Gabriela Emanuel

Gabriela Emanuel, NPR News.

People are increasingly using AI chatbots for things like emotional support and even talk therapy.

Now, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority, which usually approves medications and vaccines, says it will study these AI tools for their safety and efficacy and then develop a regulatory framework.

Bilal Mateen works for PATH, the nonprofit South Africa is partnering with.

He anticipates the new regulatory system will be up and running in South Africa in two to three years.

Gabriela Emanuel, NPR News.

In Piers Gabriella, Emmanuelle has more.

A big debate among anti-tobacco advocates has been whether e-cigarettes, heated tobacco, and nicotine pouches could be used to help people quit smoking.

That's a strategy promoted in the U.K.,

But WHO has now come out firmly against that idea.

It says these newer products are being pushed by the tobacco industry and hooking non-smokers, especially young ones.

Ben McGrady is with WHO.

WHO says these cigarettes and the like should be regulated at least as stringently as traditional cigarettes.

Gabriela Emanuel, NPR News.

This is NPR.

Marburg virus often spills over from bats and then spreads rapidly between people via contact with an infected person's bodily fluid.

Yap Boom of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Ethiopian authorities are going door-to-door in the area of the outbreak.

He says the goal is twofold.

The outbreak is in the southwest part of the country.

Neighboring South Sudan is also preparing its laboratories in the event that Marburg cases are found on the other side of the border.