CHENGDU - Lurong Dregar, 19, had been suffering from severe headaches and seizures for years. The mystery illness even left the young Tibetan woman blind in her left eye. It was not until earlier this year when she underwent an MRI scan at a hospital in Xichang, some 500 km away from her home, that the culprit was finally found -- a parasite.Bumpy mountain roads meant Dregar and 46 other locals from the Tibetan Autonomous County of Muli in Liangshan prefecture of southwest China's Sichuan Province had to travel more than two days to get the brain scans.Eleven of them, including Dregar, were confirmed to be infected with cysticercosis, a fatal but common parasitic tapeworm disease that affects China's herding communities.The incidence is quite high even for infectious diseases, said Su Guohua from a hospital in the prefecture.The disease is usually acquired by eating food or drinking water contaminated with tapeworm eggs from feces. It mainly affects herding areas in China's Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Qinghai, Sichuan, Tibet and Xinjiang.Local authorities in many regions are providing medication to infected residents at no charge, but patients with acute symptoms need more urgent help.The free MRI scans Dregar and the others received were sponsored by a joint project between China and the United States. In April 1987, Tibet's capital Lhasa established a sister city relationship with the US city of Boulder, Colorado. Since then, the two have partnered in various programs to improve education in health care, environmental protection as well as art and culture in Lhasa and other Tibetan areas in China.MRI brain scans are the best method to detect the disease, said Dr Li Tiaoying at Sichuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention. To relieve Dregar's anguish, an immediate surgery was needed because the MRI discovered cysts and severe hydrocephalus.The surgery cost about 9,000 yuan ($1,377), which Dregar's family was unable to afford. Bill Warnock, CEO of the Boulder-Lhasa Sister City Project, agreed to cover her surgery with donations from the project. The five-hour operation in November was a success, and a month later, her brain pressure finally went back to normal.We never thought we could receive help from the United States. They gave us hope, said Dregar's father.Warnock has visited Tibetan areas 23 times over the past three decades. Having participated in several medical programs in the region, he knows exactly how medical treatment lags in the region.As cysticercosis infection can be prevented through personal hygiene and sanitation, Warnock has made it the project's next key task.I am very excited about this project. I think it's going to be a big chance for them to have a successful future, said Warnock. Next year, we plan to focus on prevention of cysticercosis through education of rural doctors working in prevalent areas of Sichuan Province. custom rubber bandskids wristbandsrubber wristbands in bulkpersonalized silicone braceletssilicone rubber bandsballer bandscustom sweatbands no minimumcustom rubber bracelets
A cross-border smuggling ring using high-tech equipment to ship smartphones across the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border has been busted, marking the first of such cases.The gadget-savvy criminals used drones to fly wires between buildings on the Hong Kong and mainland sides. Once secured, and using an electric winch and pulley system, the wires formed a high-level crossing to convey contraband from Hong Kong to Shenzhen.The 26 members of the cross-border smuggling ring was found to be shuttling bags of mobile phones worth some 500 million yuan ($79.5 million), mostly refurbished iPhones.The crime ring and its ringleader, surnamed Wu, were detained after a joint operation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen law enforcement officers.According to the Shenzhen Customs Office, the suspects temporarily attached wires using flying drones to carry the wires from two rented rooms on the 25th floor of a residential building in Luohu district, Shenzhen, to a home in Lin Ma Hang village on the Hong Kong side. Their accomplices in the special administrative region then threaded the wires through a pulley placed on the rooftop of the home.Once a bag was attached to the wires in Hong Kong, the Shenzhen operatives would use an electric winch to retract the wires. They worked from midnight to the early hours to avoid suspicion, and the two rooms were covered with carpets to reduce the noise of the motor.Chen Liang, spokesperson for Shenzhen Customs, said the ring's every move had been thought through carefully, as neighbors were apparently unaware of the illegal activity.A total of 20 smartphones would be placed inside a small canvas bag and then sent from Hong Kong, ascending high above street level during their journey.About 10,000 to 15,000 smartphones could be smuggled in one day using this delivery method. For each successfully smuggled smartphone, at least 20 to 30 yuan could be earned. Revenues could be as high as 100 yuan for each new phone. It was estimated that smugglers could make over 10 million yuan per month, despite only working for 15 days.Acting on tips, law enforcement officers from both sides smashed the operation in February 2018 after months of investigation.A total of 260 Shenzhen Customs officers raided the rented rooms and arrested several suspects who had just finished retracting the wires to get the bootlegged goods. Also confiscated at the two rented rooms in Shenzhen were 4,000 smartphones and tools used to smuggle them. These included several motors that were burned out from overloaded shipments and backup motors. Hong Kong Customs detained three people connected to the activity, and confiscated 900 smartphones and associated tools.The gang, said to be operating since 2016, were comprised mostly of friends and relatives of Wu, the ringleader from Heyuan, Guangdong province.
