Lifestyle

Pfizer sets sights on elimination of blinding disease trachoma by 2030

Pfizer on Thursday said it would extend until 2030 a drug donation programme aimed at eliminating trachoma, an eye disease responsible for blinding or visually impairing nearly two million people worldwide.. The ITI had initially hoped to eliminate the disease by 2020, but is now setting its sights on 2030.

Monkeypox vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic ready to meet demand

As the lone laboratory manufacturing a licensed vaccine against monkeypox, Danish company Bavarian Nordic has seen its order book fill up as the usually rare disease spreads around the world. . Most people recover from monkeypox within several weeks and the disease has only been fatal in rare cases.

Global food crisis 'will kill millions' by disease, health executive warns

The global food crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine will kill millions by leaving the hungriest more vulnerable to infectious diseases, potentially triggering the world's next health catastrophe, the head of a major aid organisation has warned.. The health expert said solving the food crisis was now paramount in aiding the treatment of the world's second-deadliest infectious disease.  

Workers in Chile strike at world's largest copper producer

Workers at Chile's state mining company Codelco, the largest producer of copper in the world, launched an open- ended strike Wednesday to protest the closure of a foundry in one of the country's most polluted regions.. The Copper Workers Federation said the strike will cost Codelco -- which produces around eight percent of the world's copper amounting to 10-15 percent of Chile's GDP -- $20 million a day.

Short hair, don't care: Saudi working women embrace cropped locks

When Saudi doctor Safi took a new job at a hospital in the capital, she decided to offset her standard white lab coat with a look she once would have considered dramatic.. The haircut –- known locally by the English word "boy" –- has become strikingly visible on the streets of the capital, and not just because women are no longer required to wear hijab headscarves under social reforms pushed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler.

Workers strike at world's largest copper producer, Chile's Codelco

Workers at Chile's state mining company Codelco, the largest producer of copper in the world, went on an "indefinite" strike on Wednesday, unions said, protesting the closure of a foundry in one of the country's most polluted regions.. FTC president Amador Pantoja told a local television station the strike will cost Codelco -- which produces around eight percent of the world's copper amounting to 10-15 percent of Chile's GDP -- $20 million a day.

Vienna returns as world's 'most liveable city'

The Austrian capital Vienna has made a comeback as the world's most liveable city, according to an annual report from the Economist published Thursday.. The United Kingdom's capital London was the world's 33rd most liveable city, while Spain's Barcelona and Madrid came 35th and 43rd respectively.

Flood-wrecked Yellowstone park partially reopens

Yellowstone National Park, which was hit by devastating floods last week, partially reopened Wednesday, with long queues forming at entrances to the US landmark before dawn.. "Unprecedented amounts of rainfall caused substantial flooding, rockslides, and mudslides within Yellowstone National Park," the NPS said Wednesday.

New antibody therapies fight cancer, drum up investment

Antibody therapies are offering promising treatment breakthroughs for cancer and other illnesses, generating greater investor interest more than 20 years after they were first commercialised.. - Booming market - The promising announcements have triggered interest beyond the scientific community and a flood of investment.

Heartbreak and shock at Afghan quake hospital

Bibi Hawa's face is distorted by tears as she tries to grasp her predicament from a hospital bed in Sharan, capital of Afghanistan's Paktika province.. Mohammad Yahya Wiar, director of Sharan Hospital, says they have been doing their best to treat everyone.