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Infectious Diseases
Warning as new mpox variant spreads
Local infectious disease experts have warned people to be more vigilant regarding the new highly infectious mpox variant, Clade 1b, which has been reported...
Kennedy enrages supporters by now endorsing MMR vaccine
An endorsement of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr this past weekend...
Victorian diseases on the rise in Britain, warn doctors
Doctors in England have raised concerns over a rise in Victorian diseases, such as scabies, and growing health inequalities caused by poor-quality housing, air pollution and access to transport.
A...
UK draws up new disease-threat watch list
Britain has a new watch list of 24 infectious diseases that could pose the greatest future threat to public health, the aim being to...
Oxford launches first human aerosol TB vaccine trial
A new clinical trial called TB-45 to test tuberculosis (TB) vaccine safety – the first-in-human aerosol mycobacterial challenge infection model – has been launched.
The...
Unvaccinated US measles patients display vitamin A toxicity
Several children admitted to hospital with measles in Texas and New Mexico are displaying symptoms of vitamin A toxicity, doctors have said, adding that...
TB drug shortage hits provinces
The Eastern Cape is reaching crisis point with TB drug stockouts three months after reports of a global shortage of the medicines first emerged,...
Three new mpox cases in Gauteng
Three more laboratory-confirmed cases of mpox have been detected in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, where three other cases were detected at the end of February, including...
Waning immunity, low jab rate, trigger SA diphtheria cases
Over the past 14 months, South Africa has experienced its highest rise in diphtheria cases in 30 years, with doctors attributing this to waning...
Hand, foot and mouth disease cases surge in Eastern Cape
Cases of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) have risen to 78 in the Eastern Cape, with the provincial Department of Health saying most...
Global measles cases spread among the unvaccinated
The number of measles cases linked to an outbreak in Texas has grown to more than 300, with around 40 cases reported over the...
Nigeria Lassa fever death toll now 100
Nigeria has recorded 29 new Lassa fever infections and five deaths in one week, bringing the total fatalities recorded in 2025 to 100, according...
Vital leprosy drugs arrive in Nigeria after year-long delay
After waiting for more than a year, Nigerians with leprosy will finally be able to obtain critical drugs to treat the disease, which were...
Kennedy's conflicting advice leave US doctors frustrated
Doctors and medical experts in the United States are irate about the mixed messaging and controversial advice being dispensed by Health & Human Services...
Mystery illness in DRC kills more than 50 people
An unknown illness has killed more than 50 people in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, including a group of children who...
Measles jab a personal choice, says Kennedy after child’s death
After an unvaccinated Texas child died from measles this week – the first US death in a decade from the disease – vaccine sceptic...
Mpox cases rise to 28 in SA
The National Health Department has announced that three new cases of mpox have been confirmed in South Africa – all from Ekurhuleni.
The first case,...
Hand, foot and mouth disease spreads to East London
The Eastern Cape Department of Health has reported 13 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) cases in the Buffalo City metropolitan municipality,...
Hand, foot and mouth disease on the rise at Durban schools
The number of confirmed reports of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) in Durban schools has more than tripled in a week, with the...
Concern as Guillain-Barre syndrome cases rise in India
A six-year old boy is among around 160 reported cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) since early January in Pune, India.
GBS, a rare disorder where...
Rwandan Marburg research to give clues on virus immunity
Experts are launching a research project in Rwanda that could shed light on the body’s response to the deadly Marburg virus, and hopefully guide...
Uganda launches Ebola vaccine trial
By launching an Ebola vaccine trial within days of an outbreak, Uganda is sending the message that epidemic responses can be proactive, strategic and...
Ugandan nurse dies in first Ebola outbreak in two years
A nurse in Uganda has died of Ebola in the first recorded fatality since the country’s last outbreak of the disease ended in early 2023, a...
Brazilian couples study finds gene that boosts Covid-19 protection
A group of South American couples has helped to discover a biomarker of resistance to the Covid-19 virus, say scientists, after a study conducted...
Effects of Japan's 'public co-operation' approach to Covid pandemic
During the chaos that was the Covid-19 pandemic, and in contrast to the lockdowns imposed in many countries, Japanese authorities issued health advisories and...
NICD issues diphtheria alert
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has issued an alert on respiratory diphtheria, which it says has been present since 2024, particularly in...
Moderna gets millions for mRNA jab against future pandemics
In the final days of the Biden administration, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded $590m to Moderna to expedite development...
UK group to be given malaria for research purposes
To find out more about the long-term effects of malaria, Oxford University scientists are sending perfectly healthy people to the Netherlands to be deliberately...
Sierra Leone declares mpox emergency
A state of emergency was declared in Sierra Leone on Monday after the country reported its second case of mpox in less than four...
First bird flu death reported in the US
A Louisiana man who had the first severe human case of bird flu in the US has died, local health officials reported this week...
More than 900m people globally have incurable STI – Qatar analysis
Research led by a team in Doha has confirmed genital herpes is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the world that does...
AMR could overtake cancer as top disease killer by 2050
Concerned experts say that if antimicrobial resistance continues to grow, in 25 years’, some antibiotics will become useless, certain bacterial infections will be much...
Bird flu closer to reaching pandemic levels than we thought – scientists
US scientists believe the H5N1 flu virus currently circulating in birds and dairy cows is already better at infecting people than earlier variants, and...
WHO experts to probe mystery disease in DRC
Health experts have been deployed to the Democratic Republic of Congo by the WHO to try to determine the cause of an undiagnosed disease...
Infections rise as 143 die from unknown disease in Congo
An unknown disease killed 143 people in the DRC’s southwestern province last month, with the victims reporting flu-like symptoms, including high fever and severe...
WHO alert as measles surge worldwide
Measles cases are escalating worldwide at an alarming rate – mainly due to a drop in vaccines – according to a report from the...
First clade 1b mpox case detected in America from Africa
In the first known case in the United States, a Californian man has tested positive for the mpox Clade 1b virus that’s currently running...
DRC fights mpox-measles co-infections
Africa’s mpox situation is being complicated by measles co-infections in children in two Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) provinces, say officials from the...
UK identifies first cases of imported clade 1b mpox
After identifying the first case of the new mpox variant clade Ib in the UK last week, authorities have now detected another two cases...
Rwanda success story in controlling Marburg outbreak
Marburg virus – which has no approved vaccines or drugs – is notorious for its killing ability, with as many as nine patients out...