disease

Bella Hadid offered her social media followers an apology and an inside look at her recent hospital stay, sharing photos of herself wearing an oxygen mask and in bed with tubes hooked up to various parts of her body.

“I’m sorry I always go MIA I love you guys,” the 28-year-old model and activist captioned her Instagram carousel, shared Wednesday.

She posted snaps of quaint scenes of calm skies, golden sunsets and blooming flowers. But the photos posted in between captured a different tone: In one photo Hadid crouches on the floor in the corner of an elevator. Dark red fluid can be seen coursing through medical tubing in another, and in a selfie Hadid’s eyes are puffy and teary.

Though she did not reveal which ailment landed her in the hospital, her mother Yolanda Hadid left a hint in the comments section, where she praised her daughter as a “Lyme warrior.” In a separate post of her own, mother shared much more about her youngest daughter’s health.

“As you will understand watching my Bella struggle in silence, has cut the deepest core of hopelessness inside me,” the elder Hadid said on Instagram. She shared photos of her daughter’s hospital stay.

The “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star and former model has also been vocal about her own battle against Lyme disesase, notably in her 2017 memoir “Believe Me: My Battle With the Invisible Disability of Lyme Disease.”

She added: “To my beautiful Bellita: You are relentless and courageous. No child is suppose to suffer in their body with an incurable chronic disease.”

Bella Hadid, sister of model Gigi Hadid, previously disclosed her battle with Lyme disease and other chronic illnesses in 2023, when she shared photos from another hospital stay.

At the time, she shared photos of medical documents dated February 2014 that disclosed her struggles with numerous of health problems, including fatigue, attention deficit disorder, memory disturbances, depression, sleep disorders, headaches, disequilibrium, nightmares, muscular weakness, chest pain and palpitations. The visit summary notes that Bella, then 17, “feels ill all the time.”

Lyme disease is a bacterial illness that people can contract if they are bitten by an infected tick, according to the Mayo Clinic. Symptoms can include joint stiffness, muscle aches and pains, fever and headache. Antibiotics are used to treat the infection, which according to the Cleveland Clinic is curable if diagnosed and treated early but can also lead to chronic or recurring symptoms. In addition to Hadid, celebrities who have gone public with the disease include Amy Schumer, Justin Bieber, Ben Stiller, Kelly Osbourne and Riley Keough. Earlier this year pop star Justin Timberlake revealed his diagnosis.

Yolanda Hadid concluded her post with words of encouragement for her daughter: “This disease has brought us to our knees, but we always get back up.”

“We will continue to fight for better days, together,” she continued. “You are a survivor…I love you so much my badass Warrior.”

Former Times staff writer Christi Carras contributed to this report.

Abubakar Ibrahim woke one morning in June to find his leg swelling. By nightfall, the entire limb was ballooned and throbbing, leaving the 30-year-old terrified.

“I took some drugs to reduce the swelling, but my legs continued to swell,” said the indigene of Malabu in Adamawa State, northeastern Nigeria.

Within weeks, rashes had turned to sores, and he realised he was facing the same mysterious flesh-eating disease that had already struck his elder brother and neighbours. 

Like many others in Malabu, he assumed the disease was a flesh infection treatable with antibiotics and bandages. He went to the primary healthcare centre in the community, where the sores were cleaned and dressed. He started to recover, describing his situation as mild, compared to others like his brother, who had their flesh falling out. 

While some residents sought help at the primary healthcare centre, others resorted to traditional herbs. Over time, Abubakar noticed the situation worsening across the community. The disease spread faster, and those affected often died within two weeks of their first symptoms. People complained of intense pain, sleepless nights, and a foul odour from the infected wounds.

An outbreak 

HumAngle learnt that the first suspected case of the disease was reported at the Malabu Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) in 2018, when a man developed swelling in his hand. Within months, rashes formed, then blisters, which turned into sores. His flesh eventually tore away until the bones became visible. He died.

“We never thought it was something that would come to affect some of us,” Abubakar said.

Soon after the man’s death, a few residents began to experience similar symptoms, starting with swelling in either their hands or legs. Many relied on the PHC for wound cleaning and dressing, which offered some relief. But as new cases appeared, conditions deteriorated. 

Residents say that a few people continued to exhibit the symptoms over time, but not in large numbers, until the recent mass outbreak in June this year, and it spread rapidly in the following month. No fewer than 67 persons have contracted the disease since the recent outbreak, according to Alhaji Sajo, a community leader, with eight deaths recorded so far.

Although adult men have been the most affected, residents told HumAngle that children have not been spared, unlike during previous outbreaks. 

“Most of the children that are currently affected are around the age of seven and above,” Abubakar stated. He added that the situation for children is worse. Unlike adults, who mostly get infected in their hands and legs, Abubakar explained that the affected children have sores covering part of their faces that continue to spread and eat into their faces. 

To contain the spread of the disease, the local health authorities identified about 28 critical cases in Malabu and have since transferred eight of the affected persons to the Multi Drug Resistance (MDR) ward at the Modibbo Adama University Teaching Hospital (MAUTH) in Yola, the state capital, while the other 20 declined. 

Residents told HumAngle that histology tests have been conducted by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). “They said our samples would be taken for testing in laboratories […], according to them, the disease is not cancer,” Abubakar said, adding that Malabu residents have remained restless. “We need to figure out the cause of the disease and how it can be treated.”

Dr. Dahiru Ribadu, the chairperson of the Medical Advisory Committee at MAUTH, said the patients are undergoing treatment under close observation. 

“We are taking care of them the best way we can, and they don’t pay for the drugs or meals because it’s being covered by the local government,” he told HumAngle, adding that even though the disease remains unnamed, admitted patients are responding well to treatment.

Abubakar’s elder brother was among those admitted, but he died days later. While he describes his brother’s case as critical, Abubakar has accepted fate and now tends to his own wounds at home. His greatest concern, he says, is to finally know what this disease is and how it can be stopped.

Non-contagious?

At the hospital, frontline staff are also grappling with uncertainty. Mary Jacob, the nursing officer in charge of the MDR ward at MAUTH, told HumAngle that the patients were brought in on Sept. 4. “There is no diagnosis. We are waiting for the investigation,” she said, noting that the hospital cannot give a proper account of the ailment so far, as it’s a rare one. 

The nurse suggested that the disease might be non-contagious, since many relatives caring for patients remain unaffected. However, she warned that it could spread through open wounds.

“If someone has the disease and there is another person who has a cut on their skin and they touch them, then it can be transmitted through the cut,” she said. Mary noted that one of their biggest challenges at the MDR ward is managing the deep wounds, which require large amounts of bandages and gloves every day.

While the hospital can only manage symptoms, state health officials say they are working with national authorities to uncover the cause. Felix Tangwami, the state Commissioner for Health and Human Services, suggested that the disease might be Buruli ulcer. Tangwami stressed that, while they await official results from the National Reference Laboratory, the state government, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health, is taking steps to curb the spread.

Buruli ulcer is a neglected tropical disease caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, a bacterium from the same family that causes tuberculosis and leprosy. It often begins as painless swelling or nodules on the skin, which later break down into large ulcers that can expose bones and lead to severe disability if untreated. 

The World Health Organisation has documented thousands of cases, mainly in West and Central Africa, with outbreaks reported in countries including Nigeria. 

This wider pattern underscores why health officials in Adamawa are racing to confirm whether the Malabu outbreak is linked to Buruli ulcer. After the first samples were collected, Abubakar said that some NCDC officials returned three days later to take new swabs in Malabu. “They made provisions for some drugs and items for wound dressing at the PHC,” he said. 

In the meantime, residents are left anxious. 

“I want people to know that this disease is not just currently in Malabu alone, even though it started here. At the moment, other communities around Malabu have started recording cases, which means the disease is spreading,” Abubakar added. 

HumAngle reached out to the NCDC for details on the state of its investigation, but is yet to receive a response at the time of filing this report.

How does one care for their aging parent without losing sight of their own identity?

The first thing Roxana Ortega will say is: “We have to not abandon ourselves.”

The L.A.-born Latina actress outlines the deeply emotional process of caring for an aging parent in her first play, “Am I Roxie?,” which premieres Sept. 11 and kicks off the Geffen Playhouse’s 2025-26 season.

The production will remain through Oct. 5 at the Gil Cates Theater and is directed by Bernardo Cubría, (“Crabs in a Bucket” and “The Play You Want”).

Ortega’s one-woman show was inspired by her mother, Carmen, whose memory is in decline due to Alzheimer’s disease. Bounded by her commitment to being the perfect Latina daughter, Ortega illustrates how she stepped up to provide caregiving duties, while trying to sustain her acting career — even if it was just a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich commercial.

“This show to me is about how to not abandon ourselves in a time of such great darkness,” says Ortega through a video call.

Onstage, Ortega masterfully transforms her solo act into an ensemble performance, through her many quirky accents and mannerisms alone; her characters range from her three Peruvian tías to an imaginary cholo critic and a perky, silicone-bloated nurse.

Capturing a broad emotional spectrum, from joy to grief, it is clear that Ortega — a former troupe member of the Groundlings Sunday Company — showcases a lifetime of skills on the Westwood stage.

“Everything just merged as I was trying to write about what was happening,” says Ortega. “I was also leaving sketch comedy [group] the Groundlings, so I was finding my own voice. All those things merged to birth this, a perfect combination of so many desires and dreams I’ve had.”

With over 80 acting credits to her name, the multi-hyphenate artist is best known for voicing the melodramatic Frida Casagrande from Nickelodeon’s Emmy-winning show “The Casagrandes,” an animated sitcom about a family living in the fictional Great Lakes City. Other notable credits include Netflix’s “Grand-Daddy Day Care” and “Santa Clarita Diet,” Warner Bros.‘ “Miss Congeniality 2” as well as the popular Fox series “New Girl.”

Audiences should buckle up — preferably with tissues at the ready — for a roller coaster of emotions, as they witness Ortega relinquish control over an unchangeable fate, while holding compassion for her mother and herself in “Am I Roxie?”

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Your one-woman show, “Am I Roxie?,” explores your personal journey as a caretaker for your aging parent, but it also focuses on your artistic aspirations. Can you walk me through your decision to make this the subject of your next project?

I’ve always wanted to turn my personal material into art; most artists do feel that way. I had been doing it for quite a while in sketch comedy, [by] taking characters like my tías, who I find to be so hysterical, and trying to put them into things. So I knew somewhere in the back of my brain — or in the middle — that I wanted to do a show about my family. I watched Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s “Lackawanna Blues,” so I always wanted to do that.

This play approaches heavy topics with humor. How did you strike that balance?

I think that’s just the way my brain works. I think a lot of comedians are this way; we’re always looking for laughs and maybe that’s how we survive ’cause we are very sensitive people — I’m very sensitive and very intense, so laughter is that levity.

Through the development process, we did have some discussions about certain moments. Do we want people to laugh when I’m in the chaise longue texting, “Is [my mom] still alive?” We had more “Shark Tank” sounds running through that and then changed it.

Caregiving is obviously a huge endeavor for Latinos — Latina women, more specifically. How do you make sense of the idea of care now?

I [think of] abandonment. There’s something so primal when somebody is aging and you can tell, “This person was in charge of me; they’re so vulnerable; now they need me. Oh my god, I can’t abandon them, right?” You feel like, “I don’t want to be abandoned, so I don’t want to abandon them.” It really shocked me how strong that urge was and I think we also have to not abandon ourselves. We absolutely cannot.

If you go into the caregiving world, they talk about care like: “Here’s your pills, here’s the food and we have some music coming in.” Maybe if you’re lucky, there’s bingo — but my mom wouldn’t play bingo! Are you f— kidding me? Care should be individualized. It should address the spirit.

Guilt creeps up in this play disguised as your inner Latina critic every time you do something that feels selfish in light of your mom’s situation. What relationship do you have with your inner critic now?

I definitely feel like I’ve gone through a journey from fear to love with the task of caregiving and even in relation to myself; I learned to love myself more, which is part of caring for yourself.

In this process of putting [my story] out there, of just being so gentle with myself and saying, “No matter what happens, no matter how it’s received, I’m not going to put my identity on the line.” There will be no beating myself up. There will be no, “Now you’re terrible because this, this, this …” It’s always a practice. Life is too short for us to feel bad.

There’s no benefit to suffering, and most of our suffering we do to ourselves through that critic by giving it power. And in our culture, sometimes it’s glorified.

You’re an overachiever, a Berkeley grad and former Groundlings member. But in “Am I Roxie?,” you balance the urgency of achieving your goals with the grief of losing a parent who is still alive. How did it feel to not give up on your dreams?

I felt like a terrible daughter. It’s hard. There’s a point in the show when I leave my mom and she says, “Don’t leave me here,” and I leave her and go to an audition. That’s a hard moment and I can tell that the audience is like, “How could you do that?” It feels vulnerable to show that I did that. But then, how does a mother leave their child at kindergarten? How can you find the balance where you are nurturing yourself and nurturing somebody else?

It was hard. I would beat myself up a lot and cry about feeling so terrible. And then go the next day to absolve myself. The more [my mom] found other relationships with a caregiver, the more I felt like, “Okay, she’s safe.”

Motherhood is also at the core of your story — not just with your mother, but as you explore your own fertility journey. How did your concept of motherhood change after caring for your mother?

What I didn’t explicitly say in the play is that I am a mother. I mothered my mother. Now, not everyone who is a mother by having a baby is necessarily a “mothering mother.” Something that this disease taught me is what these words really mean. What is it to be a sister? What is it to be a mother? What I learned in caring for my mom is that I am a mother, because I was able to nurture on such a deep level. Even when all the signs showed that she’s not there anymore. A mother knows her baby. She was my baby at the end.

After our fertility journey, 10 years of trying, me birthing this piece of art was me mothering my creativity into existence.

 You don’t mention Alzheimer’s by name until that very end. Why?

Part of it was accepting the journey and being able to say the diagnosis. Sometimes there’s an avoidance around Alzheimer’s. Nobody wants to say the word or talk about the disease ’cause it’s sad. So I wanted to make it a moment when I actually said it so that we can see the weight of it. Hopefully viewers will leave the theater being able to speak about it and to know it in an intimate way. Naming it is so important, so we can take the sting and discomfort off.

There are tender moments onstage where you let out tears. What is it like to relive those real-life moments on stage every night?

It is so difficult, more difficult than I thought it would be. My mom is onstage with me when I walk out there. I take her hand and I put her in that little opera chair next to me and we are together. Saying goodbye to her every night is hard.

The illness spreads via close physical contact

Brits heading to Turkey are being urged to “take extra precautions” following reported cases of a highly contagious disease case. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has verified an mpox case in Turkey, amid an outbreak affecting various locations around the world.

Mpox, formerly called monkeypox, is a transmissible illness that spreads via close physical contact with blisters or scabs from someone who’s infected. Travel Health Pro said: “On 23 August 2025, the World Health Organization reported a case of clade Ib mpox in Turkey, detected on 7 August 2025.

“The case is reported to have had a travel history to the United Arab Emirates.” The Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa has been the worst hit, recording 27,449 confirmed cases of both clade Ia and Ib combined, reports the Express.

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Nine cases were spotted in the UK earlier this year – with many discovered in individuals returning from Uganda. Mpox signs usually emerge between five and 21 days following infection.

Early symptoms can be brutal, featuring high fever, agonising headaches, muscle and back aches, enlarged glands, chills, overwhelming tiredness, and joint discomfort. A rash might appear anywhere on the body one to five days following these early warning signs.

The WHO warns that young children, expectant mothers, and individuals with compromised immune systems, especially those with poorly controlled HIV, face heightened risk of serious mpox complications, which can prove deadly. However, the majority of people bounce back within a month.

The NHS has offered guidance on how to protect oneself from this “rare” disease, and this includes washing your hands regularly with soap and water or frequently using an alcohol-based hand sanitiser and avoiding contact with potential carriers.

You should also look out for any possible symptoms of mpox for three weeks after returning from central or east Africa, talk to sexual partners about their sexual health and any symptoms they may have, and being aware of the symptoms of mpox if you’re sexually active, especially if you have new sexual partners.

If you have any mpox symptoms, you should taking a break from sex and intimate contact until you’re seen by a doctor and are told you cannot pass it on. If you notice any symptoms of mpox, you should ring 111, stay indoors and avoid close contact with others until you’ve been given further instructions.

In March, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced that clade Ia and Ib mpox will no longer be categorised as a “high consequence infectious disease” (HCID), following a review of the available evidence by the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens.

Aug. 29 (UPI) — The New York City Health Department announced Friday that a deadly bout of Legionnaires’ disease in Upper Manhattan has ended.

According to the agency, as of Thursday, a cluster of the illness in the Central Harlem community caused 114 cases of Legionnaires’ disease. Of those who were infected, seven died and 90 were hospitalized.

Six of the victims remain hospitalized. The Health Department also noted that about 90% of those stricken “had a known risk factor for severe disease,” which includes smoking, having a compromised immune system, chronic lung disease or other chronic conditions, or being age 50 and older.

An investigation into the source of the sickness that began in July had led the Health Department to the cooling towers at Harlem Hospital, and the facility has since had its towers disinfected. However, a culture test taken from a hospital tower did come back positive earlier this month, and the hospital then drained, disinfected, and refilled the cooling tower.

A cooling tower at a construction site in Harlem was sampled in July, and it, too, received a positive result for Legionnaires, and the site contractor completed a total remediation in the beginning of August.

“After an extensive investigation, we were able to identify two cooling towers that had a genetic match with patient specimens,” announced Acting Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Morse on Friday.

“We are working with building owners on next steps to protect the health and safety of Harlem residents and to prevent future clusters,” she concluded.

“Today marks three weeks since someone with symptoms was identified, which means New Yorkers should be able to breathe a sigh of relief that residents and visitors to Central Harlem are no longer at an increased risk of contracting Legionnaires’ disease,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams in a press release.

“But our job here is not done,” he added. “We must ensure that we learn from this and implement new steps to improve our detection and response to future clusters, because public safety is at the heart of everything we do, and we will never stop working to protect New Yorkers.”

The New York City Health Department described Legionnaires’ disease as a type of pneumonia caused by the bacteria Legionella, which grows in warm, standing water.

Its symptoms can include muscle aches, fever, chills and cough. Cooling towers used in air conditioning systems emit water vapor that can spread the disease if the tower’s water system is contaminated.

The department further notes it can’t be spread from person to person or by drinking water. The city’s largest outbreak occurred in 2015, during which 16 people died and 136 were sickened.

In a compound nestled in Gitata, a remote community in Nasarawa State, North Central Nigeria, life has slowed to a crawl for the children of the late Mr and Mrs Bawa Danladi. Here, adulthood doesn’t begin with the wings of independence but with the sudden stillness of limbs.

In this house where joy once rang and children laughed freely, a strange affliction casts its long, silent cloud, stealing mobility, dignity, and dreams. The only shared pattern? The affliction grips every family member after they turn 18.

Eighteen is pegged as the age of majority in Nigeria. For some people, turning 18 connotes ‘leaving their nests’; however, for Danlami Dalandi and his siblings, it means being robbed of their coming of age.

Of the eight children born to the late Danladi, seven have been struck by a relentless and mysterious condition. Six are now completely paralysed, while another has lost her sight. For a family once filled with life and energy, the tragedy is not just that their bodies have failed them, but also that nobody seems to know why.

Danlami, who is now in his mid-forties, sits slouched, needing help to eat or shift even slightly in his chair. His voice cracks with exhaustion, but he presses on, determined to speak for himself and his siblings. They have become ghost versions of their former selves, slowly caving under their helplessness.

“I thought turning 18 would bring freedom,” said Danlami, the family’s eldest son, his voice heavy with sorrow. “Instead, it was the beginning of our end.”

As he explained his condition, Danlami’s gloomy face needed no interpretation of the emotional exhaustion it carried. While speaking to HumAngle, he described how he moved from a boy filled with energy to a man who couldn’t walk or stand.

He was the first in his family to encounter the enigmatic illness in 2001. It quietly took hold, showing no fever or noticeable symptoms, but slowly drained his strength. Activities that used to be simple started to feel overwhelmingly difficult. Years later, his younger brother Pious began to show the same symptoms, following the same unsettling pattern.

The illness didn’t strike in childhood. Instead, it waited until they crossed into adulthood, then everything began to deteriorate. Their strength faded, and mobility became a struggle. Even their eldest sister, Asabe, seemed spared at first. She married and gave birth before the sickness took hold. Unable to move without assistance, she shares the same fate as her brothers, who are all trapped in a body that no longer obeys.

The major setback

In 1990, when their father passed away, their mother became their anchor. She carried their burden, pushing wheelchairs, cleaning them up, feeding grown children, and wiping tears no one else saw. In a community with no formal support system, she became nurse, caregiver, and breadwinner at the same time.

When asked if the disorder has a historical origin within the family, Danladi told HumAngle that the condition is alien to them, as their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were known to be hale and hearty until their demise.

“Our parents never had this sickness. We even asked if our great-grandparents or grandparents had such illnesses, but none of them did. It is only we, born of the same mother, that are afflicted by this sickness,” he said.

For years, their mother carried this weight of care. When she died in 2017, the siblings were left not just physically immobilised but emotionally adrift. 

Danlami said that despite their condition, they still bear the guilt of being unable to assist their mother. “She was our world,” says Danlami quietly. “She believed we could get better, even when we didn’t. She died in 2017, and that was when it truly felt like everything stopped.”

A rare disease

Their only formal visit to a proper medical facility happened in 2018, and no diagnosis was shared. They were taken to the Federal Medical Centre in Keffi courtesy of the Berekete Family, an Abuja-based reality radio and television programme. Tests were conducted, but no diagnosis was shared. They never saw the results, though they received some financial assistance.

When the broadcast station spotlighted the issue, the Nasarawa State Ministry of Health sent its representatives, including doctors, to conduct additional tests, suspecting polio. But according to Danlami, the only thing the officials told them was that “it’s not polio.”

Dr Douglas Okor, a consultant neurosurgeon at the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja, told HumAngle that the family might be experiencing a type of muscular dystrophy, a rare and often misunderstood genetic condition that quietly ravages the body’s muscles, starting in adolescence and worsening with age.

According to Dr Okor, the most familiar kinds, like Duchenne and Becker, typically affect boys early in childhood. But a lesser-known group called Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy (LGMD) can surface in late adolescence or early adulthood. LGMD begins in the hips and shoulders and steadily disables the body, just like in the case of the late Danladi’s family.

“LGMD often appears in families with no known history. It can be inherited silently until two parents, both carrying the mutated gene, pass it to their child,” he noted. “Over time, patients lose the ability to walk, feed themselves, or even breathe without assistance, in some cases.”

Rare diseases such as LGMD affect a small percentage of the population, but they pose daunting challenges, especially in low-income countries where awareness, diagnostic tools, and specialised care are limited. While thousands of rare diseases exist globally, many of them genetic, accurate data on their incidence in Nigeria remains scarce, largely because of underreporting or misdiagnosis. 

A study at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, southwestern Nigeria, uncovered 11 cases of Duchenne muscular dystrophy over five years. One key finding was that scarce medical resources and early warning signs were routinely overlooked, leaving patients to arrive late and already deep into the disorder’s grip.

Like Danlami said, they were active children when they were younger. “I used to climb trees, play football, and help on the farm. Then, slowly, it became hard to move. And it never got better.” Their condition kept deteriorating because they were never diagnosed.

His brother, Danjuma, was the family’s powerhouse. Known around Gitata as “the Usain Bolt of the block”, he could out-sprint his peers when he was younger. He later worked as a mechanic, fixing generators, rewiring appliances, and bringing light to homes. Today, he cannot even brush his teeth without assistance.

Dr Okor explained that the symptoms often mask themselves as ordinary fatigue. Unlike infectious diseases, muscular dystrophy doesn’t produce visible inflammation or fever. “That makes it harder to detect, especially in low-resource settings like Gitata, where most people have never heard of the condition.”

Although rare, he noted, the illness can be managed if detected early, with input from multiple specialists and continuous rehabilitation. “It can be managed by a combination of a neurologist, physiotherapist, and occupational therapist,” Dr Okor said.

However, for the Danladi family, such options remain beyond reach, both financially and geographically; there is virtually no system in place to lean on. 

Nigeria has a National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, set up to protect rights and prevent discrimination, but there is no specific programme or policy dedicated to rare neuromuscular disorders like muscular dystrophy. Experts have long urged the government to create a framework for early diagnosis, registries, and specialised support services, but so far, these calls have gone unanswered.

One still standing

Since their mother’s death, the family has been left with one carer: Hannatu, their youngest sister.

The 25-year-old is the only sibling untouched, at least physically. Each day, she cares for her brothers, helping them bathe, eat, and reposition their stiffened bodies when necessary. 

But fear stalks her.

“I don’t know if it will reach me too,” she said, her voice barely audible. “In 2018, our youngest brother was fine. Now, he can’t lift his arms.”

Every tick of the clock reminds her she could be nearing the family’s invisible threshold. Though she has passed the age, she wonders constantly if she’s merely living on borrowed time.

Beyond that dread, the condition carries additional emotional scars for the women in the family. 

Her older sister, Cecilia, 28, is already living with the burden. The 28-year-old has already lost vision in one eye and movement in one of her legs. But what haunts her more is loneliness. Her and her sister’s futures are not just on pause; their love lives are equally hanging in the balance.

“Suitors don’t come our way. I think they’re afraid. They think it’s contagious. Honestly, we’ve all given up on the idea of marriage,” she told HumAngle.

Hannatu nods in silence as Cecilia speaks. Their dreams of families, weddings, careers, and travel have all withered into survival routines. The family’s closest neighbour feels a blend of heartbreak and helplessness. 

“We’ve watched this unfold over 20 years,” Shuaibu Adamu, a neighbour and family friend, said. “First, it was Danlami. Then the others followed. No one knows what this sickness is. We just pray for them to heal.”

In a country battling an overstretched healthcare system and public scepticism of rare diseases, families like the Danladis often slip through cracks too wide to fill. Without consistent intervention or support, their fate remains unchanged.

For now, Hannatu stays vigilant, her hands full, her heart heavy. But she sometimes wonders how long she can keep holding everyone up without falling herself.

Alysha, 27, thought she had a hangover – but i turned out to be a deadly infection from food or animals

A backpacker has told how her post-party hangover turned out to be a deadly infection which kills over 100,000 people every year. Alysha Pyrgotis, 27, was left vomiting and with ‘extreme diarrhoea’ after catching typhoid on the remote Indonesian party island of Gili Trawangan in June this year.

She said: “I was bed bound, in a lot of pain with my muscles and my bones. I was a bit delirious. I couldn’t concentrate at all, that’s when I started to panic. The guy I was travelling with at the time started to realise I was quite poorly, I wasn’t hungover.

“He spoke to the person at the hostel and we had a look online, there weren’t any hospitals or anything. I was on a very small island, there wasn’t really healthcare, it was just really unlucky that I was there at the time.”

A local doctor came out to visit Alysha and tested her blood to find she had typhoid – a bacterial infection which can kill one in five of those infected if they do not get treatment. The backpacker, from Bradford, believes she could have caught the infection from something she ate.

She said: “I thought I was going to die, to be honest. It was that bad, I was literally like ‘this is it’. I was so annoyed as I was so close to the end of my trip. I’d been ill before, but not that ill before. I was really worried about telling my family – I didn’t tell them, actually, because they were having a lot of stress at work at the time. I didn’t tell them until after I’d been poorly.

“I just thought it was not going to end well for me. I was panicking as I knew I had to leave the country soon, I was really, really scared.”

Alysha added: “It was just like my body didn’t want anything inside it, it was trying to get rid of everything. I didn’t eat anything for the whole time I was really ill – probably five or six days. Even water, I would sip water and it would come straight back up. It was a very, very extreme sickness.”

After six days on a drip in a small, cramped medical shack, Alysha received a negative typhoid test and had to get out of the country. She said: “I had to get out of Indonesia because my visa would run out. I’d spent almost my whole time in Indonesia being sick.

“I had to get out, I had a flight to Thailand. They took me off the drip and the next day I had to fly to Bangkok. I still was very sick, the flight was horrific. Even the next few days in Bangkok were very difficult, I couldn’t do anything. The lasting effects of it were still a couple of weeks of not feeling quite right.”

The former social media marketing executive was in the middle of a seven-and-a-half-month trip abroad when she came down with the fever. Following a breakup, Alysha made the spontaneous decision to fly out to south Thailand in December 2024.

She then visited Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and the Philippines before going to Indonesia. Now, she’s urging anyone who visits these countries to ensure they wash their hands – especially around animals – and watch what they eat.

Alysha said: “I’m not going to say ‘nobody pet the stray animals’, because that’s one of my favourite parts of travelling. I think washing your hands is really important afterwards, because that’s something I really didn’t do.

“I was in the middle of nowhere petting stray animals and then going about my day for hours and hours without access to any water to wash my hands in, I didn’t bring any sanitiser either. I think general handwashing, being careful with what you eat out there.

“A lot of street food you eat isn’t kept in clean conditions, it’s in a hot country on the street. Chicken is sat out for hours and the cleaning utensils are probably not cleaned to the standard you would in the west. I just wasn’t careful where I ordered my food from.

“I was just eating everything that looked good and smelled good at the time – and that’s probably not the wisest thing to do.”

According to the NHS, typhoid fever is spread through unclean food or water. Symptoms include high temperature, headache, coughing, chills, aches, pains, feeling tired, constipation, and a lack of hunger. Those travelling in areas where there’s a risk of catching it are advised by the health agency to get a vaccination against the illness.

Treatment for people who catch it is through antibiotics. Some people who recover from the disease can become carriers who can still spread it for months or even years after.

The NHS says regularly washing your hands with soap and warm water, or using sanitiser gel if they’re unavailable, as well as using bottled or boiled water and eating thoroughly cooked foods can help to prevent catching or spreading the infection. The health agency says to avoid having ice in drinks, or eating raw or lightly cooked meat or seafood and unwashed salad.

Dairy products made from unpasteurised milk and food that has been left uncovered can also pose a risk. Typhoid vaccines are recommended for anyone age over one year old when travelling to an area where there is a high risk of catching typhoid.

Travellers should try to see a GP six to eight weeks before travelling. The vaccine lasts for three years and comes as an injection or tablets.

Health authorities are warning people to keep their distance from “risky” animals

The Catalan Department for Health has issued a warning as 21% of animal attacks in the area are now considered to be “risky” for disease transmission. Bats with rabies are a particular concern according to the authority.

It urged people in Catalonia to avoid contact with bats at all costs as these animals are the main carriers of rabies in the area. Rabies is passed on through bites, scratches and other close contact from an infected animal such as an infected animal licking your eyes, nose or mouth.

The authority cautioned: “It is important that if a person finds a bat, they do not handle it, even if it seems harmless or injured. And in this case, notify rural agents so that they can take charge of its management.

“In the event of a bite, scratch or lick from an animal considered at risk, both in Catalonia and in any other territory, in addition to immediately washing the wound with soap and water to reduce the risk of infection, it is necessary to consult a healthcare centre so that it can assess the actions to be taken.”

Officials also reminded people to be wary when travelling to other countries or areas that might have endemic rabies but Catalonia is currently free of terrestrial endemic rabies. This means that animals such as dogs, cats and ferrets in the area have no risk of contagion. The authority has highlighted that occasional instances of bats carrying the infection have been reported in the area.

Between January and 29 July this year, there were 88 animal attacks reported in Catalonia, with 22 involving bats, a figure consistent with previous years. However, this year has seen a significant increase in cases requiring intervention due to potential rabies infection, accounting for 63% of all incidents.

The health authority clarified that people who have been attacked by an animal deemed at risk of carrying rabies are typically administered anti-rabies medication and must adhere to a vaccination schedule following the suspected exposure.

Historically, June, July and August have been the peak months for animal attacks in Catalonia, with most incidents occurring during tourist trips in the region, on the streets or within domestic settings.

The NHS has issued a warning to travellers heading to Asia, Africa, Central America and South America to be particularly vigilant for rabies, as these regions have a higher prevalence of the disease.

In certain circumstances, a rabies vaccine may be recommended for those travelling to areas where access to emergency medical assistance may be limited or for those likely to come into contact with animals, such as those engaging in extensive outdoor activities.

Rabies is extremely rare in the UK and can be transmitted by various mammals including dogs, bats, raccoons and foxes. Currently, much like Catalonia, it’s only sporadically found in some bats in the UK.

Rabies can be prevented if treatment is sought promptly after exposure, according to health services. However, once symptoms begin to manifest, the disease becomes untreatable and is almost always fatal.

Their medical research focuses on potentially lifesaving breakthroughs in cancer treatment, and developing tools to more easily diagnose debilitating diseases. Their studies in mathematics could make online systems more robust and secure.

But as the academic year opens, the work of UCLA’s professors in these and many other fields has been imperiled by the Trump administration’s suspension of $584 million in grant funding, which University of California President James B. Milliken called a “death knell” to its transformative research.

The freeze came after a July 29 U.S. Department of Justice finding that the university had violated the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli students by providing an inadequate response to alleged antisemitism they faced after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

The fight over the funding stoppage intensified Friday after the Trump administration demanded that UCLA pay a $1-billion fine, among other concessions, to resolve the accusations — and California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state will sue, calling the proposal “extortion.”

Amid heightened tensions in Westwood, thousands of university academics are in limbo. In total, at least 800 grants, mostly from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, have been frozen.

UCLA scholars described days of confusion as they struggle to understand how the loss of grants would affect their work and scramble to uncover new funding sources — or roles that would ensure their continued pay, or that of their colleagues. While professors still have jobs and paychecks to draw on, many others, including graduate students, rely on grant funding for their salaries, tuition and healthcare.

At least for the moment, though, several academics told The Times that their work had not yet be interrupted. So far, no layoffs have been announced.

Sydney Campbell, a UCLA cancer researcher whose grant funding has been cut, stands inside the Biomedical Sciences Research building at UCLA.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Sydney Campbell, a pancreatic cancer researcher and postdoctoral scholar at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, said her work — which aims to understand how diet affects the disease — is continuing for now. She has an independent fellowship that “hopefully will protect the majority of my salary.” But others, she said, don’t have that luxury.

“It is absolutely going to affect people’s livelihoods. I already know of people … with families who are having to take pay cuts almost immediately,” said Campbell, who works for a lab that has lost two National Institutes of Health grants, including one that funds her research.

Pancreatic cancer is among the most deadly of cancers, but Campbell’s work could lead to a better understanding of it, paving the way for more robust prophylactic programs — and treatment plans — that may ultimately help tame the scourge.

“Understanding how diet can impact cancer development could lead to preventive strategies that we can recommend to patients in the future,” she said. “Right now we can’t effectively do that because we don’t have the information about the underlying biology. Our studies will help us actually be able to make recommendations based on science.”

Campbell’s work — and that of many others at UCLA — is potentially groundbreaking. But it could soon be put on hold.

“We have people who don’t know if they’re going to be able to purchase experimental materials for the rest of the month,” she said.

Fears of existential crisis

For some, the cuts have triggered something close to an existential crisis.

After professor Dino Di Carlo, chair of the UCLA Samueli Bioengineering Department, learned about 20 grants were suspended there — including four in his lab worth about $1 million — he felt a profound sadness. He said he doesn’t know why his grants were frozen, and there may not be money to pay his six researchers.

So Di Carlo, who is researching diagnostics for Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, took to LinkedIn, where he penned a post invoking the Franz Kafka novel “The Trial.” The unsettling tale is about a man named Josef K. who wakes up and finds himself under arrest and then on trial — with no understanding of the situation.

“Like Josef K., the people actually affected — the public, young scientists, patients waiting for better treatments and diagnostic tools — are left asking: What crime did we commit?” wrote Di Carlo. “They are being judged by a system that no longer explains itself.”

The LinkedIn post quickly attracted dozens of comments and more than 1,000 other responses. Di Carlo, who has been working to find jobs for researchers who depend on paychecks that come from now-suspended grants, said he appreciated the support.

But, goodwill has its limits. “It doesn’t pay the rent for a student this month,” he said.

Di Carlo’s research is partly focused on developing an at-home test that would detect Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, which are on the rise. Because no such product is currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, he said, people who’ve experienced a tick bite have to wait for lab results to confirm their infection.

“This delay in diagnosis prevents timely treatment, allowing the disease to progress and potentially lead to long-term health issues,” he said. “A rapid, point-of-care test would allow individuals to receive immediate results, enabling early treatment with antibiotics when the disease is most easily addressed, significantly reducing the risk of chronic symptoms and improving health outcomes.”

Di Carlo lamented what he called “a continual assault on the scientific community” by the Trump administration, which has canceled billions of dollars in National Institutes of Health funding for universities across the country.

It “just … hasn’t let up,” Di Carlo said.

Scrambling for funds

Some professors who’ve lost grants have spent long hours scrambling to secure new sources of funding.

Di Carlo said he was in meetings all week to identity which researchers are affected by the cuts, and to try to figure out, “Can we support those students?” He has also sought to determine whether some could be moved to other projects that still have funding, or be given teaching assistant positions, among other options.

He’s not alone in those efforts. Mathematics professor Terence Tao also has lost a grant worth about $750,000. But Tao said that he was more distressed by the freezing of a $25-million grant for UCLA’s Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics. The funding loss for the institute, where Tao is director of special projects, is “actually quite existential,” he said, because the grant is “needed to fund operations” there.

Tao, who is the James and Carol Collins chair in the College of Letters and Sciences, said the pain goes beyond the loss of funds. “The abruptness — and basically the lack of due process in general — just compounds the damage,” said Tao. “We got no notice.”

A luminary in his field, Tao conducts research that examines, in part, whether a group of numbers are random or structured. His work could lead to advances in cryptography that may eventually make online systems — such as those used for financial transactions — more secure.

“It is important to do this kind of research — if we don’t, it’s possible that an adversary, for example, could actually discover these weaknesses that we are not looking for at all,” Tao said. “So you do need this extra theoretical confirmation that things that you think are working actually do work as intended, [and you need to] also explore the negative space of what doesn’t work.”

Tao said he’s been heartened by donations that the mathematics institute has received from private donors in recent days — about $100,000 so far.

“We are scrambling for short-term funding because we need to just keep the lights on for the next few months,” said Tao.

Rafael Jaime, president of United Auto Workers Local 4811, which represents 48,000 academic workers within the University of California — including about 8,000 at UCLA — said he was not aware of any workers who haven’t been paid so far, but that the issue could come to a head at the end of August.

He said that the UC system “should do everything that it can to ensure that workers aren’t left without pay.”

What comes next?

A major stressor for academics: the uncertainty.

Some researchers whose grants were suspended said they have not received much guidance from UCLA on a path forward. Some of that anxiety was vented on Zoom calls last week, including a UCLA-wide call attended by about 3,000 faculty members.

UCLA administrators said they are exploring stopgap options, including potential emergency “bridge” funding to grantees to pay researchers or keep up labs such as those that use rodents as subjects.

Some UCLA academics worried about a brain drain. Di Carlo said that undergraduate students he advises have begun asking for his advice on relocating to universities abroad for graduate school.

“This has been the first time that I’ve seen undergraduate students that have asked about foreign universities for their graduate studies,” he said. “I hear, ‘What about Switzerland? … What about University of Tokyo?’ This assault on science is making the students think that this is not the place for them.”

But arguably researchers’ most pressing concern is continuing their work.

Campbell explained that she has personally been affected by pancreatic cancer — she lost someone close to her to it. She and her peers do the research “for the families” who’ve also been touched by the disease.

“That the work that’s already in progress has the chance of being stopped in some way is really disappointing,” she said. “Not just for me, but for all those patients I could potentially help.”

As Justin Timberlake bid farewell to his Forget Tomorrow world tour, he got candid with fans about his health.

The “Mirrors” and “SexyBack” pop star, 44, on Thursday revealed in a heartfelt Instagram post that he powered through his circuit of live performances as he battled a “relentlessly debilitating” bout of Lyme disease. The singer, who faced backlash for his low-energy performances in recent weeks, said in his lengthy caption that sharing his health issues was to help him “shed some light on what I’ve been up against behind the scenes.”

The Grammy-winning singer and actor went in depth about the disease’s mental and physical toll. Although he said he was “shocked” by the diagnosis, he said it provided some clarity.

“At least I could understand why I would be onstage and in a massive amount of nerve pain or, just feeling crazy fatigue or sickness,” he continued. “I was faced with a personal decision. Stop touring? Or, keep going and figure it out.”

The Mayo Clinic defines Lyme disease as an illness “caused by borrelia bacteria” that humans can get if they are bitten by an infected tick. Symptoms of Lyme disease can include joint stiffness, muscle aches and pains, fever and headache. Antibiotics are used to treat the disease.

Timberlake, amid the “fleeting stress my body was feeling,” said he opted to continue with his tour. “I’m so glad I kept going,” he said.

Pushing through with the tour, which began in April 2024 in Vancouver and ended Wednesday in Turkey, allowed Timberlake to prove his “mental tenacity,” he said. The singer said he would also work to be “more transparent about my struggles” with fans.

Throughout his tour, Timberlake faced a handful of personal and public obstacles. In October 2024, he announced the postponement of several shows to recover from bronchitis and laryngitis. That same month, he also abruptly called off a concert in Newark, N.J., because of an injury.

Notably, the former ‘NSYNC frontman carried on with his slate of shows last year after his DWI arrest in the Hamptons in June 2024. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of impaired driving, his driving privileges were suspended and he was sentenced in September to 25 hours of community service at a nonprofit of his choosing. He was also required to make a public safety announcement about the dangers of impaired driving.

After sharing his health update, Timberlake reminisced on his touring experience, continuing his post in his own comments section. He thanked supporters for their “energy and love” and the crew and artists who joined him on the road. Though performing live is “sacred” to the “Suit & Tie” music star, he said the status of his stage career remains unclear.

“I honestly don’t know what my future is onstage but I’ll always cherish this run! And all of them before,” he wrote. “It’s been the stuff of LEGEND for me.”

He ended his post sending love to his actor wife Jessica Biel and their two children. His caption accompanied a carousel of behind-the-scenes photos.

Former Times staff writer Nardine Saad contributed to this report.

HEALTH officials have warned a surge of a “nasty disease” could be on the way if vaccination isn’t prioritised.

Cases still remain high, particularly in two areas of the UK.

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The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is urging patients to prioritise vaccine catch-up appointments this summer, with the latest data showing continued high levels of measles cases.

Fears have now been raised over a further surge once the new school term begins.

Measles activity has increased since April 2025, says the UKHSA.

The most recent figures show an additional 145 measles cases have been reported since the last report was published on July 3.

Cases continue to predominantly be in children under the age of 10 years, and London and the North West have been driving the increase most.

Since January 1, there have been 674 laboratory confirmed measles cases reported in England, with 48 per cent of these cases in London, 16 per cent in the North West, and 10 per cent in the East of England.

There’s also been a global increase in measles cases, including Europe, over the last year. 

The UKHSA has also stressed holiday travel and international visits to see family this summer could lead to rising measles cases in England when the new school term begins.

Dr Vanessa Saliba, UKHSA Consultant Epidemiologist, said: “The summer months offer parents an important opportunity to ensure their children’s vaccinations are up to date, giving them the best possible protection when the new school term begins.

“It is never too late to catch up. Do not put it off and regret it later.

“Measles spreads very easily and can be a nasty disease, leading to complications like ear and chest infections and inflammation of the brain with some children tragically ending up in hospital and suffering life-long consequences.

“Two doses of the MMR vaccine is the best way to protect yourself and your family from measles.

“Babies under the age of 1 and some people who have weakened immune systems cannot have the vaccine and are at risk of more serious complications if they get measles.

“They rely on the rest of us getting the vaccine to protect them.”

The first MMR vaccine is offered to infants when they turn one year old and the second dose to pre-school children when they are around three years and four months old. 

Around 99 per cent of those who have two doses will be protected against measles and rubella.

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Although mumps protection is slightly lower, cases in vaccinated people are much less severe. 

Anyone, whatever age, who has not had two doses can contact their GP surgery to book an appointment.

Dr Amanda Doyle, National Director for Primary Care and Community Services at NHS England, said: “The MMR vaccine is provided free by the NHS and I would urge all parents to check their child’s vaccination records before the new school year or summer travel, particularly as Europe is reporting the highest number of measles cases in 25 years.

“While the NHS delivered tens of thousands of additional MMR vaccinations last year, too many eligible children remain unvaccinated, and we are working with local authorities and the UK Health Security Agency to reach more youngsters, with enhanced vaccination offers in areas with higher cases, including vaccination buses and community catch-up sessions.”

The federal government has paid California dairy farms more than $230 million to subsidize losses in milk production resulting from bird flu, records show, an amount that the dairy industry expects to climb higher as more claims for damages are processed.

The H5N1 bird flu has swept through more than 75% of California’s 1,000 dairy farms since August 2024, sickening cattle and leading to steep dropoffs in milk production.

Farmers were able to get relief under a U.S. Department of Agriculture program known as the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program, or ELAP. The program usually provides assistance for farmers impacted by wildfires, drought and flooding but was opened up for dairy farmers last year as bird flu began ravaging their cows.

U.S. Department of Agriculture records show that 644 payments were made to 359 California dairy farms between November 2024 and June 2025 totaling $231 million. The average per farm payment was about $645,000, and ranged from $2,058 to the Pereira Dairy Farm, in Visalia, to $4.4 million to Channel Islands Dairy Farm, in Corcoran.

Those payments are expected to go much higher, however, as more claims are submitted and processed. Many of the payments issued in May and June were for outbreaks in 2024, suggesting there are more to come.

The relief payments were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by Farm Forward, a nonprofit group that advocates against factory farming. The group asserts that the subsidies help prop up industrial-scale dairy operations that perpetuate the spread of bird flu.

“These are mega industrial operations that are fueling an outbreak,” said Andrew deCoriolis, Farm Forward’s executive director. “Bird flu spreads in exactly the kinds of environments that we’re paying to preserve.”

Anja Raudabaugh, the chief executive of the industry’s largest state trade group, Western United Dairies, said the payments have “ensured our dairy communities and their workers stay employed and healthy. Until we get approval of a dairy cow vaccine, weathering this storm has only been possible with the assistance of the milk loss payments.”

Jonathan Cockroft, managing partner of Channel Islands Dairy Farms, said while the payments helped with the roughly 30% drop in milk production his farm experienced, his losses exceed the $4 million he received.

He said the virus caused cows to abort their pregnancies, and often prevented them from getting pregnant again. A dairy cow that doesn’t give birth doesn’t produce milk. In other cases, he said the udders were so scarred by the disease that the cows were unable to produce milk at levels prior to infection.

“There’s a whole other version I’m not sure the public understands, which is the huge impact on reproduction,” he said.

He also noted many animals died — especially when the outbreak first hit last fall, and the newness of it combined with the blazing heat of the Central Valley felled 10% to 15% of many California herds.

Joey Airoso, a dairy farmer in Tipton, received a $1.45-million subsidy for an outbreak at his farm last October.

He said the outbreak has cost him more than $2 million “just on milk income and that does not include the over $250,000 of extra care costs” required to treat cows with medicines, extra staffing and veterinary consultations.

And it doesn’t cover the cost of the cows that died — which can’t produce milk or be sold for meat. The average dairy cow costs about $3,500, Cockroft said.

Jay Van Rein, a spokesperson for California’s Department of Food and Agriculture, said the loss payments are “the most realistic way for producers to recover and to avoid huge disruptions in the food supply of these products.”

USDA officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but a former top USDA official who left the agency in January said it was important to provide dairy farmers relief once the agency identified H5N1 bird flu in a handful of Texas herds in March 2024. By then the disease had been spreading for weeks, if not months, making containment to one state impossible.

“This was a once-in-a-lifetime event, and we knew that we were going to need to support producers, and we knew that the quicker we could get some assistance out to them to help them test, the better off we were going to be, and the faster we’d be able to bring the infection under control,” he said.

Farm Forward’s DeCoriolis and others, however, say these programs perpetuate an agricultural industry designed around containing hundreds, if not thousands, of genetically similar animals into confined lots — veritable playgrounds for a novel virus. He also noted the federal relief programs don’t come with any strings attached, such as incentives for disease mitigation and/or biosecurity.

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization in Canada, said handing out subsidies to farms without trying to understand or investigate the practices they are using to quash the disease is a mistake.

“What are they doing on the farms to prevent reinfection?” she said.

The USDA payments were based on a per cow milk production losses over a four-week period. According to Farm Forward’s data, several farms received more than one subsidy. While roughly half received just one payment, 100 farms received two payments, 58 received three, 19 received four and two received six separate payments.

At one farm in Tulare County, four USDA payments were submitted once a month between November 2024 and February 2025. At another, payments stretched from December 2024 to May 2025.

Rasmussen said the multiple payments most likely stemmed depending on specific circumstances at the dairies involved.

Cockroft of the Channel Islands Dairy said he and other farmers have seen waves of reinfection and milk tests that remain positive for months on end. He said he knew of a farm that was in quarantine for nine months.

When herds are quarantined, animals are not allowed to be transferred on or off site. In California, a farm is under quarantine for 60 days after initial virus detection. It can’t move out of quarantine until tests show its milk is virus-free — for three weeks in a row.

Van Rein, the state agriculture spokesperson, said the average time under quarantine is 103 days. He said that of the 1,000 herds in California, 940 are not under quarantine; 715 of those had previously been infected and released from quarantine.

A quarantined farm can still sell milk, however, even if the milk tests positive. Pasteurization has been shown to kill the virus.

The relief payments are another sign of how the U.S. government supports the agricultural industry, which is considered by some to be vital to the national interest.

“We’ve decided politically that this is an industry that we want to support, that was hit by something that obviously wasn’t their fault, and we’re going to help them, because it was a disastrous thing that hit the industry,” said Daniel Sumner, an agricultural economist at UC Davis. “If we thought about these payments as we’re using our tax money to help somebody who’s in need, because their family is poor, that’s not the case.”

Ari Aster’s “Eddington” is such a superb social satire about contemporary America that I want to bury it in the desert for 20 years. More distance will make it easier to laugh.

It’s a modern western set in New Mexico — Aster’s home state — where trash blows like tumbleweeds as Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) stalks across the street to confront Eddington’s mayor, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), whom he is campaigning to unseat. It’s May of 2020, that hot and twitchy early stretch of the COVID pandemic when reality seemed to disintegrate, and Joe is ticked off about the new mask mandate. He has asthma, and he can’t understand anyone who has their mouth covered.

Joe and Ted have old bad blood between them that’s flowed down from Joe’s fragile wife Louise, a.k.a. Rabbit (Emma Stone), a stunted woman-child who stubbornly paints creepy dolls, and his mother-in-law Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell), a raving conspiracist who believes the Titanic sinking was no accident. Dawn is jazzed to decode the cause of this global shutdown; there’s comfort in believing everything happens for a reason. Her mania proves contagious.

Bad things are happening in Eddington and have been for decades, not just broken shop windows. Joe wears a white hat and clearly considers himself the story’s hero, although he’s not up to the job. If you squint real hard, you can see his perspective that he’s a champion for the underdog. Joe gets his guts in a twist when a maskless elder is kicked out of the local grocery store as the other shoppers applaud. “Public shaming,” Joe spits.

“There’s no COVID in Eddington,” Joe claims in his candidacy announcement video, urging his fellow citizens that “we need to free our hearts.” His earnestness is comic and sweet and dangerous. You can hear every fact he’s leaving out. His rival’s commercials promote a fantastical utopia where Ted is playing piano on the sidewalk and elbow-bumping more Black people in 15 seconds than we see in the rest of the movie. Ted also swears that permitting a tech behemoth named SolidGoldMagikarp to build a controversial giant data center on the outskirts of the county won’t suck precious resources — it’ll transform this nowheresville into a hub for jobs. Elections are a measure of public opinion: Which fibber would you trust?

Danger is coming and like in “High Noon,” this uneasy town will tear itself apart before it arrives. Aster is so good at scrupulously capturing the tiny, fearful COVID behaviors we’ve done our best to forget that it’s a shame (and a relief) that the script isn’t really about the epidemic. Another disease has infected Eddington: Social media has made everyone brain sick.

The film is teeming with viral headlines — serious, frivolous or false — jumbled together on computer screens screaming for attention in the same all-caps font. (Remember the collective decision that no one had the bandwidth to care about murder hornets?) Influencers and phonies and maybe even the occasional real journalist prattle on in the backgrounds of scenes telling people what to think and do, often making things worse. Joe loves his wife dearly. We see him privately watching a YouTuber explain how he can convince droopy Louise to have children. Alas, he spends his nights in their marital bed chastely doomscrolling.

Every character in “Eddington” is lonely and looking for connection. One person’s humiliating nadir comes during a painful tracking shot at an outdoor party where they’re shunned like they have the plague. Phones dominate their interactions: The camera is always there in somebody’s hand, live streaming or recording, flattening life into a reality show and every conversation into a performance.

The script expands to include Joe’s deputies, aggro Guy (Luke Grimes) and Bitcoin-obsessed Michael (Micheal Ward), plus a cop from the neighboring tribal reservation, Officer Butterfly Jimenez (William Belleau) and a handful of bored, identity-seeking teens. They’ll all wind up at odds even though they’re united by the shared need to be correct, to have purpose, to belong. When George Floyd is killed six states away, these young do-gooders rush into the streets, excited to have a reason to get together and yell. The protesters aren’t insincere about the cause. But it’s head-scrambling to watch blonde Sarah (Amélie Hoeferle) lecture her ex-boyfriend Michael, who is Black and a cop, about how he should feel. Meanwhile Brian (Cameron Mann), who is white and one of the most fascinating characters to track, is so desperate for Sarah’s attention that he delivers a hilarious slogan-addled meltdown: “My job is to sit down and listen! As soon as I finish this speech! Which I have no right to make!”

The words come fast and furious and flummoxing. Aster has crowded more pointed zingers and visual gags into each scene than our eyes can take in. His dialogue is laden with vile innuendos — “deep state,” “sexual predator,” “antifa” — and can feel like getting pummeled. When a smooth-talking guru named Vernon (Austin Butler) slithers into the plot, he regales Joe’s family with an incredulous tale of persecution that, as he admits, “sounds insane just to hear coming out of my mouth.” Well, yeah. Aster wants us to feel exhausted sorting fact from fiction.

The verbal barrage builds to a scene in which Joe and Dawn sputter nonsense at each other in a cross-talking non-conversation where both sound like they’re high on cocaine. They are, quite literally, internet junkies.

This is the bleakest of black humor. There’s even an actual dumpster fire. Aster’s breakout debut, “Hereditary,” gave him an overnight pedigree as the princeling of highbrow horror films about trauma. But really, he’s a cringe comedian who exaggerates his anxieties like a tragic clown. Even in “Midsommar,” Aster’s most coherent film, his star Florence Pugh doesn’t merely cry — she howls like she could swallow the earth. It wouldn’t be surprising to hear that when Aster catches himself getting maudlin, he forces himself to actively wallow in self-pity until it feels like a joke. Making the tragic ridiculous is a useful tool. (I once got through a breakup by watching “The Notebook” on repeat.)

With “Beau Is Afraid,” Aster’s previous film with Phoenix, focusing that approach on one man felt too punishing. “Eddington” is hysterical group therapy. I suspect that Aster knows that if we read a news article about a guy like Joe, we wouldn’t have any sympathy for him at all. Instead, Aster essentially handcuffs us to Joe’s point of view and sends us off on this tangled and bitterly funny adventure, in which rattling snakes spice up a humming, whining score by the Haxan Cloak and Daniel Pemberton.

Not every plot twist works. Joe’s sharpest pivot is so inward and incomprehensible that the film feels compelled to signpost it by having a passing driver yell, “You’re going the wrong way!” By the toxic finale, we’re certain only that Phoenix plays pathetic better than anyone these days. From “Her” to “Joker” to “Napoleon” to “Inherent Vice,” he’s constantly finding new wrinkles in his sad sacks. “Eddington’s” design teams have taken care to fill Joe’s home with dreary clutter and outfit him in sagging jeans. By contrast, Pascal’s wealthier Ted is the strutting embodiment of cowboy chic. He’s even selfishly hoarded toilet paper in his fancy adobe estate.

It’s humanistic when “Eddington” notes that everyone in town is a bit of a sinner. The problem is that they’re all eager to throw stones and point out what the others are doing wrong to get a quick fix of moral superiority. So many yellow cards get stacked up against everyone that you come to accept that we’re all flawed, but most of us are doing our best.

Joe isn’t going to make Eddington great again. He never has a handle on any of the conspiracies, and when he grabs a machine gun, he’s got no aim. Aster’s feistiest move is that he refuses to reveal the truth. When you step back at the end to take in the full landscape, you can put most of the story together. (Watch “Eddington” once, talk it out over margaritas and then watch it again.) Aster makes the viewer say their theories out loud afterwards, and when you do, you sound just as unhinged as everyone else in the movie. I dig that kind of culpability: a film that doesn’t point sanctimonious fingers but insists we’re all to blame.

But there are winners and losers and winners who feel like losers and schemers who get away with their misdeeds scot-free. Five years after the events of this movie, we’re still standing in the ashes of the aggrieved. But at least if we’re cackling at ourselves together in the theater, we’re less alone.

Laura Angulo was visiting the Philippines as part of a four-month trip around South East Asia when she became ill

A teacher was left “unable to sit up” after falling ill with suspected dengue fever during a nightmare holiday. Laura Angulo was touring the Philippines on a four-month South East Asia adventure when she became unwell on Palawan Island.

The 29-year-old keen globetrotter initially suffered from “general malaise and fatigue”. However, Laura’s health rapidly worsened.

“I remember we were on a beach and I was lying down eating ice cream because I didn’t have the strength to sit up,” Laura, who lives on Australia’s Gold Coast, shared with What’s The Jam. “The moment I started vomiting, we decided to go to the doctor, since we knew that in the Philippines, as in many other tropical countries, you can get dengue fever.”

Laura, originally from Spain, underwent a blood test which revealed “a very low percentage of platelets”.

She recalled: “They told us that this is one of the symptoms of dengue fever and that I probably had it. At that moment, I admit I was terrified.

“I called my parents and they asked me to return to Spain. But, luckily, my sister and cousin were there for me when I needed them.

“Doctors then performed another test on me, which came back negative, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t infected. I was able to go back to my hostel, but I had to return over the next three days for further tests to see if my diagnosis had improved, since one of the possible symptoms of dengue is internal bleeding

“During those three days, the vomiting and diarrhoea worsened, but I didn’t have any other symptoms. I was drinking saline and eating small amounts of rice and chicken when my body allowed it.

“On the third day, we had to travel to another island where I felt ill for two or three weeks and I lost about 1.6 stone (10kg). It was never confirmed whether I was actually infected, but my platelet count suggests I was.”

Laura, who has more than 50,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok, shared with her online audience that dengue is spread by mosquito bites.

She continued: “There are four different strains of the dengue virus and if you’ve had one of them and become infected again, your risk of severe symptoms increases. If you get bitten by two strains of dengue at the same time, internal bleeding and possibly death become more likely.

“But don’t be alarmed; the Philippines is a beautiful country that I highly recommend visiting. To prevent something similar from happening, my first recommendation is to go to a vaccination centre and always carry mosquito repellent and basic medicines as well as travel insurance. Remember to get informed beforehand, and travel responsibly.”

The IVF technique uses DNA from the mother’s egg, the father’s sperm, and a small amount from a healthy donor’s egg.

Eight healthy babies have been born in the United Kingdom using a groundbreaking new IVF technique involving DNA from three people, offering hope to families with mitochondrial diseases, according to a world-first trial.

Experts at Britain’s Newcastle University and Monash University in Australia published the results of the much-awaited trial on Wednesday in several papers in the New England Journal of Medicine.

These genetic diseases, which affect one in 5,000 births and have no cure, can cause severe symptoms like vision loss and muscle wasting.

The new procedure, approved in the UK in 2015, uses DNA from the mother’s egg, the father’s sperm and a small amount of healthy mitochondrial DNA from a donor’s egg. This has led to the controversial but widely used term “three-parent babies”, though only about 0.1% of the baby’s DNA comes from the donor.

Out of 22 women who underwent the treatment at the Newcastle Fertility Centre in northeast England, eight babies were born. The four boys and four girls now range from less than six months to more than two years old.

For six of the babies, the amount of mutated mitochondrial DNA was reduced by 95-100%, and for the other two, it was reduced by 77-88%, which is below the disease-causing threshold.

The children are currently healthy, although their long-term health will continue to be monitored.

Despite this success, the procedure remains controversial and is not approved in many countries, including the United States and France. Opponents cite ethical concerns, including the destruction of human embryos and fears of creating “designer babies”.

However, experts argue that for families facing devastating mitochondrial diseases, the benefits of this procedure are clear and life-changing.

About 1,200 children are being urged to undergo testing for infectious diseases after a Melbourne childcare worker was charged with a string of offences including child rape.

Joshua Dale Brown was arrested in May and faces 70 charges, with police alleging he abused eight children – including a five-month-old – between April 2022 and January 2023.

The 26-year-old has worked at 20 childcare centres since 2017, prompting local health authorities to notify parents of any children who may have been in his care, recommending many be tested as a “precaution”.

Brown, who is yet to enter a plea to the charges, has been remanded in custody and is due to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court in September.

The eight children – all under the age of five – who police allege were harmed attended the Creative Gardens Early Learning Centre in Point Cook, in Melbourne’s south-west.

Brown is accused of child rape and sexual assault offenses, as well as producing and transmitting child abuse material.

Detectives are also investigating alleged offences by Brown at a childcare centre in Essendon “as a priority”.

At a press conference, authorities said he had a valid working with children check and was employed as a fill-in childcare worker when he was arrested.

Brown was not known to them before the investigation, they said, adding that they believed he acted alone and that the alleged offending only happened in Victoria.

Revealing Mr Brown’s identity was an “unusual decision”, Victoria Police’s Janet Stevenson said, but this is a “unique” case.

“It’s very important to ensure that every parent out there that has a child in childcare knows who he is and where he worked,” she said.

Chief Health Officer Christian McGrath would not say if Mr Brown had tested positive to sexually transmitted infections, but said the manner of the alleged offending meant some children may be asked to undergo screening for infectious diseases.

About 2,600 families had been contacted, with 1,200 children recommended for testing, she said, adding that the infections that the children may have been exposed to can be treated with antibiotics.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said she was “sickened” by the allegations.

“My heart breaks for the families who are living every parent’s worst nightmare,” she said.

Families across Victoria will be “angry and frightened” by the case, Allan said, adding that a dedicated website has been set up for those impacted.

Every newborn baby in England will have their DNA mapped to assess their risk of hundreds of diseases, under NHS plans for the next 10 years.

The scheme, first reported by the Daily Telegraph, is part of a government drive towards predicting and preventing illness, which will also see £650m invested in DNA research for all patients by 2030.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said gene technology would enable the health service to “leapfrog disease, so we’re in front of it rather than reacting to it”.

It comes after a study analysing the genetic code of up to 100,000 babies was announced in October.

The government’s 10-year plan for the NHS, which is set to be revealed over the coming few weeks, is aimed at easing pressure on services.

The Department for Health and Social Care said that genomics – the study of genes – and AI would be used to “revolutionise prevention” and provide faster diagnoses and an “early warning signal for disease”.

Screening newborn babies for rare diseases will involve sequencing their complete DNA using blood samples from their umbilical cord, taken shortly after birth.

There are approximately 7,000 single-gene disorders. The NHS study which began in October only looked for gene disorders that develop in early childhood and for which there are effective treatments.

Currently, newborn babies are offered a heelprick blood test that checks for nine serious conditions, including cystic fibrosis.

The health secretary said in a statement: “With the power of this new technology, patients will be able to receive personalised healthcare to prevent ill-health before symptoms begin, reducing the pressure on NHS services and helping people live longer, healthier lives.”

Streeting added: “The revolution in medical science means that we can transform the NHS over the coming decade, from a service which diagnoses and treats ill-health to one that predicts and prevents it.”

Sequencing DNA gives a lot of information about a person which can then be used to make predictions about the likelihood of them having particular genetic diseases, according to Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, a geneticist at the Francis Crick Institute.

These include conditions like muscular dystrophy, liver diseases and some kidney problems, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Funding for the new initiative will also support efforts by Genomics England to build one of the world’s largest research databases, with the goal of containing over 500,000 genomes by 2030.

It builds on work the NHS carried out in recent months, in which it embarked on a study to track the entire genetic code of up to 100,000 newborn babies in England to screen for genetic conditions.

But Prof Lovell-Badge cautioned that the government would not only need to hire people to collect the data, but qualified professions who could interpret it for patients.

“You need people to have conversations with individuals who might be affected by genetic disease,” he said, adding that “one of the things that worries me” was an insufficient number of genetic counsellors.

“It’s not just having the information, it’s conveying the information in an appropriate, helpful way.”

Eric Dane and filmmaker Janell Shirtcliff looked to be in full couple mode Wednesday at the premiere of Prime Video’s “Countdown,” a new series he stars in with Jensen Ackles. Hands were held; smiles and admiring glances were exchanged.

He was definitely not with Rebecca Gayheart, whom he married in October 2004 and just said — on national news, no less — is the person he reaches out to daily for “stalwart” support. Nope, even though Gayheart in early March requested the dismissal, without prejudice, of the 2018 divorce petition she had filed against Dane.

Dane revealed in April that he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a.k.a. ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Earlier this week, he revealed that he had lost function in his right arm due to the neuromuscular disease and felt his left arm failing.

So who’s dating whom? Dane’s relationship status is a bit fuzzy.

The “Grey’s Anatomy” alum, 52, has been “in an on-and-off relationship” with Shirtcliff for more than three years, Entertainment Tonight reported Wednesday. The two “care deeply for each other,” the outlet said, citing a source who added, “Eric asked Janell to be there for him during this time, and she wanted to show up for him.”⁠

Shirtcliff, who is a photographer and director, is in pre-production on the film “Generation Angst” and post-production on the horror flick “Triton,” according to IMDb.

But — Dane’s alleged girlfriend, actor Priya Jain, 27, was “blindsided” by his appearance at the event with Shirtcliff, 41, a source told Page Six on Thursday.

Jain and Dane met last summer and became “exclusive” in November 2024, the source said. “They never broke up.” The two have been photographed arm-in-arm in public and have matching tattoos, and she has spent “almost every night” at his house since they coupled up, Page Six said. They reportedly were together last weekend.

This three-way confusion is a tiny bit reminiscent of Dane and Gayheart’s nude 2009 bathtub video with actor Kari Ann Peniche, which Dane discussed in 2019 with Glamour. In the leaked video, the three could be seen bathing together naked — not having sex — and discussing their potential porn names about 15 years into the Gayheart-Dane marriage.

“I don’t necessarily think I was breaking any laws and corrupting anybody. We were just three people taking a bath,” he told the magazine. He added, referring at the time to the entirety of his past — including the bathtub video and his addiction to prescribed painkillers — “I have no regrets nor do I make any apologies for my life experience. It’s my life experience and I am at peace with all of it.”

As for Gayheart, she and Dane remain estranged as husband and wife even though she called off the divorce and they are in frequent contact as co-parents of their two daughters.

“I call Rebecca. I talk to her every day,” Dane said Monday on “Good Morning America,” fighting back tears as he talked about battling ALS. “We have managed to become better friends and better parents. And she is probably my biggest champion, my most stalwart supporter, and I lean on her.”

Eric Dane is angry. Angry that he’s been hit by ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“I’m angry because my father was taken from me when I was young, and now there’s a very good chance I’m going to be taken from my girls while they’re very young,” says the actor, 52, whose father fatally shot himself when Dane was just 7.

The “Euphoria” and “Grey’s Anatomy” star, who revealed his diagnosis last Tuesday, sat down with “Good Morning America” to talk about his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an incurable degenerative neurological condition. In ALS, the muscle neurons linking the brain and spine to the muscles deteriorate, leaving the muscle with nothing able to tell them what to do or when to do it. No messages means no movement, no functioning, in systems including eating and breathing.

The actor said in an interview broadcast on Monday that it’s been about 18 months since he started experiencing symptoms. It took a series of doctors and tests before he found out he was one of the 5,000 people a year diagnosed with ALS in the United States.

“I started experiencing some weakness in my right hand and I didn’t really think anything of it at that time,” Dane told Diane Sawyer, his voice perhaps sounding a bit slower and thicker than usual. “I thought maybe I’d been texting too much or my hand was fatigued.

“But a few weeks later, I noticed that it had gotten a little worse, so I went to a hand specialist, who sent me to another hand specialist. Then I went to a neurologist, who sent me to another neurologist, who said, ‘This is way above my pay grade.’”

Nine months after consulting with the first physician, Dane had his diagnosis.

Now “those three letters” — ALS — hit him every morning when he wakes up, he said.

“I have one functioning arm … my left side is functioning,” Dane said. “My right side has completely stopped working.”

Adding to the horror, his left arm is “going,” he said. “I feel like maybe a couple, few more months and I won’t have my left hand either. It’s sobering.”

The former competitive swimmer and water polo player recalled the moment he realized he no longer felt safe in water. He dove off a boat to snorkel with his daughter in the ocean, then couldn’t “swim and generate enough power to get myself back to the boat.” The younger of his two daughters with actor wife Rebecca Gayheart, 13-year-old Georgia, had to come to his aid.

After she dragged him back to the boat, Dane said, he sent her back out with her friend and the snorkeling guide. Meanwhile, he broke down crying.

“I was heartbroken.”

Life expectancy for people with ALS varies by age of symptom onset, type of ALS and whether a person is male or female. The overall median life expectancy from symptom onset is 30 months, according to ALS United of Greater Chicago. Some people die within a year, while others have lived 20 more years, the group said. Earlier onset seems linked to a better survival rate.

The famous theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who died in 2016 at age 76, is an example of someone who survived for 55 years with the disease after being diagnosed at age 21. The minds of people with ALS stay sharp even as their bodies fail.

“Killing Me Softly” singer Roberta Flack died a little more than two years after revealing her ALS diagnosis at age 85.

Dane said Gayheart has become his “biggest champion” and “most stalwart supporter” as he continues to work when he can, including on a new series, “Countdown.”

“I don’t think this is the end of my story,” he told Sawyer. “I just don’t feel like, in my heart, I don’t feel like this is the end of me. … I’m fighting as much as I can.”