💉 Africa CDC to set up centres of excellence, A report for 2024 from the Africa CDC; Birds are flying, but for how long?
#551 | An end to TB; Heat? What even is heat anymore?; Colombia spreads hope
Hello, and welcome back to The Kable for the ultimate encapsulated doom-scrolling experience. Apologies for the unintended absence the past couple of weeks and the delay with this week's issue, and also, a very Happy Valentine's Day for those who subscribe to the commercialisation of romance. And if you are one of those, hey, where's our cake?
We're afraid 2025 hasn't been off to a great start when it comes to good news, what with oligarchs assuming government control in many places, Israel being Israel, climate change accelerating like never before and Big Tech relentlessly amplifying lies and dismantling fact-checking mechanisms, whew, what a time to be alive, eh?
Anyhoo, here is the first good story to begin the week with. The Africa CDC has committed to setting up nine centres of excellence at newly created national public health institutes (NPHIs)around the continent. These new centres - located in Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa and Rwanda - will receive $1.6 million from the agency for equipment and training with later plans to partner with NPHIs from Europe and then establish NPHIs in member nations within these regions.
And with that, we're off to our doom and gloom bit. Beginning with the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Uganda - the country's first in two years - which has seen the case count rise to 9 in a week. The beleaguered WHO has released $2 million to help Uganda in its response.
Over in DRC, the ongoing mpox outbreak isn't really showing much signs of subsiding. In a teeny-tiny bit of a silver lining, the country received 200,000 vaccine doses, thanks to Canada and Gavi.
Speaking of mpox, the new clade has found its way to the US, with one case being surprisingly reported from New York. Surprisingly? Well, the new ruling dispensation in that country, in case you haven't been following the news, has made it abundantly clear that reporting data is not on its list of priorities.
In India, an ongoing outbreak of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS), originally reported from one city in the western state of Maharashtra, has now spread between cities and states.
In what might be its dying throes, the US FDA has censured three drug makers, two in China and one in India, over quality and testing shortfalls and cGMP violations respectively.
On the heels of its withdrawal from the WHO, the US is already withdrawing from a global climate pact, with the UN announcing this departure will come into force on January 27, 2026. Normally, we would have said good riddance but it's not as if the members who are still in this climate pact are doing much to enforce any of its agendas.
And finally, you might think of finding succour in chocolate, as one does in times of stress. But chocolate prices have been going up for a while, and they will continue to do so. Eat as much as you can nevertheless, because scientists believe climate is gonna put paid to chocolate in a little while.
Stories Of The Week
US aid freeze: Africa catches the cold. The suspension of US foreign aid has triggered a healthcare crisis across Africa, with immediate disruptions to HIV treatment programs and broader systemic impacts. A Trump administration "stop-work order" on PEPFAR funding led to clinic closures and critical HIV drug shortages, leaving patients unable to access life-saving antiretrovirals. Experts warn this could reverse decades of progress, potentially causing 2–4 million additional HIV-related deaths annually and increasing drug resistance. Maternal health programs, malaria prevention, and tuberculosis treatment have also been disrupted, compounding vulnerabilities.
The freeze extends beyond HIV:
Mpox outbreaks in the DRC face delayed responses due to halted CDC funding
Ebola vaccine trials in Uganda are at risk, threatening regional pandemic preparedness.
The withdrawal of US funding has created a geopolitical vacuum, with China especially expanding its influence in Rwanda’s healthcare infrastructure through investments in hospitals and medical training. Good for China, we say.
African health systems that relied on USAID now face collapsed supply chains and eroded trust, with experts cautioning that Africa’s weakened disease surveillance heightens global pandemic risks.
We did know that this was inevitable and at some point, the US' imperialist agenda will backfire on all recipients of aid. It is fortunate that this has happened at a time when Africa, primarily through the Africa CDC, is at least armed with a plan and a vision for self-reliance. Sure, there will be many a pothole along the way but prevail Africa shall.
(Health Policy Watch, The Conversation, Health Policy Watch, The Conversation, Health Policy Watch)
Fowl play afoot, and it might even be udderly contagious. At The Kable, we've been closely monitoring the bird flu situation for two and a half years, and recent developments are raising significant concerns. The virus continues to evolve, jumping to new mammalian hosts like dairy cows and domestic cats, as evidenced by outbreaks in Madhya Pradesh, India, where entire families are being quarantined following confirmation of the virus in multiple feline samples. In India, the southern state of Andhra Pradesh too has reported an outbreak and subsequent culling of birds on a farm.
This is also playing out in the United States, where a second strain of bird flu (D1.1) was detected in dairy cows for the first time, followed by a confirmed human case in a Nevada dairy farm worker. The first human case was also reported from Ohio. In China, officials reported bird flu in two children, one of whom got infected in December last year. These events underscore the increasing threat of spillover and pandemic potential, with experts noting the virus is adapting and that increased circulation raises the risk of mutations facilitating human-to-human transmission. Adding to the concern, a recent study of veterinarians indicated that some people didn't even know they had a bird flu infection.
The WHO continues to maintain that sustained human-to-human transmission is unlikely at this time and is giving you advice on what you should eat if there were to be an outbreak. Over in the US, the CDC published data on the transmission of bird flu from cats to humans and promptly removed the data soon after.
All of this is happening as new evidence suggests H5N1 can spread through the air, with identical strains found across high-biosecurity farms in the Czech Republic, driven by windborne plumes. As one expert warns, we may be closer than ever to a pandemic from this virus, yet still not doing enough to prevent it or reduce its impact.
(Bansal News, Business Line, ABC News, AP, Yahoo!, CHP HK, WHO, WHO, BioRxiv, Fortune)
No breaks for kids. A recent pediatric research study, published in Nature, analysing GBD 2019 data shows that the incidence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) among children and adolescents has been climbing at 4.15% per year, reaching 67,710 cases and 7,061 deaths in 2019 alone. Although children under five years of age face lower overall infection rates than older children (15–19), they suffer the highest mortality, highlighting their particular vulnerability. The burden is concentrated in low-income areas—Eastern Europe, Southern sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia—where India, China, South Africa, and Russia together account for more than 60% of cases. Researchers warn that without intensified healthcare strategies, policy support, and global cooperation, the WHO’s ‘End TB’ target of a 90% reduction by 2035 may remain out of reach. Well, duh!
(Nature)
Some bit of cheer. The Africa CDC has a little bit of an update on the progress the agency made last year towards Africa's self-reliance. Africa’s drive towards health security and self-reliance was the focus of the 2nd Vaccine and Other Health Products Manufacturing Forum in Cairo recently, where participants highlighted the progress made—including the allocation of $1.2 billion for the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA) and Afreximbank’s $2 billion pledge, the launch of the African Pooled Procurement Mechanism (APPM), and the signing of a MoU by seven National Regulatory Authorities to streamline approvals and foster local production. The forum also underscored the African Union’s decision to expand the Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) into the Platform for Harmonized African Health Products Manufacturing (PHAHM), reflecting the continent’s ambition to produce 60% of its vaccine needs by 2040 and to extend production to other medical products.
(Africa CDC)
Breakthroughs
TB or not TB? In a global trial led by Harvard Medical School’s endTB project, researchers tested five shorter, all-oral drug combinations for rifampin-resistant tuberculosis and found three that outperformed (or matched) standard treatments, reaching success rates of up to 90%. The study included 754 patients across seven countries—among them children, pregnant women, and people with HIV or hepatitis C—groups often excluded from clinical research. Backed by recent WHO recommendations, these regimens offer fewer injections, fewer side effects, and better affordability now that patent exclusivity on key drugs has loosened.
(New England Journal of Medicine)
Bottom line
Planet Grim. At The Kable, we've been charting climate change for years, and our outlook has shifted from optimism to grim acceptance: destruction is now inevitable. Recent data confirms our fears, with January 2025 shattering global heat records as the warmest January ever recorded, registering 1.64°C above pre-industrial levels and 0.09°C above the prior record set in 2024. This marked the 18th month in a 19-month period where global average temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The stark reality is: 1.5°C is to hit by 2020-2029.
The planet you think you're living on no longer exists: 1.5°C and rising already; 2.0°C and rising in the next decade, and after that? Scientists are observing a "frightening new climate phase," where even the cooling effects of La Niña are failing to curb record temperatures, indicating an acceleration of warming beyond previous models. Arctic sea ice extent was also at its lowest for January, highlighting the cascading effects of this unprecedented warming trend. The evidence is clear: the climate crisis is not a distant threat; it's our present reality.
(Copernicus)
A glimmer of green hope. And finally, here is some unexpected good news on the green front. Despite a forecasted rise in Colombia’s deforestation for 2024, the country's Environment Minister reports that it is still set to be among the lowest levels in more than two decades—coming on the heels of a remarkable drop in 2023 to just over 792 square kilometres. Might change still be possible?
(Reuters)
Long reads
Make in Africa. The Africa CDC has a post up about the path to vaccine independence for the continent and how to tackle the pitfalls along the way. Great read.
(Africa CDC)
Uh... make wherever. For some reason, the WHO decided to put up a note on biosimilars, and how they work, and how they're better, and how you can and should get in on the action. Go figure!
(WHO)
Oh, and Gopal Nair doesn't want you to see this.