A new index designed to fill a critical information gap and help African governments, health officials, non-governmental organizations, and others respond to the coronavirus pandemic finds that although Africa has not yet been overwhelmed by COVID-19, several regions are showing troubling signs of vulnerability to the social, economic, and health impacts of an outbreak that should not be ignored.

The Africa COVID-19 Community Vulnerability Index"...

Today, more than 20 leading biopharmaceutical companies announced the launch of the AMR Action Fund [www.AMRactionfund.com], a ground-breaking partnership that aims to bring 2-4 new antibiotics to patients by 2030. These treatments are urgently needed to address the rapid rise of antibiotic-resistant infections"...

More than 2,000 products, including global brands such as Vaseline, Smirnoff and Total Gas, risk losing their market protection in Kenya following the expiry of their trademark licences.

The Kenya Industrial Property Institute (Kipi), the custodian of trademarks in the country, said it would clear 2,162 products from its register if their owners fail to renew their respective trademark licences by next Wednesday.

“Where"...

NMC Healthcare has officially launched its new CosmeSurge Hospital in Jumeirah. The facility, completed in December of last year, specialises in providing cosmetic surgeries, and is located near the iconic Burj Al Arab. This will be the 17th branch of the CosmeSurge brand of facilities.

The launch coincides with all the significant measures currently undertaken by the Emirate of Dubai towards bringing life back to normalcy, including the issuance of"...

rf IDEAS, a leading manufacturer of credential readers for logical access and authentication, continues to advance the future of secure mobile access. Developed in partnership with HID Global, the newest addition to the rf IDEAS WAVE ID Mobile reader line supports the HID Mobile Access credential on Bluetooth® Low Energy enabled mobile devices.

The WAVE ID Mobile for HID Mobile Access provides smartphone users with contactless logical access"...

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged governments of African countries to take effective measures that will help to mitigate the risk of a surge in infections due to the resumption of commercial flights and airport operations.

WHO, in a statement extended to Radio Tamazuj, said in the early days of the pandemic, 36 African countries closed their borders to international travel, eight suspended flights from countries with high COVID-19 transmission,"...

EUSA Pharma, a global biopharmaceutical company focused on oncology and rare disease, today announced that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 clinical trial protocol to evaluate the safety and efficacy of intravenous siltuximab plus standard of care in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 associated Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS).

Siltuximab is a monoclonal"...

Treating male urethral stricture with the patient’s own buccal mucosal cells, encapsulated in a polymer scaffold as carrier, has been granted a patent in Japan. A longer duration of relief to patients who had recurrence of the disease after earlier conventional treatments, has been reported by this method called “Bees-Haus” (Buccal epithelium Expanded and Encapsulated in Scaffold‐Hybrid Approach to Urethral Stricture; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/iju.13852).