Health breakthroughs, a Ukrainian conservation success, and a win for river defenders in the Amazon, plus more good news
Pioneering spina bifida treatment ‘very exciting’
A new treatment has shown huge potential for treating spina bifida in the womb, after a trial showed that it improved children’s mobility and quality of life.
Spina bifida, a condition in which a baby’s spinal cord is not properly enclosed during gestation, can lead to a range of lifelong disabilities. However, scientists claimed this week to have a promising new treatment, which involves applying stem cells from the mother’s placenta to her baby’s spine while surgeons repair it in the womb.
Diana Farmer, chair of the University of California’s Davis Department of Surgery, which led the US trial, said the procedure “paves the way for new treatment options for children with birth defects”.
Six mothers took part in the phase one trial, the results of which were published in the Lancet health journal this week. Michelle Johnson was among them.
“Our family couldn’t feel more blessed,” said Johnson, whose son Tobi (pictured) was born in 2022. “Tobi’s physical and mental abilities are nothing short of a miracle.”
While further research is needed, Aijun Wang, co-inventor of the treatment, said it was a “major step toward a new kind of fetal therapy”. Shine, a UK-based spina bifida charity, described the results as “very exciting”.
Researchers hailed new prostate cancer treatment
A new immunotherapy drug for treating prostate cancer has shown “remarkable” results in an early clinical trial.
The VIR-5500 drug was given to 58 patients with advanced prostate cancer that had stopped responding to other treatments. Almost half saw their tumour shrink after taking the drug, according to the UK’s Institute of Cancer Research, which led the research. Most patients had only mild side-effects.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in many countries. About 1.5 million blokes are diagnosed with it worldwide each year. Hitherto, it has proven stubbornly resistant to immunotherapy drugs, which harness the body’s immune system to fight disease. The new trial represents a breakthrough.
“Immunotherapy has transformed the outcomes for many people with cancer but for those with prostate cancer its benefits have often remained out of reach,” said Prof Kristian Helin, chief executive of the Institute of Cancer Research. “It’s encouraging to see this innovative approach showing promising effects in early clinical studies.”
Chile has become the first country in the Americas, and only the second globally, to be verified as having eliminated leprosy.
Announcing the verification on Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) described the milestone as a “landmark public health achievement” and “a powerful testament to what leadership, science, and solidarity can accomplish”.
Chile’s leprosy-free certification follows sustained public health efforts, including prevention strategies, early diagnosis, improved treatments, and continuous follow-ups.
“Chile’s elimination of leprosy sends a clear message to the world: with sustained commitment, inclusive health services, integrated public health strategies, early detection and universal access to care, we can consign ancient diseases to history,” said WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The first country to be verified as having eliminated leprosy was Jordan in September 2024.
River defenders saved an Amazon waterway
Indigenous river defenders are celebrating after winning a David versus Goliath battle against the Brazilian government and corporate giants over plans to industrialise an Amazonian waterway.
The Tapajós River faced the threat of being dredged and privatised to boost soy and grain shipments out of Santarém, a small city in the Brazilian state of Pará. But activists had other ideas. They occupied a local grain terminal belonging to Cargill, the biggest privately owned company in the US, forcing Brazil’s government into a policy U-turn.
“The transformation of Amazonian rivers into routes for economic exploitation directly threatens Indigenous territories, traditional ways of life, food security, biodiversity and the environmental balance of the entire region,” said the Federation of Indigenous Peoples.
Reacting to the U-turn, Maria Leusa, an Indigenous campaigner, said: “This proves that life – the river – has no price. It cannot be sold, it is not negotiable. That’s why we will never back down.”
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Ukraine conservation success a ‘beacon of hope’
At a time when war has disrupted livelihoods and limited nature-based tourism, Ukraine’s Lake Kartal stands as “a beacon of hope”.
That’s according to Rewilding Europe, which this week hailed a wetland restoration project in Ukraine’s Danube Delta (pictured) that has persisted despite the war.
The multi-year project reconnected the River Danube with Lake Kartal. According to Rewilding Europe, “a rapid comeback” of the ecosystem has ensued.
“It has been amazing to see how quickly wetlands in the Danube Delta can become wilder,” said Oleg Dyakov of Rewilding Ukraine. “We have seen different parts of the landscape bounce back almost immediately.”
Manmade dykes and irrigation systems had disconnected the ecosystem, lowering water levels and water quality, triggering algal blooms and declining fish stocks.
“This restoration work will see water levels and water quality in Lake Kartal continue to rise, while fish populations will become richer and more abundant, birds will return to feed and nest here, and local people will be able to rely on this water for irrigation again,” said Panas Zhechkov, director of Ukraine’s Izmail Department of Water Resources.
Mental decline ‘not inevitable’ with age
Ageing in older life is often portrayed as a steady slide towards physical and mental decline – a new study challenges that.
Researchers at Yale University, US, followed more than 11,000 citizens aged 65 or older over 12 years, tracking changes in cognition and physical function.
In a rebuff to stereotypes, they found that 32% of participants improved cognitively, while 28% improved physically. When participants whose cognitive scores remained stable were included, more than half defied the notion of inevitable cognitive decline.
“If you average everyone together, you see decline,” explained Dr Becca Levy, professor of public health and psychology at Yale. “But when you look at individual trajectories, you uncover a very different story. A meaningful percentage of the older participants that we studied got better.”
Dr Levy’s prior studies have found that negative age beliefs are linked to poorer memory, slower walking speed, higher cardiovascular risk, and biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s later on. It suggests that feeling positive about the advancing years could lead to better health outcomes.
Lawmakers in Vietnam have passed legislation regulating artificial intelligence, making it the first country in southeast Asia to place safeguards on the fast-moving technology.
Like the European Union’s AI Act, Vietnam’s law requires companies to clearly label AI-generated content, which is often not easy to differentiate from reality. It will also oblige them to inform customers when they are interacting with a chatbot rather than a human.
Internet safety campaigners welcomed the move, but said enforcement will be key for it to be effective.
