Latest atrocities in Sudan war include the shelling of house of traditional healer, who died with her children and neighbours
People trapped in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and its twin city of Omdurman say civilians are being deliberately targeted in shelling by the warring parties.
A woman who had been helping wounded soldiers was killed along with her three children and six neighbours when her home was shelled by Sudanese army forces earlier this week.
Continue reading...Two cases to be heard this month could serve as legal precedent to outlaw the holding of patients against their will for unpaid bills
Two women who were prevented from leaving hospital over unpaid medical bills are to have their case against Ugandan authorities heard this month in a case that lawyers hope will end the practice.
Akello Esther Susan, 23, and NS (known by her initials) are jointly suing the government, two district councils and church dioceses over their treatment after giving birth in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Continue reading...Indian Medical Association says that testing is substandard in the manufacture of generic medicines with ‘no guarantee of quality’
Indian doctors have been told they can no longer prescribe branded drugs for their patients, provoking vehement protest from the Indian Medical Association [IMA].
New government guidelines demand a wider use of generic drugs, which are 30%-80% cheaper, reducing the cost of medicines for millions. When doctors prescribe a medicine for fever, for example, they will have to give paracetamol, not drugs such as Panadol or Calpol. Doctors liken this to “running trains without tracks” because the quality of generic drugs cannot be guaranteed.
Continue reading...Tech firms permit ads for potentially harmful products including vaginal ‘cleanse’ balls and useless herbs for infertility, according to an investigation
Meta, YouTube and Google are profiting from posts promoting harmful and useless health products to women in Kenya, according to an investigation.
Researchers from the media collective Fumbua have accused big tech firms of amplifying content that promises unproven cures for infertility and herbs that can stave off cancers on their networks.
Continue reading...Cyclone Freddy cited as contributing factor in feared new outbreak that follows inoculation of 8 million children
Malawi is investigating at least 17 suspected polio cases just as a vaccination campaign is completed with more than 90% of the country’s children inoculated against the virus.
Health authorities fear Cyclone Freddy – the world’s longest-lasting tropical cyclone – which made landfall in March in the southern African nation and led to hundreds of deaths and thousands of displacements – could be a contributing factor.
Continue reading...Authorities denied pregnant Indigenous girl her legal right to an abortion and ‘re-victimised’ her, UN child rights committee says
Peru violated the rights of a 13-year-old girl who had been repeatedly raped by her father by denying her an abortion after she became pregnant, the UN has ruled.
The United Nations child rights committee found this week that the Peruvian authorities had violated the rights to health and life of the girl, known by the pseudonym Camila, by failing to provide her with information and access to legal and safe abortion.
Continue reading...Death toll mounts in northern Piura region after torrential rain and floods lead to worst ever epidemic
In a stream of white, mourners walked behind an ivory-coloured, shoulder-borne coffin as neighbours, heads bowed and hands clasped, peered out of doorways on the narrow street in Castilla, a middle-class suburb in Piura, northern Peru.
At the gates of the San José de Tarbes school, dozens of girls wearing grey skirts and white shirts with red ties awaited the cortege, holding white balloons and roses. It was a farewell for their schoolmate Priscila Quispe, seven, who died of dengue in the Santa Rosa public hospital last week.
Continue reading...Report demands accountability for war crimes and singles out Russia for ‘mind-boggling’ targeting of hospitals in Ukraine
Russian attacks on medical facilities in Ukraine made 2022 the most violent year in a decade for hospitals and health workers operating in conflict zones, according to a new report by a coalition of humanitarian organisations.
With 750 reported attacks in 2022, Russia set a 10-year record, according to the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition, which includes Human Rights Watch and the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health.
Continue reading...‘Landmark’ resolution in Geneva seeks to boost neglected service in all healthcare sectors, from prosthetics to physical therapy
Rehabilitation needs are “largely unmet globally” and in many countries less than 50% of people receive the services they require, according to a “landmark” resolution adopted by the World Health Assembly in Geneva on Friday.
At the 76th World Health Assembly, World Health Organization (WHO) member states made a non-binding commitment to expand rehabilitation services to all levels of healthcare and to strengthen their financing mechanisms. Demand for the services is expected to grow as the burden of non-communicable diseases rises globally, says the document.
Continue reading...Successful trials in Africa of NmCV-5 vaccine open the door to affordable treatment for disease that kills 250,000 people a year
An effective, affordable meningitis vaccine has been successfully tested in Africa, raising hopes for the elimination of a disease that kills 250,000 people a year.
The NmCV-5 vaccine, developed by the Serum Institute of India and global health organisation Path, will protect against the five main meningococcal strains found in Africa, including the emerging X strain, for which there is currently no licensed injection.
Continue reading...Indian drug company to make cheaper generic version of CAB-LA, potentially protecting millions of people in Africa from the virus
An affordable version of a groundbreaking HIV-prevention drug will be made in South Africa for the first time, potentially giving millions of people at risk of HIV infection in Africa access to a two-monthly jab that can almost eliminate their chances of contracting the virus.
The Indian drug company Cipla confirmed that a generic version of the prophylaxis, long-acting cabotegravir (CAB-LA), would be manufactured at its plants in Benoni, near Johannesburg, or Durban.
Continue reading...Access to PCV jabs in South Sudan, Somalia, Guinea and Chad ‘could save 40,000 children a year’
Delays in rolling out a vaccine against childhood pneumonia in four of the world’s poorest countries have been blamed for thousands of unnecessary deaths.
South Sudan, Somalia, Guinea and Chad are four of the last African nations without the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), one of the most powerful tools against pneumonia in children.
Continue reading...In El Fasher, in North Darfur, only one hospital remains functional, with bomb damage, power cuts and only weeks until lifesaving equipment and drugs run out
Until gunfire broke out on the streets of El Fasher this month, the state capital of North Darfur had several main hospitals. There was the big teaching hospital, the Saudi hospital, a paediatric hospital and the South hospital, a modest 35-bed facility with big ambitions and a specific remit: to help bring down the high numbers of local women dying in pregnancy and childbirth.
Now, almost two weeks into the conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), two weeks of bloodshed that has seen terror return to a region once synonymous with human suffering, those options have narrowed.
Continue reading...In wake of children’s cough syrup scandal, an expert says regulatory system is ‘grossly understaffed and underfunctional’
About 3% of drugs routinely taken by Indians for ailments such as hypertension, bacterial infections and allergies are “substandard”, according to a study of samples taken from factories by government inspectors.
Officials have been carrying out random checks on factories after a scandal over Indian-made cough syrups linked to the deaths of children, mostly in countries in Africa.
Continue reading...Breakthrough hailed as highly effective R21 vaccine is cleared by west African country but questions remain over funding
Ghana has become the first country to approve a highly effective malaria vaccine developed at Oxford university in the UK.
The R21/Matrix-M vaccine, the first to exceed the World Health Organization’s target of 75% efficacy, has been cleared for use by Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority in children aged 5-36 months, the group at highest risk of death from malaria.
Continue reading...India’s patent office turns down bedaquiline extension to Johnson & Johnson, clearing the way for generic versions
People with drug-resistant tuberculosis in India could soon have access to critical medication at a far lower cost after the authorities rejected US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson’s application to extend a patent.
The firm wanted to extend its patent on bedaquiline, which expires in July, until 2027, which would have prevented cheaper generic versions reaching the market.
Continue reading...Indian state in crisis after adenovirus hits 12,000 people this year and families with sick children camp outside Kolkata hospital
Nineteen children have died of acute respiratory infections in West Bengal this year, and thousands more are in hospital as India grapples with an adenovirus outbreak.
More than 12,000 cases of adenovirus have been recorded in the state since January. More than 3,000 children have been admitted to hospital with severe flu-like symptoms.
Continue reading...The disease, which has killed 1,500 people since last March, has been aggravated by heavy rains and an overburdened health system
Malawi’s cholera outbreak is the country’s deadliest on record, claiming more than 1,500 lives, according to the UN.
More than 50,000 cases have been detected in the landlocked country in south-east Africa since an outbreak was declared in March last year, triggered by two devastating tropical storms that hit the region. Almost 200 children have died.
Continue reading...As cases fall, the condition that once affected millions of people in Africa and Asia could also be the first to be wiped out without medicines
The number of cases of a painful and debilitating tropical illness fell last year to a record low, fuelling hopes that it will soon become the second human disease in history to be eradicated.
Only 13 cases of guinea worm disease were reported worldwide in 2022, a provisional figure that if confirmed would be the smallest ever documented, the US-based Carter Center has said.
Continue reading...Controversial bill to stop industrial action criticised as an already struggling sector fears losing more staff in a damaging brain drain
Zimbabwe’s health workers have criticised the government for passing contested legislation that outlaws any industrial action, saying it will worsen the sector’s already damaging brain drain.
The new Health Services Bill, which came into force on Tuesday, forbids health workers who are classified as an “essential” service from striking for more than three days. Those who do not comply face a fine or imprisonment of up to six months.
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