Given a paragraph, generate a claim that is supported by the given paragraph. 1) The claim must contain information from within the paragraph. 2) A sentence within the paragraph can be used as a claim. 3) The claim should not have contradictions within the paragraph. 4) The claim should be at most one sentence long.

Researchers, who studied about 1,000 teens who said they wanted to quit smoking, wrote in the journal Pediatrics that close to 11 percent of those who got counseling for three months had quit smoking, compared to six percent of those who only received educational pamphlets. "A school nurse-delivered smoking-cessation intervention proved feasible and effective in improving short-term abstinence among adolescent boys and short-term reductions in smoking amount and frequency in both genders," wrote study author Lori Pbert of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. But a year after the sessions, there was no difference in smoking rates based on what kind of assistance teens had gotten from their nurses. In addition, fewer than one in five teens said they hadn't smoked recently. "It's nice that there was some effect at three months, what we really care about is sustained cessation," said Michael Siegel, who studies tobacco control at the Boston University School of Public health but wasn't involved in the study. "The overwhelming majority of these kids are not quitting." In the 35 Massachusetts schools covered in the study, half the nurses were trained to give their students one-on-one counseling based around goal setting and problem solving, including making a plan to quit and then preventing relapses. The other nurses gave students information pamphlets on quitting smoking and volunteered to answer any questions they had about the process. Both groups of nurses saw their students at four weekly sessions, ranging from 10 to 30 minutes. The counseling intervention appeared to especially help boys in the short run. Those who had made goals and tracked progress with the nurses were three times more likely to say they had stopped smoking than boys in the "control" group. But between 13 and 17 percent of both boys and girls reported they had stopped lighting up a year later, regardless of whether or not they had received counseling. Other smoking cessation experts noted that relapsing into smoking is the biggest hurdle at any age, and that teens were especially likely to do so. But they added that the more options teens had for help, the better. SOURCE: bit.ly/o4z0xc
Study: can school nurses help teens quit smoking?.

Africa had until now largely been spared the rapid spread of COVID-19, which has infected at least 135,000 people and killed around 5,000 worldwide. Most of Africa's reported cases were foreigners or people who had traveled abroad. Rapid testing and quarantines have been put in place to limit transmission. But concerns are growing about the continent's ability to handle the disease. Cases have been reported in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia. Mauritania's health ministry said late on Friday that its first coronavirus patient is a European man - nationality not specified - who had returned to Nouakchott on March 9 and had since been in quarantine. The numbers of cases in most of the countries are still in single figures. Senegal confirmed 11 new cases on Friday, raising the total in that West African nation to 21. Its health ministry said 16 had been infected by the same man who had returned from Italy. Among those confirming first cases on Friday, Kenya is the richest economy in East Africa and a hub for global companies and the United Nations, while Ethiopia is Africa's second-most populous nation, with 109 million people. Addis Ababa and Nairobi are regional transit hubs. In Nairobi, the Kenyan authorities banned all major public events and said they would restrict foreign travel. The mayor of Addis Ababa urged citizens to avoid close personal contact but Ethiopia's health minister said there were no plans to cancel flights. Kenyan Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe said the country's first case, a 27-year-old Kenyan, was diagnosed on Thursday after traveling home via London on March 5. He said the government had traced most of the people she had been in contact with, including fellow passengers on her flight, and a government response team would monitor their temperatures for the next two weeks. The Ethiopian case was a 48-year old Japanese national who arrived in Ethiopia on March 4, the health ministry said. Guinea's first case was an employee of the European Union delegation who had self-isolated after she felt ill upon returning from Europe, the EU delegation said. Sudan's first confirmed coronavirus case was a man who died on Thursday in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, the Health Ministry said. He had visited the United Arab Emirates in the first week of March. Kenyan Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe said the government had suspended all public gatherings, sporting events, open-air religious meetings and events "of a huge public nature". Schools will remain open but inter-school events were suspended. Public transport operators must install hand sanitizers in their vehicles and clean them regularly, Kagwe said, while foreign travel would be restricted. Soon after the announcement, shoppers in one Nairobi supermarket were buying up cart loads of staples such as maize flour and water, as well as hand sanitizers and soap. Kenya Airways suspended flights to China last month and on Thursday added Rome and Geneva to the list of suspended destinations. Kenya, which relies heavily on Asian imports, has seen disruptions to its supply chain and a decline in tourism, an important source of hard currency and jobs. "We are going to be hit badly," Tourism Minister Najib Balala told journalists. The Nairobi Securities Exchange halted trading in the afternoon after the main NSE 20 share index dropped by more than 5% following the news. Mauritius, an island nation off the coast of East Africa whose economy depends on tourism and financial services, has yet to report any COVID-19 cases but said it was offering liquidity to banks to support struggling firms hit by the impact of the virus and cutting banks' cash reserve requirements.
Kenya, Ethiopia join expanding list of African states with coronavirus.

In an alert, regulators flagged reports of serious side effects and death among patient s taking hydroxychloroquine and the related drug chloroquine. Gov. Kristi Noem has pushed for doctors to be able to use hydroxychloroquine, creating a statewide clinical trial as well as making it available to COVID-19 patients if their doctor advises taking it. South Dakota received 1.2 million doses of the drug from the Strategic National Stockpile after President Donald Trump championed it as a potential treatment for COVID-19. Secretary of Health Kim Malsam-Rysdon said plans for the trial were moving forward and the drug would still be available to COVID-19 patients if their doctor advises it. The trial, which is planned by Sanford Health, would administer smaller doses of the drug to health care workers and people vulnerable to COVID-19 as a preventive measure. Participation in the trial is voluntary. Susan Hoover, an infectious disease physician at Sanford Health, said its physicians are aware of the potential of both hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, an antibiotic sometimes administered with the malaria medication, to disrupt heart rhythms. The are closely monitoring patients who receive the drugs. Noem has said that the state has enough of the medication to treat 100,000 patients. The state is also pitching in funding for the trial. The governor's spokeswoman Maggie Seidel said that the final amount of funding from the state has not yet been determined and that it would come out of federal funding for addressing the coronavirus. South Dakota health officials reported one more death from COVID-19 on Friday as the total number of confirmed cases surpassed 2,000. Almost 90% of the confirmed cases were reported in Minnehaha and Lincoln counties, which both contain parts of the state's largest city, Sioux Falls. Noem said on Friday she will extend an executive order for two more weeks, telling people in Minnehaha and Lincoln counties to stay home if they are vulnerable to COVID-19 as cases. A Smithfield pork processing plant was the epicenter of the outbreak in the city, with more than 1,000 cases tied to the plant. Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken said on Friday that he has no timeline for the plant's reopening, according to the Argus Leader. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has toured the facility and created a list of recommendations for Smithfield to prevent another outbreak. ___ Associated Press writer Amy Forliti in Minneapolis, Minnesota, contributed to this report.
South Dakota continues malaria drug trial despite FDA alert.