💉 Africa CDC's 2024 in review; CEPI makes headway in 100 Days mission; The WHO calls out fungi for fungussing
#558 | No blood for mosquitoes; Climate change comes for your wallets; Covid: was it lab-made after all?
Hello, and welcome back to The Kable.
Sure, the Africa CDC has been around for a while and an idea for even longer. But we can all agree that 2024 was the year in which the agency first became fully functional. And now, they have a report card to show for it. Also, from the Africa CDC this week: a blueprint on how to manage health financing for the continent, especially in light of all the aid cuts we've seen recently. Wait, there's more from the desk of the Africa CDC. In mid-2021, the agency launched the Saving Lives and Livelihoods (SLL) initiative in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. Now, in Phase 2 of the program, the Africa CDC is launching a genomic surveillance and bioinformatics program, which if it went well, will go a long way towards addressing Africa-specific drug requirements.
Another agency that had a busy time of it this week was CEPI. Following on from a similar program for West Africa launched in late 2023, CEPI is partnering with PATH to boost readiness for clinical trials in East and Central Africa. Called the Research Preparedness Program in East and Central Africa (RPECA Program), this plan comes with an initial backing of $3.5 million to expand existing regional capabilities for clinical trials to gauge the effectiveness of vaccines against illnesses that pose epidemic potential in countries in this region. CEPI also invested $13.38 million into Gennova Biopharmaceuticals' mRNA-based vaccine against the Nipah virus. And in what could be CEPI's most productive investment yet, they've backed US-based start-up Centivax with $5 million to send a pan-influenza vaccine to the clinic. Preclinical reports for Centivax's Centi-flu shot are all glowing, and if clinical trials succeed, we may have a viable option against flu and Covid and even bird flu.
Speaking of bird flu, a two-year-old child in India's Andhra Pradesh state died of it. Because the parents decided to feed the child raw chicken.
A newly-published study in Nature Medicine warns that mpox could become a serious global threat. Africa has only been talking about it for 50-odd years.
After German spies, French academics are now leaning in to the theory that Covid originated from a lab. Mais oui!
And finally, after razing miles upon miles of Amazon rainforest in preparation for an environment and sustainability conference, regret seems to have kicked in for COP30 hosts Brazil. The country has announced that they have a champion for COP30. Said champion? Chairman of Iochpe-Maxion, a company that makes wheels and structural components for the auto industry.
Stories Of The Week
Fungus among us. The WHO has sounded the alarm on a glaring medical blind spot: invasive fungal diseases. Despite a sharp rise in cases - particularly among immune-compromised patients - there’s a dire lack of effective antifungal treatments and diagnostics. Just four new antifungals have been approved globally in the past decade, with only three in late-stage trials. Meanwhile, deadly fungi like Candida auris and Aspergillus fumigatus continue to outpace innovation, causing severe, often drug-resistant infections with mortality rates nearing 88%. The problem isn’t just the painfully slow drug pipeline - it’s also the diagnostics black hole, especially in LMICs. Most current tests are expensive, and complex, and only detect a handful of fungi. The WHO is calling for urgent investment in new antifungals, faster and broader diagnostics, and research into immune-boosting treatments. Until then, it’s a fungal free-for-all, and we’re losing.
(WHO)
Breakthroughs
The blood that bites back. So we can't kill mosquitoes no matter how much we try? Well, what about starving them of blood? Researchers may have found a clever workaround - by turning our blood into mosquito kryptonite. A drug called nitisinone, typically used for rare metabolic disorders, has shown “fantastic” results in making mosquito blood meals fatal. Unlike the previously explored ivermectin, nitisinone stays longer in the bloodstream and specifically targets blood-suckers without harming the environment. It works by disrupting a mosquito’s ability to digest blood, leading to death by indigestion. If field trials go well, this Dracula-deterring drug could become our powerful ally in the fight against malaria.
(Science Translational Medicine)
Bottom line
Turns out, climate change tanks the economy. Not much has convinced those in charge to dial back global warming. Maybe hitting them in their pockets might do the trick. New modelling from UNSW’s Institute for Climate Risk & Response projects a 4°C rise could slash global GDP by a staggering 40% by 2100 - nearly four times earlier estimates. This updated analysis exposes a critical blind spot in older models: the domino effect of global supply chain disruptions triggered by extreme weather. This isn't just bad news for tropical nations - cold countries aren’t off the hook either. We live in hope that this might radicalise those non-believers.
(Environmental Research Letters)
Long reads
Cuts fall, jobs go, secrets grow. US funding cuts have drastically affected the WHO. Health Policy Watch has a couple of reads up on how much bigger than originally estimated the crisis is and how the agency, despite promises to the contrary, isn't really keeping staff in the loop of when and how the axe will fall.
(Health Policy Watch, Health Policy Watch)
Oh, and Gopal Nair doesn't want you to see this.