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The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.

TOP OF THE HOUR:

UN urgently appeals for $2.4 billion to help Yemen cope with war and virus.

State in Australia to allow as many people in churches as pubs after archbishops complaint.

Philippine president relaxing lockdown in Manila next week.

South Korea reports 58 new virus cases, China none.

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UNITED NATIONS The U.N. humanitarian chief is urgently appealing for $2.4 billion to help millions in war-torn Yemen cope with the conflict and COVID-19, saying programs are already being cut and the situation is alarming.

Mark Lowcock told a briefing Thursday that the U.N. has only received $516.6 million of the $3.4 billion it needs until the end of the year, amounting to just over 15%.

The United Nations and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting a virtual pledging conference for Yemen on Tuesday seeking $2.4 billion, including $80 million to respond to the pandemic.

Lowcock and the heads of 10 U.N. agencies and several U.N. officials and humanitarian organizations issued a joint statement Thursday saying COVID-19 is spreading rapidly across the country already experiencing the worlds largest humanitarian crisis as a result of the war, and expressing increasing alarm about the worsening situation.

Tragically, we do not have enough money to continue this work, they said. Of 41 major U.N. programs in Yemen, more than 30 will close in the next few weeks if we cannot secure additional funds.

This means many more people will die, they warned.

The 17 signatories said they have the skills, staff and capacity to meet the difficult challenges of delivering aid in Yemen, but no money. And time is running out.

We ask donors to pledge generously and pay pledges promptly, they said.

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SYDNEY An Australian state government has announced that as many people will be allowed in churches as in pubs after an archbishop complained of unfair pandemic rules.

Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher on Thursday encouraged Catholics to sign a petition calling on the New South Wales government to treat churches the same as pubs by increasing capacity limits from 10 to 50 people beginning June 1.

State Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced Friday that churches will also be allowed to increase congregation sizes from 10 on Monday in line with relaxed restrictions on pubs, cafes and restaurants.

It is crucial that worshippers remember to follow health advice. This is particularly important for people with co-morbidities aged over 50 and people aged over 70, Berejiklian said.

The government had been wary of adjusting the restrictions on places of worship after COVID-19 outbreaks in churches and church choirs overseas.

The states chief health officer, Kerry Chant, said places of worship need to find alternatives to practices that might spread the virus, like singing, sharing books and passing around collection plates.

Communal singing and chanting should not occur because of the high risk of transmission, Chant said.

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MANILA, Philippines The Philippine president is relaxing a lockdown in the capital, the countrys epicenter of coronavirus infections, in a tightrope move amid an economic downturn and massive government spending to help feed millions of poor families restricted to their homes.

President Rodrigo Duterte said Thursday night that metropolitan Manila will be placed under a more relaxed quarantine Monday after more than two months of police- and military-enforced lockdown that restrained public mobility and most economic activities. The economy contracted in the first quarter in its weakest run in two decades.

Under the new arrangement, more work and business operations, along with public transport, will be allowed to resume, but physical distancing, face masks and other safeguards will continue to be required. Classes will remain suspended.

Duterte made the televised announcement hours after the Department of Health reported a single-day spike of 539 infections, more than 60% of them in the congested capital. That brought the total number of infections to 15,588, including 921 deaths.

Duterte warned the danger is far from over.

Remember that the entire nation is still under quarantine, Duterte said. The state has every right to control your movement if you pass on a contagion to the population.

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SEOUL, South Korea South Korea has reported 58 new cases of the coronavirus, all in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, as officials scramble to stem transmissions linked to a massive e-commerce warehouse near the capital.

The figures announced Friday by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention brought national totals to 11,402 infections and 269 deaths.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun called for officials to examine working conditions at warehouses of online shopping companies, which have seen orders surge during the pandemic, and other congested workplaces where infection risks may be high.

Health authorities on Thursday said they found at least 82 infections linked to workers at a warehouse operated by local e-commerce giant Coupang in Bucheon, near Seoul. Officials had planned to complete testing on 4,000 workers and visitors to the warehouse.

South Korea has reported 177 new COVID-19 cases over the past three days, a resurgence that threatens to erase some of its hard-won gains against the virus and worsen a massive shock to the countrys trade-dependent economy.

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BEIJING China on Friday again reported no new coronavirus cases or deaths.

Just 70 people remain hospitalized for treatment of COVID-19 and another 414 are being isolated and monitored as possible cases or after testing positive without showing symptoms. China has reported 4,634 deaths from the disease among 82,995 cases.

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CAIRO Yemens Houthi rebels have acknowledged for the first time that the coronavirus has spread to multiple governorates under their control.

The Houthi health ministry buried the admission in a muted statement Thursday, saying only that authorities are working to trace and isolate infected cases that have been recorded in the capital, Sanaa, and several provinces across the war-torn country.

The rebels have officially reported just four cases, including one fatality, and have muzzled doctors and journalists who try to speak out about a dramatic surge in deaths among those with COVID-19 symptoms.

The statement accused the World Health Organization of sending inaccurate and deficient tests, and said it would reveal the results in the coming days.

Yemens internationally recognized government has reported 278 cases and 58 deaths. A major outbreak is threatening to overwhelm the countrys health system, which has been devastated by five years of war.

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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday announced the end of a 10-week stay-at-home order meant to stem the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

The Democrat said that on Friday the state will move to the third phase of his five-stage recovery plan, meaning manufacturing and retail business will resume and there will be outdoor dining and small social gatherings.

Chicago, the nations third-largest city, which has been battered by the pandemic, will move more slowly. Mayor Lori Lightfoot says restrictions will be loosened next week, with city offices, parks and libraries to reopen in coming weeks.

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HARRISBURG, Pa. A state lawmakers decision to keep his COVID-19 diagnosis a secret is dividing the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

Democrats say the Republican legislator needlessly put peoples health at risk.

The fight spilled onto the House floor on Thursday as Democrats denounced how it was handled by the lawmaker and the majority Republican leadership.

Republicans defeated a Democratic effort to end the legislative session so there would be time to change policies on disclosing illnesses. And the state attorney general declined requests by fellow Democrats to criminally investigate how the diagnosis was handled. He urged lawmakers to demonstrate common decency.

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WASHINGTON Emergency management officials briefed President Donald Trump Thursday about the challenges of preparing for what is expected to be an above-average hurricane season amidst a coronavirus pandemic.

During an Oval Office meeting, officials reported that the Atlantic hurricane season is expected to have 13 to 19 named storms and six to 10 of those storms could develop into hurricanes.

Vice President Mike Pence says that when people are displaced by tropical storms or hurricanes, they are used to congregating at local schools or gyms. He says there will be different challenges now and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided recommendations to local and state officials on how to respond to natural disasters during a pandemic.

Recommendations include encouraging evacuees to plan on staying with friends and families rather than end up in shelters.

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SAN FRANCISCO San Franciscos mayor has announced plans to reopen the city on June 15 for outdoor dining and indoor shopping, religious services, and sporting events without spectators.

Mayor London Breed says local coronavirus statistics are positive enough to restart the local economy, but she warned that residents must continue wearing masks and shelter in place.

Breeds guideline allows for barbershops and hair salons to reopen in July, and nail salons, tattoo parlors, gyms and bars scheduled to reopen in August.

San Francisco is one of six Bay Area counties that coordinated a shutdown in mid-March. All reopening dates are tentative.

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ATLANTA Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday announced plans to allow bars and nightclubs to reopen, overnight summer camps and summer schools to begin and professional and amateur sports to resume operations and practices, all with social distancing and sanitation restrictions in place.

The Republican also extended a public health state of emergency, describing the road ahead as a slow and careful transition to a new normal.

The continued easing of restrictions comes as public health experts warn that new daily confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in Georgia are ticking upward after weeks of decline.

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CAIRO Sudans public prosecutor says that another two senior officials of ousted autocrat Omar al-Bashirs regime have contracted the coronavirus in detention.

The attorney general said that former vice president Ali Muhamed Taha and former defense minister Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein tested positive while imprisoned in the capital of Khartoum.

Both are in their 70s and are the latest of four former party leaders to be infected, raising fears the virus is spreading rapidly through the cells of Kober prison. They were transferred to isolation centers for treatment.

Officials have ramped up testing of other political figures who landed in jail after a sweeping protest movement toppled al-Bashir in April last year.

Sudan has released over 4,000 low-risk prisoners to prevent a major outbreak. But freeing former leaders could prove politically explosive as the country makes a fragile transition to democracy.

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ROME Italys education minister is promising students they will return to school in September.

Minister Lucia Azzolina told RAI state TV Thursday evening that come September all the nations school children will hear the school bell ring again. She said students older than six will have to wear protective masks at school and stay a safe distance apart from classmates.

Schools were closed as a safety measure after Italy started seeing hundreds of cases before the entire nation went into lockdown in early March. The COVID-19 outbreak in Europe began in Italy.

While the Italian government eased restrictions this month on many sectors of daily life, including allowing museums and all retail shops to open, restaurants to resume dining-in service and people to frequent parks, school buildings will stay shuttered for the rest of the school year. The only exception is high school students in their final year. They will return to school on June 17 to have individual oral exams needed for graduation.

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BOGOT, Colombia The U.N. childrens agency is warning that Latin America could see a devastating jump in childhood poverty.

UNICEF and Save the Children warned Thursday that 46% of children in the region could be living in poor households by the end of the year as a result of the new coronavirus pandemic. That would make Latin America the second hardest hit region in the world.

An additional 16 million children are projected to live in poor households this year.

Monica Rubio, UNICEF s social policy adviser, says such a rise would significantly reverse gains made in reducing childhood poverty in the past two decades.

The United Nations estimates that the regions economy could contract 5.3% this year, a downturn that would be worse than the Great Depression.

The World Food Program says upward of at least 14 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean could go hungry this year.

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RALEIGH, N.C. North Carolinas Democratic governor says his administration hasnt received the written safety plan for the upcoming Republican National Convention that his health secretary asked for amid friction with President Donald Trump on the events capacity.

Gov. Roy Cooper said during a Thursday afternoon briefing that his administration has yet to see plans for how the RNC envisions safely holding the convention in Charlotte in August amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump threatened in a tweet Monday to move the convention unless Cooper could guarantee a full-capacity gathering. Trump reiterated the idea by saying he wanted an answer from Cooper within a week, or hed be forced to consider moving the convention somewhere else.

Cooper said his administration required a similar written plan from NASCAR ahead of its recent race in the Charlotte area that was run without fans. He said hes in similar discussions with other sports teams, including the NFLs Carolina Panthers.

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Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

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The Latest: UN urges $2.4 billion in aid for war-torn Yemen - The Associated Press

Much of the focus on COVID-19 testing thus far into the pandemic has been on tests that can determine whether someone is actively infected with the novel coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2. But, in his drive to open up America again, President Donald Trump has turned his attentionto blood-based antibody tests, which can show whether someone was previously infected with the virus.

This will help us assess the number of cases that have been asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, and support our efforts to get Americans back to work by showing us who might have developed the wonderful, beautiful immunity, Trump said at anApril 17 press conference.

The tests do have the potential to relay valuable information about who might already have immunity and how widely COVID-19 has spread. But so far, the tests are not widely available and many of those that are available do not work as advertised.

The U.K., for instance, spent $20 million on antibody tests from China that the government subsequently found were not accurate enough to use. An emergency room in Laredo, Texas, also dropped half a million dollars on tests from China that were too unreliable to deploy.

Other tests are better but, like any test, will still miss some people who have antibodies or incorrectly tag others as having antibodies when they dont. And more fundamentally, experts told us too little is known about how the immune system responds to the new virus to know for sure whether antibodies actually protect a person from contracting the disease.

Well run through how the tests work and why its so hard to interpret what the results might mean.

What are antibodies and why is it useful to check for them?

Antibodies are specialized proteins that help clear the body of invading microbes. Made by immune cells known as B cells shortly after infection, antibodies specifically recognize pathogens, binding to the surfaces of viruses and stopping them from entering cells, for example, or marking them for destruction by other parts of the immune system.

The proteins dont exist until at least a few days into an acute infection, and often arent detectable until a week or more after symptoms appear, Rangarajan Sampath, the chief scientific officer of the nonprofit Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, told us.

But because some antibodies persist for months if not years after someone has recovered, they offer a glimpse into the past and can reveal whether someone was previously infected, potentially even if that person never had symptoms.

The earliest antibodies that B cells pump out known as immunoglobulin M, or IgM may overlap with infection, Sampath said. IgM antibodies bind a bit less well to pathogens, but are the first on the scene, peaking within several weeks or so andthen declining. The most common antibody, IgG, takes longer to ramp up, but is more finely tuned to recognize microbes and is longer-lasting. Other antibody types, including IgA, which is present in the respiratory tract, are also delayed.

Because of the time lag, antibody tests are not very good at determining whether someone is infected with SARS-CoV-2.

The antibody test by itself cannot tell you whether youre currently active with a live infection or not, said Sampath. You could be. You cannot rule it out. But its also possible that what you had was a past infection, as recently as a few days ago.

For this reason, the Food and Drug Administration says antibody tests should not be used as the sole basis to diagnose COVID-19. Molecular tests, which check for the presence of viral RNA, are needed to diagnose an infection.

Its worth mentioning that different antibodies have different functions, and most antibody tests cannot discriminate between those that may be able to bind to the virus, but arent able to prevent infection the way so-called neutralizing antibodies can.

These tests are just looking for the presence of antibodies that are able to recognize SARS-CoV-2, said Lisa Gralinski, a virologist who studies human coronaviruses at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Theyre not telling us anything about the quality of those antibodies, so we dont know if theyre neutralizing.

Usually we would expect that they are, but in the case of an ongoing pandemic, she added, we dont want to be providing people with false confidence or incorrect information.

This is one reason why health experts have been cautious about making sweeping claims that antibody tests can necessarily identify those who are immune, even if scientists think its highly likely that a person with antibodies will have at least partial immunity for some period of time.

In the context of the current pandemic, a persons antibodies may also be valuable as a possible COVID-19 treatment. Scientists are exploring delivering antibody-rich blood, or whats called convalescent plasma, from people who recovered from COVID-19 to help patients still struggling with the disease.

How do COVID-19 antibody tests work?

Precisely because antibodies are highly specific and bind to certain features of a pathogen for example, the spike protein that sticks out from the surface of the COVID-19 virus its possible to design tests that can fish them out and say whether a person has them in their blood. (Antibody tests are also known as serological tests, since antibodies are found in the serum portion of the blood.)

As Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security explains, this can be done in the lab with whats called an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, or ELISA. Scientists attach some SARS-CoV-2 surface protein to a plastic plate, then add a bit of patient serum. If there are antibodies in the serum that recognize the viruss surface protein, they will stick to the protein, which can then be seen by adding a lab antibody that recognizes human antibodies and has the ability to trigger a color change.

Other tests try to do something similar, but in a more user-friendly platform. Many rapid serology tests, for instance, look a bit like pregnancy tests, but instead of using a urine sample, require the user to add a small amount of blood. As the liquid moves through the test strip, SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, if present, encounter viral proteins, and can even be sorted according to whether they are IgM or IgG, with a positive result popping up as a colored band.

The rapid tests typically take 10-30 minutes per sample, whereas the lab-based ELISAs take several hours, but can test many samples at once.

How accurate are COVID-19 antibody tests?

Poor accuracy has plagued many of the first tests that companies developed. Sampath said the problems boil down to bad reagents, or the materials the tests use, and a general lack of validation to know whether the tests work.

Many of the tests that came out initially came out in a hurry, he said. And many of them were not tested widely. They were tested on a very small set of, lets say, highly positive patients that may have looked like this was really good. But now, when you start testing them on a broader population, you start finding that they didnt really have the performance that was needed.

One issue, Sampath said, is that some tests, especially the rapid ones, may be falsely detecting antibodies to other coronaviruses, including those that cause common colds. That could yield a high false positive rate, which could be dangerous if people are led to believe they might be immune. Tests, too, may not be sensitive enough to detect SARS-CoV-2 antibodies when they are present, producing false negatives.

Indeed, the two measures that dictate how reliable a test is are sensitivity, or how many people are correctly labeled as having antibodies, and specificity, or how many people are correctly told they lack them.

Many manufacturers report these figures based on small-scale, in-house tests, but those reports may not reflect reality on the ground, as some governments have found.

In one preliminary evaluation, posted as a preprint to medRxiv, nine commercially available rapid tests were found to miss as many as 35% to 45% of samples that were positive. The rapid tests generally produced fewer false positives 7% or less but even that performance may not be good enough, especially if the tests are used in a population in which few people have been infected.

This gets at a strange quirk of testing, in which test performance depends not just on the quality of the test, but also on the population its being tested in. A test thats 95% specific, for example, might sound pretty good, but if only 1% of people are infected, then 85% of the positive results could be wrong.

Sampaths organization, FIND, is working on independently evaluating a variety of antibody tests. The FDA is also partnering with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health to assess serological tests. According to a CDC website, results are expected in late April.

Sampath, however, said he thought it would still be several months before there would be enough data on tests used for patient management. And until then, many bad tests are still out there. Many of those tests are still circulating, he said, and many of them continue to add to this noise and confusion.

Whats the status of COVID-19 antibody tests in the U.S.?

For most people, antibody tests are not yet available, although numerous companies are now making them, and some cities are beginning to roll out tests to determine how many people in the community have already been infected.

As of April 24, the FDA has given emergency use authorization, or EUA, to four antibody tests, including a point-of-care cartridge test from Cellex, a lab-based ELISA from Mount Sinai and a high-throughput test from Ortho Clinical Diagnostics.

Many more antibody tests are on the market, but have not received an EUA. The FDA permits this under a special emergency policy, as long as the test is validated by the manufacturer and test results do not claim the ability to diagnose COVID-19. At this time, the FDA does not allow any serological tests to be performed at home, so all tests must be conducted in clinical labs or by health care workers.

One such non-EUA test is from Abbott, which runs on existing machines in hospitals and reference labs, and has been mentioned by name by the president. The company has said it expects to be able to ship 4 million tests by the end of April and 20 million tests per month, starting in June.

Experts, however, are skeptical that companies will be able to meet the demand for serological tests anytime soon. Were really entering into this era of antibody testing, and were not anywhere close to where we need to be, said Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at Harvard Universitys T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in a press call. Its really going to make the demand for PCR testing look minimal, he added, referring to the molecular diagnostic tests for COVID-19.

Sampath also warned that none of the tests had been fully vetted yet. Even the EUA, its a really quick and dirty way of getting something in front of the FDA for an evaluation. Its not a true FDA-approved test that they would normally do.

And while some of the tests may work fine, Sampath said there was too little data to go on.

There are perhaps a handful of tests that may be on the border of being good enough, but we dont know, he said. And we dont know that because we only have the manufacturers claim.

Will someone be protected from being infected again if they have antibodies to the virus?

Its quite likely that someone with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies will have some degree of immunity to the virus because its a sign the body has seen and responded to the pathogen before and because its typical of most viruses that spark short-term infections.

Generally we know with infections like this, that at least for a reasonable period of time, youre going to have antibody levels that will be protective, said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in an April 8 interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Scientists nevertheless caution that protection is not a given. UNCs Gralinski said immunity would be very likely, but because the virus is new and there isnt direct evidence yet it cant be known for certain.

The World Health Organization also warned against assuming antibodies confer immunity to the virus. Noting in an April 24scientific brief that there has yet to be any study showing that antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 prevent a second infection in humans, the group advised against policies that use antibody tests to identify individuals with immunity.

At this point in the pandemic, there is not enough evidence about the effectiveness of antibody-mediated immunity to guarantee the accuracy of an immunity passport or risk-free certificate,' the WHO said. People who assume that they are immune to a second infection because they have received a positive test result may ignore public health advice. The use of such certificates may therefore increase the risks of continued transmission.

Reports out of South Korea and other parts of Asia have raised concerns about reinfection or viral reactivation a term usually reserved for when viruses go dormant inside cells since some people who recovered from COVID-19 have tested positive again for the virus.

But many scientists are doubtful of those claims. Gralinski said coronaviruses dont reactivate, and rather than people becoming reinfected, its more likely that as patients eliminate the virus from their bodies, the amount of swabbed virus hovers around the diagnostic tests threshold of detection.

My suspicion is that were dealing with sensitivity issues, where people are kind of on the low edge of detectability with their infection as theyre clearing virus, she said. When theyre dancing around the detection limit for virus positivity, its easy to have things go down for a couple of days and then come back up.

Many other questions about potential COVID-19 immunity remain, including what antibody level might be needed to confer protection and whether people who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 but never developed symptoms are any less protected than those with more severe cases.

How long might someone be immune to COVID-19?

Scientists cant know with any certainty how long someone who contracted COVID-19 might be protected, but they can look to other human coronaviruses for clues.

In one experiment, volunteers were intentionally infected with a coronavirus that causes a common cold, and after a year, some participants were susceptible to infection again, although many did not develop noticeable symptoms.

Other studies of patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in 2003 indicate antibodies begin to wane after about four months, but stick around in most people for two years. By year three, though, up to a quarter of patients no longer had detectable antibodies, and after six years,almost noone did.

If SARS-CoV-2 behaves like its predecessor, Gralinski said it might be possible to expect perhaps a couple of years of immunity, but not much more.

Reasonable guesses are that on the short end there might be partial protection for about a year or close to a year. And on the long end it might be longer it might be several years of good protection, said Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist and director of Harvards Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, in a call with reporters. But its really speculative at this point.

Its worth noting that immune protection doesnt just stem from circulating antibodies, nor is it a simple on or off switch. As Vineet Menachery, a coronavirus researcher at the University of Texas, explained in a Twitter thread, there are other ways the body remembers the pathogens it has encountered. This includes so-called memory cells that can swing into action more quickly if a microbe returns. So, even if a person loses their neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and can become reinfected, theyre likely to at least be less sick the second time around.

What do antibody studies say so far about how much COVID-19 has spread?

In the U.S., a few so-called serosurvey or seroprevalence studies are beginning to be done that get at how many people in certain areas have already been infected.

Many of the results, however, are highly preliminary or lack sufficient detail for scientists to fully understand them.

New York state, for example, announced on April 23 that of its first phase of 3,000 antibody tests, 13.9% were positive, with a higher 21.2% positive rate in New York City.

A small survey of 200 people in Chelsea, Massachusetts, found that 64 people, or 32%, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.

Another study, in Santa Clara, California, estimated that 2.5% to 4.2% of all people in the county had been infected with COVID-19, and suggested that the number of COVID-19 cases could be some 50 to 85 times higher than the confirmed count.

The Santa Clara work, however, which has not yet been peer-reviewed and was posted to the preprint site medRxiv, has been heavily criticized for its data analysis and its methodology. Critics argue the population sample, which was recruited from Facebook, may have been biased, and that statistically, the researchers cant actually rule out that all of the positive antibody tests were false positives.

Experts say its important that these studies be done, but some are worried that they are not being done carefully enough. As A. Marm Kilpatrick, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz who studies infectious disease dynamics, said on Twitter of the Santa Clara study, We need these kinds of studies and data badly. Unfortunately this paper is badly misleading.

Part of the reason why its so important is because the information can be used to make a more accurate estimate of how dangerous COVID-19 is. If far more people have been infected than expected, that would lower estimates of how deadly COVID-19 is, which could influence public policy decisions about how important it is to keep instituting stringent physical distancing and other public health measures.

The other main reason to keep tabs on the figure is because it can say how close a community might be to achieving herd immunity, or the point at which people who are susceptible to the virus can still be protected because so many other people around them are already immune. This is based on how contagious a disease is, and since people with SARS-CoV-2 infect an average of two to three other people, youd need around 50% to 67% of the population to be immune to get herd immunity.

No results yet indicate any population is close to that. And in fact, most studies from around the world have suggested relatively few people have contracted COVID-19.

As the WHO noted on April 20, many studies indicate only 2% to 3% of people have been infected.

We absolutely must remain vigilant because what were learning fromthese early serologic studies, even with all of their faults and all of the limitations, said WHO scientist Maria Van Kerkhove, is that a lower proportion of people are actually, it appears, are infected. And that means a large proportion of the public remains susceptible.

Update, April 27: We updated the article to include a scientific briefing released by the WHO.

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Q&A on COVID-19 Antibody Tests - FactCheck.org

On a recent grocery run, Katie Luckesen noticed something new: she wasnt the only shopper wearing a face mask and gloves.

And this time, she added, I didnt get any funny looks!

If anyone was ready for the current era of social distancing and hyper-cleanliness, it was the Luckesens. For more than two years, this South San Diego family has lived in lockdown to protect their youngest member.

Charlie Luckesen was born in November 2017 without a thymus, the gland that transforms stem cells into T cells able to fight infections and disease. Lacking this essential piece of the immune system, the child could be killed by even a minor illness.

This is a rare condition: athymia afflicts only five out of every 1 million babies born in the U.S. Theres only one cure, a transplant, and only one place in the U.S. that performs this operation, Duke University.

On March 10, Charlie became that North Carolina medical centers 102nd thymus tissue transplant. Hes home now, yet the Luckesens will self-quarantine until the new organ produces a full set of robust T cells. That may take up to a year.

Another 12 months in lockdown? To Charlies mom, that prospect is thrilling.

I finally feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, she said.

Faith has played a major role in Charlies story. It has sustained Katie Luckesen and her husband, Lt. J.D. Luckesen, a Navy chaplain. It has steeled them for the possibility of losing their son. And it has reminded them on this Easter Sunday that with faith, miracles can happen.

Katie Luckesen said the past two years have been a trial and a test of her faith. She couldnt have gotten through it without what she calls a lively hope, a line from Chapter 1, Verse 3, of the Bibles First Epistle of Peter, about the miraculous resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter morning.

Easter is a reminder to myself that even if Charlie would die that it wasnt the end, she said. I praise God for the knowledge of the resurrection that reminded me that mortal separations are temporary, and this gave me the hope and strength to carry on when days were hard.

The atonement of Christ becomes even more personal this Easter as I think that he suffered so that he could succor me in all of my trials, she said. I have come to realize the power and peace of the praying for courage to have the strength to say not my will, but thine be done ... We didnt come this far, only to come this far.

For most of his young life, Charlie had been on Dukes transplant waiting list. These were tense times for the Luckesens who, through social media, shared their trials and triumphs with other families engaged in the same struggle.

All pray for a transplant, but not all of these prayers are answered. The average lifespan of someone born without a thymus is two years. Last November, on Charlies second birthday, one of these children died. A week later, another followed.

I feel like we are living on borrowed time, Luckesen said then.

Complicating matters was a Food and Drug Administration ruling in December, withholding approval of RVT-802, a patented process used to culture thymus tissue and prepare it for transplantation. In the end, Duke won the FDAs permission to continue using the method under a research protocol.

Finally, the day came. On Feb. 17, Charlie had a quick checkup with his pediatrician, Dr. Katie Lively Swartz of Balboa Naval Medical Center Just to make sure things went smoothly, the doctor said. Then the boy and his mother boarded an air ambulance for the cross-country flight to Dukes campus in Durham, N.C.

There, Charlie underwent a battery of tests and was treated with pre-transplant medications.

He had a strong reaction to that, a big seizure, Luckesen said. He was able to power through it.

The toddler had recovered when a fever racked his body. Worried that this might indicate a serious ailment, doctors at Duke ordered a full body CT scan.

This was the worlds most expensive sinus infection diagnosis, she said.

On March 10, Charlie was wheeled into an operating room in Duke. The long-awaited procedure took a mere three hours.

Its a really minor, anti-climatic surgery for how monumental it is in our lives, Luckesen said. They put tiny pieces of thymus up and down his leg.

Dr. M. Louise Markert, a Duke professor of pediatrics and immunology, pioneered this technique in 1993, inspired by infants who undergo heart surgery.

At birth, the thymus is located over the heart. When heart surgeons operate on infants, they often need to remove some thymus tissue to gain access to the heart.

The material that is cut away can be used in a thymus tissue transplant, but only when parents agree to literally donate part of their own child to strangers.

Katie Luckesen holds infant Charlie in the NICU at Rady Childrens Hospital in San Diego in May 2018.

(Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

This is a wonderful story of parents who, and you can imagine the stress they are under, are able to think about someone else, Markert said. The only way this can be done is through the goodness of peoples hearts.

Donated tissue, which is tested to ensure its compatibility to the recipient, is usually implanted in the thigh muscle. In Charlies case, about 40 pieces of thymus tissue were stitched into his left thigh.

It went according to plan, Markert said of Charlies operation. I think this one went very smoothly.

When Charlie and his mother arrived in North Carolina in February, the coronavirus was just beginning to disrupt life in the U.S. A month later, with Charlie recovering at Duke, Luckesen worried the pandemic would delay their trip home.

In fact, an air ambulance flew mother and child back to San Diego on March 26. Charlies long-term prospects are bright the survival rate for thymus tissue transplant recipients is 72 percent, which includes patients with other health issues.

Deaths, Markert said, are rare once a transplant patient survives the first year or two.

The Luckesens will remain in isolation as Charlies newly-acquired thymus tissue equips him with functioning T cells. This may mean another year of stringent precautions. Charlies father is remaining at his post at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, rather than risk infecting his wife and children.

Were treating this like a deployment, she said.

This adds another layer of stress on the entire family, she acknowledged. But this is the best we can protect Charlie.

Charlie,2 and his mother, Katie Luckesen recently returned from North Carolina where Charlie underwent Thymus transplant procedure at Duke University Hospital.

(Nelvin C. Cepeda/Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

While most Americans are new to the demands of self-quarantining, the Luckesens have been there, done that and disinfected it all.

Were pros, Luckesen said.

Charlie was nearly 9 months old before he left his sterile room at Rady Childrens Hospital. Once the baby came home, his siblings Jack, who is now 8; William, 6; and Amelia, 5 were taken out of school. Classes are now held at home.

Visitors are rarely allowed inside, and only after slipping on hospital gloves, surgical masks, gowns and booties. These supplies are stored by the front door, alongside a stockpile of hand sanitizers and disinfectants.

Charlie Luckesen, 2, enjoyed playing with his three siblings, William, 6; Jack, 8; and Amelia, 5, during their playtime on the front yard of the familys home.

(Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

A Roomba roams the downstairs, vacuuming up stray grit, while Luckesen constantly washes, wipes, cleans.

Despite the occupation of Charlies father, the family stopped attending church services in person long ago, turning to internet services in order to avoid germs.

The children play in the backyard and on the front lawn, but only with each other. They walk in the neighborhood, but avoid other pedestrians and all crowds.

Given her hard-won expertise, Luckesen is sometimes asked how to handle social distancing and other protective measures being adopted in the coronavirus era.

My biggest advice, she said, is just to be diligent.

For this family, that means wearing gloves and face masks on any journey outside the home. On their return, they shower and change into fresh clothes, dropping the previous outfit into the washing machine.

Theres a lot of hand washing in this household, and lot of forgiveness.

You have to give yourself grace, to let things slide that dont matter as much, Luckesen said. My kids probably have too much screen time, probably watch more TV than they should. But I have to keep the house clean for Charlie.

Charlie was slow to develop, held back by his condition and his treatments. (One example: his frequent need for diuretics hindered his absorption of calcium, leading to a fractured vertebrae.)

When he came home from Duke, though, he seemed eager to make up for lost time.

Hes doing great, Luckesen said. Hes pulling himself up and he loves to take steps and walk with me, holding on.

Charlie will need close monitoring, and the family needs to live in isolation, for some time. Every week, the toddlers blood samples will be checked by physicians here. Every month, his T cells will be surveyed by specialists at Duke.

But I finally think we are starting to see the finish line of a marathon, she said.

Life is changing, in ways that allow the Luckesens to hope.

This will be the first year he wont be in the hospital for his birthday, Luckesen said of her youngest child. Nobody wants to be in the hospital for their birthday.

Today the family will celebrate Easter not only separated, with J.D. stationed on base at MCRD, but without a traditional church service. But Luckesen said she plans to connect with her family over FaceTime today and share her faith with others.

We can come together in our families at home. We can celebrate Easter without having to be in a building. We can come together through technology and worship through one of the many online church services. We can come together in reaching out virtually or over the phone with our relatives, she said.

For me the celebration of Easter means rejoicing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and sharing my witness and testimony.

Staff writer Pam Kragen contributed to this report.

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Another year in isolation? That's great news for one San Diego family - The San Diego Union-Tribune

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Synthetic Stem Cells Market Size 2020 Global Industry Share, Top Players, Opportunities And Forecast To 2026 - News Times

Coach. Husband. Father.

These are words that describe Frank Orgel, an 82-year-old Auburn resident who spends his retirement days with his wife, Sarah, and their dog, Gracie, in their home off Donahue Drive.

Football was Orgels life. From childhood, Orgels passion for the game grew as he continued on to play semi-professional and professional football. After his NFL run, Orgel took his talent to East Carolina University in 1974 for his first coaching position.

From that moment, it began.

Orgel toured Power Five universities as an assistant football coach. He coached at Clemson, South Carolina, Georgia and even stopped in Auburn to work next to Pat Dye from 1981 to 1986. His family was with him every step of the way packing and moving when the call came.

Life was good. That is until it wasnt.

Its now 1996 Orgel is running through the airport to catch a plane and, as he recalls, he suddenly trips.

I just fell in the middle of the airport for no reason at all, he said. That never happened to me before.

That day changed everything.

The falls progressed Orgel was now working as the athletic director in Dougherty County, Georgia. With Sarah by his side, they sought answers what was happening?

For a long while, I was in denial, said Orgel.

We were traveling all around the U.S. Atlanta, Birmingham, Rochester, San Diego asking doctors who just couldnt tell us what was wrong. We went to Mexico five times for stem cell research, trying our luck with exploratory medicine, just to receive the same answers. Sarah added.

In 2007, the answer finally came.

Orgel was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. There is no known cure for the disease that progressively deteriorates motor neurons in the brain. Those afflicted eventually lose all ability of voluntary muscle action.

When we found out it was ALS, Frank just shut down, Sarah said. He had severe depression for years we were living in Albany at the time and it just felt like he was going to lay around, waiting to die.

I was calling his friends and old co-workers to try to get him out the house. They were all telling him to get the help he needed."

Eventually, Frank and Sarah decided attending water therapy at the YMCA, two miles from their Albany home, was the best solution.

I was going three times a week, Orgel said. It was close to my house so I could go as much as I wanted, too.

Yet, another thought was hanging over the Orgels heads and this thought was definite time was ticking. The couple had originally planned to retire in Albany but with Franks diagnosis and the progression of age, Sarah had another plan.

Our daughter and only grandchild live in Auburn, said Sarah. After the diagnosis, Frank was getting older, the disease was progressing and somehow, I looked up and I had gotten older, too.

We were living in a sort of remote location by ourselves and that raised some concerns as well. I thought moving to Auburn with our daughter, her husband and his family to watch our grandbaby grow up might be just what Frank needed."

At first, Frank was apprehensive.

He refused to go, said Sarah. He had gotten a routine down at the YMCA and just began to trust his therapists and here I was trying to move.

But thanks to their Realtor, who is also a family friend, the Orgels decided to come into town and explore the community. Their first stop was East Alabama Medical Centers HealthPlus Fitness Center.

HealthPlus offered a variety of physical therapy and amenities to its clients but there was one that stood out to the Orgels immediately the 85-degree saltwater pool.

As soon as we walked in, its like I saw life come back into Frank, Sarah said. I knew, right then, that we were going to be all right.

HealthPlus sold Auburn to the Orgels and in February of 2012, they decided to make their own cottage on The Plains their permanent home.

Orgel was doing therapy as much as he could. With a few hospital stints in between, the water therapy with physical therapist Allen Graham was proving to be more than just therapeutic.

Every day I cant lift my left hand and leg, Ive lost all ability, he said. But in that pool, I can.

When I come out that pool, I feel life come back to my body.

Therapy wasnt the only great thing the Orgels found at HealthPlus. Over the years, they had made connections with staff and other clients all with the common goal of lifetime wellness. They had convinced the facility to invest in a Quadriciser, a robotic rehabilitation therapy system, to accommodate other patients with disabilities that affected their neuroplasticity and mobility. HealthPlus was a part of the Orgels' daily lives.

Then, on Dec. 16, 2019, they got a letter.

HealthPlus was relocating and there would be no 85-degree saltwater pool at their new facility.

We have secured a storefront facility at the Auburn Mall that has about 4,600 square feet and we plan to reopen there on March 2, 2020, said the letter, written by Laura Grill, president and CEO at EAMC. We feel that this is a more appropriate size.

The downsize, according to EAMC officials, was prompted by a decline in membership dating back to the 2008 economic recession.

HealthPlus will now be utilized as an office park for internal medicine professionals. According to James Buston, Auburn city manager, this will be a significant benefit to residents.

I believe we have 12 primary care physicians that they are bringing into the community, said Buston. They need housing and they (EAMC) have chosen to house them there.

Buston reassured EAMCs claim that aquatic services will now be offered at the Opelika Sportsplex after a number of concerned residents voiced their opinions during the Citizens' Open Forum at the Jan. 7 City Council meeting.

In conjunction, the Opelika Sportsplex has agreed to raise the pool temperature to 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

It is my understanding that the temperature will be raised to 85 degrees, said Buston. So EAMC will be taking that part of their services to Opelika.

Buston also claims the city is actively looking into the development of an indoor pool facility as a part of the $40 million Parks, Recreation and Cultural Master Plan that first began in 2018.

We do a citizens survey every two years to see our budget priorities, he said. One of the things we saw and have seen, for a long time, is our population wanting more pools.

We lost one of our pools with the renovation of Drake Middle School so really we only have one pool. A pool is definitely on our priority list."

As for the Orgels and other clients, the pool at the current HealthPlus facility may not be leased by the city of Auburn in the meantime, although the city and EAMC are still in discussions. Clients might, instead, have to make the trek to the Opelika Sportsplex adding an additional 22 minutes to the commute.

Luckily, we have a van and luckily, Im here to take him, said Sarah. But what about those who dont have those means? Some people walked down the hill from the retirement home to the facility while others used public transportation. What about those people?

According to their website, The last day of operations at the current facility will be Jan. 31, 2020. A new storefront location will open at the Auburn Mall on March 2, 2020. The new location will offer cardiovascular equipment, strength equipment and personal training, and the membership fees will be reduced to $26 per month.

As for the Orgels, they will still continue with their course of therapy, even if that means adding time and distance to their daily operations. We will find a way Sarah said.

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Orgel, others push city for help with loss of HealthPlus pool - Auburn Villager

Aeterna Zentaris Inc. (NASDAQ:AEZS) and Magenta Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:MGTA) are two firms in the Biotechnology that compete against each other. Below is a comparison of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, dividends, earnings and valuation.

Valuation & Earnings

We can see in table 1 the earnings per share, top-line revenue and valuation of Aeterna Zentaris Inc. and Magenta Therapeutics Inc.

Profitability

Table 2 shows the return on assets, return on equity and net margins of the two firms.

Liquidity

Aeterna Zentaris Inc.s Current Ratio and Quick Ratio are 2.3 and 2.2 respectively. The Current Ratio and Quick Ratio of its competitor Magenta Therapeutics Inc. are 17.2 and 17.2 respectively. Magenta Therapeutics Inc. therefore has a better chance of paying off short and long-term obligations compared to Aeterna Zentaris Inc.

Analyst Recommendations

The following table delivered below contains the ratings and recommendations for Aeterna Zentaris Inc. and Magenta Therapeutics Inc.

On the other hand, Magenta Therapeutics Inc.s potential upside is 30.62% and its consensus target price is $18.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

The shares of both Aeterna Zentaris Inc. and Magenta Therapeutics Inc. are owned by institutional investors at 21.4% and 75.9% respectively. 0.6% are Aeterna Zentaris Inc.s share held by insiders. On the other hand, insiders held about 1.8% of Magenta Therapeutics Inc.s shares.

Performance

In this table we provide the Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Half Yearly, Yearly and YTD Performance of both pretenders.

For the past year Aeterna Zentaris Inc. has -70.92% weaker performance while Magenta Therapeutics Inc. has 133.16% stronger performance.

Aeterna Zentaris Inc., a specialty biopharmaceutical company, engages in developing and commercializing novel treatments in oncology, endocrinology, and women's health. The companys product pipeline includes Zoptrex, which completed Phase III clinical study for women with advanced, recurrent, or metastatic endometrial cancer, as well as in various phases for the treatment of ovarian and prostate cancer; and MACRILEN, which completed Phase III trial for use in the diagnosis of adult growth hormone deficiency. It is also developing an LHRH-disorazol Z conjugate, which is in pre-clinical development in oncology. Aeterna Zentaris Inc. was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Summerville, South Carolina.

Magenta Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in developing medicines to bring the curative power of bone marrow transplant to patients. It is developing C100, C200, and C300 targeted antibody-drug conjugates for transplant conditioning; MGTA-145, a stem cell mobilization product candidate to control stem cell mobilization; MGTA-456, an allogeneic stem cell therapy to control stem cell growth; E478, a small molecule aryl hydrocarbon receptor antagonist for the expansion of gene-modified stem cells; and G100, an ADC program to prevent acute graft and host diseases. The company was formerly known as HSCTCo Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name to Magenta Therapeutics, Inc. in February 2016. Magenta Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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Reviewing Aeterna Zentaris Inc. (AEZS)'s and Magenta Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:MGTA)'s results - The CoinGlobalist

VistaGen Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:VTGN) and Aeterna Zentaris Inc. (NASDAQ:AEZS) are two firms in the Biotechnology that compete against each other. Below is a comparison of their risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, earnings and valuation, institutional ownership.

Earnings & Valuation

Table 1 showcases the gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation of VistaGen Therapeutics Inc. and Aeterna Zentaris Inc.

Profitability

Table 2 demonstrates the net margins, return on assets and return on equity of VistaGen Therapeutics Inc. and Aeterna Zentaris Inc.

Volatility and Risk

VistaGen Therapeutics Inc.s -0.48 beta indicates that its volatility is 148.00% less volatile than that of Standard and Poors 500. Competitively, Aeterna Zentaris Inc.s beta is 1.22 which is 22.00% more volatile than Standard and Poors 500.

Liquidity

VistaGen Therapeutics Inc.s Current Ratio is 4.9 while its Quick Ratio is 4.9. On the competitive side is, Aeterna Zentaris Inc. which has a 2.4 Current Ratio and a 2.3 Quick Ratio. VistaGen Therapeutics Inc. is better positioned to pay off short and long-term obligations compared to Aeterna Zentaris Inc.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

VistaGen Therapeutics Inc. and Aeterna Zentaris Inc. has shares owned by institutional investors as follows: 20.4% and 21.4%. 0.2% are VistaGen Therapeutics Inc.s share owned by insiders. Competitively, insiders own roughly 0.6% of Aeterna Zentaris Inc.s shares.

Performance

Here are the Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Half Yearly, Yearly and YTD Performance of both pretenders.

For the past year VistaGen Therapeutics Inc.s stock price has bigger decline than Aeterna Zentaris Inc.

Summary

VistaGen Therapeutics Inc. beats on 5 of the 9 factors Aeterna Zentaris Inc.

VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in developing and commercializing medicines for depression and other central nervous system (CNS) disorders. The company's lead product candidate is AV-101, which is in Phase II development stage, an adjunctive treatment used for major depressive disorder. It also focuses on potential commercial applications of its human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) technology platform to discover, rescue, develop, and commercialize new chemical entities (NCEs) for CNS and other diseases; and regenerative medicine involving hPSC-derived blood, cartilage, heart, and liver cells. In addition, the company develops CardioSafe 3D, an in vitro cardiac bioassay system for predicting human heart toxicity of small molecule NCEs. VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. has licensing, sublicensing, and collaboration agreements with BlueRock Therapeutics, LP; U.S. National Institutes of Health; Cato Research Ltd.; and University Health Network. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.

Aeterna Zentaris Inc., a specialty biopharmaceutical company, engages in developing and commercializing novel treatments in oncology, endocrinology, and women's health. The companys product pipeline includes Zoptrex, which completed Phase III clinical study for women with advanced, recurrent, or metastatic endometrial cancer, as well as in various phases for the treatment of ovarian and prostate cancer; and MACRILEN, which completed Phase III trial for use in the diagnosis of adult growth hormone deficiency. It is also developing an LHRH-disorazol Z conjugate, which is in pre-clinical development in oncology. Aeterna Zentaris Inc. was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Summerville, South Carolina.

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Contrasting of VistaGen Therapeutics Inc. (VTGN) and Aeterna Zentaris Inc. (NASDAQ:AEZS) - The Broch Herald

Hailie Hyman holds her daughter Maci, 1, before an appointment at the Prisma Health Pediatric Hematology Oncology Center Monday, Nov. 4, 2019.(Photo: JOSH MORGAN/Staff)

GREENVILLE, S.C.Hailie and Treylin Hyman saw the bruising on their baby girls leg as a sign that the active 1-year-old was learning to walk.

But as a blood test would later reveal, little Maci was actually suffering from an extremely rare blood cancer that threatened her life without a risky treatment - atreatmentalmost as dangerous as the disease.

In the beginning, it was very scary, Hailie Hyman told The Greenville News.

I couldnt think of anything but the bad things, she confessed. It was all about the statistics. And the statistics arent good.

Terrifying months followed the diagnosis, punctuated by one critical complication after another, leaving the Boiling Springs couple to wonder if Maci would survive.

Somehow, though, the blue-eyed toddler pulled through.And now her family is looking forward to a special Thanksgiving with much to be grateful for.

Alyssa Carson is 18 and has a pilot's license: She wants to be in the crew that colonizes Mars

The Hymans journey began last February atMacis 1-year-old well-child checkup.

We had no idea anything was wrong, her mom said.But they did a routine (blood test) and a couple of hours later, we got a call saying her platelets were very low.

The Hymans were referred to a hematologist who found other abnormalities in Macis blood and scheduled a bone marrow biopsy to investigate further.

Hailie Hyman holds her daughter Maci, 1, before an appointment at the Prisma Health Pediatric Hematology Oncology Center Monday, Nov. 4, 2019.(Photo: JOSH MORGAN/Staff)

During the procedure, the child suffered an aneurysm in an artery and went into cardiac arrest. The team performed CPR on her for 20 minutes before she was stabilized, her mom said.

Later, in the pediatric intensive care unit, she suffered internal bleeding, too.

It was really hard, she said. There were many nights that I would just pray and pray and pray.

Initially believing Maci had leukemia, doctors subsequently determined she had myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS.

The condition occurs when abnormal cells in the bone marrow leave the patient unable to make enough blood, according to the American Cancer Society.

Its rare, afflicting as few 10,000 Americans a year, though the actual number is unknown.

Maci Hyman, 1, interacts with hospital staff before an appointment at the Prisma Health Pediatric Hematology Oncology Center Monday, Nov. 4, 2019.(Photo: JOSH MORGAN/Staff)

In children, its rarer still. Most people arediagnosed in their 70s.

We were told that just four out of 1 million children get it every year, Hailie Hyman said.

That made the diagnosis elusive at first, said Dr. Nichole Bryant, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist with Prisma Health-Upstate, formerly Greenville Health System.

Shes the only one Ive seen in my career, she said.

Maci had to have regular blood transfusions, antibiotics and other medications to fight the MDS, Bryant said. But the only hope for a cure was a stem cell transplant at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

When they said that was the only treatment plan for MDS, I of course went to Google, Hailie Hyman said. I read about transplant patients and ...all the complications. It was terrifying. But no matter how many bad things I saw, we had to do it. There is no other option.

The transplantis extremely risky.

Hailie Hyman looks at a fish tank with her daughter Maci, 1, before an appointment at the Prisma Health Pediatric Hematology Oncology Center Monday, Nov. 4, 2019.(Photo: JOSH MORGAN/Staff)

First, high doses of chemotherapy are given to destroy the diseased bone marrow, leaving the patient without an immune system, so fighting infections becomes a challenge. Then healthy donor marrow is infused.

Its also fraught with potentially life-threatening complications, including graft vs. host disease, which occurs when immune cells from the donor attack the patients body, Bryant said. Other complications include permanent kidney damage and gastrointestinal problems.

They have to go to hell and back, she said. But its the only option for long-term survival.

Maci had a really rough start, suffering lots and lots and lots of complications, Bryant said.

Her kidneys failed, so she wound up on dialysis. When she couldnt breathe on her own, she was put on a ventilator. And because she couldnt eat, she had to be tube fed.

Hailie Hyman looks at a fish tank with her daughter Maci, 1, before an appointment at the Prisma Health Pediatric Hematology Oncology Center Monday, Nov. 4, 2019.(Photo: JOSH MORGAN/Staff)

She had blistering sores in her mouth and throughout her GI tract, her mom said. Because her liver wasnt functioning properly, her abdomen filled up with fluid that had to be drained. She was bleeding so profusely in her lungs that one of them collapsed.

Maci, who was sedated through much of it, was put on full life support, she said.

That night we almost lost her, her mom said. We were in the hallway crying our eyes out. We didnt know what do to or think. It was pretty scary for a while.

Somehow, Maci made it.

There were so many times during her first months that it seemed like she would not survive, Bryant said. So the fact that she is here ... is really a miracle.

Macis family found an unrelated donor through the National Marrow Donor Program, enlisting hundreds of other people to join the registry in the process, Bryant said.

Nichole Bryant, M.D.(Photo: Provided)

It was an important part of their journey that maybe didnt directly benefit Maci, she said. But if everybody did that, we wouldnt have difficulty finding a donor for anybody.

Doctors have no explanation for why Maci got MDS. She didnt carry the genetic mutation for it and there is no family history.

She is a rare child - and not in a good way, her mom said, adding,Youve got to laugh sometimes or youre going to cry.

A dying man wanted one last beer with his sons: The moment resonated with thousands

Maci was admitted to MUSC on June 2 and released on Oct. 14.

The Hymans, both 22, spent the entire time in Charlestonwhile Hailies mom cared for their older daughter, Athena, now 2.

Treylins employer held his welding job open for him. And other friends and family members did what they could to help.

We had many, many people very generously donate to us to cover expenses at home and living expenses where we were, Hailie Hyman said.

We are thankful for everyone who helped us through it the cards, the gifts, the donations. Every single cent is greatly appreciated.

Maci's doing well, but recovery from a transplant can take months to years, Bryant said.

Her kidneys are functioning again so she was able to come off dialysis. But she still must take many medications, including anti-rejection drugs that suppress her immune system and leaveher at risk for infection. And she still must be tube fed.

She is miles ahead of where she was two months ago, Bryant said. But she still has a long way to go. Its a long, long road.

Macis mom says she can be up and playing one day and flopped over on the couch another. She still experiences a lot of nausea and vomiting, but is doing well compared to where she was.

Hailie Hyman pulls her daughter Maci, 1, in a wagon in the hallway before an appointment at the Prisma Health Pediatric Hematology Oncology Center Monday, Nov. 4, 2019.(Photo: JOSH MORGAN/Staff)

So as the nation pauses to give thanks this Thanksgiving, she says the family will be countingtheir many blessings family andfriends, Gods mercy, andthe doctors and nurses who saved Macis life.

She has battled a lot and overcome a lot, she said. I have no doubt she will be able to get through.

Want to know more about becoming a marrow donor? Go to bethematch.org.

Follow Liv Osby on Twitter:@livgnews

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South Carolina toddler survives rare cancer and the risky procedure used to treat it - USA TODAY

Global Synthetic Stem Cells Market Growth (Status and Outlook) 2019-2024 is comprehensive and insightful information on Synthetic Stem Cells market which calculates various factors like product value, marketscope, size, value, share, sales and growth statistics. The report offers a deep vision of the market from 2019 to 2024 and future forecast market tendencies. The report takes into consideration various factors such as regional opportunities, application landscape, product demand trends, competition, production, revenue, consumption, CAGR, gross margin, price, end-use portfolio of the industry over the forecast timeframe from 2019 to 2024.

The development prospects, growth plans, and threats to Synthetic Stem Cells market are analyzed in depth. It drafts the competitive framework of the market that demonstrates the SWOT analysis and market share dominance of the prominent players. Our key findings and recommendations have proven quite helpful for both established and new players in the market. The report involves the value chain analysis which denotes substantial progress in the market. Moreover, the market has been classified on the basis of category, processes, end-use industry, and region.

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The Scope of Report:

The report identifies the financial outlook of the Synthetic Stem Cells market. For the competitive landscape, the report has studied some of the leading players, their management styles, their research and development statuses, and their expansion strategies. Their product portfolios and the list of products are provided in the report. Then, the report contains an in-depth explanation of the cutting-edging technologies and investments being made to upgrade the existing ones.

Global Synthetic Stem Cells Market: manufacturers segment analysis (company and product introduction, air showers sales volume, revenue, price, and gross margin): North Carolina State University, Zhengzhou University,

For each region, market size and end users are analyzed as well as segment markets by types, applications, and companies. The global version of market analysis is provided for major regions as follows: Americas (United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil), APAC (China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, India, Australia), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, Spain), Middle East & Africa (Egypt, South Africa, Israel, Turkey, GCC Countries)

On the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume, revenue (Million USD), product price, market share, and growth rate of each type, primarily split into- Cardiovascular Diseases, Neurological Disorders

On the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate for each application, including- Cancers, Wounds and Injuries, Musculoskeletal Disorders, Blood disorders

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Questions Answered By The Synthetic Stem Cells Market Report With Regards To The Regional Landscape of The Business Domain:

Industry Chain Analysis: The report describes upstream raw material suppliers and cost structure of Synthetic Stem Cells, downstream market overview, consumption, and production, major players of the market with company profile, manufacturing base, and market share, manufacturing cost structure analysis, market channel analysis and major downstream buyers.

Customization of the Report:This report can be customized to meet the clients requirements. Please connect with our sales team (sales@mrinsights.biz), who will ensure that you get a report that suits your needs. You can also get in touch with our executives on +1-201-465-4211 to share your research requirements.

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Global Synthetic Stem Cells Market 2019-2024 Business Insights and Sustainable Growth in Respective Industry - News Carve

At The Regenerative Medicine Institute of South Carolina, our patients receive the most effective, safe, and advanced regenerative stem cell therapy available. Our HUCT stem cell therapy activates the bodys own self-healing mechanisms for cellular/tissue regeneration and repair.

Not all stem cells are created equal. At the Regenerative Medicine Institute of South Carolina, we utilize HUCT stem cells for our treatments. Mesenchymal stem cells from the umbilical cord blood are known to have three very important properties: they help reduce inflammation, adjust the immune system and secrete factors that helps tissue to regenerate.

Umbilical cord stem cells are less mature than other cells, so the bodys immune system is unable to recognize them as foreign and there has never been a single instance rejection. Umbilical cord stem cells also proliferate more efficiently than older cells, such as those found in the bone marrow and therefore, they are considered to be more potent.

In scientific terms, they are multipotent stromal (connective tissue) cells thatstimulatesyour body to differentiate them into a variety of cell types, including neurons, cartilage, fat, blood (red, white or platelet blood cells), bone, and muscle. Multipotent means they can develop into multiple types of cells, but divide a limited number of times (abuilt insafety mechanism). They are messengers that signal your body to activate self-healing and regeneration. The MSCs themselves do not create new tissue or healing, they signal your body to activate a cascade of cellular functions. As we age, we have fewer mesenchymal stem cells, therefore getting a boost ofbrand new MSCs from HUCT may help many conditions. Umbilical Cord Stem Cells contain a small, but significant amount of mesenchymal stem cells that signal self-healing and regeneration.

Human umbilical cord stem cells have an innate intelligence and activate the bodys own self-healing mechanisms. They seek out inflammation and degenerations. In other words, they give your body a boost of fresh, day zero, very young stem cells to help with regeneration. Our stem cells age with us and we lose a significant percentage over time. Thats why as we age. our body does not recover at the same rate as it did when we were younger.

Umbilical cord stem cells reside in the umbilical cords from healthy newborn babies and healthy mothers in the United States. Like all post-natal cells, they are categorized as adult stem cells. The umbilical cord tissue is donated by pre-screened and tested healthy mothers and healthy babies in the United States. We abide by the most stringent FDA and medical guidelines.

Dr. Blundy on Frequently Asked Questions about HUCT Cells

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HUCT STEM CELL THERAPY - regenmedsc.com