COVID-19 and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are combining as a “syndemic” that reinforce each other and disproportionately impact the most vulnerable communities in every country during the pandemic period, said experts at a NCD Alliance panel on Thursday. However, primary health care workers, particularly nurses, who are the backbone of routine NCD responses have been particularly […] Continue reading ->
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the first COVID-19 diagnostic test for self-testing at home and that provides rapid results. The Lucira COVID-19 All-In-One Test Kit is a molecular-based single use test that is intended to detect the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19. “While COVID-19 diagnostic […] Continue reading ->
Médecins Sans Frontières. As the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to derail the global response to tuberculosis (TB), Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called on governments to accelerate testing, treatment, and prevention for TB, and called on donors to provide the financial support needed to ensure increased access to new medical tools for diagnosing and treating […] Continue reading ->
Measles is on the rise globally, with a 50 percent increase in measles deaths from 2016 to 2019 and the highest number of reported cases in two decades, states a new joint report by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization, published on Thursday. The increase […] Continue reading ->
Experts are reluctant to name the increase in COVID-19 cases in African countries a second wave, following lockdown relaxations in South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Angola and Uganda. It is argued that the disease has so far mostly been an urban outbreak in Africa, and what is now being observed is an increasing spread in rural […] Continue reading ->
The close of the World Health Assembly (WHA), Friday, saw the adoption of the first-ever resolution to eliminate meningitis by 2030 – a disease which has its biggest impacts in sub-Saharan Africa, and with a 50 percent fatality rate if left untreated. The closing hours of the WHA also saw the approval of a landmark […] Continue reading ->
Africa is set to establish a plan of preparedness and to compile influenza data sets with the World Health Organisation (WHO), to expand its surveillance of potential flu outbreaks. The African region has also called for the integration of influenza surveillance into an all-inclusive infectious disease surveillance system, and for the creation of a necessary […] Continue reading ->
Rather than hoarding vaccine supplies, rich countries that ensure global access to a new COVID-19 vaccine will pave the way to a larger reduction in pandemic related deaths worldwide, according to a new model developed by the Boston-based Northeastern University. Their findings reinforce the argument the World Health Organization and other global health leaders that […] Continue reading ->
University of Basel. Researchers from Basel and Spain have identified a novel SARS-CoV-2 variant that has spread widely across Europe in recent months, according to an un-peer-reviewed preprint released this week in medRixv. While there is no evidence of this variant being more dangerous, its spread may give insights into the efficacy of travel policies […] Continue reading ->
IPBES Media – Future pandemics will emerge more often, spread more rapidly, do more damage to the world economy and kill more people than COVID-19 – unless there is a transformative change in the global approach to dealing with infectious diseases, warns a major new report on biodiversity and pandemics by 22 leading experts from […] Continue reading ->