By Henry Opondo Kenya will roll out mass random screening of members of the public for COVID-19 beginning this coming Saturday. Mutahi Kagwe Health Cabinet Secretary told the press that at the moment, the country has restricted its screening at the point of entries, mostly the airports. “We have screed over 600,000 people who have…
President Kenyatta picked to Chair the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA)
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced his four priorities for his two-year term as Chair of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA). His overall aim is to eliminate malaria from the continent by 2030. The game-changing agenda addresses major challenges in the battle against malaria. These challenges include the insufficient engagement of women, children and…
Rwanda launches Zero Malaria Starts with Me campaign
Today, Rwanda joins the Zero Malaria Starts with Me movement, in a drive to accelerate malaria elimination across the African continent. The Zero Malaria Starts with Me campaign, launched in 2018 by H.E. President Paul Kagame of Rwanda in his role as Chair of the African Union, seeks to build community ownership of malaria efforts…
New global plan to end TB
The Stop TB Partnership launched the Global Plan to End TB 2018-2022 that calls for 2.6 billion USD per year for vital research and development of new tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic tools, new drug regimens and a new vaccine, and 13 billion USD per year for TB care and prevention. With the new Global Plan, the…
MMV@20: Leaders say innovative tools still needed to conquer malaria
The war against malaria will not be won without increased innovation for new, transformative tools, Dr David Reddy, CEO, Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) has said. Speaking while marking the 20th Anniversary of the MMV, Dr Davd noted that those last 20 years have offered this war vital lessons. “Today is a chance for us…
Tanzania steps war against malaria
Determined to lessen the malaria burden, the United Republic of Tanzania has announced the launch of its national Zero Malaria Starts With Me campaign, becoming the 11th nation to join the ever-growing Pan-African movement. Tanzania is among the highest-burden countries with 93% of the population at risk of malaria The campaign was launched during the…
Important gene variants found in certain African populations
In the nearly 20 years since the Human Genome Project was completed, experts in genetic variants increasingly have raised concerns about the overemphasis on studying people of European descent when performing large population studies. A study appearing October 31 in the journal Cell aims to address some of this disparity by focusing on populations living in rural…
Health Foundation lauds approval of Ebola Vaccine
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has lauded the decision by the WHO to finally recommend the highly effective Merck vaccine against Ebola The vaccine was first used with very positive results in 2015 during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa that killed over 11,300 people. Since then it has been administered in multiple outbreaks under…