AFP UK

A vast river of molten lava from a Canary Islands volcano was edging towards the sea on Tuesday, destroying everything in its path and provoking fears it will generate clouds of toxic gases when it hits the water.

A new fissure emerged on the slopes of the Cumbre Vieja volcano overnight, belching out more lava and forcing hundreds more people to flee their homes. 

“The lava flow is moving inexorably towards the sea and absolutely nothing can be done about it,” said Angel Victor Torres, regional head of the Canary Islands. 

“We are completely powerless in the face of this advancing lava flow which is moving at 200 metres (655 feet) per hour and has already swept away everything in its path… and will continue to do so on its way to the sea.”

Located on La Palma island, the volcano has forced 6,100 people from their homes and destroyed a large number of properties and land spanning a huge area since it erupted on Sunday afternoon, say island officials.

So far, it had destroyed 185 buildings, of which 63 were homes, regional authorities added.

– Toxic cloud –

The volcano straddles a southern ridge in La Palma, one of seven islands that make up the Atlantic archipelago which lies off the coast of Morocco. 

When the molten lava reaches the sea, experts warn it will send clouds of toxic gas into the air and will also affect the marine environment. The authorities have set up a no-go zone to head off curious onlookers.

“The clouds created by the interaction of seawater and lava are acidic” and “can be dangerous if you are too close,” volcanology expert Patrick Allard from the Paris Globe Institute of Physics told AFP. 

By Tuesday afternoon, the lava had slowed to around 200 metres per hour although it was not clear exactly when the white-hot mass of molten rock, which has a temperature of nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,830 degrees Fahrenheit), would reach the sea. 

Although it is currently located about two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the shore, experts say its speed can be “very variable”. 

“It is very, very important not to forget that the emergency is ongoing, that the volcano is still active and we must avoid getting close to both the lava and the volcano itself,” said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. 

– ‘We’ve lost everything’ –

Overnight, long lines of cars could be seen waiting to leave the area as police sirens wailed, the fiery glow of the erupting volcano lighting up the dark skies. 

“You have practically your whole life there… then one day the volcano decides to erupt and puts an end to it all,” evacuee Israel Castro Hernandez told AFPTV late Monday after his home was destroyed by the wall of lava. 

“We keep looking over there and we just can’t believe it: we keep thinking that our house is underneath that volcano,” said his wife, Yurena Torres Abreu.

The pair were among 500 people evacuated overnight after the new fissure emerged following an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.1 at 9:32 pm (2032 GMT), the Involcan volcanology institute said.

“So many friends have lost everything,” said Yurena’s sister, Elizabeth Torres Abreu, who also lost her house.

“They left their homes as we did with just the clothes on their back and little else. They’ve left their entire life there.” 

Although the eruption has not caused any casualties, the damage to land and property has been enormous, with Torres estimating the figures to be well over 400 million euros ($470 million).

Volcanologist Stavros Meletlidis from Spain’s National Geographic Institute told Spain’s RNE radio it was not clear when the lava would reach the sea.

“It can accelerate very quickly, especially when the topography changes… or it can stop on a plain for several hours,” he said.

Although the Cumbre Vieja is shooting up vast plumes of thick black smoke several hundred metres into the sky and between 8,000 and 10,500 tonnes of sulphur dioxide per day, the airspace over La Palma has remained open. 

President Joe Biden pledged Tuesday to “double” US contributions towards a goal of mobilizing $100 billion for countries hardest-hit by global warming, a move hailed as a rare piece of good news in the climate crisis.

Experts said the announcement would take the American contribution to the commitment, made by developed countries ahead of the 2015 Paris agreement, to approximately $11.4 billion annually.

“This will make the United States a leader in public climate finance,” Biden told world leaders in New York, saying he would work with Congress to achieve the goal.

The announcement comes weeks before the next major UN climate conference, COP26 in Glasgow. The summit is seen as critical to keeping alive the goal of limiting long term warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

“Strongly welcome @POTUS further doubling climate finance commitment to over $11bn by 2024,” tweeted British lawmaker Alok Sharma, who will preside over COP26.

“This demonstrates the increased ambition required to deliver on the $100bn/year goal,” he added. “We must build on this momentum.”

The accord calls for public, multilateral and private financing of $100 billion a year from 2020 to 2025 to assist poor nations already coping with floods, heatwaves, rising seas and superstorms made worse by climate change.

This includes supporting countries transitioning to greener economies and ending reliance on fuels like coal that were essential to the economic rise of today’s wealthy nations.

Last week, the OECD confirmed that only $79.6 billion was mobilized in 2019, leaving a $20 billion shortfall.

– ‘Welcome’ sign –

Climate advocacy groups, which had been calling for an increase in US funding to $12 billion a year, largely welcomed the announcement.

“President Biden’s commitment to scaling up international climate finance to $11.4 billion per year by 2024 is a welcome and much-needed sign that the United States is finally taking its global climate responsibilities seriously,” said Rachel Cleetus, of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“Climate vulnerable nations — particularly low- and middle-income countries — are already reeling from an unprecedented onslaught of climate-related disasters and desperately need financial support to adapt and build resilience to worsening impacts.”

Thanu Yakupitiyage, of 350.org, added: “We applaud President Biden’s pledge to double climate aid for nations hit first and hardest by the climate crisis.

“The United States is responsible for the largest amount of historical emissions driving climate change and is the world’s largest economy.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who hosted a closed-door meeting between world leaders Monday, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, had both prior to the announcement singled out the US for failing to contribute its fair share.

The $100 billion annual commitment is a key goal for UN chief Antonio Guterres, who also wants to see nations allocate 50 percent or more of their climate financing for adaptation in the developing world.

Currently, two-thirds of the funding is for mitigation — reducing climate change — rather than adjusting to current and expected future changes, such as sea-level encroachment, more intense extreme weather events or food insecurity.

The US announcement amounted to a rare piece of hopeful news on the climate front following a slew of high-level scientific reports painting a bleak future picture, as the world’s top polluters continue to spew greenhouse gases at alarming rates.

Last week Guterres warned the world was on a “catastrophic” path to 2.7 degrees Celsius heating according to a new study by UN scientists.

The figure would shatter the temperature targets of the Paris climate agreement, which aimed for warming well below 2C and preferably capped at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

With only 1.1C of warming so far, the world has seen a torrent of deadly weather disasters intensified by climate change in recent months. 

A vast river of molten lava from a Canary Islands volcano continued to destroy everything in its path Tuesday as it edged towards the sea, where its arrival was expected to generate clouds of toxic gases. 

A new fissure emerged on the slopes of the Cumbre Vieja volcano overnight, belching out more lava and forcing hundreds more people to flee their homes. 

“The lava flow is moving inexorably towards the sea and absolutely nothing can be done about it,” said Angel Victor Torres, regional head of the Canary Islands. 

“We are completely powerless in the face of this advancing lava flow which is moving at 200 metres per hour and has already swept away everything in its path… and will continue to do so on its way to the sea.” 

Located on La Palma island, the volcano has forced 6,000 people from their homes and destroyed a large number of properties and land spanning a huge area since it erupted on Sunday afternoon. 

“166 destroyed buildings and 103 hectares (254 acres) covered by the lava flows,” tweeted Copernicus, the EU’s Earth observation satellite. 

The volcano straddles a southern ridge in La Palma, one of seven islands that make up the Atlantic archipelago which lies off the coast of Morocco. 

When the molten lava reaches the sea, experts warn it will send clouds of toxic gas into the air and will also affect the marine environment, with the authorities setting up a no-go zone to head off curious onlookers.

“The clouds created by the interaction of seawater and lava are acidic” and “can be dangerous if you are too close,” volcanology expert Patrick Allard from the Paris Globe Institute of Physics told AFP. 

By Tuesday afternoon, the lava had slowed to around 200 metres per hour although it was not clear exactly when the white-hot mass of molten rock, which has a temperature of nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,830 degrees Fahrenheit), would reach the sea. 

Although it is currently located about two kilometres from the shore, experts say its speed can be “very variable”. 

“It is very, very important not to forget that the emergency is ongoing, that the volcano is still active and we must avoid getting close to both the lava and the volcano itself,” said Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. 

– ‘We’ve lost everything’ –

Overnight, long lines of cars could be seen waiting to leave the area as police sirens wailed, the fiery glow of the erupting volcano lighting up the dark skies. 

“You have practically your whole life there… then one day the volcano decides to erupt and puts an end to it all,” evacuee Israel Castro Hernandez told AFPTV late Monday after his home was destroyed by the wall of lava. 

“We keep looking over there and we just can’t believe it: we keep thinking that our house is underneath that volcano,” said his wife, Yurena Torres Abreu.

The pair were among 500 people who were evacuated overnight after the new fissure emerged following an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.1 at 9:32 pm (2032 GMT), the Involcan volcanology institute said.

“So many friends have lost everything. They left their homes as we did with just the clothes on their back and little else. They’ve left their entire life there,” said Yurena’s sister, Elizabeth Torres Abreu, who also lost her house.

Although the eruption has not caused any casualties, the damage to land and property has been enormous, with Torres estimating the figures to be well over 400 million euros.

Volcanology expert Stavros Meletlidis from Spain’s National Geographic Institute told Spain’s RNE radio it was not clear when the lava would reach the sea.

“It can accelerate very quickly, especially when the topography changes… or it can stop on a plain for several hours,” he said.

Although the Cumbre Vieja is shooting up vast plumes of thick black smoke several hundred metres into the sky and between 8,000 and 10,500 tonnes of sulphur dioxide per day, the airspace over La Palma has remained open. 

US President Joe Biden told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that his country would “double” its contribution to international climate financing towards the goal of mobilizing $100 billion for vulnerable nations.

Experts said the announcement would take the US contribution to the commitment, made by developed countries ahead of the 2015 Paris agreement, to approximately $11.4 billion annually.

“This will make the United States a leader in public climate finance,” Biden told world leaders in New York, saying he would work with Congress to achieve the goal.

The announcement comes weeks before the next major UN climate conference, COP26 in Glasgow.

“Strongly welcome @POTUS further doubling climate finance commitment to over $11bn by 2024,” said British lawmaker Alok Sharma, who will preside over COP26.

“This demonstrates the increased ambition required to deliver on the $100bn/year goal,” he wrote. “We must build on this momentum.”

The accord calls for public, multilateral and private financing of $100 billion a year from 2020-2025 to assist poor nations already coping with floods, heatwaves, rising seas and superstorms made worse by climate change.

Last week, the OECD confirmed that only $79.6 billion was mobilized in 2019, leaving a more than $20 billion shortfall.

Climate advocacy groups welcomed the announcement. 

“President Biden’s commitment to scaling up international climate finance to $11.4 billion per year by 2024 is a welcome and much-needed sign that the United States is finally taking its global climate responsibilities seriously,” said Rachel Cleetus, of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“Climate vulnerable nations — particularly low- and middle-income countries — are already reeling from an unprecedented onslaught of climate-related disasters and desperately need financial support to adapt and build resilience to worsening impacts.”

The announcement was one of several demonstrating the United States’ renewed commitment to global engagement following the Trump era.

Biden said the US, already the world leader in donating Covid-19 vaccines, will announce “additional commitments” on fighting Covid-19 when the White House hosts a summit on the pandemic on Wednesday, and a $10 billion commitment to end hunger at home and abroad.

Wildfires in Siberia, North America and around the Mediterranean caused record levels of planet-warming CO2 emissions this summer, the EU’s Earth monitoring service said Tuesday.

Globally, forests going up in flames emitted more than 2.5 billion tonnes of CO2 — equivalent to India’s annual emissions from all sources — in July and August alone, the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) reported.

More than half of CO2 emissions from wildfires in July came from North America and Siberia.

Heatwaves, drought conditions, and reduced soil moisture amplified by global warming have contributed to unprecedented fires in three continents.

Even the Arctic Circle was on fire, releasing some 66 million tonnes of CO2 from June through August, with nearly a billion tonnes from Russia as a whole over the same period.

“What stood out as unusual were the number of fires, the size of the area in which they were burning, their intensity, and also their persistence,” said Mark Parrington, senior scientist and wildfire expert at CAMS.

Fires started raging across northeastern Siberia in June and only started to abate in late August and early September, the satellite-based monitoring service reported.

Emissions for the region from June through August were nearly double compared to the year before.

– Burnable area doubled –

While satellite images do not reveal how these fires start, many of the blazes early in the summer are thought to have been caused by “zombie” fires that smoulder through the winter and then reignite. 

In the western US and Canada’s British Columbia — which saw record temperatures nearing 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) — fires ravaged huge swathes of forest.

Massive plumes of smoke from Siberia and North America moved across the Atlantic, reaching Britain and parts of Europe in August.

Nations along the Mediterranean rim, meanwhile, saw uncontrolled wildfires of their own, made worse by persistent heatwaves. 

Daily fire intensity for Turkey reached the highest levels ever recorded in the nearly 20-year dataset. Other countries scorched by out-of-control blazes included Greece, Italy, Albania, North Macedonia, Algeria and Tunisia.   

Fires hit Spain and Portugal in August.

Rising temperatures and increased dryness due to changing rainfall patterns create ideal conditions for bush or forest fires. 

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has reported that the five-year period to 2020 was “unprecedented” for fires, especially in Europe and North America.

“Globally, increases in temperature and aridity have increased the length of fire seasons and doubled potential burnable area,” the UN’s IPCC climate science advisory panel concluded in a draft report obtained by AFP.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that his government was against health passports but backed drives to vaccinate against Covid-19.

“We support the vaccination efforts,” said Bolsonaro, widely criticized for his handling of the pandemic in Brazil where the coronavirus has killed more than 590,000 people.

“However, my administration has not supported a vaccine or health passport or any other vaccine-related obligation,” he said in New York.

Bolsonaro was the first world leader to speak at the high-level meet — tradition dictates that Brazil goes first — after UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres opened the debate with an address of his own.

Bolsonaro has said he would be the “last Brazilian” to get vaccinated but told delegates that Brazil’s inoculation program was moving swiftly.

He reported that his government had distributed more than 260 million doses, with more than 140 million Brazilians — almost 90 percent of the adult population — having received at least a first dose.

Bolsonaro added that 80 percent of Brazil’s indigenous population is fully vaccinated.

“By November this year, all citizens who have chosen to be vaccinated in Brazil will be duly covered,” he said.

The far-right leader has sparked controversy by advocating unproven treatments against Covid-19, which he contracted last year.

“Since the pandemic started we have supported doctor’s professional autonomy in the quest for early treatment measures in line with recommendations issued by the Brazilian Federal Council of Medicine,” he told delegates.

Bolsonaro defied guidance to only attend the assembly if vaccinated.

He does not meet New York’s vaccine mandate for many indoor activities, including eating, and ate a slice of pizza outdoors for his dinner on Sunday. 

The Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine is more effective when given as a two-dose regime, according to new data released by the company on Tuesday.

A second shot given 56 days after the first provided 75 percent protection against symptomatic Covid in a global clinical trial, with that level rising to 94 percent in the United States.

The reason behind this difference was not clear from the company’s press release, but it could be linked to fewer variants in the US when the data accrued.

It was 94 percent effective in preventing severe or critical Covid at least 14 days post final vaccination in America — but there were relatively few cases to judge from.

When a second shot was given two months after the first, antibody levels rose to four to six times higher than observed after the single dose.

Overall, the data is positive news for the almost 15 million Americans who received one dose of the J&J vaccine but have been left in the dark about if and when they might need a booster.

President Joe Biden’s administration in August announced plans for Americans vaccinated with mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) to get third shots. 

An expert panel convened by the Food and Drug Administration last week greenlighted Pfizer boosters for the elderly, high-risk, and those in high-risk occupations, and decisions on Moderna are expected to follow.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said it expects a second dose of the J&J vaccine will be required, but that it needs more data before making a firm recommendation.

J&J’s new announcement might help inform that strategy. The company said it had provided data to the FDA and other regulatory agencies.

It also said that when a booster was given six months after the first shot, “antibody levels increased nine-fold one week after the booster and continued to climb to 12-fold higher four weeks after the booster,” irrespective of age.

In a separate study of 390,000 US people who received the J&J vaccine from March to July 2021, efficacy of a single J&J shot was 79 percent against infection and 81 percent against hospitalization.

The estimates for efficacy against hospitalization were higher than those found in two recent studies by the CDC, one of which estimated 68 percent while the other estimated it was 60 percent.

A new fissure has emerged in the erupting volcano on Spain’s Canary Islands, belching out more lava and forcing another 500 people to flee as experts on Tuesday closely watched its progress towards the sea.

The Cumbre Vieja volcano has forced a total of 6,000 people from their homes and destroyed a large number of properties and land spanning a huge area since it erupted on Sunday afternoon. 

“166 destroyed buildings and 103 hectares (254 acres) covered by the lava flows,” tweeted Copernicus, the EU’s Earth observation satellite. 

The volcano straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma, one of seven islands that make up the Atlantic archipelago which lies off the coast of Morocco. 

“You have practically your whole life there.. then one day the volcano decides to erupt and puts an end to it all,” evacuee Israel Castro Hernandez told AFPTV late Monday after his home was destroyed by the wall of lava. 

“We keep looking over there and we just can’t believe it: we keep thinking that our house is underneath that volcano,” said his wife, Yurena Torres Abreu.

The pair were among hundreds more people who were evacuated overnight after the new fissure emerged following an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.1 at 9:32 pm (2032 GMT), the Involcan volcanology institute said.

Long lines of cars could be seen waiting to leave the area as police sirens wailed, the fiery glow of the erupting volcano lighting up the dark skies, AFPTV images showed. 

“I just ache for all our people. So many friends have lost everything,” said Yurena’s sister, Elizabeth Torres Abreu, who also lost her house. 

“They left their homes as we did with just the clothes that were on their back and little else. They’ve left their entire life there.”

By Tuesday morning, 500 more people had been forced out of their homes, said Lorena Hernandez Labrador, a councillor in Los Llanos de Aridane, a municipality of 20,000 residents which has been badly affected by the lava.

Volcanology expert Stavros Meletlidis from Spain’s National Geographic Institute told Spain’s RNE radio the opening of new fissures was “somewhat unpredictable” saying it depended on “the volume of magma and gases”. 

– Lava speed ‘can change quickly’ –

When the molten lava reaches the sea, experts warn it will generate clouds of toxic gas into the air, which will also affect the marine environment, with the authorities setting up a no-go zone to head off curious onlookers. 

But by Tuesday morning, the lava’s speed had slowed and the white-hot mass of molten rock, which has a temperature of nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,830 degrees Fahrenheit), had still not reached the western coast. 

Meletlidis said it was not clear when it would reach the sea because its speed was “very variable”.

“It can accelerate very quickly, especially when the topography changes… or it can stop on a plain for several hours. You have to see how both the main flow and the secondary flow are developing,” he said.

“The further the lava is from the source, the slower it goes because it loses impulsion from the new matter coming out.”

Although the Cumbre Vieja is shooting up vast plumes of thick black smoke several hundred metres into the sky and between 8,000 and 10,500 tonnes of sulphur dioxide per day, the airspace over La Palma has remained open. 

Spain’s airport operator Aena said all of Monday’s scheduled flights had taken place without incident, with another 48 planned for Tuesday. 

The eruption on this island of some 85,000 people, the first in 50 years, has caused significant damage, but so far nobody has been injured. 

The last eruption on La Palma was in 1971 when another part of the same volcanic range — a vent known as Teneguia — erupted on the southern side of the island.

Two decades earlier, the Nambroque vent erupted in 1949. 

In the bay of Vlora on central Albania’s coast, crystal clear waters sparkle in the sun but under the surface, it is a desert.

The large brown algae forests — a hot spot of biodiversity — are steadily shrinking, scientists warn.

Warming sea temperatures, pollution and dynamite fishing are causing Adriatic marine forests to disappear.

The trend has prompted Albanian experts to join a Mediterranean programme to try to reverse the loss using laboratory-grown versions.

A lack of historical data makes it difficult to quantify the decline of Cystoseira, a genus of brown algae which provides a key habitat for many species, serving as food as well as spawning and nursery areas.

But experts warn its disappearance in both the Adriatic and Ionian seas is worrying.

“In recent years we have seen a sharp decline in the marine forests of Cystoseira, the most affected by the increase in temperature caused by climate change,” Ina Nasto, a biology professor at Vlora University, told AFP.

Accelerated coastal urbanisation, discharge of agricultural or industrial waste water, trawling, sediment pollution and overfishing also contribute to the problem, she said.

– Protected species –

Practices like harvesting date mussels with dynamite or jackhammers to break the rocks where they live devastate the seabed too, Denada Sota, also a professor at Vlora University, said.

Although they are a protected species, many restaurants on Albania’s coast still serve date mussels as a delicacy.

Images shot by scientists in Vlora bay show bare rocks, where fish are few and far between, populated only by sea urchins that proliferate because their natural predators have disappeared as the victims of overfishing.

Since January 2019, professors from the university’s biology laboratory have been part of an experiment aimed at restoring the brown algae.

Some 10 other institutes in the Mediterranean region are also participating, applying the same protocol.

It involves the scientists at the Vlora lab growing fertilised Cystoseira algae cells in aquariums.

The tiny algae fix themselves onto stones that are later immersed in the sea at a depth of some four metres (13 feet).

“We have to do all the monitoring even at the bottom of the sea,” said Nasto, who regularly dives down to inspect the seabed and check on progress.

After a few weeks, the scientists look again to see the results of their experiment and find out if the algae have made a new home. 

It is hoped that the experiment will enable them to develop protocols for marine forest restoration.

– Invasive species –

Invasive species pose another threat to the seabed ecosystem — for several years, Albania’s more than 400-kilometre (250-mile) coastline has hosted many non native species.

Chief among them is Caulerpa cylindracea, which has decimated meadows of Posidonia, another seaweed crucial to biodiversity.

Introduced from Australia in the 1990s, Caulerpa — dubbed the tumour of the Mediterranean — has already colonised all the Albanian coast, Sajmir Beqiraj, a professor at Tirana University, said.

“Like other invasive species, this algae has great advantages to compete with native species and degrade the marine fauna and flora, significantly reducing biodiversity.”

In Kallmet, on the northern coast, you only have to dive down two metres to find dense colonies of Caulerpa, he said, showing AFP areas conquered by the invasive seaweed.

In just a few minutes, his bag is half-filled with the dark green algae in the shape of tiny bunches of grapes.

– ‘Like Covid’ – 

Experts have identified a total of 40 invasive plant and animal species in Albanian waters, such as the dusky spinefoot fish from the Red Sea that is devouring algal forests it feeds on.

Since the phenomenon is common to Mediterranean and Adriatic countries, scientists urge a joint approach. 

“We must join forces and act quickly to find a solution,” said Nexhip Hysolokaj, a biodiversity expert from Vlora.

Baci Dyrmishaj, a fisherman for more than 25 years in Vlora, agrees that the problems defy borders — and so should the response.

He laments the proliferation of the invasive blue crab that destroys his nets and attacks his catch.

“It’s like Covid,” he said smiling. “The big countries got together to find a vaccine, we have to do the same for the planet because no border can save you.” 

Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, is characterised by brain lesions that can cause devastating memory loss and behavioural changes. It affects some 30 million people worldwide.

Decades of research have failed to produce a cure, prevention or reliable treatment.

On World Alzheimer’s Day, expert Bruno Dubois tells AFP why one of the most promising avenues for treatment depends on early diagnosis.

The following are excerpts from the interview:

– How close are we to an effective treatment? –

The key is making a diagnosis as early as possible, because we are nearly certain to have medications that will work better the earlier they are prescribed.

These treatments act on the lesions associated with Alzheimer’s but are only effective in the first phase of the disease. By the time a patient has advanced symptoms it’s too late, we can’t undo damage already done.

– How can you spot Alzheimer’s before symptoms appear? – 

One promising avenue for early diagnosis is detecting biomarkers — biological signatures of lesions caused by the illness.

Before, we needed sophisticated brain imagery or spinal taps to detect them. Today, blood tests are starting to give promising results (across large cohorts), though they are not yet reliable on an individual level.

We may be soon be able to identify people at risk who are symptom-free but have lesions, this is still an area of active research.

– Is this method alone enough to diagnose someone? –

No. We are not at all ready to use these techniques in clinical practice. 

The presence of lesions does not necessarily mean that the disease will develop, so there is a big risk to seeing all patients with lesions as potentially ill.

We don’t want to expose people to potentially dangerous medications to prevent an illness they may never contract in the first place. You can destroy a person’s will to live by telling them they’re going to get Alzheimer’s, when in fact they may never get it at all.

For an older patient, say 75, with memory problems confirmed by tests, who gets disoriented in time or in a new neighbourhood, and who can’t remember recent events, in that case biological tests for lesions are justified.