Measles outbreaks are escalating in large parts of the world thanks to “backsliding” in national immunisation programmes during the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunization warned on Tuesday. “There were 25 million children un- or under-vaccinated in 2021,” said Dr Kate O’Brien, WHO’s director of immunization, […] Continue reading ->
The mRNA Vaccine Technology Transfer Hub in South Africa will start animal studies on its first COVID-19 vaccine candidate in October, a senior World Health Organization official said Wednesday. If all goes according to plan, human clinical trials will begin towards the end of 2023. “We did start this (mRNA vaccine hub) with a longer […] Continue reading ->
The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) has signed a voluntary licence agreement with Japanese pharmaceutical company, Shionogi, to enable generic companies to produce its COVID-19 antiviral treatment pill candidate, provided it gets regulatory approval. The pill, ensitrelvir fumaric acid, has already shown efficacy in a phase 2/ 3 trial involving 1,821 COVID-19 patients from Japan, South […] Continue reading ->
Practices implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as flexible working arrangements and teleworking, could help to reduce work-related mental health challenges, according to a first-ever set of Guidelines on Mental Health at Work released Wednesday by the World Health Organization (WHO). The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a 25% increase in what was already a high percentage […] Continue reading ->
Seventeen-year-old South African Amanda Nkosi* is already a mother and living with HIV – thanks to what she describes as “doing things that teenagers do” without access to accurate health information or contraception. She discovered her HIV status recently when a youth-friendly clinic opened near her home in the coastal city of Durban and offered […] Continue reading ->
Global COVID-19 cases have dropped to their lowest level since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, World Health Organization (WHO) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a media briefing on Wednesday. In the past week alone (5-11 September), the number of new weekly cases decreased by 28% while new weekly deaths decreased by 22%, […] Continue reading ->
TEL AVIV – When Belgian Ann Li got sick with COVID in March 2020, she did not know that the disease would follow her for years. “Even though I’m standing here in front of you looking seemingly healthy, I still suffer the consequences of the initial infection,” she told the audience of a panel devoted […] Continue reading ->
The COVID-19 pandemic delayed plans to vaccinate more than 50 million African children with doses of MenAfriVac, a vaccine designed for the African meningitis belt. That could undo the progress in controlling a lethal form of meningitis in Africa, the World Health Organization warns. Until 12 years ago, meningitis type A made up 90% of […] Continue reading ->
Authorities in China’s southwestern city of Chengdu are sticking to the nation’s “zero-COVID” policy demanding a lockdown on the city’s 21 million inhabitants even in the face of a major earthquake that has killed at least 66 people in the region. Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan province, has been beset by a heatwave and […] Continue reading ->
Although COVID-19 and monkeypox cases are declining globally, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned against complacency on Wednesday. Although COVID-19 cases were down by 80% since February, “last week, one person died with COVID-19 every 44 seconds and most of those those those deaths are avoidable,” said Tedros. “There is no […] Continue reading ->