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Zambia's first local polio case since 1995, from vaccine

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says Zambia has reported its first local case of polio since 1995, in a 2-year-old boy paralysed by a...

DRC's Ebola epidemic contained in a 'smaller geographical area'

Efforts to halt an Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo have made "significant progress", with the virus now contained to a far...

Harvard scrambles to distance itself from honour to Zimbabwe's first lady

The Global Health Catalyst (GHC) group has “clarified” its honouring of Zimbabwe’s first lady Auxillia Mnangagwa hours after several US diplomats wrote to ask...

Zimbabwean doctors protest ZHDA president's abduction

A group of Zimbabwean doctors marched at the country's biggest hospital Sunday, demanding the release of one of their leaders who they say was...

Burundi starts Ebola vaccinations for health workers — WHO

The Burundian Ministry of Public Health and AIDS Control has kicked off the vaccination campaign for front-line staff against the Ebola virus disease. The...

Two Ebola treatment trials show promise of a cure

A trial of four experimental Ebola treatments carried out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been stopped early after two of...

Congo doctors arrested for murder of WHO medic

Three Congolese doctors have been arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo over the killing of a World Health Organisation (WHO) medic, BBC News...

More Ebola cases in eastern DRC 'cross-roads' city

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo are racing to contain an Ebola epidemic, after a gold miner with a large family contaminated several...

Concern over contraceptive solutions for women at high risk of HIV

Over the past three days, the World Health Organisation guideline development group has been meeting to discuss its recommendations for the use of contraceptive...

Lesotho opens 'lowest cost in world' cannabis processing plant

Lesotho, long home to an illicit cannabis farming industry, is poised to become one of the world's biggest producers of medicinal cannabis oil with...

Death toll in the DRC Ebola outbreak passes 1,500

More than 1,500 people have died in a nearly 10-month-old outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the DRC Health Ministry is...

Bafflement as WHO says DRC Ebola crisis 'not an international health emergency'

Controversially, the World Health Organisation has decided that while the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo - with new cases this week...

85 health workers killed or injured in DRC as epidemic pass 2,000

A mob killed an Ebola health worker and looted a clinic in the Democratic Republic of Congo, underscoring a breakdown in public trust that...

WHO issues new Ebola vaccine recommendations

The World Health Organisation’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) has issued new recommendations to address vaccination challenges in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in...

Madagascar's devastating measles epidemic takes 1,200 lives

As Madagascar faces its largest measles outbreak in history and cases soar well beyond 115,000, an IoL report says that resistance to vaccinating children...

Hospital reports a jump in cholera cases in Kenyan capital

The Kenyan capital of Nairobi has experienced a jump in cholera cases, one of the city's top hospitals has announced, adding that eight of...

Merck Foundation to train specialist Zimbabwean doctors in India

Merck Foundation has announced that it will train medical personnel from Zimbabwe in various specialities in India starting this year, says an African Daily...

Disease costs continent almost $2.4trn a year — WHO

Disease is causing an “astounding” drain on Africa’s economy, costing the continent almost $2.4trn each year. The Daily Telegraph reports that this is according...

DRC Ebola outbreak spreading at its fastest rate yet

Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ebola outbreak is spreading at its fastest rate yet, eight months after it was first detected, The Times reports the...

Zim doctors protest over shortages upping mortality risk

Picketing doctors say that patients in Zimbabwe's biggest state hospital are dying due to a lack of medicines and basic supplies, brought on by...

Efforts to curb DRC's Ebola outbreak are failing — MSF

The international president of Medécins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) has issued a scathing analysis of the efforts to control the 7-month-old Ebola...

Tunisia's health minister resigns over new-born baby deaths

Tunisia's Health Minister Abderraouf Cherif has resigned following the deaths of 11 new-born babies at a hospital in the capital, Tunis. BBC News reports...

Poorer African nations rank high in disease-fighting league table, but SA languishes

African countries with modest national incomes are outperforming some richer nations on the continent in the fight against diseases of poverty known as neglected...

Zimbabwean doctors's strike collapses

Zimbabwean doctors have ended a 40-day strike for better pay and conditions that crippled public hospitals without a deal on salary increases, their union...

Zimbabwe fires 550 doctors and radiographers over 'unlawful' strike

A month-long impasse between government and doctors over pay and conditions has left Zimbabwe’s health care system in a critical state, after the government...

Zimbabwe doctors strike, demanding pay in hard currency

Doctors in Zimbabwe have gone on strike in protest over poor working conditions and have also demanded that the government pay their salaries in...

Kenya bans Marie Stopes from offering abortion services

Kenya has banned the international charity Marie Stopes from offering abortion services to women and girls after complaints it was promoting the termination of...

DRC Ebola outbreak worst in the country's history

The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the most severe in the country’s history with 319 confirmed and probable cases,...

Partnership to tackle African health challenges

A 'transformative partnership' to support African investigators to tackle African health challenges in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals for health, has been...

Healthcare crisis forces Zimbabwe ministers to seek treatment in SA

Zimbabwe's vice-president, Constantino Chiwenga and foreign affairs minister, Sibusiso Moyo, who both have been reported to be seriously ill, are receiving treatment in South...

SA's northern provinces on high alert after Zim cholera outbreak

The Mpumalanga and Limpopo Health departments are on high alert after a cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe killed over 30 people and left nearly 4,000...

Zimbabwe declares cholera emergency after 20 die

Zimbabwe has declared a cholera outbreak in the capital Harare an emergency after 20 died from the disease and more than 2,000 people were...

Zambia placed on list of Ebola at-risk countries

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has placed Zambia among countries at risk of an Ebola disease outbreak. Polity reports that this is due to...

DRC reports yet another Ebola outbreak

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has announced a new outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, just days after a recent emergence of the...

HIV in the military causes Mozambique concern

Health authorities in Mozambique have expressed concern at the prevalence of HIV among the country's militarily, says a BBC News report. They say 11.5%...

Nigerian president need not reveal his medical treatment costs

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari does not have to reveal the cost of his treatment for an undisclosed illness that incapacitated him for several months,...

Rwanda provides health insurance for 90% of citizens — Kagame

Rwandan President Paul Kagame told the World Health Assembly that Rwanda has managed to cover 90% of citizens with health insurance, reports Health-e News....

WHO raises Ebola risk in DRC to ‘very high'

Democratic Republic of Congo faces a "very high" public health risk from Ebola after the disease was confirmed in one patient in a major...

WHO moves rapidly on DRC Ebola outbreak but sceptics warn against complacency

Although the rapid World Health Organisation response to the outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a far cry...

New Ebola emergency in the DRC

Ebola has killed 17 people in northwest Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and, reports News24, the health ministry is describing the fresh outbreak as...