Telegraph Global Health Security

War is the perfect petri dish for disease. In this first episode of Battle Lines: Global Health Security, @ascottgeddes & @venetiarainey ask whether the next pandemic could originate on a battlefield. youtube.com/watch?v=9YQEOU… Featuring interviews with @AmeshAA & @lfspinney Tune in every Wednesday to watch or listen on YouTube and podcasting platforms.

Our global health architecture is in urgent need of reform. Read @SaniaNishtar in @TelGlobalHealth on the three major reform objectives that can help deliver a global health system that can lead to real, positive change: 🚑 Revisit the way health services are delivered in lower-income countries, ensuring recipient countries are firmly in the lead 🎯Ensure multilateral health organisations focus on the essentials: global public goods that cannot be delivered by countries acting alone 💰Rethink how global health is financed, distinguishing between investments that benefit individual countries and those that contribute to our collective health security The full article: bit.ly/3Rb4RBW

Is it just me, or is the race to become the new head of the WHO starting to hot up??? I'm in Geneva next week and hoping to meet all the would be runners and riders. The global health system must radically change to survive and thrive telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

@liliasebouai and @benfarmerDT have the latest Full story below👇 telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

🚨A new Ebola outbreak has killed 65 people and infected at least 246 others in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to Africa’s top public health body. The outbreak of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever is in eastern Ituri province, a volatile and remote region more than 620 miles from the nation’s capital of Kinshasa, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). The Congolese government has yet to formally declare an outbreak but a press conference is expected within hours.

Hantavirus can remain in human semen for up to six years and has the potential for sexual transmission even after a person has recovered, according to a peer-reviewed study. The discovery means male patients are likely to be advised to change their sexual practices as happens with other viruses such as Ebola, which also survives in the sexual tract. Full story below 👇 telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

“The global health system must radically change to survive and thrive,” writes Dr Sania Nishtar, CEO of @gavi The focus must be on building a leaner, more efficient global health system led by a reformed WHO Full op-ed by @SaniaNishtar here 🔗 telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

(2/2) Full story here: Scientists say rat virus is mutating - but no critical changes yet telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

(1/2) A crack unit of virologists from around the world has concluded that the Andes hantavirus is subtly mutating as it spreads, but that the current outbreak will likely burn out. Scientists in South Africa, Senegal, Switzerland and the Netherlands – who were convened at the behest of the World Health Organization (WHO) – found the virus had changed slightly as it spread from person to person on board the stricken cruise ship. But these mutations are small and do not alter how the virus functions, they said. @sneweyy breaks down the latest updates🦠

(2/2) Full story here: The race to understand how rat-virus spreads ✍️ @maeve_cullinan, @sneweyy and @PaulNuki telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

(1/2) One of the most important questions scientists are racing to answer about the hantavirus outbreak is exactly how it spreads from person to person. It sounds like a simple question, but it is not. There are dozens of variables that dictate the “transmission dynamics” of a virus and scientists are only just starting to grapple with a few of them. Our reporters break down some of the crucial variables that scientists are investigating ⬇️

Syria’s health system under strain from returnees following fall of Assad, says report Nearly 1.4m refugees have flooded back into the country, far outpacing the restoration of hospitals, clinics and essential services @liliasebouai reports telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

British rat-virus patient relying on world’s most remote GP surgery Tristan da Cunha has a single healthcare centre staffed by two doctors and with space for two inpatients @maeve_cullinan reports telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

Blindsided: Why there are no vaccines or treatments for hantavirus Unlike Covid 19, hantavirus is no mystery Disease X. So how is it that the world has seemingly been caught off-guard by the latest outbreak? @sneweyy and @PaulNuki explain ⬇️ telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

One of the clear lessons of the hantavirus outbreak is that *chance* makes a huge difference to how a disease can spread. The Andes strain of the virus causes 100s of human infections every year, but most burn out almost immediately. Occasionally, there is a bigger outbreak fueled by human-to-human transmission but these are rare. The pattern is a feature of almost all zoonotic spillover events, millions of which happen each year involving thousands of different pathogens. Mercifully, most go nowhere. They flare then vanish. Now enter *chance* – a series of unforeseen but often predictable environmental circumstances or events. A wet market, a trunk road, a game of beer-pong … or in this case, a hop-on-hop-off international cruise with connecting flights. The map below shows the 12 countries that passengers flew to after disembarking one leg of the cruise in St Helena in late April. 30 passengers disembarked there, one dead, but no one knew then about the disease to which they had been exposed. The outbreak has been serious, with three dead and at least five suspected cases so far. About 150 remain on the ship, while hundreds of potential secondary contacts are being traced and asked to isolate around the world. Nevertheless, the chances are that *this* outbreak will die out too. The virus does not appear to spread efficiently enough to sustain itself, even with the circumstances it has been handed. But here’s the thing: it’s a numbers game. Look again at that map and consider where we would be if the virus was more infectious, or had mutated to become so. It is why the World Health Organization and pandemic planning is so important.

Important and welcome news re the hantavirus: it does NOT seem to be evolving fast genetically From @benfarmerDT in Cape Town for @TelGlobalHealth : The virus behind the deadly cruise ship hantavirus outbreak is nearly identical to a well known South American strain, easing fears of a new more virulent mutant version, a leading expert has said. Genetic sequences of virus taken from victims are more than 99 per cent identical to those already known from the existing Andes strain. Prof Tulio de Oliveira said the finding meant he was not currently concerned by the prospect of the virus having evolved into a new more dangerous variant. He said the DNA code of the virus, its genome, had been sequenced from three patients: two in South Africa and one in Switzerland. He said: "The genome of the virus is extremely similar to the Andes virus that is currently circulating in South America. We are talking more than 99 per cent identical." Prof de Oliveira, of South Africa's Stellenbosh University, also told Al Jazeera the nature of the cruise, as passengers stayed together indoors during cold South Atlantic weather, had probably exacerbated the spread on the MV Hondius.

Latest Hantavirus updates from our Global Health Security editor ⬇️

The African Medicines Agency is the missing link in global health security, writes Delese Mimi Darko, in our latest op-ed #AMA Link here🔗ㅤ telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

Nigeria wages war on the deadly fake drug trade The country’s crackdown could be a blueprint for other countries grappling with a global crisis of counterfeit and substandard medicines @VerityBowman has the latest telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

Ghana is latest African country to reject Trump aid deal over data concerns West African nation reportedly joins Zimbabwe and Zambia in turning down a new ‘America First’ agreement to receive US health funding More below ⬇️ telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

The Iran war has exposed Britain’s broken food chain The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has triggered an unprecedented crisis – and the UK is particularly vulnerable @maeve_cullinan reports telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…