"The Power of Social Media": More than $2M crowdfunded for medicine to save a little girl's life
CBSN
Cairo — Roqaia Reda was born on July 13, 2020, in Alexandria, Egypt. She seemed a happy and healthy baby girl for her first six months, but then her parents started noticing some unusual symptoms. After a series of tests, Roqaia was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a rare degenerative neuromuscular disorder that leaves patients without control of their bodies.
In the most severe cases, which are generally those that manifest in early childhood, patients often die before they reach their second birthday. Most people with moderate cases live into adulthood, but they're often left unable to walk.
There are a couple drugs to treat SMA in young children, the most effective being a single-dose, intravenous treatment of Zolgensma. The gene therapy, which was only approved for use on young SMA patients in the United States in 2019, is often referred to as the most expensive drug in the world. Manufacturer Novartis puts the price tag for a treatment at about $2.1 million.
Noumea — France's president held a flurry of meetings with local representatives in the restive Pacific territory of New Caledonia on Thursday, urging calm after deadly rioting, and vowing thousands of military reinforcements will stay in place to quell what he called an "unprecedented insurrection."
Kathmandu — Nepali climber Phunjo Lama on Thursday reached Mount Everest's summit in 14 hours and 31 minutes, smashing the record for the world's fastest ascent of the mountain by a woman. Climbers usually take days to reach the top of the 29,032-foot mountain, spending nights on its different camps to rest and acclimatize.
New Delhi — Indian justice officials have changed course amid outrage over the bail terms set for a teenager accused of killing two people while driving a Porsche at high speed while drunk and without a license. The 17-year-old son of a wealthy businessman had been ordered to write a 300-word essay and work with the local traffic police for 15 days to be granted bail — a decision that was made within 15 hours of his arrest.
Zurich — A woman jogger was killed by a naked man who was screaming and attacking people in a lakeside park in Switzerland, police said Wednesday. The attack happened Tuesday evening in Mannedorf on Lake Zurich, around 12 miles southeast of Switzerland's biggest city, the Zurich cantonal police said.
Norway, Ireland and Spain said Wednesday they are recognizing a Palestinian state in a historic move that drew condemnation from Israel and jubilation from the Palestinians. Israel immediately ordered back its ambassadors from Norway and Ireland and appeared ready to do the same with its ambassador to Spain.