New York City. The pandemic has been exacerbated by recent hurricanes in Central America, as a result of outbreaks in overcrowded emergency shelters, as well as travel during the American Thanksgiving season, health leaders said at a Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) press conference. Last week, saw an increase of 1.5 million cases reported in […] Continue reading ->
Far greater investment in global pandemic response is required to ensure that core public health initiatives, like AIDS prevention and treatment aren’t thrown off course by future pandemics, while roll-out of a cheap and accessible “People’s Vaccine” would help get other core public health programmes quickly back on track, UNAIDS has said. In a message […] Continue reading ->
South Africa is campaigning for the World Trade Organization (WTO) to waiver intellectual property rights on all products related to COVID-19 for the duration of the pandemic. Mustaqeem De Gama, Counsellor at the South African Permanent Mission in Geneva, is leading the campaign. Kerry Cullinan and Elaine Fletcher spoke to him about the reasons why […] Continue reading ->
‘Planetary health’ describes how the limits of natural resources like clean air, water and food production shape our long-term health, with climate change as a “threat-multiplier” for future COVID-19 like crises. Experts at the Geneva Health Forum explored the links, ahead of next week’s launch of the 2020 Lancet Countdown Report on Health and Climate […] Continue reading ->
Thirteen African countries and an international network of research institutions have joined forces to launch a multi-country clinical trial of COVID-19 drug treatments in Africa for people who are mild to moderately ill. The new ANTICOV trial, led by the Geneva-based Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) aims to respond to the urgent need to […] Continue reading ->
The vaccine zero hour is approaching. As Norway’s Minister of International Development Dag Ulstein and South Africa’s Minister of Health Zweili Mkhize made yet another urgent plea Monday for some US$4.3 billion right now and another $US23.9 billion in 2021 to massively roll out new COVID19 vaccines, drugs and tests that are now coming on […] Continue reading ->
AstraZeneca, the pharma firm developing a COVID-19 vaccine in collaboration with researchers at Oxford University, announced that its Phase 3 clinical trials had resulted in a 90% efficacy rate for one dosing regime, in interim results released on Monday. The AstraZeneca breakthrough is significant because the vaccine, based on a known vaccine delivery technology, is […] Continue reading ->
This week is World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, marking the fight against the silent and rising global threat of antimicrobial-resistant superbugs. Can patients be part of the solution? This week is the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) when we turn the world’s attention to the growing problem of drug resistant diseases – caused by bacteria, viruses […] Continue reading ->
WHO on Friday issued formal guidelines recommending against the use of remdesivir for COVID-19 patients, based on a lack of evidence that the antiviral drug, developed by Gilead, significantly improves patient outcomes. The recommendation followed publication of trial results on the drug in the The BMJ involving more than 7,000 patients who had been hospitalized […] Continue reading ->
A tier system to assess transmission and public health responses may be able to avoid the economic fallout from long term COVID-19 lockdowns, while combatting transmission of the disease, WHO has said. The European region has recorded over 15.7 million total COVID-19 cases, over 4 million of which occurred in November alone. Europe now accounts […] Continue reading ->