Health News

South African firm to make Pfizer vaccine, first in Africa

A South African firm will begin producing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the first time that the shot will be produced in Africa, Pfizer announced Wednesday. The Biovac Institute based in Cape Town will manufacture the vaccine for distribution across Africa, a move that should help address the continent’s desperate need for more vaccine doses amid […]

Health News

South African Child Gauge tackles the slow violence of malnutrition

The Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town (UCT) publishes the South African Child Gauge annually to review the status of children in South Africa and to inform policy and programming. The South African Child Gauge 2020 was launched on 18 February in partnership with the Department of Science and Innovation-National Research Foundation (DSI-NRF) […]

Health News

‘Striking’ differences in rates of HIV/AIDS within African nations

Despite the rapid scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) since 2000, HIV/AIDS is still the most common cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa, according to data from the Global Burden of Disease. A new scientific paper reveals striking variation in HIV prevalence at provincial and district levels. The paper, published in Nature, provides precise geographic estimates […]

Health Problems

Scientists discover Ebola virus in West African bat

The government of Liberia, in partnership with the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and EcoHealth Alliance, announced the discovery of Ebola virus in a bat in Liberia. This is the first finding of Zaire ebolavirus in a bat in West Africa, adding to other evidence […]

Health News

South African musician plays guitar during brain surgery

His skull still open, a South African musician with a brain tumor played several notes on his guitar during a successful operation to remove most of the growth. Musa Manzini’s guitar-playing helped guide the medical team in their delicate task while preserving neural pathways, said Dr. Rohen Harrichandparsad, one of the neurosurgeons. Manzini was given […]