Health
Children once held hostage still working through trauma: 'Are they coming for us again?'
Dr. Efrat Bron-Harlev, CEO of Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel, recently addressed the United Nations about the plight of the children who were kidnapped from Israel by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023.
She said that 38 of the 253 people who were abducted that day were children. The youngest was Kfir Bibas, just eight months old at the time.
The child is still in captivity, along with his parents, Yarden and Shiri Bibas, and his brother, Ariel, who turned five last month.
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Bron-Harlev, a pediatrician, said children released after 50 days in captivity are still, to this day, waking up terrified in the middle of the night.
“They were not allowed to cry, not allowed to laugh, not even allowed to stand up.”
She said the children appeared “like shadows of children. No impressions on their faces. They were not happy. They were not crying. They were mostly very, very silent.”
Thirty-eight of the 253 people abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 were children — including Kfir Bibas, just eight months old at the time (shown above). The child is still in captivity, along with his parents, Yarden and Shiri Bibas, and his brother, Ariel, who turned five last month. (Bethany Mandel)
Dr. Hagai Levine, chair of the Israeli Association of Public Health and head physician of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, also reported seeing children being afraid to speak.
“In captivity, they were told, ‘If you speak, you will be killed’ — that’s very, very traumatizing,” he told Fox News Digital.
In addition to psychological trauma, the hostages were also in extreme physical danger.
Levine, who is also an epidemiologist, said the risks to the hostages’ lives ranged from the threat of “being murdered to lack of food to lack of oxygen, lack of water (and) infectious diseases.”
‘Every child has a right to health’
Referencing the recent polio outbreak in Gaza, Levine noted that he sent a letter to UNICEF and the World Health Organization reminding the organizations “that every child has a right to health — and this includes Kfir and Ariel Bibas.”
Levine said he was on a bus this summer with children who were formerly hostages as well as children who are relatives of hostages.
“They have the unique ability to cope.”
The young ones attended a U.S. summer camp in July, he said.
“A couple of people called me a White supremacist. A couple of people called me the N-word.”
“I saw songs and jokes,” he said, recalling his observations. “I’m not saying they were happy, but they have the unique ability to cope.”
The doctor said he knows these children have had to grow up quickly — but the “plasticity of the brain” helps children rehabilitate, he said.
Dr. Hagai Levine, chair of the Israeli Association of Public Health, is shown speaking at a press conference near the headquarters of the families of the abductees in Tel Aviv on Nov. 15, 2023. (Hadar Badar)
He said he has encouraged them to play and dance.
However, “there is always a shadow” holding them back, he said — given that at this moment, there are still other hostages held captive.
Helping them regain trust
Levine said these children grew up in a tight-knit community of a kibbutz — and seeing hostage posters everywhere of their neighbors is very real to them.
“It’s really difficult for them to really recover,” he said.
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It is a long process to get these children to be able to trust again, Levine said, and they need someone who is a constant in their lives, especially if their parents were murdered.
He said physical, psychological and educational rehabilitation, such as speech therapy and equine therapy, can help them to regain trust and feel in control.
They “have been in this horrible nightmare” for nearly a year.
He also noted that relatives of the hostages are experiencing survivor guilt, severe depression, anxiety, insomnia and physical symptoms such as tremors.
They are traumatized because they don’t know what happened to their loved ones, and they “have been in this horrible nightmare” for nearly a year at this point, he said.
‘Could have been me’
Roxanne Saar, the aunt of released hostage Gali Tarshansky, age 13, told Fox News Digital, “I feel like it could have been me.”
Saar had been staying at her father-in-law’s home at Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 6, 2023, when she decided to return home that night.
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The next day, 101 civilians at Be’eri were killed by Hamas terrorists and 32 people were kidnapped, according to JNS (Jewish News Syndicate).
Gali Tarshansky’s brother, Lior, 15, and her uncle, Noy Shosh, 36, were among the murdered victims.
Adults from left, above: Roxanne Saar, Gonen Saar (Aroussi), Yehuda Aroussi, Gali Tarshansky, Noy Shosh, Mahol Shosh, Lliya Tarshansky, Reuma Aroussi Tarshansky and Lior Tarshansky. (Family of Gali Tarshansky)
Saar said that the first question the young teenager asked when she was released from captivity after 54 days was, “Where is Lior?”
It was not until after she returned to Israel that she discovered her brother and uncle had been killed, along with her dog, Mocha, as well as friends she grew up with from her kibbutz.
She was held hostage in homes in Gaza with Nova festival survivors and a couple from Kibbutz Be’eri. The husband, Ohad Ben Ami, is still a hostage, Saar said.
“There was no showering, there was no water.”
Saar said that in Gaza, “there was not enough food, there was not enough medicine, there was no showering, there was no water … There was psychological terror.”
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She said the young woman’s captors, some of whom were armed, told her, “Israel does not exist. Your family doesn’t want you anymore.’”
Saar added, “I’m not sure if we know everything … I don’t have any expectations from terrorists who are capable of kidnapping a 13-year-old girl.”
It is crucial, she said, for the remaining hostages to be freed in order for the released hostages to heal.
Gali Tarshansky, above, in July 2023, with her brother Lior Tarshansky. “I don’t think there is anyone in the world who can understand the potential future impact of what happened,” the siblings’ aunt told Fox News Digital, referencing Oct. 7, 2023 and its aftermath. “Everybody wants to help, but how can someone help with something that we never knew before?” (Family of Gali Tarshansky)
Saar said Gali Tarshansky is living in a different area of Israel today, attending a new school. She is in therapy.
Said Saar, “I don’t think there is anyone in the world who can understand the potential future impact of what happened … Everybody wants to help, but how can someone help with something that we never knew before?”
‘Takes a long time’
Professor Merev Roth, PhD, an analyst who works with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, told Fox News Digital that therapists who are treating released hostages are in uncharted territory.
“Will he come back when I’m really old?”
“All of this is new,” she said. “There is not one case in history that so many kids and families were kidnapped from their houses for such a long time and in such a brutal massacre.”
Roth is one of the founders of First Line Med (FLM), an organization that offers pro bono treatment to victims of Oct. 7.
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She supervises child therapists and treats adult family members of child hostages who were released after 50 or 54 days in captivity.
Roth said she had to treat some of the families in their homes or hotels initially, because they were afraid to go outside.
Tarshansky, left, with her half-sister Eden Tarshansky — who suffered the loss of her mother, Silvia Ohayon, who was killed in Kibbutz Be’eri. (Family of Gali Tarshansky)
She recalled seeing how frightened a three-and-a-half-year old toddler was when the child heard a gardener working outside.
“I remember the girl running into her mother’s body, and her mother immediately took her in her arms. The girl didn’t say a word. She was white, she was shaking, she didn’t even cry,” Roth said.
Another time, when the little girl heard noises outside, Roth said the girl asked, “Are they coming for us again?”
Roth said another child released from captivity is unable to get through a full day of school in kindergarten.
Merev Roth, an analyst who works with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, told Fox News Digital she recalled seeing how frightened a three-and-a-half-year old toddler was when she heard a gardener working outside. (Yehoshua Yosef)
Her father is still a hostage, and Roth said she knows he is in danger and asks her mother, “Is Father dead? Will he come back when I’m really old?”
Roth said the children who were separated from their parents in captivity, or witnessed family members being murdered or wounded, “shattered in the most extreme, brutal way” a child’s sense of safety and trust in the world.
“They become easily frustrated, angry and disassociated.”
Some children had captors who were abusive and threatening; other hostages experienced Stockholm Syndrome, where they identified with their captor, Roth said.
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Antisemitism spreading across the globe is “a big blow,” said Roth. “It added to the feelings that the world went crazy, that everything is distorted.”
She said these children are suffering from “trauma syndrome symptoms,” such as anxiety, depression, sleeping disorders and social withdrawal.
They become easily frustrated, angry and disassociated, which means “you are disconnected from your emotional response … You become confused. You cannot concentrate and you don’t react emotionally in your full scope. You are a bit numb,” she said.
The released children (not pictured) are suffering from “trauma syndrome symptoms,” such as anxiety, depression, sleeping disorders and social withdrawal, one expert said. (iStock)
Dissociation can also be self-protective, Roth noted.
“It takes a long time until they come back into their senses, which is a good thing, because their psyche protects them from feeling all that they would feel if they were connected, and it would be overwhelming for them.”
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The therapist said these children are struggling to feel normal.
“They do find any channel they can to be smiling and friendly and cooperative. They’re really trying … They are amazing in their coping, but they are injured.”
Play therapy, she said, enables children to reenact real experiences through imaginary scenarios, and gives therapists insight into their inner thoughts.
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“You can see the split of the world into total good and total bad creatures fighting each other … I see complete evil, revenge, abuse and angels,” she said.
“You can also see the other side … life saviors that came from nowhere to save them.”
A seven-year-old boy said he was the “cat hero,” helping the cats he drew to fall asleep and feel less afraid.
He also wrote a touching story with his therapist about a family of kittens who had been kidnapped and were found. Roth said that the child told his therapist, “Now we can finish therapy, because the kitties are back home.”
Said Roth, “I’m always overwhelmed by the beauty and the strength and the resilience.”
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A highly contagious digestive virus is surging across the U.S., experts warn.
Rotavirus, a double-stranded RNA virus, causes acute gastroenteritis — inflammation of the stomach and intestines — which can lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain.
The virus primarily affects infants and young children, but there have also been outbreaks in elderly populations, such as nursing homes.
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Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in the week ending April 4, out of 2,329 rotavirus tests, 7.3% were positive for the infection. Last year’s highest infection rate was 6.77% as of the week ending April 19.
Rotavirus, a double-stranded RNA virus, causes acute gastroenteritis — inflammation of the stomach and intestines — which can lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain. (iStock)
“We’re seeing a lot of rotavirus in the wastewater right now,” Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, confirmed to Fox News Digital. “Testing for rotavirus is way down, but the percentage of positive tests is up.”
While the virus typically peaks in the spring, it is not currently slowing down, he noted.
Why cases may be rising
Patricia Pinto-Garcia, M.D., a medical editor at GoodRx who is based in California, said there are several possible reasons for the rotavirus spike.
“Vaccine rates are down overall among young children, as they decreased during COVID,” she told Fox News Digital. “This means there’s a growing number of infants and young children who are vulnerable to infection.”
The rotavirus vaccine series must be completed by the time a child is 8 months old, she noted.
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As a result of the declining vaccinations, herd immunity isn’t protecting vulnerable children, according to Pinto-Garcia. “Children who haven’t finished the vaccine series yet, are too young to get vaccinated, or can’t get the vaccine due to medical illness are more likely to get exposed to the illness because other children aren’t vaccinated,” she said.
Siegel noted that before the vaccine became available, rotavirus resulted in 55,000 to 70,000 in the U.S. per year.
“Vaccine rates are down overall among young children, as they decreased during COVID,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. “This means there’s a growing number of infants and young children who are vulnerable to infection.” (iStock)
“I am concerned that the vaccination rate has been declining over the past seven years and is continuing to decline in the current climate of vaccine skepticism,” he said.
Surveillance methods are also much better than they used to be, Pinto-Garcia noted, which means public health experts are able to pick up and track cases better than ever before.
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“But we see that rotavirus-related healthcare visits are also up, so improved detection is not the only reason we are seeing this spike,” she said.
The COVID pandemic also disrupted the pattern of infections, according to Pinto-Garcia, so it’s “tricky” to compare the current levels against older cycles.
“It’s possible that what we are seeing is still some post-pandemic rebound, but it’s unlikely that this year’s pattern is fully explained by just this factor,” she added.
Transmission and risk
Dr. Zachary Hoy, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Pediatrix Medical Group based in Nashville, Tennessee, often sees young patients with rotavirus.
“Rotavirus is spread via the fecal-oral route, meaning that a person comes into contact with virus droplets from contact with other children or adults, or from contact with objects such as toys that have been contaminated with the virus from someone who is sick,” he told Fox News Digital. “This can lead to outbreaks, especially at schools where many young children share the same toys.”
“It’s possible that what we are seeing is still some post-pandemic rebound, but it’s unlikely that this year’s pattern is fully explained by just this factor.”
Rotavirus is associated with many dehydration cases in the hospital due to the degree of diarrhea, according to Hoy.
In some severe cases, the virus can lead to seizures due to electrolyte imbalances from dehydration and loss of electrolytes in the stool.
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“Younger children do not have the reserves that older children and adults have, so they can become more dehydrated quicker and develop more severe electrolyte imbalances, leading to more severe infections,” Hoy said.
“Patients with problems with their immune systems or on medications that can decrease their immune systems can have more severe and prolonged infections, too.”
Treatment and care
Because rotavirus is a viral infection, antibiotics are not effective against it. There is no specific antiviral treatment for the condition, with doctors typically recommending supportive care.
“The mainstay of treatment is hospitalization for rehydration via intravenous (IV) fluids,” Hoy told Fox News Digital. “Sometimes it can take up to two to three days of IV fluids to help get patients rehydrated.”
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Blood draws are often necessary to evaluate patients’ electrolyte levels, such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium, according to the doctor.
“If these electrolyte levels are significantly low, sometimes patients need special IV solutions or individual electrolyte medications,” he added.
“The mainstay of treatment is hospitalization for rehydration via intravenous (IV) fluids,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
Dr. Daniel Park, medical director of the Pediatric Emergency Department at UNC Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, noted that most children recover with supportive care, but parents should seek medical attention if a child shows signs of dehydration. Those include decreased urination, lethargy or inability to keep fluids down.
“While rare, rotavirus can be life-threatening in vulnerable populations, especially very young infants or children with underlying medical conditions,” Park told Fox News Digital.
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Prevention strategies
Given the lack of antiviral medications for rotavirus, doctors emphasize the importance of prevention, primarily the vaccine.
There are two rotavirus vaccines – Rotateq (a three-dose series) and Rotarix (a two-dose series). They are given starting at age 2 months as oral drops, not injections, according to Hoy.
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“It’s important to get the rotavirus vaccines on schedule, because these younger infants are at greatest risk if they get rotavirus,” he advised.
Other recommended prevention methods include handwashing with soap and water.
Every day we’re faced with a zillion small choices: Go to sleep early, or watch one more episode of that Netflix drama. Call an old friend to catch up, or cruise social media. Of course, no single action will guarantee a long, healthy life or doom you to an early grave. But those little daily decisions do add up, and over the long term they can make a difference when it comes to both your longevity and your health span, the amount of life spent in relatively good health.
Scroll through this theoretical “day in the life” and select the option that best fits your typical day. Not every situation will apply perfectly, but think about which choice you’d be most likely to make. This isn’t a formal scientific assessment. The goal here isn’t to assign you a “good” or “bad” score, but to help you understand the central factors that shape the way we age and how long we live.
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A study from Harvard Medical School indicates natural selection has favored the red hair gene, resulting in a potential increase in the number of redheaded people as humanity continues to evolve.
By analyzing nearly 16,000 ancient genomes spanning 10,000 years, researchers identified a list of traits that nature is actively pushing forward. Among the most prominent were the genetic variants for red hair.
“Perhaps having red hair was beneficial 4,000 years ago, or perhaps it came along for the ride with a more important trait,” the authors noted.
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The study, published in the journal Nature, relied on a large database of ancient DNA from West Eurasia. Using new computing methods, the team was able to filter out random fluctuations in DNA to identify what it called “directional selection.”
Directional selection happens when a particular version of a gene gives an organism a strong survival or reproductive advantage, causing it to become more common in a population faster than it would by chance, according to experts.
Directional selection is when a specific gene provides such significant benefits that it rises in frequency across a population much faster than random chance. (iStock)
Prior to this study, scientists only knew of about 21 such instances in human history, one of which was lactose tolerance. This new research uncovered hundreds more.
“With these new techniques and a large amount of ancient genomic data, we can now watch how selection shaped biology in real time,” Ali Akbari, first author of the study and senior staff scientist in the lab of Harvard geneticist David Reich, said in a press release.
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The data showed that genetic markers for red hair are among 479 gene variants that have been strongly favored over the past 10,000 years. One likely explanation, the researchers said, is a major shift in human history: the transition to farming.
Scientists have long pointed to vitamin D synthesis as a likely driver for the rise of traits like fair skin and light hair. (iStock)
As humans moved away from hunting and gathering and settled into agricultural societies, their environment and behavior changed radically, triggering an evolutionary “acceleration.”
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While the Harvard study provides the first definitive statistical proof that red hair was actively selected during the rise of farming, the researchers noted that the exact prehistoric benefit still requires more study.
However, scientists have long pointed to vitamin D synthesis as a likely driver for the rise of these light-pigmented traits in northern climates.
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While redheads remain a minority of the global population today, the Harvard study’s analysis suggests that they may not be an evolutionary accident.
While redheads remain a minority of the global population today, the Harvard study’s analysis suggests they may not be an evolutionary accident. (iStock)
Instead, the red hair trait was “boosted” by natural selection as humans adapted to the challenges of a modern world, according to the researchers.
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The researchers urged caution in how these findings are interpreted.
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“What a variant is associated with now is not necessarily why an allele propagated,” the authors noted.
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