The World Health Organization (WHO) approved clinical trials for two new Ebola vaccines on Wednesday, as an outbreak in Africa has killed more than 5,300 people. The candidates are ChAdOx1 BDBV, developed by the University of Oxford with the Serum Institute of India, and Moderna’s mRNA-1469, both designed specifically for the Bundibugyo virus. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the trial that began last month with the Ervebo vaccine does not cover the Bundibugyo virus and that the agency’s expert groups now recommend adding the two candidates to the study. The National Institute for Biomedical Research of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) leads the trial, backed by partners including WHO. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Monday that the epidemic had killed more than 5,300 people, the majority in the DRC, with 10,444 confirmed cases and a fatality rate above 50 percent.
Theme: Global health
The World Health Organization (WHO) said cholera has killed around 1,800 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) so far this year, a country also battling its deadliest Ebola outbreak, according to AFP, in a text republished by Medical Xpress. Some 60,000 cases of the disease have been recorded in what the WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described as the country’s “worst cholera outbreak in decades.” Most of the infections were detected in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu, prey to a litany of armed groups and partly under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 militia, Tedros said. He said the concern now is that cases are following the Congo River basin, which means the outbreak could stretch up to Kinshasa. The mortality rate is around 3%, which is high for cholera.
A British healthcare worker infected with Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is being medically evacuated to Britain, in stable condition, expected to arrive on Wednesday or Thursday, according to an official document seen by Reuters. The British government confirmed that a British citizen in the DRC had tested positive and said the risk to the UK public remains low. It is the first case involving a British national linked to the current outbreak, and the patient had been sent to the DRC by a humanitarian organization. The outbreak is the second-largest on record, with more than 10,000 confirmed cases and nearly 5,000 deaths reported by late October.
The World Health Organization (WHO) approved clinical trials for two new Ebola vaccines as part of the effort to control an outbreak that has killed more than 5,300 people in Africa. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the two candidates are ChAdOx1 BDBV, developed by the University of Oxford with the Serum Institute of India, and Moderna's mRNA-1469, developed specifically for the Bundibugyo virus. The National Institute of Biomedical Research of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is leading the trial, with support from partners including WHO; in October a trial had already begun with the Ervebo vaccine, approved for Ebola virus but not for Bundibugyo. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday that the epidemic had killed more than 5,300 people, the vast majority in the DRC, with 10,444 confirmed cases and a fatality rate above 50%.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), thousands of people are displaced in the city of Debre Berhan, in the Amhara region, and in Shire, in northwestern Tigray. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said families who had recently returned to the district of Diabo, in northwestern Tigray, were forced to flee again because of renewed military activities. OCHA and humanitarian partners are preparing to scale up assistance, but insecurity is restricting movement along the roads connecting Gonder with Debark and Metema, in Amhara. Fighting in the country's north, in Tigray, Amhara and Afar, resumed in late September, nearly four years after the November 2022 Pretoria Agreement ended the two-year war between federal forces and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reported civilian deaths, including children and a newborn, in attacks in northern Ethiopia and said the region's health system is approaching collapse.
Health authorities in Nigeria confirmed on Monday that the two suspected Ebola cases investigated in the country’s northeast tested negative after two rounds of testing, with both people isolated while teams carried out contact identification and laboratory testing.
New York state reported the first measles-linked child death in over 30 years, amid an outbreak. The case is the state’s first measles-linked death in more than three decades, according to the South China Morning Post.
The Ebola outbreak has killed 5,376 people — 5,372 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and two each in Kenya and Uganda, with 10,414 confirmed cases in the country as of October 30. The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, with no known vaccine or treatment.
Health authorities in Nigeria are investigating two suspected Ebola cases in the country’s northeast, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) said on Saturday. The two individuals have been isolated while officials carry out contact identification, listing and laboratory testing, the agency said in a post on X.
The Ebola death toll in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has passed 5,000, according to government data cited by Al Jazeera, in an outbreak declared in May that is already the country’s deadliest on record. More than 10,000 people have been infected, and there are no approved treatments or vaccines against the rare Bundibugyo strain.
The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has surpassed 5,000, government data showed on Friday, Reuters reported.
Pollution from smoke emitted by months of wildfires across Indonesia caused an estimated 3,560 deaths in the archipelago in September, according to a new study cited by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) — non-fire pollution from power generation, industry and transport caused a further 1,750 deaths in the month, for a total of 5,310 in the country of about 290 million people.
Yemen’s Health Ministry warned on Wednesday of a growing health and humanitarian crisis in Taiz and called for lifting the Houthi siege, saying 246,711 people have lost access to essential health services, including more than 186,000 children under five and about 23,000 pregnant women, according to Yemen's Health Ministry.
Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo recorded 10,060 confirmed Ebola cases, including 4,887 deaths, as of October 25, with a fatality rate of 48.6 percent, according to a report cited by Xinhua. The outbreak involves the Bundibugyo virus, with no approved vaccine or specific treatment, and was described as the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the agency. Kenya confirmed nine infections, including two deaths, after a patient traveled from DR Congo through Uganda to Nairobi, according to AllAfrica.
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has topped 10,000 confirmed cases, government data showed Tuesday, as health authorities race to slow the spread of the disease in several African countries, according to AP, in a text published by NBC News. It is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history, and nearly half of the 10,060 people confirmed to have the virus have died, according to data from Congo's Ministry of Health.
Kenya released 20 Ebola contacts from quarantine. The 20 people released completed 21 days of monitoring without developing Ebola symptoms and are in good health, according to the Miami Herald.
Angry youths armed with machetes attacked two community health workers raising awareness about the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing one and wounding the other, Reuters reported.
A Swiss woman being treated for Ebola in Nigeria was medically evacuated to Switzerland with her husband on Monday, according to the Associated Press (AP). According to AP, with the evacuation Nigeria currently has no Ebola cases, and the country will continue following 52 contacts while Switzerland takes over the patient’s care and monitors her husband.
Nigeria's minister of health and social welfare, Muhammad Pate, confirmed that the country's Ebola index patient has been evacuated to Switzerland, according to AllAfrica. The patient is a 42-year-old Ugandan-born woman who lives in Abuja and returned from Uganda on 3 October, in Nigeria's first Ebola case in more than a decade. The evacuation came six days after the country confirmed the case.
Ebola deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have reached 4,803 and infections 9,876, with a fatality rate of 48.6%, according to TASS. As of October 25, the death toll was double that of the 2018–2020 outbreak, according to Yonhap.
A nurse was killed and another health worker was severely injured while responding to an Ebola alert in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to Al Jazeera, citing the World Health Organization; the attack took place on Saturday in the town of Bafwasende in Tshopo province, according to Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; data from the country’s Ministry of Health indicate more than 9,800 cases, including more than 4,700 deaths, since the outbreak began in May, the deadliest in the country’s history.
Nigeria’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention placed 53 contacts under watch and approved an emergency payment of N100,000 per person weekly to support people placed in isolation or quarantine as part of efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in the Federal Capital Territory.
The UK and partners published a joint ministerial statement on the risk of famine in Sudan estimating 19.5 million people facing acute food insecurity, including 5 million at emergency levels, according to the British government. Conflict remains the main driver of the crisis, with millions displaced, critical infrastructure damaged and food production, supply chains and markets disrupted, according to AllAfrica.
Kenya has recorded its second death from Ebola as it handles its first ever outbreak of the disease, according to the BBC. Seven other Ebola patients were receiving treatment at two isolation facilities, the broadcaster said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced the start of the first clinical trial of an Ebola vaccine in the outbreak that began in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to Al Jazeera. Trial participants were vaccinated with the Ervebo vaccine in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province and the epicenter of the outbreak. The DRC declared its 17th and worst-ever Ebola outbreak in May and has since reported more than 9,700 cases, with deaths exceeding 4,600.
Kenya’s health ministry announced on Friday the country’s second Ebola death, a 65-year-old woman who was a close relative of the first patient and developed symptoms while in quarantine, according to SCMP. Kenya has confirmed nine cases so far, including the two deaths, and the remaining seven patients are receiving treatment at two isolation facilities, according to the Hindustan Times, citing the ministry.
The French authorities announced the first ever reported human infection with Shamonda virus (SHAV), a disease that has until now only affected animals, according to a statement from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). The case involved “a patient receiving treatment for a serious illness that made them more susceptible to infection and complications than the general population”, according to the ECDC. The man died in early October, and France is investigating “whether the virus caused or contributed to the patient's death and how the infection was acquired”. SHAV was detected in Europe for the first time last summer, in France, and has since been identified on farms in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.
The Ebola patient in Nigeria is a Swiss woman, the wife of a Swiss diplomat, who has not travelled to the epicentre of the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is believed to have contracted the virus while travelling with her husband in Uganda, the Swiss foreign ministry has said. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating whether the patient may have come into contact with an Ebola patient in Kenya, as both travelled from Uganda's Entebbe airport on October 3. The World Health Organization (WHO) said investigations were continuing to establish the likely source of infection for the Ebola patient in Nigeria.
The Swiss government said the Ebola patient in Nigeria, the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja, did not travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), contradicting accounts from Uganda, according to Reuters. Ugandan authorities have said the woman who fell ill in Nigeria had travelled to eastern Congo, where the outbreak was declared in mid-May and has since become the fastest-spreading on record.
The Ebola outbreak killed nearly 4,700 people and led Nigeria to record its first case in more than a decade, according to AllAfrica — a woman who returned to Abuja from Uganda on October 3, after staying in Kampala, without passing through the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The World Health Organization (WHO) said 44 contacts had been identified and were being monitored.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said hospitals in Yemen's Taiz governorate face critical shortages of fuel, oxygen, medicines and medical supplies, with 42 health facilities in Taiz city alone facing acute shortages. Fuel shortages are also disrupting water pumping and sanitation, raising the risk of cholera and other diseases among hundreds of thousands of displaced people, according to the agency.
The World Health Organization (WHO) classified the Ebola outbreak in Africa as complex after the disease spread to Nigeria, according to AFP. In its latest weekly bulletin, WHO Africa reported 9,637 confirmed cases and 4,646 deaths, a crude fatality ratio of 48.2% — an increase of 572 cases and 265 deaths since External Situation Report #22.
The director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Jean Kaseya, called on Nigeria’s first confirmed Ebola patient to disclose her complete travel history and possible contacts during a recent visit to Uganda, to help health authorities establish how she contracted the virus. According to Kaseya, the patient was born in Uganda and lives in Abuja, and was in her home country when her husband, a diplomat, travelled to join her. In an interview with the BBC, he said her first symptoms appeared on October 6, when she sought a private hospital believing she had malaria, and that she was admitted on October 11. Nigeria’s health minister, Muhammad Pate, confirmed that the 42-year-old woman spent two and a half weeks in Kampala before returning to Abuja through Ethiopia, with a two-hour stopover in Addis Ababa.
French authorities confirmed that a patient who died at a Lyon hospital earlier in October was infected with the Shamonda virus, the first such report of the virus in a human, according to Al Jazeera. In a statement on Thursday, the French Ministry of Agriculture stressed that there were no identifiable health risks to the general population at this time. France’s Health Ministry said the patient had “severe immunodeficiency” and was receiving treatment for a serious illness at the Hospices Civils de Lyon, TRT World reported.
Nigeria confirmed one imported case of Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease in the Federal Capital Territory, becoming the fifth country to detect the virus since an outbreak was declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on May 15, 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. According to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the patient is a woman with a recent travel history to Uganda. Her symptoms began on October 7, four days after her arrival in Nigeria; she sought care at a private health facility in Abuja on October 11, and a laboratory test confirmed the Bundibugyo virus on October 20. She is in isolation and receiving medical care. The ministry said 44 contacts had been identified and were being monitored.
Nigeria recorded its first Ebola case in about a decade, in a foreign woman living in Abuja who had arrived from Uganda, according to Reuters. Health officials say the case matches the strain of the Democratic Republic of Congo outbreak, according to Al Jazeera.
Nigeria has confirmed one imported case of Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease in the Federal Capital Territory, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. The patient is a woman with a recent travel history to Uganda, and her symptoms began on 7 October, four days after her arrival in the country. According to the WHO, 44 contacts have been identified and are being monitored as efforts are intensified to find other people who may have been exposed.
Nigeria confirmed on Tuesday an Ebola case in a woman who recently arrived in the country from Uganda and is in isolation receiving treatment, while Uganda asked for her itinerary and clinical history, noting that she transited through Uganda in early October without symptoms, according to AllAfrica.
Nigeria confirmed on Tuesday the first Ebola case of the current outbreak, a woman who arrived from Uganda, the Health Ministry said. The patient began showing symptoms on Oct. 7 and was admitted to a private hospital in Abuja on Oct. 11, where she was diagnosed with Ebola. Contact tracing has begun, with 44 close contacts identified and monitored, including healthcare workers, patients, caregivers and travel contacts, according to Africanews.
Kenya has confirmed a new Ebola case, bringing the total number of infections in the country to nine, amid an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to Al Jazeera.
Kenya’s health authorities have confirmed an eighth Ebola case in the country, a 49-year-old patient attendant, according to Chinese state agency Xinhua. Of 38 people tested on Sunday, one came back positive for the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, the agency reported. The United States (US) raised its travel advisory for Kenya as cases reached eight, according to AllAfrica.
The Ebola outbreak in Congo has reached the country’s eighth province, Nord-Ubangi, on the border with the Central African Republic, where the Health Ministry recorded two cases, one of them fatal, in men in their 20s in the Wapinda health zone, according to the Korea Herald. Since the outbreak was declared in mid-May, authorities have recorded at least 9,400 cases and more than 4,500 deaths, the deadliest toll in Congo’s history.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) says 1.4 million people in Gaza are suffering acute food shortages and that funding gaps are forcing cutbacks in critical aid, despite the U.S. brokered Hamas-Israel ceasefire, according to NPR.
Kenya confirmed four new cases of the Ebola Bundibugyo virus, bringing the total to seven, including one death, and three of the new cases are health workers who treated the country’s first patient, according to Kenya’s Ministry of Health in a statement posted on X on Saturday. All four were in quarantine when they developed symptoms and were quickly isolated.
An Ebola death in Kenya last week is highlighting the urgency of Africa’s public health emergency preparedness, with governments across the continent committing their national budgets to the health sector, according to Inter Press Service (IPS), in a text republished by AllAfrica. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned that the current Ebola strain was spreading so fast that, for emergency health workers, “it was like fighting a megafire.”
Over 1.4 million Palestinians face crisis-level food insecurity or worse through the end of 2026, as the UN warns that recent gains remain fragile, according to TRT World. At least 466 Palestinians, including 157 children, have died from malnutrition and starvation since 2024, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The World Food Programme (WFP) warned that the “truly desperate” humanitarian crisis in Yemen will only get worse with the renewed conflict, according to the Middle East Eye. The programme’s deputy country director said it has lost access to more than 800,000 people who were reliant on its assistance until last month.
Suspected cholera cases in Yemen tripled in three weeks, from 217 to 647 weekly cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), in an Al Jazeera report. The country has reported 8,034 suspected cases and 27 deaths this year, with a quarter of the cases in the last four weeks.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the Alimbongo health zone, in North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), reported ebola cases for the first time, with four confirmed cases and two deaths as of October 6, according to Al Jazeera. The WHO also recorded 8,728 confirmed cases and 4,205 deaths in the DRC as of October 6. The same day, Kenya confirmed its first imported case of Bundibugyo virus disease, also according to the WHO.
Russia has still not publicly identified the pathogen that killed a researcher, according to the New York Times. The World Health Organization (WHO) is still trying to understand the causative agent, the newspaper said.
The Royal College of Pharmacy dropped Teva UK as a sponsor of and exhibitor at next month’s annual conference, the second major UK health body to cut ties with the Israeli drug firm after pressure from pro-Palestine campaigners, with Teva saying it was disappointed and that healthcare should not become politicised, according to The Guardian.
China nominated Song Li, a maternal and child health specialist, to lead the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday, a move that could expand Beijing’s influence over the international body after the United States quit it this year, according to CNA. Song Li heads the Department of Women and Child Health at China’s National Health Commission and has a 21-year career, according to the WHO. She will run against candidates put forward by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Spain, Indonesia and Botswana, including three men and three women.
The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Wednesday that the agency does not yet have the full picture of this event and is not able to conduct a full risk assessment. The WHO asked for timely, complete and transparent information sharing from Russia to clarify conflicting reports. Darya Shipilova, 28, an employee at the anti-plague research institute in the eastern city of Irkutsk, died two days after falling ill with cold-like symptoms. The Russian authorities deny a connection with the institute and say she died from “pneumonia of an unknown aetiology”.
Donald Trump said that, for now, the parties are in very deep discussions, according to the BBC. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no phone call had been scheduled and that Russia’s reporting of the death to the World Health Organization (WHO) was in line with standard practice. The WHO director-general said that timely, complete and transparent information sharing under the International Health Regulations is essential to clarify conflicting reports and enable an accurate assessment of potential public health risks.
The United States formally asked Russia for more information after the death of a laboratory technician at an institute studying plague, according to Le Monde with the Agence France-Presse (AFP). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say they are closely monitoring the situation and that, at the moment, nothing indicates a broader threat to the United States; the World Health Organization (WHO) assessed the risk as low for Russia and very low for Europe. Russian authorities say plague was not detected among the worker’s close contacts, according to NBC News.
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he has a call scheduled with Putin to discuss a possible case of pneumonic plague in Russia. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said he would be talking with Putin about the case “very soon”, after the death of an employee at an anti-plague institute attributed to pneumonia with an unknown cause, which health authorities are investigating.
The United States State Department reiterated on Tuesday its Level 4 (Do Not Travel) advisory for US citizens travelling to Russia, amid fears of pneumonic plague, according to the Hindustan Times. The US embassy said it was aware of reports from the Irkutsk region of suspected pneumonic plague resulting in one death and of associated quarantine measures in, and closures of, hospitals in Irkutsk. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the possible case of pneumonic plague in Russia presents very low risk outside Russia.
Kenya announced on Tuesday the country’s first death from Ebola, according to DW. The patient travelled overland to Kampala, Uganda’s capital, and then took a flight to Nairobi on October 3. The health minister said 28 people who came into contact with the patient, including relatives and health workers, had been identified and would be quarantined. The case makes Kenya the fourth country to record an Ebola case in the current outbreak, declared in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in mid-May.
About 200 people who came into contact with the dead researcher have been quarantined, and parts of the hospital in Shelekhov where she died have been cordoned off. Igor Kobzev, the governor of Irkutsk, said she died of “pneumonia of unknown aetiology” and that no new cases have been identified among institute staff. Russia's public health authority Rospotrebnadzor said two commissions investigating biosafety procedures at the institute found no evidence of an accident involving pathogenic microorganisms, according to DW, citing TASS.
Russian authorities imposed restrictions on hospital access and are keeping about 200 contacts under surveillance, according to El País. The public health agency Rospotrebnadzor attributes the case to a “pneumonia of unknown etiology” and says it has not found microorganisms linked to her professional activity.
Kenya has confirmed its first case of Ebola, a Kenyan citizen who had been living in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the past seven years, the BBC reported. The patient died days after arriving in Nairobi. Health Minister Duale said 28 contacts have been identified so far, including family members and health workers. The DRC has recorded more than 8,000 cases and over 4,000 deaths, according to The Guardian.
US President Donald Trump said the United States is ready to assist Moscow, if necessary, in a case of pneumonia of unknown etiology detected in Russia, according to TASS. Trump said he is looking at the case closely and that he has not spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin about it, according to Al Jazeera. The Russian health authority said laboratory tests confirmed two cases of Covid-19 and two of rhinovirus. The WHO said that, based on unofficial information, the public health risk to the general population appears low.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the country is closely monitoring the case of the technician who died at a plague research centre in Siberia, with a risk of pneumonic plague, but no cause for alarm, according to the BBC. Irkutsk’s governor announced the cause of death as “pneumonia of undetermined etiology” and said no microorganisms linked to her work had been found in her biological samples. Rospotrebnadzor inspected the Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East and found no emergency situation there.
Several hospitals in Irkutsk imposed three-week quarantines, according to the outlet People of Baikal, in a text cited by Meduza on October 4. The measure followed a case of “pneumonia of unknown cause” in an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, according to Meduza. About 200 people at the hospital where the worker was taken were placed under observation, according to The Telegraph.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported repeated delays in bringing lifesaving medicines, prosthetics and other supplies from Israel into Gaza and called for the unimpeded and predictable entry of humanitarian and health supplies into Gaza at scale, according to UN News.
The Trump administration will end health funding to Zimbabwe on Wednesday, including support for efforts to fight HIV and other infectious diseases, The Washington Post reported. The cut, at the end of September, follows the collapse of negotiations over a bilateral US-proposed deal, derailed by a data-sharing clause, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, September 25, 2026, that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reached two new health zones: Bulu, in South Ubangi governorate, on the border with the Central African Republic, and Dungu, in Haut-Uele province, on the border with South Sudan. The additional cases bring the number of affected health zones to 63 across seven provinces, as authorities struggle to control the outbreak. As of September 23, the DRC had reported 7,890 confirmed cases and 3,799 deaths, according to the WHO.
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) held on September 25, 2026, its second High-level Meeting on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, three years after the first, staged in 2023 in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and gaps in global health security. Leaders recognized the progress made in the past three years in systems to detect, prepare for and respond to pandemic threats, including adoption of the WHO Pandemic Agreement and amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005). Countries also stressed the urgent need to finalize negotiations on an annex to the WHO Pandemic Agreement establishing the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) system.
A report by the Climate Impact Lab, a research group at the University of Chicago, released on Wednesday, 23 September 2026, estimates that El Niño-driven heat could cause as many as 451,000 additional heat-related deaths between June 2026 and the end of February 2027, compared with deaths expected in a typical year, according to the Associated Press. The Sahel is expected to be the hardest-hit region, with about 66,800 additional deaths. The report also projects about 19,400 additional heat deaths combined across the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, 19,300 in Indonesia, 15,800 in India and 13,300 in Brazil, according to AP. The study combined seasonal temperature forecasts from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) with local estimates of how heat affects mortality across more than 24,000 regions worldwide. Michael Greenstone, a co-founder of the group and co-author of the study, told AP the danger is likely to persist beyond February, when the current El Niño is expected to have ended.
A report by the Accra Reset initiative, led by Ghana’s president John Dramani Mahama and launched on Monday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, warns that healthcare in Africa and the Global South is ‘under growing strain’ after the United States pulled out of aid programmes, according to The Guardian and the document itself. It notes that external financing for health in Africa contracted by close to 70% between 2021 and 2025, that Africa produces less than 1% of its vaccines while carrying about 25% of the global disease burden, and that Nigeria absorbed 28,000 health workers formerly employed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) at a cost of $200m. After the US Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) funding for South Africa was withdrawn, HIV clinics closed across the country and 1.4 million people faced uncertainty about their treatment.