Following news that Sanofi, a French pharma company, will abandon its promising mRNA COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) called for the corporation to transfer the vaccine technology and know-how to the WHO-led COVID-19 mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub in South Africa. Despite the existence of two approved mRNA vaccines and 13 candidates in advanced stages […] Continue reading ->
New statistics from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance show that routine immunisation programmes have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the latest data shows that there is extraordinary resilience in immunisation systems, with governments’ efforts to keep childhood vaccinations going despite the impact of the pandemic paying dividends. In the face of the pandemic, […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization published the latest edition of its Model Lists of Essential Medicines (EML) on Friday, making a sweeping move this time to include long-lasting insulin analogues as essential drugs that national health systems should incorporate into their services. The decision reverses the EML Expert Committee’s 2019 decision, rejecting the inclusion of insulin […] Continue reading ->
IBADAN – Following new travel policies that discriminate against vaccinated travellers from African countries, as compared to their European, Asian and Middle Eastern counterparts, African health officials have demanded clarifications, and accused the UK government of potentially festering vaccine hesitancy on the continent. A British government’ plan to drop a 10-day quarantine requirement for fully-vaccinated […] Continue reading ->
A WHO independent commission concluded that 83 emergency responders to DR-Congo’s 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak, including some 21 WHO employees and consultants, had likely abused dozens of Congolese women, obtaining sex in exchange for promises of jobs – also raping nine women outright. But the panel’s findings, which validate reports first published in September 2020 in […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) aims to eliminate bacterial meningitis by 2030, primarily by increasing access to vaccinations and treatment. This emerged at Tuesday’s launch of the first-ever global ‘roadmap’ to tackle the disease, which causes inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord, mainly as a result of infection from bacteria […] Continue reading ->
As Africa waits for COVID-19 vaccines promised by the US and other countries to arrive, the continent’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) plans to scale up antigen testing to identify and address pandemic hotspots. “We are only at 4% vaccination rate, which means we have to continue to advance basic public health tools at our […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Gheybreyesus and French President Emmanuel Macron today broke ground at the launch of the first WHO Academy in the French city of Lyon. The Academy fulfills a commitment by the two leaders to make WHO training more widely available to member states, and more systematically offered […] Continue reading ->
US President Joe Biden has reaped praise for convening a Global COVID-19 Summit on the margins of this year’s United Nations General Assembly that placed vaccine shortfalls in low- and middle-income countries front and center of GA debates. But it remains to be seen if the big commitments repeated once more this week can break […] Continue reading ->
ISLAMABAD – Prior to the dwindling of foreign aid, a network of hundreds of Afghan midwives was delivering much-needed support to women at their doorsteps in the devastated nation that now faces breakdown. Now, as Afghanistan grapples with the freeze of its assets in international institutions and shortages of foreign funds with the rise to […] Continue reading ->
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