Following a first-ever outbreak of deadly Marburg virus disease in Equatorial Guinea, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday called an emergency meeting of the Marburg virus vaccine consortium (MARVAC) to receive an urgent update on possible vaccine candidates for the filovirus that can have an 80% fatality rate.   At the meeting, the agency received […] Continue reading ->
World Health Organization’s Executive Board (EB) has gotten behind the rollout of an independent evaluation of the agency’s member state mechanism addressing  falsified and substandard medical products in order to see how surveillance and enforcement of production standards could be improved.  The initiative, which now needs to go to the World Health Assembly in May, […] Continue reading ->
Hybrid immunity from a combination of being vaccinated and previously infected with COVID-19 offers better protection against hospitalisation and severe infection than immunity simply from a previous infection, according to a new study in The Lancet. People with hybrid immunity were 97.4% less likely to be hospitalised or suffer severe infection at 12 months, whereas those […] Continue reading ->
The World Economic Forum (WEF) will partner with Wellcome Trust to collect research-based data on how climate change is affecting health.  Making the announcement, WEF’s head of health Shyam Bishen said that while several organisations were working on data collection, most data is fragmented with different organisations.  “We want to ensure that we have a […] Continue reading ->
DAVOS, Switzerland  – The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced plans to set up a new TB Vaccine Accelerator Council to increase momentum for the development of a vaccine to combat the world’s most deadly infectious disease. Speaking at a high-level panel at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting where the plan was launched, WHO […] Continue reading ->