An estimated 7.1 million children and teens up to the age of 24 years died in 2021, according to a United Nations (UN) report released on Tuesday. Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South Asia bore higher burden of these deaths than other regions. This includes five million children under the age of five and 2.1 million […] Continue reading ->
World leaders, representatives of international development and humanitarian organizations, and UN delegations gathered in Geneva on Monday to rally financial support for Pakistan’s recovery from the devastating floods that hammered the country last year. Pakistan has appealed for $16.3 billion to assist it to rebuild the country, and almost half this amount had been pledged […] Continue reading ->
For months, Sharifa Shomale suffered in silence from tuberculosis, not knowing what was wrong with her. Doctors suspected a viral infection. Then an unlikely hero made a life-saving discovery: a mischievous rat named Hamisi. DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania—Every evening, as the call to prayer from the mosque echoes in the twilight from Manzese—a tangled Dar […] Continue reading ->
CVS and Walgreens, the two largest pharmacy chains in the United States, totaling nearly 18,000 locations nationwide, announced plans on Wednesday to carry the abortion medication mifepristone after the US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) relaxed rules for distributing the pill earlier this week. The new rule updates FDA labeling to allow any pharmacy that undergoes […] Continue reading ->
In the wake of the COVID pandemic, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Israel’s largest medical center, Sheba Medical Center, are launching a scientific collaboration aimed at identifying emerging disease threats in the region. One of the first projects planned will be a study examining the impacts on antibody defenses amongst travelers from […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended shifting from a two-dose to one-dose vaccine regimen against the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) – something that could help expand vaccine coverage amongst millions of girls and young women in lower-income regions where HPV is most prevalent, as well as saving costs. According to the new WHO recommendation, based […] Continue reading ->
Along with a pledge to conserve 30% of the world’s biodiversity, the sweeping new deal reached in Montreal on Monday also etches a way forward to create an open-access platform for sharing gene sequences (digital sequence information) as part of new benefit-sharing arrangements. But some observers worry these policy advances still aren’t keeping up with […] Continue reading ->
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania – For Khadija Kambi, the country’s water shortage presents a tricky moral dilemma for her family: either she lets her children drink murky water and fall sick or she lets them suffer from extreme thirst. “I don’t have the money to buy clean piped water. Well water is the cheaper option […] Continue reading ->
The US-Africa Leaders’ Summit ended last week with a strong commitment to strengthen Africa’s health systems, tackle food insecurity and climate change. Meanwhile, top African health officials and scientists meeting at a public health conference in Kigali, Rwanda, at the same time as the summit, vowed to bolster inter-country collaboration to build healthier nations post-COVID. […] Continue reading ->
The United Nations has described it as “the most important conference on biodiversity in a decade,” aimed at creating a Paris Agreement-style agreement for biodiversity. Negotiations amongst more than 100 environment ministers and 196 governments at the Conference on Biodiversity in Montreal on the world’s 15th attempt to come to an agreement to protect the […] Continue reading ->