Hope for developing world as Swiss anti-malarial for newborns approved
The newly approved medication, developed by Novartis, is a lower-dose version of a tablet previously approved for older age groups.
Swissmedic's decision is significant as it marks only the third time the agency has used a fast-track authorisation process, in coordination with the World Health Organization, to help developing countries access needed treatment.
This development is crucial given that malaria remains the deadliest disease in Africa, accounting for 95 per cent of global deaths from the disease in 2023, with children account for over three-quarters of those deaths.
While welcomed, experts highlight the importance of transparency regarding Novartis's planned 'largely not-for-profit' rollout, including pricing and distribution strategies, especially as malaria cases continue to rise and drug resistance grows.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
UN says if US funding for HIV programs is not replaced, millions more will die by 2029
Years of American-led investment into AIDS programs has reduced the number of people killed by the disease to the lowest levels seen in more than three decades, and provided life-saving medicines for some of the world's most vulnerable. But in the last six months, the sudden withdrawal of U.S. money has caused a 'systemic shock,' U.N. officials warned, adding that if the funding isn't replaced, it could lead to more than 4 million AIDS-related deaths and 6 million more HIV infections by 2029. 'The current wave of funding losses has already destabilized supply chains, led to the closure of health facilities, left thousands of health clinics without staff, set back prevention programs, disrupted HIV testing efforts and forced many community organizations to reduce or halt their HIV activities,' UNAIDS said in a report released Thursday. UNAIDS also said that it feared other major donors might also scale back their support, reversing decades of progress against AIDS worldwide — and that the strong multilateral cooperation is in jeopardy because of wars, geopolitical shifts and climate change. The $4 billion that the United States pledged for the global HIV response for 2025 disappeared virtually overnight in January when U.S. President Donald Trump ordered that all foreign aid be suspended and later moved to shutter the U.S. AID agency. Andrew Hill, an HIV expert at the University of Liverpool who is not connected to the United Nations, said that while Trump is entitled to spend U.S. money as he sees fit, 'any responsible government would have given advance warning so countries could plan,' instead of stranding patients in Africa when clinics were closed overnight. The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, was launched in 2003 by U.S. President George W. Bush, the biggest-ever commitment by any country focused on a single disease. UNAIDS called the program a 'lifeline' for countries with high HIV rates, and said that it supported testing for 84.1 million people, treatment for 20.6 million, among other initiatives. According to data from Nigeria, PEPFAR also funded 99.9% of the country's budget for medicines taken to prevent HIV. In 2024, there were about 630,000 AIDS-related deaths worldwide, per a UNAIDS estimate — the figure has remained about the same since 2022 after peaking at about 2 million deaths in 2004. Even before the U.S. funding cuts, progress against curbing HIV was uneven. UNAIDS said that half of all new infections are in sub-Saharan Africa and that more than 50% of all people who need treatment but aren't getting it are in Africa and Asia. Tom Ellman, of the charity Doctors Without Borders, said that while some poorer countries were now moving to fund more of their own HIV programs, it would be impossible to fill the gap left by the U.S. 'There's nothing we can do that will protect these countries from the sudden, vicious withdrawal of support from the U.S.,' said Ellman, director of Doctors Without Borders' South Africa Medical Unit. 'Within months of losing treatment, people will start to get very sick and we risk seeing a massive rise in infection and death.' Experts also fear another loss: data. The U.S. paid for most HIV surveillance in African countries, including hospital, patient and electronic records, all of which has now abruptly ceased, according to Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of the Global Health Institute at Duke University. 'Without reliable data about how HIV is spreading, it will be incredibly hard to stop it,' he said. The uncertainty comes as a twice-yearly injectable could end HIV, as studies published last year showed that the drug from pharmaceutical maker Gilead was 100% effective in preventing the virus. Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug, called Sunleca — a move that should have been a 'threshold moment' for stopping the AIDS epidemic, said Peter Maybarduk of the advocacy group Public Citizen. But activists like Maybarduk said Gilead's pricing will put it out of reach of many countries that need it. Gilead has agreed to sell generic versions of the drug in 120 poor countries with high HIV rates but has excluded nearly all of Latin America, where rates are far lower but increasing. 'We could be ending AIDS," Maybarduk said. "Instead, the U.S. is abandoning the fight.' ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
The Independent
5 hours ago
- The Independent
Burkina Faso's only eye doctor for children sees the trauma of both play and conflict
Isaka Diallo was playing with friends when a stone struck his left eye. For two weeks, his parents searched hospitals in western Burkina Faso for an eye doctor. The village clinic only prescribed painkillers. Other health workers did not know what to do. When they eventually found Dr. Claudette Yaméogo, Burkina Faso's only pediatric ophthalmologist, the injury had become too difficult to treat. 'The trauma has become severe,' Yaméogo said of Diallo's condition as she attended to him recently at the Sanou Sourou University Hospital in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso. 'Cases like (Diallo's) must be treated within the first six hours, but I'm seeing him two weeks later, and it's already too late.' It is a common problem in the country of about 23 million people, which has just 70 ophthalmologists. Yaméogo , who started her practice late last year, said the work is daunting and often requires her to visit — at no cost — families who cannot afford care or cannot make their way to the hospital where she works. While there is limited data available on eye defects in children in Burkina Faso or in Africa at large, an estimated 450 million children globally have a sight problem that needs treatment, according to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. Late intervention can significantly alter a child's future, the organization said, with many such cases in less developed countries. In Burkina Faso, an estimated 70% of the population lives in rural areas. And yet ophthalmologists are concentrated in the capital, Ouagadougou, and other main cities, making them unreachable for many. While more than 2,000 ophthalmology procedures were performed in Burkina Faso's western Hauts-Bassins region in 2024, only 52 of those were carried out in its more rural areas, according to the Ministry of Health. Most procedures were done in the area of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso's second city. Not many people are aware of Yaméogo's work. Even when they are, traveling to reach her often requires days of planning and financial saving. In a further challenge to accessing care, Diallo's family is among the 2 million people displaced by violence as extremist groups seize parts of the country. To visit Yaméogo's hospital from the village where they are sheltering, they had to travel about 40 kilometers (21 miles) on a motorcycle to Bobo-Dioulasso, spending 7,500 francs ($13) on transport, a high price for a small-scale farming family. At least 70% of the trauma cases in children treated at the hospital come from rural areas where the risk of exposure — from conflict or from play — is higher, Yaméogo said. Examining and treating a child is a delicate practice that requires a lot of time, something many families can't afford. Many must return home to earn money for the treatment. As she treated Diallo, Yaméogo noticed that the boy associated a drawing of an apple with a pepper, making her wonder: Is it that he can't see it, or that he doesn't know what an apple is? The fruit doesn't grow in the region where he lives. 'There's no fixed time for examining children,' she said. 'You need a lot of patience.' Yameogo's work has had a "very positive impact on training future pediatricians and on the quality of ophthalmology services,' said Jean Diallo, president of the Burkinabè Society of Ophthalmology. 'A child's eye is not the same as that of an adult, which is why we need specialists to treat problems early so the child can develop properly,' Diallo said. He cited retinoblastoma, a retinal cancer mostly affecting young children, and congenital cataracts, eye diseases that can be cured if diagnosed early. Pediatricians won't necessarily detect them. During another consultation, Yaméogo told the family of 5-year-old Fatao Traoré that he would need cornea surgery as a result of an injury sustained while playing with a stick. 'Sometimes I feel a pinch in my heart,' Yaméogo said as she examined the boy after they arrived from their farm on the outskirts of Bobo-Dioulasso. 'His iris has detached from his cornea, so he needs to be hospitalized.' The father, looking overwhelmed, sighed, unsure of where the money for the child's surgery would come. On paper, Burkina Faso's government covers the cost of medications and care for children under 5, but often no drugs are available in hospitals, meaning families must buy them elsewhere. A surgery like the one for Traoré can cost 100,000 CFA ($179), several months' income for the family. ___ For more on Africa and development: The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
BBC News
6 hours ago
- BBC News
US aid cuts: South Africa's HIV/Aids patients worry about treatment
Gugu used to collect her anti-retroviral from a USAID-funded clinic in downtown when President Trump's cuts to aid funding were announced earlier this year, her and thousands of other HIV-positive patients across South Africa suddenly faced an uncertain was lucky, the clinic where she got the medication that helps suppress her symptoms contacted her before it closed down."I was one of the people who was able to get their medication in bulk. I usually collect a three-month prescription. But before my clinic closed, they gave me nine months' worth of medication."She will run out of ARVs in September, and then plans on going to her local public hospital for more.A former sex worker, the 54-year-old found out she was HIV-positive after she'd quit the years ago she got a chesty cough, and initially thought it was tuberculosis. She went to a doctor who told her she had a chest infection and treated her for when the treatment failed, she went to a clinic to get an HIV test."By then I already assumed that I was HIV-positive, and I told the nurse this."She was right, and she has been on antiretrovirals (ARVs) ever since. We're not using her real name at her currently works as a project coordinator for an NGO."We help pregnant sex workers get their ARVs, to ensure their children are born HIV-negative. We also do home visits to make sure that the mothers take their medication on time, and to look after their babies when they go for their monthly check-ups."Many HIV-positive sex workers in South Africa relied on private clinics funded by the US government's now-defunct aid agency, USAID, to get their prescriptions and most of the facilities closed after US President Donald Trump cut most foreign aid earlier this a report due to be released on Thursday, the UN body in charge of fighting HIV/Aids does not single out the US, but says that drastic cuts from a number of donors have sent shockwaves around the world, and the "phenomenal progress" in tackling the illness risks being reversed."New HIV infections have been reduced by 40% since 2010, and 4.4 million children have been protected from acquiring HIV since 2000. More than 26 million lives have been saved," UNAIDS says, warning that if the world does not act, there could be an extra six million new HIV infections and four million AIDS-related deaths by has so far been lucky. The clinic from where she got her antiretrovirals in Johannesburg contacted her before it closed. She will run out of antiretrovirals in September, and will then go to her local public hospital for believes that many sex workers could be discouraged from doing so."The problem with going to public hospitals is the time factor. In order to get serviced at these facilities, you have to arrive at 4 or 5am, and they may spend the whole day waiting for their medication. For sex workers, time is money," Gugu adds that she recently went to her local clinic with some friends to register her details and build a relationship with staff."The nurse who attended to us was very rude. She told us there was nothing special about sex workers."She thinks this could lead to many sex workers defaulting on their medication, "especially because their hospital files contain a lot of personal information, and the concern is that sometimes the nurses at these local clinics aren't always the most sensitive in dealing with this kind of information."According to the UN, the US cuts to HIV funding could reverse some of the gains made by what has been called one of the most successful public health interventions in in the UK-based Lancet medical journal last month estimated that USAID funding directly reduced Aids deaths by 65%, or 25.5 million, over the past two decades. Then-US President George W Bush launched an ambitious programme to combat HIV/Aids in 2003, saying it would serve the "strategic and moral interests" of the as the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), it led to the investment of more than $100bn (£74bn) in the global HIV/Aids response - the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in the Africa has about 7.7 million people living with HIV, the highest number in the world, according to 5.9 million of them receive antiretroviral treatment, resulting in a 66% decrease in Aids-related deaths since 2010, the UN agency Africa's government says Pepfar funding contributed about 17% to its HIV/Aids programme. The money was used for various projects, including running mobile clinics to make it easier for patients to get Trump administration's cuts have raised concern that infection rates could spike again. "I think we're going to start seeing an increase in the number of HIV infections, the number of TB cases, the number of other infectious diseases," Prof Lynn Morris, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Johannesburg's Wits University, tells the BBC."And we're going to start seeing a reversal of what was essentially a real success story. We were getting on top of some of these things."Gugu points out that treatment is a matter of life and death, especially for vulnerable populations like sex workers."People don't want to default on their ARVs. They're scared that they're going to die if they don't get access to cuts have also affected research aimed at finding an HIV vaccine and a cure for Aids."There's the long-term impact, which is that we're not going to be getting new vaccines for HIV," Prof Morris adds. "We're not going to be keeping on top of viruses that are circulating. Even with new viruses that might appear, we're not going to have the surveillance infrastructure that we once had."South Africa has been one of the global leaders in HIV research. Many of the medications that help prevent the virus, and which have benefitted people around the world, were trialled in South includes Prep (pre-exposure prophylaxis), a medication which stops HIV-negative people from catching the breakthrough preventive drug released this year, Lenacapavir, an injection taken twice a year and that offers total protection from HIV, was also tried in South Africa. In a lab at Wits University's Health Sciences campus, a small group of scientists are still working on a vaccine for HIV. They are part of the Brilliant Consortium, a group of labs working across eight African countries to develop a vaccine for the virus."We were developing a vaccine test to see how well that works, and then we would trial it on humans," Abdullah Ely, an Associate Professor at Wits University, tells the BBC in his lab. "The plan was to run the trials in Africa based on research carried out by Africans because we want that research to actually benefit our community as well as all mankind."But the US funding cuts threw their work into doubt. "When the stop order came, it meant we had to stop everything. Only some of us have been able to get additional funding so we could continue our work. It's set us back months, probably could even be a year," Prof Ely lab lacks funding to carry out clinical trials scheduled for later this year."That is a very big loss to South Africa and the continent. It means that any potential research that comes out of Africa will have to be tested in Europe, or the US," Prof Ely says. In June, universities asked the government for a bailout of 4.6bn South African rand ($260m; £190m) over the next three years to cover some of the funding lost from the US. "We are pleading for support because South Africa is leading in HIV research, but it's not leading for itself. This has ramifications on the practice and policies of the entire globe," says Dr Phethiwe Matutu, head of Universities South Africa. South Africa's Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced on Wednesday that some alternative funding for research had been secured. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust have agreed to donate 1m rand each with immediate effect, while the government would make available 400m rand over the next three years, he said. This would bring the total to 600m rand, way below the 4.6bn rand requested by for Gugu, she had hoped that by the time she was elderly, a cure for HIV/Aids would have been found, but she is less optimistic now."I look after a nine-year-old. I want to live as long as I can to keep taking care of him," she tells the BBC. "This isn't just a problem for right now, we have to think about how it's going to affect the next generation of women and young people." You may also be interested in: 'My wife fears sex, I fear death' - impacts of the USAID freeze'People will starve' because of US aid cut to SudanWhat is USAID and why is Trump closing it down? Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
