Speaking during a tour by WHO’s Director General of Cape Town’s new mRNA vaccine R&D hub that replicated the Moderna COVID vaccine, South Africa’s Health Minister affirms support for the continental-wide medicines regulatory authority.  CAPE TOWN  – South Africa’s Health Minister signalled that his country intends to join the African Medicines Agency – but that […] Continue reading ->
A partnership between Africa CDC and MasterCard Foundation, which has included visits to countries with model vaccination programmes, such as Rwanda and Morocco, is making a difference to other African countries facing challenges in getting jabs into arms.   That and other measures aimed at supporting more rapid African roll out of COVID-19 vaccines are proving […] Continue reading ->
The BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron is now the dominant COVID-19 variant in South Africa, the head of Africa’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed on Thursday – raising questions about whether the continued global creep of the new SARS-CoV2 sub-variant could dash hopes of a much-needed COVID-19 reprieve. “We have data from South […] Continue reading ->
While China’s rigorous management of virus risks at home has received considerable attention, particularly as it hosts the 2022 winter Olympics, it’s massive vaccine effort abroad has been underreported. In fact, as of end 2021, Beijing had supplied more COVID vaccines to low- and middle-income countries than the WHO co-sponsored COVAX facility.  Against the constant […] Continue reading ->
As Afghanistan’s fragile health system battles for survival, hard-earned gains of the past 20 years in the tenacious battle against polio are under threat. But on a hopeful note, the new Taliban regime has just launched its first national polio vaccine campaign – reversing years of opposition to the life-saving intervention.  Afghanistan witnessed the lowest […] Continue reading ->
Mexico City officials have been dishing out the animal worm treatment, ivermectin, to citizens with COVID-19 – and published a paper in which they apparently attempted to manufacture evidence that the treatment could reduce COVID-19 hospitalisation to justify their actions. The paper was removed from the social science platform, SocArXiv, last week for trying to provide […] Continue reading ->