Latest news with #healthsecurity
Zawya
22-07-2025
- Health
- Zawya
New Roadmap to Strengthen Health Security in Central Africa
Africa CDC and strategic health partners operating in Central Africa have drawn up an outline of a joint 2026–2027 roadmap to strengthen health security in the Central African region. Central Africa, like the rest of the continent, is deeply affected by recurrent or prolonged health crises, with the emergence and re-emergence of infectious threats. These threats challenge the resilience of healthcare systems and underline the need for an integrated, multi-sectoral and proactive approach. These public health emergencies are a powerful reminder that no country can effectively and sustainably deal with cross-border health threats on its own. 'This joint planning process is much more than a technical exercise. It is a key moment to strengthen our regional public health architecture, foster the interoperability of our alert systems, promote data sharing and expertise, and facilitate more effective mobilisation of available resources,' said Dr Brice Wilfried Bicaba, Director of Africa CDC's Regional Coordinating Centre for Central Africa (CA RCC). Africa CDC, through its CA RCC, brought together technical and institutional representatives from regional bodies including the Commission of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the Organisation for Coordination in the Fight Against Endemic Diseases in Central Africa (OCEAC) of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), from 16 to 18 June 2025 in Equatorial Guinea. The inaugural strategic joint planning workshop was aimed at strengthening collaboration and coordination between Africa CDC, Regional Economic Communities and health institutions to improve prevention, preparedness and response to health emergencies in Central Africa. Africa CDC and its partners also came up with a consolidated 2025 plan. 'The 2025 joint action plan will serve as an operational guide for the coming months, focusing on concrete actions to strengthen regional coordination and governance, reinforce integrated health systems and the control of high-burden diseases, enhance surveillance, data collection and early warning, as well as build national capacity in terms of networks and laboratory systems,' added Dr Bicaba. The joint roadmap 2026–2027 lays the foundations for a structured response that is more effective, efficient, sustainable and aligned with continental and regional frameworks such as the New Public Health Order for Africa, the Africa CDC Strategic Plan 2023–2027, the Regional Strategic Plans for Preparedness and Response to Public Health Emergencies, cross-border surveillance of diseases with epidemic potential under the 'One Health' approach, and the ECCAS 'One Health' Platform for the period 2025–2029, as well as the 2023–2027 Five-Year Strategic Plan of the OCEAC. 'This roadmap reflects our collective commitment to building a community that is better prepared, more resilient and more responsive to health threats. Coordination with Africa CDC and other regional health organisations is essential if we are to achieve genuine health security in Central Africa,' said Dr Peggy Raymonde Conjugo-Batoma, Head of the Health Department of the Commission of ECCAS. The various stakeholders have also defined a coordination and monitoring framework for the joint implementation of health initiatives in the Central African region over the period 2025–2027. The main aim of this framework is to establish an effective coordination and accountability mechanism for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of joint regional health security activities in Central Africa, while ensuring optimum synergy between the key players. 'I welcome this initiative, which strengthens regional solidarity around our shared priorities,' said Mr Mitoha Ondo'o Ayekaba, Equatorial Guinea's Minister of Health. 'The results of your work reflect not only the richness of your contributions but also the collective commitment and strong desire to face cross-border health threats together. They are also an illustration of strengthened regional cooperation between national institutions, regional economic communities and technical partners in the interests of our populations,' said Mr Ayekaba, who is also a member of the steering committee of the Central African RCC. 'I am personally committed to overseeing the implementation of the joint roadmap and to advocating vigorously with my colleagues to secure the necessary political support,' he said. This inaugural workshop has been hailed by the Minister of Health and Africa CDC's partners as a model of multi-sector collaboration, mobilising the technical expertise, political priorities and resources of the various stakeholders around a common vision. 'It marks an important step in Africa CDC's ambition to build a more robust, integrated and inclusive continental public health system that is better prepared to deal with future health emergencies,' said Dr Bicaba. The representatives present in Malabo also recommended co-developing collaboration protocols between the various institutions, integrating Africa CDC's Regional Coordinating Centre for Central Africa as an observer or technical member at decision-making and technical meetings of the RECs relating to public health, health emergency management and health security, and strengthening the capacities of Member States in health planning and coordination. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
Arabian Business
21-07-2025
- Health
- Arabian Business
Abu Dhabi's vaccine distribution hub activated with first shipment
The vaccine distribution hub in Abu Dhabi has been launched following the arrival of the facility's first shipments. Developed by the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DoH) in partnership with leading global and regional stakeholders, the hub is a strategic milestone in the emirate's vision to strengthen global health security, ensure equitable vaccine access, and build resilient supply chains across the region. The activation of the hub follows an agreement signed between the DoH and GSK during Abu Dhabi Global Healthcare Week in 2024 to establish regional vaccine distribution capabilities in the emirate. The facility becomes GSK's first vaccine distribution centre in the Middle East and the fourth worldwide. Located in KEZAD and operated by Rafed, a subsidiary of PureHealth, the hub was developed by DoH in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), GSK, AD Ports Group, Etihad Cargo, and KEZAD Group. Dr Noura Khamis Al Ghaithi, Undersecretary of the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, commented: 'The operational launch of Abu Dhabi's regional vaccine hub signals our readiness to serve the region with speed, precision, and reliability. 'More than a logistics milestone, this reflects our long-term vision to position Abu Dhabi as a trusted partner in global health where innovation and resilience translate into timely access and measurable public health impact. Through this hub, we are making vaccines more accessible to communities across borders and strengthening the UAE's leadership in preventive, future-ready healthcare.' The hub leverages Abu Dhabi's strategic location, its advanced cold-chain logistics infrastructure, and a regulatory environment that is both agile and supportive of innovation. The hub's activation also marks one of the first major operational milestones under HELM – Abu Dhabi's Life Science Cluster, which was officially launched in April 2025. As the emirate's flagship platform for driving life sciences investment, innovation, and global collaboration, HELM brings together government, industry, and academia to strengthen the capital's position as a preferred global partner in precision health, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and biopharmaceutical logistics. Boyd Chongphaisal, Vice President and General Manager, GSK Gulf, added: 'The launch of our vaccine distribution hub in Abu Dhabi represents a shared commitment to health security, innovation, and access. Through our strategic partnership with DoH and local stakeholders, we are combining scientific excellence with operational strength to ensure timely, efficient delivery of vaccines across the region. 'The integration of this hub under HELM further demonstrates GSK's pioneering stance and alignment with Abu Dhabi's vision for driving impactful outcomes in the life sciences sector on a regional and global scale. This initiative is also a testament to Abu Dhabi's position in the global value chain, strengthening its role in global health and innovation.' The facility will manage a portfolio of more than 20 vaccines, including those for paediatric and adult populations, supporting lifelong immunisation strategies across multiple markets. Designed for scalability, the hub can accommodate emerging vaccine technologies and increased regional demand, while maintaining the highest global quality and safety standards. As operator of the facility, Rafed, has deployed advanced cold-chain and smart distribution technologies that preserve vaccine integrity and ensure end-to-end visibility throughout the logistics process. The hub is fully integrated with Etihad Cargo's PharmaLife network, which connects Abu Dhabi to more than 100 international destinations and offers time-sensitive, temperature-controlled freight services tailored for pharmaceutical products. Mohammad Mustafa Saeed, Chief Executive Officer of Rafed, said: 'As a PureHealth company, Rafed is committed to delivering healthcare excellence through world-class pharmaceutical logistics. The launch of this regional vaccine distribution hub is a tangible expression of our strategy to strengthen health systems, improve access, and build resilience across borders. 'By deploying advanced cold-chain and smart distribution technologies, we are enabling real-time, end-to-end visibility. We remain focused on supporting governments and health partners with confidence and reliability to achieve better health outcomes for communities from Abu Dhabi across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.'
Telegraph
11-07-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
The 7-1-7 plan is supercharging pandemic response. The UK never signed up
By the time the outbreak was reported, the bacteria was already rampant. was lurking inside the refugee camp's food and water supplies, and it had been given ample time to spread. In the end, it took 55 days for health officials to finally detect the problem. By then, hundreds of people in the crowded camp on the Thai-Myanmar border were suffering from debilitating diarrhoea. 'It was a big incident,' said Dr Peeriya Watakulsin, a physician and epidemiologist in Thailand's Department of Disease Control. 'Because of the delay, at the end of the outbreak the total number of cases was 1,800 – that shows the problem of delayed detection.' Later, that delay was traced to a 'crazy' issue: an NGO working in the camp had the wrong email address, which meant nobody responded when they raised the alarm. '[They] contacted totally the wrong people, they had already retired, so the [new] focal point didn't know what had happened,' said Dr Peeriya. Tracing these sorts of issues in the aftermath of an outbreak may sound like a no-brainer, but this has long been a haphazard element of disease response across the globe. While individual governments and the World Health Organization (WHO) have a slew of frameworks meant to evaluate weaknesses in health security (including long-running inquiries), developing a simple metric to quickly measure real-world performance has proven elusive. Then came a new concept: 7-1-7. And in the four years since its inception, countries using it say it's become a critical tool to focus minds, identify shortcomings, and boost accountability. 'People die in outbreaks because of bottlenecks,' said Dr Angelo Goup Thon Kouch, director of health security at South Sudan's Ministry of Health, where a whiteboard monitoring the 7-1-7 targets is hanging on the wall. 'This has created a new standard to uphold.' The idea is to track how response teams perform in the early stages of an outbreak – be it Ebola or salmonella. The numbers correspond to three targets: to detect a new threat within 7 days, to notify the WHO and public within 1 more day, and to launch a response within the subsequent 7 days. The metric is meant to spotlight where bottlenecks are – whether that's an outdated email, staffing shortages or inadequate training – so teams on the ground can fix them before the next disease flare-up, and prevent outbreaks spiralling into epidemics. So far around 35 countries have formally signed up to the 7-1-7 framework, including South Sudan, Brazil and Thailand. But Britain has not. Instead, the government says its existing systems are working just fine. 'In the UK we have well established mechanisms to promptly identify, assess and manage outbreaks including public health emergencies of international concern, where we follow the WHO International Health Regulations, which the 7-1-7 project is designed to align with and support,' said Dr Richard Pebody, a director in Epidemic and Emerging Infections at the UK Health Security Agency. 'The UKHSA carries out a debrief following the response to any incident for all response levels in accordance with our Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response plan.'' Real-world analysis The UK is far from alone. Bar interest from a handful of state-level disease control units in America, 7-1-7 has been more widely picked up by low- and middle-income countries, said Amanda McClelland, the senior vice president of the 'Prevent Epidemics' team at Resolve to Save Lives, the global health non-profit that developed the concept. 'The higher income countries, to some extent, have a complex bureaucracy and it's been hard to know where 7-1-7 should fit,' she said. 'And in some places, we've had conversations where people are like 'yeah, 7-1-7, that's too long for us, we can do it much quicker'. 'To some extent it's true, and systems like the UK may be able to respond faster. But that's not really the point of the metric. The metric is a communication and accountability tool, to sit down and say: could we have been faster? What worked and where were the bottlenecks?' She added: 'It's the difference between running on the treadmill and running a marathon – you can practice all the time, but until you get out there and do it in real conditions, you don't know how you'll perform… 7-1-7 is helpful because it helps measure your performance in real life. How does the system actually work when it's under pressure?' The idea is modelled on the success of another metric, one which high income countries have bought into: the 90-90-90 framework used for HIV/Aids. This target has been credited with galvanising the global HIV response, by creating measurable aims that partners can rally around – and be held accountable for. It refers to 90 per cent of people with HIV knowing their status, 90 per cent of those diagnosed receiving treatment, and 90 per cent of those on treatment having a viral load so low, it can no longer be detected. 'A lot of HIV work is very complex, but we looked at how successful the 90-90-90 target had been in bringing partners together and focusing efforts… on those three things that would make the biggest difference,' said Ms McClelland. 'After Covid, we were concerned that a lot of the focus was on innovations like advanced analytics, genomic surveillance, wastewater [surveillance]. But it's the basic things that are still going wrong. So we were thinking, how can we also get partners to focus on these basics?' To begin with, many in the sector were sceptical of 7-1-7. Where did the numbers themselves come from? Did the disease world really need yet another metric? Was this just another branding exercise? Ms McClelland said the numbers, while based on best-practice, are an oversimplification by necessity. And four years after its inception, some early critics told The Telegraph that the success of 7-1-7 in a variety of contexts has won them over. Others still question whether it's really necessary, and point to the Goodhart law – the idea that, once something becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure as focus narrows and people game systems to hit goals. A simple fix Still, the metric has so far highlighted some unexpected trends. In an analysis of 148 events from 18 countries, all three targets were hit in just 28 per cent of outbreaks. Delays were frequently attached to outbreaks of cholera, vaccine-preventable diseases like yellow fever, and vector-borne pathogens such as dengue. At the other end of the scale, viral haemorrhagic fevers like Ebola and Marburg, plus respiratory diseases including Covid-19, were picked up most rapidly – perhaps due to 'heightened global attention, investment, and preparedness efforts'. The analysis also found there are remarkably simple fixes for a significant chunk of delays identified. 'About 25 per cent of the bottlenecks are communication problems,' said Ms McClelland. 'Someone just didn't know who to call, or that they should let someone know that they'd seen something unusual. Or they found something on a Friday afternoon and didn't have a number to call [over the weekend], or there was no way to get fuel in cars quickly. 'These are really solvable problems,' she added. 'I think one of the reasons that it's successful is it highlights not just these big, immovable pieces that feel hard to solve when you're on the ground – like trying to create a whole lab system, or needing more vaccines… It helps find the small things that you can do to improve every day.' In Thailand's Tak province, that meant updating an email address to ensure NGOs knew who to contact within the government. Dr Peeriya's department also went to the refugee camp to run training for the NGO, developed a real-time dashboard to track diarrhoea cases, and is in the process of reviewing emergency operational plans. Six months later, in December 2024, cholera emerged across the porous border in Myanmar. Soon, the refugee camps in Thailand again saw an outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea. 'But this time the NGO staff we trained identified the cases within a week,' said Dr Peeriya. 'Because we've done a lot of proactive interventions, we only saw around 10 confirmed cases of cholera… a big outbreak didn't happen.' 'I think in the past, the component that we missed was measuring performance,' he added. 'We did the surveillance, the alert, the response. But the fourth component of improving the system was lacking.' For Ms McClelland, this is just one example that epitomises the promise of the metric – others include Uganda's improved Ebola response, and South Sudan's leaps tackling yellow fever. 'It's about taking a learning mindset, accepting that the system is never as good as we think it is, and that there's always an area to improve,' she said. 'Speed matters, and we need to set ambitious targets if we're going to save lives.'
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bavarian Nordic Enters New Smallpox/Mpox Vaccine Supply Contract with European Country
Recurring order from an undisclosed European country to strengthen public preparedness. Combined with other recent orders from non-European countries, the Company has now secured above DKK 3,000 million in contracts in the Public Preparedness business in 2025, thus entering the targeted guidance interval for this business. COPENHAGEN, Denmark, July 9, 2025 – Bavarian Nordic A/S (OMX: BAVA) today announced the award of a contract valued over DKK 200 million to supply its MVA-BN® smallpox/mpox vaccine to a European country. This is another larger order in recent years from the country to strengthen national preparedness against biological threats and epidemics like smallpox and mpox. Paul Chaplin, President & CEO of Bavarian Nordic, said: 'As Europe continues to strengthen its resilience in the face of evolving geopolitical threats, we are proud to support efforts to increase public health security by supplying our MVA-BN® smallpox/mpox vaccine, which remains a vital tool for managing mpox outbreaks as well as for safeguarding populations against future smallpox threats. This new order underscores the growing recognition of biological preparedness as a cornerstone of national and regional security. We remain committed to working with EU and its member states to ensure rapid access to critical medical countermeasures, reinforcing public health infrastructure and contributing to a safer, more secure future. We are also pleased to extend our collaboration with countries outside Europe, demonstrating the value of our long-term partnerships to build and strengthen preparedness.' The order will be delivered in 2025. Along with other orders recently secured from non-European countries, it brings the total value of secured contracts in the Public Preparedness business to slightly above DKK 3,000 million, thus within the targeted guidance interval for this arm of the business for 2025 (DKK 3,000-4,000 million). Total revenue and EBITDA margin for the year remain unchanged at DKK 5,700-6,700 million and 26-30% respectively. About the smallpox/mpox vaccineMVA-BN or Modified Vaccinia Ankara-Bavarian Nordic is the only non-replicating mpox vaccine approved in the U.S., Switzerland, Singapore and Mexico (marketed as JYNNEOS®), Canada (marketed as IMVAMUNE®), and the EU/EAA and United Kingdom (marketed as IMVANEX®). Originally developed as a smallpox vaccine in collaboration with the U.S. government to ensure the supply of a smallpox vaccine for the entire population, including immunocompromised individuals who are not recommended vaccination with traditional replicating smallpox vaccines, MVA-BN has been indicated for use in the general population in individuals considered at risk for smallpox or mpox infection. About Bavarian NordicBavarian Nordic is a global vaccine company with a mission to improve health and save lives through innovative vaccines. We are a preferred supplier of mpox and smallpox vaccines to governments to enhance public health preparedness and have a leading portfolio of travel vaccines. For more information, visit Forward-looking statements This announcement includes forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of our control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning our plans, objectives, goals, future events, performance and/or other information that is not historical information. All such forward-looking statements are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements and any other cautionary statements which may accompany the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances after the date made, except as required by law. Contact investors:Europe: Rolf Sass Sørensen, Vice President Investor Relations, rss@ Tel: +45 61 77 47 43US: Graham Morrell, Gilmartin Group, graham@ Tel: +1 781 686 9600 Contact media:Nicole Seroff, Vice President Corporate Communications, nise@ Tel: +45 53 88 06 03 Company Announcement no. 19 / 2025 Attachment 2025-19-en
NHK
08-07-2025
- Health
- NHK
Weekly cases of whooping cough in Japan hit record high
Weekly cases of whooping cough have hit a record high in Japan. Whooping cough is an infectious bacterial disease characterized by severe, persistent coughing. It can be fatal, especially for infants up to six months old. The Japan Institute for Health Security says 3,353 cases were reported by medical institutions across the country in the week through June 29. The figure is up 142 from the previous week, and the highest since the current method of record keeping began in 2018. By prefecture, Tokyo had 234 cases, followed by 229 in Saitama, 163 in Kanagawa, 154 in Ibaraki and 140 in Niigata. The total number of cases in Japan this year stands at 39,672. There have been reports this season of infants dying or becoming seriously ill. Up to the end of June, four infants aged between less than one month and four months were confirmed dead in four prefectures. There are also reports of infections involving drug-resistant bacteria. The Japan Pediatric Society is calling on parents to immediately vaccinate infants who have turned two months old.
