The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says three of its aid workers were killed earlier this week in South Sudan, where they were assisting with Ebola health screenings in the border area with Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. The three volunteers, two men and a woman, were caught in…
Some promising news in the fight against tuberculosis came Tuesday from India, where results from trials of a new TB vaccine, the first in nearly 100 years, were presented at the 50th Union World Conference on Lung Health. The vaccine, developed by British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and known as…
There’s been another attack on a health facility in Democratic Republic of Congo, the latest in a series of such incidents targeting health and humanitarian aid workers who are responding to the 14-month Ebola outbreak in the country’s east. This time a health center in Lwembe, in the Mandima health…
Ebola health workers were attacked again in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, after people in the Lolwa community blamed them for the death of a 3-year-old child who was under care with a different diagnosis. The military restored order Sunday after youths vandalized the medical facility, according to Radio Okapi,…
Donors at the Global Fund’s Sixth Replenishment Conference pledged US$14 billion for the next three years to continue the fight to end HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria by 2030. The conference hosted by President Emmanuel Macron of France appealed to governments and individual donors to ensure the necessary funding to combat…
Four more deaths in India have been linked to selfie-taking after members from the same family fell while taking the photo at a dam in Tamil Nadu on Sunday. Those deaths have renewed attention to the global “selfie death” problem and African nations are by no means immune. A study…
There was some good news on the Ebola front on Friday, as the Democratic Republic of Congo celebrated a milestone of 1,000 people who have survived the virus since the current outbreak began more than a year ago. That milestone survivor is a 44-year-old woman named Marguerite, according to the…
There is nowhere near enough mental health support for people in low- and middle-income countries who are caught in conflict and humanitarian crisis, according to leaders of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). In those countries,…
Beginning in mid-October, a second experimental vaccine will be used in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as the central African nation shifts strategy in seeking to end a yearlong Ebola outbreak that has claimed 2,115 lives. “The DRC authorities, in deciding to deploy the second experimental vaccine to extend…
The confusion over cases of Ebola in Tanzania still isn’t resolved, and the World Health Organization says it’s not getting the information it needs from the East African nation nearly two weeks after it first heard of a suspected case in Dar es Salaam. That’s according to a WHO statement…
Many of us associate salmonella infections with food poisoning, but across sub-Saharan Africa there is a strain of the pathogen that often causes a blood infection known as iNTS infection. The abbreviation stands for invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella, with iNTS commonly linked to the Salmonella Typhimurium strain. New research from the…
Doctors in Zimbabwe took to the streets Monday, demanding to know where the abducted president of their union has gone and refusing to work until the government answers their question. Dr. Peter Magombeyi, who has been leading the latest charge for better pay and working conditions in cash-strapped Zimbabwe, was…
Authorities in Democratic Republic of Congo say Dr. Oly Ilunga, former head of the Ministry of Health and its Ebola response, was taken into custody on Saturday as police sought to stop him from leaving the country through neighboring Brazzaville. The former minister’s detention follows initial hearings on alleged financial…
Kenya has joined the nations of Ghana and Malawi in administering a new malaria vaccine, with parts of the country participating in a pilot program offered in partnership with the World Health Organization. The vaccine known as RTS,S has taken 30 years to develop and so far is the only…
Conditions in Burkina Faso are making it harder for health and humanitarian aid workers, with more than 100 health centers closing or limiting their roles because of the conflict. That’s according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which said Tuesday that roughly a half-million people now have…