Latest news with #GlobalHealthSecurity
Economist
24-07-2025
- Health
- Economist
The pandemic preparedness dividend—investing today to prevent and mitigate tomorrow's pandemics
Announcing the Africa Health Security Index The world remains dangerously unprepared for the next biological threat. The 2021 Global Health Security (GHS) Index gave African nations an average score of 29 out of a possible 100, which leaves significant room for improvement. The Africa Health Security (AHS) Index is a comprehensive, independent assessment of epidemic and pandemic preparedness across Africa. The AHS Index is developed by NTI | bio, in partnership with the Brown University Pandemic Center and Economist Impact, in collaboration with Science for Africa Foundation, the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa) and the University of Tunis El Manar (Tunis, Tunisia). Funding is provided by the Gates Foundation. The index, launching in 2026, will enable leaders to measure, finance and advance improvements in health security and create an evidence-based accountability framework to track progress towards better epidemic and pandemic preparedness in Africa.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Aid leaders urge Houthis to release humanitarian workers detained in Yemen
The heads of 10 major international charities and United Nations agencies have demanded the release of aid workers held captive by Yemen's Houthi rebels. In a statement released to mark the one-year anniversary of the kidnapping of 23 UN staff and five humanitarian workers in northern Yemen, they said nothing could justify the ordeal the hostages had been through. 'They were doing their jobs, helping people in desperate need: people without food, shelter, or adequate health care,' they said in the letter, seen by The Telegraph. The Iran-backed group's action, they added, have had a 'chilling effect across the international community' and 'undermined mediation efforts for lasting peace' in Yemen. Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, said: 'The UN and its humanitarian partners should never be targeted, arrested or detained while carrying out their mandates for the benefit of the people they serve.' He strongly condemned the death of a World Food Programme (WFP) staff member in detention in February. The worker, who has only been identified by his first name, Ahmed, had delivered food aid with the organisation since 2017. It is unclear how he died. 'The Houthi de facto authorities have yet to provide an explanation for this deplorable tragedy,' he said. Hisham al-Hakimi, 44, Save the Children International's safety and security director in Yemen, also died in Houthi custody in October 2024. The organisation described his death as 'unexplained' and called for an investigation. Ten years of civil war have devastated Yemen and triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. More 150,000 people have died and 24 million people – around 60 per cent of the population – are in need of humanitarian assistance. One in two children under the age of five is suffering from malnutrition. In January, the UN said it would pause all operations in the northern governorate of Saada, a stronghold of the Houthi movement, citing safety concerns. It is also actively engaging with senior Houthi officials to try to secure the release of all its detained employees, it added. Human rights groups have also accused the Houthi movement of routinely kidnapping, torturing and arbitrarily detaining hundreds of civilians. Last June, when it arrested the aid workers, the group claimed to have dismantled an 'American-Israeli spy network' – a claim the UN rejected as baseless. Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump administration cancels multi-million dollar bird flu vaccine contract with Moderna
The Trump administration has cancelled a $766 million contract with Moderna for the development of its human bird flu vaccine, the company has announced. The pharmaceutical giant was awarded the multi-million dollar contract by the Biden administration last year, as the H5N1 virus began to ravage US dairy and poultry farms. It has since infected more than 70 people in America, killing one, and experts say it is only a matter of time before it starts to spread between humans – an event that could trigger a new pandemic. Just yesterday, an 11 year old boy died in Cambodia after becoming infected, the fifth H5N1 death in the region this year. A spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said that after an internal review, the agency had decided to cancel the Moderna contact. Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a long time vaccine sceptic, has repeatedly expressed concern over the safety of mRNA vaccines despite them having saved millions of lives during the Covid-19 pandemic. This week Mr Kennedy also announced that mRNA Covid vaccines would no longer be recommended for healthy children or healthy pregnant women. Currently, the US lacks sufficient bird flu vaccine stockpiles, with only 0.82 doses available per person, according to disease analytics firm Airfinity. The agreement with Moderna was intended to strengthen the country's pandemic preparedness by diversifying its emergency H5N1 vaccine stocks. It is thought mRNA vaccines can be developed and produced more rapidly than traditional flu vaccines which are grown in chicken eggs – a method that is both slow and difficult to scale. The cancellation of the contract came on the same day Moderna announced positive results for the jab from its first preliminarily clinical trials: testing of 300 people found the H5N1 vaccines to be 98 per cent efficacy, and 'generally well tolerated.' 'The cancellation [of the contract] means that the government is discarding what could be one of the most effective and rapid tools to combat an avian influenza outbreak,' Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security told Reuters. The European Union has secured 450 million doses of bird flu vaccines – enough for one dose per EU resident – from multiple manufacturers, including CSL Seqirus, GSK, and Pfizer. Moderna, founded just 11 years ago and based in Massachusetts, received over $30 billion in US government funding during the Covid-19 pandemic under the leadership Dr Anthony Fauci, which allowed it to quickly develop and deploy millions of doses of its vaccines. Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
HIV testing and monitoring down by a fifth after Trump aid cuts
Crucial testing and monitoring of vulnerable South African HIV patients has fallen by up to a fifth since Donald Trump cut aid to health workers and clinics, government data shows. The testing to monitor blood virus levels has fallen by 17 per cent in young people, and by 21 per cent in pregnant women. The data reported by Reuters also shows that testing in infants has fallen by a fifth and is one of the most concrete signs yet of the effect the aid cuts are having on the country with the highest number infected by HIV. Aaron Motsoaledi, health minister, admitted the funding cuts had caused problems, but strongly denied suggestions the country's anti-HIV campaign was close to collapse. He said: 'Under no circumstances will we allow this massive work conducted over more than a decade and a half to collapse and go up in smoke because of what President Trump has done.' Modelling released in March has already predicted the cuts could trigger soaring rates of global HIV infections and millions of deaths. There could be between 4.4m to 10.8m additional new HIV infections by the end of this decade in low-and-middle income countries according to the forecasts published in the Lancet journal. Regular testing of HIV patients is considered vital for managing the long-running outbreak because it tells whether treatment is keeping the virus in check, and whether it is sufficiently suppressed to prevent it spreading to others. Testing is particularly important in pregnant women who are at risk of passing on the infection during childbirth. Public health experts warn that with less testing, fewer people who are at risk of transmitting the virus will be identified. Missing a test can also indicate that a patient has dropped out of the system and may be missing treatment. Trump froze many foreign aid programmes by executive order in the early days of his administration. South Africa was doubly hit, as he also targeted aid to the country for allegedly discriminating against white people. He falsely said white land was being seized by the government. South Africa did not rely on America for its anti-HIV drugs but did rely on the United States President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) to pay 15,000 health workers. These workers did HIV testing and counselling in hotspots and checked up on patients who had dropped off their medication. 'These are shocking figures, with profound implications for maternal and child health across the country,' said Francois Venter, executive director of the Ezintsha Research Centre in Johannesburg. Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Thailand reports first anthrax death in decades
Thailand has reported its first anthrax death in decades, prompting authorities to track hundreds of people who have potentially been exposed to deadly bacteria. A 53-year-old man in Mukdahan province died from the highly dangerous livestock disease, with authorities confirming a second case and investigating three more suspected infections. The dead man had been exposed after a cow was slaughtered during a religious ceremony, according to early investigations. The meat was later distributed and consumed within the village. Authorities identified at least 638 people as being potentially exposed, including 36 who had taken part in butchering livestock, while the rest had consumed raw or undercooked beef. 'All individuals who may have been in contact with infected meat are being monitored,' the health ministry said. Meanwhile the United Nations said Democratic Republic of Congo was battling its own outbreak, which had killed one person. Medics found 16 suspected cases and one confirmed human case in the country's North Kivu Province, which has been blighted by violence and has this year seen the M23 rebel group make sweeping gains. Anthrax is caused by a spore-forming bacteria called Bacillus anthracis and typically affects cows, sheep and goats but can also spread to people. The bacteria produce potent toxins which are responsible for the symptoms. The most common form is anthrax of the skin, when spores get into cuts or scratches, leading to black bumpy sores, headaches, muscle aches, fever and vomiting. Gastrointestinal anthrax is caught from eating meat from an infected animal and can lead to severe abdominal pain, vomiting of blood and severe diarrhoea. The rarest and most severe form of human anthrax is when the spores reach the lungs, which can cause severe breathing problems. Inhaled anthrax, if untreated, can have a fatality rate as high as 90 per cent. Thai officials said the dead man was a construction worker with underlying diabetes. He developed a lesion on his right hand on April 24 and was hospitalised three days later. As his symptoms got worse, his wound turned black, his lymph nodes swelled up in his armpit and he began fainting and having seizures. Globally, there are thought to be a few thousand human cases each year. This week's death was the first anthrax fatality in Thailand since 1994. Thailand last reported human anthrax cases in 2017, when two people were infected without fatalities. In 2000, 15 cases were recorded, also without deaths. Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
