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Jan12022 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

Harvard Researcher Talks Global Health Resilience Amid COVID-19

Global Health

Catherine Arsenault, Epidemiologist and Global Health Researcher and Research Scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health - VIVIANNE CONROY By: Karl Moore From a management point of view, executives agree on the importance of leadership that adapts to the local culture. Similarly, the COVID-19 pandemic has further underlined the implication of acting accordingly to country contexts when it comes to global health systems. The coronavirus responses across the globe are precisely the subject of Catherine Arsenault’s current multi-country research project as a postdoctoral research scientist at Harvard’s Department of Global Health and Population. “I'm working on looking at the resilience of health systems during the COVID-19 pandemic by looking at the effect of the ...

Dec252021 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

FDA Authorizes First Oral Antiviral for Treatment of COVID-19

COVID19

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for Pfizer’s Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir tablets and ritonavir tablets, co-packaged for oral use) for the treatment of mild-to-moderate coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in adults and pediatric patients (12 years of age and older weighing at least 40 kilograms or about 88 pounds) with positive results of direct SARS-CoV-2 testing, and who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, including hospitalization or death. Paxlovid is available by prescription only and should be initiated as soon as possible after diagnosis of COVID-19 and within five days of symptom onset. “Today’s authorization introduces the first treatment for COVID-19 that is in the form of a pill that is taken orally — a major step forwa...

Dec202021 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

Fauci warns Omicron COVID variant ‘raging through the world’

COVID19

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Top US pandemic adviser Anthony Fauci has warned of a bleak winter ahead as the Omicron coronavirus variant spurs a new wave of infections globally, sparking restrictions and concerns over hospital capacity. “One thing that’s very clear … is [Omicron’s] extraordinary capability of spreading,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told broadcaster NBC News on Sunday. “It is just … raging through the world.” Since it was first reported in southern Africa in November, Omicron has been identified in dozens of countries, prompting many to reimpose travel restrictions and other measures in an attempt to slow outbreaks. Despite some preliminary i...

Dec92021 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

World unprepared for future pandemics: Global Health Security Index 2021

Global Health

A masked couple walks on the empty Trocadero next to the Eiffel Tower, in Paris, Tuesday, March 17, 2020. Nearly two years into a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 5 million people, every country, including the United States, remains dangerously unprepared to respond to future epidemic and pandemic threats, according to a report released Wednesday assessing the efforts of 195 countries. Researchers compiling the Global Health Security Index — a project of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a D.C.-based nonprofit global security group, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health— found insufficient capacity in every country, which they said left the world vulnerable to future health emergencies, including some that might be more d...

Dec82021 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

Vaccines should work against Omicron variant, WHO says

COVID19

Travellers in personal protective equipment load luggage into a taxi outside the international terminal at Sydney Airport, as countries react to the new coronavirus Omicron variant amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Sydney, Australia, November 29, 2021. Existing vaccines should still protect people who contract the Omicron variant from severe Covid cases, a World Health Organization (WHO) official says. It comes as the first lab tests of the new variant in South Africa suggest it can partially evade the Pfizer jab. Researchers say there was a "very large drop" in how well the vaccine's antibodies neutralised the new strain. But the WHO's Dr Mike Ryan said there was no sign Omicron would be better at evading vaccines than other variants. "We have highly effe...

Dec12021 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

What to know about the omicron variant of the coronavirus

COVID19

By Meryl Kornfield, Adela Suliman, Christine Armario, María Luisa Paúl and Lindsey Bever Omicron has sparked alarm among epidemiologists worried that the new variant’s mutations could make it more transmissible. Scientists are racing to learn more as new cases are confirmed. A new variant of the coronavirus, which causes covid-19, is raising concern around the globe. Health authorities say the new variant, known by the Greek letter omicron, was first identified in southern Africa. Since then cases have since been confirmed in 20 countries as of Tuesday morning — though none has been detected in the United States. In an address from the White House on Monday, President Biden said the variant is a “cause for concern, not a cause for panic.” He urged Americans to get the coron...

Nov232021 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

Kofi Annan Global Health Leadership Programme (Fully Funded) – Apply Now!

Global Health

Supporting aspirational public health leaders from Africa in acquiring advanced skills and competencies to strategize, manage and lead public health programmes that will transform public health in Africa. The African Union Commission launched the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) – Kofi Annan Global Health Leadership Programme on 25 May 2020 in partnership with the Kofi Annan Foundation, following its approval by the Governing Board of Africa CDC in March 2018. The aim is to support aspirational Public Health Leaders (Fellows) from Africa in acquiring advanced skills and competencies to strategize, manage and lead public health programmes that will transform public health in Africa. Fellows admitted in the programme w...

Nov162021 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

New WHO report highlights barriers to insulin for diabetes

NCDs

A new report highlights the worrying state of global access to insulin for diabetes care and finds that high prices, low availability of human insulin, few producers dominating the insulin market and weak health systems are the main barriers to universal access. Insulin for diabetes treatment is essential for diagnosed individuals to manage their condition, reducing fatality rates, risk of kidney failure, blindness and limb amputation for people living with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. “The scientists who discovered insulin 100 years ago refused to profit from their discovery and sold the patent for just one dollar,” said WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Unfortunately, that gesture of solidarity has been overtaken by a multi-billion-dollar business that ...

Nov132021 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

There May Be a ‘Best Bedtime’ for Your Heart

NCDs

Is there an ideal time to go to bed every night if you want to dodge heart disease? Apparently there is, claims a new study that found hitting the sack between 10 and 11 p.m. may be the ideal time to cut the risk for cardiovascular trouble. The finding may be worth heeding, since the researchers also found that going to sleep before 10 p.m. or at midnight or later might raise the risk for heart disease by nearly 25%. The raised risk may be traced to the altering of the body's circadian rhythm — its internal clock, the study authors said. "The circadian system controls daily behavioral and physiological rhythms. Disruption to the circadian rhythm has wide-ranging implications, resulting in poorer cognitive performance and increased risk for various physical and ...

Nov122021 by GHealth NewsNo Comments

University of Oxford starts new Ebola vaccine trials

Vaccines

Clinical trials have begun for a new Ebola vaccine developed by the University of Oxford. The jab has been designed to tackle the Zaire and Sudan types of Ebola, which together have caused nearly all Ebola outbreaks and deaths worldwide. The University of Oxford has launched phase one of its trials, testing the vaccine in human volunteers. Ebola vaccines exist for the Zaire species but Oxford researchers hope the new jab will have a wider reach. Teresa Lambe, lead scientific investigator at the University of Oxford, said: "Sporadic Ebolavirus outbreaks still occur in affected countries, putting the lives of individuals, especially frontline health workers, at risk. We need more vaccines to tackle this devastating disease." There are four species of Ebola virus that have been...