Malaria Guide for African Youth Launched By Sharon Atieno The African Union (AU) Commission has launched the first continental conversation guide on malaria for youth in Africa‎. The launch happened during a virtual event hosted by the AIDS Watch Africa Secretariat under the theme: ‎“Strengthening Youth Leadership and Engagement in Policy Dialogue for Malaria ‎‎Elimination […]

Monkeypox : Countries urged to Prepare as 35,000 Cases Reported By Sharon Atieno With more than 35,000 cases reported and 12 deaths in 92 countries and territories, all countries have been urged to get ready for Monkeypox. Speaking during a regular press briefing, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General, World Health Organization (WHO) said. “The […]

Africa: USD$7.4 Mn Initiative for Health Systems, COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake By Joyce Ojanji The Rockefeller foundation has launched the Vaccine Action Network (VAN), a USD$7.4 million locally-led, peer to peer learning initiative to strengthen health systems while scaling up COVID-19 vaccine demand strategies across sub-Saharan Africa. While more than 60 percent of people have been […]

Marburg Virus Outbreak Highly Unlikely to become a Global Pandemic, Expert Says By Mary Hearty The Marburg disease outbreak currently in Ghana is highly unlikely to evolve into a global pandemic like COVID-19 disease because the root cause of transmission is limited. This is according to Dr Michael Owusu, Clinical Microbiologist and a lecturer at the Department […]

Improved Health Systems Increase Africa’s Life Expectancy By Mary Hearty Africa’s life expectancy has increased from 46 years to 56 years in almost ten years, according to World Health Organization (WHO) assessment report titled: Tracking Universal Health Coverage in the WHO African Region. The WHO reports that the extended healthy life expectancy in the continent […]

New Agreements to Lower Prices of TB Prevention Treatment By Willy Ngumbi Two new pricing agreements that will drastically lower the price of tuberculosis (TB) prevention treatments in 138 low- and middle-income countries have been launched. The new agreements led by Unitaid, MedAccess, Aurum Institute and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) aim to make rifapentine-based TB prevention treatment […]

Africa: Increased Efforts Needed towards Acute Kidney Injury in Children By Gift Briton With acute kidney injury (AKI), an emerging public health concern causing suffering and death in almost 6 out of 10 African children having severe malaria, more action is needed to alleviate this suffering. AKI is a kidney complication mostly common in critically ill children and is […]