GENEVA, Oct 3, 2023 (AFP) – No new cases of Nipah virus have been detected in India since September 15, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, following an outbreak earlier in the month that caused two deaths. Nipah has no vaccine and a fatality rate ranging from 40 to 75 percent, according to the WHO. From September 12 to 15, India’s health ministry reported six laboratory-confirmed Nipah virus cases, including two deaths, in Kozhikode district […]
Tag: Virus
WHO calls on China for ‘full access’ for Covid investigators: FT
GENEVA, Sept 17, 2023 (AFP) – The head of the World Health Organization told the Financial Times he was ready to send a new mission of experts to China to investigate the origins of Covid-19. “We’re pressing China to give full access, and we are asking countries to raise it during their bilateral meetings — (to urge Beijing) to co-operate,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the FT. He said the WHO had already written to China […]
India’s Nipah virus outbreak: what do we know so far?
NEW DELHI, Sept 15, 2023 (AFP) – Authorities in India are scrambling to contain a rare outbreak of Nipah, a virus spread from animals to humans that causes deadly fever with a high mortality rate. Here is a look at what we know so far: – What is the Nipah virus? – The first Nipah outbreak was recorded in 1998 after the virus spread among pig farmers in Malaysia. The virus is named after the […]
Countries block Swedish pork over swine fever outbreak
STOCKHOLM, Sept 11, 2023 (AFP) – Several countries have blocked imports of Swedish pork after a recent outbreak of African swine fever in wild boars in the Scandinavian country, industry officials said Monday. Armenia, Australia, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Ukraine have halted Swedish pork imports even though the disease has only been detected in wild boars at this stage, the Swedish Meat Industry Association told AFP. “This meat poses no danger… I think […]
EU drug watchdog approves updated Pfizer Covid jab
THE HAGUE, Aug 30, 2023 (AFP) – The EU’s drug watchdog on Wednesday approved an updated version of Pfizer and BioNTech’s anti-Covid jab to counter an infectious subvariant of the virus as winter approaches. The World Health Organisation in May said it no longer considered Covid-19 a global health emergency, but the virus is still circulating — and new variants are being tracked. The European Medicines Agency said it “has recommended authorising an adapted Comirnaty […]
Bird flu kills scores of sea lions in Argentina
BUENOS AIRES, Aug 30, 2023 (AFP) – Scores of sea lions have died from bird flu in Argentina, officials said Tuesday, as an unprecedented global outbreak continues to infect mammals, raising fears it could spread more easily among humans. Animal health authorities have recently reported dead sea lions in several locations along Argentina’s extensive Atlantic coast, from just south of the capital Buenos Aires to Santa Cruz near the southern tip of the continent. Another […]
Cheap diabetes drug reduces risk of long Covid: study
By Daniel Lawler Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — People who took a cheap diabetes drug after testing positive for Covid-19 had a 40 percent lower risk of getting long Covid, a US-based study said Friday. The finding was hailed as a potential “landmark” in the fight against the still little-understood condition, which the World Health Organization estimates affects one in 10 people who get Covid. The study said it was the first randomized, placebo-controlled […]
Paraguay confirms bird flu cases
ASUNCION, May 20, 2023 (AFP) – Cases of bird flu have been detected in backyard chickens in Paraguay, authorities said Saturday. The disease was found in the domesticated birds from the towns of Mariscal Estigarribia and Neuland in Mennonite farming areas, the National Animal Health and Quality Service (Senacsa) reported. The potential cause being investigated is chickens having contact with infected migratory birds, the office said. “The birds will be slaughtered to eliminate the source […]
Bolsonaro questioned by Brazil police in vaccination forgery case
BRASÍLIA, May 17, 2023 (AFP) – Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro spoke to police for several hours Tuesday as part of an investigation into the alleged forgery of Covid-19 vaccination certificates for himself and his inner circle. Bolsonaro, whose house was raided as part of the same investigation earlier this month, arrived at the federal police headquarters in Brasilia around 1:40 pm (1640 GMT) in a car with tinted windows, and left four hours later […]
Toll in Equatorial Guinea Marburg outbreak rises to 12
Malabo, Equatorial Guinea | AFP | Monday 4/24/2023 The death toll in Equatorial Guinea from an outbreak of Marburg virus, a cousin of Ebola haemorrhagic fever, has risen to 12, the health ministry said on Monday. The figures are a provisional toll based on lab-confirmed tests as of April 21, it said in an update, adding that 116 people were currently being monitored as contact risks. The first known deaths were documented on January 7 […]
WHO says medium-risk adults don’t need extra Covid jabs
by Robin MILLARD The World Health Organization said Tuesday it is no longer recommending additional Covid-19 vaccine booster doses for regular, medium-risk adults as the benefit was marginal. For such people who have received their primary vaccination course and one booster dose, there is no risk in having further jabs but the returns are slight, the WHO’s vaccine experts said. The UN health agency’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE) issued updated recommendations […]
Biden signs law declassifying US intel on Covid origin
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Joe Biden on Monday signed into law a bill requiring the release of intelligence materials on potential links between the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan. “We need to get to the bottom of Covid-19’s origins…, including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Biden said in a statement. “In implementing this legislation, my administration will declassify and share […]





