From pig to human

Transplanted

YU Langone Health reported on July 12 that it successfully transplanted two pig hearts into two brain-dead human patients during the past month. New York University–affiliated researchers carefully imitated the way that human-to-human heart transplants are performed—even down to traveling hundreds of miles away to retrieve the organ for the transplant. Doctors in Maryland six months ago tried a pig heart transplant on a man, but he only survived for two months with the organ. In that previous case, initial testing failed to detect that the pig organ had carried some sort of animal virus. Researchers are uncertain if the animal virus caused the man’s death or whether other factors played a role. More than 100,000 people in the United States are on the waiting list for an organ, and thousands die every year still waiting on that list. If doctors can successfully transplant pig organs into living humans, they will be able to save thousands of lives.

Confirmed

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that as of July 12 the monkeypox virus had spread to 40 U.S. states. The total count of confirmed cases stands at about 900, according to the CDC. Internationally, more than 10,000 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in at least 65 locations. The virus has spread throughout the United States before in 2003 and 2021. Monkeypox is a variant of smallpox and has symptoms that include fever, headache, rashes, and exhaustion. Illness typically lasts two to four weeks. The virus spreads from person to person through the transmission of bodily fluids, often through sex, although individuals can contract it from being scratched by animals. The CDC has said that men who have sex with men make up a high number of cases in this outbreak. There are two vaccines available, but it is uncertain how effective they are against the current strain of the virus.

Estimated

A report from the United Nations’ Population Division has pegged Nov. 15 as the day the world’s population will cross the 8 billion mark. An expert said the day was a rough estimate and could be off by as much as a year. India is projected to overtake China as the world’s most populous country by next year. The Population Division forecasts that the global population will grow to 8.5 billion by 2030, 9.7 billion by 2050, and 10.4 billion in the 2080s. The report says most of that growth will be concentrated in India, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Tanzania.

Increased

World hunger rose for the second consecutive year in 2021 after remaining relatively stable since 2014, the United Nations reported. About 2.3 billion people experienced moderate or severe hunger, and the number of those unable to afford a healthy diet rose by 112 million to almost 3.1 billion. Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean were the most affected. One of the biggest factors was the global pandemic, but the report said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could exacerbate the problem. Together, Russia and Ukraine account for a third of the world’s exports of wheat and barley.

—WORLD has updated this story to correct the description of Russia and Ukraine’s contribution to the global food supply.