Four more African countries will be introducing pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) into their routine immunization schedules – as other countries across Africa said they would ramp up and revitalize childhood vaccination programmes that were hit hard by the COVID pandemic. In commitments announced this week at the 2nd Global Forum on Childhood Pneumonia in Madrid […] Continue reading ->
Gaya Gamhewage, the agency’s lead official in prevention and response to sexual misconduct, describes WHO’s recent moves to bring justice to DRC’s victims. In a long-awaited move, the World Health Organization (WHO) is preparing to share files with the Congolese courts on the sexual exploitation and abuse complaints of 13 women who are pursuing criminal […] Continue reading ->
CAPE TOWN – The most advanced biomedical research centre on the African continent has opened in South Africa, boasting state-of-the-art research and training facilities. Stellenbosch University’s Biomedical Research Institute (BMRI) houses over 500 researchers who are examining the genetic and biomolecular basis for diseases afflicting Africans – including Professor Tuilo De Oliveira, renowned for decoding […] Continue reading ->
KIGOMA, Tanzania – Mary Akile is still harbouring emotional suffering four years after a rape attack that inflicted both physical pain and untold mental anguish. “I still remember how the attackers invaded my house and raped me, one after another,” says Akile, her voice cracking as she recalled the harrowing ordeal during April 2019 at […] Continue reading ->
The United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has called on Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni not to promulgate the Anti-Homosexuality Act his country’s Parliament passed on Tuesday night. Describing the Act as “probably among the worst of its kind in the world”, Türk said that, “if signed into law by the president, it […] Continue reading ->
Eight more countries in the global south have dangerously low numbers of healthcare workers in the wake of the COVID pandemic, a new WHO report has found. The World Health Organization’s 2023 report on “Health workforce support and safeguards” found that some 55 countries now rank below the global median in terms of their density […] Continue reading ->
Millions of African girls are married before they turn 18, while others suffer female genital mutilation (FGM) and a multitude of preventable conditions, the closing plenary of the Africa Health Agenda International Conference (AHAIC) heard on Wednesday. The plenary promised “bold and honest conversations” about the “backsliding on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR)” […] Continue reading ->
Respiratory infections contracted in early childhood nearly double the risk of dying prematurely from respiratory diseases as an adult, according to a new study published in The Lancet. The study followed a British cohort of over 3,500 people from their births in 1946, and then again between the ages of 26 and 73 years of […] Continue reading ->
No date has yet been set for the recently-elected Director General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) Jean Kaseya to take over his new tasks, said acting director Dr Ahmed Ogwell Ouma on Thursday. But he promised that the transition period would be a smooth one, saying: “After the decision by […] Continue reading ->
By the time you finish reading this article, at least two women will have died from complications in pregnancy or childbirth. In the next 24 hours, another 798 will lose their lives. Nearly all of these women will be from low-and lower middle-income countries, and nearly all of their deaths will have been preventable. These […] Continue reading ->