JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Africa aims to have 60% of its population vaccinated against COVID-19 within the next two to three years, the African Union’s disease control group said on Thursday.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling on countries and global health partners to step up the fight against malaria, a preventable and treatable disease that continues to claim hundreds of thousands of lives each year. A better targeting of interventions, new tools and increased funding are needed to change the global trajectory of the disease and reach internationally-agreed targets.
According to WHO‘s latest World malaria report, progress against malaria continues to plateau, particularly in high burden countries in Africa. Gaps in access to life-saving tools are undermining global efforts to curb the disease, and the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to set back the fight even further.
The world’s 20 most powerful economies pledged Sunday to lead a global battle against the coronavirus health and economic crisis — even as their own virtual gathering revealed the risks of national competition for the quickest access to vaccines and other therapeutics.
This week, the world heard encouraging news about a vaccine for COVID-19.
On Monday, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, and its partner BioNTech, said their experimental vaccine appears to work – and work quite well. A preliminary analysis suggests the vaccine is more than 90 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 symptoms.
Health officials hope to start vaccinating some Americans in a few months.
"The vaccine is on its way, folks," Dr. Anthony Fauci told a crowd Tuesday, via video link, outside Brooklyn Borough Hall.
But what about the rest of world, especially people in poorer counties. Is the vaccine "on its way for them?"
