💉 Tanzania says bye-bye to Marburg; Namibia says hello to cholera; Africa CDC welcomes a continental pandemic fund
#555 | Uganda receives malaria vaccines; The world gets clean air, not; The EU wants to make in Europe
Hello, and welcome back to The Kable for a light-hearted and overly cheerful round-up of all things life sciences this week, a week in which we celebrated the glorious fifth anniversary of the first global pandemic declaration this century.
In Uganda, the malaria vaccine has made a landing, and has been promptly dispatched to 105 districts across the country. In even more heartening news, there have been no new Ebola casesreported from the country this week.
In even better news, Tanzania's Marburg outbreak is now officially over after 42 days without new cases. The outbreak, declared in mid-January 2025, resulted in 10 fatalities.
In quite the achievement, Namibia has reported its first case of cholera in over a decade.
The mystery illness in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continues to spread with the disease itself still remaining mostly a mystery. The mpox response in DRC continues to falter too with the ongoing civil strife/war, leading to the "rebels" claiming more territory in the eastern part of the country.
In Brazil, São Paulo has reported its first case of the new mpox strain in a person in contact with a visitor from DRC.
In a boost for vaccine manufacturing in Egypt, Dutch CDMO Batavia Biosciences has inked a deal with Vaccine Biotechnology City (VBC) and MEVAC to enhance local vaccine manufacturing capabilities, with an initial focus on Measles, Rubella, and Rotavirus vaccines.
Did it come from a lab? Did it come from a bat? The origins of Covid remain as shady today as they were five years ago. Adding a new-old twist to the debate is German spy agency BND that says Covid most definitely probably almost certainly leaked from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Bird flu is now officially in Antarctica as well. Scientists are veering towards the opinion that we should now be preparing for a bird flu pandemic.
Over in the pharmacy of the world, recalls continue as usual while trade groups say a report finding fault with quality and manufacturing norms in India is itself faulty. Because, of course, it is.
And finally, Brazil, hosts of COP30, the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, has decided that the best way to prep for a conference that discusses ways to protect the environment from climate change is to mow down over eight miles of Amazonian rainforest to build a new highway.
Stories Of The Week
A no-strings slush fund. The African Epidemic Fund is now live, giving Africa CDC the autonomy and rapid-response funding it needs to tackle outbreaks without bureaucratic delays. Launched after a High-Level Meeting on Domestic Health Financing, the fund arrives as Africa battles Marburg, Ebola, cholera, and a worsening mpox outbreak. The fund promises full transparency with all transactions being publicly accessible, ensuring accountability. As health crises surge - 213 public health events in 2024, up from 152 in 2022 - this fund marks a landmark shift on Africa's path toward increasing self-reliance, and will hopefully allow Africa CDC to act swiftly in containing current and future threats.
(Africa CDC)
How clean is my air? Not very. Chad and Bangladesh topped the 2024 world pollution rankings, while Delhi took the unwelcome title of most polluted capital - again. According to IQAir’s latest World Air Quality Report, a staggering 83% of cities surveyed failed WHO air quality standards, and only seven countries - mostly small island nations - met the recommended PM2.5 levels. India, despite hosting 74 of the 100 most polluted cities, ranked only fifth globally, thanks to its broader monitoring network that captures cleaner rural areas. While China saw improvements in pollution control, South Asia remains in crisis. Meanwhile, Africa’s air pollution problem remains largely invisible on paper - only 24 of 54 countries reported data, an improvement from just three in 2017, but still nowhere near comprehensive. And when countries need more data, the US decided to help by pulling the plug on its global air quality monitoring network. The State Department shut down pollution tracking at 80 embassies and deleted 17 years of records from airnow.gov, a move that completely erased real-time air quality data in at least eight developing countries.
(IQAir, AP)
Europe wants its antibiotics back. The European Commission has unveiled the Critical Medicines Act, a plan to reduce the EU’s overdependence on China and India for antibiotics and other essential drugs. Right now, more than 80% of Europe's antibiotics come from Asia, and the EU wants to fix that - at least on paper. The proposed law urges member states to stop awarding drug contracts based solely on price, a practice that has driven European manufacturers out of the market. But will it work? Probably not. EU health ministries have the final say on procurement, and tight budgets mean they’ll likely keep prioritising cheaper imports.
(EU)
A gut feeling. Scientists have uncovered 40,000+ previously unknown gut microbes in African populations, a discovery that could transform medicine for millions. Led by the Sydney Brenner Institute, this groundbreaking study highlights how most microbiome research has ignored Africa, despite gut bacteria playing a key role in drug effectiveness. The findings, published in Nature, suggest that many medicines - developed based on European and American microbiomes - may not work the same way for African patients.
The study also found unique gut bacteria patterns in people with HIV, which could lead to better detection and treatment. Rural participants had richer, more diverse microbiomes than urban dwellers, with antibiotic overuse and diet changes linked to a loss of beneficial bacteria. Researchers warn that this shift could contribute to rising allergies, autoimmune disorders, and metabolic diseases. As Africa finally gets mapped into global microbiome studies, scientists say this is just the beginning with future research exploring links between gut bacteria and conditions like TB, sleep disorders, and brain diseases.
(SciDevNet)
Bottom line
Microplastics, meet Superbugs. Microplastics may be an environmental nightmare but on the flip side, they’re also breeding grounds for antibiotic-resistant superbugs, according to new research from Boston University. The study found that bacteria living in biofilms on microplastics become stronger, grow faster, and resist antibiotics hundreds to thousands of times more effectively than those on other surfaces. This means plastic pollution could be accelerating the rise of hard-to-treat infections, with potentially serious consequences for global health. Researchers tested E. coli biofilms on microplastics against four common antibiotics and found resistance levels so high they had to repeat the experiment multiple times - only to get the same alarming results. Even more concerning? Once bacteria adapt to microplastics, they stay resistant, even after removal.
(Applied Environmental and Microbiology)
Long reads
Vaccines are good. There has been an increasing amount of fear-mongering around vaccines in the past few years. And one of the vaccines that has seen a lot of misinfo and disinfo spread about it is the HPV vaccine. Gavi's VaccinesWork platform has an excellent read about the vaccine, should you feel the need to educate someone who uses WhatsApp as a news medium.
(Gavi)
Oh, and Gopal Nair doesn't want you to see this.