Category: Medical

More than 260,000 African children under the age of five die from malaria each year, including more than 10,000 in Kenya, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO’s backing of a malaria vaccine, Mosquirix, for children in sub-Saharan Africa has raised hopes of preventing those deaths. The vaccine proved effective in a pilot program in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization gave the green light for the use of the vaccine for children between five and 24 months of age in Africa and other regions prone to a high level of malaria transmission.

This follows trials of the vaccine in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. The four-dose shot was administered to 800,000 African children.

Thirty-year-old Salome Awuor allowed her son, now three years old, to take part in the malaria vaccine trials in Kisumu County, western Kenya.

The mother of four said previously she would visit her nearest clinic four times a month to get malaria treatment for him. At the time, he was 12 months old.

“My son was given three jabs, and malaria went down. I never went back to the clinic seeking malaria treatment. I feel so good my children no longer get sick most of the time. That’s why whenever I hear about vaccines, I run to get them because it helps a lot,” she said.

WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus described the malaria vaccine breakthrough as historic and one that could save the lives of tens of thousands of young people each year.

According to the WHO, malaria affects more than 229 million people each year and kills more than 400,000.

In Africa, more than a quarter of a million children die from the mosquito-borne disease.

Earlier trials in 2015 showed the vaccine could prevent 40 percent of malaria cases and about 30 percent of severe cases.

Bernhards Ogutu is a chief researcher at Kenya Medical Research Institute. He said Kenya’s participation in the study proves the vaccine will work on the country’s population.

“If it’s safe you know it was done in your population and you know it’s good for you. You are not relying on data from another population but from your own population. So that you can confidently advise the government this is safe for us, it works and its approved and it was done by us and we contributed to this development,” he said.

The first three vaccine doses are given a month apart when children are babies, and a final booster is given when the child is one-and-a-half years old.

Ogutu has voiced confidence that Kenyan parents will vaccinate their children from malaria.

“People have been asking where it is now that we have been given the go ahead, we can now go for the rollout. I think it’s time to get to our people and tell them now it’s available and now it’s a matter of procuring the vaccine and ensuring it’s available and start getting it to those who need it,” said Ogutu.

So far, there is no word on when the vaccine will become available to the general public.

Source: Voice of America

The World Health Organization recommended Wednesday that children in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions on the continent with moderate-to-high malaria transmission receive a malaria vaccine.

The vaccine, known as Mosquirix, proved effective in a pilot program in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi that has reached more than 800,000 children since 2019.

The WHO said malaria is a top killer of children in sub-Saharan Africa, causing the deaths of more than 260,000 children under age 5 every year.

The vaccine, which requires four doses, counters P. falciparum, “the most deadly malaria parasite globally, and the most prevalent in Africa,” WHO said in a press release.

“For centuries, malaria has stalked sub-Saharan Africa, causing immense personal suffering,” Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said in a statement. “We have long hoped for an effective malaria vaccine and now for the first time ever, we have such a vaccine recommended for widespread use. Today’s recommendation offers a glimmer of hope for the continent which shoulders the heaviest burden of the disease and we expect many more African children to be protected from malaria and grow into healthy adults.”

Substantial benefit

According to WHO, pilot program data showed that more than two-thirds of children who were not sleeping under bed nets were benefiting from the vaccine, and that there was a 30% reduction in “deadly severe malaria, even when introduced in areas where insecticide-treated nets are widely used and there is good access to diagnosis and treatment.”

The pilot program also found that the vaccine had a “favorable safety profile” and was “cost effective.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, it could still be years until the vaccine is widely available.

The vaccine has been under development for 30 years by GlaxoSmithKline, a global pharmaceutical company; PATH, a global nonprofit focused on health issues; and some African research organizations, WHO said.

The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation provided late-stage development funding for the vaccine, WHO said.

Source: Voice of America

Fifteen African countries have succeeded in fully vaccinating at least 10 percent of their populations against COVID-19 by September 30, a goal set by the World Health Organization in May. However, that leaves two-thirds of the continent’s 54 nations extremely vulnerable to the deadly disease.

Several countries have performed extremely well. Seychelles and Mauritius have fully vaccinated more than 60 percent of their populations and Morocco has inoculated 48 percent against the coronavirus.

Richard Mihigo is coordinator of the Vaccine-preventable Diseases Department in the WHO’s regional office for Africa. He said those countries were able to achieve and even excede the 10 percent target because they had a steady vaccine supply available.

He said most had the money to strike bilateral deals to procure vaccine in addition to the supplies delivered through the COVAX facility.

“Unfortunately, 70 percent of African countries have missed this important milestone to protect their most vulnerable, with half of the 52 countries with COVID-19 vaccination programs in Africa having inoculated less than two percent of their populations,” said Mihigo.

That compares to an inoculation rate of 50 percent or higher in wealthier countries.

The WHO reports monthly vaccine deliveries to Africa have increased 10-fold since June. However, it notes more than double that amount is needed to reach the 40 percent immunization target of Africa’s 1.3 billion people by the end of the year.

Mihigo said COVAX is identifying countries that do not have the means to procure vaccines and put them in the front of the line to get enough doses to cover their most at-risk populations. However, he said pledges of doses by wealthier countries need to materialize soon.

“Starting next week, we are sending multi-disciplinary teams of international experts to countries that are struggling to scale up their operations so that we can drill down and identify the bottlenecks so that the local authorities and their partners can remedy them as they continue to rollout the vaccines,” said Mihigo.

On a more positive note, the World Health Organization says COVID-19 infections in Africa dropped by 35 percent to just over 74,000 last week, with more than 1,700 deaths reported in 34 countries.

Despite the declining numbers, the WHO warns people must remain vigilant and continue to adhere to proven public health measures to save lives. Those include the wearing of masks, regular hand washing, and physical distancing.

Source: Voice of America

In little more than a year from the onset of COVID-19, scientists successfully developed vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus for world-wide use.

Three main factors contributed to this extraordinary feat.

One, unprecedented collaboration between international scientists. Two, scientists were able to obtain exquisitely detailed images of the virus proteins and the human proteins that they interact with – right down to the positions of the atoms.

Three, expertise and infrastructure, developed over many years, involving tens of thousands of scientists supported by national governments and substantial private investment. Developing this skilled workforce was only possible because societies agreed to sponsor their best researchers to solve acute problems by providing appropriate tools and resources.

The African contribution to this massive achievement proved quite small. African researchers remain challenged by the lack of sustainable and accessible funding, infrastructure and expertise.

In late May President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that South Africa was “developing a local vaccine manufacturing plan to produce vaccines locally through strategic partnerships and technology transfer”. The goal, he said, was to cover the entire vaccine production value chain. He said Africa wants to do things for itself and that

we must also look at how vaccine manufacturing capacity developed during COVID-19 can be repurposed for the future production of other vaccines and related technologies.

In this article we unpack how the three-year START programme (Synchrotron Techniques for African Research and Technology) – funded with a grant from the UK Research and Innovations’ Science and Technology Facilities Council – substantially prepared South Africa’s capacity to do this type of work. It trained students and postdoctoral research assistants at eight South African universities and the country’s National Institute for Communicable Disease (NICD). It also allowed access to the UK’s national synchrotron, Diamond Light Source. Funded through a £3.7 million (about US$5million) Global Challenges Research Fund grant, the initiative provided an exceptional combination of expertise and experimental resources.

Innovative technologies

Understanding biological systems is critical to the prosperity, and possibly, survival of the human race. Without it, we are threatened by disease, energy and food insecurity, pollution and climate change. Studying biological macromolecules – such as proteins at atomic resolution – empowers us to develop drugs, vaccines, herbicides and pesticides. And it helps us design non-polluting industrial processes to create the chemicals that we need.

The branch of science that deals with this is called Structural Biology.

Structural biologists unravel the intricacies of protein structures using highly brilliant synchrotron radiation in a technique called X-ray crystallography or by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). These structures form the basis for developing new drugs or vaccines to stop diseases. In particular, the recently developed, Nobel prize-winning, technique of cryo-EM was essential for the development of the COVID-19 vaccines.

However, Africa largely remains a spectator in the race to build these innovative technologies despite START showing how it could be done. The programme has yielded extraordinary impact with relatively modest investment over a short space of time. It has triggered a step change in structural biology research in Africa, demonstrating what is needed and that it works. Existing research hubs and networks were strengthened, and new ones developed. Young career scientists grew in confidence and skills through international collaborations, mentoring, writing proposals and crunching data.

The South African groups regularly collected data at synchrotrons and electron microscopes to augment our understanding of potential treatments. These have included SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), snakebite venom, HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, human papilloma virus, cardiovascular disease, as well as equine diseases. Work has also been done to create industrial enzymes for the manufacture of medicines and commodity chemicals.

The structural biology laboratory at the NICD, for example, focused on understanding the antibody response to communicable diseases such as HIV and COVID-19 to guide the search for effective vaccines. In addition, the NICD has developed structural biology projects to understand how antibodies recognise and stop SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.

The START grant has contributed to:

research papers in leading international journals,

the development of a small but growing network of suitably equipped labs across South Africa,

vibrant international collaborations, and

numerous early career scientists trained in world class Structural Biology, including synchrotron and cryo-EM techniques.

Unfortunately, the funding for START has ended.

Now what?

National government must build on the foundations of the START programme. Only a sustained national policy will ensure that structural biology can achieve world-class science and grow relevant research across Africa.

Structural biology remains a niche science on the continent, largely ignored by the infrastructure roadmaps. Ramaphosa’s vision of African vaccines needs to be supported by a national strategy for structural biology. The aim would be to grow the community of scientists. This, in turn, would massively impact vaccine and drug development as well as other regional challenges.

Teaching, training and infrastructure in protein crystallography and cryo-EM need to expand dramatically from a tiny base.

The structural biology community requires a modern cryo-EM centre in South Africa. This would require substantial investment beyond the means of critically stressed tertiary education institutions.

The support of the international community is crucial.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how important it is to have both national and international approaches to research and development with access to the right type of world class equipment, training and expertise.

Vaccines need to be developed in Africa against diseases arising in Africa. This makes financial sense and places emphasis on Africa solving Africa’s problems. The World Bank has estimated that the slow rollout of COVID-19 vaccines could cost the continent $14 billion a month. Even this pales in comparison to the long-term cost of malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, and other poverty-related diseases.

Required steps involve:

Local infrastructure and capacity. The infrastructure put in place by the START programme needs to be expanded to national reference laboratories, sustainably funded, well-equipped and staffed by experts.

Capacity retention. Early career researchers trained in South Africa need to be retained to prevent loss of knowledge and expertise. The need to provide all young researchers opportunities to further develop their careers is obvious. But this cannot be done without growth. It is therefore urgent to implement policies that stimulate the structural biology research environment and create new posts. This is key to ensuring that diversity, fresh ideas and novel approaches relevant to Africa are brought into the local and international scientific community.

Access to international infrastructure. Synchrotrons, neutron sources and cryo-EM facilities around the world are open to African researchers. The challenge is to produce world-class research and competitive proposals to gain access. Funding for this must come from the South African Treasury. This should be enhanced by membership of international organisations.

START has boosted the skills and enthusiasm of South African bioscientists. They have seen the benefit of a structural approach in designing medicines for African diseases. The programme has opened doors to international co-operation and technology that Africa can’t afford. Young researchers have committed to careers in structural biology, hoping to practice their skills locally. Local research into both vaccines and medicines has started.

Ramaphosa’s desire to develop vaccines in South Africa could be realised by building on the foundation that has been laid. But only if there’s substantial and sustained investment in both human resources and infrastructure.

Source: The Conversation Media Group Ltd

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, Chad’s President Mahamat Idriss Deby and Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni are set to address the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday.

Access to COVID-19 vaccines has been one of the major topics of the annual meeting in New York and is likely to be one of the most discussed again Thursday as leaders from African nations make up a large portion of the day’s list of speakers.

While some countries such as the United States have had vaccine doses widely available to their populations for months, other countries have struggled to access COVID-19 vaccine supplies.

The African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 4% of the population is fully vaccinated.

Ramaphosa was among a group of leaders who participated in a virtual summit Wednesday convened by U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss boosting efforts to vaccinate people all over the world. Biden announced the United States was buying another 500 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to distribute to other countries.

“Of the around 6 billion vaccine doses administered worldwide, only 2% of these have been administered in Africa, a continent of more than 1.2 billion people,” Ramaphosa said. “This is unjust and immoral.”

Other speakers Thursday include Iraq’s President Barham Salih, Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele and Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted a number of world leaders to pre-record their remarks instead of traveling to New York to speak in person. About half of Thursday’s speeches were recorded in advance.

Source: Voice of America

Tackling the threat of climate change and COVID-19 were the dominant themes of leaders’ speeches Wednesday at the U.N. General Assembly annual debate.

“While the world was fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis also struck at full force,” said President Andry Rajoelina of the African island nation of Madagascar.

Successive years of climate change-driven droughts have ravaged parts of his country. This year, swarms of locusts and armyworms have wiped out crops. The U.N. says more than 1 million Malagasy people in the country’s south are “marching toward starvation” with thousands already in famine-like conditions.

“If we do not act, the crisis will continue and get worse,” Rajoelina said of the consequences of global warming. “Madagascar calls upon each state to act in an equitable fashion and commensurate with their polluting activities.”

In six weeks, nations will meet in Glasgow, Scotland, for a progress report on the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. All signs point to the planet falling short of keeping global warming to a cap of 1.5 degrees Celsius. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has focused much of his engagement this week on getting the robust commitments needed to reach that target.

Rich nations have benefited from growth that resulted in pollution, and now “have a duty to help developing countries grow their economies in a green and sustainable way,” Johnson said in a Twitter post Monday. He is due to deliver his address late Wednesday.

Combating climate change was among the topics of discussion in separate meetings U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held Tuesday with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei and Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez ahead of their remarks to the assembly.

Fighting COVID-19

After the coronavirus pandemic kept heads of state from attending last year’s General Assembly meetings, about 100 are attending this year’s session in New York. Others are choosing to stay home and deliver recorded remarks.

U.S. President Joe Biden delivered his remarks in person on Tuesday and then returned to Washington, where he convened a virtual summit Wednesday on ending the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re not going to solve this crisis with half-measures or middle-of-the-road ambitions, we need to go big,” he said. “And we need to do our part: governments, the private sector, civil society leaders, philanthropists. This is an all-hands-on-deck crisis.”

He announced that the United States — which has already donated some 600 million vaccine doses to developing countries — is buying another 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to give to low- and middle-income countries. They will start shipping out in January 2022.

Unresolved issues

Entrenched geopolitical issues also came up.

In video remarks, Jordan’s King Abdullah reiterated the need for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, while Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud chastised Iran over its nuclear activities.

“We support international efforts aimed at preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon,” King Salman said. “We are very concerned at Iranian steps that go counter to its commitments, as well as daily declarations from Iran that its nuclear program is peaceful.”

Only three female leaders were scheduled to speak Wednesday in a field of 30, highlighting the obstacles women still face in reaching the highest levels of government.

Meanwhile, it is mostly on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly debate that the real diplomacy takes place.

Wednesday evening the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — were to meet.

Britain’s newly appointed foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said the group shares an interest in maintaining stability in volatile regions and in preventing terrorism.

“If we want to avoid Afghanistan becoming a haven for global terror then the international community — including Russia and China — needs to act as one in its engagement with the Taliban,” she said.

G-20 foreign ministers also were to meet Wednesday to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

Source: Voice of America