Switzerland’s drug regulatory agency, Swissmedic, has authorized Moderna’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine for use – in a move that should helop accelerate its rollout of vaccines against the pandemic, The Swiss Federal Government has secured 7.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, with deliveries expected to begin next week from the Visp-based plant where most of […] Continue reading ->
After months of delay, China has confirmed that a WHO research team investigating the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus will finally be allowed to enter the country on Thursday, 14 January – a week after Beijing blocked their entry, leaving two international experts stuck in transit. Members of the task force will now be able […] Continue reading ->
After brief holiday respites, countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa have reverted to major lockdowns as a strategy to stave off new, and even more infectious, SARS-CoV2 virus variants that have been identified in the United Kingdom and in South Africa – which threaten to overwhelm health systems even as countries also […] Continue reading ->
Delhi – India’s chief drug regulator approved two COVID-19 vaccines for “restricted emergency use” in the country on Sunday, opening the doors for a mass vaccination campaign against COVID to begin in one of the world’s largest countries, and a lower middle-income country at that. However, some watchdog groups said that the review process leading […] Continue reading ->
Ibadan, Nigeria. Several Nigerian states were unable to carry out preventative yellow fever campaigns late last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving thousands of people at risk of developing the disease as the country now faces a new winter yellow fever outbreak, Health Policy Watch learned. In early November, Nigeria’s Center for Disease Control […] Continue reading ->
The redacted WHO report on Italy’s pandemic response, “An Unprecedented Challenge” contained a brief timeline of events in the early days of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in China, which a number of WHO officials sought to amend or suppress even before the entire report was recalled. In fact, the so-called “China box” on the outbreak’s early […] Continue reading ->
CAPE TOWN – A new antiretroviral drug was supposed to be a game-changer for South Africa, which has one of the largest HIV-positive populations in the world. The drug, dolutegravir, was cheap, had few side effects, and – most importantly – it suppressed the virus quickly. But after a few months on the treatment, many […] Continue reading ->
Cape Town – As South Africa records over 930,000 COVID-19 cases and its scientists race to understand whether a new variant is driving the country’s second wave of infections, countries across the African continent are reporting an increase in cases. But there is widespread anecdotal evidence that many African countries are massively under-reporting their COVID-19 […] Continue reading ->
Despite the “enormous” contributions that migrants have made to society, they still face discrimination, social exclusion, and struggle to access health services even years after migrating, especially during the current pandemic, the first survey ever of migrant health during COVID-19 has found. The report, which was led by Ghent University and the University of Copenhagen […] Continue reading ->
Striking through the politicised warnings and potentially hollow gestures, a new study has found that COVID-19 vaccines could remain out of reach until at least 2022 for nearly one- fifth of the global population – despite months of pleas and appeals to ensure their widespread global distribution. The study, published in The BMJ, is the […] Continue reading ->