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 ->
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 ->
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 ->
“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 ->