💉 Africa goes traditional; A new cure for TB; Birds are real, so is bird flu
#545 | A mystery illness in DRC; Sierra Leone begins Ebola vaccinations; The WHO seeks to make healthcare facilities climate-proof
Hello, and welcome back to The Kable for the first time this December. Did you miss us last week? Awww, we know you did. Sorry. However, there just wasn't enough coverage that merited space in your inbox. This week's Kable is kinda light, too, but it is inbox-worthy nevertheless.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is already reeling under the weight of an ongoing mpox outbreak with a new clade of the illness wreaking maximum havoc. Added to these woes is the emergence of a new, unknown disease which has already claimed 79 lives - from 376 infections - since it was first reported in late October. Symptoms of this mystery illness include fever, headaches, cough, and occasional breathing difficulty. Officials are expecting to diagnose the illness with test results this weekend.
Elsewhere in Africa, Sierra Leone began a landmark immunisation campaign to inoculate frontline healthcare workers against Ebola.
Multilateral agencies and conferences have been on a roll in recent times when it comes to concluding negotiations with a deal nobody likes. The UN's climate finance battle at COP29 kept this trend alive with a new climate finance deal that goes the opposite of a long way in helping the world prep for what will be some nasty times. Rubbing our collective noses in it a little bit more is this new study in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science that says the costs of combating climate change go up 400% when you delay the response. Oh well, as David Lynch said, "in heaven, everything is fine."
There are many aspects of our infrastructure that aren't being talked about enough when it comes to climate change. One of those aspects is healthcare facilities and how they need to be reimagined for the climate-critical futurepresent. The WHO has released new guidance on how to make these facilities ready for the climate-changed day ahead. Build fast, though.
Much has been written about ViiV's long-acting cabotegravir (CAB-LA) and how it could drastically reshape the global response to HIV/AIDS. Health advocates have consistently been asking the company to make the drug more accessible and affordable in regions where it is desperately needed. Now, MSF seems to have made a little headway, having secured a few doses for its projects in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, and Eswatini.
Mpox is still very much around, and kids in the epicentre - DRC - are still not getting vaccines. In Burundi, the second-worst affected nation, vaccines are available for the asking, but the government is dithering. The Africa CDC says the current outbreak could start to flatlinesometime next year. And Canada joins the list of countries that have reported cases of the new Clade 1b mpox.
Also unchanged is India's perennial tryst with quality control. Lupin recalled more than half a million bottles of a blood pressure drug in the US because the drug contained an API that came from a questionable source. And government data from India reveals that nearly 3000 drugs failed quality tests in the past 12 months, with a further 282 drugs being spurious.
And finally, it is bird flu time once again. And it is mostly the US we will be talking about today. And the US; proclivity for drinking raw milk. At least for some people, authorities put the kibosh on that after finding bird flu in raw milk. Twice. The farm from which this raw milk was sourced was subsequently suspended. At least we don't have to worry about this virus mutating to bind more efficiently to human cells. Oh, wait.
Stories Of The Week
Africa's secret weapon against AMR. Devex writes about how Africa is turning to its rich traditional medicine to tackle modern health challenges like pandemic outbreaks and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Researchers are studying plants like Artemisia afra for new treatments. In Kenya, the Medical Research Institute is working on integrating these medicines into mainstream healthcare, while Burundi is using catnip for mosquito repellents. Despite the vast potential of Africa’s plant resources, local research institutions face funding and technology gaps, often having to send samples abroad. Activists are pushing for fairer access to funds like the Cali Fund to support local development of plant-based drugs and counter global health inequities.
(Devex)
Breakthroughs
A new cure for an old foe? Scientists at NIH have found that fungi from peat bogs produce toxins that could fight Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium causing TB. These fungi thrive in environments much like human TB-infected lungs—acidic, low in oxygen, and nutrient-poor. Out of 1,500 fungi tested, five produced compounds toxic to TB, targeting the bacterium’s thiol balance, a crucial survival mechanism. While these specific toxins aren’t suitable for drug development, they offer clues for new treatments that could shorten TB's lengthy antibiotic regimen—turns out, bog fungi might just be the superheroes we didn’t see coming.
(PLOS Biology)
Oh, and Gopal Nair doesn't want you to see this.