This year marks 25 years since the Uganda government introduced Universal Primary Education or UPE, a program that has received criticism and praise in equal measures over the years. When the government introduced UPE in 1997, school enrollments increased by more than four times, and currently, according to the Ministry of Education, there are 8.6…
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has received notification of the detection of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) linked with the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2). Through ongoing surveillance, the viruses were isolated from the stool samples of seven children with acute…
President Yoweri Museveni has reiterated his position against homosexuality, saying that the act is a deviation from normal. Museveni made the statement while addressing Parliament on Thursday in a sitting held at Kololo Independence grounds. In a brief statement about the issue that continues to dominate public debate, Museveni told Members of Parliament that they…
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.…
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…
Two people in Palorinya refugee settlement in Obongi district have tested positive for meningitis, health officials have revealed. Meningitis is caused by inflammation of the meninges that surround the brain and spinal cord and protect the central nervous system. The two, cases which are among South Sudanese refugees have been isolated at Belameling Health Center II in Zone 1,…
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 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…
The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified 55 countries around the globe as vulnerable to the availability of health workers required to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal target for universal health coverage (UHC) by 2030. According to the organization’s latest statement, of the 55, 37 are in the WHO African region, 8 in the…
The 30th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI)showed an energized field- with scientific advances galvanizing research across a host of disease areas. The findings highlighted in this round up offer a look at standout research — and, at AVAC, we know it must be matched with informed advocacy. Scroll down to learn about new interventions for…