<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1365582823-1-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-422254" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1365582823-1-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1365582823-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1365582823-1-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1365582823-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1365582823-1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GettyImages-1365582823-1-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Two doctors in hospital hallway discussing electronic patient record &#8211; stock photo</figcaption></figure>



Geneva, Switzerland, 9 January 2023 – The shortage of healthcare workers could rise to 10 million by the end of the decade, affecting access to care, inequities and treatment of mental health. A new report published by the World Economic Forum, <a href="https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-health-and-healthcare-strategic-outlook-shaping-the-future-of-health-and-healthcare">Global Health and Healthcare Strategic Outlook</a>, offers business and policy-makers a blueprint for more sustainable, resilient healthcare systems rather than accepting trade-offs of efficiency over social fairness.



Launched in the run-up to the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023 in Davos-Klosters, the report presents case studies in four areas that can drive change: equitable access and outcomes; healthcare systems transformation; technology and innovation; and environmental&nbsp;sustainability.



“The pandemic brought remarkable progress for development and delivery of medicines. We now need to focus on long-term system change to stop health services deteriorating in the face of economic crises. Businesses and policy-makers must think beyond false trade-offs of efficiency over social fairness and harness the power of public-private partnerships and outcomes-based regulation to drive healthy equity by the end of the decade,” said Shyam Bishen, Head of Health &amp; Healthcare, World Economic Forum.



The Annual Meeting will convene more than 2,700 leaders from business, government and civil society. Leaders from healthcare organizations will focus on driving public-private partnerships for better health outcomes.



The report, prepared with L.E.K. Consulting, highlights the pandemic’s disruptions such as a 25% drop in coverage of essential health services. This resulted in compound impacts on vulnerable populations and minority communities, especially in low- and middle-income countries. More specifically, COVID-19 put extra strain on healthcare systems, disrupted global supply chains of essential products and pushed overburdened care providers to breaking point.



“The threat of violence and burnout are real and is one of the contributors as to why doctors are considering other professions,” said Kashish Malhotra, Physician, Department of Internal Medicine, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, North India



To improve access and narrow the global health disparity gap, the report urged healthcare leaders to allocate funds disproportionately towards alternative care models and to include more representative clinical trials across low- to middle-income countries.



As healthcare systems seek to adapt and evolve, innovations frequently outpace regulatory change. On top of this, public regulations vary by jurisdiction and the lack of common standards across the global industry erodes trust, inhibits reimbursements and slows the sector’s return to pre-pandemic stability. Meanwhile, the private sector is stymied by fragile and disrupted supply chains, while a go-it-alone business mindset further slows healthcare’s systemic transformation.



“Too often we see many companies trying to find the path through the forest themselves and each of them getting lost and not learning from one another,” saidJeff Allen, Chief Executive Officer, Friends of Cancer Research. “Public-private partnerships help bridge this divide to find solutions to common problems in a shorter time.” Service delivery value is worth more than volume, the report argues. To incorporate prevention, healthcare policy should be linked to consistent and measurable outcomes since what is efficient is not always what is most effective.



On partnerships for innovation, the pandemic accelerated a technological tipping point in digital health and telemedicine. This can be expanded to other areas of healthcare. With a Wi-Fi signal and better digital access, a rural patient can consult with a health worker from a nearby city or halfway around the world. “People want on-demand healthcare,” said Jisella Veath Dolan, Chief Global Advocacy Officer, Honor + Home Instead. “We want greater accessibility to real-time answers.”



Remote care empowers both patient and worker. It improves convenience, adherence and access to information across geographies. By reducing the need for traditional infrastructure, costs per patient fall. And telehealth goes beyond online consultation. Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics further support clinical decisions, home diagnostics, home-administered drug delivery systems and patient monitoring devices. By harmonizing data use, Dolan said, “physicians are building better relationships with patients through telehealth and we are seeing greater uptick in usage by older adults.” The pandemic demanded emergency responses. However, according to the new report, medical triumphs are too often reactive “cures” to the communicative zoonotic diseases that could have been prevented at far lower costs. To preserve health and save lives, a higher return on investment comes from clean air, safe water and healthy biodiversity. &nbsp;

GettyImages-1365582823-1

‘Patient-First’ Tech Innovations Can Boost Healthcare Access, Tackle Workforce Shortages and Burnout 

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="728" height="485" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/67KF5BYCQZNUFLTWJTVK2NRPLE.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-419886" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/67KF5BYCQZNUFLTWJTVK2NRPLE.jpg 728w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/67KF5BYCQZNUFLTWJTVK2NRPLE-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/67KF5BYCQZNUFLTWJTVK2NRPLE-135x90.jpg 135w" sizes="(max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px" /><figcaption>A man receives a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at Wuse market in Abuja, Nigeria January 26, 2022. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde</figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, Sept 15 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The COVID-19 pandemic is still a threat on the African continent given low vaccination rates, the acting director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention&nbsp;(Africa CDC)&nbsp;said on Thursday.



&#8220;The virus is still circulating, and with the low rates of vaccination the pandemic is still very much with us here on the continent,&#8221; Ahmed Ogwell Ouma told a news conference.



He was responding to a question about whether he agreed with comments by the head of the World Health Organization&nbsp;Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus&nbsp;that the end of the COVID pandemic was now in sight.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL4N30L2YV&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The Africa CDC director said just over 22% of Africa&#8217;s population was fully vaccinated against COVID and that his agency would continue pushing to raise that number. &#8220;The levels of protection are still relatively low,&#8221; he told reporters.



African countries struggled to secure early supplies of COVID vaccines as rich nations hoarded doses, and more recently hesitancy and logistics problems have made it difficult to get shots into arms.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2XP1TZ&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Ouma said the Africa CDC was focusing on getting as many people on the continent as possible fully vaccinated, not on procuring new vaccines targeting specific variants like Omicron.



(Reporting by Alexander Winning and Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by James Macharia Chege)

A man receives a COVID-19 vaccine at Wuse market, in Abuja

Africa CDC head: COVID still a threat given low vaccination rates

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="800" height="533" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/800px-Logo_of_the_World_Health_Organization.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-402524" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/800px-Logo_of_the_World_Health_Organization.jpg 800w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/800px-Logo_of_the_World_Health_Organization-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/800px-Logo_of_the_World_Health_Organization-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></figure>



July 27 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The World Health Organization has confirmed&nbsp;two more cases&nbsp;of Marburg virus in Ghana, a senior&nbsp;WHO official&nbsp;said on Wednesday, two weeks after the country reported its&nbsp;first outbreak&nbsp;of the highly infectious Ebola-like disease.



Those first two cases, in southern Ghana&#8217;s Ashanti region, both had symptoms including diarrhoea, fever, nausea and vomiting, before dying in hospital, the WHO said previously.



&#8220;We have two additional cases,&#8221; doctor Ibrahima Soce Fall told journalists on Wednesday.



The outbreak is only the second in West Africa. The first ever case of the virus in the region was detected last year in Guinea.



Soce Fall said information received from Ghana suggested there were around 180 contacts being followed up and WHO teams were making sure that none were missed.



The virus is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads among humans through direct contact with bodily fluids, surfaces and materials, the WHO said.



Soce Fall said the cases had been reported in three different regions in Ghana, creating a &#8220;very difficult&#8221; situation.



&#8220;Although the cases are not high at the moment, &#8230;we need to make sure that every hotspot can be stopped otherwise it will become more complex,&#8221; he said.



(Reporting by Wendell Roelf and Jennifer Rigby; editing by John Stonestreet)

800px-Logo_of_the_World_Health_Organization

WHO confirms two more Marburg virus cases in Ghana, says official

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/107064993-gettyimages-1240797858-PGONCHAR_8296.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-418688" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/107064993-gettyimages-1240797858-PGONCHAR_8296.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/107064993-gettyimages-1240797858-PGONCHAR_8296-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/107064993-gettyimages-1240797858-PGONCHAR_8296-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>Pavlo Gonchar | Lightrocket | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



The World Health Organization has activated its highest alert level for the growing monkeypox outbreak, declaring the virus a public health emergency of international concern.



The rare designation means the WHO now views the outbreak as a significant enough threat to global health that a coordinated international response is needed to prevent the virus from spreading further and potentially escalating into a pandemic.



Although the declaration does not impose requirements on national governments, it serves as an urgent call for action. The WHO can only issue guidance and recommendations to its member states, not mandates. Member states are required to report events that pose a threat to global health.



The U.N. agency declined last month to declare a global emergency in response to monkeypox. But infections have increased substantially over the past several weeks, pushing WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to issue the highest alert.



Before a global health emergency is declared, the WHO’s emergency committee meets to weigh the evidence and make a recommendation to the director general. The committee was unable to reach a consensus on whether monkeypox constitutes an emergency. Tedros, as the WHO’s chief, made the decision to issue the highest alert based on the rapid spread of the outbreak around the world.



“We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly, through new modes of transmission, about which we understand too little,” Tedros said. “For all of these reasons, I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern.”&nbsp;



More than 16,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported across more than 70 countries so far this year, and the number of confirmed infections rose 77% from late June through early July, according to WHO data. Men who have sex with men are currently at highest risk of infection.



Five deaths from the virus have been reported in Africa this year. No deaths have been reported outside Africa so far.



Most people are recovering from monkeypox in two to four weeks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus causes a rash that can spread over the body. People who have caught the virus said the rash, which looks like pimples or blisters, can be very painful.



The current monkeypox outbreak is highly unusual because it is spreading widely in North American and European nations where the virus is not usually found. Historically, monkeypox has spread at low levels in remote parts of West and Central Africa where rodents and other animals carried the virus.



Europe is currently the global epicenter of the outbreak, reporting more than 80% of confirmed infections worldwide in 2022. The U.S. has reported more than 2,500 monkeypox cases so far across 44 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.



Tedros said the risk posed by monkeypox is moderate globally, but the threat is high in Europe. There’s clearly a risk that the virus will continue to spread around the world, he said, though it’s unlikely to disrupt global trade or travel right now.



In early May, the United Kingdom reported a case of monkeypox in a person who recently returned from travel to Nigeria. Several days later, the U.K. reported three more cases of monkeypox in people who appeared to have become infected locally. Other European nations, Canada and the U.S. then also began confirming cases. It’s unclear where the outbreak actually began.



The WHO last issued a global health emergency in January 2020 in response to the Covid-19 outbreak and two months later declared it a pandemic. The WHO has no official process to declare a pandemic under its organizational laws, which means the term is loosely defined. In 2020, the agency declared Covid a pandemic in an effort to warn complacent governments about the “alarming levels of spread and severity” of the virus.



The WHO’s lead expert on monkeypox, Dr. Rosamund Lewis, told reporters in May that the U.N. health agency was not concerned about monkeypox causing a global pandemic. She said public health authorities had a window of opportunity to contain the outbreak.



But infectious disease experts are concerned that health authorities have failed to contain the outbreak, and monkeypox will permanently take root in countries where the virus wasn’t previously found with the exception of isolated cases linked to travel.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-monkeypox-is-not-a-new-virus"><a></a>Monkeypox is not a new virus</h2>



In contrast to Covid-19, monkeypox is not a new virus. Scientists first discovered monkeypox in 1958 in captive monkeys used for research in Denmark, and confirmed the first case of a human infected with the virus in 1970 in the nation of Zaire, now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo.



Monkeypox is in the same virus family as smallpox, though it causes milder disease. The WHO and national health agencies have decades of experience fighting smallpox, which was declared eradicated in 1980. The successful fight against smallpox, and the tools developed against it, will provide health officials with important knowledge to combat monkeypox.



Transmission of monkeypox between people was relatively rare in the past, and the virus normally jumped from animals to humans. But monkeypox is now spreading more efficiently between people. The WHO has said the international community did not invest enough resources in fighting monkeypox in Africa before the global outbreak.



“This transmission has been occurring in African countries in two particular zones over a large number of years, and we don’t fully understand what’s driving transmission in those countries,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s health emergencies program, earlier this week. “There’s a lot more investigation to do and a lot more investment to make in understanding that problem.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>Gay, bisexual men at highest risk</h2>



Monkeypox is primarily spreading through skin-to-skin contact during sex. Men who have sex with men are at the highest risk right now, as the majority of transmission has occurred in the gay community. However, the WHO and the CDC have emphasized that anyone can catch monkeypox regardless of sexual orientation.



Scientists in Spain and Italy detected monkeypox virus DNA in semen from positive patients, though it’s still unclear whether whether the virus can spread through semen during sex. The Spanish scientists also detected monkeypox DNA in saliva samples.



It’s also unclear whether the virus can spread when people are infected but don’t have symptoms, known as asymptomatic transmission.



Lewis, the WHO’s monkeypox expert, said 99% of cases reported outside Africa are among men and 98% of infections are among men who have sex with men, primarily those who have had multiple, recent anonymous or new sexual partners. The virus has been detected outside the gay community, but transmission has been low so far. The CDC confirmed monkeypox in two children on Friday.



The WHO and CDC have repeatedly warned against stigmatizing gay and bisexual men, while at the same time stressing the importance of communicating the reality of how the virus is currently spreading so people in communities at highest risk can take action to protect their health.



“People want the information to know how to protect themselves, in what circumstances are people perhaps at risk or getting infected,” Lewis said earlier this week. It’s crucial for health agencies and community organizers to broadly disseminate information on how to reduce the risk of infection ahead of major celebrations and festivals this summer, she said.



Tedros warned stigma and discrimination are violations of human rights that will undermine the public health response to the outbreak. He called on national governments to protect individuals’ fundamental rights as they respond to the virus.



“We seek your strong commitment to uphold human dignity, human rights so that we can control this outbreak,” Tedros said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>Symptoms and risk factors</h2>



The U.S. CDC recommends that people avoid intimate physical contact with individuals who have a rash that looks like monkeypox, and consider minimizing sex with multiple or anonymous partners. People should also consider avoiding sex parties or other events where people aren’t wearing a lot of clothing.



Individuals who do decide to have sex with a partner who has monkeypox should follow CDC guidance on lowering their risk, according to the health agency.



In the past, monkeypox normally began with symptoms similar to the flu, including fever, headache, muscle aches, chills, exhaustion and swollen lymph nodes. The disease then progressed into a rash that can spread over the body. Patients are considered most infectious when the rash develops.



But in the current outbreak the symptoms have been atypical. Some people are developing a rash first, while others are showing a rash without any flu-like symptoms at all. Many patients have developed a localized rash on their genitals and anus.



The CDC and WHO have said the rash is easily confused with common sexually transmitted diseases. They have told health care providers that they should not rule out monkeypox simply because a patient tests positive for a sexually transmitted disease.



Although monkeypox can spread through respiratory droplets, that method requires prolonged face-to-face interaction, according to the CDC. Health officials do not believe monkeypox is spreading through small aerosol particles like Covid. Respiratory droplets are heavier so they do not stay airborne for as long, while Covid is an airborne virus, which is one of the reasons it’s so contagious.



Monkeypox can also spread through contact with contaminated materials, such as bedsheets and clothing.



“This disease is transmissible, but it’s not that transmissible. It’s a disease in which transmission can be contained,” Ryan said. “Like we said in Covid, don’t be the person to pass this disease on.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>Vaccines</h2>



Because monkeypox is not a new virus, there are already vaccines and antivirals to prevent and treat the disease it causes, though they are in short supply. The U.S. is already distributing tens of thousands of doses of a vaccine called Jynneos in an effort to quash the outbreak. The Food and Drug Administration approved the two-dose vaccine in 2019 for adults ages 18 and older who are at high risk of monkeypox or smallpox infection.



The Biden administration has distributed more than 300,000 Jynneos doses to states and cities since May and another 786,000 doses are being delivered to the U.S. The Health and Human Services Department has ordered another 5 million doses through 2023.



CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the demand for monkeypox vaccines is outstripping the available supply in the U.S., which has led to long lines in places such as New York City — an epicenter of the outbreak.



Jynneos is manufactured by Bavarian Nordic, a biotech company based in Denmark. Right, now Bavarian Nordic has up to 5 million doses available for the rest of the world excluding the U.S., a company spokesperson said. But Bavarian Nordic has the capacity to fill 40 million liquid frozen and 8 million freeze dried doses a year, the spokesperson said.



The U.S. also has more than 100 million doses of an older generation smallpox vaccine called ACAM2000, made by Emergent BioSolutions, that is also likely effective at preventing monkeypox. But ACAM2000 can have serious side effects and is not recommended for people who have weak immune systems, including HIV patients, people who have certain skin conditions and pregnant women.



ACAM2000 uses a mild virus strain in the same family as monkeypox and smallpox to confer immunity. But the mild strain used by the vaccine can replicate, which means people who receive ACAM2000 have to take precautions to make sure they do not give the virus to others or spread a rash from the injection site to other parts of their body. The Jynneos vaccine does not have this risk because it does not use a replicating virus strain.



There is no data yet on the effectiveness of the vaccines against monkeypox in the current outbreak, according to the CDC.



The WHO is not recommending mass vaccination at this time, and the U.S. is currently reserving the vaccines in its stockpile for people who have confirmed or presumed monkeypox exposures. Unlike Covid, vaccines against smallpox and monkeypox can be administered after exposure due to the viruses’ long incubation period. But the vaccines need to be administered within four days of exposure for the best chance of preventing onset of the disease, according to the CDC.

107064993-gettyimages-1240797858-PGONCHAR_8296

WHO declares rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="640" height="360" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/istockphoto-1250489640-640x640-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-400524" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/istockphoto-1250489640-640x640-1.jpg 640w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/istockphoto-1250489640-640x640-1-300x169.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /><figcaption>World Bank on glass building. Mirrored sky and city modern facade. Global capital, business, finance, economy, banking and money concept seamless and loopable 3D rendering animation.</figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, July 22 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Africa&#8217;s main public health body, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), will receive $100 million from the World Bank to help African countries prepare for, detect and respond to disease outbreaks.



The Africa CDC has played a major role advising African countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and is also providing guidance on diseases like monkeypox.



The World Bank said in a statement that the financial support would help boost the Africa CDC&#8217;s technical capacity and include investments to increase the number of epidemiologists and outbreak responders.



&#8220;The project will help to cultivate regional capabilities critical to ensuring a resilient and prepared continent. It will do this by helping to build and maintain a robust public health workforce across countries&#8217; health systems,&#8221; the bank said.



The Africa CDC&#8217;s acting director Ahmed Ogwell Ouma said the money had come at a critical time as it was aiming to enhance its support to African countries.



(Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Joe Bavier and Andrew Cawthorne)

istockphoto-1250489640-640×640

Africa’s top public health body gets $100 mln from World Bank

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="728" height="485" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/WISP23EAKBLG5D3IIMVX4GTIGM.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-418581" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/WISP23EAKBLG5D3IIMVX4GTIGM.jpg 728w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/WISP23EAKBLG5D3IIMVX4GTIGM-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/WISP23EAKBLG5D3IIMVX4GTIGM-135x90.jpg 135w" sizes="(max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px" /><figcaption>A nurse administers the malaria vaccine to an infant at the Lumumba Sub-County hospital in Kisumu, Kenya, July 1, 2022. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



LONDON, July 20 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Nine months after the world&#8217;s first malaria vaccine was recommended for use, international vaccine alliance Gavi invited countries to apply for financial support to roll out the jab, particularly targeting young children in Africa.



The World Health Organization endorsed GSK Plc&#8217;s&nbsp;GSK.L&nbsp;four-dose Mosquirix shot in October last year, saying it could save thousands of lives.



Now Gavi, which has $155.7 million available over 2022-2025 for the initial roll-out of the vaccine, has invited countries to apply for funding and support to distribute the shot.



It is a step forward for the vaccine, which has taken decades to develop. Malaria, on average, kills a child every minute.



However the roll-out is expected to start slowly, with supply falling far below the vast demand for several years, a recent Reuters investigation found.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2YP0WT&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Ghana, Kenya and Malawi &#8211; African nations that have been involved in pilot progammes using the vaccine &#8211; can apply first, by September, to broaden their use of the shot. Other countries can apply by the end of this year, Gavi said in a statement.



&#8220;The work towards a malaria vaccine has been long and hard,&#8221; said Seth Berkley, chief executive of Gavi. Alongside the existing interventions like bed nets, Berkley said he hoped that the new tool would now &#8220;allow us to save more lives in countries hit hardest by this killer disease.&#8221;



(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

FILE PHOTO: A nurse administers the malaria vaccine to an infant at the Lumumba hospital in Kisumu

Vaccine group invites African states to apply for malaria shot support

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="820" height="583" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/EO5RIOO7OJOC7GKT6AKI7H5SQ4-820x583.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-418172" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/EO5RIOO7OJOC7GKT6AKI7H5SQ4-820x583.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/EO5RIOO7OJOC7GKT6AKI7H5SQ4-300x213.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/EO5RIOO7OJOC7GKT6AKI7H5SQ4-127x90.jpg 127w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/EO5RIOO7OJOC7GKT6AKI7H5SQ4-768x546.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/EO5RIOO7OJOC7GKT6AKI7H5SQ4-1536x1092.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/EO5RIOO7OJOC7GKT6AKI7H5SQ4-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>FILE PHOTO: Mock-up vials labeled &#8220;Monkeypox vaccine&#8221; and medical syringe are seen in this illustration taken, May 25, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration</figcaption></figure>



June 30 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Africa has no vaccines for monkeypox and test kits are in short supply, the acting director of Africa&#8217;s top public health agency said on Thursday.



Monkeypox is a viral disease that causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions. It is endemic in parts of Africa.



More than 40 countries where monkeypox is not endemic have reported outbreaks of the viral disease which spreads through close contact and was first found in monkeys.



&#8220;Both of these tools&#8230; are really required on the continent,&#8221; Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), told a news conference.



&#8220;Monkeypox is an emergency here on the continent and we are calling on all our friends and partners to join us in controlling this outbreak,&#8221; he said.



Ouma also said that at least nine different coronavirus vaccines are in development on the continent.



Monkeypox is not yet a global health emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) ruled on Saturday, although WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was deeply concerned about the outbreak.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2YC0JV&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; Writing by Nellie Peyton; Editing by James Macharia Chege)

FILE PHOTO: Illustration shows mock-up vials labeled “Monkeypox vaccine” and medical syringe

Africa in need of test kits, vaccines for monkeypox – CDC Africa

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/106913464-1626783928878-gettyimages-1233680604-AVDjune7.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-410942" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/106913464-1626783928878-gettyimages-1233680604-AVDjune7.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/106913464-1626783928878-gettyimages-1233680604-AVDjune7-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/106913464-1626783928878-gettyimages-1233680604-AVDjune7-140x80.jpeg 140w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>In this Photo illustration a World Health Organization(WHO) logo seen displayed on an Android phone.
Avishek Das | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



LONDON, June 23 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The World Health Organization will decide on Thursday whether to declare monkeypox a global health emergency, stirring criticism from leading African scientists who say it has been a crisis in their region for years.



The deliberations and scrutiny of the WHO&#8217;s response to the outbreak follows concerns over how the United Nations&nbsp;agency and governments worldwide handled COVID-19 in early 2020.



A&nbsp;&#8220;public health emergency of international concern&#8221; is WHO&#8217;s highest level of alert. The agency does not declare pandemics, but it did start using the term to describe COVID-19 in March 2020.



For many governments, that &#8211; rather than WHO&#8217;s earlier declaration of an emergency in January &#8211; was the moment they began to take real action to try to contain COVID, which proved to be too late to make a difference.



Monkeypox does not spread nearly as easily as COVID and there are vaccines and treatments available, unlike for the coronavirus when it emerged. But it has still raised alarm.



The case count from the current outbreak outside of Africa has topped 3,000 in more than 40 countries, according to a Reuters tally &#8211; largely among men who have sex with men &#8211; since it was first reported in May.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2XF1XF&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>&nbsp;There have been no reports of deaths.



The viral disease,&nbsp;which&nbsp;causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions, is endemic in parts of Africa. The continent has registered just over 1,500 suspected cases since the start of 2022, of which 66 have been fatal, according to official data.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2Y32HZ&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



&#8220;When a disease affects developing countries, it is (apparently) not an emergency. It only becomes an emergency when developed countries are affected,&#8221; said Professor Emmanuel Nakoune, acting director of the Institut Pasteur in Bangui, Central African Republic, who is running a trial of a monkeypox treatment.



Still, Nakoune said that if the WHO declares an emergency in the case of monkeypox, it would still be an important step.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-read-more-south-africa-confirms-first-monkeypox-case-not-linked-to-travel">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2022/south-africa-confirms-first-monkeypox-case-not-linked-to-travel/">South Africa confirms first monkeypox case, not linked to travel</a></h3>



&#8220;If there is the political will to share equitably the means of response between developed and developing countries&#8230;, each country will be able to benefit,&#8221; he said.



At an online briefing with reporters on Thursday, the acting director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, said monkeypox case and death numbers were already at &#8220;emergency levels&#8221; on the continent.



The WHO will convene a closed meeting of experts at 12 p.m. (1000 GMT) in Geneva. It remains unclear when the decision will be announced.



The emergency committee meeting on Thursday includes experts from the most affected regions, who have also consulted with scientists including Nakoune. They will make a recommendation to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who makes the ultimate decision&nbsp;on&nbsp;whether to call the emergency.



The step mainly functions to sound the alarm, and can prompt further guidance from the&nbsp;WHO, as well as focus attention among member states.&nbsp;The WHO has already provided detailed guidance on the outbreak and said it is working on a mechanism for sharing treatments and vaccines.



Most experts agree monkeypox technically meets the criteria for the WHO definition of an emergency. It is a sudden and unusual event spreading internationally, and requires cross-country cooperation.



But the WHO is in a precarious position after COVID,&nbsp;according to&nbsp;Clare Wenham, a global health assistant professor at the London School of Economics.



If the WHO declares an emergency and countries do not act, it could undermine the agency&#8217;s role in controlling global disease, she said.



&#8220;They&#8217;re damned if they do, and damned if they don&#8217;t,&#8221; she added.



FACTBOX-Monkeypox cases around the world<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2XF1XF&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



EXPLAINER-What vaccines, treatments do we have to combat monkeypox?&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2XG5MK&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



FOCUS-Test makers target monkeypox market as cases surge&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2XN537&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Disease experts call on WHO, governments for more action on monkeypox<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2XI0SC&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby, additional reporting by Emma Farge and James Macharia Chege in JohannesburgEditing by Mark Heinrich and Bernadette Baum)

106913464-1626783928878-gettyimages-1233680604-AVDjune7

WHO eyes decision on monkeypox ’emergency’, Africa says it’s long overdue

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="820" height="461" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/107071556-1654530822898-gettyimages-1208505324-20200221viurs_0035__a-820x461.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-417748" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/107071556-1654530822898-gettyimages-1208505324-20200221viurs_0035__a-820x461.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/107071556-1654530822898-gettyimages-1208505324-20200221viurs_0035__a-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/107071556-1654530822898-gettyimages-1208505324-20200221viurs_0035__a-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/107071556-1654530822898-gettyimages-1208505324-20200221viurs_0035__a-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/107071556-1654530822898-gettyimages-1208505324-20200221viurs_0035__a-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/107071556-1654530822898-gettyimages-1208505324-20200221viurs_0035__a.jpeg 1600w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Dowell | Moment | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



The Covid-19 pandemic has abated in much of the world and, with it, many of the social restrictions implemented to curb its spread, as people have been eager to return to pre-lockdown life.



But in its place have emerged a series of viruses behaving in new and peculiar ways.



Take seasonal influenza, more commonly known as the flu. The 2020 and 2021 U.S. winter flu seasons were some of the mildest on record both in terms of deaths and hospitalizations. Yet cases ticked up in February and climbed further into the spring and summer as Covid restrictions were stripped back.



“We’ve never seen a flu season in the U.S. extend into June,” Dr. Scott Roberts, associate medical director for infection prevention at the Yale School of Medicine, told CNBC Tuesday.



“Covid has clearly had a very big impact on that. Now that people have unmasked, places are opening up, we’re seeing viruses behave in very odd ways that they weren’t before,” he said.



And flu is just the beginning.



Respiratory syncytial virus, a cold-like virus common during winter months, exhibited an uptick last summer, with cases surging among children in Europe, the U.S and Japan. Then, in January this year, an outbreak of adenovirus 41, usually responsible for gastrointestinal illness, became the apparent cause of a mysterious and severe liver disease among young children.



Elsewhere, Washington State has been experiencing its worst flare-up of tuberculosis in 20 years.



And now, a recent outbreak of monkeypox, a rare viral infection typically found in Central and West Africa, is baffling health experts with over 1,000 confirmed and suspected cases emerging in 29 non-endemic countries.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-viruses-behaving-badly"><a></a>Viruses behaving badly</h2>



At least two genetically distinct monkeypox variants are now circulating in the U.S., likely stemming from two different spillover infections from animals to humans, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week.



The World Health Organization noted earlier last week that the virus, whose symptoms include fever and skin lesions, may have been going undetected in society for “months or possibly a couple of years.”







“The two strains probably indicate this has been going on longer than we first thought. We’re at a concerning time right now,” said Roberts. He noted that the coming weeks will be telling for the course of the virus, which has an incubation period of 5 to 21 days.



It is not yet clear whether the smallpox-like virus has mutated, though health experts have reported that it is behaving in new and atypical ways. Most notably, it appears to be spreading within the community — most commonly through sex — as opposed to via travel from places where it is typically found. Symptoms are also appearing in new ways.



“Patients are presenting differently than we were previously taught,” said Roberts, noting that some infected patients are bypassing initial flu-like symptoms and immediately developing rashes and lesions, specifically and unusually on the genitals and anus.



“There’s a lot of unknowns that do make me uneasy. We are seeing very atypical behaviors in a number of ways for a number of viruses,” he said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>Restrictions reduce exposure, immunity</h2>



One explanation, of course, is that Covid-induced restrictions and mask-wearing over the past two years have given other infectious diseases little opportunity to spread in the ways they once did.



Where viruses did manage to slip through, they were frequently missed as public health surveillance centered largely on the pandemic.



That indeed was the case in Washington’s tuberculosis outbreak, according to local health authorities, who said parallels between the two illnesses allowed TB cases to go undiagnosed.



Now, as pandemic-induced restrictions have eased and usual habits resumed, viruses that were in retreat have found a fertile breeding ground in newly social and travel-hungry hosts.



The recent monkeypox outbreak is thought to have stemmed, at least in part, from two mass events in Europe, a lead adviser to the WHO said last month.



Meantime, two years of reduced exposure have lowered individual immunity to diseases and made society as a whole more vulnerable. That is especially true for young children — typically germ amplifiers — who missed opportunities to gain antibodies against common viruses, either through their mother’s womb or early years socializing.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>Missed childhood vaccinations</h2>



That could explain the uptick in curious severe acute hepatitis cases among children, according to health experts who are looking into possible links to Covid restrictions.



“We are also exploring whether increased susceptibility due to reduced exposure during the Covid-19 pandemic could be playing a role,” the U.K. Health Security Agency said in April.



The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also expressed concern that lockdowns may have caused many children to miss childhood vaccinations, potentially raising the risks of other vaccine-preventable illnesses such as measles and pertussis.



“During the Covid pandemic, access to primary care, including childhood vaccinations, was unavailable to many children,” Jennifer Horney, professor of epidemiology at the University of Delaware, told CNBC.



“To prevent increases in these diseases, catch-up vaccination campaigns are needed globally,” she added.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>Beware surveillance bias</h2>



That said, there is also now greater awareness and surveillance of public health issues in the wake of the pandemic, making diagnoses of some outbreaks more commonplace.



“Covid has raised the profile of public health matters so that we are perhaps paying more attention to these events when they occur,” said Horney, adding that public health systems set up to identify Covid have also helped diagnose other diseases.



Professor Eyal Leshem, infectious disease specialist at Sheba Medical Center, agreed: “The general population and the media have become much more interested in zoonotic outbreaks and infectious diseases.”



However, he also warned of the role of “surveillance bias,” whereby individuals and medical professionals are more likely to report cases of diseases as they grow more high profile. That suggests that some viruses, such as monkeypox, may appear to be growing when in fact they were previously underreported.



“It’s not that the disease is more prevalent, but that it gets more attention,” Leshem said.



Still, the increased monitoring of infectious disease outbreaks is no bad thing, he noted. With the increased spread and mutation of infectious diseases — as seen with Covid-19 — the more awareness and understanding of the changing nature of diseases, the better.



“The public and media attention will help governments and global organizations direct more resources into surveillance and protection of future pandemics,” Leshem said, highlighting research, surveillance and intervention as three key areas of focus.



“These investments have to occur globally to prevent and mitigate the next pandemic,” he said.

107071556-1654530822898-gettyimages-1208505324-20200221viurs_0035__a

Diseases suppressed during Covid are coming back in new and peculiar ways

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="754" height="452" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Coronavirus_Shutterstock.jpg" alt="Clarification on COVID-19 “hotspots” as SA moves to level 3 lockdown" class="wp-image-361805" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Coronavirus_Shutterstock.jpg 754w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Coronavirus_Shutterstock-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Coronavirus_Shutterstock-696x417.jpg 696w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Coronavirus_Shutterstock-701x420.jpg 701w" sizes="(max-width: 754px) 100vw, 754px" /><figcaption>Clarification on COVID-19 “hotspots” as SA moves to level 3 lockdown</figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, June 2 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Deaths on the African continent from COVID-19 are expected to fall by nearly 94 percent in 2022 compared to last year, modelling by the World Health Organization (WHO) showed on Thursday.



2021 was the pandemic&#8217;s most deadly year in Africa, with COVID-19 the seventh major cause of death, just below malaria.



&#8220;Our latest analysis suggests that estimated deaths in the African region will shrink to around 60 a day in 2022. &#8230; Last year, we lost an average of 970 people every day,&#8221; WHO Africa director Matshidiso Moeti told a virtual news conference.



The gulf in the numbers is due to increased vaccination, improved pandemic response and natural immunity from prior infections, the WHO said.



COVID deaths in Africa have been uneven. Richer countries and southern African nations have had around double the mortality rates of poorer ones in other parts of Africa, partly due to co-morbidities that increase the risk of death, the WHO analysis found.



Around 23,000 deaths are expected by the end of the year, provided current variants and transmission patterns remain the same, according to the analysis.



The findings infer that only one in 71 COVID-19 cases are recorded in Africa and that about one in three deaths have been missed.



Although African countries struggled early in the pandemic to secure COVID vaccines as rich countries hoarded available doses, many are now well-supplied with shots but are having trouble getting them into arms. The reasons include hesitancy and logistics.



As of the end of May, Africa had reported over 11.8 million confirmed COVID cases and more than 250,000 deaths.



&#8220;The job is not yet done. Every time we sit back and relax, COVID-19 flares up again. The threat of new variants remains real, and we need to be ready to cope with this ever-present danger,&#8221; Moeti told the briefing.



(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru and Alexander Winning in Johannesburg; Editing by James Macharia Chege and Tomasz Janowski)

Clarification on COVID-19 “hotspots” as SA moves to level 3 lockdown

Africa’s COVID deaths to fall by 94% in 2022, WHO analysis shows

GENEVA, May 24 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The World Health Organization&#8217;s (WHO) members re-elected Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as Director General by a strong majority for another five years, the president of the World Health Assembly said on Tuesday.



The vote by secret ballot, announced by Ahmed Robleh Abdilleh from Djibouti at a major annual meeting, was seen as a formality since Tedros was the only candidate running.



Ministers and delegates took turns to shake hands and hug Tedros, a former health minister from Ethiopia, who has steered the UN agency through a turbulent period dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The president had to use a gavel several times to interrupt the applause.



Addressing the assembly soon after his re-election, Tedros said the WHO&#8217;s focus will be on emergency preparedness and improvement of the agency.



&#8220;This pandemic has been very unprecedented and many lessons that we should learn and we are learning. But, at the same time we cannot just pause, learn and implement&#8230;instead of pausing to learn, we&#8217;re saying while learning let&#8217;s implement.&#8221;



The newly re-elected WHO head teared up while talking about the current Ukraine crisis and the death of his younger brother from a childhood disease amidst war and poverty decades ago.



&#8220;When I visited Ukraine when I saw especially the kids..It was the image from more than 50 years ago that came to my mind, so visible, so hounding. The smell, sound and image of war. That is what I don&#8217;t want to happen to anyone.&#8221;



Several countries including Germany and the United States were quick to offer their congratulations.



German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach tweeted that Tedros got 155 of 160 votes, calling it a spectacular result. &#8220;Congratulations, fully deserved.&#8221;



Germany recently overtook the United States as the UN health agency&#8217;s top donor.



However, Tedros’ second-term candidacy did not receive the support of his native Ethiopia due to friction over the Tigray conflict. Ethiopia&#8217;s envoy to the assembly made it clear that Botswana&#8217;s statement congratulating Tedros did not represent all 47 countries of the African group.



&#8220;The established working method of the African group is to work by consensus. I would like to point out that there was no consensus. Hence, the distinguished representative of Botswana cannot deliver the statement on behalf of the African group.&#8221;



(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby, Emma Farge and Mrinalika Roy; Additional reporting by Paul Carrel; Editing by Catherine Evans)VIEW LESS

106446181-1584374084821gettyimages-1206555421

Tedros re-elected as head of World Health Organization

GENEVA, May 24 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;African countries raised an objection on Tuesday to a U.S.-led proposal to reform the International Health Regulations (IHR), a move delegates say might prevent passage at the World Health Organization&#8217;s annual assembly.



If Africa continues to withhold support, it could block one of the only concrete reforms expected from the meeting, fraying hopes that members will unite on reforms to strengthen the U.N. health agency&#8217;s rules as it seeks a central role for itself in global health policy.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2XF0HC&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The IHR set out WHO members&#8217; legally binding obligations around outbreaks. The United States has proposed 13 IHR reforms which seek to authorise the deployment of expert teams to contamination sites and the creation of a new compliance committee to monitor implementation of the rules.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2XC0VG&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The draft proposal yet to be formally decided is seen as the first step in a broader IHR reform process and would aim to change article 59 that would speed up the implementation for future reforms from 24 to 12 months.



But the African group expressed reservations about even this narrow change, saying all reforms should be tackled together as part of a &#8220;holistic package&#8221; at a later stage.



&#8220;The African region shares the view that the process should not be fast tracked&#8230;,&#8221; Moses Keetile, deputy permanent secretary in Botswana&#8217;s health ministry, told the assembly on Tuesday on behalf of the Africa region.



Diplomats said that African objections may be a strategy to seek concessions on vaccine and drug-sharing from wealthier countries who were seen to be hoarding supplies during COVID-19.



&#8220;We find that they are going too quickly and these sorts of reforms can&#8217;t be rushed through,&#8221; said an African delegate in Geneva who was not authorised to speak to the media.



The U.S. mission in Geneva did not respond to a request for comment.



Several other countries expressed broad support for the idea of IHR reforms, without giving specifics. Iran and Malaysia also expressed reservations.



One diplomat following the discussions &#8220;They don&#8217;t agree but it&#8217;s not a disaster. It&#8217;s a multilateral process so you can&#8217;t force things through.&#8221;



The negotiations will run alongside talks on a potential pandemic treaty, raising concerns over duplication. &#8220;Several developing countries have said that the WHO has too many platforms for negotiation, and it is simply not manageable,&#8221; said Nithin Ramakrishnan, consultant for the Third World Network.



Since the U.S. IHR proposal, Russia has also submitted draft revisions, diplomats say. This assembly is expected to officially launch IHR reform discussions, which may last up to two years.



(Additional reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bangalore; Editing by David Gregorio)

Africa objects to U.S. push to reform health rules at WHO assembly￼

GENEVA, May 23 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The head of the World Health Organization said on Monday that it must be &#8220;at the centre&#8221; of a global healthcare system, while also acknowledging the need for internal reforms.



The World Health Assembly from May 22-28 is seen as one of the most important in the UN health agency&#8217;s 75-year history, as it seeks to define its future role in global health policy and get approval for a funding overhaul.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2XC0VG&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a><a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2X96B0&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



&#8220;We need a stronger and sustainably financed WHO, at the centre of the global health security architecture,&#8221; Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a major speech at the WHO&#8217;s annual assembly.



But he added: &#8220;There have been many calls for WHO to change. And there is no question that more change is needed.&#8221;



The WHO is under scrutiny after an independent panel described it as &#8220;underpowered&#8221; when COVID-19 struck, with limited powers to investigate outbreaks and coordinate containment measures.



However, its 194 member states are seen as split over whether it deserves new powers after its handling of COVID.



&#8220;Some members are saying the WHO did what it could during the pandemic and want to strengthen its authority and others are very disillusioned with the WHO and &#8230; are very divided on whether it should be given more powers,&#8221; said Adam Kamradt-Scott, a professor of Global Health at the School of Transnational Governance.



In the same speech, Tedros said COVID is far from over and that the world was not ready for the next pandemic, echoing the findings of a major report last week.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2XA0VC&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



&#8220;It&#8217;s clear that the world was and remains unprepared for a pandemic,&#8221; he said.



(Reporting by Emma Farge and Mrinalika Roy; Editing by Catherine Evans)

FFPCGEKMT5MGFILRA2HIBVLOJQ

WHO chief says it must take central role in global health

May 9 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The International Monetary Fund&#8217;s executive board on Monday approved a three-year, $456 million extended credit facility arrangement for Mozambique, with about $91 million available for immediate disbursement, the Fund said.



The facility is the southeast African nation&#8217;s first program since the global lender suspended support six years ago.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2VV4W0&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The IMF said the three-year arrangement will help support economic recovery and policies to reduce public debt and financing vulnerabilities, while creating space for public investments in human capital, climate adaptation and infrastructure.



The Fund said the program will support a reform agenda centered on establishing a sovereign wealth fund to manage the country&#8217;s liquefied natural gas wealth, mobilizing tax revenue and strengthening public finances.



&#8220;Mozambique has managed the COVID pandemic relatively well, maintaining macroeconomic stability and reform momentum even as the country has weathered a series of shocks, culminating with the effects of the war in Ukraine,&#8221; IMF&nbsp;Deputy&nbsp;Managing&nbsp;Director Bo Li said in a statement. &#8220;With policy space now limited, sustaining the economic recovery underway and tackling debt vulnerabilities are priorities.&#8221;



(Reporting by Rami Ayyub and David Lawder; Editing by Sandra Maler and Christopher Cushing)

Mozambique records first COVID-19 death

IMF board approves $456 mln program for Mozambique

<ul><li>South Africa&#8217;s Aspen facing poor demand for shots</li></ul>



<ul><li>Could slash production without orders</li></ul>



<ul><li>WHO, Gavi say supplies for COVAX initiative already secured</li></ul>



By Promit Mukherjee and Jennifer Rigby



JOHANNESBURG/LONDON, May 9 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The World Health Organization (WHO) and its COVID-19 vaccine partner Gavi have no immediate plans to buy shots made by Aspen Pharmacare&nbsp;APNJ.J, the two bodies said, dealing a blow to Africa&#8217;s efforts to develop its own vaccine production capacity.



Aspen completed a deal in March to package, sell and distribute Johnson &amp; Johnson&#8217;s&nbsp;JNJ.N&nbsp;vaccine in what was lauded as a game-changing moment for an under-vaccinated continent frustrated by sluggish Western handouts.



But the South African company&#8217;s expectations of high demand in Africa, where just a sixth of adults are fully vaccinated, have not materialised. Its CEO warned last week it would be forced to re-purpose about half of its vaccine production capacity if orders did not pick up.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL3N2WU0ZX&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Africa&#8217;s top public health body, has called upon organisations procuring shots for the continent to prioritise sourcing from African producers.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2WX4A6&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



However, COVAX &#8211; the global COVID-19 vaccine-sharing programme instrumental in Africa&#8217;s pandemic response &#8211; has no current plans to place orders with Aspen because of oversupply.



COVAX is backed by the WHO, the global vaccine alliance Gavi and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).



&#8220;In the case of Aspen, the current overall demand situation means we are currently not in a position to buy large quantities of vaccines,&#8221; a Gavi spokesperson said.



&#8220;However, we are in discussion to see if a collaboration would be feasible as part of expanding regional supply.&#8221;



Kate O&#8217;Brien, the WHO&#8217;s Director of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, said COVAX had already secured the 380 million vaccine doses required for the global programme for the second and third quarters of this year.



&#8220;COVAX &#8230; has more supply than is at present being demanded by countries, and that&#8217;s a good place to be in,&#8221; she told Reuters.



LOCAL PRODUCTION AT RISK?



As wealthy countries used their purchasing power to corner early supplies, Africa initially struggled to source COVID-19 shots, leading to calls for a boost to the continent&#8217;s vaccine production capacity.



The African Union&#8217;s goal is to produce 60% of all routine vaccines &#8211; covering everything from COVID to measles &#8211; administered in Africa locally by 2040, up from the current 1%, and several such plants are being set up.



The WHO and European Union are backing regional vaccine manufacturing initiatives. And South Africa, Senegal, Rwanda and Kenya are all seeking to establish vaccine production hubs.



Recently, however, acute shortages of COVID-19 vaccines have given way to a glut of doses as donations to COVAX and supplies from drugmakers have picked up and African governments&#8217; vaccination campaigns struggle to keep pace.



Aspen CEO Stephen Saad warned that the current lack of demand called into question the viability of local production, endangering Africa&#8217;s future vaccine security.



&#8220;There&#8217;s lives at stake here,&#8221; he told Reuters, adding that if Africa, and the rest of the world, didn&#8217;t support its capabilities the continent would remain at the back of the queue in the next pandemic.



Last year, the Biovac Institute, another South African vaccine producer, struck a deal with Pfizer&nbsp;PFE.N&nbsp;and BioNTech&nbsp;22UAy.DE&nbsp;to manufacture around 100 million doses a year of their COVID-19 vaccine for the African Union (AU). Production is due to start later this year.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2OX0VN&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



&#8220;The lack of demand is certainly worrisome to all,&#8221; Biovac Institute CEO Morena Makhoana said. &#8220;This emphasises why we need dedicated vaccine capability so that we have entities that can go through the ups and downs of the vaccine industry.&#8221;



Ayoade Alakija, co-chair of the AU-backed African Vaccine Delivery Alliance, said it was unfair to blame purchasing organisations for the demand shortfall.



African governments, she said, were now largely responsible for a glut of vaccines, having failed to establish successful mass vaccination campaigns and ensure their countries&#8217; ability to absorb vaccine supplies.



&#8220;African political leadership &#8230; seems to have jumped from &#8216;we have no vaccines&#8217; to manufacturing vaccines, and forgotten the two steps in between,&#8221; she said.



(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby in London, Promit Mukherjee in Johannesburg and Emma Farge in Geneva; Additional reporting by Wendell Roelf in Cape Town; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Josephine Mason and Kirsten Donovan)

A pack of AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines is seen as the country receives its first batch of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines under COVAX scheme, at the international airtport of Accra, Ghana February 24, 2021. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko

WHO, Gavi not planning COVID vaccine buys from S.Africa’s Aspen

JOHANNESBURG, May 5 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Africa&#8217;s top public health body urged all those purchasing COVID-19 vaccines for the continent to place orders with South Africa&#8217;s Aspen Pharmacare&nbsp;APNJ.J, saying the market was key to developing vaccine manufacturing on the continent.



The Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it was doing everything it could behind the scenes to prevent a situation where Aspen closes its facility due to a lack of orders.



Aspen negotiated a licensing deal in November to package and sell Johnson &amp; Johnson&#8217;s&nbsp;JNJ.J&nbsp;COVID-19 vaccine and distribute it across Africa.



This was hailed as a game-changing moment for an under-vaccinated continent frustrated by sluggish Western handouts, but Aspen&#8217;s&nbsp;COVID-19 vaccine&nbsp;plant now risks shutting down after receiving not a single order, a company executive said on Saturday.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2WT0CQ&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



&#8220;We have said from the very beginning of the conversation on local production that market, market, market is the key to ensuring that we have a thriving local production, manufacturing enterprise,&#8221; said Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, deputy director of the Africa CDC.



&#8220;Our message is that we need to have all those who are purchasing vaccines at the global level for African countries, they need to purchase those from African producers first,&#8221; he said at a regular media briefing.



(Reporting by James Macharia Chege and Estelle Shirbon)

Aspen_Place,_Durban_South_Africa

Africa CDC urges COVID-19 vaccine buyers to order from S.Africa’s Aspen

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/106970721-1636033270223-gettyimages-1232591117-AFP_98Y9XM.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-415885" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/106970721-1636033270223-gettyimages-1232591117-AFP_98Y9XM.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/106970721-1636033270223-gettyimages-1232591117-AFP_98Y9XM-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/106970721-1636033270223-gettyimages-1232591117-AFP_98Y9XM-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>A doctor monitors a Covid-19 patient in the Covid-19 intensive care unit of the community hospital in Germany on April 28, 2021.
RONNY HARTMANN | AFP | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>

Health

‘Patient-First’ Tech Innovations Can Boost Healthcare Access, Tackle Workforce Shortages and Burnout

Africa CDC head: COVID still a threat given low vaccination rates

WHO confirms two more Marburg virus cases in Ghana, says official

WHO declares rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency

Africa’s top public health body gets $100 mln from World Bank

Vaccine group invites African states to apply for malaria shot support

Africa in need of test kits, vaccines for monkeypox – CDC Africa

WHO eyes decision on monkeypox ’emergency’, Africa says it’s long overdue

Diseases suppressed during Covid are coming back in new and peculiar ways

Africa’s COVID deaths to fall by 94% in 2022, WHO analysis shows

Tedros re-elected as head of World Health Organization

Africa objects to U.S. push to reform health rules at WHO assembly

WHO chief says it must take central role in global health

IMF board approves $456 mln program for Mozambique

WHO, Gavi not planning COVID vaccine buys from S.Africa’s Aspen

Africa CDC urges COVID-19 vaccine buyers to order from S.Africa’s Aspen

South Africa may be entering fifth COVID wave – health minister

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Health

‘Patient-First’ Tech Innovations Can Boost Healthcare Access, Tackle Workforce Shortages and Burnout

Africa CDC head: COVID still a threat given low vaccination rates

WHO confirms two more Marburg virus cases in Ghana, says official

WHO declares rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency

Africa’s top public health body gets $100 mln from World Bank

Vaccine group invites African states to apply for malaria shot support

Africa in need of test kits, vaccines for monkeypox – CDC Africa

WHO eyes decision on monkeypox ’emergency’, Africa says it’s long overdue

Diseases suppressed during Covid are coming back in new and peculiar ways

Africa’s COVID deaths to fall by 94% in 2022, WHO analysis shows

Tedros re-elected as head of World Health Organization

Africa objects to U.S. push to reform health rules at WHO assembly￼

WHO chief says it must take central role in global health

IMF board approves $456 mln program for Mozambique

WHO, Gavi not planning COVID vaccine buys from S.Africa’s Aspen

Africa CDC urges COVID-19 vaccine buyers to order from S.Africa’s Aspen

South Africa may be entering fifth COVID wave – health minister

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Newsletters

Africa objects to U.S. push to reform health rules at WHO assembly