In some of his most forceful remarks to date, WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and other senior WHO officials slammed both Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Ethiopia’s blockade of Tigray for both withholding vital health and humanitarian aid – as well as deliberately targeting civilians or putting them in harms way. Speaking from […] Continue reading ->
Food price hikes, hunger and instability are predicted globally – but particularly in North Africa and the Middle East, which are already in the midst of serious droughts and heavily dependent on Russia and Ukraine for wheat. Bread is the staple food in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt, and the price of wheat had already increased […] Continue reading ->
The current Director of the Africa CDC is a vote away from leading PEPFAR. He unveils his vision for the US-led global HIV/AIDS response and future wishes for the Africa CDC. Dr John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is on track to lead the United States President’s […] Continue reading ->
The world remains fixated on getting new TB vaccines. But expanding the circle of progress on shorter TB regimes, and more early detection, may be more important to overcoming setbacks of the COVID pandemic, says one expert on World TB Day. IBADAN, Nigeria – The Government Chest Hospital in the city’s Jericho neighborhood is regarded […] Continue reading ->
Even while other parts of the world see upticks, or in the case of Asia, huge spikes in COVID-19 cases, an increasing number of African countries are scaling back COVID-19 surveillance and quarantine measures – a trend that the World Health Organization finds worrisome in the continent that still has the lowest rates of vaccination […] Continue reading ->
In the outskirts of Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, just beyond where paved roads transition to dirt, an undiagnosed polio infection paralysed a three-year-old girl. From one day to the next, the child’s life was changed forever. Among Africa’s public health community, we had looked at our successes against wild poliovirus as a cause for optimism. In […] Continue reading ->
Amid rising hunger due to COVID-19, conflict and climate change, the African Union (AU) has declared 2022 as the Year of Nutrition. Before 5am, Nigerian fishermen living in Lagos’s floating slum, Makoko, have paddled their wooden boats several kilometers into the main river for fishing activities. Their harvests are largely influenced by how far out […] Continue reading ->
Women in Africa will feel the disruptive force of the pandemic for many years to come – with upticks in maternal deaths and prolonged disruptions in maternal, child and reproductive health services issues the continent must grapple with now. About 40% of African countries are reporting continued disruptions to sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and […] Continue reading ->
Some thirteen African nations have expressed interest in hosting the new African Medicines Agency, with an AU decision on where to establish the AMA’s headquarters set for July 2022, senior African Union officials say. A decision on a headquarters would also pave the way for the recruitment of a director general for the new AMA […] Continue reading ->
ISLAMABAD – The timing couldn’t have been worse. On the same day that Bill Gates, completed his maiden visit to Pakistan to cheer on the country’s progress towards polio eradication, WHO and Malawi health authorities announced that a small child thousands of kilometers away in Malawi had been ill with polio – infected by a […] Continue reading ->