Africa faces most geographically widespread Ebola outbreak on record as DR Congo cases near 10,000 - Xinhua

A medical worker patrols at an Ebola treatment center in Bunia, capital of Ituri Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on Oct. 18, 2026. (Xinhua)Africa is grappling with "the most geographically widespread Ebola outbreak in history", according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, as infections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo approach 10,000 and newly reported cases in Kenya and Nigeria raise concerns over the virus's spread across borders. KINSHASA, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Africa is grappling with "the most geographically widespread Ebola outbreak in history", according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), as infections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) approach 10,000 and newly reported cases in Kenya and Nigeria raise concerns over the virus's spread across borders. Medical workers carry out disinfection work at an Ebola treatment center in Bunia, capital of Ituri Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on Oct. 18, 2026.

KINSHASA, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Africa is grappling with "the most geographically widespread Ebola outbreak in history", according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), as infections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) approach 10,000 and newly reported cases in Kenya and Nigeria raise concerns over the virus's spread across borders. Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya warned Tuesday that the outbreak had already affected multiple countries across three regions of Africa, calling for urgent international support to contain further transmission. Nearly five months after the outbreak was declared in the DRC, the epidemic has claimed more than 4,600 lives in the country and spread to eight of its 26 provinces, while imported infections have exposed vulnerabilities in cross-border disease surveillance. CROSS-BORDER SPREAD RAISES ALARM Nigeria on Tuesday confirmed its first case of Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo virus, the same strain responsible for the ongoing epidemic in the DRC, becoming the fifth country to detect the virus since the outbreak began in May, according to the Nigerian health authorities.

Children who eat more ultra-processed foods (UPFs) show stronger responses in the brain's reward network when viewing images of appetizing foods-and these brain responses are linked to increases in body fat one year later. The findings, just published in JAMA Network Open, suggest that the brain may become more sensitive to food cues when children consume more UPFs. UPFs are manufactured food products-such as breakfast cereals, packaged bread and instant soups-that are designed to be highly palatable, convenient and shelf-stable. They often contain artificial sweeteners, colors and other ingredients that people do not typically use when cooking at home. On average, U. S. children get about 67% of their daily calories from UPFs.

Hiroshima University researchers investigated the effects of hydrogen supplementation on sleep quality in healthy human volunteers. While hydrogen supplementation had no significant effect compared to a placebo, individuals in the hydrogen-supplementation group reporting better sleep quality were discovered to have a lower abundance of hydrogen producing bacteria in their gut microbiome. A Hiroshima University-led randomized, double-blind clinical trial found that hydrogen supplementation did not significantly improve sleep quality compared to a placebo; however, exploratory analyses suggest that differences in the abundance of hydrogen-producing gut bacteria may be associated with individual differences in sleep-related responses.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men—in 2013, it affected more than 1 million men across the world. The cancer does not behave the same way in every patient, and doctors have long faced a difficult balancing act between identifying patients who will benefit from more intensive treatment and those who may do just as well without it. Treating someone more aggressively than necessary is associated with increased side effects and poorer quality of life. At a major cancer conference in Madrid, a team from University College London unveiled the latest findings from their STAMPEDE clinical trial, which has shown that adding the hormone therapy abiraterone to the standard treatment for men with high-risk, localized prostate cancer could halve the risk of death from the disease and slow overall progression.

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