Even with a monkeypox caseload that’s soared to more than 16,000 in 75 countries, activists said officials in hotspots like Berlin and London continue to fumble the distribution of a smallpox vaccine that’s also effective against monkeypox. Officials cite bureaucratic hurdles. Activists are also frustrated that the pharmaceutical industry isn’t rushing out existing treatments or more urgently searching for new ones. Read more.
Newborn deaths have seen a massive decline globally over the past three decades, but sub-Saharan Africa bears the highest rate: At least 27 of every 1,000 children born in the region do not survive their first 28 days. Access to breast milk, which confers vital nutrients and can help prevent infections, could save their lives.
But not every child has access to a caregiver who can breastfeed them and not every mother can breastfeed her child. That is where human milk banks come in — to collect, test, process and, ultimately, distribute donated human milk for babies in need. Read more.
Ahead of the global eruption of monkeypox cases, outbreaks of the disease were already increasing in West and Central Africa, where it has sporadically appeared for decades. For researchers in the region, it’s a familiar cycle, like the West African Ebola outbreak that began in 2013, when attention and resources to an existing pathogen only increase after the disease threatens the global north. Read more.
Global hunger is at unprecedented levels, with an estimated 276 million people facing severe food shortages — and at least three countries at risk of famine. With food prices soaring, supply chains disrupted and the conflict in Ukraine blocking access to vital reserves, experts fear the crisis could deepen. How did we get here and what can be done about it? Read more.
Rich countries are snapping up available Covid-19 treatments, leaving the rest of the world months away from gaining access. The wait in some middle-income countries could be even longer.
“We still have deaths every day, and coming into winter it will increase,” said Luis Villarroel Villalón, who leads a nonprofit in Chile that provides legal services. His is among the dozens of middle-income countries looking at a wait, which could stretch well into 2023, for the new treatments, particularly Pfizer’s oral antiviral, Paxlovid. “Lives could be saved through Paxlovid,” said Villalón. Read more.
World Trade Organization officials have circulated a draft proposal that would temporarily waive intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines, paving the way for members to start discussing the plan.
That will compel members, including the deal’s brokers, to signal whether they’ll support the divisive proposal. Read more.