How expensive it is to be poor: Prof. Abdoulaye Diabaté inspires global action against malaria at TED2024

How expensive it is to be poor: Prof. Abdoulaye Diabaté inspires global action against malaria at TED2024

In a stirring address at TED2024, Prof. Abdoulaye Diabaté, Head of Medical Entomology and Parasitology at the Research Institute in Health Sciences in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, and Principal Investigator of Target Malaria Burkina Faso, shared his journey with malaria and his resolute commitment to eradicating it. Prof. Diabaté's talk shed light on the devastating toll of malaria, particularly in Africa, and stressed the urgent need for transformative solutions. […]

April 30, 2024 34

Health / Medical

Namibia marks World Immunisation Week

This week is World Immunisation Week, with this year celebrating 50 years of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation. The World Health Organisation director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says they are calling on world leaders to advocate, support, and fund vaccines and immunisation programmes. The week is marked under the theme of ‘Humanly Possible’. Here is the Minister of Health and Social Services Dr. Kalumbi Shangula for his message. Vaccines Save […]

April 29, 2024 47

Health / Medical

Namibia celebrates World Malaria Day

World Malaria Day is being celebrated today under the theme, “Accelerating the fight against malaria for a more equitable world”. Despite significant progress in reducing the global burden of malaria between 2000 and 2015, progress has slowed in recent years, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. We contacted Dr Richard Kamwi, the Africa CDC Champion and Ambassador of the Elimination 8 Initiative to find out how Namibia is faring.

April 25, 2024 66

Environment

Over 2.4 billion workers face climate-related health risks

Bloomberg News reports that more than 2.4 billion workers — or 70% of the global workforce — are exposed to climate change-related health hazards. An International Labour Organisation’s report, published Monday, also estimates that 18,970 lives and 2.09 million disability-adjusted life years are lost annually to 22.87 million occupational injuries attributable to excessive heat.

April 24, 2024 16

Africa

WHO approves new oral simplified cholera vaccine

World Health Organization's has approved a new oral vaccine for cholera. The oral vaccine for cholera received prequalification by the WHO on 12 April 2024. The inactivated oral vaccine Euvichol-S has a similar efficacy to existing vaccines but a simplified formulation, allowing opportunities to rapidly increase production capacity. There were 473 000 cholera cases reported to WHO in 2022 -- double the number from 2021. Further increase of cases by 700 […]

April 22, 2024 144

Africa

Researchers urgently call for action against the DRC’s new Mpox strain

Scientists have identified a new strain of the mpox virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo that spreads rapidly among humans. The researchers are calling for swift action to avert another global mpox outbreak. The disease previously known as monkeypox was reported in several countries in Europe and North America in 2022. Chris Ocamringa has more from Kinshasa.

April 18, 2024 82

Health / Medical

WHO warns that Hepatitis is killing thousands daily

The World Health Organisation has warned that the number of daily deaths due to viral hepatitis infections is on the rise. It's the second deadliest infectious disease killing around 1.3 million people per year.

April 10, 2024 52

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Health / Medical

Namibia faces kidney disease challenge, high dialysis costs

Today is World Kidney Day, a global initiative focused on increasing awareness of the vital role kidneys play in our health and reducing the prevalence and impact of kidney disease worldwide. We interviewed Dr. Glenda Kalunga, a local nephrologist, who has been testing for kidney disease at dialysis centers countrywide. Namibia has a total population of 3.02 million people and has more than 300 confirmed cases of chronic kidney failure […]

March 14, 2024 113 3

Health / Medical

Global obesity rates double among adults, quadruple among children

The number of obese people worldwide has surpassed one billion, according to global analysis. Research published by The Lancet journal shows 879 million adults and 159 million children were obese in 2022 - the most recent year included in the analysis. The data shows that globally, obesity rates among children and adolescents quadrupled from 1990 to 2022, while rates among adults more than doubled. The numbers, according to local Dietician […]

March 4, 2024 33