Africa’s COVID-19 rollout is anticipated for Spring 2021, despite the continent’s low vaccine preparedness, multiple health leaders in Africa have said, as policy advisory groups flag the importance that other successful immunization campaigns will have on COVID recovery. At a press briefing on Thursday, Dr. John Nkengasong, Director of Africa CDC, said: “Africa may have […] Continue reading ->
Violence against women and girls has been neglected during and worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, and urgent efforts are needed to protect women, UNAIDS has said. One in three women likely to experience violence at least once in their lifetime. Evidence indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant increases in gender-based violence in […] Continue reading ->
Nairobi.  Africa’s limited cold-chain capacity will constrain the continent’s ability to take up the more cutting-edge Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that are likely to win approval first from regulatory authorities, said WHO’s African Regional Director Dr Matshidiso Moeti on Thursday. Those same constraints make the AstraZeneca (AZD1222) vaccine the most attractive option, despite its lower […] Continue reading ->
Far greater investment in global pandemic response is required to ensure that core public health initiatives, like AIDS prevention and treatment aren’t thrown off course by future pandemics, while roll-out of a cheap and accessible “People’s Vaccine” would help get other core public health programmes quickly back on track, UNAIDS has said. In a message […] Continue reading ->
South Africa is campaigning for the World Trade Organization (WTO) to waiver intellectual property rights on all products related to COVID-19 for the duration of the pandemic. Mustaqeem De Gama, Counsellor at the South African Permanent Mission in Geneva, is leading the campaign. Kerry Cullinan and Elaine Fletcher spoke to him about the reasons why […] Continue reading ->
‘Planetary health’ describes how the limits of natural resources like clean air, water and food production shape our long-term health, with climate change as a “threat-multiplier” for future COVID-19 like crises. Experts at the Geneva Health Forum explored the links, ahead of next week’s launch of the 2020 Lancet Countdown Report on Health and Climate […] Continue reading ->
Thirteen African countries and an international network of research institutions have joined forces to launch a multi-country clinical trial of COVID-19 drug treatments in Africa for people who are mild to moderately ill. The new ANTICOV trial, led by the Geneva-based Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) aims to respond to the urgent need to […] Continue reading ->
The vaccine zero hour is approaching. As Norway’s Minister of International Development Dag Ulstein and South Africa’s Minister of Health Zweili Mkhize made yet another urgent plea Monday for some US$4.3 billion right now and another $US23.9 billion in 2021 to massively roll out new COVID19 vaccines, drugs and tests that are now coming on […] Continue reading ->
AstraZeneca, the pharma firm developing a COVID-19 vaccine in collaboration with researchers at Oxford University, announced that its Phase 3 clinical trials had resulted in a 90% efficacy rate for one dosing regime, in interim results released on Monday. The AstraZeneca breakthrough is significant because the vaccine, based on a known vaccine delivery technology, is […] Continue reading ->