International
Bacterial infections the ‘second leading cause of death worldwide’
| By AFP |
Bacterial infections are the second leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for one in eight of all deaths in 2019, the first global estimate of their lethality revealed on Tuesday.
The massive new study, published in the Lancet journal, looked at deaths from 33 common bacterial pathogens and 11 types of infection across 204 countries and territories.
The pathogens were associated with 7.7 million deaths — 13.6 percent of the global total — in 2019, the year before the Covid-19 pandemic took off.
That made them the second-leading cause of death after ischaemic heart disease, which includes heart attacks, the study said.
Just five of the 33 bacteria were responsible for half of those deaths: Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
S. aureus is a bacterium common in human skin and nostrils but behind a range of illnesses, while E. coli commonly causes food poisoning.
The study was conducted under the framework of the Global Burden of Disease, a vast research programme funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation involving thousands of researchers across the world.
“These new data for the first time reveal the full extent of the global public health challenge posed by bacterial infections,” said study co-author Christopher Murray, the director of US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
“It is of utmost importance to put these results on the radar of global health initiatives so that a deeper dive into these deadly pathogens can be conducted and proper investments are made to slash the number of deaths and infections.”
The research points to stark differences between poor and wealthy regions.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, there were 230 deaths per 100 000 population from the bacterial infections.
That number fell to 52 per 100,000 in what the study called the “high-income super-region” which included countries in Western Europe, North America and Australasia.
The authors called for increased funding, including for new vaccines, to lessen the number of deaths, also warning against “unwarranted antibiotic use”.
Hand washing is among the measures advised to prevent infection.
International
U.S. Confirms Death of Six Crew Members in KC-135 Crash in Western Iraq
The United States confirmed on Friday that all six service members aboard a KC-135 refueling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq on Thursday have died, revising an earlier report that initially confirmed four fatalities.
The United States Central Command (CENTCOM), based in Florida, said the circumstances surrounding the incident remain under investigation, but stressed that the loss of the aircraft was not caused by enemy or friendly fire.
With the deaths of the six crew members — whose identities have not yet been released — the total number of U.S. military personnel killed since the start of the conflict with Iran on February 28 has risen to 14.
According to U.S. officials, seven soldiers were killed in direct Iranian attacks, one died due to a medical emergency in Kuwait, and the remaining casualties occurred in the aircraft crash in Iraq.
Conflicting claims about the crash
A pro-Iranian militia known as Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for shooting down the aircraft, saying its fighters targeted the tanker using air defense systems, causing it to crash.
The group later stated that it also attacked a second U.S. aircraft in western Iraq, which allegedly made an emergency landing at “one of the enemy’s airports,” while its crew escaped safely.
However, CENTCOM has rejected those claims and said it has no information confirming an attack on a second aircraft.
Iranian officials have also suggested that the tanker was struck by a missile fired by Iraqi armed groups, but the United States has not supported that assertion.
Second incident since conflict began
According to U.S. military reports, this is the second accident involving U.S. forces since the war began.
On Thursday, the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford — the largest in the U.S. fleet — experienced a fire on board, leaving two Marines injured. CENTCOM said the incident was not related to enemy action.
International
FBI Warns of Possible Iranian Drone Attack on U.S. West Coast
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned police departments in California about a possible Iranian plan to carry out a drone attack against the west coast of the United States, according to a report published Wednesday by ABC News.
The warning was issued through a memorandum sent to agencies participating in a Joint Terrorism Task Force, outlining the possibility of a surprise attack involving unmanned aerial vehicles launched from a vessel off the U.S. coastline.
According to the document, intelligence suggested that in early February 2026 Iran may have considered an attack against unspecified targets in California if the United States carried out airstrikes on Iranian territory.
However, the memo also noted that authorities lack additional details about the timing, method, specific targets, or individuals responsible for the alleged plan.
Reports cited by U.S. media indicate that the alert coincided with the start of a military offensive by the administration of Donald Trump against the Iran, a development that has heightened tensions across the Middle East.
Law enforcement sources with counterterrorism experience told the Los Angeles Times that the warning is part of a routine precautionary advisory based on information from the U.S. Coast Guard.
The sources emphasized that there is no credible indication of an imminent attack and no evidence that Iran currently has the capability to successfully carry out such an operation.
California is home to the largest Iranian community in the United States. According to the Migration Policy Institute, more than half of Iranian immigrants in the country lived in the state in 2019, including around 140,000 people in Los Angeles County alone.
The city also hosts a neighborhood widely known as “Tehrangeles,” where a large Iranian community began settling in the 1960s and continued to grow following the Iranian Revolution.
International
Trump Says Iran Is Welcome at 2026 World Cup but Warns of Security Concerns
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, said Thursday that the national football team of Iran is “welcome” to participate in the 2026 World Cup, although he suggested it might be safer for the team not to take part in the tournament.
“The Iranian national soccer team is welcome at the World Cup, but I really don’t think it’s appropriate for them to be there, for their own safety,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
His comments came a day after Iran’s sports minister, Ahman Donyamali, said that there are currently no conditions for the country to participate in the tournament following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, during a military offensive launched on February 28 by Israel and the United States.
“After the corrupt government killed our leader, there are no conditions that allow us to take part in the World Cup,” the Iranian official said. He added that the country has faced two wars in the past eight or nine months, resulting in thousands of civilian deaths, making participation in the tournament unlikely.
On Tuesday, the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, met with Trump at the White House.
Following the meeting, Infantino said that Trump reiterated that Iran’s national team would be allowed to compete in the FIFA World Cup 2026.
“We discussed the current situation in Iran and the fact that the Iranian team has qualified to participate in the FIFA World Cup 2026. During the conversation, President Trump reiterated that the Iranian team is, of course, welcome to compete in the tournament in the United States,” Infantino wrote on Instagram.
U.S. Confirms Death of Six Crew Members in KC-135 Crash in Western Iraq
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