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CDC Africa offices close as Trump targets new deals
The US Government agency charged with combating disease outbreaks abroad is shrinking as Donald Trump’s “America First” approach to foreign policy takes hold, with...
UN warns of thriving illicit medicines trade across central Africa
The United Nations issued another warning last week that central Africa could be facing a major public health threat from trafficked and illicit medicines,...
Congo politician beaten to death after urging Ebola prevention
A senior member of Congo’s ruling party was killed in a beating after taking part in a radio programme to raise awareness about the...
Kenya confirms first Ebola case after traveller’s death
Kenya confirmed its first Ebola case on Tuesday after a Kenyan citizen who had travelled from the Democratic Republic of Congo died in Nairobi,...
Africa commits to new framework to slash maternal, child deaths
Under a new health accountability framework endorsed by the 81st UN General Assembly (UNGA) last month in New York, African governments have committed to...
New strategy to target Africa’s declining vaccination rates
Africa has reached an important moment in its immunisation journey, with coverage not rising fast enough to keep pace with population growth; persistent inequities,...
Lassa fever still a worry in Nigeria
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has recorded 1 086 confirmed Lassa fever cases and 259 deaths across 24 states and...
Concerning gaps in pain care in African hospitals – UCT study
A University of Cape Town-led study has revealed that treatment for pain is erratic and patchy – not just in South African hospitals but...
Mpox surges in SA and 11 African countries
South Africa is seeing a surge in mpox infections, with at least 18 new cases reported – mostly in the Western Cape – while...
DRC kicks off Ebola vaccine rollout for health and frontline workers
The Ebola vaccine was rolled out this weekend in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the priority being on healthcare staff in Bunia,...
WHO says 5 000 more staff needed to tackle the Ebola spread
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has spread across six provinces, placing severe strain on treatment centres and frontline healthcare staff,...
Stellenbosch-led global team hopes to answer hep B treatment questions
A new international research collaboration – B-ZERO – has secured a Wellcome Trust Discovery Award to investigate why some hepatitis B patients fail to suppress...
NWU professor helps shape Africa’s first hypertension guidelines
The recent launch of the first comprehensive hypertension guidelines developed specifically for Africa marks an important step in addressing one of the continent’s most...
Raging Ebola hobbled by funding issues and misinformation
The response to the Congo’s fast-spreading Ebola epidemic has been hampered by a severe lack of funding and pervasive misinformation, according to people on...
Zanzibar, US in billion-dollar health pact discussions
Zanzibar’s Ministry of Health has held talks with the United States Embassy in Tanzania on the implementation of a health-sector co-operation agreement between Tanzania...
How Kenya bulldozed through walls around UFC
The plan for the reformation of Kenya’s universal healthcare coverage that was implemented in 2023 – passed and approved within a record six weeks...
First mpox cases in Guinea-Bissau
The small West African country of Guinea-Bissau is facing its first-ever mpox outbreak, with children accounting for half of the 46 suspected cases, reports...
Nigeria to decriminalise attempted suicide
Nigeria, which has a crippling shortage of mental health professionals – fewer than 1 000 psychiatrists serving more than 200m people – says it...
Study to probe viral mutation link to 'unprecedented' Ebola spread
With more than 4 000 Ebola Bundibugyo cases and 1 800 deaths so far in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Africa CDC...
Explosive mpox outbreak batters Madagascar
More than 3 000 cases of mpox have been recorded in Madagascar after the virus spread from a single port city to some of...
Uganda declares its Ebola-free status, as Congo cases keep rising
Authorities in Uganda declared the country free of Ebola last week after the discharge of the country’s last patient in mid-June – as the virus continues...
Digital tools help Zimbabwe’s HIV migrants stay in care
As thousands of Zimbabweans return home from South Africa in a wave of deportations and anti-immigrant sentiment, health experts warn that disruptions to HIV...
Zimbabwean farmers feed ARVs to chickens to fatten them up
In efforts to maximise profits, Zimbabwean chicken farmers regularly buy antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), intended for HIV patients in the country – on the black...
Mammoth struggle to contain rapidly-spreading Ebola cases in DRC
The Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak, announced just two months ago, has already infected more than 2 120 people and caused...
6 000 Zimbabwean babies, 500 mothers, died in 2025
More than 6 100 babies died within the neonatal period in Zimbabwe last year – most from birth asphyxia – while 563 women lost...
SA company plans Ebola treatment trial, and vaccines enter human trials
Research by a South African pharmaceutical company has identified a drug that prevents the Ebola virus from replicating, with a team now planning a...
SA prepares for Ebola outbreak as DRC health workers threaten strike
Government has designated 36 hospitals – 12 private and 24 public facilities – to manage any Ebola patients if the virus reaches South Africa,...
US and Tanzania ink $1.3bn five-year health pact
Tanzania has signed a memorandum of understanding with the United States that clinches an American investment of more than $1.3bn in the country’s health...
Now Uganda has suspected Marburg case
Uganda, which is struggling to contain the threat of what is already the third-largest Ebola outbreak on record – centred in the neighbouring Democratic...
Thousands missed in Ebola contact tracing, warns Africa CDC
The Africa Centre for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) says that the majority of people testing positive for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of...
Ebola response highlights the value of African science
Every part of the global response to the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rests on an early act of...
'A matter of time' before Ebola arrives in SA, says expert
One of South Africa’s top infectious disease experts has warned that it’s simply “a matter of time” before an Ebola case is imported to...
Trump’s African health deals threaten human rights – report
Human Rights Watch has warned in a recent report that America’s bilateral health pacts with African countries – and its condition that the US...
Ghana asks anti-vaxxer, anti-WHO activist, to address ‘Family Values’ congress
Ghana’s Parliament recently invited an anti-vaccine Kenyan and a conservative Dutch activist campaigning to curtail the WHO to address visiting MPs on “health sovereignty”,...
Clinical trials for Ebola Bundibugyo drug to start soon, say scientists
Scientists are hopeful about several medications that have shown promise in preliminary studies against the virus responsible for the current deadly Ebola outbreak, with...
SA university leads global experts in Ebola response study
A Stellenbosch University-led team of scientists who collaborated with regional experts to assess the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda – and...
World experts call for urgent response, saying Ebola was preventable
Global health leaders, including a number of leading South African health professionals, have signed an open letter to governments in which they urge “an...
Race to find Ebola vaccine accelerates
As the Ebola virus continues to spread, and to claim lives, three new vaccines are being developed to tackle this latest, rare species, while...
Responders struggle to contain Ebola as outbreak surges
The military governor of the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri province, the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak, has likened the struggle to contain the...
Ebola outbreak opens old wounds about African healthcare
To some Africans, the claim last week that the continent’s largest health agency had already bungled its response scratched a familiar wound, reports The...