Elite football players are more likely to develop dementia, suggests Swedish study

Elite male footballers were 1.5 times more likely to develop neurodegenerative disease compared to population controls, according to an observational study published in The Lancet Public Health journal.  Among male footballers playing in the Swedish top division, 9% (537 out of 6,007) were diagnosed with neurodegenerative disease, compared to 6% (3,485 out of 56,168) population controls.…

Uganda: Negative Perceptions Prevent uptake of 13 million COVID-19 Vaccines

The Ministry of Health still has 13.4 million unutilized COVID-19 vaccines, the Public Accounts Committee – PAC Central Government has learned. The Health Ministry Permanent Secretary, Dr. Diana Atwine, says that the country risks losing huge sums of money that was used to procure the vaccines if they expire without being utilized. Some of the vaccines are scheduled…

Malawi, Rwanda, Laos and Zambia Have Received COVID-19 Oral Treatments

The COVID Treatment Quick Start Consortium announced today that the governments of Zambia, Laos, Malawi and Rwanda have received shipments of PAXLOVID™ (nirmatrelvir/ritonavir), Pfizer’s COVID-19 oral treatment. Zambia was the first country to receive the treatment through the consortium, with an initial shipment of 1,000 courses of PAXLOVID™ reaching Lusaka in late December 2022 as…

WHO’s working definitions and tracking system for SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants of interest

WHO has updated its tracking system and working definitions for variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to better correspond to the current global variant landscape, to independently evaluate Omicron sublineages in circulation, and classify new variants more clearly when required. SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple variants…

Education Cannot Wait Renews Multi-Year Resilience Programme in Uganda with US$25 Million in Catalytic Funding Investment; Calls on Donors to Scale-Up Support

In response to Africa’s largest refugee crisis, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) today announced US$25 million in catalytic funding to expand the Fund’s Multi-Year Resilience Programme, which continues to bridge the humanitarian-development nexus in Uganda. Total ECW funding in Uganda now tops US$75 million. The extended three-year programme will be delivered by Save the Children and…