Most long COVID symptoms are resolved within a year of diagnosis, according to the results of a retrospective Israeli study published last week in the peer-reviewed BMJ medical journal. “Our study suggests that mild COVID-19 patients are at risk for a small number of health outcomes and most of them are resolved within a year […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for stricter masking policies and reduced isolation time recommendations for people with COVID-19 isolation, the organization announced on Friday. Patients who test positive for COVID-19 but do not have signs or symptoms are now recommended to isolate for five days in the absence of testing, WHO suggested – […] Continue reading ->
British scientists have launched a new initiative to expand the sequencing of common seasonal respiratory viruses with the aim of developing an early warning system for new viral threats and help prevent future pandemics. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, labs around the world were sequencing tens of thousands of Sars-CoV-2 genomes a day. […] Continue reading ->
European countries that plan to introduce “precautionary measures” in light of the huge COVID-19 surge in China should ensure these are “rooted in science, proportionate and non-discriminatory”, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Europe director has urged. However, Dr Hans Kluge added that, based on information available to WHO, “the SARS-CoV-2 virus variants circulating in China […] Continue reading ->
A high-level council to govern global health emergencies, made up of heads of state and other international leaders, is one of the proposals to be discussed by the World Health Organization (WHO) this year. It is the first of 10 proposals to strengthen the WHO’s response to health emergencies put forward by WHO Director General, […] 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 ->
As nations clamp down on travellers from China during an Omicron surge there Chinese health experts have told the World Health Organization that two known Omicron lineages are dominating the current Chinese surge, with BA.5.2 and BF.7 together accounting for 97.5% of all locally-acquired infections. The data was contained in a report by WHO’s Technical Advisory […] 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 ->
Schools in Shanghai closed on Monday, as did the US Embassy in Beijing while the streets of major Chinese cities are reportedly deserted as residents retreated from a wave of COVID-19 cases. In the past week, the country has officially reported over 148,000 new cases – but this is likely to be much higher as […] Continue reading ->
The World Trade Organization (WTO) TRIPS Council agreed to recommend to the General Council, WTO’s highest-level decision-making body, that it extend Saturday’s deadline for deciding on whether to extend an intellectual property rights waiver for COVID-19 vaccines to diagnostics and therapeutics. The panel’s recommendation on Friday at a formal meeting chaired by Ambassador Lansana Gberie […] Continue reading ->