NEW DELHI – Reversing decades of negative messages, the World Health Organisation is once again endorsing the use of X-rays as a TB screening tool in lower-income countries – this time in conjunction with the use of new artificial intelligence programmes that can read digital x-rays and identify suspected TB cases more accurately. For community-level […] Continue reading ->
In a decisive act of global solidarity, Norway has offered almost a third of its allocation of COVAX vaccines to poorer countries, according to Dag-Inge Ulstein, Norway’s Minister of International Development. Norway has only fully vaccinated about 5% of its population – 260,000 people – and unlike many other European countries, it has not stockpiled […] Continue reading ->
Syria needs $US 78-million to vaccinate 20% of its population against COVID-19 by the end of this year, and its pandemic response is being challenged by a worsening humanitarian crises in the country, including continued attacks on health care facilities. This is according to Akjemal Magtymova, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative in Syria, who […] Continue reading ->
For the fifth week in a row, global COVID-19 cases have increased, with substantial increases in South-East Asia (49%) and the Western Pacific (29%), according to the World Health Organization (WHO). India is driving up numbers in South-East Asia, while the Philippines and Papua New Guinea are responsible for the Western Pacific increases, according to […] Continue reading ->
COVID has highlighted deep-seated weaknesses in urban water and sanitation systems that are vital to health – but the pandemic has also underlined how improvements can hit back at the SARS-CoV2 virus – as well as reducing other traditional waterborne diseases. That was a key message at a seminar Monday on “Water and Sanitation in […] Continue reading ->
In news that should be reassuring for skeptics, the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine was found to be 79% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and 100% effective against severe disease and hospitalization in results of a late-stage clinical trial, published today by the pharma company. What’s more, analysis of safety results by an independent board found no […] Continue reading ->
NAIROBI – The Kenyan government issued a directive in mid-February this year requiring the tobacco industry to register all nicotine products as tobacco products – but the industry has yet to comply. This follows the decision by the Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Mutahi Kagwe, to declare “nicotine pouches” illegal, thus overturning a […] Continue reading ->
Developers of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine have entered into a partnership with Stelis Biopharma, an India-based drugmaker, to produce 200 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Stelis is now the latest addition to the global production network for Sputnik V. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the company responsible for marketing the Sputnik vaccine abroad, […] Continue reading ->
Mayors from three capital cities in the global south have appealed for speedy “technology transfer” to enable them to produce their own COVID-19 vaccines at Friday’s World Health Organization (WHO) bi-weekly COVID-19 media briefing. The mayors’ appeal comes on the eve of a meeting next week between WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and […] Continue reading ->
One of the unquantified side effects (or health impacts) of the pandemic has been in a place few people cared to look very deeply – that is our mouths. For significant parts of the past year, dentists’ chairs in many offices around the world sat empty – as COVID-19 disrupted routine dental treatments. During the early […] Continue reading ->