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Who is providing care for infants with HIV in other countries?

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The Trump administration has rejected the remaining few health officials who oversee the care of some of the world’s most vulnerable people. There are over 500,000 children and over 600,000 pregnant women with HIV in low-income countries.

The specialized team that managed the management program to prevent newborns from acquiring HIV from their mothers and provide treatment to infected children was eliminated last week in a chaotic reorganization by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Some of the outcomes of the termination are only now clear.

While it was known that some staff dedicated to HIV prevention in other countries have been lost, the New York Times has learned that all such experts have been fired or are waiting for reallocation at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the State Department, and the International Development Agency.

These mothers’ health programs are still funded by the President’s emergency plan for AIDS relief or Pepfarr. However, it is not clear how work will continue without anyone managing the initiative or paying for it.

The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to requests for comment.

“I hope this is no longer important to treat mothers and children, and this is not a sign that this is a correctable mistake,” the federal health department spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

The stakes are high. AIDS under the age of 15 dies every seven minutes in sub-Saharan Africa.

A survey in the Lancet on Tuesday estimated that suspending Pepfer could lead to around 1 million new HIV infections by 2030, killing about 500,000 AIDS among children, and an additional 2.8 million orphans.

After the early Trump administration froze all foreign aid, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver that allowed them to provide “core life-saving medicine, health services” and other US-funded activities.

The Pepfar-specific exemption later prevented the transmission of HIV to mothers and children, and continued explicitly and continued support for programs intended to provide care for infected women and children.

Documents that allow aid to prepare resumes take several weeks after the exemption is issued, and some organizations are just beginning to receive the federal funds needed to run the program.

“We can dismantle something very quickly, but now we’re trying to build it with just a small portion of our staff and a potentially 5% of our institutional knowledge,” said a federal official who is not allowed to speak to news media.

All pediatric HIV experts participated in the USAID eruption and left a single unit at the CDC with expertise to advise international programs. That team was lost in a reorganization last week, along with another team that handles payments for funds for 300 grants in more than 40 countries.

Given the State Department’s exemption, these layoffs were a surprise to federal health workers and the organizations that rely on them.

“We had a clear understanding that HIV services for mothers and children fall under that waiver,” said Dr. Anja Gifert, vice president of medicine and science at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

The foundation relies on approximately 60% of the CDC’s budget. “We completely blinded that the entire CDC unit was finished,” she said.

The organization has been promised funds until September. However, only a few were allowed to use the payment system on CDC

“Everyone is screaming to find a way to pay for their country teams and partners,” said a CDC official who called for anonymity in fear of retaliation.

Other experts said they were not surprised to see the screaming from the CDC HIV team despite the waiver.

“What we saw is that there is no rhyme or reason for any of the actions the administration is doing,” said Gilea Lethobosian, chief of staff for the Biden administration’s Pepfer.

Care for children with HIV and pregnant women is complicated.

Infants require a different HIV test than those used in adults, and infected babies must take another medication. If treatment is interrupted, they will succumb to complications immediately.

“Time is essential, especially when you think about children,” Dr. Gifert said. “That doesn’t seem to be taking into account all of these changes actually happening.”

In low-income countries, pregnant women with HIV are usually treated at prenatal clinics. Without treatment, one in three pregnant women can give HIV to the baby.

Treatment decreases Risk of infection to less than 1%. I have Pepfer It prevented nearly 8 million This type of infection has been occurring in newborns since its founding in 2003.

The freeze on foreign aid imposed in January caused shortages of pediatric HIV drugs in many countries, causing delays in new HIV drug treatments.

The dismissed CDC experts were helping low-income countries prepare for this transition, track inventory and directing drugs to places with the most urgent needs, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

“This adjustment is especially important for now, as we are in an age of immeasurable change,” the official said.

Source: www.nytimes.com

Mouse providing first aid to unconscious companions

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Mouse tends to become an unconscious peer by pulling its tongue

Wenjian Sun et al. 2025

When they unconsciously find another mouse, it appears that some mice are trying to revive their companions by stepping into them and biting them and pulling their tongues aside to clean their airways. This finding suggests that caregiving behavior may be more common in animal kingdoms than we thought.

There have been rare reports of large social mammals trying to help such types of incapacitated members. Wild chimpanzee touching and licking injured companion, Dolphins who try to push their suffering podmates into the surface can breathe and Elephants provide support to sick relatives.

now, Lee Chang The University of Southern California (USC) and his colleagues filmed what happened when they introduced a familiar cagemate who was active or anesthetized and unresponsive to a laboratory mouse.

In a series of tests, on average, animals spent about 47% of the 13-minute observation window to interact with their unconscious partners, showing three different behaviors.

“They start with sniffing, then grooming, and very intensive or physical interactions,” says Zhang. “They really open their mouths and pull out their tongues.”

These more physical interactions included licking the eyes and chewing on the area of the mouth. After focusing on the mouth, the mice pulled the tongue of their unresponsive partner in more than 50% of cases.

In another test, the researchers gently placed a non-toxic plastic ball in the mouth of an unconscious mouse. In 80% of cases, the support mouse successfully removed the object.

“If you extend the observation window, your success rate can be even higher,” says team members. Huizhong Taoeven at USC.

The awakened mouse began walking again earlier than it was unharmed for the mouse. Then, as their responsibility moved and responded, the caregiver’s mouse slowed down and stopped the caregiving behavior.

Additionally, caregiver mice spent more time when they were familiar with unconscious mice than they had previously met.

Restoration behavior is not an analog of CPR that requires specialized training, Zhang says. It’s like awakening someone using a strong smelly salt or slapping, or doing basic first aid so that the unconscious person can breathe. It is also important during surgery to place the tongue of anesthetized patients to prevent airway blockage, he says.

Zhang and his colleagues found that behavior is driven by oxytocin-releasing neurons in the amygdala and hypothalamic regions of the brain. The hormone oxytocin is involved in other compassionate behaviors in a wide range of vertebrate species.

Similar behavior has been reported in lab mice Along with research papers Also explained by another team By the third team last month.

“I have never observed these types of behavior when I run experiments in the lab, but have never left a recovery animal with my partner until I have fully awakened.” Christina Marquez at the Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Coimbra, Portugal. “The fact that three independent labs observe similar behaviors indicates that this is a robust finding, but we are observing what we observe in nonhuman species; We really need to be aware that we personify too many things that result from intentions that go beyond what is observed.”

Zhang and his colleagues believe that the behavior is innate, not learned. This is because all animals tested were only 2-3 months old and never saw this behavior or anesthetized cage companions.

He suggests that such instinctive behavior plays a role in strengthening group cohesion and may be more widespread among social animals than we have seen.

It may be difficult to see this behavior in wild mice, says Marquez. “Mouses are often prey animals that do not live in large groups, so they usually hide very well from us. However [the fact] That we haven’t seen it doesn’t mean they don’t do it. ”

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Source: www.newscientist.com