Africa: Covid Testing Led to New Techniques of Disease Diagnosis - Progress Mustn't Stop Now

In March 2020, weeks before the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic, its director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivered a speech in which he… Read more »

Africa: Putin and the ICC - History Shows Just How Hard It Is to Bring a Head of State to Justice

The arrest warrants issued recently by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his children's commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova,… Read more »

Africa: TB Kills 75,000 Children in Africa Every Year - How This Can Stop #WorldTBDay

Tuberculosis (TB) is a preventable and curable disease. Half of the world's 30 highest TB burden countries are in Africa. In many of these countries, TB is the leading cause of… Read more »

Africa: China's Only Now Revealed Crucial Covid-19 Origins Data. Earlier Disclosure May Have Saved Us 3 Years of Political Argy-Bargy

Once more, we're talking about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Read more »

Africa: TB in Children Isn't Being Controlled - It's Key to Fighting the Disease for Everyone Else

World TB Day on March 24th will commemorate the day in 1882 when Professor Robert Koch announced in Berlin that he had discovered the microbial cause of tuberculosis (TB),… Read more »

Africa: Covid Origins Debate - What to Make of New Findings Linking the Virus to Raccoon Dogs

The origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, has long been a topic of heated debate. While many believe SARS-CoV-2 spread to humans from an animal at Wuhan's Huanan… Read more »

Africa: We're a Step Closer to Learning How Misplaced DNA Could Influence Disease Risk

DNA is our body's instruction manual. It contains all the information that our cells need to make proteins and other molecules vital for our development, growth and survival. Read more »

Africa: A Microbiologist Reveals the Shocking Truth About Dirt and Germs in Hotel Rooms

For most of us, staying in a hotel room is either something of a necessity - think business travel - or something to look forward to as part of a holiday or wider excursion. Read more »

Africa: How a Nigerian Singer and a Cameroonian Dancer Inspired a Powerful Protest in Iran

On 8 March 2023, five teenage girls uploaded on social media a video of themselves performing the Calm Down Dance Challenge. This is the choreography for the first verse of the… Read more »

Africa: Aquifers Hold More Than 20 Times The Water Stored in Continent's Lakes, But They Don't Solve Water Scarcity

Discoveries of aquifers - underground earth formations that hold water - often create excitement around their ability to ease water scarcity in a region. Read more »

Africa: Air Pollution Can Increase the Risk of Covid Infection and Severe Disease #AfricaClimateCrisis

The early part of the COVID pandemic led to a significant reduction in air pollution in many parts of the world. With lockdowns, travel restrictions and decreased economic… Read more »

Africa: LGBTQ+ Rights - African Union Watchdog Goes Back On Its Own Word

The primary human rights watchdog in Africa recently made a decision that departed from its existing practice. The African Commission of Human and Peoples' Rights, an independent… Read more »

Africa: U.S.-China Tensions - How Africa Can Avoid Being Caught in a New Cold War

China's foreign ministry published a 4,000-word analysis entitled US Hegemony and its Perils on 20 February. It's an indictment of alleged US foreign interference, intimidation and… Read more »

Africa: The Limits of Expert Judgment - Lessons From Social Science Forecasting During the Pandemic

Imagine being a policymaker at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. You have to decide which actions to recommend, how much risk to tolerate and what sacrifices to ask your… Read more »

Africa: As Bird Flu Continues to Spread in the US and Worldwide, What's the Risk That It Could Start a Human Pandemic? 4 Questions Answered

An outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza that started in 2021 has become the largest bird flu outbreak in history, both in the U.S. and worldwide. In the U.S. the virus has led to the… Read more »

Africa: Looting and Decay - How The Pandemic Wrought Real Damage to African Heritage

The Covid-19 pandemic will long be remembered for the lockdowns it imposed and the millions of lives it stole, particularly among the elderly. A recent Unesco report shows that it… Read more »

Africa: Curious Kids - How Are Planets Created?

Curious Kids is a series for children in which we ask experts to answer questions from kids. Read more »

Africa: Farms in Cities - New Study Offers Planners and Growers Food for Thought

Urban agriculture as a global phenomenon is widely promoted as a sustainable land use practice. On small plots and in big projects, using sophisticated technology or simple… Read more »

Africa: What the Research Shows About Risks of Myocarditis From Covid Vaccines Versus Risks of Heart Damage From Covid

Soon after the first COVID-19 vaccines appeared in 2021, reports of rare cases of heart inflammation, or myocarditis, began to surface. Read more »

Africa: Getting From Waste to Clean Water - Tiny Carbon Particles Can Do the Job

Many futuristic novels and films have explored what the world might look like without water. But water scarcity isn't a problem for the far-off future: it's already here. Read more »

Africa: Droughts Bring Disease - Here Are 4 Ways They Do It

Countries in the Horn of Africa have been hit by a multiyear drought. Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda are expected to continue getting below-normal rainfall in 2023. Excluding… Read more »

Africa: Pope Francis - The First Post-Colonial Papacy to Deliver Messages That Resonate With Africans

When he was presented to a cheering crowd at St Peter's Square, Vatican City, on 13 March 2013, few people outside Latin America knew much about Jorge Bergoglio. Read more »

Africa: ChatGPT is the Push Higher Education Needs to Rethink Assessment

The COVID-19 pandemic was a shock to higher education systems everywhere. But while some changes, like moving lectures online, were relatively easy to make, assessment posed a much… Read more »

Africa: Three Years On, The Covid Pandemic May Never End - But The Public Health Impact Is Becoming More Manageable

Three years ago, on March 11 2020, World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus first formally described COVID-19 as a pandemic. Read more »

Africa: Suicide Attempts Rose Among Children and Adolescents During the Covid-19 Pandemic, Especially for Girls

Will the kids be alright? There was hope that children and adolescents would "bounce back" as the pandemic progressed, but sadly, the data suggest otherwise. Read more »