World Health Organization

ADF STAFF The latest strain of the COVID-19 virus has scientists concerned about the speed at which it spreads as they urge people to continue to take precautions against infection. Nicknamed “Centaurus,” the new strain is identified as…

ADF STAFF BA.5, the COVID-19 omicron variant behind surging global infection rates, packs a different set of symptoms than previous strains. Luke O’Neill, an immunologist at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, explained why. “There…

ADF STAFF After giving rise to a new wave of infections in South Africa, the BA.4 and BA.5 strains of COVID-19’s omicron variant are rapidly sweeping through other countries because of changes that make the strains more contagious and more…

ADF STAFF After declining globally in May and June, COVID-19 infections are rising again, this time powered by the rapid spread of the BA.4 and BA.5 strains of the omicron variant. “New waves of the virus demonstrate again that COVID-19…

ADF STAFF The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has inked a deal with American pharmaceutical company Pfizer to bring supplies of the antiviral Paxlovid pill to the continent. A November 2021 study showed…

ADF STAFF Last year, the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response called for urgent action to end the COVID-19 pandemic and prevent future disease outbreaks. In May, the panel, established by the World Health…

ADF STAFF As the COVID-19 virus evolves and creates new variants, the risk of repeated infections rises and with it an increased risk of developing the collection of chronic symptoms known at long COVID, according to a world health…

ADF STAFF Scientists studying the long-term health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic say they have found that the disease triples the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and doubles the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease — two neurological…

ADF STAFF As South Africa’s fifth wave of COVID-19 infections winds down, researchers have learned a key lesson from the experience: New sublineages of a variant can drive infections as much as entirely new variants can. South Africa’s…

ADF STAFF South Africa’s newest wave of COVID-19 infections is proving to be substantially different from previous waves. This is partly because of the high level of immunity in the population, according to experts from the country’s…