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THREE
Bulilima District pupils have died following a deadly hailstorm that
hit the area on Monday.
Many more pupils were stranded and their
families searched for them well into the night, leading to their rescue
after large hailstones pounded several villages.
Two Early
Childhood Development pupils from Sevako Primary School, both girls aged
six years, died in the violent weather while a third, a boy from
Ndolwane Primary School whose age and grade could not be ascertained,
drowned yesterday.
The Bulilima Civil Protection Committee
chairperson who is also the District Administrator for Bulilima, Ethel
Moyo, said the ECD pupils died on their way home from school while the
other pupil drowned in a flooded pit latrine at the school.
The
hailstorm which hit the area on Monday afternoon also destroyed homes,
shops and schools in different parts of the district. “I’m coming from
Ndolwane area where I left villagers trying to retrieve the body of the
pupil who drowned in a school toilet pit. The area received heavy rains
and the toilets were flooded. This pupil couldn’t make out where the pit
was and he fell inside,” said Moyo.
Mysterious polio-like illness affects kids in California
Credit: Jessica Tomei
Sofia Jarvis, 4, of Berkeley, Calif., was struck
by a polio-like illness when she was 2. It left her with a paralyzed
arm
by ELIZABETH WEISE / USA Today
Posted on February 23, 2014 at 5:29 PM
A mysterious polio-like syndrome has
affected as many as 25 California children, leaving them with paralyzed
limbs and little hope of recovery.
"What's we're seeing now is bad. The best-case scenario is complete
loss of one limb, the worst is all four limbs, with respiratory
insufficiency, as well. It's like the old polio," said Keith Van Haren,
a pediatric neurologist at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo
Alto, Calif.
The first known case appeared in 2012. Sofia Jarvis in Berkeley
began to experience wheezing and difficulty breathing. The 2-year-old
spent days in the intensive care unit at Children's Hospital Oakland.
Doctors thought she had asthma.
On a follow-up visit, her mother Jessica Tomei, 37, realized something else was wrong.
"As we were leaving the doctor's office, I noticed that she went to
grab something with her left arm and she stopped, midway," Tomei said.
Eventually Sofia was brought to Van Haren's clinic with "a unique
set of symptoms." She was treated with steroids and intravenous
immunoglobulin therapy, used to reduce the severity of infections by
giving the body antibodies to protect against bacteria and viruses.
"None of it helped," said Van Haren, a neurology professor at the
Stanford University School of Medicine.
"He told us right away that the prognosis was really poor and that she's not going to get better," Tomei said.
The diagnosis proved correct. Today, at age 4, Sofia's left arm is
paralyzed and she has some weakness in her left leg as well as slight
breathing issues.
Still, parents shouldn't panic. "This is really very rare," Van
Haren said. "But we are asking any families who notice a sudden onset
of weakness to see their doctors immediately. Their doctors should
contact the California Department of Public Health."
California is working with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in Atlanta to see if there are cases outside California. So
far none have been reported.
Overall Sofia's family is grateful. "She's still with us, she's
still running around, she's going to preschool," her mother said.
The case galvanized Van Haren and other neurologists, who worried a
new disease had appeared. When they began to go through recent medical
files, they found two more cases, both in the San Francisco Bay area.
A doctor gives an
eight-week-old baby the polio vaccine. The children in California had
been vaccinated against polio. Photograph: Alamy
A polio-like illness has afflicted a small number of children in California since 2012, causing severe weakness or rapid paralysis in one or more limbs.
The Los Angeles Times reported that state public health officials had been investigating the illness since a doctor requested polio
testing for a child with severe paralysis in 2012. Since then, similar
cases have sporadically been reported throughout the state.
Dr
Carol Glaser, leader of a California department of public health team
investigating the illnesses, said she was concerned about the request
because polio had been eradicated in the US and the child had not
travelled overseas.
The symptoms sometimes occur after a mild
respiratory illness. Glaser said a virus that is usually associated with
respiratory illness but which has also been linked to polio-like
illnesses had been detected in two of the patients.
Note:
This video does not pertain to any radiation issues from the Fukushima
Nuclear Power Plant meltdown. "Healing Children through Art" is a
message of hope, support, encouragement and love for the children living
in the disaster stricken area of Tohoku.
Healing Children through Art
Ms.
Harumi Torii, Founder of Kids Earth Fund, believes in the healing power
of creative activities. She holds variety of events to help children in
the disaster area to freely express their feelings through painting.
One day she shows some children a big canvas and encourages them to
complete a painting of artistic messages from children around the world.
This is a story of how traumatized children reacted and were comforted
through heart to heart exchanges with the world.
Kids Earth Fund
Sadly, even in affluent countries such as Japan there are many children
who suffer emotional problems as a result of the damaging influence
they have received growing up in a materialistic society. In Japan, KIDS
EARTH FUND hosts projects and workshops that are designed to help these
children. Professional artist, specialist and musician volunteers
design programs that foster children's imagination and help build their
self-esteem and interest in helping others. 1000 children have
participated in these Japan-based events. http://www.kidsearthfund.jp/en/injapa...
