Tanzanian ‘hero rats’ storm medical science with spot-on TB diagnosis, explosive detection
In sub-Saharan Africa, only about half of TB patients receive a diagnosis, according to a study by researchers in the UK and Gambia published in the National Library of Medicine, and this leaves them liable to spread the disease. Tanzania struggles with one of the highest global TB burdens, according to the WHO.
New malaria drug Coartem Baby set for rollout in East and West Africa after successful trials in Uganda
Africa’s 1.5 billion people accounted for 95 per cent of an estimated 597,000 malaria deaths worldwide in 2023, according to the WHO. More than three-quarters of those deaths were among children.
In Uganda, an east African country of 45 million people, there were 12.6 million malaria cases and nearly 16,000 deaths in 2023. Many were children younger than five and pregnant women, according to WHO.
WHO faces uncertain future as US accuses it of being ‘mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest’
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the WHO capitulated to pressure from the Chinese government by promoting “the fiction that Covid originated from bats or pangolins, rather than from Chinese government-sponsored research at a biolab in Wuhan,” Kennedy said, in a reference to the lab-leak theory of Covid-19’s origin.
Emergent to donate 50,000 vaccine doses to address mpox outbreak in Africa
The Democratic Republic of the Congo hopes to receive its first doses of an mpox vaccine next week, following promises from Japan and the United States to help fight its outbreak.
Experts scramble for answers in wake of rapid rise in cancer incidence in younger people
The cancer trend has also caught the attention of health organisations worldwide, including the World Health Organization, which in February predicted a 77 per cent rise in new cancer cases – from 20 million cases in 2022 to over 35 million cases by 2050.
UN health agency convenes experts to assess if mpox outbreak in Africa is a global emergency
Officials at the Africa CDC said nearly 70 per cent of cases in Congo are in children younger than 15, who also accounted for 85 per cent of deaths. Mpox was reported last week in Burundi and Rwanda for the first time while other countries including Kenya and the Central African Republic also identified cases.
WHO chief Ghebreyesus convenes emergency committee to assess threats posed by mpox outbreak
An emergency committee is made up of international experts who provide technical advice and recommendations to the WHO chief about whether a disease outbreak is a “public health emergency of international concern” – the agency’s highest level of alert. The final decision is made by the director general.
