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Showing posts with the label Health & Medicine

Cameroon starts world-first malaria mass vaccine rollout

By Paul Njie & Natasha Booty BBC News, Yaoundé & London Edited by Amal Udawatta IMAGE SOURCE, AFP Image caption, Eight-month-old Daniella, right, is the first Cameroonian child to get the jab The world's first routine vaccine programme against malaria has started in Cameroon, in a move projected to save thousands of children's lives across Africa. The symbolic first jab was given to a baby girl named Daniella  at a health facility near Yaoundé on Monday. Every year 600,000 people die of malaria in Africa, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Children under five make up at least 80% of those deaths. Cameroon is offering the RTS,S vaccine free of charge to all infants up to the age of six months old. Patients require a total of four doses. Health officials say these will be given at the same time as other routine childhood vaccines to make it easier for parents. It comes after successful pilot campaigns in Kenya, Ghana and Malawi - where  the vaccine caused a

Monkeypox: WHO declares global emergency over

  By Michelle Roberts Digital health editor, BBC Edited by - Amal Udawatta, IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Monkeypox is caused by the monkeypox virus, a member of the same family of viruses as smallpox Monkeypox is no longer a global public health emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, almost a year after the threat was raised. The virus is still around and further waves and outbreaks could continue, but the highest level of alert is over, the WHO added. The global health body's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on countries to "remain vigilant". It can be passed on by close contact with someone who is infected. What is monkeypox? Its official name is Mpox and it is caused by the monkeypox virus, a member of the same family of viruses as smallpox, although it is much less severe. Initial symptoms include fever, headaches, swellings, back pain, aching muscles. Once the fever breaks a rash can develop, often beginning on the face, then spr

New Alzheimer's drug slows disease by a third

  By James Gallagher From - BBC Health and science correspondent Edited by - Amal Udawatta, IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES We could be entering the era of Alzheimer's treatments, after the second drug in under a year has been shown to slow the disease. Experts said we were now "on the cusp" of drugs being available, something that had recently seemed "impossible". The company Eli Lilly has reported its drug - donanemab - slows the pace of Alzheimer's by about a third. However two volunteers, and possibly a third, died as a result of dangerous swelling in the brain. Sticky gunk Donanemab works in the same way as lecanemab,  which created headlines around the world  when it was the proven to slow the disease. Both are antibodies like those the body makes to attack viruses. But these are engineered to clear a sticky gunk from the brain, called beta amyloid. Amyloid builds up in the spaces between brain cells, forming distinctive plaques that are one of the hallmark