COVID-19 infections fell significantly – by 65% percent – after a first dose of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca or the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in a study of more than 373,000 British residents who received one of the two jabs.  The first in a series of two new studies, published by the University of Oxford, found that the […] Continue reading ->
Islamabad, Pakistan: Even as Pakistan faced an intense third wave of COVID-19,  health authorities ‘silently’ suspended vaccination registration for its frontline Healthcare Workers (HCWs) for more than a month – ostensibly because of low registration and concerns about fake registrations.  But following queries by Health Policy Watch on Monday, Ministry of Health officials suddenly did […] Continue reading ->
Encouraged by how fast vaccines have been developed for COVID-19, tuberculosis advocates launched a “TB vaccine roadmap” on Tuesday and aim to use lessons from the pandemic to jumpstart the quest for a TB vaccine. The purpose of the roadmap, said Frank Cobelens of the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development, is to provide […] Continue reading ->
DELHI – In a twin bid to get ahead of a surging COVID-19 epidemic, the Indian government said that it will make “advance payments” totally some US$ 550 million to domestic COVID-19 vaccine makers – as well as opening up the market to private sector import and sales of other approved COVID-19 vaccines.  Under the […] Continue reading ->
A real-time COVID-19 data dashboard, celebrities and athletes sharing information about COVID-19 and vaccine hesitancy, rapid response task teams and public communications campaigns have formed part of response strategies to help two major cities fight the pandemic. The Partnership for Healthy Cities – supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the World Health Organization and Vital Strategies— on […] Continue reading ->
Global funding to develop new drugs for some of the world’s leading infectious disease killers, such as HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria, was US $3.876 billion, with the drop of US $185 million from 2018 reflecting COVID-related difficulties in data collection, according to the G-Finder Report, which tracks annual global investments. However, once participation is accounted […] Continue reading ->