South Africa's ANC government suppressed report showing thousands could die from COVID-19
wsws.org | 2020-03-23
The Ramaphosa government's response to the pandemic has been exactly what the study warned against–slow and virtually nonexistent.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/03/23/safr-m23.html

Africa threatened by sudden surge in coronavirus cases
wsws.org | 2020-03-23
The entire continent risks becoming infected with coronavirus, which could rapidly swamp its inadequate health systems, leading to a horrific death toll.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/03/23/afri-m23.html

Guinea Voted in Contested Elections Amid Protests, COVID-19
telesurenglish.net | 2020-03-22
Guineans voted Sunday in a referendum and parliamentary election contested by the opposition and held despite deadly protests and the threat of the coronavirus pandemic. | RELATED: | Africa Lockdowns Begin as Coronavirus Cases Above 1,000 | President Alpha Conde, 82, wants to change the constitution to introduce social reforms, but his opponents say his real…
telesurenglish.net/news/Guinea-Voted-in-Contested-Elections-Amid-Protests-Coronavirus-20200322-0011.html

Africa Lockdowns Begin as Coronavirus Cases Above 1,000
telesurenglish.net | 2020-03-21
Lockdowns have begun in Africa as coronavirus cases rise above 1,000, according to the latest figures released Saturday afternoon by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. | RELATED: | Africa, Latin America Fragile Targets for Coronavirus Spread | Nigeria, the continent's most populous country, announced that it would close airports to all incoming international flights for a month, after Africa's busiest airport, in Johannesburg, blocked foreigners from disembarki…
telesurenglish.net/news/Africa-Lockdowns-Begin-as-Coronavirus-Cases-Above-1000-20200321-0008.html

[Obituary] Lionel Henry Opie
Geoff Watts | thelancet.com | 2020-03-21
Leading African cardiologist. He was born in Hanover, South Africa, on May 6, 1933, and died in Cape Town, South Africa, on Feb 20, 2020, aged 86 years.
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30601-2/fulltext?rss=yes

[Perspectives] Sean Wasserman: rising star in TB-HIV research and medicine
Richard Lane | thelancet.com | 2020-03-21
A year spent working in a township hospital outside Cape Town, South Africa, was a defining career moment for Sean Wasserman, winner of the 2019 Stephen Lawn TB-HIV Research Leadership Prize, which is supported by The Union. "I remember seeing the devastation caused by untreated HIV and common opportunistic infections including TB and meningitis, and was inspired by the high quality of medicine practised by my consultants in this challenging environment. I knew from that point on that I wanted to make a contribution in the emerging field of infectious diseases medicine in South Africa", he says.
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30598-5/fulltext?rss=yes

Libya: Haftar's Army Suspends Fight for Tripoli Due to Covid-19
telesurenglish.net | 2020-03-21
Marshal Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) Saturday suspended fighting in Tripoli for humanitarian purposes in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, as local media reported. | RELATED: | Libya General Haftar Ready to Sign Ceasefire: French Presidency | A few hours earlier, however, the fight for this city, which the Government of National Accord stills controls, was quite intense. | In Tripoli's Ain Zara suburb, the LNA forces attempted to infiltrate areas defended by the…
telesurenglish.net/news/Libya-Haftars-Army-Suspends-Fight-for-Tripoli-Due-to-Covid-19-20200321-0004.html

UN welcomes response by Libyan parties to calls for humanitarian pause
news.un.org | 2020-03-21
The United Nations on Saturday welcomed the "positive responses" of Libya's Tripoli-based government and the Libyan National Army (LNA) to calls for a pause to stop the fighting, in the hopes that this would allow humanitarian access throughout the crisis-torn country and head off the potential threat of COVID-19.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/03/1059942

Doctor: As Coronavirus Cases Spike Worldwide, We Need Global Cooperation to Halt Spread
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-03-20
As the worldwide death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has topped 10,000, with over 250,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, we speak with Stanford University's global health expert Dr. Michele Barry, an infectious disease doctor. Italy has surpassed China in coronavirus deaths, and cases are rising in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, as the governor of California has ordered all 40 million residents to shelter in place.
www.democracynow.org/2020/3/20/coronavirus_dr_michele_barry

UNHCR delivers much-needed aid to Sudanese refugees in Chad
news.un.org | 2020-03-20
Nearly 94 tonnes of emergency aid has been airlifted into Chad to support thousands of people who have fled ongoing violence in Sudan's West Darfur state, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported on Friday.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/03/1059842

UN rights chief urges South Sudan authorities to address inter-communal violence
news.un.org | 2020-03-20
Authorities in South Sudan must address intercommunal violence if the nation is to achieve lasting peace, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday, in response to a recent escalation in fighting in the east and central parts of the country.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/03/1059822

The Sudanese Ousted a Dictator Last Year–Why Is Washington Still Imposing Sanctions?
Mitchell Plitnick | thenation.com | 2020-03-20
The Sudanese Ousted a Dictator Last Year–Why Is Washington Still Imposing Sanctions?
thenation.com/article/world/sudan-revolution-sanctions-trump/

UN, an 'ally' in Kenya in fight against COVID-19: a UN Resident Coordinator blog
news.un.org | 2020-03-19
The United Nations is working closely with the Kenyan Government to help prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus or COVID-19. By Siddharth Chatterjee, United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/03/1059812

[Research Paper] A phase 1b randomized study of the safety and immunological responses to vaccination with H4:IC31, H56:IC31, and BCG revaccination in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-uninfected adolescents in Cape Town, South Africa
Linda-Gail Bekker, One Dintwe, Andrew Fiore-Gartland, Keren Middelkoop, Julia Hutter, Anthony Williams, April K. Randhawa, Morten Ruhwald, Ingrid Kromann, Peter L. Andersen, Carlos A. DiazGranados, Kathryn T. Rutkowski, Dereck Tait, Maurine D. Miner, Erica Andersen-Nissen, Stephen C. De Rosa, Kelly E. Seaton, Georgia D. Tomaras, M. Juliana McElrath, Ann Ginsberg, James G. Kublin, HVTN 602 | thelancet.com | 2020-03-18
BCG revaccination administered as a single dose ID and both H4: IC31 and H56: IC31 administered as 2 doses IM had acceptable safety profiles in healthy, QFT-negative, previously BCG-vaccinated adolescents. Characterization of the assays and the immunogenicity of these vaccines may help to identify valuable markers of protection for upcoming immune correlates analyses of C-040-404 and future TB vaccine efficacy trials.
thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30057-2/fulltext?rss=yes

Women plough the way to peace in South Sudan resettlement project
news.un.org | 2020-03-18
Women who had been displaced by fighting in South Sudan are sowing seeds of peace, with support from the UN mission in the country, UNMISS.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/03/1059712

Spain Locks Down & Nationalizes Private Healthcare as Coronavirus Deaths Double & Cases Skyrocket
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-03-17
Europe is the epicenter of coronavirus, and Spain now has the second most cases in Europe, with more than 2,000 new cases in 24 hours and the number of deaths doubled. We'll go to Madrid for an update, where more than half of the country's cases have been reported. This comes as the Spanish government announced it is nationalizing hospitals and private healthcare companies to better manage the pandemic. We are joined by María Carrión, a freelance journalist and former Democracy Now! producer who is also executive director of FiSahara and co-founder of Nomads HRC, which focus on human rights in Western Sahara.
www.democracynow.org/2020/3/17/spain_coronavirus

"Something Is Wrong in America": Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor & Michael Eric Dyson Debate Sanders v Biden
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-03-16
Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders faced off in their first one-on-one debate Sunday night in the midst of an unprecedented national crisis, with 3,600 reported COVID-19 cases, 61 deaths so far, 33 states closing schools and mass shutdowns in major cities. The rivals clashed on how to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, Medicare for All, the climate crisis, Joe Biden's record and whether or not the U.S. needs a revolution. We play highlights from the debate and get responses from scholars Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Michael Eric Dyson. Taylor is assistant professor of African-America…
www.democracynow.org/2020/3/16/keeanga_yamahtta_taylor_michael_eric_dyson

The Government Has a Secret Plan to Track Everyone's Faces at Airports. We're Suing
Ashley Gorski | aclu.org | 2020-03-12
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration are putting us on an extraordinarily dangerous path toward the normalization of face surveillance. But because key facts about this surveillance are still secret, the public lacks the information it needs to hold these agencies to account. We're suing to bring some much-needed transparency., , Over the past few years, CBP and the TSA have dramatically expanded their use of facial recognition technology at the airport and other U.S. ports of entr…
aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/the-government-has-a-secret-plan-to-track-everyones-faces-at-airports-were-suing

[Commentary] We all progress through progress towards gender equality
Pavel V. Ovseiko, Anand Ahankari | thelancet.com | 2020-03-04
Ubuntu

[Research Paper] Violence-related knife injuries in a UK city; epidemiology and impact on secondary care resources
Nabeela S. Malik, Beau Munoz, Cynthia de Courcey, Rizwana Imran, Kwang C. Lee, Saisakul Chernbumroong, Jonathan Bishop, Janet M. Lord, George Gkoutos, Douglas M. Bowley, Mark A. Foster | thelancet.com | 2020-03-03
Knife injuries constitute 12 ∑9% of trauma team workload. Violence recidivism and intoxication are common, and females are predominantly injured in a domestic setting, presenting opportunities for targeted violence reduction interventions. 13 ∑9% of injuries involved machetes, with implications for law enforcement strategies.
thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30040-7/fulltext?rss=yes

[Articles] Effects of updated demography, disability weights, and cervical cancer burden on estimates of human papillomavirus vaccination impact at the global, regional, and national levels: a PRIME modelling study
Kaja M Abbas, Kevin van Zandvoort, Marc Brisson, Mark Jit | thelancet.com | 2020-02-24
HPV vaccination provides greater health benefits and is more cost-effective than was previously estimated. The demography update, which incorporates population aging, has the largest effect on the health impact estimates. The WHO African region is expected to gain the greatest health benefits and should be prioritised for HPV vaccination.
thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(20)30022-X/fulltext?rss=yes