As the world marks two years since the emergence of the first reports about a “novel coronavirus” circulating in Wuhan China, countries in Europe, North America and elsewhere are facing yet another “tsunami” of infections – this time driven by the highly-infectious Omicron variant, warned WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.  He spoke at […] Continue reading ->
Vaccine equity advocates see huge potential in India’s decision to grant an emergency use license to CORBEVAX™, an open-license vaccine dubbed “The World’s COVID-19 Vaccine” by its developers at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. The protein sub-unit vaccine, engineered at Baylor’s Center for Vaccine Development (CVD), received the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) […] Continue reading ->
A global grassroots movement of scientists based on crowdsourcing ideas, expertise, and goodwill has already generated – and freely released – more than half of the known structural information on the main protease of SARS-CoV-2. Based on this, they are now on a quest for an open-source drug that can block the virus from replicating. […] Continue reading ->
WHO has issued new advice to countries supporting booster campaigns for “high risk groups” but still opposing “blanket” campaigns – or vaccines for children and adolescents under the age of 18. The latter, top WHO officials contend, could divert too many vaccines from low-and-middle member states that have low vaccination coverage rates – leading to […] Continue reading ->
Driven by Omicron, Africa is facing a steep wave of new COVID infections – last week reporting the fourth highest number of cases ever recorded in a single week, said WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday.  He was speaking at an exclusive media briefing in Geneva behind closed doors to a handful […] Continue reading ->
As more vaccine supplies finally become available to the world’s low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), the latent challenges that should have been addressed long before have emerged. Those include vaccine hesitancy and the ability of weak health systems to mount mass vaccination campaigns amidst other pressing health needs. Global policymakers need to shift their attention from […] Continue reading ->
A recent WHO estimate that there could be a 3 billion shortfall in COVID vaccine doses needed to vaccinate the world in the first quarter of 2022 – if high-income countries “aggressively” booster adults with third shots as well as immunizing children is not based on “valid, solid” data, charged pharma leader, Thomas Cueni on […] Continue reading ->
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a “wake-up call” to African countries to build resilient health systems, boost local manufacturing of medicines, and improve the skills of health workers, according to Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame. Opening the continent’s first-ever Conference on Public Health in Africa this week, Kagame – chairperson of the African Union Commission – […] Continue reading ->
A $200 million dollar investment – the largest financial commitment to addressing childhood cancer ever – has been announced by the World Health Organization (WHO) and US-based St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines will provide an uninterrupted supply of quality-assured cancer medicines to low- and middle-income countries.  […] Continue reading ->
On Universal Health Coverage Day – an appeal to food and health advocates to shape an agenda for ‘Universal Nutrition Coverage’ including joined-up solutions that promote sustainable agro-ecosystems producing healthier foods for people with co-benefits for the planet. Every year on December 12, the health community marks Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day. While the technical […] Continue reading ->