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How trying to copy a COVID vaccine changes the outlook for African countries

How trying to copy a COVID vaccine changes the outlook for African countries

THE World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced the first six African countries that will receive technology to produce messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. This comes off the back of the news that a South African consortium – part of the WHO’s technology transfer hub set up in 2021– had successfully replicated Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. Ina Skosana spoke to Professor Kelly Chibale about the significance of the replication of the vaccine and what the next steps are. Author KELLY CHIBALE, Professor of Organic Chemistry, Neville Isdell Chair in African-centric Drug Discovery & Development, and Director of the Holistic Drug Discovery and Development…
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Like COVID, TB is a pandemic and must be treated as an emergency

Like COVID, TB is a pandemic and must be treated as an emergency

IN 1993, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared tuberculosis (TB) a global public health emergency. It urged nations to coordinate efforts to avert millions of deaths. Author RICHARD E. CHAISSON, Director, Center for Tuberculosis Research, Johns Hopkins University In January 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19, another airborne infectious disease, a public health emergency of international concern. The similarity between the global responses to these two pandemics ends there. The scientific, public health, medical, and pharmaceutical communities’ responses to COVID-19 in the past two years has been spectacular. Within two weeks of declaring COVID-19 a global emergency, the WHO had convened…
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Children and screens – making it through the holidays

Children and screens – making it through the holidays

IT comes as no surprise that children are spending more time watching screens as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents and caregivers in many parts of the world – including South Africa, where I have done research on children’s healthy behaviours – have had a hard time managing their children’s screen time in these last two years. Juggling working-from-home commitments, online educational activities, economic challenges, and illness and grief have been realities, to varying extents, across most households. Screen time can offer a welcome relief when it has all become too difficult to manage. Author CATHERINE DRAPER, Associate Professor,…
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Diabetes targets would cost more but the impact would be worth it: here’s how

Diabetes targets would cost more but the impact would be worth it: here’s how

SETTING global health targets, which is often done by multinational organisations, such as the United Nations or World Health Organisation (WHO), is commonly used to improve health outcomes. For example, the United Nations target to improve access to treatment for HIV has resulted in many more people receiving the treatment that they need, which has saved lives. JUSTINE INA DAVIES, Professor of Global Health, Institute for Applied Research, University of Birmingham DAVID FLOOD, Research Fellow, University of Michigan JENNIFER MANNE-GOEHLER, Research Fellow in Medicine, Harvard University SANJAY BASU, Director of Research, Center for Primary Care, Harvard Medical School Now, the…
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17 EU members support Tedros for WHO 2nd term

17 EU members support Tedros for WHO 2nd term

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY TEDROS Adhanom Ghebreyesus has gained wide support for a second term as head of the World Health Organisation, formally nominated by at least 17 European Union members and backed by countries in other regions, according to diplomats. As the deadline for nominations elapsed, diplomats said that they were unaware of any other names being put forward, suggesting that Tedros will stand unopposed in the May election. Tedros, a former health and foreign minister of Ethiopia, elected as WHO's first African director-general in May 2017, has led the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. He has steered the U.N.…
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Germany seeks backing for Tedros at WHO helm as Africa quiet – diplomats

Germany seeks backing for Tedros at WHO helm as Africa quiet – diplomats

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY, ANDREAS RINKE and GUILIA PARAVICINI GERMANY is seeking support from other European Union members to ensure a second term for Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the helm of the World Health Organisation, but African states have yet to show their cards, government sources and diplomats said. The deadline for proposing candidates in the politically charged race is Thursday at 1600 GMT and no other candidate for the election in May is known to have surfaced, they said. Tedros, who was elected as WHO's first African director-general in May 2017, has been shunned this time by his native Ethiopia due…
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Breastfeeding trends show most developing countries may miss global nutrition targets

Breastfeeding trends show most developing countries may miss global nutrition targets

EXCLUSIVE breastfeeding, the practice of giving only breast milk (no other food or water), is the ideal for an infant’s first six months. Breast milk contains all the essential nutrients an infant needs at this stage. DR DICKSON AMUGSI, Associate Research Scientist, African Population and Health Research Center Research has illuminated the longer-term health benefits of exclusive breastfeeding for the mother and child. These benefits include reducing the risk of overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence and certain non-communicable diseases later in life and enhancing human capital in adulthood. Additionally, breastfeeding reduces the risk of breast and ovarian cancers,…
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‘New variant does not seem to be spreading’

‘New variant does not seem to be spreading’

A new coronavirus variant that was first detected in South Africa in May does not appear to be spreading, the World Health Organisation has said, adding it was monitoring the variant as the virus evolves. "It does not appear to be increasing in circulation," WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris told a U.N. briefing, adding the variant labelled C.1.2. was not currently classified as a "variant of concern" by the U.N. health agency.
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Keep the politics out of scientific pursuit for COVID-19 origin

Keep the politics out of scientific pursuit for COVID-19 origin

ABBEY MAKOE LEADING political elites in South Africa have joined a chorus of global scientists by expressing public support for the People’s Republic of China’s efforts to keep politics out of the Covid-19 origin-tracing studies. The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) in a joint study with the Chinese health authorities launched a 34-member team of experts from around the world to investigate the actual origins of SARS-Cov-2. The study followed repeated unsubstantiated claims in some sections of the Western media that the Covid-19 virus first emerged through a leak in a Wuhan laboratory in China. In March this year, the joint…
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This is no time to neglect hepatitis – 70 million Africans are infected

This is no time to neglect hepatitis – 70 million Africans are infected

IN 2016, the World Health Organisation (WHO) set an ambitious target to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030. This was followed by commitments from governments – including African countries – to develop national strategic plans for viral hepatitis and earmark resources to eliminate the disease. PAULINE BAKIBINGA, Associate Research Scientist, African Population and Health Research Center Hepatitis results in the inflammation of the liver. There are different forms of hepatitis – A, B, C, D and E – each attributed to a different type of virus. Unfortunately, most people who have the most serious forms of the disease, particularly the B…
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