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Russell Rensburg, University of the Witwatersrand South Africa has a two-tiered, and highly unequal, healthcare system. The public sector is state-funded and caters to the majority – 71% – of the population. The private sector is largely funded through individual contributions to medical aid schemes or health insurance, and serves around 27% of the population. The public sector is underfunded […]

Matthew Quaife, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Finn McQuaid, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Two years of battling COVID-19 has been bad news for tuberculosis (TB) programmes. Respiratory clinicians and researchers have had their time and focus directed elsewhere. And TB has taken advantage. In 2021, the number of TB deaths rose for the first

Kelly Chibale, University of Cape Town The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced the first six African countries that will receive technology to produce messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. This comes off the back of the news that a South African consortium – part of the WHO’s technology transfer hub set up in 2021– had successfully replicated Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. Ina Skosana

Richard E. Chaisson, Johns Hopkins University In 1993, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared tuberculosis (TB) a global public health emergency. It urged nations to coordinate efforts to avert millions of deaths. In January 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19, another airborne infectious disease, a public health emergency of international concern. The similarity between the global responses to these two pandemics

Thomas Barnay, Université Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne (UPEC) As of February 8, 2022, the cumulative number of Covid-19-related deaths globally is close to 5.8 million. With more than 2,300 Covid-19 deaths per million people, the United States, Belgium, Italy and UK have recorded the highest number of fatalities, followed by Spain and France (with about 2,000).

Emmanuel Olamijuwon, University of St Andrews The increasing use of social media, particularly in African countries, offers several opportunities to promote messages about sexual health behaviours among young adults on the continent. It can complement existing sexual health promotion strategies, particularly when physical distancing measures limit opportunities to meet and interact in person. In addition, the

Each year, the WHO Global TB Report provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic, and of progress in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease, at global, regional and country levels. This is done in the context of global TB commitments, strategies and targets. The 2021 edition of the report has been