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Jul82022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

Sleep duration matters for heart health, according to new recommendations

NCDs

GHealth News - If you needed another reason to get enough sleep, here it is: It may help your heart health. The American Heart Association added sleep duration to its cardiovascular health checklist. It's a part of "Life's Essential 8," a questionnaire that measures eight key areas to determine a person's cardiovascular health. The updated list was published Wednesday in Circulation, AHA's peer-reviewed journal, and replaced the association's "Life's Simple 7" questionnaire, which had been used since 2010. In addition to sleep, the new list retained the original categories: diet, physical activity, nicotine exposure, body mass index, blood lipids, blood glucose and blood pressure. Sleep duration made the list after researchers examined new scientific findings over the past...

Jul82022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

Monkeypox symptoms are proving ‘atypical’ and virus could be mistaken for an STD, experts warn

Communicable Diseases

By Jack Ramage As monkeypox cases rise across the globe, experts warn even more infections could be flying under the radar as symptoms differ from what doctors have seen in the past. As of July 6, more than 6,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported from 58 countries – according to data released by the World Health Organization (WHO). Most cases are currently recorded in Europe, with the virus spreading in non-endemic countries, most of which had never seen monkeypox cases before. The current outbreak has led the UN agency to reconvene and advise on declaring the outbreak a global health emergency – the highest level of alert by the WHO – in the week starting July 18, or sooner. The WHO has warned that many cases are presenting the previously typical clinical picture for m...

Jul82022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

Africa CDC signs with Pfizer for supply of Covid-19 pill

COVID19

GHealth News - Africa’s top public health agency (CDC) said it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Pfizer for countries on the continent to receive supplies of the Paxlovid pill to treat Covid-19. Data from a mid-to-late stage study last November showed the antiviral medication was nearly 90 percent effective in preventing hospitalisations and deaths compared with a placebo, in adults at high risk of severe illness. “We have signed the MOU with Pfizer and we are going to be able to make that particular treatment available to African countries,” said Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, the acting director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Ouma said the MOU would allow African countries to access Paxlovid at cost. The Africa CDC, an agency of the 55-member Afri...

Jul52022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

Sanofi launches global health brand with non-profit treatments

Global Health

GHealth News - French drugmaker Sanofi will make 30 of its treatments, including insulin, available on a not-for-profit basis in 40 lower-income countries in the first step of its plan to increase access to its medicines worldwide. The treatments will be provided under the new Impact brand, part of Sanofi's global health unit launched last year, which sits outside the commercial business. The plan also includes the $25 million Impact fund, which will go towards supporting local start-up healthcare businesses and providing training on using the medicines, Sanofi said. "There's a lot of noise at the moment from different companies jumping into this space... but investing in entrepreneurship, in the ecosystem, is a new thing," said Jon Fairest, who heads the global health unit. T...

Jun302022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

World Health Summit 2022: Registration now opened

Global Health

The World Health Summit (WHS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) join forces to organize the 2022 edition of one of the world's leading international, inclusive and inter-sectoral global health conference to bring global health actors closer to setting agenda for a healthier future. Registration for on-site participation is now open The Summit will take place on 16-18 October 2022 in Berlin, Germany. Participants will focus on “Making the Choice for Health” by reflecting on pressing topics such as Investment for Health and Well-Being, Climate Change and Planetary Health, Architecture for Pandemic Preparedness, Digital Transformation for Health, Food Systems and Health, Health Systems Resilience and Equity, and Global Health for Peace. See more information about the progr...

Jun242022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

WHO considers declaring monkeypox a global health emergency

Communicable Diseases

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) GHealth News - The World Health Organization convened its emergency committee Thursday to consider if the spiralling outbreak of monkeypox warrants being declared a global emergency. But some experts say the WHO's decision to act only after the disease spilled into the West could entrench the grotesque inequities that arose between rich and poor countries during the coronavirus pandemic. Declaring monkeypox to be a global emergency would mean the UN health agency considers the outbreak to be an "extraordinary event" and that the disease is at risk of spreading across even more borders, possibly requiring a global response. It would also give monkeypox the same distinction as the COVID-19 pande...

Jun242022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

UK to offer vaccines to some gay, bisexual men for monkeypox

Communicable Diseases

GHealth News - British health officials will start offering vaccines to some men who have sex with men and are at the highest risk of catching monkeypox, in an effort to curb the biggest outbreak of the disease beyond Africa. Doctors can consider vaccination for some men at the highest risk of exposure, Britain’s Health Security agency said in a statement Tuesday. The agency identified those at highest risk as men who have sex with men and who have multiple partners, participate in group sex or attend venues where sex occurs on the premises. “By expanding the vaccine offer to those at higher risk, we hope to break chains of transmission and help contain the outbreak,” said the Health Security Agency’s head of immunization, Dr. Mary Ramsay. Last month, a leading adviser to the Worl...

Jun192022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

Climate change: Bonn talks end in acrimony over compensation

Climate Change

People being rescued from floods in China GHealth News - Two weeks of climate talks in Germany have ended in acrimony between rich and poor countries over cash for climate damage. Developing countries say they are reeling from climate change caused by richer countries' emissions over hundreds of years. They hoped to get compensation onto the official agenda for discussions by world leaders in November. But here in Bonn they couldn't get the US and the European Union to agree. "The climate emergency is fast becoming a catastrophe," said Conrod Hunte, lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). "Yet within these walls the process feels out of step with reality, the pace feels too slow," he told delegates at the end of the meeting. Developing nations ...

Jun192022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

FDA Approves First Systemic Treatment for Alopecia Areata

NCDs

GHealth News - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Olumiant (baricitinib) oral tablets to treat adult patients with severe alopecia areata, a disorder that often appears as patchy baldness and affects more than 300,000 people in the U.S. each year. Today’s action marks the first FDA approval of a systemic treatment (i.e. treats the entire body rather than a specific location) for alopecia areata. “Access to safe and effective treatment options is crucial for the significant number of Americans affected by severe alopecia,” said Kendall Marcus, M.D., director of the Division of Dermatology and Dentistry in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Today’s approval will help fulfill a significant unmet need for patients with severe alopecia areata.” Alopecia areata...

Jun192022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

Overweight people lost 35 to 52 pounds on newly approved diabetes drug, study says

NCDs

GHealth News - A weekly dose of a medication recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat type 2 diabetes may help adults without diabetes lose weight as well, a new study found. Tirzepatide, which is sold under the brand name Mounjaro, was studied in people without diabetes in three dosages: 5, 10 and 15 milligrams. Participants with obesity or who were overweight and took the 5-milligram dose lost an average of 35 pounds (16 killograms), those on the 10-milligram dose lost an average of 49 pounds (22 kilograms), and participants on the 15-milligram dose lost an average of 52 pounds (23.6 kilograms). "Almost 40% of individuals lost a quarter of their body weight," said coauthor Dr. Ania Jastreboff, codirector of the Yale Center for Weight Management in a briefin...