MARIA CHENG

AP Medical Writer
Medical staff talk to each other at the general hospital in Goma, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024 after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
A new global health emergency: What is mpox, where are the outbreaks and will the virus spread?
The World Health Organization has declared the increasing spread of mpox in Africa a global health emergency, warning the virus might ultimately spill across international borders.
August 15, 2024
FILE - Vials of single doses of the Jynneos vaccine for monkeypox are seen from a cooler at a vaccinations site on Aug. 29, 2022, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. African health officials said mpox cases have spiked by 160% in the last year, warning the risk of further spread is high given the lack of effective treatments or vaccines on the continent. (AP Photo/Jeenah Moon, File)
Mpox cases have surged by 160% in Africa so far this year, but few treatments and vaccines available
African health officials say mpox cases have surged by 160% so far this year, warning the risk of further spread is high given the lack of treatments or vaccines on the continent.
August 1, 2024
A pharmacist holds a vial of lenacapavir, the new HIV prevention injectable drug, at the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation's Masiphumelele Research Site, in Cape Town, South Africa, Tuesday, July 23, 2024, which was one of the sites for Gilead's lenacapavir drug trial. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)
Experts say a twice-yearly injection that offers 100% protection against HIV is ‘stunning’
A study shows that a twice-yearly shot was 100% effective in preventing new HIV infections in women in Africa.
July 24, 2024
FILE - The logo of the World Health Organization is seen at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, June 11, 2019. A global treaty to fight pandemics like COVID is going to have to wait: After more than two years of negotiations, rich and poor countries have failed to come up with a plan for how the world might respond to the next pandemic. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File)
Efforts to draft a pandemic treaty falter as countries disagree on how to respond to next emergency
A global treaty to fight pandemics like COVID is going to have to wait: After more than two years of negotiations, rich and poor countries have failed to come up with a plan for how the world might respond to the next pandemic.
May 24, 2024
FILE - An employee takes the fingerprints of a woman who died from the new coronavirus before her remains are cremated at La Recoleta crematorium in Santiago, Chile, Saturday, June 27, 2020. Countries are still struggling to come up with an agreed-upon plan for how the world might respond to the next global outbreak. A ninth and final round of talks involving governments, advocacy groups and others to finalize a “pandemic treaty” is scheduled to end Friday, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix, File)
Countries struggle to draft ‘pandemic treaty’ to avoid mistakes made during COVID
After the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders worldwide vowed to do better next time but are still struggling to finalize a global plan.
May 10, 2024
A sperm whale swims off the coast of Dominica in March 2024. In a study published Tuesday, May 7, in the journal Nature Communications, scientists studying the sperm whales that live around the Caribbean island have described for the first time the basic elements of how they might be talking to each other, in an effort that could one day help us to better protect them. (Samuel Lam via AP)
Scientists are learning the basic building blocks of sperm whale language after years of effort
Scientists studying the sperm whales that live around the Caribbean island of Dominica have described for the first time the basic elements of how they might be talking to each other, in an effort that could one day help better protect them.
May 7, 2024
FILE - A family nurse practitioner prepares a syringe with the Mpox vaccine for inoculating a patient at a vaccination site in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022. Scientists say a new form of mpox detected in a mining town in Congo might more easily spread among people. Already, Congo is seeing its biggest mpox outbreak with more than 19,000 suspected infections and 900 deaths. . (AP Photo/Jeenah Moon, File)
A new form of mpox that may spread more easily found in Congo’s biggest outbreak
Scientists say a new form of mpox detected in a mining town in Congo might more easily spread among people. Already, Congo is seeing its biggest mpox outbreak with more than 4,500 suspected infections and nearly 300 deaths.
May 2, 2024
FILE - A policeman moves journalists back from a farewell event held for the last group of medical workers who came from outside Wuhan to help the city during the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on April 15, 2020. The hunt for COVID-19 origins has gone dark in China. An AP investigation drawing on thousands of pages of undisclosed emails and documents and dozens of interviews found feuding officials and fear of blame ended meaningful Chinese and international efforts to trace the virus almost as soon as they began, despite years of public statements to the contrary. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)
Takeaways from AP report on how the search for the coronavirus origins turned toxic
The Chinese government froze meaningful efforts to trace the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, despite publicly declaring that it supported an open scientific inquiry, an Associated Press investigation has found.
April 22, 2024
FILE - A security person moves journalists away from the Wuhan Institute of Virology after a World Health Organization team arrived for a field visit in Wuhan in China's Hubei province on Feb. 3, 2021. The hunt for COVID-19 origins has gone dark in China. An AP investigation drawing on thousands of pages of undisclosed emails and documents and dozens of interviews found feuding officials and fear of blame ended meaningful Chinese and international efforts to trace the virus almost as soon as they began, despite years of public statements to the contrary. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)
Toxic: How the search for the origins of COVID-19 turned politically poisonous
The Chinese government froze meaningful efforts to trace the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, despite publicly declaring that it supported an open scientific inquiry, an Associated Press investigation has found.
April 22, 2024
Efua, a 25-year-old fashion designer and single mother in Ghana who became pregnant in 2023, poses for a photo in Accra, Ghana, Tuesday, March 19, 2024. Efua sought an abortion at a health clinic but worried the procedure might be illegal. More than 20 countries across Africa have loosened restrictions on abortion in recent years, but experts say that like Efua, many women probably don't realize they are entitled to a legal abortion. Efua spoke to the AP on condition that only her middle name be used, for fear of reprisals from the growing anti-abortion movement in her country. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Abortions are legal in much of Africa. But few women may be aware, and providers don’t advertise it
More than 20 countries across Africa have loosened restrictions on abortion in recent years, but experts say many women probably don’t realize they are entitled to a legal abortion.
April 2, 2024
This photo provided by Samuel Lam shows a humpback whale and her calf in Papeete, French Polynesia in September 2022. Humpbacks are known to compose elaborate songs that travel across oceans and whale pods. (Samuel Lam via AP)
How do whales sing? Lab experiments suggest their voice boxes have a unique feature
Whales sing loud enough that the sound travels through the ocean. But how they do that has been a mystery. A new study says whales have a specialized voice box that isn’t seen in other animals.
February 23, 2024
FILE - Vials of single doses of the Jynneos vaccine for monkeypox are seen from a cooler at a vaccinations site on Aug. 29, 2022, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. As Congo copes with its biggest outbreak of mpox, scientists warn discrimination against gay and bisexual men on the continent could make it worse. (AP Photo/Jeenah Moon, File)
Stigma against gay men could worsen Congo’s biggest mpox outbreak, scientists warn
African scientists warn that discrimination against gay and bisexual men on the continent could make an mpox outbreak in Congo worse.
December 28, 2023
FILE - A woman dances as she listens to music while attending a World AIDS Day commemoration at Nkosi's Haven in Johannesburg on Nov. 30, 2019 on the eve of World AIDS Day. AIDS experts said Wednesday Nov. 29, 2023 that an African-based company will start producing vaginal rings that protect against HIV within the next few years, potentially offering millions of women across the continent a cheap way to reduce their risk. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell, File)
South African company to start making vaginal rings that protect against HIV
A South African company will make vaginal rings that protect against HIV, which AIDS experts say should eventually make them cheaper and more readily available.
November 30, 2023
FILE - Vials of single doses of the Jynneos vaccine for monkeypox are seen from a cooler at a vaccinations site on Aug. 29, 2022, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The World Health Organization said it has confirmed sexual transmission of mpox in Congo for the first time during the country's biggest-ever outbreak, in a worrying development African scientists warn could make it more difficult to stop the disease. (AP Photo/Jeenah Moon, File)
UN confirms sexual spread of mpox in Congo for the 1st time as country sees a record outbreak
The World Health Organization said it has confirmed sexual transmission of mpox in Congo for the first time as the country experiences its biggest-ever outbreak.
November 24, 2023
FILE - Patients use nebulizers during a test for the presence of TB, at the Tembalete, a U.S. funded Right to Care Clinic at the Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008. In a series of moves experts say signal a shift in how developing countries deal with pharmaceuticals, South Africa, Colombia and others have recently adopted a more combative approach towards drugmakers, pushing back on policies that deny treatment to millions of people with tuberculosis and HIV. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell, File)
South Africa, Colombia and others are fighting drugmakers over access to TB and HIV drugs
In a series of moves experts say signal a shift in how developing countries deal with pharmaceuticals, South Africa, Colombia and others have recently adopted a more combative approach towards drugmakers, pushing back on policies that deny treatment to millions of people with tuberculosis and HIV.
November 24, 2023
FILE - Residents wearing face masks line up behind barricaded tapes for COVID mass testing near a residential area on May 15, 2022, in Beijing. The World Health Organization says it’s made an official request to China for information about a potentially worrying spike in respiratory illnesses and clusters of pneumonia in children. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
WHO asks China for more information about rise in illnesses and pneumonia clusters
The World Health Organization says it has made an official request to China for information about a potentially worrying spike in respiratory illnesses and clusters of pneumonia in children.
November 23, 2023
FILE - This microscope photo provided on Oct. 25, 2023, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows crescent-shaped red blood cells from a sickle cell disease patient in 1972. Britain's medicines regulator has authorized the world's first gene therapy treatment for sickle cell disease, in a move that could offer relief to thousands of people with the crippling disease in the U.K. In a statement on Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency said it approved Casgevy, the first medicine licensed using the gene editing tool CRISPR, which won its makers a Nobel prize in 2020. (Dr. F. Gilbert/CDC via AP, File )
The world’s first gene therapy for sickle cell disease has been approved in Britain
Britain’s medicines regulator has authorized the world’s first gene therapy treatment for sickle cell disease, in a move that could offer relief to thousands of people with the crippling illness in the U.K.
November 16, 2023
FILE - This photo released by Dr. Marawan Abu Saada shows prematurely born Palestinian babies in Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Sunday, Nov. 12, 2023. As Palestinian authorities are proposing an evacuation of Gaza's biggest hospital, experts warn that transporting vulnerable babies and other patients is perilous even under the best circumstances. (Dr. Marawan Abu Saada via AP, File)
Supplies alone won’t save Gaza hospital patients and evacuation remains perilous, experts say
A day after Palestinian authorities called for an evacuation of Gaza’s biggest hospital, Israeli soldiers have raided it and say they were accompanied by medical teams bringing baby food, incubators and other equipment.
November 16, 2023
Dr Gaya Gamhewage, WHO Director, Prevention of and Response to Sexual Misconduct, speaks during the 76th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, May 25, 2023. Internal documents obtained by The Associated Press show that the World Health Organisation has paid $250 each to at least 104 women in Congo who say they were sexually abused or exploited by Ebola outbreak responders. That amount is less than what some U.N. officials are given for a single day's expenses when working in Congo. (Antoine Tardy/WHO via AP)
Internal documents show the World Health Organization paid sexual abuse victims in Congo $250 each
Internal documents obtained by The Associated Press show that the World Health Organization has paid $250 each to at least 104 women in Congo who say they were sexually abused or exploited by Ebola outbreak responders.
November 14, 2023
A Tonga surgeon to lead WHO’s Western Pacific after previous director fired for racism, misconduct
Health ministers in the Western Pacific has nominated a surgeon from Tonga to lead the World Health Organization’s regional office at a meeting in Manila on Tuesday. Dr.
October 17, 2023
FILE - A baby from the Malawi village of Tomali is injected with the world's first vaccine against malaria in a pilot program, on Dec. 11, 2019. The World Health Organization authorized a second malaria vaccine on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023 a decision that could offer countries a cheaper and more effective option than the world's first shot against the parasitic disease. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)
UN authorizes a second malaria vaccine. Experts warn it’s not enough to stop the disease spreading
The World Health Organization has authorized a second malaria vaccine in a decision that could offer countries a cheaper and a more readily available option than the world’s first shot against the parasitic disease.
October 4, 2023
A health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child at a railway station in Karachi, Pakistan, Monday, Sept 18, 2023. Authorities in one province of Pakistan are turning to a controversial new tactic in the decades-long initiative to wipe out polio: prison. Earlier this month, the government in Sindh introduced a law that threatens to imprison parents for up to one month if they fail to get their children immunized against polio or eight other common diseases. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
Parents in Pakistan could face prison time for not vaccinating their kids against polio
Authorities in one province of Pakistan are turning to a controversial new tactic in the decades-long initiative to wipe out polio: prison.
October 2, 2023
FILE - Senate committee on Human Rights committee member Sen. Yvonne Boyer responds to a question from the media during a news conference, Thursday, July 14, 2022 in Ottawa. Boyer, who has proposed law that would make forced sterilization itself a crime, said the long history of mistrust between Indigenous people and the police made it difficult for many victims to pursue criminal prosecution. “If a police officer becomes aware of a crime being committed, they have an obligation to investigate,” Boyer said. “Why would it be any different for an Indigenous woman being sterilized without consent?” (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
Canadian police won’t investigate doctor for sterilizing Indigenous woman
Police in Canada say they will not pursue a criminal investigation into a recent case in which a doctor sterilized an Inuit woman without her consent.
September 27, 2023
FILE - The emergency contraceptive levonorgestrel is displayed for sale in a vending machine on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle on Friday, June 2, 2023. Taking piroxicam, which is typically prescribed for arthritis, together with the morning-after pill levonorgestrel could boost its effectiveness when taken up to three days after unprotected sex, according to new research published Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. (Kevin Clark/The Seattle Times via AP, File)
Common arthritis drug could boost effectiveness of morning-after pill, study finds
Taking a common arthritis drug along with the morning-after pill Plan B could boost the contraceptive’s effectiveness. That’s according to new research published Wednesday in the Lancet.
August 17, 2023
FILE - A bottle of soda is photographed in Washington Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014. On Thursday, July 13, 2023, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer research arm of the World Health Organization, deemed aspartame, the world’s most widely used artificial sweetener, to be “possibly carcinogenic” to humans. Separately, a U.N. expert group assessing the same evidence said their guidance regarding safe consumption of the sweetener remained unchanged. (AP Photo/J. David Ake, File)
Soda sweetener aspartame now listed as possible cancer cause. But it’s still considered safe
The World Health Organization’s cancer agency has deemed the artificial sweetener aspartame a “possible” cause of cancer, while a separate group looking at the same evidence said it still considers the sugar substitute safe.
July 13, 2023
May Sarah Cardinal sits for a portrait outside the Law Courts building in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on Thursday, May 25, 2023. Cardinal said she was pressured into having her tubes tied when she was 20. “The doctor told me: ‘There are hard times ahead and how are you going to look after a bunch of kids? What if your husband leaves?' ... I was afraid if I didn’t go through with it, they would be angry with me, and I didn’t feel like I had a say.” (AP Photo/Amber Bracken)
Indigenous women in Canada forcibly sterilized decades after other rich countries stopped
Decades after many other rich countries stopped forcibly sterilizing Indigenous women, numerous activists, doctors, politicians and at least five class-action lawsuits allege the practice has not ended in Canada.
July 13, 2023
FILE - Protesters pray outside Dutch government buildings in The Hague, Netherlands, on Monday, April 9, 2001, as the Upper House of Parliament began debating registration that will legalize euthanasia under strict guidelines. Slogan on table reads, "Human considers, God decides." Several people with autism and intellectual disabilities have been legally euthanized in the Netherlands in recent years because they said they could not lead normal lives, researchers have found. The Netherlands was the first country to allow doctors to kill patients at their request if they met strict requirements. (AP Photo/Serge Ligtenberg, File)
Some Dutch people seeking euthanasia cite autism or intellectual disabilities, researchers say
Several people with autism and intellectual disabilities have been legally euthanized in the Netherlands in recent years because they said they could not lead normal lives.
June 28, 2023
Poor countries face long wait for vaccines despite promises
With Americans, Britons and Canadians rolling up their sleeves to receive coronavirus vaccines, the route out of the pandemic now seems clear to many in the West, even if the rollout will take many months.
December 15, 2020
Internal email reveals 65 virus cases among WHO Geneva staff
An email obtained by The Associated Press shows that the World Health Organization has recorded 65 cases of the coronavirus among staff based at its headquarters, including five people who worked on the premises and were in contact with one another.
November 16, 2020
Members named to panel probing WHO’s pandemic response
An independent panel appointed by the World Health Organization to review its coordination of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic will have full access to any internal U.N. agency documents, materials and emails necessary.
September 3, 2020
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