A study of people taking regular, low doses of aspirin found that the aspirin users were 29% less likely than others to test positive for COVID-19, as well as being less prone to serious disease and its “long COVID” after-effects. The new peer-reviewed study, published in The FEBS Journal of the Federation of European Biochemical […] 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 ->
A two-day summit of the world’s top pharma and public health sector players to address COVID-19 vaccine supply chain and manufacturing bottlenecks ended on Tuesday with agreement that large vaccine manufacturing scale up potential exists – even in 2021 – but the route is complex and there are no easy fixes. And most immediately, there […] Continue reading ->
African governments, the private sector, and development partners need to invest more in health and health systems to intensify the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and any future disease outbreaks, according to health experts speaking at the African Health Agenda International Conference (AHAIC) on Tuesday. The experts agreed that a comprehensive, multi-sectoral approach is needed […] Continue reading ->
The Chinese-developed “CoronaVac” vaccine against COVID-19 vaccine triggers a sixfold reduction in neutralizing antibody response against the P.1 variant first identified in Brazil, according to a pre-print study published last week, while the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is likely effective against the variant of concern. These findings come as hospitals in northern Brazil are increasingly overwhelmed and […] Continue reading ->
The structural barriers to a faster and more equitable COVID-19 vaccine roll-out go far beyond the issue of patents, declared two of the world’s leading vaccine researchers and pharma execs at a WHO event on Monday evening. Sarah Gilbert, developer of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and Özlem Türeci, chief medical officer of BioNTech, the developer of […] Continue reading ->
Innovation has, until recently been a male-dominated preserve, but a group of women pioneers speaking at the Africa Health Agenda International Conference on Monday told of how the right mindset and a desire to improve lives has helped change the landscape. Speaking during a virtual panel discussion on Women in Innovation: Providing leadership, creating solutions […] Continue reading ->
A senior official at the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has cautioned EU member states to wait until the agency has reviewed the safety and efficacy data of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine before granting the vaccine emergency use authorization at national level, and beginning mass rollouts. Last week, the EMA formally began a rolling review of […] Continue reading ->
Less than half of Africa’s citizens (52%) – some 615 million people – have access to the healthcare they need, the continent’s quality of health services is generally poor and the family planning needs of half the continent’s women and girls are unmet. This is according to a report on Africa’s progress toward achieving universal […] Continue reading ->
The WHO-convened international investigation into the origin of the SARS-CoV2 virus is too politically limited by China and lacks the mandate to yield fully independent conclusions about how the novel coronavirus emerged and infected humans, according to a group of prominent international scientists – who have called for a new, independent and “unrestricted” probe into […] Continue reading ->