For how we live.
Outbreaks, vaccine access, and global health funding across the continent.
A surveillance analysis of WHO data from January 2024 to February 2026 tracks the clade Ib emergency from declaration to its end, and finds reported spread continued after the emergency was formally lifted.
A modelling study of Koungou village, calibrated to daily cases by vaccination status, estimates CVD 103-HgR prevented 87% of cholera and averted hundreds of cases — a first real-world test of a challenge-trial vaccine.
A national surveillance study found 415 children under 15 among Sierra Leone's 2024–2025 clade IIb mpox cases — three died, three-quarters needed hospital care, and household contact was the top documented exposure.
A Global Burden of Disease analysis of Kenya's 47 counties found ischaemic stroke killed 11,328 people in 2023 — death rates are falling even as new cases rise, with raised blood pressure behind 35% of the burden.
Genomic sequencing identified Haemophilus ducreyi — a bacterium known for a sexually transmitted infection — behind roughly 403 cases in children. Of 156 swabs tested, 61.5% were positive; no yaws was found.
A new MMWR comparison of five Ebola outbreaks since 2007 shows the Bundibugyo epidemic in Congo outran West Africa and the 2018 DRC outbreak at the same point, with 2,606 deaths by day 100.
A phase 2b trial in 4936 Gambian children missed its primary endpoint, but ETVAX cut moderate-to-severe ETEC diarrhoea by 80.6% once parasite co-infections were excluded.
In the pragmatic BEAT Tuberculosis trial, an all-oral six-month regimen cured 86.1% of patients with rifampicin-resistant TB — statistically non-inferior to the nine-month standard, with similar safety.
A national cohort of 3,584,203 people found that 96.4% of those re-tested still had a viral load below 1000 copies per mL a year later — the threshold at which HIV is not transmitted sexually.
WHO's 25 September update logs 1,133 more confirmed cases and 532 more deaths since 11 September, and two new health zones — one bordering South Sudan — widen the outbreak's reach.
A national survey of more than 120,000 children put combined prevalence at 5.4% and heavy-intensity infection below WHO's 1% elimination threshold, after ten years of preventive chemotherapy.
A trial across 24 Zambian clinics found a person-centred care package lifted the share of patients in care a year after a treatment gap from 51.5% to 60.1%, and halved repeat interruptions.
A mixed-methods survey of urban households challenges the assumption that city children are the reached ones, and points to antenatal care and a mother's autonomy as the levers that decide.
A review of the Africa CDC and WHO response reports 49,803 confirmed cases and 240 deaths across 28 countries, US$977 million mobilised, and just 32% of 3.1 million delivered vaccine doses administered.
Two WHO-endorsed shots are now available, but a new analysis argues the harder problem is financing them in the lowest-income, highest-burden countries. Nigerian rollout data shows demand outpacing readiness.
The Global Burden of Disease 2023 study estimates 2.33 billion NCD incident cases and 263 million DALYs across Africa, with high blood pressure the single largest driver of the continent's NCD deaths.
An observational study across four DR Congo outbreak sites estimates that a third of positive mpox PCR results reflect environmental viral DNA, not infection — and that a stricter cutoff fixes most of it.
As RTS,S reached more than 2 million children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, a WHO-coordinated pilot trained about 6,000 health workers to detect and report side-effects that most rollouts assume can already be caught.
In the LATA trial across four countries, 0.9% of teens on long-acting cabotegravir–rilpivirine lost viral suppression by 96 weeks, versus 6.4% on daily tablets — a superiority result.
A modelling study finds South Africa's selective birth-dose policy is efficient per infection averted, but giving every newborn a dose would prevent the most disease and be the most cost-effective overall.
By 2023, 22% of children in Mali and 16% in Chad had received no routine vaccine at all, an analysis of WHO figures found, with measles coverage stuck below 90% across most of the belt.
A national analysis of 2020–2025 surveillance found a case fatality rate of 15.5% that never improved, a season tied to heat and rainfall, and a falling share of suspected cases ever confirmed.
A 2026 review reports more than 70 health facilities destroyed in North Kivu, 7.3 million people displaced and over 2 million children acutely malnourished, as conflict compounds overlapping outbreaks.
External validation of the PAANTHER decision algorithm in 277 children across four African countries recorded 93.3% negative predictive value and 97.4% sensitivity against a composite reference standard.
A meta-analysis of 56 trials and 134,424 children finds RTS,S and R21 cut clinical malaria by about a third overall, with efficacy strongest alongside seasonal chemoprevention and waning after 36 months.
A cohort at Kilifi County Hospital found RSV pneumonia killed 2.4% of admitted infants across 25 seasons, with no decline; severe undernutrition and congenital heart disease marked the highest risk.
A 1,784-child randomised trial in Uganda found one-fifth and one-half doses of the 17DD vaccine matched the full dose for initial immunity — evidence for dose-sparing in young children when supplies run short.
A descriptive study using WHO modelled estimates for 2022 put current cigarette use between 1.7% in Ghana and 18.2% in Seychelles, with the male-female gap reaching 36.4 points in Lesotho.
The vaccines and antibody drugs that cut Ebola's death rate work against the Zaire species. None is approved for the Bundibugyo virus now driving the largest Ebola outbreak in Congo's history.
The E-MOTIVE trial, across 80 hospitals and 210,132 births in four African countries, paired objective blood measurement with a first-response bundle — and severe outcomes fell sharply.
WHO's 10 September update records 963 more confirmed cases and 481 more deaths in the DRC since late August, with the case fatality ratio holding near 48%.
Human cases are a rounding error against the 3.5 million of the 1980s. But 684 animal infections, most of them dogs in Chad, now stand between the programme and eradication.
Ervebo was licensed against Zaire ebolavirus. WHO says it is not known whether it protects against Bundibugyo virus in humans — which is why a trial is running alongside the wider rollout.
THESUS-HF II enrolled 1,578 patients across 50 hospitals in 17 countries. Guideline drugs were prescribed at discharge in most patients, and target doses were reached in fewer than half.
WHO's latest update records 1,129 more confirmed cases in twelve days and a case fatality ratio of 48.1%. Transmission is now confined to Congo, across 60 health zones in six provinces.
National surveillance shows no decline from 2020 to 2024, with one in five patients already disabled at diagnosis — a marker of late detection even as the global burden falls.
A frontier analysis of two decades attributes 97.6% of nutritional disparities between countries to inefficiency rather than to resources. The policy reading is contestable; the decoupling is not.
In South Kivu, ophthalmologists examined 310 patients with confirmed clade Ib mpox at four time points. Periorbital lesions and severe acute malnutrition tripled the risk of ocular involvement.
Adult TB incidence and mortality are projected to fall 46% and 54% by 2030, short of the 80% and 90% goals. Wider symptom-driven testing matters most to closing the gap, the analysis suggests.
A geostatistical re-estimate puts the global toll at 2.1 million envenomings and 274,000 deaths a year at minimum, with African incidence nearly three times South Asia's — against a short antivenom supply.
Each 1 degree C rise in average maximum wet bulb globe temperature across pregnancy was associated with 64% higher odds of a higher stress category — an association, in one cohort, with no mechanism established.
Nigerian adults scored well below US and Norwegian comparison samples on a six-dimension sleep health measure. In South Africa, students with backup power were far less likely to report worse sleep during outages.
A 100-child randomized trial in Uganda found a cheap supplement lowered infection rates on top of standard hydroxyurea therapy — though the authors say it needs a bigger trial before it changes practice.
Seventy-seven thousand fewer children got PEPFAR-supported HIV treatment in 2025 than the year before. UNAIDS warns permanent cuts could mean millions of additional infections and deaths by 2029.
The Bundibugyo virus epidemic is now the largest Ebola outbreak in Congo's history. WHO's emergency committee met again this week; MSF says the response still isn't reaching people fast enough.
VPM1002 did not show non-inferiority to BCG for preventing tuberculosis infection in a phase 3 trial across sub-Saharan Africa. Far fewer infections occurred than planned, leaving the comparison unresolved.
Surveillance data show reported measles cases from Tigray collapsed during the 2020–2022 war; afterward the median age of infection fell to five years and the odds a case was unvaccinated stayed sharply raised.
A case-control study by MSF's Epicentre and WHO put NmCV-5's adjusted effectiveness at 92% against meningococcal meningitis after 2024 campaigns in Niger — on a small sample of 17 confirmed cases.
The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index global score is the field's default outcome. Tested in a large South African cohort, its single-factor structure fit poorly and internal consistency was modest.
A rare multicentre record from three Sudanese trauma centres finds penetrating injury in more than nine of ten patients, and civilians in the great majority.
In 2,414 children, the MODAM-MAM trial found one daily sachet of therapeutic food non-inferior to standard supplementary food; two sachets did marginally better but used far more product.
Children in low-vegetation districts exposed to heat stress had sharply higher odds of severe wasting and underweight; in greener areas the link vanished. The pathway runs through food systems, not heat alone.
A community study of 2,340 residents, run after the conflict that wrecked the region's health system, found presumptive tuberculosis above 10% in both town and countryside.
A cluster-randomised trial in Saponé found seasonal chemoprevention given to children up to age 10 nearly halved parasite carriage in 5-to-9-year-olds, though supervised delivery brought no clear gain under age five.
Nine countries have launched lenacapavir for HIV prevention, with roughly 66,000 people newly started on it. In at least two countries, demand has already outrun the available doses.
Sixteen years of PCR-confirmed data show Buruli ulcer incidence down nearly 80%. Over the same period open water surfaces shrank 25–30% and mean air temperature rose by more than 1°C.
In the first humanitarian trial of its kind, 400 refugees and hosts were randomised. AUDIT scores fell 4.6 points more with screening and brief intervention than with usual care at six months.
Blood samples from a West African vaccine trial show both licensed Ebola vaccines generate antibodies that bind Bundibugyo virus — the species with no vaccine of its own, now causing DRC's largest outbreak on record.
Two months after the emergency declaration, confirmed cases in DRC have passed 2,100 and spread to 46 health zones. There is still no approved vaccine or treatment — but patients are now being enrolled in one.
A peer-reviewed account traces the mass screening and tsetse-fly control that cut gambiense sleeping sickness below one case per 10,000 in endemic areas — the threshold WHO validated in January 2025.
Across 84,348 hospital admissions, 19.8% of children had severe anaemia; as malaria receded the burden moved to older children, and severe anaemia doubled the odds of dying.
A New England Journal of Medicine review of the ongoing outbreak lays out what is and isn't known about treating Bundibugyo virus disease — and why Ebola virus countermeasures may offer partial cover.
A WHO global update logged 79 human infections in the Americas and 16 confirmed cases in Africa by late May, with the virus surfacing in areas long considered free of it.
Five weeks into the Bundibugyo virus emergency, WHO says some new cases reflect transmission that had gone undetected for weeks — a sign the outbreak may be larger than the count shows.
Two peer-reviewed studies chart the toll: among 122 Khartoum dialysis patients followed for up to 18 months, 53% survived, and those who stayed in the capital fared worst.
WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern on 17 May. By early June, confirmed cases had climbed past 500 and Africa CDC put a price tag on the continental response: $518 million.
After 12 months, HbA1c was 6.5% among people managed by community health workers versus 7.1% among those referred to clinics. With 103 participants analysed, the confidence interval crosses zero.
A modelling analysis puts 2.75 million children under five in sub-Saharan Africa living with sickle cell disease. Seven African countries have transplant programmes; approved gene therapies cost millions.
A review of 42 studies on South Africa's Comrades Marathon finds medical encounters at up to 20 per 1,000 starters — mostly dehydration and cramping, not the cardiac events that draw the most attention.
An all-oral, bedaquiline-based programme treated 277 patients through six years of conflict in eastern Congo and reached 77.6% treatment success — above WHO's 75% mark — but mortality stayed at 13.4%.
Eight confirmed cases, 246 suspected, and 80 suspected deaths in eastern DRC were enough for the Director-General to invoke his highest level of alarm — before convening the emergency committee that usually comes first.
A Lancet evaluation of the RTS,S introduction in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi reports a 13% drop in mortality among vaccine-eligible children — achieved with third-dose coverage of 71% and fourth-dose uptake under 40%.
WHO's latest tally puts the 2026 year-to-date count at 58,740 cases and 732 deaths across 22 countries, down sharply from last year except in conflict-affected states.
A Nature Communications review of the continent's biomedical data science capacity found none of 36 surveyed groups using cloud high-performance computing, and named electricity outages among the most common obstacles.
Two doses of the long-acting antibody L9LS protected under-fives in a high-transmission area, but researchers say a higher dose is likely needed for stronger cover.
Sub-Saharan Africa received $11 billion in external assistance for community health worker programmes over two decades. More than three-quarters went to single-disease work, and the annual financing gap never closed.
The AVENIR trial met its resistance endpoint in the gut but not the nose: giving the antibiotic to under-fives lifted macrolide resistance 16% above placebo communities.
The estimate covers only populations in humanitarian need across Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Mali, Niger and Nigeria — and it assumes nothing replaces the lost money.
The surveillance behind the WHO-verified milestone is now published: no infective blackflies at any monitored site, and no infection among 16,406 children tested.
Fourteen months after an undiagnosed febrile outbreak alarmed the world, sequencing and PCR on 108 patients found no novel pathogen — half had falciparum malaria and many had a respiratory co-infection.
A scoping review found 36 studies on heat and health, only 13 with Gauteng data. Rather than wait for more, the authors borrowed designs from Victoria, Maharashtra and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The Ministry of Health declared the end on January 26, two incubation periods after the last confirmed patient was buried. No vaccine or drug for Marburg is approved anywhere.
Washington intends to provide up to $792 million over five years. Malawi commits the rest — and the money is meant to flow through the government rather than NGOs.
A year of wearable data from 76 subsistence farmers shows adaptation happening in real time. The women in the study had less room to slow down, and their strain readings show it.
The Bulape outbreak in Kasai Province ended 88 days after it was declared, with a case fatality ratio above 70% and nearly 48,000 people vaccinated.
Across 11 surveillance sites in sub-Saharan Africa, nighttime heatwave mortality risk rose between 2005-2010 and 2011-2015 — the opposite of the adaptation trend reported in wealthy countries.
WHO has graded the regional resurgence a level 2 emergency. Only 5.7% of the 20,412 suspected cases were laboratory-confirmed, and the antitoxin that prevents most deaths is in global short supply.
Six laboratory-confirmed cases and three probable ones have been reported from Jinka town. All deaths involved unsupervised burials — the step in the chain that historically turns a cluster into an outbreak.
In 59 facilities across Malawi and Uganda where 431,394 women gave birth, the APT-Sepsis programme reduced infection-related death, near-miss events and severe illness from 1.9% to 1.4%.
WHO reports 404 confirmed human cases across the two countries in six weeks. The case fatality ratio is 30% in Mauritania and 7.8% in Senegal — a gap that says more about detection than about the virus.
Among 1,000 adults in Mwanza, overnight oximetry found sleep apnea in 17% of people with HIV and 19% without. Excessive daytime sleepiness, oddly, was more common in those without HIV.
The experimental recombinant antivenom outperformed a plasma-derived product in mice and cut tissue necrosis. It has not been tested in a single human, and the paper does not address cost or manufacturing at scale.
Age-standardised incidence was 42.3 per 100,000 in Ghana and 43.1 in US non-Hispanic Black women, against 24.0 in white women. ER-positive rates diverged sharply in the other direction.
The modelling study puts 719,384 people on PEPFAR-funded oral PrEP in 28 African countries at the end of 2024. Most projected infections fall on key populations whose coverage was already under 6%.
A prospective cohort of 88 index cases and 432 household contacts found a secondary attack rate of 6.15%, three times higher in under-15s. The estimated R0 inside households was 0.30.
A high-resolution model of East Africa's most densely settled basin finds that two-thirds of the projected rise in exposure comes from temperature and population growth acting together.
In a 400-pair trial in Uganda where every family already had a bed net, insecticide-treated wraps reduced clinical malaria in infants from 2.14 to 0.73 cases per 100 person-weeks.
Across 165 clinics in four African countries, HIV testing fell by up to 35% and treatment starts by up to 32%. Most services had not returned to baseline two months after the orders were lifted.
In a 774-person randomised trial, community health workers delivering medication at home nearly doubled the share of patients whose blood pressure was controlled at six months.
Sequencing points to a fresh spillover from wildlife rather than a resurgence of the province's earlier outbreaks. Four of the dead are health-care workers.
WHO counted 409,222 cases and 4,738 deaths across 31 countries by 17 August. The divergence between the two trends is the finding, and it points at case management, not transmission.
In 12 clusters, 6% of girls in the intervention group experienced a maternal or perinatal death against 13% in control. The trial was a pilot, and the authors present it as such.
The final analysis of a 28,130-child trial found roughly 78% efficacy over more than four years, evidence that underpins WHO's push to roll the conjugate vaccine out in endemic countries.