In the first episode of “Trailblazers with Gary,” Global Health Matters podcast host Dr Garry Aslanyan sat down in South Africa with Professor Tulio de Oliveira — one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in global health. Oliveira leads the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation at Stellenbosch University and was part of the […] Continue reading ->
Encephalitis “remains under-recognized, under-diagnosed, and underfunded”, according to a new policy report from the World Health Organization (WHO). Climate change, vaccine hesitancy, and the rising burden of vector-borne diseases are also fuelling an increased number of encephalitis cases, a rare but serious inflammation of the brain. The technical document urges coordinated global action to “confront […] Continue reading ->
Robert F Kennedy (RFK) Jr, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), faced two days of tense questioning from senators on the finance and health committees. He walked back many of his past statements on vaccines and abortion, and emphasized his commitment to address America’s […] Continue reading ->
The weekend release of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report favouring a laboratory leak as the likely origin of COVID-19 – albeit with “low confidence” – has reignited a vitriolic debate. On the one side of the divide are those who argue that SARS-CoV2, the virus causing COVID-19, originated from a lab leak from […] Continue reading ->
A method that first developed around polio elimination and matured during the COVID pandemic, is now being tested and used to track a much wider array of emerging disease threats. A unique symposium of scientists and public health experts at the Paris Sorbonne University last week looked at its promise and potential. In April 2020, […] Continue reading ->
How did vaccines, once hailed as essential tools for global peace, security and international cooperation, become something that some now fear could kill them? This is the focus of the latest episode of the Global Health Matters podcast, hosted by Garry Aslnyan. In an interview with author Peter Hotez, the discussion delves into how misinformation […] Continue reading ->
Researchers have developed a new all-in-one vaccine aimed at priming the body to respond to a range of different strains of coronaviruses, including the ones not yet known. The researchers from Cambridge, MIT and CalTech published their findings recently in Nature Nanotechnology. Their vaccine was successfully tested on mice and will likely enter human clinical trials […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a new network, CoViNet, aimed at identifying, monitoring, and evaluating SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, and emerging coronaviruses that pose significant public health risks. The program expands on the WHO COVID-19 reference laboratory network, established in January 2020, in the early days of the pandemic. Originally, the network’s primary goal was […] Continue reading ->
Pharmaceutical giants could support a formula whereby companies are guaranteed free and immediate access to pathogens with pandemic potential in exchange for binding equity agreements as part of a proposed World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic agreement, says a leading industry figure. The statement by Thomas Cueni, director-general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers […] Continue reading ->
A much higher percentage of the population has experienced “persistent” COVID-19 infections lasting more than 30 days than initially assumed, according to new research by the University of Oxford. The study, published on February 21 in Nature, found that one to three of every 100 infections may last a month or longer. The scientists, using […] Continue reading ->