African leaders, scientists, and activists are mobilizing to address the scientific, political, and social challenges inherent to ending the HIV epidemic. That was the key message as the 20th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) kicked off on Monday in Kigali, Rwanda under the theme, “AIDS-free Africa: Innovation, Community and Political Leadership.” […] Continue reading ->
WHO and its partners have evacuated Ebola response workers in the Biakato Mines Area of the Democratic Republic of Congo following two deadly attacks on Wednesday night that left 4 Congolese staff dead, and 6 staff wounded – including a WHO staff member. The scale back of the Ebola response raises the possibility of a […] Continue reading ->
Efforts to eliminate river blindness, a debilitating parasitic disease that causes vision loss in 1.15 million people, may be threatened by another infection known as African eye worm, according to a modelling study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. While the World Health Organization has set a target to eliminate river blindness in most African countries […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization and African Union have signed a sweeping Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on improving access to medicines, strengthening epidemic preparedness, and expanding universal health coverage across the African continent. These are the three main pillars of the MOU signed Monday by the WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and African Union Chair […] Continue reading ->
The number of Ebola cases per week has plateaued at a low, but consistent, count of 19 per week in the past 21 days, but the violent death of a radio journalist who had won acclaim for his Ebola outreach work has responders remaining vigilant. One Ebola case was also detected this week at a […] Continue reading ->
As the World Health Summit opens Sunday in Berlin, one of the key themes running through the conference will be how industry, government and civil society leaders can collaborate more effectively to build strong health institutions – with a particular focus on building African capacities in a Monday keynote session. This means working across all […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization is not yet ready to declare that the Ebola public health emergency in the Democratic Republic of Congo is over – despite significant recent declines in the pace of new infections. WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday that he did not find it prudent to end the “Public […] Continue reading ->
In August, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) passed a milestone—surpassing 3,000 cases of Ebola since the outbreak began over a year ago. While the number of new infections has since slowed, there continue to be cases in hard to reach areas, posing challenges to response teams. The outbreak response has been complex, with […] Continue reading ->
The risk of future Ebola outbreaks could be greatly reduced by more aggressive climate mitigation measures along with rapid progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, according to a new paper published in Nature Communications. Led by researchers at University College London, the article is the first study to examine the potential effects of global warming […] Continue reading ->
The 1000th Ebola survivor of the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has just celebrated her return home. “Today, amid our unrelenting work to end this tenth outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we celebrate a bright spot, which is actually 1000 bright spots – […] Continue reading ->