DAILY RENDEZVOUS

Daily Rendezvous  The High Commissioner of Nigeria to Australia and the Pacific Region ,Amb. Anderson N.Madubike,has again noted the need for African countries to deepen trade engagements with Australia. This, he added, would make for a win-win situation in relations between the countries of the two regions. Amb. Madubike, who stated the above in Canberra, Australia,on Monday during a dinner he organised for the Director General of the World Trade Organization, Nigerian-born Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and members of her delegation,who were on an official visit to Australia,added that Africa and Australia must strive to realize the potential each of the regions possessed in trade,raw materials and in other areas like education and cultural exchange. The Nigerian Envoy also noted that Africa still lags behind in both trade relations and in other areas of foreign policy engagements,hence the need to close the yawning gap to realize better results. Dr.Ngozi Okonjo-...

Daily Rendezvous  17 November 2022 | Geneva | News release  WHO is launching today a new strategy to respond to the urgent problem of antimalarial drug resistance in Africa. The strategy is being released during World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, a global annual campaign to improve awareness of the growing threat of resistance to antibiotics and other medicines.  In recent years, there have been reports from Africa of emerging parasite resistance to artemisinin – the core compound of the best available medicines to treat malaria. There are also worrying signs that parasites in some areas may be resistant to drugs that are commonly combined with artemisinin. Vigorous measures are needed to protect their efficacy. “Although antimalarial drug resistance is a serious cause for concern, artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) remain the best available treatment for uncomplicated  P. falciparum  malaria,” notes Dr Pascal Ringwald, lead author of th...

Daily Rendezvous  In a   2019 vector alert , WHO identified the spread of  Anopheles stephensi  as a significant threat to malaria control and elimination – particularly in Africa, where the disease hits hardest. A   new WHO initiative , launched today, aims to stop the further spread of this invasive mosquito species in the region. Originally native to parts of South Asia and the Arabian Peninsula,  An. stephensi  has been expanding its range over the last decade, with detections reported in Djibouti (2012), Ethiopia and Sudan (2016), Somalia (2019) and Nigeria (2020). Unlike the other main mosquito vectors of malaria in Africa, it thrives in urban settings. With more than 40% of the population in Africa living in urban environments, the invasion and spread of  An. stephensi  could pose a significant threat to the control and elimination of malaria in the region. But large-scale surveillance of the vector is still in its infancy,...