Category: Global Health

We also look at whats happneing across the world

Networks Of People Living With HIV Plug The Gap In Essential Services As Weak Health Systems Struggle To Cope With COVID-19

Healthtimes

AS health systems the world over are buckling under the pressure of COVID-19, volunteers and activists from the HIV movement have stepped in to ensure that essential services continue. A survey by GNP+, ICW and Y+ Global has found that networks of people living with HIV are using innovative ways to ensure their peers and their communities continue to have access to the critical services that they need. The results of the survey, released today in our report Living with HIV in the time of COVID-19, show how governments are focusing…

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Almost 10 million children may never return to school following Covid-19 lockdown- Save The Children Warns

Michael Gwarisa

DEEP budget cuts to education and rising poverty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic could force at least 9.7 million children out of school forever by the end of this year, with millions more falling behind in learning, Save the Children warns in a new report launched today. Girls are likely to be much worse affected than boys, with many forced into early marriage. As the impacts of the recession triggered by COVID-19 hits families, many children may be forced out of school and into labour markets. In its report, Save…

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FDA Authorizes Marketing of IQOS Tobacco Heating System with ‘Reduced Exposure’ Information

Michael Gwarisa

THE U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the marketing of Philip Morris Products S.A.’s “IQOS Tobacco Heating System” as modified risk tobacco products (MRTPs). By Michael Gwarisa This marks the second set of products ever to be authorized as MRTPs and the first tobacco products to receive “exposure modification” orders, which permits the marketing of a product as containing a reduced level of or presenting a reduced exposure to a substance or as being free of a substance when the issuance of the order is expected to benefit the health…

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73 Countries Face ARVs Stock-outs Due To COVID-19 Warns WHO

Michael Gwarisa

SEVENTY-THREE countries have warned that they are at risk of stock-outs of antiretroviral (ARV) medicines as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new WHO survey conducted ahead of the International AIDS Society’s biannual conference. Twenty-four countries reported having either a critically low stock of ARVs or disruptions in the supply of these life-saving medicines.  The survey follows a modelling exercise convened by WHO and UNAIDS in May which forecasted that a six-month disruption in access to ARVs could lead to a doubling in AIDS-related deaths in sub-Saharan…

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Another Deadly Disease “Bubonic Plague” Reported In China, World Should Be On High Alert

Healthtimes

AUTHORITIES in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia are on high alert after a suspected case of bubonic plague, the disease that caused the Black Death pandemic, was reported Sunday. SOURCE: CNN The case was discovered in the city of Bayannur, located northwest of Beijing, according to state-run Xinhua news agency. A hospital alerted municipal authorities of the patient’s case on Saturday. By Sunday, local authorities had issued a citywide Level 3 warning for plague prevention, the second lowest in a four-level system. The warning will stay in place until…

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Cassava Fintech International launches SASAI Health Status Report as it steps up fight against COVID-19

Healthtimes

Healthtech platform set to offer handy solution to tackle epidemic Report to assist employers, businesses safely get employees back to work London – June 24, 2020: Cassava Fintech International (CFI), a subsidiary of the Econet Group, has launched the SASAI Health Status Report (SHSR), a secure blockchain technology-supported solution expected to digitize the testing process, establish citizens’ COVID-19 status, enable them to share their testing results through a digital platform and help businesses safely get employees back to work as economies reopen, following restrictive lockdowns. The healthtech solution was announced…

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Novartis expands Africa Sickle Cell Disease program to Uganda and Tanzania

Healthtimes

NOVARTIS and its partners have announced the expansion of the Africa Sickle Cell Disease program to East Africa with the signature of two new memoranda of understanding with the Ministries of Health of Uganda and Tanzania. HealthTimes Reporter The program, first launched in Ghana in November 2019, aims to improve and extend the lives of people with sickle cell disease (SCD) in sub-Saharan Africa, with plans to reach a total of 10 countries by 2022. In this time of worldwide uncertainty, it is even more important to support people living…

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People With Blood Group A At Higher Risk Of Severe COVID-19 Illness

Healthtimes

LAST week, a genetic study of more than 1,610 COVID-19 patients in Italy and Spain found that people with type A blood had a higher chance of developing severe respiratory failure than people with type O blood (medRxiv 2020, DOI: 10.1101/2020.05.31.20114991). The findings add support to an idea that has been developing since early in the global pandemic, that type O blood is somehow protective against the disease, while type A may make people more vulnerable. SOURCE: C&EN In the new study, researchers sequenced the genomes of COVID-19 patients in…

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Coronavirus Scorecard for Africa: Percentage of GDP earmarked for combating COVID-19

Healthtimes

Governments’ response to COVID-19 has in most cases involved earmarking a significant percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – the standard measure of a country’s productive wealth – towards fighting the pandemic. Although this is only part of most governments’ broad-spectrum policy response to the disease, it is an important measure as it indicates governments’ level of commitment to responding to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. It must be stressed, however, that different governments face different levels of severity of the pandemic and different projections (depending on a wide range…

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FDA Approves Dolutegravir Tablets for Oral Suspension for Children With HIV

Healthtimes

OFFICIALS with the FDA have approved dolutegravir (Tivicay PD, ViiV Healthcare) dispersible tablets for oral suspension for children who are at least 4 weeks of age and weigh at least 3 kg, according to a press release. SOURCE: DRUG TOPICS This approval marks the first ever dispersible tablet formulation of dolutegravir, which are used in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in pediatric patients. Additionally, the approval also expands dolutegravir’s indication for the existing 50-mg film-coated tablets (Tivicay) for use in children weighing 20 kg…

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