Global health

Silica cages could keep vaccines intact without need for ‘cold chain’

Ensilication enables protein-based substances to withstand heat of up to 100ºC and still function as normal.…

Q&A: How to ensure access to essential medicines for those in low and middle-income countries

Andy Gray and Hans Hogerzeil, co-chairs of the The Lancet Commission on Essential Medicines, discuss the analysis on the cost of providing essential medicines to people in low and middle-income countries.…

Live malaria vaccine effective in human trial

Injecting healthy volunteers with sporozoites from malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum offered successful protection against injected malaria ten weeks after final dose.…

A breakthrough in lowering the price of vaccines to increase access to children

Shanelle Hall from UNICEF discusses the breakthrough pentavalent vaccine three-year tender with six vaccine suppliers.…

WHO lists bacteria that need to be targeted for antibiotic development

The World Health Organization has drawn up a list of families of bacteria that pose the greatest risk to human health and which should be targeted by drug companies when developing new antibiotics.…

Sprays do better than devices in repelling mosquitoes

Sprays containing DEET (N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide) or PMD (p-menthane-3,8-diol) are more effective at repelling the mosquito species that spreads Zika, chikungunya, yellow fever and dengue than other types of products on the market, a study has found.…

Global pharmacist body wants strategies to boost safe medicine use

Governments and pharmacy organisations should introduce national medicines information strategies to improve the safe and effective use of medicines, according to a report by the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP).…

Pharmacy needs global professional standards for education and workforce development

Catherine Duggan, director of professional development at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and Ian Bates, education adviser to the RPS English Pharmacy Board, discuss the importance of developing a global standard of education and training for pharmacists.…

Vaccine coalition launched to tackle emerging global health threats

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations — which will fund the research and development of vaccines to prevent emerging infectious diseases — was launched at the World Economic Forum 2017 annual general meeting in Davos, Switzerland.…

Q&A: WHO director-general candidates’ views on global health

Six candidates in the race to be director-general of the World Health Organization outline their priorities and vision for global health.…