'It is a real problem': Fire brigades disinfect Ethiopian capital
yenisafak.com | 2020-03-29
Ethiopian fire brigades on Sunday cleaned and disinfected public spaces in the country's capital, Addis Ababa to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.The efforts were organized by municipal officials, deploying some 90 fire brigade cars.Eyes Solomon, an official with the city administration, told the public Ethiopian News Agency: "We are trying to prevent the spread of coronavirus and also raise public awareness on the pandemic."Health officials in Ethiopia have confirmed 16 COVID-19 cases, but have expressed concern at public non-compliance with social distancing measures.Mohammed Amanu, a trader in Merkato,…
yenisafak.com/en/world/it-is-a-real-problem-fire-brigades-disinfect-ethiopian-capital-3515325

First Person: False promises in Mauritania
news.un.org | 2020-03-28
Women and girls face particular challenges as migrants, whatever their reason for leaving their country of origin. UN agencies are learning more about these difficulties, and how to address them.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/03/1060592

COVID-19 Prevention Measures Turn Violent in Parts of Africa
telesurenglish.net | 2020-03-28
COVID-19 prevention measures have taken a violent turn in parts of Africa as countries impose lockdowns and curfews or seal off major cities. | RELATED: | Africa, Latin America Fragile Targets for Coronavirus Spread | Police fired tear gas at a crowd of Kenyan ferry commuters as the country's first day of a coronavirus curfew slid into chaos. At the same time, elsewhere, officers were captured in mobile phone footage whacking people with batons. | Minutes after South Africa's thre…
telesurenglish.net/news/COVID-19-Prevention-Measures-Turn-Violent-in-Parts-of-Africa-20200328-0011.html

U.S. Is #1 in Pandemic: Rep. Omar Blasts Trump for "Wrong Kind of American Exceptionalism"
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-03-27
As much of the United States is under lockdown, the House votes today on a $2 trillion emergency relief package to address the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. It will generate payments to most Americans and includes protections for workers, but it is also a massive bailout for a number of industries and corporations, and the vote comes as a record 3.28 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits. We speak with Congressmember Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, the first Somali American elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and one of the first Muslim women in Congress, about the bill, Trump's response t…
www.democracynow.org/2020/3/27/rep_ilhan_omar_coronavirus_relief_bill

Peacekeeping radio stations provide COVID-19 information to vulnerable communities in conflict-affected countries
news.un.org | 2020-03-27
UN Peacekeeping radio stations have in recent decades helped build support for peace process in a dozen countries around the world including Cambodia, Croatia, Namibia and Timor-Leste.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/03/1060542

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

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

[Comment] COVID-19: towards controlling of a pandemic
Juliet Bedford, Delia Enria, Johan Giesecke, David L Heymann, Chikwe Ihekweazu, Gary Kobinger, H Clifford Lane, Ziad Memish, Myoung-don Oh, Amadou Alpha Sall, Anne Schuchat, Kumnuan Ungchusak, Lothar H Wieler, WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Infectious Hazards | thelancet.com | 2020-03-17
During the past 3 weeks, new major epidemic foci of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), some without traceable origin, have been identified and are rapidly expanding in Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East, with the first confirmed cases being identified in African and Latin American countries. By March 16, 2020, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China had increased drastically and the number of affected countries, states, or territories reporting infections to WHO was 143.1 On the basis of "alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction", on March 11, 2020, the…
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30673-5/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