America’s most-respected public health guru, Dr Anthony Fauci, said Wednesday that he is “cautiously optimistic’ that at least one COVID-19 vaccine will prove to be safe and effective later this month or next. While warning that “one can never guarantee a safe and effective vaccine… we are cautiously optimistic that we will have one based […] Continue reading ->
Along with recording the most deaths from COVID-19 of any country in the world, the US has ranked highest among leading OECD countries in deaths per capita from the infectious disease, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by researchers from Harvard University and the University of […] Continue reading ->
As the northern hemisphere enters winter, “COVID-19 cases are accelerating, particularly in Europe and North America,” said WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking at a Monday press briefing. In words that echoed warnings from European officials last week, Dr Tedros and WHO’s health emergencies team stressed that governments need to double down on […] Continue reading ->
Two more experimental COVID-19 drugs, including the much-touted Remdesivir, appear to have fallen by the wayside, failing to show significant reductions in mortality among seriously ill patients. Interim results on Remdesivir and three other drug treatments being studied as part of the WHO Solidarity Therapeutics Trial, the world’s largest randomized controlled trial of COVID-19 drugs, […] Continue reading ->
IBADAN, Nigeria – Nearly two years after the Assembly of the African Union, adopted a milestone treaty establishing an African Medicines Agency (AMA) that could provide a more unified approach to regulatory approval of new medicines and vaccines, the AMA treaty is yet to enter into force – because it has not been ratified by […] Continue reading ->
A significant surge in COVID-19 cases is currently taking place across Europe, something that Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, described as the “fall/winter surge” in a press briefing Thursday. Europe has reported its highest weekly number of COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, with nearly 700,000 cases. Even though mortality rates […] Continue reading ->
A safe, proven vaccine for COVID-19 doesn’t yet exist. But the battle for access is heating up. Even as the world struggles to come up with a viable COVID-19 vaccine as well as new treatments, the debate over how to ensure that people around the world can get access to whatever products are available, now […] Continue reading ->
A sweeping proposal by India and South Africa to suspend the protection of intellectual property (IP) related to COVID-19 health products is set to come before the The World Trade Organization’s TRIPS Council this week. The closed door discussion lays the groundwork for what could prove to be the most significant public debate over […] Continue reading ->
The world must take urgent action to end the global tuberculosis epidemic by 2030, especially as the pandemic threatens to unwind hard-won progress made in past decades, concluded the WHO’s 2020 Global Tuberculosis Report on Wednesday. While the WHO European region is on track to achieve key 2020 targets, the rest of the world has […] Continue reading ->
A study confirming the first case of a person reinfected with COVID-19 in the US and the fifth such confirmed case of reinfection worldwide was published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal on Monday. The findings suggest that protected immunity conferred by infection with SARS-CoV2 – a phenomenon that is not well understood yet – […] Continue reading ->