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Consortium to advance human hookworm vaccine in sub-Saharan Africa
The HOOKVAC consortium, led by the Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam, Thursday announced receiving a grant of 6 million Euros to develop and test a vaccine for human hookworm, a disease that infects 600-700 million of the world’s poorest people.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Speed, convenience, safety: contactless payments’ role in mobile money transfer
With the steady introduction of contactless payment systems in parts of South Africa, a new wave of convenience for low-value transactions is becoming a reality.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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E-Bay to buy Braintree to boost PayPal’s mobile presence
EBay Inc. will buy payments service Braintree Payments Solutions LLC for $800 million in cash, making a big bet to secure the pole position in the race to get consumers to pay for goods and services on smartphones.
- Categories
- Technology
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Philippines central bank in broad Islamic finance push
In what could be one of the most ambitious efforts to facilitate Islamic finance in a non-Muslim country, the Philippines' central bank is pushing several initiatives to develop the sector and encourage financial inclusion of the Muslim minority.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Not Your Mother’s Microfinance
Forward-thinking small business owners across the developing world are turning to the online space as an alternative source of small business loans.
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- Uncategorized
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Africa’s Healthcare Cocktail: Of Coverage, Cost And Innovation
“You guys are investing in hospitals.” That was the question (or masked hope) of an American-trained Ethiopian doctor, the owner and head doctor of a local hospital in Addis Ababa. The question is a familiar one to investors in many of Sub-Saharan Africa’s emerging economies. Many foreign-trained doctors are returning home to the desperate health sectors in Africa. The perilous state of health care in Sub-Saharan Africa begs for more investment. Communicable and parasitical diseases persist, with few countries able to provide basic sanitation, clean water and adequate nutrition to all of their citizenry. Few countries are able to spend the $35 per person that the World Health Organization (WHO) considers the minimum for basic health care. But despite the extensive poverty, more than 50 percent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s health expenditure is paid out-of-pocket by individuals.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Organization Rallies Global Oncology Community to Eliminate Cancer Health Disparities
Today, more than half of new cancer cases and over two-thirds of cancer deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Underlying this burden of cancer is an unequal distribution of global resources, a lack of coordinated care for oncology patients, and a multitude of social, cultural, and economic factors that lead to late diagnosis and incomplete palliation in the developing world. To combat the growing cancer burden, concerted action is needed from the global health and oncology communities. In her Presidential Address to the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Sandra Swain, MD, highlighted the “possibilities and promise in global health equity,” encouraging oncology leaders worldwide to join the effort to bridge the “access gap” in cancer care. The Global Oncology Initiative, an academic and grassroots volunteer organization based out of Boston, Massachusetts, seeks to do just that. GO connects local and global oncology communities and is developing programs aimed at alleviating worldwide cancer care disparities.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Ghana to vaccinate girls against cervical cancer – Mahama
Ghana this year will begin a demonstration project vaccinating girls against human papillomavirus (HPV). The HPV is the leading cause of cervical cancer, which is the biggest cancer killer of women on the African continent.President John Mahama revealed this in New York on Tuesday, when Ghana hosted a side event at the ongoing UN General Assembly, in collaboration with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) and the Global Fund.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa