Tag: Health mission to Africa

Health

Johnson & Johnson Announces Landmark Agreement to Enable its COVID-19 Vaccine to be Manufactured and Made Available by an African Company for People Living in Africa

By Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson has announced the completion of a landmark agreement between Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and manufacturer Aspen SA Operations (Pty) Ltd, based in South Africa, to enable the first COVID-19 vaccine to be manufactured and made available by an African company for people living in Africa, with the goal of increasing COVID-19 vaccination rates across the continent.

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Health

U.S. hopes to send more experts to Congo as Ebola outbreak rages
By Lena H. Sun

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hopes to send experts to Congo in the next few weeks to train international and local personnel in the fight against a raging Ebola outbreak that has killed nearly 600 people and is far from under control, the CDC director said Thursday in an interview.

Because of the worsening security situation, the CDC experts would not be based in the epicenter of the outbreak, in conflict-ridden parts of eastern Congo. Armed attacks against Ebola treatment centers in North Kivu province have increased in recent weeks. One attack took place hours before CDC Director Robert Redfield and World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived last week as part of a WHO delegation to assess the situation on the ground.

Three CDC personnel are on temporary assignment about 200 miles south of the epicenter, in the city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu, Redfield said.

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Health

US, Congo seek partnerships in the fight against Sickle Cell disease.

By Judy Kuriansky

Jacqueline Mikolo and the Director of the Sickle Cell Center of Brazzaville Congo arrived in Washington D.C. to meet with the U.S. National Institutes of Health and with leaders at the Howard University Center for Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) to discuss the serious problem of sickle cell disease worldwide.

The Congolese Delegation, including the Minister of Higher Education, Bruno Itoua, also met with the Ambassador of the African Union to the United States, H.E. Dr Arikana Chihombori-Quao, to focus on funding.

The AU Ambassador, a Ghanaian national, is very familiar with health, as a family medicine doctor and previous Chair of the African Union-African Diaspora Health Initiative — where she was involved in mobilizing African Diaspora health professionals to address healthcare needs of the African continent.

The meetings build on many years of exchanges and advocacy about sickle cell disease between the United States and the Congo, explained Minister Mikolo.

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Health

US organisation,Battelle, shares expertise on fight against ebola in Africa

While Ebola might not be in the news at the level it was in 2014, it is still a significant health issue in Africa. In fact, the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history is actively ongoing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo now.

Battelle continues to support the fight against the disease by providing training in-country. Recently, two Battelle employees traveled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo for 16 days, representing the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

During the trip, they provided training at the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale in Kinshasa, the nation’s capital. Battelle staff taught Congolese researchers how to conduct serologic assays to detect immune response to Ebola virus in vaccinated and exposed individuals, as well as disease survivors. Continue reading “US organisation,Battelle, shares expertise on fight against ebola in Africa” →