Health

Second Russian virus vaccine passes early trials: report

  MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Early clinical trials of a second Russian coronavirus vaccine have proved successful, its developer said Thursday after Russia boasted of approving the world’s first vaccine. Russia’s Vektor — a top-secret state virology research centre in Siberia — said that early-stage trials were successful for its own experimental vaccine, named EpiVacCorona. “The first two phases of clinical trials demonstrated the effectiveness and safety of the EpiVacCorona vaccine,” Vektor’s press department told […]

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Flying doctors: UK air ambulance tests paramedic jet suit

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Emergency responders and engineers in Britain said on Tuesday they have successfully tested “the world’s first jet suit paramedic”, which could transform how life-savers reach isolated casualty sites. The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS), which provides emergency air response across swathes of northern England, said it had helped flight-test the 1,050 bhp (brake horsepower) jet suit in the Lake District National Park. The trial saw Richard Browning, the founder […]

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5G networks: are there health risks?

  by Paul RICARD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Do 5G mobile telephones and networks pose health risks? Worries about the effect the technology has on humans and the environment have persisted as it has been deployed in various countries. What do scientists have to say about it? – What is 5G? – 5G networks are touted as promising an exponential leap in the amount and speed of wireless data, enabling advances in […]

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Chinese company targets global sales with quick Covid-19 tests

  by Ludovic EHRET Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — A Chinese company is entering the global race to help defeat the coronavirus, promising its testing machine will return results faster than a lab and more reliably than at-home screening kits. The Flash 20 “is currently the fastest machine in the world for PCR tests for the new coronavirus”, says Sabrina Li, founder of the company Coyote. PCR tests are the industry standard and […]

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Global coronavirus death toll passes one million

  by Simon MALFATTO Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — The global death toll from the new coronavirus, which emerged less than a year ago in China and has swept across the world, passed one million on Sunday. The pandemic has ravaged the global economy, inflamed geopolitical tensions and upended lives, from Indian slums and Brazil’s jungles to America’s biggest city New York. World sports, live entertainment and international travel ground to a halt […]

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Avigan maker to seek virus treatment approval after trials

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — The maker of anti-influenza drug Avigan said Wednesday it will apply for the medication to be approved for treating coronavirus patients after trials showed it can shorten recovery time. In a statement, manufacturer Fujifilm Toyama Chemical said its phase III trial in Japan, which began in March, was now complete. Of 156 individuals described as “analysis targets”, the median recovery time was 11.9 days in those receiving Avigan compared with 14.7 […]

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Half of Covid patients suffer ongoing fatigue: study

by Kelly MACNAMARA LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — More than half of patients and staff who had Covid-19 at an Irish hospital suffered persistent fatigue in the aftermath of the initial disease, according to a new study Friday highlighting the “significant burden” of lingering symptoms. It comes as patient groups and doctors call for more research into the medium- and long-term effects of the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which has sickened more than 29 million people […]

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Rich nations have cornered half of future Covid-19 vaccine supply: Oxfam

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A group of wealthy nations representing 13 percent of the global population have already bought up more than half of the promised doses of future Covid-19 vaccines, according to a report by Oxfam on Wednesday. The non-governmental organization analyzed deals struck by pharmaceuticals and vaccine producers for the five leading vaccine candidates currently in late-stage trials, based on data collected by the analytics company Airfinity. “Access to a life-saving […]

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Vaccine trial by AztraZeneca, Oxford University resumes as virus continues grim march

  by Daniel LAWLER Agence France Presse Clinical trials of one of the most advanced experimental Covid-19 vaccines resumed Saturday after a brief safety pause, as infection numbers continued to march upward in countries across the globe. The world’s hopes for a reprieve from the pandemic were dealt a blow earlier in the week when pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and Oxford University announced they had “voluntarily paused” their vaccine trial after a UK volunteer developed an […]

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Vaccine trust growing in Europe, falling in parts of Asia and Africa – survey

by Patrick GALEY Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Public trust in vaccine safety is slowly growing in Europe even as it dips in parts of Asia and Africa, researchers said Friday, calling for more investment in health information campaigns for the forthcoming Covid-19 vaccine. The largest ever global survey of vaccine confidence, published in the Lancet medical journal, shows clear links between political instability and misinformation and the levels of trust in the […]

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Sudan’s ‘silent death’ from flesh-eating cuts

by Sammy Ketz KHARTOUM, Sudan (AFP) — It seemed little to worry about: Sudanese farmer Khadija Ahmad was planting onions when she stepped on a thorn that pierced her sandal and cut her foot. But the thorn brought with it a flesh-eating infection, a bacterial and fungal disease called mycetoma, which rips through the body causing severe deformities. For Ahmad, a 45-year-old from El-Fasher in western Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region, the first she knew something […]

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Obesity greatest risk factor for young adults with Covid-19

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Young adults with underlying conditions such as morbid obesity, diabetes and hypertension are at the highest risk of being placed on a ventilator or dying from Covid-19, according to a study of 3,000 hospitalized patients aged 18 to 34. The analysis, published Wednesday in the journal Jama Internal Medicine, focused on patients hospitalized between April and June in the United States. It confirmed first and foremost that black and Hispanic […]

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