Africa

Discovering the origins of HIV

‘The chimp and the river’, by David Quammen.…

Countries to explore pooled procurement of vaccines to reduce costs

The World Health Assembly, the decision making body of the World Health Organization, has passed resolution that aims to improve the affordability and accessibility of vaccines. …

Tackling anaemia with iron fish

Anaemia is the most common nutritional problem in the world. Adding a fish-shaped piece of iron to cooking pots has helped to tackle the problem in Cambodia.…

Video microscope to avert life-threatening serious adverse drug reaction

A new smartphone-based microscope can help to identify the presence of one species of parasitic worm when a patient is being treated for another, to help prevent drug complications.…

New costly treatments for hepatitis C and cancer added to WHO essential drug list

The World Health Organization has added new costly treatments for hepatitis C, cancer and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis to its updated Model List of Essential Medicines, opening the way for potentially improved access at affordable prices by patients worldwide. …

WHO declares Liberia Ebola free

Liberia is free from Ebola, the World Health Organization announced on 9 May 2015.…

Malaria vaccine is less effective than hoped, clinical trial shows

The first candidate malaria vaccine to reach phase III clinical trials is not as effective at protecting young African children against the disease as was hoped, according to results of the RTS,S clinical trial.…

Global vaccination efforts must be stepped up to break the chain of preventable diseases

Getting vaccination rates back on track must be prioritised at a global level to stop further outbreaks of preventable diseases.…

Gates Foundation aims to cut drug registration times by 50% in sub-Saharan Africa by 2018

Speeding up the time it takes to register drugs, vaccines and diagnostics in low and middle income countries is a key strategy for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.…

Ebola vaccine based on 2014 virus strain is safe, trial shows

Chinese researchers have developed a recombinant adenovirus type-5 vector-based Ebola vaccine shown to be safe and “robustly immunogenic” in a phase I study.…