The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially validated Senegal as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem, making it the ninth country in the WHO African Region to do so and the 25th globally. “Senegal has freed its population from a disease that has cast a shadow for more than a century,” said Dr…
Scientists are racing to combat one of the world’s deadliest viruses with two groundbreaking new vaccines. 15 July 2025 by Priya Joi Two vaccines against Nipah virus – a deadly bat-borne virus – are set to enter human clinical trials in Bangladesh, while promising drug candidates have shown potential to treat and prevent infection. While case numbers…
A groundbreaking modelling study shows how outbreak response vaccinations have prevented millions of infections and saved billions of dollars in economic losses. 14 July 2025 by Linda Geddes A community health volunteer in Kenya marking a child with a pen after being vaccinated against cholera. Credit: Gavi/2023/Kelvin Juma Emergency vaccination responses to outbreaks have cut…
Once confined to a few select regions, eastern equine encephalitis appears to be spreading to more US states, as climate change alters mosquito habitats. 9 July 2025 by Linda Geddes It begins with a fever that escalates to confusion, drowsiness and seizures, before slipping its victims into a coma that one third will never wake…
Armed with evidence and a gift for simplifying medical jargon, Meluleki Ndwandwe is on a mission to empower Eswatini’s youth with facts, not fear. 4 July 2025 by Nokukhanya Musi–Aimienoho As the sun rises over Eswatini, 21-year-old nursing student Meluleki Ndwandwe sits, hunched over his desk in his university dorm room, uploading posts to social media.…
Amid an influx of people from cholera-hit DRC and South Sudan, Uganda has upped its cross-border disease surveillance. 7 July 2025 by John Agaba Dr Denis Ocula needed a strategy. Cholera had killed a woman and infected an additional 106 people in his district of Lamwo, near Uganda’s border with South Sudan, and he knew…
New WHO and UNICEF estimates suggest that lower-income countries are protecting more people against more diseases than ever before – but some children are still missing out. 15 July 2025 by Gavi Staff Every year, the World Health Organization and UNICEF release a set of figures that offer a powerful glimpse into the health of…
A new once-monthly oral HIV prevention drug, MK-8527, has shown a favorable safety profile and promising pharmacokinetics, according to interim results from a phase 2 study presented on July 14 at the IAS 2025 conference in Kigali (Abstract 6515). In the randomized, double-blind, multicenter trial involving 350 participants—over half of them women—MK-8527 was well tolerated…
A modelling study presented at IAS 2025 in Kigali (Abstract 6731) estimates that the suspension of PEPFAR funding for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in sub-Saharan Africa could result in over 6,600 new HIV infections in just one year, primarily among key populations. Researchers projected 5,663 additional infections among female sex workers, men who have sex…
Uganda signaled a bold new chapter in its health sector by raising the national health budget and laying out a comprehensive roadmap to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) through sustainable financing and system-wide reforms. For the 2025/26 financial year, the government allocated UGX 4.48 trillion to the health sector, almost double its allocations last financial…