COVID-19 anti-body testing in Cologne, Germany. PHOTO/Wikimedia Commons. By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT [email protected] New research shows the shingles vaccine can lower your risk of stroke and heart attack; in addition to preventing the total agony of a blistering rash. Shingles is an infection nobody wants. Those who have endured the blistering rash describe the pain as…
Lusaka — The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa and the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to deepen their strategic collaboration in support of vaccine equity, local production, and health innovation across the region. Signed on the sidelines of the Seventy-fifth Session of the WHO Regional Committee…
In West Africa, Lassa fever remains a persistent and recurring health threat, causing hundreds of lives each year and underscoring urgent need for sustained investment in research and vaccine manufacturing capacity. In the first five months of 2025 alone, Nigeria reported over 717 confirmed cases and 138 deaths, highlighting the escalating risk and the critical…
The rise in vaccine-preventable diseases around the world is threatening decades of progress in public health and putting millions of people at risk. The decline in vaccination coverage in the United States illustrates the global problem. Rates of most routine vaccinations recommended for children by age 24 months by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices,…
Addis Ababa — The Director General of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL), Dr. Dougbeh Chris Nyan, is leading a Liberian delegation to a high-level workshop organized by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) in Addis Ababa. According to an NPHIL release, the workshop aims to develop a coordinated…
Geneva — Researchers at Burnet Institute, in collaboration with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, have provided the world’s first ever look at the historical impact of emergency vaccination efforts on public health and global health security, with a comprehensive study of 210 outbreaks of five infectious diseases – cholera, Ebola, measles, meningitis and yellow fever –…
A press release from the Medical Research Council-The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (MRCG at LSHTM) on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, stated that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has updated its Pneumococcal Vaccine Policy to enable it to reach more children worldwide. According to the release, the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccines…
Johannesburg — Every four years, representatives to the global alliance of governments, pharmaceutical makers, United Nations agencies and philanthropic organizations known as Gavi, which helps get vaccines to people who need them, meet to lock in new funding pledges. Just as this year’s meeting in Brussels was drawing to a close on Wednesday, U.S. Health Secretary…
The announcement comes amid deep cuts to global aid budgets, which threaten to reverse decades of progress in child survival The Gates Foundation has announced a $1.6 billion commitment to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, over the next five years to help deliver lifesaving vaccines to children in the world’s most vulnerable communities. This was disclosed…
The new members of US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s panel of vaccine advisers will review long-approved immunisation schedules for children and teens. The seven members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (Acip) met for the first time on Wednesday, weeks after Kennedy ousted all 17 of their predecessors. The Acip recommends who…
