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Malaria

Africa intensifies its efforts to control mpox; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi Researchers and public health officials in Africa are intensifying their battle against mpox, a neglected infectious disease that has circulated for a long time on the continent and suddenly gained notoriety in 2022 when it started to spread rapidly in Europe …

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Malaria vaccine rolled out in Cameroon; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi  After a 60-year quest, childhood malaria vaccinations were administered to infants and toddlers in Cameroon on 22 January, the world’s first routine immunization against the disease.  Remarkably, the RTS,S or Mosquirix, made by GlaxoSmithKline and approved for general use in 2021 …

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COVID-19 surge flying under the radar? The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi  Is a surge of COVID happening? With lots of folks taking at-home tests and not reporting the results, how do we know the data that’s out there is accurate?  “The most reliable data shows that a surge is happening,” says Jeremy Kamil, …

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Malaria vaccine resulted in 13% drop in deaths; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi In a major analysis in Africa, the first vaccine approved to fight malaria cut deaths among young children by 13% over nearly 4 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported last week. Data from a pilot rollout of the vaccine, called …

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Nobel Prize awarded for COVID-19 mRNA vaccine development; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been jointly awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2023/press-release/  The discoveries by the two …

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WHO declares an end to COVID-19 emergency phase; 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) declared an end to the emergency phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, last Friday. The move is likely to usher the world into a new phase of disease monitoring with a scaling back of surveillance and available …

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WHO expands mRNA facilities to South Africa; 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) on Thursday launched its mRNA vaccine technology hub in South Africa’s Cape Town, to help poorer countries struggling to gain access to life-saving medication. www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/who-officially-launches-mrna-vaccine-hub-cape-town-2023-04-20/ In 2021, the WHO picked South African biotech firm Afrigen Biologics …

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Project NextGen to prepare for future pandemics; The latest health stories from around the world

Article by Lalita Panicker, Consulting Editor, Views and Editor, Insight, Hindustan Times, New Delhi President Joe Biden’s administration said this week it plans to spend more than $5 billion to stoke development of better coronavirus vaccines and treatments to curb future pandemics. www.science.org/content/article/news-glance-new-us-coronavirus-research-lab-gears-carbon-cost-repurposed-accelerator? Like Operation Warp Speed, its predecessor during the administration of former President …

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Invasive mosquito species linked to unusual malaria outbreak

Scientists have linked an invasive mosquito to an unusual outbreak of malaria in Ethiopia. Anopheles stephensi, native to southern Asia, was first identified in Africa a decade ago in the Republic of Djibouti, which borders Ethiopia. It has since spread to at least four other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. www.science.org/content/article/unusual-malaria-outbreak-tied-invasive-mosquito? Now, amid lingering questions about whether …

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