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WORLD
East Oregonian
Saturday, November 19, 2016
UN agency lifts Zika emergency
AP Photo/Tim Ireland, File
In this Nov. 3 file photo media gather outside the High
Court in London. High Court Judge Peter Jackson has
granted the final wishes of a 14-year-old girl to be
cryogenically preserved, in what he called the first
case of its kind in England — and possibly the world.
‘I want to live’
British girl gets wish
to be frozen after death
Associated Press
LONDON — The teenage
girl’s instructions were direct:
She didn’t want to be buried,
but to be frozen — with the
hope she can continue her
life in the future when cancer
is cured.
“I want to live and live
longer and I think that in the
future they may find a cure
for my cancer and wake me
up,” the 14-year-old wrote
to a British judge before her
recent death.
She said “being cryopre-
served gives me a chance to
be cured and woken up —
even in hundreds of years’
time.”
Her plaintive words
convinced High Court Judge
Peter Jackson to grant her
final wishes in what he called
the first case of its kind in
England — and possibly the
world.
The judge said the girl
had chosen the most basic
preservation option at a cost
of about 37,000 pounds
($46,000).
The
girl’s
divorced
parents disagreed about the
procedure, with the mother
favoring it and the father
initially saying no, though
he softened his stance as his
daughter’s death neared.
The girl, who along with
her parents can’t be named
for legal reasons, asked the
court to designate that only
her mother could dispose of
her remains so that she could
be cryogenically preserved,
an unproven technique that
some people believe may
allow frozen bodies to be
brought back to life in the
future.
The girl’s lawyer, Zoe
Fleetwood, told The Asso-
ciated Press that her client
learned of the favorable
ruling on Oct. 6, just 11 days
before she died.
“It brought her great
comfort,” Fleetwood said.
“She saw this as a chance
to be brought back at some
stage in the future, but she
knew it was speculative.”
The lawyer said the girl
was so pleased she wanted
to meet the judge who had
made the decision.
“She met him the next
day, the 7th of October, and
she referred to him as Mr.
Hero Peter Jackson.”
The
cryopreservation
concept is regarded with
skepticism by many in the
medical community because
it has not yet been proven to
be effective.
Barry Fuller, a specialist in
low-temperature medicine at
University College London,
said the technology of
preserving cells at ultra-low
temperatures is promising,
but cannot yet be applied to
large structures like a human
kidney.
“At the moment we have
no objective evidence that
a whole human body can
survive
cryopreservation
with cells which will func-
tion after re-arming,” he
said, referring to the process
of re-activating cells in the
future.
He said there is ongoing
research with the immediate
hope that scientists could use
the technology to preserve
human organs for transplan-
tation. He said that would
be “a major first step into
proving the concept.”
Garret Smyth, a Briton
who signed up for the
cryopreservation procedure
30 years ago, said he thinks
researchers will eventually
find a way to keep cells from
dying — but probably not
during his lifetime.
“It is some peace of mind,
but there would be more
peace of mind if I was abso-
lutely certain it was going to
work,” Smyth, 55, said.
The judge called the girl’s
case that began in the Family
Division of the court unprec-
edented.
“It is no surprise that this
application is the only one of
its kind to have come before
the courts in this country
— and probably anywhere
else,” Jackson said, calling
the case “an example of the
new questions that science
poses to the law.”
The judge made the ruling
in October, and imposed
restrictions on any media
coverage while the girl was
still alive out of respect for
her stated desire for privacy.
Jackson’s decision cleared
the way for her remains to be
taken to a specialist facility
in the U.S. for the start of
the preservation process.
Lawyers say that has been
done, but details have been
kept private.
The girl and her father
were estranged and the father
at first opposed the treatment.
He said that even if it was
successful and his daughter
was brought back to life in
200 years, she would prob-
ably not find any relatives,
might not remember things
and would find herself in a
different country, the United
States.
“She may be left in a
desperate situation,” he said,
pointing out that she would
still be only 14.
His
view
changed,
however, and he later told the
judge he respected the dying
girl’s decision: “This is the
last and only thing she has
asked from me,” he said.
GENEVA (AP)
—
Acknowledging Zika is
“here to stay,” the United
Nations health agency on
Friday lifted a 9-month-old
emergency declaration and
prepared for a longer-term
response to the mosqui-
to-borne virus that can
result in severe neurological
defects in newborns whose
mothers were infected.
The World Health Orga-
nization was quick to note
that the move does not mean
the agency is downgrading
the threat of the virus that
has spread across Latin
America, the Caribbean
and elsewhere. Nearly 30
countries have reported birth
defects linked to Zika, with
over 2,100 cases of nervous-
system
malformations
reported in Brazil alone.
The officials also empha-
sized that the now-lifted
“Public Health Emergency
of International Concern”
was declared in February,
when Zika clusters were
appearing and a sharp
increase in research was
needed — with the looming
Rio Olympics in mind.
WHO said the emer-
gency measures had led
the world to an “urgent
and coordinated response.”
But the virus has continued
to spread. The agency
acknowledged
“many
aspects of this disease and
associated
consequences
still remain to be understood,
but this can best be done
through sustained research.”
“It is a significant and
enduring public health
challenge, but it no longer
represents an emergency,”
AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File
In this Sept. 27 photo, Angelica Pereira, left, watches as her daughter, disabled
by the Zika virus, goes through a physical therapy session at ahospital in Brazil.
Dr. David Heymann, who
heads the WHO emergency
committee on Zika, said
after the panel met for the
fifth time this year. “There
was no downgrading of
this.”
Heymann said recom-
mendations made in recent
months were now being
“internalized” at the Gene-
va-based agency.
“If anything, this has
been escalated in impor-
tance by becoming activities
that will be continued in
the long-term in the World
Health Organization,” he
said.
Traditionally,
WHO’s
emergency
declarations
are designed to motivate
governments to take steps to
curb epidemics.
cause a mild illness, with
fever, rash and joint pain.
But the recent outbreak
shows it can also cause
microcephaly, or abnor-
mally small heads, and brain
damage in newborn chil-
dren whose mothers were
infected, leading to severe
developmental
problems
and sowing grave concerns
of would-be parents in
countries hit by the virus.
Zika has been linked
as well to a temporary
paralysis condition called
Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Since the last emergency
committee meeting on Sept.
1, two countries in southeast
Asia and six other countries
have reported microcephaly
potentially linked to Zika
virus, WHO said.
Climate talks end with pleas for Trump to join fight
Associated Press
MARRAKECH, Morocco — The
first U.N. climate conference after
the landmark Paris Agreement closed
Friday with delegates appealing to
Donald Trump to join the battle against
global warming and inviting him to see
its impacts in Pacific islands.
Suddenly faced with the possibility
that the U.S. could withdraw from the
emissions pact adopted in Paris last
year, countries rallied in support of the
deal and said they would forge ahead
no matter what.
Moroccan
Foreign
Minister
Salaheddine Mezouar, the host of the
two-week talks in Marrakech, said
the conference’s “message to the new
American president is simply to say,
‘We count on your pragmatism and
your spirit of commitment.”’
Trump said during his campaign that
he would “cancel” the Paris Agreement
and withdraw American tax dollars
from U.N. global warming programs.
More than 190 countries, including
the United States, pledged in the deal
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
blamed for rising temperatures and sea
levels, worsening droughts and heat
waves.
In Marrakech, delegates from China
to Brazil expressed hope that Trump
didn’t mean what he said during his
campaign. Some appealed to him
directly to change his mind about the
issue.
“I renew my offer to President-elect
Trump to come to Fiji and see the
effects of climate change,” said the
island nation’s prime minister, Frank
Bainimarama, drawing applause from
the conference.
Small island nations are among the
AP Photo/David Keyton
Participants at the COP22 climate conference stage a public show of
support for climate negotiations and Paris agreement in Marrakech, Mo-
rocco, on Friday.
strongest advocates for sharp cuts in
greenhouse gas emissions because they
fear their survival depends on it. Many
are already experiencing the effects
of climate change, with rising seas
eroding their coastlines and intruding
into their freshwater supply.
As the conference drew to a close,
German Environment Minister Barbara
Hendricks said it “has demonstrated
that the spirit of Paris is alive and
stronger than ever.”
With mostly procedural issues
under negotiation, countries announced
various partnerships and initiatives to
show their commitment to a clean-en-
ergy transition.
In a symbolic move, more than 40
vulnerable countries including small
island nations and drought-hit African
countries, declared they would pursue
100 percent renewable energy “as
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Many of them would require
support from richer countries to switch
to renewable energy sources like wind
and solar power. Some, including the
Philippines and Bangladesh, plan to
expand coal power, a key source of
global warming emissions, to meet
their growing energy needs.
Still, the declaration signaled
support from even poor countries that
previously had said it was up to the
West, which historically has polluted
the most, to reduce emissions.
“This is a group of countries that are
the most vulnerable to climate change,
but they are not sitting back and
complaining about being vulnerable,”
Jennifer Morgan of Greenpeace said.
“They are acting and they are setting
the pace for the type of change that we
need to see in our world.”
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“But Zika has traveled
quite far by now. It’s not
quite clear to me what
the impact” of continuing
the declaration would
be, Stephen Morse, an
infectious disease expert at
New York City’s Columbia
University, said.
Containing the spread
of the virus was one reason
for the February declaration,
Heymann said. But its real
purpose was to stimulate
more study on the alarming
link between Zika and
devastating birth defects.
Zika, which first was
observed as a more minor
health threat in 1947, is
mainly spread by mosqui-
toes, but also can be spread
through sex. Most infected
people don’t get sick. It can
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