In Mozambique, most people with epilepsy don’t seek treatment. So the country took on an intimidating challenge: Diagnose and treat more people by increasing awareness, reducing stigma, improving medication access, and partnering with traditional healers.
Ceres2030, a global effort led by International Programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is employing machine learning, librarian expertise and cutting-edge research analysis to use existing knowledge to help eliminate hunger by 2030.
A landmark study led by Sydney researchers pinpoints the birthplace of modern humans in southern Africa and suggests how climate change may have driven the first migrations.
Barely half of authors of more than 7,000 research papers on health in sub-Saharan Africa come from the country studied in the paper.
More than two-thirds of these studies include authors from the U.S., Canada, Europe or a different African country.
Overall, about half of first authors were from the country studied.
In papers that included co-authors from top U.S. universities, fewer than one in four first authors were from the country studied.
Although there is work to be done to address systemic social issues, it is time to focus on positive stories and celebrate Africans who have overcome great adversity, President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana said during the 2019 Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum at Rutgers.
A collaborative project from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®), the African Cancer Coalition (ACC), the American Cancer Society (ACS), and others to improve cancer outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa enters a new phase in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, today.
Like most megaherbivores, this species can have important effects on ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles. Yet, the influence of elephants on the structure, productivity and carbon stocks in Africa’s rainforests has been largely unknown; until now.
Riley Tedrow, PhD, a medical entomologist at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, has uncovered new findings about malaria transmission in Madagascar. In a recent study published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, he also describes real-world application of an effective mosquito surveillance strategy using low cost traps and a recently reported tool that simultaneously tests each mosquito for its species, what it fed on, and the presence of malaria parasites.
A recently documented long-term drying trend over the Congo Basin could have important implications on the future of the world’s second largest rainforest, according to a study published today in Nature Climate Change.
A new risk assessment model for the transmission of Ebola accurately predicted its spread into the Republic of Uganda, according to the Kansas State University researchers who developed it. They published "Risk assessment of Ebola virus disease spreading in Uganda using a multilayer temporal network" in bioRxiv before the Uganda cases.
An increase in cocoa price by 2.8 percent could potentially eliminate the very worst forms of child labor from cocoa production in Ghana, according to a new economic model described in a study published June 5
A new study led by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health shows that women in eight sub-Saharan African countries are gaining access to and using modern contraception at a faster rate than previously projected.
The Society for Risk Analysis International (SRA) recently announced the launch of a new regional chapter - SRA Africa. This new regional organization brings together risk practitioners from Africa, as well as those interested in addressing the health and environmental issues facing the continent. Members of the chapter include academia, researchers, practitioners, policymakers and related stakeholders from both the public and private sectors.
The fossil site of Malapa in the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, discovered by Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in August 2008, has been one of the most productive sites of the 21st century for fossils of early human ancestors or hominins. A new hominin species, Australopithecus sediba (Au. sediba), was named by Berger and his colleagues, following the discovery of two partial skeletons just under two million years old, a juvenile male individual-- Malapa Hominin 1 (MH1)-- and an adult female, Malapa Hominin 2 (MH2). The skeletons are under the custodianship of the University of the Witwatersrand, where they are being kept.
A study by researchers from Sweden and Hungary shows that white, painted stripes on the body protect skin from insect bites. It is the first time researchers have successfully shown that body-painting has this effect. Among indigenous peoples who wear body-paint, the markings thus provide a certain protection against insect-borne diseases.
A type of mosquito that transmits malaria has been detected in Ethiopia for the first time, and the discovery has implications for putting more people at risk for malaria in new regions, according to a study led by a Baylor University researcher.
An elephant never forgets. This seems to be the case, at least, for elephants roaming about Namibia, looking for food, fresh water, and other resources.
When households in sub-Saharan Africa don’t have an adequate number of insecticide-treated bed nets, pregnant women and children under five are the most likely family members to sleep under the ones they have, leaving men and school-aged children more exposed to malaria, new Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) research suggests.
Research examining pressure on surgical units in sub-Saharan African countries estimates nearly 300 million people have a need for surgery in the region, placing a heavy burden on hospitals.
Women in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Uganda are often pressured by family and through societal expectations to have more children, but commonly resort to covert or indirect means of contraception to maintain some reproductive autonomy. This is a central finding from a cross-country study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
At the fifth International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) in Kigali, Rwanda, taking place Nov. 12 to 15, 2018, there will be four new research findings presented. The 2018 ICFP is co-hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, which is based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Rwanda.
The University of Illinois at Chicago's Great Cities Institute and Native American Support Program will present Natives in Chicago, a discussion on the impact of policies and the work of community organizations to provide services and programs that contribute to the city's thriving native communities.
Barbara Ransby, a University of Illinois at Chicago historian, writer and activist, is the recipient of the American Studies Association's 2018 Angela Y. Davis Prize for Public Scholarship, which recognizes scholars who have applied or used their scholarship for the betterment of society.
Women in Nigeria whose clerics extol the benefits of family planning were significantly more likely to adopt modern contraceptive methods, new research suggests, highlighting the importance of engaging religious leaders to help increase the country’s stubbornly low uptake of family planning services.
The University of Illinois at Chicago is one of eight universities awarded funding by the National Institutes of Health to prevent and treat sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, among adolescents and young adults in Africa and Brazil. Collectively, the international projects are known as Prevention and Treatment through a Comprehensive Care Continuum for HIV-affected Adolescents in Resource Constrained Settings (PATC3H).
The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William visited Tanzania’s College of African Wildlife Management (CAWM), Mweka, as part of his current visit to Africa as President of United for Wildlife. While there, the Duke took part in an exercise as part of SMART training at the college being supported by United for Wildlife and implemented by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
The study is the first to use a nationwide survey representing an entire country in sub-Saharan Africa to find connections between droughts, migration and violence. The survey asked if respondents had to move because of drought, were victims of violence, and, using an indirect questioning method, whether they have latent support violence.
A study that enrolled more than 2,000 Nigerian women found that disparities in breast cancer mortality disproportionately impact women of African ancestry. Nigerian women with mutations in breast cancer genes have higher risks than women in the U.S. with mutations in the same genes. Inherited breast cancer plays a bigger role in Nigeria.
A groundbreaking study has found the earliest and largest monumental cemetery in eastern Africa built 5,000 years ago by early pastoralists living around Lake Turkana, Kenya. This group is believed to have lived without major inequalities and hierarchies, contradicting long-standing narratives about the origins of early civilizations. The study, led by Elisabeth Hildebrand, PhD, Department of Anthropology at Stony Brook University, will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
With an eye toward strengthening and expanding Washington University in St. Louis’ efforts in Africa, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton has appointed Benjamin Akande as senior adviser to the chancellor and director of the Africa initiative, effective April 1.
Conservationists working in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park have not one but two good reasons to be hopeful for the park’s savanna elephant population: a pair of rare twin calves who have recently joined their mother’s herd.
A Kansas State University researcher is studying the risk of African swine fever virus in feed and developing ways to prevent the spread of the disease to the U.S.
A new study by scientists from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and other groups predicts that the effects of climate change will severely impact the Albertine Rift, one of Africa’s most biodiverse regions and a place not normally associated with global warming.
Three poachers responsible for slaughtering eleven elephants in and around Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in January were convicted to five years’ imprisonment by the local district court last week, according to WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society). The poachers, who had ventured deep into the remote Ndoki forest and spent three weeks killing elephants for their ivory, walked into an ambush setup by park rangers as they exited the forest on February 2nd. Three of the six poachers were apprehended.
A novel microarray patch for HIV PrEP is in preparation for future clinical trials. The consortium of Queen’s University Belfast, along with their collaborators, PATH, ViiV Healthcare, the Population Council and LTS Lohmann Therapie-Systeme AG have been granted over $10 million by USAID for their research.
Cassava is vital to the food security of millions of Africans who eat some form of the root crop daily. Although cassava breeders are making progress, they face significant challenges in developing disease-resistant varieties that also increase yield and respond to the needs of smallholder farmers and processors.
A multidisciplinary global team including two Northwestern University professors has won a $15 million grant to improve the survival of newborns in Africa.
Billions of US taxpayer dollars have been invested in Africa over the past 15 years to improve care for millions suffering from the HIV/AIDS epidemic; yet health systems on the continent continue to struggle. What if the investments and lessons learned from HIV could be used to improve care for those with other serious chronic conditions?
With this question in mind, researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, along with investigators and clinicians based in Uganda, borrowed an HIV/AIDS innovation to seek inroads against rheumatic heart disease in sub-Saharan Africa.
A new study that seeks to ascertain HIV mortality rates in Zambia could provide a model for improved national and regional surveillance approaches and, ultimately, more effective HIV treatment strategies.
Non-communicable diseases — such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and diabetes — are responsible for more than 36 million deaths across the globe each year. 14 million of these constitute premature mortality, and 90 percent of these premature deaths take place in low- and middle-income countries.
Michigan State University, supported by nearly $1.5 million from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will create a unique online data hub that will change the way scholars and the public understand African slavery.