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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Thousands of doses of a vaccine effective against the Ebola pathogen now circulating in Uganda have been discovered in freezers of the Merck pharmaceutical company in Pennsylvania.
The drugs were discovered after repeated inquiries by Science magazine, a peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and one of the world's top academic journals.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | JOHANNESBURG (IDN) — With the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, over three thousand people turned out for a joyous gay Pride Parade in Johannesburg despite a warning by the U.S. embassy of a potential terrorist attack.
LGBTQ activists cheered the resumption of the event after two years, dismissing the U.S. advisory.
Organizers said the march would not be derailed by any form of threat.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | LONDON (IDN) — The era of European museums claiming ownership of the bones and skulls of African war heroes stolen years ago may finally be coming to an end.
A negotiated settlement to return African remains involved London’s Natural History Museum and Cambridge University. The two institutions now say they are ready to cooperate and return what was taken in the colonial era.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — After decades of overfishing combined with environmental changes, Namibia's sardine population has finally collapsed, writes Conservation Namibia, a publication of the Namibian Chamber of Environment. “Falling by 99.5% from an estimated 11 million tonnes in the 1960s to a tiny 50,000 tonnes in 2015, this resource is exhausted.”
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Nigeria has one of the highest cancer mortality rates in the world, with an estimated 72,000 cancer deaths occurring annually and 102,000 new cases diagnosed from its population of 200 million people, according to a report in Frontiers in Oncology.
Breast cancer accounted for the highest mortality, followed by prostate cancer. “(But) there is no efficient public policy on cancer issues,” says Chioma Obinna, writer of Good Health Weekly for Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper. “And cancer mortality among Nigerians continues to rise despite improvement in cancer care across the world.”
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — At the World Cancer Congress meeting this month in Geneva, Switzerland, it was predicted that all cancers in South Africa would almost certainly double by 2030 without major spending increases for screening and prevention.
This comes as new cancer therapies have boosted survival odds from six months to five or six years for even late-stage cancer patients. But expensive pharmaceuticals—the ‘financial toxicity' of the new precision medicine drugs and scanning machines—benefit just 2% of the top tier medical aid plan beneficiaries.
By Joseph Maina
Alliance for Science issued this article, and it is being republished with their permission.
NAIROBI, Kenya (IDN) — At the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) centre in Mtwapa, Kenya, scientist Paul Kuria uproots two sets of cassava tubers exposed to the devastating cassava brown streak disease (CBSD).
One of the plants is a conventional cassava variety that has no immunity to the disease. The second has been genetically modified (GM) to resist the disease. Kuria punctiliously slices each of the tubers open, and the difference between the two is stark—like night and day.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | ABUJA (IDN) — Flooding in the southern and coastal states of Nigeria has taken the lives of more than 600 people, displaced 1.4 million and destroyed roads and farmlands. Officials warn that the situation could continue into November.
Thirty-one of Nigeria’s 36 states have been affected in what media reports have called the worst flooding in a decade, drowning infrastructure and 200,00 homes, partly or wholly destroyed.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | ABUJA (IDN) — In a surprise development, Nigeria’s Appeal Court sitting in Abuja has exonerated the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, saying his extradition by force from Kenya and his subsequent arrest by Nigerian authorities had been illegal.
Kanu, leader of the banned Indigenous People’s group, was originally arrested in 2015 on various terrorism-related charges. He escaped to Kenya in 2017 while out on bail.
Viewpoint by Abebe Haile-Gabriel
The writer is the Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It was published in Horn Observer on October 13, ahead of World Food Day on October 16.
ACCRA (IDN) — More than a billion Africans cannot afford a healthy diet. Africa is moving backwards in its efforts to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. This situation is not sustainable.
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.