Communicable Diseases

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

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

Less than a decade ago, the American anthropologist James C Scott described infectious diseases as the “loudest silence” in the prehistoric archaeological record. Epidemics must have devastated human societies in the distant past and changed the course of history, but, Scott lamented, the artefacts left behind reveal nothing about them. Over the last few years, the silence has been shattered by pioneering research that analyses microbial DNA extracted from very old human skeletons. The latest example of this is a groundbreaking study that identified three viruses in 50,000-year-old Neanderthal bones. These pathogens still afflict modern humans: adenovirus, herpesvirus and papillomavirus cause the common cold, cold sores, and genital warts and cancer, respectively. Th...

GHealth News - The World Health Organization (WHO) has certified Cabo Verde as a malaria-free country, marking a significant achievement in global health. With this announcement, Cabo Verde joins the ranks of 43 countries and 1 territory that WHO has awarded this certification. Cabo Verde is the third country to be certified in the WHO African region, joining Mauritius and Algeria which were certified in 1973 and 2019 respectively. Malaria burden is the highest on the African continent, which accounted for approximately 95% of global malaria cases and 96% of related deaths in 2021. Certification of malaria elimination will drive positive development on many fronts for Cabo Verde.  Systems and structures built for malaria elimination have strengthened the health system and will b...

GHealth News - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a health alert on Thursday to notify clinicians and health departments about a deadly type of the mpox virus (formerly monkeypox) spreading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The CDC said it was alerting about the possibility of a subtype of the mpox virus called Clade I in travelers who have been in DRC. Clade I is generally more infectious and leads to more severe infections than another subtype called Clade II. Clade I has not yet been reported in the United States at this time, the CDC added. Recent evidence has shown for the first time Clade I can be transmitted through sexual contact, which has proved to be the main transmission mode for the less deadly strain of the disease...

GHealth News - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging travelers to practice enhanced precautions when going to places such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Madagascar and Indonesia due to the circulating poliovirus.  The agency identified 31 countries where travelers are at high risk for the disease in a recently updated advisory.  The virus was eradicated in the western hemisphere in 1994 but exists in some polio-endemic countries, and it has been detected in other places worldwide.  The following destinations have circulating poliovirus, according to the CDC: Afghanistan Algeria Benin Botswana Burundi Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Côte d'Ivoire Democratic Republic of the Congo Djibouti Eg...

“Time to deliver zero malaria: invest, innovate, implement”  GHealth News - World Malaria Day 2023 will be marked under the theme “Time to deliver zero malaria: invest, innovate, implement”. At WHO, we’re focused on raising awareness about the need to “implement” the tools and strategies we have available today to reach those who continue to be unreached across the Western Pacific.  The Region faces challenges on the road to malaria elimination. In particular, the epidemiology of malaria exhibits enormous diversity, with the disease often concentrated in remote areas and/or among highly mobile or hard-to-reach populations, including forest goers, migrants, indigenous people, military and refugees. More than 70% of malaria deaths in the Region are attributable to Plasmodium ...

GHealth News - The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sending personnel to Africa to help stop outbreaks of Marburg virus disease and is urging travelers to certain countries to take precautions. The CDC is also taking steps to keep infections from spreading to the United States. Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania are facing their first known outbreaks of Marburg virus, a viral fever with uncontrolled bleeding that’s a close cousin to Ebola. This week, the CDC urged travelers to both countries to avoid contact with sick people and to watch for symptoms for three weeks after leaving the area. Travelers to Equatorial Guinea should take enhanced precautions and avoid nonessential travel to the provinces where the outbreak is ongoing, the agency said. In the United States, the ...

By Harriet Barber Marburg virus disease is an often fatal illness which causes hemorrhagic fever in humans.  It is closely related to Ebola and is typically spread by bats, which provide a natural reservoir for the virus.  Once in human populations, Marburg is spread person-to-person via droplets of blood, saliva, mucus and other bodily fluids. The average fatality rate is around 50 per cent, with rates varying from 24 per cent to 88 per cent in past outbreaks depending on the strain of the virus and quality of  medical care. There is currently no vaccine for the virus.  What is the history of Marburg? Marburg was first recognised in 1967, when outbreaks of haemorrhagic fever occurred simultaneously in laboratories in Marburg and Frank...

By Knvul Sheikh Three different viruses are sending children and adults to hospital emergency rooms across the United States this winter. Not only is the coronavirus making a comeback because of new immune-evasive variants, but influenza and the respiratory syncytial virus are also spreading earlier than usual and at record rates. Most people were able to avoid the flu and other infections like R.S.V. for the past few years while the coronavirus was new and a large portion of the population was taking steps to slow the spread of Covid, which also slowed the spread of other viruses. Our immunity to these viruses may have waned in that duration, and many children born during the pandemic never gained any immunity at all. As a result, more people are vulnerable to common winter...