Biodiversity sits at the heart of the simultaneous fight against both COVID-19 and the climate crisis, said experts during a Wednesday event hosted by the Society for International Development (SID). At the event, ‘The Vaccine for Biodiversity’, panelists discussed re-focusing attention on the current health and climate crisis, and how new pandemics should and can […] Continue reading ->
CAPE TOWN – The two men at the centre of Africa’s COVID-19 response – John Nkengasong and Strive Masiwiya – vowed that the pandemic would not follow the same pattern as for HIV, where millions of Africans died because they could not get access to the life-saving antiretroviral (ARV) medicine available in wealthy Western countries. […] Continue reading ->
The World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) remains deadlocked on the “fundamental question” of whether a waiver on intellectual property rights of COVID-related products is the best way to address equitable vaccine access during the pandemic. This is according to a draft oral status report adopted at Tuesday’s […] Continue reading ->
In a milestone deal for Africa, Pfizer/BioNTech announced Wednesday that it would partner with the Cape Town-based pharma firm Biovac to produce over 100 million doses annually of it’s cutting edge mRNA vaccine – for distribution within the African Union. The deal was quickly hailed as a major breakthrough on a continent that is desperately […] Continue reading ->
An estimated 1.5 million children worldwide have lost a parent, grandparent, or caregiver due to COVID-19, according to a new study published in The Lancet on Tuesday. The study, which was conducted by international researchers, including scientists from the World Health Organization (WHO), US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the University of […] Continue reading ->
The World Trade Organization (WTO) Secretariat has issued a list of bottlenecks and trade-facilitating measures on critical COVID-19 products, ahead of Wednesday’s High-Level Dialogue between itself and the World Health Organization (WHO) on how to expand COVID-19 vaccines manufacturing to ensure equitable access. “One common theme that emerges from the list is that essential goods […] Continue reading ->
Children living with HIV in six African countries will soon get access to the antiretroviral (ARV) drug, dolutegravir (DTG), which is more effective, easier to take and has fewer side effects than many other ARVs. DTG will soon be recommended for children in Uganda, Benin, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, Kenyan AIDS activist Jacque Wambui […] Continue reading ->
As an official partner of the COVAX Facility, UNICEF is responsible for procurement, logistics and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines. PRITI PATNAIK spoke with Gian Gandhi, who coordinates COVAX operations for UNICEF, to get a sense of the challenges faced by the organization during the pandemic in the context of production shortages and realities at the […] Continue reading ->
Indonesia has overtaken Brazil and India to claim the highest number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths, becoming the new epicenter of the pandemic. The surge is part of a third wave hitting all across Southeast Asia. Countries in Southeast Asia emerged from the first year of the pandemic relatively unscathed, but SARS-CoV2 variants, inconsistent […] Continue reading ->
Almost one in five trans women globally are living with HIV – 49 times greater than the general population – while HIV in trans men is woefully understudied. Yet trans and gender-diverse (TGD) people are “frequently and often systematically left out of HIV prevention research and responses”, according to No Data No More, a global […] Continue reading ->