💉 It's mpox time again; Big surprise: many drugs in Africa sub-par; WHO unveils the next pathogens to fear
#529 | Climate change comes for our kids; The world didn't heat up as much last month; Another public health emergency looms
Hello, and welcome back to The Kable, your favourite weekend catch-up for everything that went down in the life sciences this week.
In Africa, mpox continues to rage with new cases in South Africa and Uganda among others. The two new infections in Uganda were imported from the DRC and are believed to be of the new, more infectious - and lethal - clade discovered there recently. Uganda is not the only country this new strain is spreading to. The Africa CDC has received a shade over $10 million from the AU to manage a response to this fast-spreading outbreak. There is more reporting on the mpox story in our next section.
In more bad news from Africa, reports indicate children in Nigeria are being born with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
In good news from Africa, Mozambique became the latest country to introduce the R21 malaria vaccine into routine immunisation programs. Through Gavi, Mozambique has received 800,000 doses of the vaccine, which the country plans to use to inoculate 300,000 children.
Infectious diseases aren't limited to Africa in this week's issue. In The Philippines, it is swine flu that is running rampant, with authorities seeking emergency doses of vaccines.
In India, the southern state of Kerala is seeing many people get infected with brain-eating amoeba, especially in the state capital. In some cases at least, health authorities believe the reason is inhalation of tobacco mixed with contaminated water. Go figure! In the western state of Maharastra, the second largest city - Pune - is witnessing a huge surge in infections with the Zika virus. Also in India, a cattle farm has been shuttered in Chhattisgarh after 14 cattle were found "mysteriously" dead. So far no likely cause has been identified.
In China, however, they know why cows have died. It is down to anthrax. Since being discovered on a now-shut farm in Qiji town of Yanggu county, five human cases of cutaneous anthrax have also been detected. That, however, may not be as concerning for China as the fact that 'tested positive again' has become a trending topic in the country. Tested positive again with what, you ask? Well, Covid. The new surge in China is reportedly due to a new recombinant variant, XDV.1, which combines Delta and Omicron strains. And yes, deaths are on the rise too.
Speaking of disease in general, and Covid in particular, experts worry the ongoing Olympics will not just infect people at the games but that it will become a means for people to carry disease around the world. With absolutely no mitigation protocols in place and competitors willy-nilly participating even when diagnosed with Covid, we won't be surprised if these games do lead to another global surge. Time to cancel all testing, we guess.
In Cambodia, yet another human case of bird flu infection has been reported, this time a 16-year-old who had contact with dead chickens four days before symptom onset.
And finally, to end with some good news, July has snapped the 13-month streak of successive record-setting heat. Don't break out the bubbly just yet though: July 2024 was still the second hottest July ever, only marginally behind July 2023.
Stories Of The Week
Boil and bubble. Nature's cauldron of tiny creatures that can cause us pandemic-level grief is always overflowing. In a new report, the WHO has listed over 30 pathogens that could spark the next pandemic. The list now notably includes the viruses behind dengue and mpox. And oh, 6 types of influenza A viruses. The updated list also includes five bacteria that cause cholera, plague, dysentery, diarrhoea and pneumonia. Imagine a pandemic of diarrhoea. That'd be a poopy state of affairs, one would think.
(WHO)
Par for the course. We already know Africa doesn't get enough of the medicines it needs for its population. Making it worse is this new study by researchers from Ethiopia that says that of the drugs that are actually available on the continent, one in five - 20% - are of substandard quality, having either failed quality tests or with falsified data. Antibiotics and antimalarial products were among the most falsified medicines.
(The Guardian)
Mpox resurgent. We've said a fair bit of mpox in Africa up above. However, that is not even the most important part of this still-developing outbreak. Reports indicate that the Africa CDC is considering declaring a continent-wide public health emergency next week. This, if it were to come to pass, would be the newly formed agency's first such declaration and would be a historic moment in Africa's continuing move to sovereignty over its healthcare decisions. Elsewhere, the WHO too is concerned about the rapid pace with which the newly-discovered strain in DRC is travelling. The agency is considering making mpox a public health emergency again, the second time it would be doing so in the last two years. Vaccines for Africa? Still a pipe dream.
(Health Policy Watch, Reuters)
Bottom line
Have a child, they said. A new UNICEF report highlights that climate change is severely endangering children's health, threatening to reverse progress in reducing child mortality. The report identifies six major climate hazards, including extreme heat and air pollution, that are affecting children’s well-being from pregnancy through adolescence. Children, especially in low-income countries, are uniquely vulnerable due to their dependence on caregivers and frequent exposure to environmental risks. The report warns that without swift action to cut emissions and bolster climate resilience, the growing crisis will lead to millions of additional infant deaths and exacerbate existing inequalities.
(UNICEF)
When deforestation is better. Since the new presidency has taken over in Brazil, deforestation in the Amazon has steadily dropped, even though it did rise in July. However, a new study in PNAS says while deforestation is indeed harmful, other ways in which the Amazon is degraded are even more harmful. The study says logging, forest burning and other forms of human-caused degradation, along with natural disturbances to the Amazon ecosystem, are releasing more climate-warming carbon dioxide than clear-cut deforestation. We just can't catch a break, can we?
(PNAS)
Long reads
Making in Africa. When program leaders for global health at Amref Health Africa write about what Africa's leaders need to do about the state of manufacturing in Africa, one should pay attention. Go ahead and read about how all the recent progress in fostering a regulatory and manufacturing ecosystem can be accelerated and optimised to make it best for Africa.
(Health Policy Watch)
From Africa, for Africa. A fascinating profile in Science about Christian Happi, founder and director of the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID) in Nigeria. In its 10 years of existence, the institute has trained more than 1,600 African scientists in genomics, furthering data in a field where very little data from Africa exists.
(Science)
Oh, and Gopal Nair doesn't want you to see this.
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