Online Event: Powerful Lessons from the Extraordinary Women of Rwanda (United Nations)
United Nations Association | indybay.org | 2020-03-26
Online event via Zoom: zoom.us/j/3613960435…
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/03/25/18831810.php

Scientists at Glasgow University discover deep-sea fish seasonal migration for the first time
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-03-26
Scientists have documented seasonal migrations of deep-sea fish across the seabed for what is said to be the first time. | Researchers analysed more than seven years of deep-sea photographic data from two observatory platforms, 1,400m (4,593ft) deep, off the coast of Angola in west Africa for the project. | They based their analysis on all the seafloor fish they saw in the photographs, which included species from 11 different families, including eels, grenadier fishes and sharks. | They linked seasonal patterns in primary productivity

Africa records over 2,400 cases of COVID-19
wsws.org | 2020-03-26
An international and coordinated struggle against the spread of coronavirus on the African continent is an urgent necessity.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/03/26/afri-m26.html

Somalia Wins Debt Relief
Kate Zeller | indybay.org | 2020-03-26
The International Monetary Fund and World Bank announced that Somalia qualifies to receive debt relief. In three years time, Somalia's debt will be reduced from $5.2 billion to $557 million.
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/03/25/18831805.php

'Disaster Waiting to Happen:' Doctor Says Africa Cannot Afford Most Anti-Coronavirus Tips
sputniknews.com | 2020-03-26
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The coronavirus outbreak threatens to become a perfect storm for Africa as key COVID-19 precautionary measures such as remote work, social distancing, border closures and aggressive testing look simply infeasible to a majority of countries on the continent.
sputniknews.com/analysis/202003261078716167-disaster-waiting-to-happen-doctor-says-africa-cannot-afford-most-anti-coronavirus-tips/

War-Torn Libya Announces Its First Case of Coronavirus
telesurenglish.net | 2020-03-25
The Health Minister of the United Nations (U.N.)-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in Libya, Ahmed Ben Omar, confirmed Tuesday Libya's first case of coronavirus in a brief statement. | RELATED: Libya: Before and After Muammar Gaddafi | "The necessary measures have been taken to treat [the patient]," Ben Omar said. | The National Centre for Disease Control said the patient is a 73-year-old man who came back from a trip to Saudi Arabia via Tunisia on March 5. He is now being treated in…
telesurenglish.net/news/War-Torn-Libya-Announces-Its-First-Case-of-Coronavirus-20200325-0017.html

Debt relief milestone in Somalia, as World Bank, IMF, call for global payment suspension in light of COVID-19
news.un.org | 2020-03-25
The top United Nations official in Somalia congratulated the Horn of Africa nation on Wednesday for achieving the benchmark set by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), confirming its eligibility for debt relief.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/03/1060292

Another Migrant Domestic Worker Found Dead in Lebanon
telesurenglish.net | 2020-03-25
The lifeless body of Faustina Tay, 23, a domestic worker from Ghana was found on March 14 in a car park under the fourth-story home of her employers in Beirut, Lebanon, according to a report by Al Jazeera. | RELATED: | Kafala System to Be Abolished in Qatar: UN | Some hours before her death, Tay had sent a last hopeless message to This Is Lebanon, a Canada-based activist group, she had contacted about the abuse she was enduring at the hands of her employer…
telesurenglish.net/news/Another-Migrant-Domestic-Workers-Found-Dead-in-Lebanon–20200325-0013.html

UN in Nigeria strengthens COVID-19 containment and care, mobilizes $2 million for key support to Government
news.un.org | 2020-03-24
The United Nations system in Nigeria has mobilized $2 million to help the Government's efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak and care for those in the West African country stricken by the virus.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/03/1060182

Ecotourism suspended to protect mountain gorillas from Covid-19
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-03-24
Conservationists have backed moves to limit contact with endangered mountain gorillas to protect them from the coronavirus pandemic. | Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo has halted mountain gorilla tourism until June 1 following scientific advice that primates, including gorillas, are likely to be susceptible to complications arising from the Covid-19 virus. | Rwanda's Development Board has suspended tourism and research activities with primates around the Gishwati-Mukura, Nyungwe, and Volcanoes national parks. | Conservation efforts to help mountain gorillas in two areas in the Democratic…
thecanary.co/discovery/news-discovery/2020/03/24/ecotourism-suspended-to-protect-mountain-gorillas-from-covid-19/

[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

[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

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

[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

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