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The key to fighting the next ‘Ebola’ outbreak is in your pocket
When a toddler called Emile Ouamouno, in the village of Meliandou in Guinea, died from Ebola in December 2013, it took three months for the rest of the world to know about it and a further six months to act. The result was an epidemic that killed 11,000 people across West Africa.
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- Health Care
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A Zika vaccine is being developed at warp speed, but will there be a market for it?
When top US health authorities convened in late January to brief President Barack Obama on the Zika outbreak in Latin America, the post-meeting scuttlebutt was that the president was eager to push development of a Zika vaccine.
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- Health Care
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- North America
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A method for storing vaccines at room temperature
Shipping vaccines in an unbroken temperature-controlled supply chain (a "cold chain") all the way to recipients is a major logistical and financial challenge in remote areas and developing countries. According to Doctors Without Borders, the need to keep vaccines within a temperature range of 2-8°C is one of the main factors behind low immunization-coverage rates.
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- Health Care
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- public health, vaccines
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HIV Vaccine Trial to Begin in South Africa
A new clinical trial is underway in South Africa on an experimental vaccine that could safely prevent HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. According to a statement from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the HVTN 702 is the largest and most advanced HIV vaccine clinical trial to be undertaken in South Africa, where some seven million people are living with the virus.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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- public health, research, vaccines
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FG, GSK Freeze Price of Pneumonia Vaccines for Next 10 Years
The federal government in conjunction with a leading pharmaceutical company, GSK, has pledged not to increase the price of pneumonia vaccines for the next 10 years but to rather freeze the price for improved vaccination. The plan, according to the company, would ensure that children in the country do not die of the disease, which is now the number one killer disease amongst children under five.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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- vaccines
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Measles jab saves 20 million young lives
Measles jab saves more than 20 million young lives in 15 years, but hundreds of children still die of the disease every day, United Nations health agencies report has revealed. According to the report, despite a 79 per cent worldwide decrease in measles deaths between 2000 and 2015, nearly 400 children still die from the disease every day.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Pfizer Offers Cut-Price Pneumonia Shot for Humanitarian Crises
U.S. pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer is to offer its pneumococcal vaccine at the lowest possible price to non-governmental organizations seeking to protect vulnerable people from illness in humanitarian crises.
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- Health Care
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- vaccines
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Which Big Drug Companies Are Helping the Poor? Here’s the List
The pharmaceutical giant GSK, which has held first place in the Access to Medicine Index ever since its introduction in 2008, was ranked first again this week. The index measures how well the world’s top 20 pharma companies do at getting their drugs and vaccines — and often their scientific expertise — to the world’s poorest countries.
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- Health Care
- Region
- North America