U.S. health officials are preparing for a second wave of the winter flu season, complicated this year by similarities between flu symptoms and those of the coronavirus that has killed more than 1,500 in China and spread fear around the world. 

A first round of seasonal flu, caused by a strain of influenza B, named B-Victoria for the city in which it was discovered, peaked in the United States in late December and then dropped off, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.  

However, the CDC says a second round of flu began in late January, caused by a strain of influenza A that is related to the swine flu that first appeared in 2009, and cases continue to increase. 

While there have only been 15 confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States as of Friday, health officials have expressed concern that if the virus were to spread in the country, it could initially look like the spread of seasonal flu. 

Coronavirus testing

In part to address these concerns, U.S. health officials announced they would begin testing some patients who have flulike symptoms for coronavirus in several U.S. cities. 

The testing will initially be carried out by public health labs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and New York, which are already testing for seasonal flu. 

Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters in a telephone briefing Friday that labs will conduct the coronavirus test on patients who show flulike respiratory symptoms, but who test negative for the seasonal flu. 

Both the seasonal flu and coronavirus cause respiratory illness, fever and cough. Other typical flu symptoms include sore throat, muscle aches, runny nose and fatigue, according to the CDC. 

While scientists have studied the flu for decades, little is known about this coronavirus, dubbed COVID-19, because it is so new. Health officials are still trying to understand all the symptoms related to the new virus, as well has how it spreads and how often cases are severe. There have been few studies on the symptoms of coronavirus, however, research suggests patients most commonly suffer from fever, cough and shortness of breath and are less likely than flu patients to suffer from a sore throat and runny nose. 

To prevent the spread of the coronavirus to the United States, CDC officials have put in place travel restrictions and quarantine policies for people who recently visited China. However, officials say that strategy would change if the virus were to spread quickly in the United States. 

Messonnier said if there were an outbreak of coronavirus in the United States, the CDC would call for “social distancing” strategies that would include online schooling, teleworking, and canceling mass gatherings, in an effort to prevent people from spreading the virus. 

Flu kills 14,000 in US

While health officials put plans in place for any possible outbreak of coronavirus, doctors around the United States continue to help patients battle the seasonal flu. The CDC estimates that 26 million Americans have gotten sick with flu this season and around people 14,000 have died. 

Health officials say the first wave of the flu, a B strain, has hit children particularly hard this season, causing 92 deaths in children. B strains are more likely to cause a more severe illness and death in children. Cases of the flu among the elderly have been down this season. 

The CDC says concern about coronavirus might have prompted more people with flu symptoms to go their doctor for testing this season, although they say there is nothing in their data to confirm this. Messonnier said if more people are going to the doctor that is a good thing. “

People being a little worried and seeking care doesn’t especially worry me, because that’s the point,” she said.

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It is arguably one of the most coveted prizes in Syria’s civil war, and after eight years of fighting, Syrian President Bashar Assad has got it back.

The Damascus-Aleppo highway, or the M5, is known to Syrians simply as the “International Road.” Cutting through all of Syria’s major cities, the motorway is key to who controls the country. 

Assad gradually lost control over the motorway from 2012, when various rebel groups fighting to topple him began seizing parts of the country.

Protests against his family’s rule had erupted the year before amid a wave of uprisings in the Arab world. This soon turned into a civil war, following a brutal government crackdown on dissent and the intervention of foreign powers in the growing conflict.

Historically a bustling trade route, one Syrian analyst, Taleb Ibrahim, called the M5 “the most basic and strategic highway in the Middle East.”

For the Turkey-backed rebels fighting Assad, the motorway was a cornerstone in holding together their territory and keeping government forces at bay. Its loss marks a mortal blow for opposition fighters whose hold on their last patches of ground in northwestern Syria is looking more and more precarious. 

Here’s a look at the M5, and its place in Syria’s nearly nine-year-long civil war: 

What is it? 

The M5 is a strategic highway that starts in southern Syria, near the border with Jordan, and runs all the way north to the city of Aleppo near the Turkish border.

The 450-kilometer (280-mile) highway links the country’s four largest cities and population centers: Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo, cutting through Idlib province. 

Before the war, the M5 motorway served as an economic artery for Syria, mainly feeding the country’s industrial hub of Aleppo. Experts estimate the road carried business worth $25 million a day at the height of Syria’s trade boom before the war.

The highway was a passageway for the crossing of wheat and cotton from the Syrian east and north to the rest of the country. It was also a road used for the exchange of commodities with regional trade partners like Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, as well as Turkey.

Recovering control

Regaining control over the highway has been a top priority of the Assad government since the early days of the war.

Its slow and tortuous recovery, in many ways, traces the arc of the Syrian war, which has killed nearly half a million people and uprooted half the country’s prewar population. 

The Syrian government began winning back segments of the highway, starting in 2014. That’s when Russia joined the war on the side of Assad, and essentially tipped it in his favor. 

Towns and cities along parts of the highway, including in the Ghouta region and in the suburbs of Damascus, now lie in ruins after long sieges and incessant bombardment forced them into submission. The Russian-backed recapture of Aleppo in December 2016 was another major game-changer.

End of the rebels’ road

Under a September 2018 agreement between Russia and Turkey, the M5 and M4 highways were supposed to be open for traffic, linking the government’s stronghold on the coast with Aleppo before the end of that year. That never happened, as insurgents refused to move away and allow joint Russian-Turkish patrols to protect the traffic there.

That eventually led to the latest government offensive in Idlib, the last rebel-held bastion in the country.

Government troops backed by Russia carried out several major advances in Idlib, retaking towns and villages on both sides of the motorway. The capture of Khan Sheikhoun was the first major breakthrough, followed by Maaret al-Numan and Saraqeb, located at the intersection between the M4 and M5. 

This week, Syrian troops recaptured the last rebel-controlled section of the highway around Khan al-Assal. That brought the road under the full control of Assad’s forces for the first time since 2012. 

The victory statement came not from the Syrian government, but from Russia’s defense ministry. It said in a statement Wednesday that “Syria’s most important transport artery” had been “freed” from rebel control.

Why it matters

The highway’s capture is possibly the most significant victory for Assad, whose forces have been making solid gains since the end of 2015 with the help of Russian airstrikes and Iran-backed fighters. 

Ibrahim, the political analyst, said the highway is so vital because it links the country’s two powerhouses: the capital of Damascus with the trading hub of Aleppo. 

“In other words it links Syria’s political capital with its economic capital,” he said. It also links up with the M4 highway at the Saraqeb knot, opening up traffic to the government’s coastal stronghold of Latakia and the port.

Fighting continues in areas near the highway, and much of Idlib province remains in rebel hands.

But the M5’s seizure goes a long way to re-connect government-controlled areas, after they had been severed from each other for years.

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As the number of individuals identified as having had close contact with those diagnosed with coronavirus (COVID-19) rose to more than half a million people, those who have recovered from the disease are being urged to consider donating their blood to help cure others.

“Those who are recovering, kindly extend your arms, donate your precious blood, let’s work together to save those still struggling against the devil of disease,” the head of Wuhan’s Jinyintan Hospital was quoted as saying by China’s official Xinhua news agency Thursday.

“Those who have recovered possess a considerable amount of neutralizing antibodies in their bodies, which can fight against the new coronavirus,” Zhang Dingyu, the hospital director, announced at a news conference, according to Xinhua.  

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China Reports Nearly Half a Million People Have Had Close Contact With Coronavirus Patients

Report shows the number of those who have had close contact has more than doubled in 10 days

A neutralizing antibody is part of the body’s response to an infection. Their creation can be triggered by the arrival of a foreign body such as a virus in the body, or by vaccinations.

“After an infection, it can take some time for the host to produce highly effective neutralizing antibodies but these persist to protect against future encounters with the agent,” researchers say.  

Given that no vaccine or specially designated drugs are currently available, processed plasma from recovered patients’ blood could help those in critical condition, Xinhua reported.

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Once considered a lover’s holiday, St. Valentines has extended into a day when people express love for family members, friends, colleagues and community members as well as for spouses, lovers and partners. Sales of flowers and chocolate peak around the mid-February holiday and restaurant business thrives. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has this report.

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Delegations from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan continue to negotiate water usage issues relating to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam being built on the Nile River. 

Following two days of meetings in Washington, the U.S. Treasury Department issued a statement saying the technical and legal teams from all countries are making progress toward a final agreement that will be reviewed by leaders in the respective countries.

“The United States, with technical support from the World Bank, has agreed to facilitate the preparation of the final agreement for consideration by the ministers and heads of state for conclusion by the end of the month,” said Steven Mnuchin, U.S. secretary of the treasury.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, now on a trip that will include stops in Angola, Ethiopia and Senegal, said he is closely monitoring the negotiations.

“I went over and saw the Sudanese and the Egyptians and the Ethiopians yesterday to encourage them to make progress on that, to make sure that everyone’s got the water that they need,” he told VOA aboard his aircraft.

Electricity and water flow among concerns

The $4 billion dam is one of the largest infrastructure projects in African history. Ethiopia hopes to complete it by 2022 and believes it could produce 6,000 megawatts of electricity, some of which could be exported.

But Egypt and Sudan have worried about the dam’s impact on water flow. Egypt relies on the Nile for 90% of its water needs.

Sudanese Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Yasser Abbas said his country is leaving the meetings feeling optimistic.

“I must say we have made huge progress since then and it dealt mainly with how to fill the dam at the beginning and how to operate the dam,” he told VOA. “And in Sudan, we see the dam as a potential opportunity for regional cooperation.”

Abbas said there are both positive and negative impacts of the dam for Sudan. The positive is that it will regulate the flow of water making for a fairly consistent water level on the Blue Nile. The negative, he said, is that it could impact farmers who practice “floodplain agriculture” in the areas where water spills over the banks of the Nile. 

Filling the dam

A key point of contention is how quickly Ethiopia will fill the dam. 

“Our main concern is that we want to see the three countries agree on the initial filling,” Abbas said. “How many years it takes to fill and how the operation would be afterward.”

The dam will have a capacity of 10.2 million cubic meters of water. Earlier proposals by Ethiopia had called for it to be filled over four to seven years, but Egypt requested a slower timetable in the event of prolonged droughts or water shortages. 

In an interview with VOA’s Amharic service, Ethiopian Ambassador to the United States Fitsum Arega said the negotiations have examined different possible scenarios including a drop in water level because of climate change, consecutive dry years or a prolonged, once every 100-year drought. The technical teams are trying to reach agreements on what would be done in each of these cases. Fitsum said recent efforts at negotiating these issues have been derailed by countries bringing up unspecified issues that the Ethiopians consider separate from the dam and water usage.

“When we see what is presented from all three countries, the three countries’ expectations are different,” Fitsum told VOA Feb. 1, speaking in Amharic. 

“From the Ethiopian side, we just wanted to focus on the project, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project. That is the only thing that we want to be discussing.”

Power generation

Another source of debate is how much of the power generated by the dam will benefit Sudan and Egypt. Ambassador Mohamed Higazy, a former assistant to the Egyptian foreign minister, said he would like to see the dam be a vehicle for regional integration including integrating the power grids of the three countries.

“Egypt and Sudan are very close to completing the power grids,” he told VOA. “Why not with the Renaissance Dam, which electricity can be used in the markets of Sudan and Egypt and then exported to the regional Gulf market or further to Europe through the Egyptian power grid?” 

Higazy added that he is cautiously optimistic about the talks, but hopes all parties will look at the bigger picture of regional prosperity and environmental stewardship instead of their own, narrow interests.

“If we want to help the river ecosystem, if we want to help the people and economies in the three countries, we have to embark on a regional framework where water security will not be decided by national aspiration, only by the region aspiration,” he said. 

This story originated in the Africa division with reporting contributions from VOA’s diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine, English to Africa’s Jason Patinkin, Nadia Taha, Mohamed Elshinnawi and Horn of Africa’s Amharic service Habtamu Seyoum.
 

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Nigeria’s military burned down villages and forcibly displaced hundreds of people in its fight against Islamist insurgents in the country’s northeast, rights group Amnesty International alleged Friday.

Nigeria’s military, which has frequently been accused of human rights abuses in its decade-long fight against Boko Haram and more recently Islamic State’s West African branch, did not respond to requests for comment.

Three residents interviewed by Reuters confirmed Amnesty’s findings.

Previous allegations have sparked investigations by the International Criminal Court in the Hague and hampered Nigeria’s ability to purchase arms, a source of frustration for its military’s leaders. However, convictions of soldiers have been rare and the military has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Hundreds forced to flee

In the latest allegations, Amnesty said Nigerian soldiers razed three villages after forcing hundreds of men and women to leave their homes in the northeastern state of Borno in January. The human rights group said it interviewed 12 victims and reviewed satellite images that showed several large fires in the area and almost every structure razed.

Residents described soldiers going house to house and rounding people up, then making them walk to a main road and board trucks, it said.

“We saw our houses go into flames,” a woman who was about 70 years old told Amnesty. “We all started crying.”

The trucks took more than 400 people to a camp for people displaced by the conflict in Maiduguri, the main city in the region.

“These brazen acts of razing entire villages, deliberately destroying civilian homes and forcibly displacing their inhabitants with no imperative military grounds, should be investigated as possible war crimes,” said Osai Ojigho, director for Amnesty International Nigeria, in Friday’s statement detailing the group’s investigation.

Soldiers also detained six men, beating some of them, and held them for almost a month before releasing them without charge Jan. 30, Amnesty said.

It cited Nigerian Army statements from the time that said six Boko Haram suspects had been captured and hundreds of captives freed from the militants.

Witness accounts

“They say they saved us from Boko Haram, but it’s a lie,” said one man roughly age 65, according to Amnesty. “Boko Haram isn’t coming to our village.”

Three residents from two of the affected villages, now living in Maiduguri, described to Reuters the same events as in the rights group’s report.

“The soldiers called us Boko Haram and set our houses ablaze, before evacuating all of us,” one of the residents said.

Amnesty’s report was published as the military struggles to contain the insurgencies, particularly Islamic State. Last July, troops began to withdraw to larger garrisons, dubbed “super camps,” from smaller bases that were frequently overrun with heavy loss of lives.

That has left the military on the defensive and the insurgents able to roam across large swathes of territory and carry out attacks, often on civilians, with few repercussions.

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Protesters in Malawi have shut down offices of the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) in 10 districts in an attempt to force all commissioners to resign.

The move comes 10 days after the Constitutional Court nullified last May’s presidential elections because of “widespread” irregularities and ordered new elections. But commissioners have appealed the ruling and are refusing to step down.

In Blantyre, protesters used steel-iron chains and huge locks to seal the gate of the main entrance to MEC headquarters.  

“What we are trying to mean here is that no one should get here as long as they are not resigning. All we need is [for MEC chairperson] Jane Ansah to resign and now we have included all the commissioners of the MEC because they have proven to be incompetent. We need people to have the competence,” said Masauko Thawe, the southern region coordinator for the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC), which organized the protests.

The Constitutional Court said the irregularities showed the MEC’s incompetence in handling the presidential elections and ordered new elections in 150 days.

This week, members of parliament questioned the election commissioners at a public hearing to determine if they are capable of running a new poll.

The commissioners, including chairperson Ansah, dismissed accusations of incompetency.

Some said they will resign only if the Supreme Court of Appeal faults them, while others said they will not resign at all.

But HRDC’s Thawe says mechanisms are in place to safeguard the shutdown.

“We are going to monitor each and every day. You come, you check, you will see people here monitoring. And we are not stopping here.  It’s a continuous demonstration until we see these commissioners including the CEO [Chief Elections Officer] resign,” Thawe said.

Mustapha Hussein, who teaches political science at the Chancellor College of the University of Malawi, told VOA shutting down the MEC offices is ill-timed.

“Because the case of MEC is in the courts and we heard about the judgment which shows that there are solutions being put forward to what is happening. So, in that sense I would say that the act of shutting down the offices might be going too far and might not auger well with the laws of Malawi,” he said.

Hussein also said the shutdown would affect MEC preparations for the new elections expected to be held in June.

Ansah told parliament Wednesday that the electoral commission is currently working on the budget for the new elections.

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