In DR Congo’s latest Ebola outbreak, the two people with confirmed cases are dead and response is focusing on identifying and vaccinating contacts – because of insufficient doses to conduct a mass vaccination campaign in the outbreak area. Meanwhile, public health officials are trying to reboot Africa’s mainstream immunization programmes, which saw setbacks during the […] Continue reading ->
Following the purchase of Twitter by billionaire Elon Musk on Monday, the World Health Organization warned about the dangers of health and vaccine misinformation on social media, and expressed hope that the acquisition would lead to an ‘improvement of quality information’.  “There is misinformation and disinformation out there across whatever platform you wish to go […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization has announced an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and its continued investigation of almost 200 cases of unexplained acute hepatitis in the US and Europe in a media briefing Tuesday afternoon.  Two cases of Ebola have been confirmed in the northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo, prompting health […] Continue reading ->
Nathalie Strub-Wourgaft, a senior scientist at the Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative (DNDi) has a vision that could be critical to halting the next pandemic – but is esoteric, difficult to organize and even more challenging to build the trust and buy-in needed to make it really work.  The vision is of a common clinical-trial […] Continue reading ->
Pfizer has so far refused an invitation from the Geneva-based Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) to cooperate on a study exploring whether the treatment window of its successful antiviral drug, Paxlovid, could be extended from 5-7 days using another drug compound in addition, Dr Nathalie Strub-Wourgaft, Director of DNDi’s COVID-19 Response, told Health Policy […] Continue reading ->
In a highly symbolic visit to Lviv, Ukraine, World Health Organization Regional Director Hans Kluge reaffirmed WHO’s commitment to rebuilding the country’s war-torn health system.   Speaking in a press briefing staged directly from Lviv, Kluge said, “We are committed to work through a decentralized footprint [in Ukraine], both during the current humanitarian response but also […] Continue reading ->
Malawi is launching a mass vaccination campaign against wild poliovirus type 1, which is to extend to 23 million children across five southern African countries, WHO said on Friday. The campaign, to kick off Sunday, follows Malawi’s declaration of a polio outbreak on 17 February – three months after the first polio virus case in […] Continue reading ->