The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) expects to diagnose ‘Disease X’, which has killed at least 79 people in the Panzi district of Kwango Province by the weekend, according to the country’s Director-General of Health, Dr Dieudonné Mwamba. “The disease is characterised by fever, headaches, cough and sometimes difficulty breathing,” Mwamba told a media briefing […] Continue reading ->
LAHORE, Pakistan – Capital of the agriculturally rich Punjab Province, Lahore, has been engulfed in intense smoke for nearly a month. The government closed schools in Lahore and parts of the province on 7 November but even though they reopened a few weeks later, air pollution has remained at record, hazardous levels throughout the region. […] Continue reading ->
Rape is common across Africa yet inadequate laws, weak implementation and cultural barriers mean that many perpetrators go unpunished, according to new research by Equality Now. “After examining rape laws across Africa, it is clear that to end impunity for perpetrators, governments urgently need to carry out comprehensive legal reform of rape laws, strengthen enforcement […] Continue reading ->
As a political appointee, Ambassador John Nkengasong, head of the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), said that he will be obliged to resign when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on 20 January. “The rules that govern a transition are that all the political appointees have to resign on the 20th and then […] Continue reading ->
Negotiations to produce a legally binding treaty to curb the global explosion of plastic pollution fell short on Sunday as efforts to limit the production of fossil fuel-based plastics supported by over 100 countries, including the European Union, met fierce opposition from oil-producing nations. A coalition of oil and gas producers led by Saudi Arabia […] Continue reading ->
At the opening of the final pandemic agreement negotations for 2024 on Monday, a group of long-time observers urged countries to “get it done” after three years of negotiations. “The finishing line to the pandemic agreement is in sight, and we urge all member states to keep up the momentum and negotiate a final agreement […] Continue reading ->
From being a largely unknown pathogen, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is now almost a household word – and a fearful one for families with infants and young children at risk. But new solutions, such as long-acting monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and maternal vaccination, both recently recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), could dramatically alter the […] Continue reading ->
The world needs to urgently change the way food is grown and land is used in order to avoid irreparable harm to global food production capacity, according to a major new scientific report released Sunday. Currently seven out of nine ‘planetary boundaries’ have been negatively impacted by unsustainable land use, mostly related to unsustainable agriculture, […] Continue reading ->
This was the question posed to us recently by a young person from our Youth4Health network. Our answer, both simple and sad: the reasons are not medical. As we observe World AIDS Day on Sunday, 1 December, the biggest remaining hurdles in the fight against HIV/AIDS in our region, and indeed much of our world, […] Continue reading ->
“Much stronger surveillance” of deadly H5N1 and other avian influenza strains in both domestic and wild animals is needed both in The United States as well as globally so as to head off pandemic risks from variants that could mutate to infect humans more directly. A senior World Health Organization official, Dr Maria Van Kerkkove, […] Continue reading ->