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Viewpoint: The Ebola Vaccine We Needed
About 27,000 people in West Africa have been infected with the Ebola virus and more than 11,000 of them have died since the outbreak began last year. Many could have been saved if an effective vaccine had been available. But the world relies on drug companies to create new vaccines and medications, and they have no financial incentive to do so for diseases that mostly affect poor countries. Clearly, the world needs a better mechanism for vaccine development.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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A Milestone in Africa: No Polio Cases in a Year
It has been one full year since polio was detected anywhere in Africa, a significant milestone in global health that has left health experts around the world quietly celebrating.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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A Quiet Revolution in the Treatment of Childhood Diarrhea
Far from the world’s fears about Ebola and MERS, a quiet revolution is taking place in the diagnosis of a disease much more prosaic but far more threatening: childhood diarrhea. After pneumonia, diarrhea is the deadliest threat to infants worldwide, killing about 700,000 every year.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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OPINION: It’s time to better understand what makes primary health care work
Recent crises — from the earthquake in Nepal to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa — have been wake-up calls: too many primary health care systems are under-resourced and fragmented, leaving countries unprepared to reach everyone with needed health services. This is true when disasters strike, and it’s also true in times of relative calm.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Weekly Roundup – 8/8/15: A solution to a perennial global health problem – and all the world’s other ills! – highlight this week in development
This week was marked by some hopeful - perhaps even overly hopeful - events in global development. We cover the highlights, from a malaria vaccine to the U.N.'s new development goals - along with a dispatch from Kenya's never-ending mobile money wars and a thought-provoking point from Melinda Gates - in this roundup.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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Africa: Workshop Enhances Use of Mobile Phones to Detect Diseases
Health experts from the African continent and beyond are meeting in Tanzania at a workshop to enhance community-based disease outbreak detection and response in East and Southern Africa.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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OPINION: What ‘100 Percent Effective’ Means for That Ebola Vaccine
Lat week, the medical journal the Lancet published preliminary results on the efficacy of an Ebola vaccine in Guinea, and everybody got really excited – especially about one particular figure. The vaccine, the results suggested, was 100 percent effective at protecting against Ebola ... But that number probably means less than you think it does.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: Ebola Vaccine: The Need to Act Now
One year ago West Africa was descending into chaos. As the Ebola death toll approached 1,000 for the first time ever and Liberia closed its borders, the World Health Organization declared the situation an international health emergency. Experimental drugs were cautiously put to use to try to treat those infected, but what was urgently needed to stop the spread was a vaccine. Now, 12 months on, it looks very much like we have one.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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