Author: GHealth News

Egypt has been certified malaria-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) - an achievement hailed by the UN public health agency as "truly historic". “Malaria is as old as Egyptian civilization itself, but the disease that plagued pharaohs now belongs to its history," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Egyptian authorities launched their first efforts to stamp out the deadly mosquito-borne infectious disease nearly 100 years. Certification is granted when a country proves that the transmission chain is interrupted for at least the previous three consecutive years. Malaria kills at least 600,000 people every year, nearly all of them in Africa. In a statement on Sunday, the WHO praised "the Egyptian government and people" for their efforts to "end a disease that has be...

By Melissa Rudy Amid reports of a deadly viral outbreak in Central Africa, researchers are reportedly scrambling to develop treatments and vaccines to combat the Marburg Virus. As of Sept. 30, 2024, the country of Rwanda — which is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo — has reported 27 cases of the virus and nine subsequent deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Most of the cases have affected health care workers at two health facilities in the city of Kigali, the same source stated. The patients are being cared for in hospitals, as noted by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Sept. 29.  "Contact tracing is underway, with 300 contacts under follow-up," WHO stated. This is the first time the M...

The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved the first diagnostic test for mpox where the results can be immediately known, saying it could prove pivotal in helping to stop the rising global cases of the deadly virus. The new PCR test enables the detection of the mpox DNA taken from skin lesion swabs. Currently, samples have to be sent to a laboratory for testing and the patient and medics have to wait days for the result. Limited testing capacity and delays in confirming cases continue to be a challenge in Africa - worsening the spread of mpox that was previously known as monkeypox. Of the more than 30,000 suspected cases reported in Africa this year, barely 40% had been confirmed through a test, the WHO said. Yukiko Nakatani, the WHO's assistant director-general, descr...

GHealth News - The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced the MVA-BN vaccine as the first vaccine against mpox to be added to its prequalification list. The prequalification approval is expected to facilitate timely and increased access to this vital product in communities with urgent need, to reduce transmission and help contain the outbreak. WHO’s assessment for prequalification is based on information submitted by the manufacturer, Bavarian Nordic A/S, and review by the European Medicines Agency, the regulatory agency of record for this vaccine. “This first prequalification of a vaccine against mpox is an important step in our fight against the disease, both in the context of the current outbreaks in Africa, and in future,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebre...

By  MARIA CHENG The World Health Organization declared Wednesday that the increasing spread of mpox in Africa is a global health emergency, warning the virus might ultimately spill across international borders. The announcement by WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus came after a meeting of the U.N. health agency’s emergency committee. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared mpox a public health emergency on the continent on Tuesday. WHO said there have been more than 14,000 cases and 524 deaths in Africa this year, which already exceed last year’s figures. So far, more than 96% of all cases and deaths are in a single country — Congo. Scientists are concerned by the spread of a new version of the disease there that might be more easily tra...