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 ->
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 ->
African nations need to pivot to prevention in their fight against disease by “addressing its root causes” through a greater focus on improved diets, healthier environments, and better road safety, among other factors, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the 72nd WHO Regional Committee for Africa meeting, at the opening of the weeklong session of […] Continue reading ->
Ethiopia’s Tigray region suffers from “the worst catastrophe on Earth” due to a devastating mix of factors such as government neglect, drought, and racism, World Health Organization Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press briefing Wednesday. Tedros grew emotional at the end of the briefing as he described the humanitarian crisis facing […] Continue reading ->
Nigeria began imposing a new tax on sugar-sweetened beverages on 1 June, but the aim of using the money raised to help curb the growing rates of obesity, diabetes and other diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) faces a host of challenges including a multibillion-dollar industry. IBADAN, Nigeria – Working for long hours under a scorching sun, […] Continue reading ->
The United States is considering shifting to intradermal injections of Monkeypox vaccine that could potentially stretch one dose of the approved MVA-BN vaccine, available only in limited quantities, into five doses, said US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf on Thursday. He was speaking at a press briefing minutes after Xavier Becerra, US Secretary […] Continue reading ->
Africa recorded the world’s highest gain in healthy life expectancy over the past decade. But the lack of sustainable finance for health systems is a major threat to the gains recorded. Africa recorded the world’s highest growth in healthy life expectancy—or the number of years an individual is in a good state of health—between 2000 […] Continue reading ->
In light of an unprecedented food crisis in the Horn of Africa, the World Health Organization has launched a $123.7 million funding appeal for urgently needed supplies to treat severe malnutrition and related health conditions. Driven by conflict, changes in climate and the COVID-19 pandemic, this largely arid Eastern African region of some 2 million […] Continue reading ->
Twelve African nations have joined with the United Nations and other international organizations in forming a new alliance that will work to prevent new infant HIV infections and to ensure no child living with HIV is denied treatment by the end of the decade. Proponents of the new Global Alliance for Ending AIDS in Children […] Continue reading ->
In a global first – over 25,000 people in South Sudan have been vaccinated in the world’s first mass vaccination campaign to contain an outbreak of hepatitis E, a disease especially fatal for pregnant women. The outbreak occurred in Bentiu, the largest internally displaced persons camp in South Sudan. Outbreaks of hepatitis E have been […] Continue reading ->