People living with HIV face a significant risk of severe COVID-19 and should be prioritised in national vaccination programmes, according to research presented on Thursday ahead of  the International AIDS Society’s (IAS) HIV Science conference which starts on Saturday. The World Health Organization (WHO) research looked at the data of 15,500 HIV positive people from […] Continue reading ->
The Kenyan government has taken the fight against childhood obesity to the classroom through a revised school curriculum that focuses on health and healthy lifestyle behaviours. The initiative involves including science-based food and nutrition material in the academic content and introducing physical literacy from Grade One. Addressing a recent Word Obesity Federation (WOF) virtual event […] Continue reading ->
As Africa recorded its worst pandemic week, the COVAX Facility announced on Thursday that it has taken steps to quickly resume the delivery of vaccines to African countries including diversifying its portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines.  Aurélia Nguyen, Managing Director of the COVAX Facility based at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said the COVAX portfolio now consists […] Continue reading ->
African Union and WHO/African Region officials on Thursday sharply criticized the European Union decision to not grant the Indian version of AstraZeneca’s “Covishield” vaccine, distributed by the global COVAX facility, recognition in the new EU “Digital Green Pass programme” – amidst a growing chorus of global protests over the double standard. In a related statement, […] Continue reading ->
The aviation sector is unlikely to recover before 2024, as new variants, stringent quarantines and costly COVID-19 tests continue to confound international travel – but airline officials have appealed for global cooperation to simplify travel requirements. In 2020, the global aviation industry lost about $430 billion, according to Kamil Alawadi, the International Air Transport Association […] Continue reading ->
The much-trumpeted European Union COVID Digital Green Pass, which launches 1 July and is meant to vastly ease travel to Europe for vaccinated and recovered passengers is being rolled out with one important hitch. Anyone vaccinated with an AstraZeneca vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India would not be qualified to get the pass […] Continue reading ->
A “terrible third wave” of the COVID-19 pandemic is now hitting Africa in full force – with about 20 of the continent’s 54 countries experiencing particularly sharp rises in new infections, African Centers for Disease Control director, John Nkengasong told Health Policy Watch at a press briefing on Thursday.  Per-capita rates of new SARS-CoV2 cases […] Continue reading ->
The government of Guinea is a few days away from declaring the end of the country’s Ebola outbreak after 45 days of reporting no new case, World Health Organization Officials said on Thursday.  On 14 February, a new Ebola outbreak was declared in Guinea, but four months later, the outbreak will be declared over according […] Continue reading ->