What is Ebola and why is Uganda's outbreak so serious?
It is proving more difficult to deal with as vaccines are not available for a rare strain of the virus. (Source: BBC News | Health | UK Edition)
Source: BBC News | Health | UK Edition - September 30, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
News at a glance: Earth science satellites, Global Fund ’s haul, and Neptune’s rings
EARTH SCIENCE
European satellite duo will study oceans and warming
The European Space Agency (ESA) last week approved the $420 million Harmony mission as the next in its Earth Explorer line of science missions, following a competition. Harmony’s two satellites will carry infrared sensors and radar receivers to observe the turbulent waves, winds, and eddies that govern the interchange of heat and gases between the oceans and atmosphere. Scientists know oceans soak up more than 90% of the excess heat of global warming, but they need Harmony’s finer scale observations to explain how—and to calibra...
Source: ScienceNOW - September 29, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
Scientists race to test vaccines for Uganda ’s Ebola outbreak
A multipronged international effort has begun to pull out all the stops to launch trials of experimental Ebola vaccines in Uganda, which declared an outbreak of the deadly disease on 20 September. According to the most recent World Health Organization (WHO) update, Uganda has had 18 confirmed and 18 suspected cases of Ebola, including 23 deaths—an unusually high case fatality rate of 64%. A trial of a vaccine candidate that’s farthest along in development could launch before the end of next month.
Proven vaccines exist for Zaire ebolavirus, which has led to a dozen outbreaks in the neighboring Democratic Republic...
Source: ScienceNOW - September 29, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
Why Infectious Disease Outbreaks Are Becoming So Common
SARS-CoV-2. Monkeypox. Polio. Marburg. These viruses are no longer familiar just to public-health experts, but household names around the world, thanks to their recent incursions into human populations. People have always confronted pathogens of all sorts, but the attacks are becoming more commonplace, and more intense, than they ever have before.
“We are going through an era of epidemics and pandemics, and they are going to be more complex and more frequent,” says Jeremy Farrar, director of Wellcome, a global health charitable foundation that addresses health challenges. “We tend to see each [outbreak] i...
Source: TIME: Health - September 15, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Disease feature healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
United We Stand to Achieve Sustainable Development
Credit: United Nations Office for South-South CooperationBy Deepali Khanna and Siddharth ChatterjeeBANGKOK / BEIJING, Sep 12 2022 (IPS) The world today faces a future that is in peril. Our challenges have become more complex and interconnected, as we see the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, an uneven economic recovery, a climate emergency, growing inequalities, and an increase in conflicts globally. This year also marks a grim milestone, with over 100 million people forcibly displaced.
These events accompany increasing division in the community of nations which threatens to push the achievement of the Sustainable Develop...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - September 12, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Deepali Khanna and Siddharth Chatterjee Tags: Armed Conflicts Climate Change COVID-19 Development & Aid Economy & Trade Energy Environment Global Headlines Health Inequality Migration & Refugees Poverty & SDGs South-South Sustainable Development Goals TerraViva United Na Source Type: news
Illumina Helped the World Fight COVID-19. Now, CEO Francis deSouza Has Monkeypox in His Sights
As chief executive of San Diego-based genomic sequencing company Illumina, Francis deSouza feels well-placed to witness the world’s next great scientific transformation.
“I really believe that just like the 20th century was the era of the bit and the digital revolution, the 21st century is likely to be remembered as the era of the genome,” he says. “We’re seeing that play out in terms of genomic-based screening and diagnostics emerging, like Illumina’s offerings, but we’re also seeing the emergence of genomic-based medicine.”
DeSouza’s excitement is understandable. Well...
Source: TIME: Health - August 14, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Simons Tags: Uncategorized biztech2030 The Leadership Brief Source Type: news
The Virus Hunters Trying to Prevent the Next Pandemic
Nobody saw SARS-CoV-2 coming. In the early days of the pandemic, researchers were scrambling to collect samples from people who had mysteriously developed fevers, coughs, and breathing problems. Pretty soon, they realized that the disease-causing culprit was a new virus humans hadn’t seen before.
And the world, lacking a coordinated global response, was unprepared. Some countries acted quickly to develop tests for the novel coronavirus, while others with fewer resources were left behind. With a virus oblivious to national borders, and with travel between countries and continents more common than it had been in previo...
Source: TIME: Health - August 1, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park and Video by Andrew D. Johnson Tags: Uncategorized Disease Frontiers of Medicine 2022 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
World Health Organization Declares Monkeypox a Global Emergency
LONDON — The World Health Organization said the expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an “extraordinary” situation that now qualifies as a global emergency, a declaration Saturday that could spur further investment in treating the once-rare disease and worsen the scramble for scarce vaccines.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the decision to issue the declaration despite a lack of consensus among members of WHO’s emergency committee. It was the first time the chief of the U.N. health agency has taken such an action.
“In short, we have an outbreak that has...
Source: TIME: Health - July 23, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Time Tags: Uncategorized wire Source Type: news
Ghana reports first cases of deadly Ebola-like Marburg virus
No treatment or vaccine exists for Marburg, which can spread from infected animals such as batsTwo cases of the deadly Marburg virus have been identified in Ghana, the first time the Ebola-like disease has been found in the west African nation.Earlier in the month, blood samples taken from two people in the southern Ashanti region suggested they had the Marburg virus.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - July 18, 2022 Category: Science Authors: Agence France-Presse and Associated Press Tags: Infectious diseases Ghana Africa World news Ebola World Health Organization Source Type: news
What Is Marburg? What You Need To Know About The Deadly Virus Detected In Ghana
There are no treatments or vaccines approved for Marburg, a virus in the same family as Ebola with a fatality rate between 24% to 88%. (Source: Forbes.com Healthcare News)
Source: Forbes.com Healthcare News - July 18, 2022 Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Robert Hart, Forbes Staff Tags: Business /business Innovation /innovation Healthcare /healthcare Breaking breaking-news Source Type: news
A deadly virus was just identified in Ghana: What to know about Marburg
The World Health Organization confirmed two cases of the Marburg virus in Ghana. The highly infectious disease is similar to Ebola and has no vaccine. (Source: Washington Post: To Your Health)
Source: Washington Post: To Your Health - July 18, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Adela Suliman Source Type: news
Rwanda Focuses on Health Workers to Strengthen COVID-Related Services in 20 Districts
July 08, 2022Health workers in 20 districts throughout Rwanda are making higher-quality health services related to COVID-19 available to more people in their communities, thanks to training through IntraHealth’s USAID-fundedIngobyi project. Together with the Rwanda Ministry of Health, we are improving the quality and accessibility of services related to family planning, maternal and newborn health, as well as malaria prevention and treatment.“When COVID-19 began to spread in 2020, we had to pivot our preexisting plans and implementation strategies to make sure health workers had the right supplies and training ...
Source: IntraHealth International - July 8, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: kseaton Tags: Rwanda Ingobyi Family Planning & Reproductive Health Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Malaria Maternal, Newborn, Child Health Health workforce development Global health security Systems Health Workers Source Type: news
Monkeypox Is Not a Global Emergency ‘At This Stage,’ WHO Says
(London) — The World Health Organization (WHO) said the escalating monkeypox outbreak in more than 50 countries should be closely monitored but does not warrant being declared a global health emergency.
In a statement Saturday, a WHO emergency committee said many aspects of the outbreak were “unusual” and acknowledged that monkeypox—which is endemic in some African countries—has been neglected for years.
“While a few members expressed differing views, the committee resolved by consensus to advise the WHO director-general that at this stage the outbreak should be determined to not constit...
Source: TIME: Health - June 27, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Maria Cheng / AP Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Public Health wire Source Type: news
Stronger Healthcare Systems Critical for Africa ’s Socioeconomic Transformation
As Africa rebuilds following the pandemic, investment in the fight against malaria and NTDs will make healthcare systems more resilient and support longer-term pandemic preparedness. Credit: UNDP Kenya/James OchweriBy Claude Mambo MuvunyiKIGALI, Jun 22 2022 (IPS) Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare systems globally have battled to deal with the repercussions unleashed by the disease. From the outset, Africa was considered particularly vulnerable due to several factors: limited healthcare provision in some areas, high prevalence of HIV and TB in a number of countries, and limited fiscal room to respond t...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - June 22, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Claude Mambo Muvunyi Tags: Africa Headlines Health Poverty & SDGs TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news
Monkeypox Testing Shows the U.S. Learned Little from the COVID-19 Pandemic
U.S. testing for monkeypox is insufficient to determine how widespread the virus is and where new cases are cropping up, according to infectious disease experts and advocates concerned about a sluggish response to the outbreak that’s already hit 32 countries.
While government labs have the capacity to test as many as 8,000 samples a week, they’re only using 2% of that capability, suggesting that about 23 monkeypox tests are being performed a day, said James Krellenstein, the cofounder of PrEP4All, an HIV advocacy group that widened its focus during the pandemic. Much more testing is needed to find out where the...
Source: TIME: Health - June 16, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Madison Muller / Bloomberg Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate News Desk wire Source Type: news
