As the first snows fall across Ukraine, World Health Organization officials in Kyiv warn the coming winter will be “life-threatening for millions” of Ukrainians. At a press conference in Kyiv on Monday, WHO’s European Regional Director Dr Hans Kluge called the Russian airstrikes on Ukraine’s energy and medical infrastructure “the largest attack on health care […] Continue reading ->
Regional production of vaccines and other pandemic-related products – and sharing the technical know-how to enable this – features strongly in the much-anticipated first draft of the global pandemic treaty proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to guide future pandemics. WHO member states will be briefed on the conceptual “zero-sum” draft on Friday in […] Continue reading ->
Clinical trials on three Ebola vaccine candidates for the Sudan strain of the virus are due to start soon in Uganda, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). “I’m pleased to announce that a WHO committee of external experts has evaluated three candidate vaccines and agreed that all three should be included in the planned […] Continue reading ->
Deadlock may once again be the name of the game at the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights—TRIPS, for short. A communication from Switzerland and Mexico questioning the need to extend the waiver on intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines to therapeutics and diagnostics is laying bare the divergences […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged governments worldwide to step up the supervision of vaccine manufacture and distribution, especially when public funding is used in vaccine R&D or manufacture, so as to prioritise essential vaccines and ensure they are distributed equitably. The global health agency’s call to governments came as it released its annual […] Continue reading ->
Two shorter treatment regimens for multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis have proven to be safe and more effective than the current treatment, the Union World Conference on Lung Health heard on Tuesday. Results from Stage 2 of the STREAM clinical trial, published in The Lancet on the same day, show that a fully-oral nine-month bedaquiline-based regimen […] Continue reading ->
On Friday, the Ebola taskforce of Kassanda district in Uganda delivered the remains of four people that succumbed to the the virus for burial to their home village of Kitongo. Three of the bodies belong to family members who died from exposure to the virus after they exhumed a loved one they had lost to […] Continue reading ->
A report presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) on Thursday found the potential for larger, deadlier outbreaks of monkeypox outbreaks in Central Africa and internationally – as the more dangerous Clade 1 of the virus become more transmissible. “Many people in the US CDC (Centers for […] Continue reading ->
Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, has undertaken to adapt its approach to procuring vaccines in order to support African vaccine manufacturing. In a plan released on Thursday, Gavi has committed to placing “a higher value on the benefits of diversification to supply security, with a focus on Africa”. The 10-point plan, developed in consultation with […] Continue reading ->
The SARS-CoV2 virus just won’t give up. As the northern hemisphere heads into its third pandemic winter, experts say the continued evolution of Omicron’s sub-variants indicates a fresh wave is coming, but no one knows which variant will fuel it. Scientists have catalogued 390 Omicron lineages and 48 recombinants of the virus – which occur […] Continue reading ->