(2020-04-01). Lessons From Africa: Military Intervention Fails to Counter Terrorism. counterpunch.org Late last year, President Trump provoked a furor when he declared his intent to withdraw some 1,400 US troops from West Africa, where he claimed they had quelled the terrorist threat. He sparked a similar firestorm when he announced that the U.S. would (eventually) pull 14,000 troops from Afghanistan, where they were engaged in an
(2020-03-31). Coronavirus poses latest threat to battered health system in DR Congo. news.un.org The looming threat of the new coronavirus disease COVID-19 is just the latest challenge to the beleaguered health care system in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which is struggling with deadly measles and cholera epidemics that have killed thousands of children over the past year, the UN children's fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.
(2020-03-31). UN appeals to all Somalis to 'come together' in fight against COVID-19 pandemic. news.un.org Like most countries in the world, Somalia is facing the unparalleled challenge of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the United Nations system in the country noted on Tuesday, calling on its citizens to "unite" in stemming the spread.
(2020-03-31). World Suffering Less from Coronavirus Crisis & More from an America Crisis. iranian.com In his 1948 classic novel "The Plague," which tells the story of the fictional outbreak of a rat-borne plague in the Algerian port city of Oran under French colonialism, French writer and thinker Albert Camus explores the way the plague and ensuing crisis taps into the very best and worst of the human condition. The current …
(2020-03-28). First Person: False promises in Mauritania. news.un.org 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.
(2020-03-27). U.S. Is #1 in Pandemic: Rep. Omar Blasts Trump for "Wrong Kind of American Exceptionalism" democracynow.org 
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…
(2020-03-27). Peacekeeping radio stations provide COVID-19 information to vulnerable communities in conflict-affected countries. news.un.org 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.
(2020-03-18). [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. thelancet.com 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.
(2020-03-17). [Comment] COVID-19: towards controlling of a pandemic. thelancet.com 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…
(2020-03-04). [Commentary] We all progress through progress towards gender equality. thelancet.com Ubuntu — often translated as "I am because we are" — is an African humanist philosophy asserting that we are all interconnected and derive our humanity from each other [1]. It follows that we progress through the progress of others. Archbishop Desmond Tutu put it this way [2]: "We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity."
(2020-03-03). [Research Paper] Violence-related knife injuries in a UK city; epidemiology and impact on secondary care resources. thelancet.com 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.
(2020-02-24). [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. thelancet.com 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.
(2020-02-10). [Research Paper] Outcomes of a nine-month regimen for rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis up to 24 months after treatment completion in nine African countries. thelancet.com The close to 80% relapse-free success indicates the good outcome of the regimen in low-and middle-income settings. Results confirm the lesser effectiveness of the regimen in patients with initial resistance to fluoroquinolones and support the use of high-dose isoniazid, but do not support exclusion of patients for resistance to drugs other than fluoroquinolones.
(2020-01-07). [Comment] Relaunching human bornavirus research from encephalitis cases with unclear cause. thelancet.com Borna disease virus 1 (BoDV-1), the first bornavirus to be discovered, was identified as a causative agent of Borna disease, a fatal encephalitis occurring in horses and sheep. BoDV-1 is highly neurotropic and can cause both fatal immune-mediated encephalitis and behavioural disturbances in a broad range of infected animals.1 These observations prompted researchers to investigate the presence of BoDV-1 in patients with psychiatric disorders on the basis of the hypothesis that BoDV-1 might also cause behavioural abnormalities in humans.