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Sep162022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

JOHN NKENGASONG awarded the international 2022 VIRCHOW PRIZE for Global Health

Global Health

JOHN NKENGASONG awarded the international 2022 VIRCHOW PRIZE for Global Health Virchow Prize Committee has selected the inaugural laureate. The first Virchow Prize, held under the High Patronage of the German Federal President, is endowed with €500,000. Following a nomination phase and thorough selection process, the Virchow Prize Committee has reached a decision to award the 2022 Virchow Prize for Global Health to Dr John N. Nkengasong. The Virchow Prize for Global Health is a prestigious, international award which honours laureates for their lifetime achievements towards health for all. Most importantly, these accomplishments must align and uphold the United Nations 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Born in Cameroon, Dr Nkengasong has over thirty years ...

Sep112022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

New malaria vaccine is world-changing, say scientists

Communicable Diseases

GHealth News - A malaria vaccine with "world-changing" potential has been developed by scientists at the University of Oxford. The team expect it to be rolled out next year after trials showed up to 80% protection against the deadly disease. Crucially, say the scientists, their vaccine is cheap and they already have a deal to manufacture more than 100 million doses a year. The charity Malaria No More said recent progress meant children dying from malaria could end "in our lifetimes". It has taken more than a century to develop effective vaccines as the malaria parasite, which is spread by mosquitoes, is spectacularly complex and elusive. It is a constantly moving target, shifting forms inside the body, which make it hard to immunise against. Last year, the World Health Organ...

Sep22022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

China Locks Down 21 Million People in Chengdu After COVID Outbreak

COVID19

GHealth News - About 21 million people in the Chinese city of Chengdu have gone into lockdown as authorities raced to snuff out a new Covid-19 outbreak. China is the last major economy wedded to a zero-Covid policy, stamping out virus flare-ups with snap shutdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines. Chengdu, in the south-west, became the latest city to announce a shutdown, saying in an official notice that residents must “stay home in principle” from 6pm on Thursday to combat a new wave of infections. Each household will be allowed to send one person out to buy groceries and essential goods per day, provided they have tested negative in the previous 24 hours, the notice said. It said all residents would be tested for the virus between Thursday and Sunday, and urged them not ...

Aug212022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

FDA authorizes emergency use for Novavax Covid-19 vaccine for ages 12 to 17

COVID19

GHealth News - Biotechnology company Novavax announced on Friday that its Covid-19 vaccine has been authorized for emergency use by the U.S Food and Drug Administration for adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17. In July, Novavax’s two-dose Covid-19 vaccine for adults ages 18 and over got its emergency approval from the FDA. Having more vaccine options for adults and children will “hopefully help increase vaccination rates, particularly as we prepare for ongoing surges of Covid-19 with the start of fall and the back-to-school season,” Stanley C. Erck, president and CEO of Novavax, said in a statement. Novavax was one of the original participants in the U.S. government’s race to develop a Covid vaccine in 2020, receiving $1.8 billion in taxpayer funding from Operation Warp Speed...

Aug202022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

Egypt to launch award for confronting climate change in Africa

Climate Change

Sharm El-Sheikh Ghealth News - Egypt’s Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad attended the signing of a trilateral MoU between the ministry’s Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA), the Industrial Modernisation Centre (IMC), and the Association for Sustainable Quality of Living (Estidama) to launch the award, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The award is meant to encourage sectors and stakeholders to follow an ecofriendly approach and mitigate the effects of climate change, the ministry noted. It will also encourage stakeholders to apply innovation-based initiatives in science and technology to support the measures to combat climate change and achieve the sustainable development goals, the ministry added. The award will be presented to the winners during the C...

Aug92022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

Taking Insights To Action To Promote Global Health: Creating Successful Partnerships

Global Health

By: Malcolm Quigley Within the field of strategic partnerships, we come across multiple different ways in which we can deliver on our goals. Sometimes we can see a clear path forward, and other times the path is a lot more complex. It’s a bit like how we navigate city streets. In some cities, we can follow a numbered and alphabetized system, but streets in other cities are name-based. Indeed, some cities use both systems. On top of that, there are multiple ways to travel through the cities that are also based on the naming conventions. It can be very confusing and seem unstructured for anyone who is fully accustomed to one system or the other. It is certainly the case in strategic partnerships that we sometimes have a straightforward route to the end goal, but in others, the jour...

Jul242022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

WHO declares global health emergency over monkeypox outbreak

Global Health

GHealth News - The rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak represents a global health emergency, the World Health Organization's highest level of alert, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Saturday. The WHO label - a "public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC)" - is designed to trigger a coordinated international response and could unlock funding to collaborate on sharing vaccines and treatments. Members of an expert committee that met on Thursday to discuss the potential recommendation were split on the decision, with nine members against and six in favour of the declaration, prompting Tedros himself to break the deadlock, he told reporters. "Although I am declaring a public health emergency of international concern, for the moment this is an outbre...

Jul202022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

Record 40°C UK temperatures linked to climate change: WMO

Climate Change

The heat soared in the morning - with temperatures hitting a record 40.2C by 12:50 BST GHealth News - In a statement, the WMO noted that the UK’s Met Office has, for the first time, issued a “Red Warning” for exceptional heat, and forecast temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) on Monday and Tuesday. The current record high temperature in the UK is 38.7 degrees Celsius, which was reached just three years ago. ‘Widespread impacts on people and infrastructure’ “Nights are also likely to be exceptionally warm, especially in urban areas”, said Met Office Chief Meteorologist Paul Gundersen. “This is likely to lead to widespread impacts on people and infrastructure. Therefore, it is important people plan for the heat and consider changing their routines. This level...

Jul152022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

WHO says COVID-19 remains a global health emergency

COVID19

GHealth News - The World Health Organization said that COVID-19 remains a global emergency, nearly 2-1/2 years after it was first declared. The Emergency Committee, made up of independent experts, said in a statement that rising cases, ongoing viral evolution and pressure on health services in a number of countries meant that the situation was still an emergency. Cases reported to WHO had risen by 30% in the last fortnight, although increased population immunity, largely from vaccines, had seen a "decoupling" of cases from hospitalisations and deaths, the committee's statement said. "COVID-19 is nowhere near over," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference from Geneva after the announcement. "As the virus pushes at us, we must push back." T...

Jul112022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

MIT scientists think they’ve discovered how to fully reverse climate change

Climate Change

GHealth News - Scientists at MIT think they may have finally found a way to reverse climate change. Or, at the least, help ease it some. The idea revolves heavily around the creation and deployment of several thin film-like silicon bubbles. The “space bubbles” as they refer to them, would be joined together like a raft. Once expanded in space it would be around the same size as Brazil. The bubbles would then provide an extra buffer against the harmful solar radiation that comes from the Sun. The goal with these new “space bubbles” would be to ease up or even reverse climate change. The Earth has seen rising temperatures over the past several centuries. In fact, NASA previously released a gif detailing how the global temperature has changed over the years. Now, we’re seeing ...