💉 So much malaria all over the place; Faking it in Malawi; No reaching the SDGs, ever
#602 | Biovac to set up vaccine hub in SA; FAO says food will no longer need cooking; Earth's getting hot, and dry
Hello, and welcome back to The Kable. Companies like Meta have huge teams of (outsourced) content moderators who do the critical job of trawling through all the sordid content posted on their platforms to sanitise it. It is quite something else altogether that Meta couldn’t care less about the people doing the content moderation, and that more than 1,000 of those people, based in Kenya, were fired last week. But we digress. We’re talking about content moderation and how critical it is, and how critically under-rated it is. And what a stellar job we do of curating content for you every week, sorting through everything good that nature, science and humankind have to offer. And the worst of them all, too. Mostly the worst. And Israel. Yes, The Kable is free. But maybe, you should pay us for the content moderation. How about a share, then?
Without further ado, on with this week’s Kable then.
Oh wait, there is a little more ado. Sorry. It seems we don’t run out of invented days to celebrate/commemorate things. Like February 14 for Valentines’ Day, and April 1 for right-wing days, or November 19 for International Men’s Day, which also happens to be World Toilet Day, so that tracks at least. Adding to that list is April 25, World Malaria Day. And no, we don’t need a special reminder for a disease that has been killing us and our children since time immemorial, not least because it might give those mosquitoes visions of glory.
But because it is World Malaria Day, let us begin with some related news. In Brazil, indigenous kids are the first to receive a paediatric malaria treatment, developed by Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and GSK, for relapsing malaria. Unlike older, once-a-day weekly doses, this new paediatric tafenoquine is a single-dose treatment, which they’re trialling in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory (TIY) of northern Brazil.
In more good news on the malaria front, well, there is none. But there are a series of reports on the scenario in Africa, where inspite of new vaccines and therapeutics, malaria continues to dominate the child-killing space. The Conversation with more reading on what the continent has gained and the challenges she still faces in the fight against malaria, SciDevNet talking about the absolute imperative for local research when it comes to fighting the good malaria fight in Africa, and Health Policy Watch on the need for urgent policy interventions to ensure the new breed of malaria drugs can avoid AMR for as long as possible.
In case anyone has any doubts about the persistent threat posed by malaria, look no further than Zimbabwe, where, in the year so far, cases and deaths have been twice last year’s number for the same period and four times that of 2024. Even otherwise, as this UNICEF report on child mortality published last month shows, 1 in 6 children over one-month old are dying of malaria.
We’re pretty sure mosquitoes and the parasites they breed that cause a whole lot of human diseases, even other than malaria, aren’t done evolving. If nothing, these parasites are still developing resistance to frontline treatments. Which could possibly mean new pathogens. At least, new forms of pathogens. As a reminder, for the past many years, our leaders have been sitting together in various locations, at various fora, trying to hammer together a deal for a new pandemic pact, a deal that is hinging on access to pathogen data. The next round of these discussions begin next week in Geneva. Hopefully, these will be the final, final round. Again, as history is our witness, countries in the Global South that share critical pathogen data very rarely benefit from the health outcomes developed using that data. This pandemic pact is the only theoretical thing that precludes that from happening again.
In a further boost for African health systems, the African Union and the European Commission have launched three new initiatives, totalling over €100 million, under the Global Gateway strategy, all operationally managed by the Africa CDC. One strengthens national public health institutes across ten African countries, covering disease surveillance, early warning, emergency response, and laboratory services. Another targets antimicrobial resistance through a One Health workforce trained to detect threats across animals, humans, and the environment. The third rolls out digital health solutions for pandemic preparedness and primary care in six African countries.
In an even more impressive achievement for African manufacturing, South Africa’s Biovac has secured funding of over $100 million to build Africa’s first end-to-end multi-vaccine manufacturing hub. Expected to be operational in 2028, the plant will make vaccines for cholera, polio, meningitis and pneumonia, and also supply to UNICEF and Gavi. UTANO has a wonderful read on why this is such a huge deal for Africa. And regulatory oversight features prominently as one of the reasons. We aren’t surprised.
In Kenya, the country’s largest hospital chain, Mediheal, has been in the news around this time of the year consistently for the past three years. In 2024, it was because the group was close to financial collapse. In 2025, it was because the group was under investigation for organ trafficking. And this year, the group has been cleared of organ trafficking charges.
The last of our stories from Africa today... this study about this house that can prevent many fatal illnesses in African children. In Tanzania, researchers built 110 of these simple two-story structures and they proved effective in protecting children from diarrhoea, malaria, and respiratory illnesses.
In other news, CEPI has partnered with the Pasteur Network to work on localising regional vaccine R&D capacity, including trials and manufacturing, all in the name of pandemic preparedness. As an aside (couldn’t resist), they signed this agreement in a closed room with no masks on. Anyway, we’re pretty sure this agreement excludes the Pasteur lab in Tehran because that lab exists only in name and legend now, thanks to Israel.
In fact, of all the over 2,800 buildings that Israel (and the US) hit in Iran till last week, less than a third were military installations. The rest? Industrial locations, residential buildings, cultural locations, commercial facilities, medical facilities, and Israel’s favourite targets, hospitals and schools.
In Gaza, Israel killed two water truck drivers, and UNICEF is outraged, we tell you, outraged. In Lebanon, UN aid workers were able to finally go into south Lebanon and, well, Israel has done what Israel does.
Coming up soon, on May 3, is World Press Freedom Day. UNESCO commemorates this every year. UNESCO also has section on their website where they pay homage to killed journalists. For the past many months, it has mostly been Palestinian journalists. This year, many journalists from Lebanon have joined the list. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), last year 129 journalists were killed worldwide, officially. 84 of them were killed by Israel. This year, in Palestine and Lebanon alone, Israel has already killed 18 journalists, 10 of them from Lebanon. One of the journalists Israel killed this week was Lebanon’s Amal Khalil. And the details of her death... it was stone-cold murder. It was bad enough for the Lebanese PM to call Israel out for war crimes. All this amid a “ceasefire.” Western media has been running cover for Israel’s crimes for a long time, often twisting itself into knots to avoid using direct terms, like calling five-year-old Hind Rajab a young woman. But when even western media, like The Guardian in this case, begins to carry exposés, on how Israeli prisons are just rape-torture camps to force people out of the West Bank (and Gaza) (and Palestine), maybe one can hope that the tide is turning.
Elsewhere, the WHO has released a new AI-powered tool to help you with facts about sexual and reproductive health. Which reminds us, about two years ago, the WHO had released an AI health influencer called S.A.R.A.H. We decided to check up on S.A.R.A.H. Isn’t doing much influencing anymore. And the company that developed that tool, Soul Machines, is going out of business. Maybe that’s why the WHO hasn’t mentioned who has developed their new AI tool.
Moderna is launching a trial for its bird flu vaccine, with first volunteers in the UK already dosed. Surprisingly, the trial is also hoping to find volunteers in the US.
The same US where their secretary of war says military personnel no longer need flu shots. Because a sick soldier can at least infect the enemy, right? Anyway, vaccines don’t work. Which is why US authorities aren’t releasing a report that shows that Covid vaccines did, in fact, work, and minimised hospital stays.
Gallstones, vision changes, postpartum thyroiditis and pre-eclampsia, and blood clots. Just some of the adverse health conditions mothers can develop after giving birth. And then, if all goes well, the kids even grow up and reach teenage.
In India, business as usual. Drug makers receive critical observations after US FDA facility inspections, while elsewhere authorities bust a racket of fake Mounjaro pens.
A new survey says at least 70% of people believe at least one false or unproven health claim. Claims like childhood vaccinations cause autism, raw milk good, vaccines are for birth control, and so on. The survey covered 16,000 people across 16 countries, with representation from all continents, so it is fairly accurate, we’d say.
Thankfully, survey or no survey, The Big Catch-Up, the immunisation initiative launched by the WHO in partnership with Gavi in 2023, seems to have done its job. Since its launch, the initiative delivered over 100 million vaccine doses to 18.3 million children across 36 countries, targeting those aged one to five. It wrapped up in March, having reached 12.3 million children who had never previously received a vaccine, immunising them against diseases including diphtheria and polio. Final figures are still being tallied, but the program looks set to hit its target of reaching at least 21 million under- or unimmunised children.
A look at the climate and environment then, shall we? What’s the forecast like? WMO predicts El Niño, and as early as next month. And it’ll be pretty bad.
In Mozambique, they discovered four new species of chameleons. And they’re already endangered, thanks to forest loss.
But our leaders are on top of things. In fact, France is hosting the G7 environment ministers this week in Paris for an, well, environment summit. And they will not be discussing climate change at this summit so the US won’t feel bad. Oh well, maybe they can discuss how to watch TV when there is no wind.
And finally, if you still think plastic is not destructive, scientists created a plastic that kills viruses on contact. Not just kills, physically rips them viruses apart. Yeah, and that is what you store your lunch in?
Stories Of The Week
A revival unforeseen. A stunning work of investigative journalism from the Platform for Investigative Journalism, Malawi reveals how one of Malawi’s largest pharmaceutical suppliers came back from the dead without anyone even noticing, and got up to nefarious deeds en route.
In 2013, Galaxy Pharmaceutical and Surgical Logistics Ltd was found supplying faulty antibiotics to hospitals, which resulted in infant deaths, an issue that came to the fore when doctors at Mzimba District Hospital reported deaths among newborns whose mothers had been treated with Chloramphenicol, supplied by Galaxy. Authorities at the time found the company guilty of supplying faulty medication and revoked the operating licenses of both the company and its owner, leading to the company’s closure. However, the antibiotic stock itself could not be checked because they conveniently disappeared before investigators could arrive. Immediately thereafter, case files from the infant deaths inquiry were stolen from the regulator’s offices.
Just like the kids, the case died. And in 2019, the company came back to life, but as GPSL Wholesale Ltd. So innovative. And it was back in business, with, among other things, supplying insulin to public hospitals. The only thing is the insulin in question was expired and stolen from government hospital’s poorly secured storeroom and moved through an illicit broker before landing back in state facilities, including the very hospital it was stolen from. Clinicians only caught on when the insulin stopped working and labels began peeling off refrigerated vials to reveal the originals underneath. Following the insulin scandal, the regulatory body’s own disciplinary committee recommended revoking its licence again. The board issued a warning instead. The company continues to supply state hospitals.
Allegations of political interference and attempted bribery during the disciplinary process have never been investigated. The criminal prosecution over the insulin has stalled, partly due to the death of a central suspect.
Sounds a lot like a Bollywood movie, eh? Well, the promoters of Galaxy/GPSL are of Indian origin.
(PIJ Malawi)
$71 billion, and counting. A joint EU-UN assessment, conducted with the World Bank, puts the cost of rebuilding Gaza at $71.4 billion over the next decade, with $26.3 billion needed in the first eighteen months alone. Physical infrastructure damage stands at $35.2 billion; economic and social losses at $22.7 billion. Housing, health, education, commerce, and agriculture are the hardest-hit sectors. Over 371,000 housing units have been destroyed or damaged, more than half of all hospitals are non-functional, and the economy has contracted by 84%.
The human toll is harder to quantify, though the report tries: Gaza’s human development has been set back by an estimated 77 years. 1.9 million people have been displaced, many more than once, and over 60% of the population has lost their homes.
The assessment calls for Palestinian-led reconstruction, a ceasefire, unimpeded humanitarian access, and a credible pathway to Palestinian statehood. The assessment also calls for a two-state solution, to which we have unparliamentary words as a response because you can’t give your home over to settler-terrorists.
(UN)
Home is where the rubble is. Gaza, Lebanon, Congo, Sudan. Everywhere, people who once had homes now have ruins. Nearly four million people have returned to Sudan since the conflict, with the heaviest flows into Khartoum and Aj Jazirah. The IOM, which is tracking the movements, says what they’re returning to is destroyed services, damaged homes, and infrastructure that has no likelihood of recovering anytime soon. At the height of the conflict, nearly 12 million people fled affected areas; nine million remain internally displaced, and over four million are still in neighbouring countries.
It’s not like people are returning because conditions have improved. But a combination of economic pressure, family separation, and the deteriorating situation in host countries is making this forced return happen. Home, a place you don’t willingly go to, but a place you’re forced to return to because staying anywhere else is no longer an option. The gap between what’s needed and what’s available is, at this point, a recurring feature of every Sudan story.
(IOM)
SDGs? More like who gives a damn! We didn’t want to include this story here but the UN likes to pretend that the SDGs still matter so, here we are. A new UN report - Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2026 (FSDR) - finds that with four years left until the 2030 deadline, progress on the SDGs has stalled, and in some cases reversed. One quarter of developing countries still have lower per capita incomes than before the pandemic. Around 3.4 billion people live in countries spending more on debt interest than on health or education. Official development assistance has fallen sharply, foreign investment is declining, and the least developed countries are now absorbing the additional blow of global trade tensions and rising tariffs. The financing gap for developing countries stands at up to $4 trillion annually. The report points, somewhat optimistically, to renewable energy investment hitting a record $2.2 trillion in 2024 and expanded South-South trade as signs of resilience, before noting that none of it will matter without urgent global cooperation and political will, two things that are, at present, in notably short supply.
(UN)
Your food, pre-cooked. A joint FAO-WMO report finds that extreme heat is becoming the defining operating condition for global food systems, threatening the livelihoods and health of over a billion people. Heatwaves are growing more frequent, intense, and prolonged, hitting crops, livestock, fisheries, and forests simultaneously. 2025 ranked among the three hottest years on record, and in that same year, more than 90% of the world’s oceans experienced at least one marine heatwave, depleting oxygen levels and pushing fish stocks into decline.
The numbers are unambiguous: every one-degree rise in average global temperatures cuts yields of maize, rice, soya, and wheat by around 6%. Yield declines for most major crops begin above 30°C; for chickens and pigs, heat stress sets in at 25°C. The intensity of extreme heat events is expected to double at 2°C of warming and quadruple at 3°C. In parts of South Asia, tropical Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central and South America, the number of days too hot to work outdoors could reach 250 per year by the end of the century.
The report calls for early warning systems, heat-resistant crop development, and better financial protection for agricultural workers. It also notes, with the weariness of an institution that has said this before, that adaptation alone will not be enough, and that the only lasting solution is cutting emissions. Coordinated global political will, as ever, is left as an exercise for the reader.
(FAO)
When doing a lot isn’t nearly enough. The WHO released its 2025 Results Report this week with roughly half of all output targets unmet amid a whole lot of flux, yet the organisation still managed to extend essential health coverage to 567 million additional people, bolster emergency preparedness for 698 million more, and improve health outcomes for 1.75 billion. None of this hit the “Triple Billion” targets set in 2018, but the WHO is used to not hitting targets anyway.
Highlights from the report include emergency mental health coverage rising from 28% to 48% of countries, HPV vaccine coverage nearly doubling from 17% to 31% since 2019, and the WHO responding to 66 emergencies across 88 countries, including 33 million medical consultations delivered through health partners in Gaza, although this number seems a little sus to us. The newly adopted Pandemic Agreement and revised International Health Regulations provided some structural scaffolding for emergency preparedness gains. Again, the Pandemic Agreement is not “adopted” yet because the PABS deal is still pending. This is more self-congratulatory than actual fact.
As much as the highlights, the gaps are just as telling: diabetes management, measles surveillance, polio eradication, and financial protection all remain unresolved. A large share of WHO’s budget stays earmarked for specific thematic areas, leaving the organisation with limited room to manoeuvre. And yes, the world remains off track for the health-related SDGs by 2030, which, given the previous story in this issue, will surprise no one.
(WHO)
Karma comes calling. For a while now, a lot of rabid and virulent voices across Europe have been rabidly and virulently complaining about the influx of migrants destroying the fabric of their very society. Which is very rich coming from a society that spent centuries invading, colonising and impoverishing the people they colonised. Anyway, the Lancet Countdown Europe has released its 2026 report on health and climate change in the region, and whatever the rabid rabble-rousers may think, Europe better plan for what the Global South has had experience of for a while. Heat is on the way up with 99.6% of the continent seeing rising deaths due to heat. Dengue, chikungunya, and Zika are finding Europe way too comfy. Daily heat health warnings of extreme heat in Europe increased by 318%.
(Lancet Countdown Europe)
Breakthroughs
Serum? More like superbugfighter! Korean skincare aficionados (and who among us isn’t eh?) have been slathering Centella asiatica extract on their faces for years, swearing by its calming, anti-inflammatory properties, and honestly, fair enough, it works. But researchers at the University of Kent and UCL have now found that madecassic acid, one of Centella’s star compounds and a fixture in the glass-skin industrial complex, may have a considerably more consequential application than keeping pores tightened: it can stop antibiotic-resistant E. coli from growing.
The compound works by binding to the cytochrome bd complex, a protein system bacteria rely on for respiration during infection, and one that doesn’t exist in humans or animals, making it a clean target. Researchers also created three modified versions of madecassic acid, all of which successfully blocked bacterial growth, with one variant capable of killing E. coli outright at higher concentrations. Given that antimicrobial resistance is projected to cause 39 million deaths between 2025 and 2050, a hero ingredient that moonlights as an antibiotic precursor is, to put it mildly, a welcome development.
The skincare industry will presumably find a way to put “now with AMR-fighting properties” on a sheet mask within the next year.
(RSC Medicinal Chemistry)
Bottom line
Hot and Dry, and coming for you. By the 2090s, nearly 2.6 billion people, about 28% of the projected global population, could face compound hot-dry extremes, simultaneous heatwaves and droughts, five times more often than today. A study combining 152 climate simulations across eight models finds that on current emissions trajectories, implying a 2.7°C rise by 2100, these events will affect nearly a third of humanity with dramatically increased frequency, and will last up to three times longer than they do now.
The compounding is the point. Heat and drought together are considerably more destructive than either alone, amplifying wildfire risk, agricultural losses, heat-related deaths, and socioeconomic instability simultaneously. And as with every climate story in The Kable, the burden falls hardest on tropical nations and low-income countries, which have contributed the least to the emissions driving the problem and have the least capacity to absorb the consequences.
The study does offer a number rather than just a warning: full implementation of Paris Agreement commitments (hehe) and additional binding pledges could reduce the exposed population from 28% to 18%, which would mean nearly 900 million fewer people in the crosshairs. Whether that constitutes hope or simply a less catastrophic version of the same outcome is, at this point, a matter of perspective.
Honestly though, 2090 is too far now. None of us is gonna make it till then. The planet itself will be a dry, smoking husk with a few scattered survivors being feasted upon by mosquitoes. So, don’t sweat it. Or do.
(Geophysical Research Letters)
First world problems. This is a story about a small town in Texas, America. You might wonder how and why it fits into The Kable. But as with Europe and heat and disease above, this is an indication that the Global North, that so far thought of itself as insulated from the problems of the “Third World,” will soon be dealing with the same issues.
Corpus Christi, population 500,000, home to some of the largest petrochemical facilities in the United States, is on track to run out of water by next year. Absent significant rainfall, its reservoirs will dry up completely. No modern American city has ever experienced this. There is, as the city manager put it, no manual for what comes next.
The city has mandated 25% water cuts across the board from September. But city data shows that 70% of households already use less water than the new restrictions require. The residents have, in other words, been squeezed dry. Figuratively, for now. The cuts will have to come almost entirely from the industrial users who account for more than half of the city’s water consumption: ExxonMobil, Valero, Occidental, and others, whose plants consume tens of millions of gallons daily. A single Exxon plastics facility uses 13 million gallons per day. None of these companies have publicly explained how, or whether, they intend to comply.
If industry shuts down, the economic collapse of the city follows. If it doesn’t, the reservoirs empty. Schools are exploring drilling their own wells. Hospitals want exemptions. The mayor has balked at cutting off household water supply to those who can’t comply. Nobody, including the city’s own legal team, is sure what authority the city actually has to enforce any of this on its industrial customers.
(KUT News)
Long reads
The press looked away. Again. Media coverage of violence against women and girls has hit a nine-year low, accounting for just 1.3% of global online news in 2025, down from a peak of 2.2% at the height of the #MeToo movement in 2018. This is in spite of rising AI-assisted abuse and widespread sexual violence in active conflict zones. A new report - The Global Misogyny News Coverage Tracker - hopes to change that.
(AKAS)
The mosquito menace. A piece in Nature about how new vaccines mean malaria deaths should be on the way down. Why then, it wonders, are they rising still?
(Nature)
Smile, you’re on camera. And finally, to end what even we think is a dystopically dark issue, a look at some cute wildlife and stunning nature pics. Winners of the World Nature Photography Awards 2026. Go on, you deserve it for making it all the way here.
(World Nature Photography Awards)
Oh, and Gopal Nair doesn’t want you to see this.