Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate has an efficacy rate of 96.4% against the original strain of SARS-CoV2. However, the efficacy rate drops up to 55.4% against the new B.1351 variant first identified in South Africa, and also spreading globally.  The pharma company, which has never brought a vaccine to market before, published the data from two […] Continue reading ->
The Brazilian government needs to enforce “serious social measures” to contain the virus before it overwhelms its health facilities, World Health Organization (WHO)  Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the body’s weekly COVID-19 briefing. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsanaro continues to downplay the pandemic despite the country reaching its highest death rate in the past week […] Continue reading ->
Both the European Medicines Agency and the World Health Organization have urged that immunizations with the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine continue – despite a decision by several European countries to suspend its use – after reports of serious blood clots among 30 of the 5 million people vaccinated – leading to at least five deaths.  An […] Continue reading ->
One year after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic on 11 March 2020, a new report by the Foundation for Geneva has traced the success and the failures of the WHO and other international Geneva organisations in their response – as well as the implications for the future of multilateralism. […] Continue reading ->
With the European Union Medicines Agency (EMA) approval Thursday of Johnson and Johnson’s one-shot COVID-19 vaccine, it now remains to be seen which countries and regions will be the first in line for distribution of the one-jab vaccine. Along with its comparatively low-cost, and ease of storage, the one-shot vaccine could be particularly important to […] Continue reading ->
NAIROBI – Kenya is one of the leading African countries yet to ratify the African Medicines Agency Treaty (AMA) – but a senior official in the Ministry of Health has said that the move  should come soon.  According to Susan Mochache, the country’s Principal Secretary in the Ministries of Health (MoH), Kenya has already undergone […] Continue reading ->
“The future generations are not going to excuse this,” pleaded Kawaldip Sehmi, CEO of the International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations (IAPO). “They will be looking at us and will say, ‘What the hell were they doing procrastinating on their neighbors during a pandemic?” Sehmi was one of seven speakers from across Africa who convened at […] Continue reading ->
Almost one in three women experience physical and/or sexual violence across the course of their lifetimes. And over the past 12 months, more than one in ten women suffered from physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, according to a new WHO-led report on gender-based violence, published just a day after International Women’s Day. Gender-based violence […] Continue reading ->