Whooping cough is at a decade-high level in US

TECH

Whooping cough is at a decade-high level in US

2024-10-18 06:08 Last Updated At：06:11

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Whooping cough is at its highest level in a decade for this time of year, U.S. health officials reported Thursday.

There have been 18,506 cases of whooping cough reported so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. That's the most at this point in the year since 2014, when cases topped 21,800.

The increase is not unexpected — whooping cough peaks every three to five years, health experts said. And the numbers indicate a return to levels before the coronavirus pandemic, when whooping cough and other contagious illnesses plummeted.

Still, the tally has some state health officials concerned, including those in Wisconsin, where there have been about 1,000 cases so far this year, compared to a total of 51 last year.

Nationwide, CDC has reported that kindergarten vaccination rates dipped last year and vaccine exemptions are at an all-time high. Thursday, it released state figures, showing that about 86% of kindergartners in Wisconsin got the whooping cough vaccine, compared to more than 92% nationally.

Whooping cough, also called pertussis, usually starts out like a cold, with a runny nose and other common symptoms, before turning into a prolonged cough. It is treated with antibiotics. Whooping cough used to be very common until a vaccine was introduced in the 1950s, which is now part of routine childhood vaccinations. It is in a shot along with tetanus and diphtheria vaccines. The combo shot is recommended for adults every 10 years.

“They used to call it the 100-day cough because it literally lasts for 100 days,” said Joyce Knestrick, a family nurse practitioner in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Whooping cough is usually seen mostly in infants and young children, who can develop serious complications. That's why the vaccine is recommended during pregnancy, to pass along protection to the newborn, and for those who spend a lot of time with infants.

But public health workers say outbreaks this year are hitting older kids and teens. In Pennsylvania, most outbreaks have been in middle school, high school and college settings, an official said. Nearly all the cases in Douglas County, Nebraska, are schoolkids and teens, said Justin Frederick, deputy director of the health department.

That includes his own teenage daughter.

“It’s a horrible disease. She still wakes up — after being treated with her antibiotics — in a panic because she’s coughing so much she can’t breathe,” he said.

It’s important to get tested and treated with antibiotics early, said Dr. Kris Bryant, who specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at Norton Children’s in Louisville, Kentucky. People exposed to the bacteria can also take antibiotics to stop the spread.

“Pertussis is worth preventing,” Bryant said. “The good news is that we have safe and effective vaccines.”

AP data journalist Kasturi Pananjady contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Israel says it has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza

2024-10-18 06:09 Last Updated At：06:10

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces in Gaza killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of last year’s attack on Israel that sparked the war, the military said Thursday. Troops appeared to have run across him unknowingly in a battle, only to discover afterwards that a body in the rubble was Israel’s most-wanted man.

Israeli leaders celebrated his killing as a settling of scores just over a year after Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others in an attack that stunned the country. They also presented it as a turning point in the campaign to destroy Hamas, urging the group to surrender and release some 100 hostages still in Gaza.

“Hamas will no longer rule Gaza. This is the start of the day after Hamas," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

U.S. officials expressed hopes for a cease-fire with Sinwar out of the picture. But eliminating him may not end the devastating war, during which Israel has destroyed much of the Gaza Strip and killed more than 42,000 Palestinians. The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of those killed were women and children.

Sinwar's death is a crippling blow to Hamas, but the group, which receives support from Iran, has proven resilient to past losses of leaders. There was no immediate confirmation from Hamas of Sinwar’s death.

Netanyahu has said Israel will keep fighting until all the hostages are free, and that it will keep control over Gaza long enough to ensure Hamas does not rearm — an effective occupation that raises the possibility of months or even years of continued fighting.

Earlier this month Israel opened a new front in its war with Hezbollah, stepping up bombardment in Lebanon and launching a ground campaign against the Iran-backed militia after a year of trading cross-border fire.

In his speech about Sinwar's death, Netanyahu said, “Our war is not yet ended.”

President Joe Biden said Sinwar's death opens the way for "a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.” He said he would talk with Netanyahu "to discuss the pathway for bringing the hostages home to their families, and for ending this war once and for all.”

Sinwar has been Hamas’ leader inside the Gaza Strip for years. He was elevated to the group's top leadership position in July after his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an apparent Israeli strike in the Iranian capital, Tehran.

In the past months, Israel has eliminated a string of senior figures from Hamas and Hezbollah with airstrikes. Israel has claimed to have killed the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, but the group has said he survived.

But in Sinwar's case, troops found him by chance.

Israel military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that Israeli forces identified three Hamas militants running from building to building in Gaza's southernmost city, Rafah. The troops attempted to shoot them before they ran inside a building.

The Israeli military released drone video showing what it said were Sinwar’s last moments: In a room wrecked by shelling, a man sat in a chair, his face covered with a cloth, possibly to hide his identity. The video showed the man, with one wounded hand, throwing a stick at the drone.

The military then fired an additional shell at the building, causing it to collapse and killing Sinwar, Hagari said. He said Sinwar was found with a bulletproof vest, grenades, and 40,000 shekels ($10,707).

Some of Sinwar’s DNA had previously been found in tunnels near where troops found the bodies of six hostages at the end of August, Hagari said. The military believes weeks of searches in the area had pushed Sinwar to come out of hiding, he said.

Photos circulating online showed the body of a man resembling Sinwar with a gaping head wound, dressed in a military-style vest, half buried in the rubble of a destroyed building. The security official confirmed the photos were taken by Israeli security officials at the scene. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

The military said three militants were killed in the operation. Police said one of them was confirmed as Sinwar by dental records, fingerprints and DNA tests. Sinwar was imprisoned by Israel from the late 1980s until 2011, and during that time he underwent treatment for brain cancer — leaving Israeli authorities with extensive medical records.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant addressed Hamas fighters, saying it “is time to go out, release the hostages, raise your hands, surrender.”

Netanyahu said Israel had “settled its account” with the man behind the Oct. 7 attack, and that “evil has suffered a heavy blow.” But, he added, “the task before us is not yet complete.”

He said anyone in Hamas who surrendered weapons and assisted with the return of the hostages would be allowed to leave Gaza safely. About a third of the captives still in Gaza are believed to be dead.

Hundreds of people demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Thursday night for the release of the hostages after news of Sinwar’s death emerged. Some carried signs that read “Sinwar’s end, end the war.”

Ifat Kalderon, whose cousin, Ofer Kalderon, is being held hostage in Gaza, said he was happy that Sinwar was dead but "scared about the 101 hostages. ... They might murder them or do something because of the murder of Sinwar.”

In the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah, one Palestinian woman displaced from her home in the north said she hoped Sinwar's death would bring an end to Israel's campaign. “What more goals do they have than that? Enough. We want to go back,” said the woman, Umm Mohammed.

Some praised Sinwar as a symbol of resistance against Israel's decadeslong occupation of the Palestinians in the West Bank. Ahmed Hamdouna, who also fled his home in northern Gaza, said Hamas would be able to replace him. "After the leader, a thousand leaders will come. After the man, a thousand men will come,” he said.

For more than a week. Israeli forces have been waging a ground campaign in Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, saying they are battling Hamas fighters who have once again regrouped there.

On Thursday, an Israeli strike hit a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Jabaliya, killing at least 28 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Fares Abu Hamza, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency unit in the north, said the dead included a woman and four children.

The Israeli military said it targeted a command center run by Hamas and Islamic Jihad inside the school. It provided a list of around a dozen names of people it identified as militants who were present when the strike was called in. It was not immediately possible to verify the names.

Israel has repeatedly struck tent camps and schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza. The Israeli military says it carries out precise strikes on militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, but its strikes often kill women and children.

Sami Magdy reported from Cairo. AP writers Jack Jeffery in Jerusalem and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war