By Maggie Fick NAIROBI (Reuters) - After a stressful year working as a doctor at Kenya s largest public hospital in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ngala Mwendwa got his first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine in March and breathed a sigh of relief. The Indian-manufactured shot was supplied by COVAX, a global vaccine initiative that s been a lifeline for poor African nations. But with India now engulfed in its own crisis, Mwendwa has no idea when he will get his second dose. It s just the way we are disadvantaged as a third world country, he told Reuters after a shift in Kenyatta National Hospital s paediatric intensive care ward. It s scary. Before it was hit by the world s highest numbers of daily infections, India had been vital to global vaccination efforts. Its Serum Institute of India, the world s biggest producer of the AstraZeneca vaccine, was the cornerstone of COVAX s supply chain. But sources told Reuters this week that India s vaccine exports, halted in March, are unlikel
By Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan s health minister said on Friday he had spoken to his U.S. counterpart to ask for help in obtaining COVID-19 vaccines amid a spike in infections on the island and the U.S. health secretary would take the matter to President Joe Biden. Having for months been held up as an example of how to stop the virus in its tracks, Taiwan has over the past two weeks reported a spiralling number of infections in the community, with some 1,800 cases. Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said the situation remained at its peak but there were no sudden situations that had arisen, with authorities able to track the sources of most infections. Taiwan s battle against the virus has been complicated by a lack of vaccines, with only about 700,000 arriving to date, including 410,000 this week, all AstraZeneca Plc shots. Chen said he had spoken with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra on a video conference call about medical cooperation,
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The World Health Organization and three other international bodies have formed a team of experts to help develop a global plan to prevent the spread of diseases from animals to humans, the WHO said on Thursday. The One Health High-Level Expert Panel was an initiative launched by France and Germany late last year, and held its inaugural meeting this week. It will advise the WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Organization for Animal Health and the United Nations Environment Programme on developing risk assessment and surveillance frameworks and establish good practices to prevent and prepare for zoonotic outbreaks. The panel will also consider potential transmission risks in food production and distribution, urbanisation and the construction of infrastructure, international travel and trade and activities that lead to biodiversity loss and climate change, the WHO said in a press release. The panel will publish its first recommendations later this y