The World Health Organization’s Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has urged countries to increase their COVID-19 sequencing efforts and share data with the global community in order to detect and track the emergence and spread of new variants. The Director-General stated that despite the progress made in the fight against the pandemic, such as the development of vaccines, the number of sequences being shared has dropped by over 90% since the peak of the Omicron wave and the number of countries
While the COVID-19 pandemic has declined significantly in 2022, there are still many gaps and uncertainties that prevent the World Health Organization (WHO) from declaring the pandemic over. Addressing journalists recently, WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, noted that gaps in surveillance, testing, vaccination, treatment, and health systems are preventing the ending of the pandemic. Gaps in surveillance, testing and sequencing mean we do not understand well enough how the virus is changing; Gaps in vaccination mean that millions
The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concerns about the trend of COVID-19 deaths in Africa. Addressing the 150th Executive Board Meeting of the WHO, the organization’s Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that while the number of deaths from the pandemic is rising, it is particularly increasing in Africa where the least proportion of citizens have been vaccinated. “So far, the explosion in cases has not been matched by a surge in deaths, although deaths are increasing in all regions,
The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated its living guideline on COVID-19 therapeutics to include convalescent plasma. For non-severe COVID-19 patients, WHO recommends against its use, while it should only be used within clinical trials for severe and critical COVID-19 patients. Convalescent plasma is a transfusion of blood plasma from someone who has recovered from COVID-19. Current evidence shows that convalescent plasma does not improve survival or reduce the need for mechanical ventilation, while it has significant costs. An independent panel of experts,
Only 27% of health workers in Africa have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, leaving the bulk of the workforce on the frontlines against the pandemic unprotected, a preliminary analysis by World Health Organization (WHO) shows. Analysis of data reported from 25 countries finds that since March 2021, 1.3 million health workers were fully vaccinated, with just six countries reaching more than 90%, while nine countries have fully vaccinated less than 40%. In sharp contrast, a recent WHO global study of 22
European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) human medicines committee has recommended granting an extension of indication for the COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty to include use in children aged 5 to 11. The vaccine, developed by BioNTech and Pfizer, is already approved for use in adults and children aged 12 and above. In children from 5 to 11 years of age, the dose of Comirnaty will be lower than that used in people aged 12 and above (10 µg compared with 30 µg).
Africa’s sharp increase in diabetes is clashing with the COVID-19 pandemic and poor access to vaccines. Africa’s death rates from COVID-19 infections are significantly higher in patients with diabetes, according to a preliminary analysis which the World Health Organization (WHO) presented today in advance of the World Diabetes Day on 14 November. “COVID-19 is delivering a clear message: fighting the diabetes epidemic in Africa is in many ways as critical as the battle against the current pandemic,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti,
Merck and Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics today announced that the submission of an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for molnupiravir, an investigational oral antiviral medicine, for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults who are at risk for progressing to severe COVID-19 and/or hospitalization. The companies are actively working with regulatory agencies worldwide to submit applications for emergency use or marketing authorization in the coming months. The submission is based on positive results
The Stop TB Partnership today released new data showing how the COVID-19 pandemic and dismally low levels of funding represent the main barriers to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of ending TB by 2030. The data from 2021 shows that the impact of COVID-19 on the TB response has continued to be profound: 1.2 million fewer people have been diagnosed and treated for TB in in 2021 with four months still left in the calendar year. Currently, only
As the COVAX Facility is forced to slash planned COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to Africa by around 150 million this year, the continent faces almost 500 million doses short of the global year-end target of fully vaccinating 40% of its population. This shortfall comes as Africa tops 8 million COVID-19 cases this week. With the cutback COVAX is now expected to deliver 470 million doses to Africa this year. These will be enough to vaccinate just 17% of the population, far