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Infectious Diseases
KZN pink eye cases surge
The KwaZulu-Natal Health Department has warned of an outbreak of conjunctivitis, particularly in eThekwini, with more than 1 000 cases reported between 29 February...
More than half the world faces high measles risk – WHO
The World Health Organisation warned this week that more than half of the world’s countries will be at high or very high risk of...
Rare case of plague confirmed in US
A rare case of human plague was confirmed in a small rural county in Oregon, USA, last week, marking the first reported case in...
Desperate countries face world shortage of 50m cholera vaccines
The global stockpile of cholera vaccine has run out – just as 16 countries battle outbreaks of the deadly bacterial illness that is infecting millions...
Fungal disease mortality rates worse than thought – UK study
A recently published review by British scientists has found that global incidence and mortality from invasive fungal disease is substantially higher than thought, and...
World leaders prepare for future ‘Disease X’ pandemic
Covid-19 may have settled into a new normal, with even the latest resurgence in cases with a dominant new strain showing no cause for...
DRC records 581 suspected mpox deaths
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has recorded a growing outbreak of mpox cases linked to sexual transmission, the World Health Organisation (WHO)...
‘Walking pneumonia’ may be causing rise in paediatric illnesses worldwide
A surge in paediatric respiratory infections in China, mainly related to respiratory illnesses and pneumonia, has been attributed to respiratory syncytial virus, influenza, Covid-19,...
60m children who missed jabs in pandemic now at risk of killer diseases
Large outbreaks of diseases that mainly kill children are spreading around the world, a grim legacy of disruptions to health systems during the Covid-19...
Global measles cases and deaths rising, warns WHO
After years of declines in measles vaccination coverage, measles cases in 2022 increased by 18%, and deaths by 43% globally (compared with 2021), according...
African countries warned of polio outbreak risks
With 300 confirmed polio cases having already been confirmed in Africa so far this year – and almost 250 detections in wastewater samples –...
First new gonorrhoea drug in 40 years offers promise
A new antibiotic to treat gonorrhoea may be on the horizon after a successful phase 3 trial of an oral pill, zoliflodacin, that was...
Spanish flu skeletons show who was likely to die
It has long been assumed that the 1918 flu pandemic (also known by the misnomer ‘Spanish flu’) indiscriminately struck the young and healthy, the...
WHO's second malaria vaccine will save millions of lives
An inexpensive malaria vaccine that can be produced on a massive scale has been recommended for use by the World Health Organization (WHO), with...
Scientists re-engineer vaccines to help eradicate polio
British and US scientists have collaborated to “super-engineer” polio vaccines to prevent them from mutating into a dangerous form that can cause outbreaks and...
Should there be universal screening for the often ignored CMV in newborns?
A condition which affects at least 20 000 babies born in the US each year and leaves about 4 000 of them with serious...
Vaccine candidates offer hope for African Marburg spread
Africa’s slow but steady spread of Marburg, the Ebola-like virus that can kill as many as 90% of the people it infects, could be...
Promising results from stage 2 MDR-TB STREAM – world’s largest trial
The world’s largest clinical trial for multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has found that the two new shortened treatment regimens are safe and effective, and not...
Rising global TB deaths and infections a 'wake-up call'
For the first time in 20 years, there has been an increase in the estimated number of global TB cases and deaths, with some...
SA to expedite TB diagnosis/treatment as cases continue to soar
Over the next five years, the national Department of Health plans to initiate a system that supports potential tuberculosis patients from the moment they...
Oxford launches trial for monkeypox antiviral drug
The Oxford University team credited with finding effective drugs to treat COVID is trialling an antiviral called tecovirimat to treat monkeypox, which although typically...
UWC study explores common carbohydrate as treatment for TB
A common and popular food industry carbohydrate is being researched as a possible treatment for cancer and other diseases, including tuberculosis, writes Professor Admire...
French study suggests monkeypox can spread asymptomatically
A study from France is raising questions about whether monkeypox can be transmitted asymptomatically, after researchers collected anorectal swabs from 200 men who have...
French couple infects pet dog with monkeypox in first hint of spillover risk
The first recorded case of a person passing monkeypox to a dog could be a harbinger of other animals catching the deadly virus, and...
Century-old BCG vaccine prevents TB in children, not adults – Boston meta-analysis
A recent study has found that the Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination at birth provides significant protection against tuberculosis, but only among children under five-years-old...
New antibiotic-resistant genes identified in TB in 23-country analysis
A massive analysis of more than 10 000 different Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria isolated from 23 countries has revealed new genes associated with resistance to...
Zoonotic diseases: Sindbis, Langya and monkeypox outbreaks keep scientists on alert
Since COVID-19 reared its head and exploded around the globe, several previously fairly dormant diseases and viruses have also emerged, creating increasing awareness of...
Scientists warn of more zoonotic diseases as third SA monkeypox case confirmed
South Africa recorded its third case of monkeypox on Monday. The Limpopo Health Department said in a statement that the National Institute for Communicable...
Monkeypox mutating faster than expected – Lisbon scientists
With South Africa having two reported monkeypox cases, and more than 3,500 people having contracted the virus in nearly 50 countries, scientists from Portugal...
Monkeypox possibly linked to decrease in smallpox vaccine – global experts
Theories are varied regarding the unusual outbreak of monkeypox, a rare tropical disease that appears to be spreading across the globe, with some linking...
SA study suggests flu shots for children could be effective in reducing overall transmission
Vaccination of children might be effective in reducing influenza transmission in African settings – not only among this at-risk group but the community in...
GSK’s novel malaria treatment for children receives first approval
Australian regulators have approved tafenoquine (brand name Kozenis) as an effective cure for a form of malaria in children aged 2 to 16.
The drug...
Advances in paediatric tuberculosis from 52nd Union World Conference on Lung Health
The screening, diagnosis, and treatment of tuberculosis (TB) in children remain far from optimal and in many respects lag behind what can be done...
Groundbreaking UCT study upends theory on how TB is spread
Upending centuries of medical dogma, University of Cape Town researchers found that breathing may be a bigger contributor to the spread of tuberculosis than the...
World first as GSK’s malaria vaccine is endorsed by WHO
GlaxoSmithKline's anti-malaria RTS,S vaccine, known as Mosquirix, has been given the green light from the World Health Organisation for widespread use. It is not...
Monoclonal antibody can prevent malaria for up to 9 months — NIH trial
One dose of a new monoclonal antibody discovered and developed at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), safely prevented malaria for up to...
Declining susceptibility to azithromycin found in German gonorrhoea samples
Analysis of Neisseria gonorrhoea samples from diagnostic laboratories throughout Germany shows a significant decrease in susceptibility to azithromycin, one of the two remaining antibiotics...
HPV vaccine shows success in gay and bisexual men — HYPER2 study
An Australian study found a 70% reduction in one type of human papillomavirus (HPV) in gay and bisexual men after the implementation of the...
Rapid test for blood infections is up to 40 hours faster
A novel test provides rapid bacterial identification and susceptibility results from positive blood cultures, shortening the time to antibiotic therapy and reducing unnecessary antibiotic...
Malaria vaccine trial demonstrates high-level efficacy
Researchers from the University of Oxford and their partners have reported findings from a Phase IIb trial of a candidate malaria vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, which...