infectious diseases

Congo to receive first mpox vaccines to address outbreak; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi  Congo will receive the first vaccine doses to address its mpox outbreak this week from the United States, the country’s health minister said last week, days after the World Health Organization declared mpox outbreaks in Africa a global emergency. https://apnews.com/article/congo-mpox-vaccine-united-states-emergency-8490a15ed4937bfab9477529302f0469  Mpox cases have been […]

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mpox declared public health emergency of international concern; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi  The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern. Cases of mpox — previously called monkeypox — have been surging in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In recent weeks, cases have appeared in nearby African

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Africa CDC to declare mpox as Public Health Emergency of Continental Security; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi  In what would be an unprecedented move, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) says the organization will “most likely” declare a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS) this week because of the rapid

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New HIV prevention medication gains standing ovation at AIDS 2024 conference; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi  It’s rare for scientists to get a standing ovation for presenting their data. But after South African researcher Linda-Gail Bekker finished her talk about an HIV prevention trial at the AIDS 2024 conference in Munich last week, the audience stood up

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Traces of poliovirus found in Gaza; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi Children in the Gaza Strip are facing a grave new threat: paralysis by poliovirus. Traces of the virus, derived from vaccine using a live but weakened strain, have been found in six wastewater samples from two sites there, Gaza’s Ministry of

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France Hosts AVMA in hopes of driving African vaccine production; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi In June, France hosted the launch of African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA), an approximately US$1 billion project geared towards making vaccines more available in Africa – away from African soil. www.independent.co.ug/africa-races-to-increase-vaccine-manufacturing-capacity-concerns-rise-over-europes-control/  Only 2% of vaccines in Africa are made on the

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Counterfeit Ozempic found in multiple countries; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi  The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported on three counterfeit batches of Ozempic that were discovered in late 2023 in Brazil, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with an unknown number of unreported cases. www.medscape.com/viewarticle/who-warns-against-counterfeit-ozempic-europe-and-united-2024a1000caq?  Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer, has

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New HIV prevention trial indicates 100% protection; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi Researchers and activists in the trenches of the long fight against HIV got a rare piece of exciting news last week: Results from a large clinical trial in Africa showed that a twice-yearly injection of a new antiviral drug gave young

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US FDA announces autumn COVID-19 strategy; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week endorsed a strategy for a COVID-19 vaccine to be used this autumn that favours a composition different from one recently recommended by an agency advisory committee. The continuing evolution of SARS-CoV-2 makes

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Polio’s last strongholds continue to cause issue; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has been struggling in Africa with large outbreaks spawned by the polio vaccine itself, which is made of live but weakened poliovirus. But the program at least had the wild virus on the run, driving

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