Plantag. Its products include oat, sesame and pistachio-flavoured milk beverages, and it is also working on new products such as yogurt and ice cream.

Mr Rashid Khan, co-founder of India-based conversational artificial intelligence company Yellow.AI, also made the list. The company's proprietary natural language processing engine helps clients build chatbots and voicebots in more than 100 languages that can be used to automate customer care or call centres.

- additional reporting by Elijah Wong

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2022-05-26 05:20:21Z
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Mum allegedly shot her six-year-old son 9 times with shotgun in the car, and another mum kills her 3 children at their home - The Independent

28-year-old American mum Julissa Thaler was sitting in the car in traffic when police officers spotted her. They saw that her vehicle had the back window broken out and one of its front tyres missing. The car had done some damage to the road. She had blood on her hands and bullet holes in the backseat of her car. But the police let her go, and no one knows why they did that.

That was before they searched the car’s boot where they discovered young Eli Hart, who had been shot, as well as a shotgun. They then went to her apartment to find her. According to local media, when police finally apprehended Julissa Thaler, she was running from her apartment barefoot, with blood and what appeared to be brain fragments in her hair.

On Friday, a man was arrested in connection with Eli’s death, but the local attorney’s office said there was insufficient evidence to charge him.

Another Killer Mum

In another case earlier this month, a mother admitted to investigators that she killed her three children with the assistance of a teenager, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Angela Flores, 38, was arrested after her three children were discovered dead inside their West Hills home.

According to an LAPD news release, an unidentified 16-year-old was also detained in connection with the investigation.

During the subsequent investigation, the mother admitted to killing her children with the assistance of the teen, according to the LAPD.

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The post Mum allegedly shot her six-year-old son nine times, hid body in car boot appeared first on The Independent News.

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2022-05-26 00:35:19Z
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From drones to sensors, Malaysian durian grower goes high-tech - CNA

BATU PAHAT: Drones spraying pesticide, sensors taking soil readings, sprinklers that squirt fertiliser at the touch of a button - a Malaysian plantation is using high-tech methods to boost its crop of pungent durians.

Grown across Southeast Asia, fans hail the spiky durian as the "king of fruit" due to its bittersweet flavours and creamy golden flesh, and it is particularly popular in China.

But to its detractors it is the world's smelliest fruit, with an overpowering stench like rotting food that has seen it banned in hotels and on public transport across the region.

In a competitive market, Malaysian grower Top Fruits Plantations has turned to high-tech methods to lift its output.

"It's a much faster way to get more consistent results," managing director Tan Sue Sian told AFP during a recent tour of one of the company's plantations in Batu Pahat, southern Johor state.

Using technology allows farmers to gauge more precisely how much fertiliser and water the trees need, he said.

"When you give what is needed, the fruit will be much more consistent. The shape will be better, and the aroma will be better," added Tan, who has more than 30 years' experience growing durians.

SENSORS ESSENTIAL

Key in the drive are sensors spread across 160 hectares of Top Fruits' 700-acre Batu Pahat plantation, relaying data on soil quality and content to workers' handheld devices.

The sensors are boxes mounted on poles, connected to the soil with a series of cables. By 2024, the entire plantation should be kitted out with them.

Sprinklers attached to a network of pipes are remotely activated to spray fertiliser onto the trees, while drones hover over the plantation squirting pesticide.

Such methods are unheard of on Malaysian durian farms, where growers typically rely on a large labour force, instinct and educated guesses.

The investment has been hefty - Top Fruits has spent about RM4 million (US$900,000) over the past three years on the technology.

But it has led to an increase in yields of 40 per cent, while its workforce has shrunk by 30 per cent.

The company is now able to produce 800 tonnes of durians from its farms every year, with more than 80 per cent of its crop frozen in factories to be exported overseas, much of it to China.

In a bid to further boost their crop, Top Fruits is getting into research by setting up a lab and collaborating with local universities.

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2022-05-25 04:20:00Z
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Indonesia lawmakers call for push to curb spread of foot and mouth disease - CNA

JAKARTA: Indonesia's government reported on Monday (May 23) that more than 20,000 livestock had been infected by foot and mouth disease in 16 provinces, as lawmakers urged authorities to find the source of the virus and ramp up efforts to prevent further spread.

The infections have spread since the Agriculture Ministry reported cases in two provinces less than two weeks ago. Local media reported around 1,600 animals were infected in East Java and 1,200 in Aceh province at the time.

Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo told a parliamentary hearing on Monday that 20,723 head of livestock had been infected in 16 provinces as of last week. He said these provinces had a total livestock population of around 13.8 million.

Lawmakers at the hearing urged the government to investigate where the infection originated from, slamming authorities for being "careless" in letting the virus spread across the country for the first time since around late 1980s.

The infections have spread at a time when Indonesia was already facing rising prices of meat and ahead of Eid al-Adha, one of the most important Islamic holidays, where Muslims traditionally slaughter animals and share the meat with the poor.

Lawmaker Anggia Erma Rini said vaccines were urgently needed to tackle the outbreak.

Limpo said the government was importing vaccines, but preferred to use Indonesian-developed doses that should be ready within a few months.

Authorities in affected areas are also setting up barriers between city borders to prevent the spread into other regions, Limpo said.

"We are being fully supported by the police," he said regarding the border controls.

Another lawmaker Dedi Mulyadi criticised the lack of sanitation control at some local animal markets.

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2022-05-23 11:18:16Z
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Commentary: China is looking less attractive to foreign investment - CNA

HONG KONG: “No matter what you may be selling, your business in China should be enormous, if the Chinese who should buy your goods would only do so.”  Never did an “if only” clause carry more weight.

In the 85 years since Carl Crow, a Shanghai-based American advertising executive, wrote these words in his book Four Hundred Million Customers, China’s population has grown by 1 billion people. Their combined spending power is now second only to that of Americans.

Yet the gulf between promise and reality in China’s fabled market haunts foreign corporations as much today as when Crow was trying to market American lipstick and French brandy to the emerging middle class of the 1930s. A host of political and regulatory issues — exacerbated by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s strict zero-COVID policies and his stance over Russia’s war in Ukraine — are conspiring to eviscerate the dreams of many multinationals.

PESSIMISM IN BEIJING AND SHANGHAI

The result is that direct investment into China by foreign companies is falling off a cliff. Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, says the unpredictability is prompting the European business community to put investments into China “on hold”. 

“Many of our members are now taking a wait-and-see approach to investments in China,” he adds, citing an attitudes survey in May of the chamber’s 1,800 members. “Twenty-three per cent of our members are now considering shifting current or planned investments out of China, the highest level on record. And 77 per cent report that China’s attractiveness as a future investment destination has decreased.”

Pessimism has infected the United States business community, too. Michael Hart, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, warns that the travel hassles encountered by foreign executives seeking to visit their Chinese operations — including flight cancellations, visa complications and lengthy quarantines on arrival — will lead to a “massive decline” in investment “two, three, four years from now”.

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2022-05-22 22:08:59Z
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