Kinshasa, May 27 (IANS) The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is still at the beginning of its latest Ebola outbreak and may need up to six months to contain it, health minister Roger Kamba has said. The number of people showing symptoms compatible with Ebola had risen to around 1,000, while 101 cases had been laboratory-confirmed, Kamba told a press briefing.He put probable deaths at about 220 till late Tuesday evening, with around 17 deaths confirmed by testing, and said about 3,600 conta…
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Moscow/Cape Town, May 27 (IANS) Russia has announced that its scientists have developed a new vaccine for the new strain of the Ebola virus linked to the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Russian Embassy in South Africa took to social media ‘X’ on Tuesday (local time) and said, “Russian scientists have developed a vaccine against a new Ebola strain, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko announced. According to the Russian scientists, the vaccine may also protect against the rare…
Geneva, May 23 (IANS) UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, has said that he is allocating up to $60 million from the world body’s Central Emergency Response Fund to accelerate the response to the Ebola outbreak in Congo and the wider region.”We need to get ahead of this Ebola outbreak,” Fletcher said on Friday in a statement.While the humanitarian community is fully mobilised, he said, “the epidemiological context is challenging: the…
New Delhi, May 21 (IANS) For addressing childhood cancer the Union government is committed to “break the barrier” in such a way that all of them survive, said L. Swasticharan, Deputy Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) under Union Health Ministry, here on Thursday. Speaking at a workshop to shape the roadmap towards a National Childhood Cancer Programme organised by Indian Childhood Cancer Initiative (ICCI), Swasticharan described childhood cancer as the low hanging…
Washington, May 20 (IANS) Pledging a major surge in assistance to contain a fast-moving Ebola outbreak in Central Africa, the Trump Administration sharply criticised the World Health Organization (WHO) for what American officials described as a delayed global alert that may have cost critical response time.Senior US officials said Washington had already committed about $23 million in bilateral humanitarian and health assistance and was preparing a much larger package to fund up to 50 Ebola treat…
Dar Es Salaam, May 18 (IANS) Tanzania has stepped up surveillance, border screening and emergency preparedness measures following an Ebola outbreak in the neighbouring Congo (DRC), a senior health official said.Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response at the Ministry of Health, Erasto Sylvanus, said on Sunday that the government is working closely with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and neighbouring countries to strengthen prevention, early detection and rapid response mechanisms aga…
Colombo, May 13 (IANS) Sri Lanka has recorded 27,754 dengue cases and 14 deaths so far this year, with infections reported from all 25 districts, health officials said.The National Dengue Control Unit said the number of confirmed cases has increased compared with 2025. The highest number of infections has been reported from the Western Province, while Matara, Galle, Ratnapura, Kalutara and Kandy have also recorded significant case numbers during the first four months of 2026.Community Medical Sp…
Cape Town, May 13 (IANS) The number of possible contacts with hantavirus-infected people has increased to 97 in South Africa, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has confirmed.South African teams were working with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) to track exposed passengers, healthcare workers and airline contacts with infected persons, Motsoaledi told the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) News on Monday.”So far, we have ide…
Madrid, May 12 (IANS) The World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday said additional hantavirus cases could still emerge in the coming weeks following the evacuation of passengers from the outbreak-hit cruise ship MV Hondius, while stressing that the global public health risk remains low.”Given the long incubation period of the virus, it is possible that we may see more cases in the coming weeks,” Tedros said at a joint press conference with Spanish Pr…
Beijing, May 12 (IANS) China has announced that it will not approve Taiwan’s participation in the 79th World Health Assembly (WHA) set to be held in Geneva from May 18-23. Addressing a regular press conference in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun reiterated the country’s stance that Taiwan is an “inalienable” part of China and the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. Guo stated that Taiwan’s participa…