The global childhood vaccination rate in 2024 held steady with 85% of infants and children receiving three doses of the vaccine for diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus (DPT), used as a global benchmark for immunization rates overall.  However large, continued gaps in coverage are propelling outbreaks, including the highest rate of measles cases since 2019.  “In […] Continue reading ->
Patients will face costlier medicine and European and Indian drug companies face billion-dollar losses if US President Donald Trump’s threat issued late Tuesday of “a major tariff on pharmaceuticals” produced outside his country is realised. However, amid chaos on the financial markets, Trump back-pedalled on Wednesday and announced a 90-day pause on all tariffs except […] Continue reading ->
Tanzania has extinguished a deadly outbreak of Marburg virus, but elsewhere across Africa, an alarming surge of health crises continue to unfold – including expanding mpox infections in Uganda, a cholera outbreak in Angola and a first-ever cholera case in neighbouring Namibia. The Marburg virus outbreak in Tanzania has officially ended, Tanzanian health authorities declared […] Continue reading ->
As Africa battles a relentless mpox outbreak, a sudden freeze in United States foreign aid is crippling containment efforts, threatening vaccine distribution, and leaving the hardest-hit regions scrambling for solutions, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) warned on Thursday. In conflict-ridden Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the epicentre of the outbreak, […] Continue reading ->
WASHINGTON, DC – The abrupt decision by the United States National Institutes of Health to slash funding for overheads to the nation’s research centers and universities has provoked a fresh outcry among leading US researchers, global health experts and even some Republican politicians  – with leading one expert saying this latest move could “seriously jeopardize” […] Continue reading ->
The disengagement of both USAID and the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from the WHO-led global polio eradication initiative, threatens efforts in the world’s poorest countries with about  $233 million more in a year in budget shortfalls, WHO’s Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, Hanan Balkhy, said on Friday.  This, in a year […] Continue reading ->