For emerging global health professionals from the world’s “south,” choosing whether to focus their energy on local issues or on international challenges is always a dilemma, Chief Planetary Health Scientist of Sunway Centre for Planetary Health in Malaysia Renzo Guinto argues. “One important crossroad that I’ve encountered is tension on whether I stay in the […] Continue reading ->
Some of the biggest obstacles to expanded vaccines coverage in the world’s poorest and most conflict-ridden nations are lack of cold chain storage, unpredictable supply chains, and transport barriers, not claims of “vaccine hesitancy” in the Global South, according to a new report. The picture of the steep challenges faced by 14 nations during the […] Continue reading ->
Another COVID rerun: WHO and Africa CDC officials lament the complete lack of access to monkeypox vaccines on the continent where the virus is endemic – as well as often more deadly than elsewhere. Meanwhile, Mozambique and Malawi have seen a total of six wild poliovirus cases, although WHO officials continue to insist that since […] Continue reading ->
The global number of weekly new cases of monkeypox reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) declined by 21% for the first time since the infection that has been endemic to central and west Africa began to appear around the world earlier this year. Cases continued rising sharply in the Americas, however, in contrast to […] Continue reading ->
Ministers and government officials took on noncommunicable diseases, sickle cell disease, health system reforms in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and measures to fight tuberculosis among children in Africa during their meeting of the 72nd WHO Regional Committee for Africa this week. In an effort to curb Africa’s chronic disease crisis, African health ministers adopted […] Continue reading ->
Pfizer’s COVID-19 oral antiviral Paxlovid was found to reduce the mortality rate among people over the age of 65 by 81% in a new Israeli study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. However, the study also found no significant benefit of the drug in patients aged 64 and younger. It is the […] Continue reading ->
Six months into the Ukraine war, the World Health Organization warns that the nation’s battered but “still-resilient” health system is facing “severe challenges and shortages in many areas” that must be dealt with as the nation prepares for a challenging winter. WHO officials marked the half-year point in the war, which coincided with Ukraine’s Independence […] Continue reading ->
The Omicron-targeted boosters are coming. Almost 250 days since Omicron became the dominant variant in the US, Pfizer and BioNTech on Monday officially announced that they’ve requested an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the US Food and Drug Administration for their booster dose of an Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent vaccine for those 12 and older. The […] Continue reading ->
A new case of Ebola has been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s eastern province of North Kivu, prompting health authorities to declare a resurgence of the deadly virus, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Tuesday. WHO announced that health authorities confirmed a 46-year-old woman died of the disease on 15 August […] Continue reading ->
A first-of-its-kind survey examining the side effects of the monkeypox vaccine in Israel found that the majority of recipients had no general symptoms. “Most of the side effects reported by the vaccinated are local and mild, which in most cases pass within one to three days,” said Miri Mizrahi Reuveni, Deputy CEO and Head of […] Continue reading ->