BK. Titanji

and their work on poxviruses. I didn't feel too bad because my external examiner did not know who Luria and Bertani were either. Robin Weiss was a pioneer in virology and is most famous for his work on retroviruses and identifying CD4 on lymphocytes as the binding receptor for HIV.

A fun anecdote is he asked me during my viva" Do you know who Luria and Bertani were?" because I had many cloning experiments in my thesis and LB broth was cited many times in my methods.
My answer was "the guys who made the broth"? 🙃"
He then went to enlighten me on the Nobel winning virologists

Sad to hear about the death of Robin Weiss. I was the last PhD candidate he examined at UCL as an internal examiner. As stressful as a viva can be, he put me right at ease and though his questions were probing he was kind and thoughtful. The three hours were a breeze.

The EMA has issued a positive scientific opinion on acoziborole, a major step toward regulatory approval in endemic countries. Sanofi has pledged to donate the drug to WHO for distribution FREE of charge. That’s critical for a dz of extreme poverty where cost and access define real-world impact.

This is what real global health progress looks like: incremental, evidence-based, field-tested innovation that makes implementation feasible. If deployment is funded and sustained, acoziborole could push gambiense HAT from “controlled” to truly eliminated as a public health problem.

Sustained surveillance, active case finding, diagnostic capacity, and tsetse control remain essential for elimination. There are still unanswered questions about asymptomatic reservoirs and transmission dynamics. But simplification of treatment removes one of the biggest logistical bottlenecks.

As cases have fallen (<1,000 reported globally in recent years), the remaining cases are harder to find often in remote, low-resource settings. A single-dose oral regimen enables screen-and-treat campaigns without lumbar punctures or complex infrastructure. Easing the “last mile” of elimination.

Human African trypanosomiasis, is a tsetse-fly–transmitted parasitic disease that is uniformly fatal if untreated. For decades, treatment required staging with lumbar puncture and either toxic arsenic derivatives or prolonged IV regimens. Even fexinidazole still required 10days of oral therapy.

‘Truly spectacular’ drug for sleeping sickness simplifies treatment, raising hopes for eradication European regulators greenlight new one-dose compound that could help African countries get rid of an ancient burden

In today's good news a single dose drug for sleeping sickness that could completely change the elimination game. Dare I hope for eradication!
Acoziborole administered as a single oral dose was ~95% effective across both early and late-stage disease in RCTs.
www.science.org/content/arti...

CIDRAP Op-Ed: The HPV vaccine prevents cancer. The new ACIP wants to re-examine that.

Let's not forget that this highly and durably effective vaccine which is on track to eliminate cervical cancer in countries that adopted it early and have had good up take is the next target on RFK.Jr's ACIP list.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/human-papill...

Extended follow-up of invasive cervical cancer risk after quadrivalent HPV vaccination: nationwide, register based study Objectives To evaluate the long term risk of invasive cervical cancer after receiving the quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, how risk varies by time since vaccination, and to assess the ...

The HPV vaccine is durably AMAZING.A massive Swedish registry study w 18 years of follow-up found no waning protection against invasive cervical cancer. If vaccinated before age 17, cancer risk is cut by ~80%. Even those vaccinated later still had substantial protection.
www.bmj.com/content/392/...

Measles in America: US set to lose elimination status after cases soar The “land of the free” is almost no longer free of measles, with the US all but certain to lose its elimination certification for the disease after a surge of new infections in January. Outbreaks of ...

Yup all but certain now. Will be made official at the PAHO meeting next month.
www.bmj.com/content/392/...

I think it is absolutely scandalous that in just one year of an HHS under the leadership RFK.Jr the US has lost its Measles elimination status and is now on track to do same for perinatally acquired Hepatitis B. These are huge public health wins that took years to accomplish.

US Newborn Hepatitis B Virus Vaccination Rates This study examines US trends in newborn hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination rates from 2017 to August 2025, including changes in vaccination trends beginning in July 2023.

HBV elimination is uniquely fragile because you only get one chance to prevent perinatally acquired infection i.e. the day of birth. This is just the latest example of how the aggressive anti-vaccine rhetoric promoted by RFK.Jr led HHS is eroding public health gains.
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

If sustained, we should expect:
- ↑ perinatal HBV transmission
- ↑ pediatric chronic HBV cohorts emerging in ~5–10 yrs
- reversal of U.S. HBV elimination trajectory, widening disparities (declines typically concentrate in vulnerable systems)

When national vaccine messaging becomes inconsistent, the first measurable signal appears in newborn vaccination programs historically the most stable coverage domain.
This declines in uptake for effective and proven vaccines is a warning indicator.

Parents increasingly question:
“Why vaccinate if mom is HBsAg negative?”
That argument ignores several important points:
1. Imperfect prenatal testing,
2. Documentation gaps,
postnatal exposures,
3. The fundamental population-prevention logic of universal birth dosing.

U.S. Newborn Hepatitis B Vaccination Rates Plunge, Reversing Years of Gains National data show rates dropped more than 10 points in 2 years after 2023 peak

U.S. birth-dose hepatitis B vaccination coverage has dropped sharply more than a 10-percentage-point decline in ~2 years, reversing several years of progress.
Approximate numbers reported:
~83–84% coverage (2023)
~73% coverage (2025)
www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...

Measles outbreaks are costing the U.S. millions of dollars. The true losses can't be counted. As vaccination rates decline, the economic consequences will increase, research suggests.

Maybe the slogan "Measles will make us lose money" is what would finally break through in a society suffering from end stage capitalism.🤷🏽‍♀️
1.5 billion dollars cost annually for every percentage drop in vaccination coverage just might be what does it.
www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-...

Robert F Kennedy Jr: 1 year of failure In his first speech as Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F Kennedy Jr laid out a plan to restore trust. The COVID-19 pandemic saw public faith in Federal health...

"Kennedy has continued to spread misinformation and push politicised agendas at the expense of the country's most vulnerable...the destruction that Kennedy has wrought in 1 year might take generations to repair."
Bold,factual and somber editorial in @thelancet.com
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

"War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing."

We have seen this before. We know how this ends. It doesn't end well.

It is challenging time in the global health funding and aid space. How will African governments which have been so dependent on foreign aid be able to protect country sovereignty and their citizens from exploitation in the current climate? Only time will tell .

For example : 1.2 million Zimbabweans are currently receiving HIV treatment through U.S.-supported programs.The rollout of lenacapavir, celebrated in Harare just days before the negotiations collapsed, now faces an uncertain future.

Some countries like Zimbabwe and Zambia are pushing back due to the grossly exploitative nature of these agreements which harken to a more colonial time but there a real human cost to standing up to the U.S.

The U.S. has dismantled USAID and significantly restructured PEPFAR, while pursuing bilateral deals that require co-financing from recipient countries and prioritize U.S. access to data and research outputs. Sixteen African countries have signed similar MOUs .

2.) The U.S. offered no guarantee that any vaccines, treatments, or diagnostics developed using Zimbabwean data would be accessible to Zimbabweans.
3). A bilateral agreements that favored the partner with greater resources to commercialize the results and innovation.

An unfair deal saw Zimbabwe walk away from a U.S. Health Deal worth $367 million.
The U.S. sought:
1). Direct access to Zimbabwe's sensitive health data, including biological samples and epidemiological information from Zimbabwean citizens, over an extended period.

How Zimbabwe Walked Away from a $367 Million U.S. Health Deal — Global Health Unfiltered On February 25, 2026, the U.S. Embassy in Harare issued a terse, four-sentence statement confirming what Zimbabwean officials had already made clear weeks earlier: the United States would begin windin...

Following the dissolution of USAID what is emerging to replace it are exploitative one-sided deals proposing the exchange of aid dollars for sensitive health data, lack of reciprocal benefit and agreements that bypass multilateral frameworks.
www.globalhealthunfiltered.com/blog/jn2u6d5...

Denmark becomes first country in the European Union to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis The World Health Organization (WHO) has certified Denmark for the elimination of mother-to-child transmission (EMTCT) of HIV and syphilis, recognizing the country's sustained commitment to ensuring ev...

Denmark becomes first country in the European Union to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. This is testament to universal health access and a functioning public health system.
The US recorded 4000 cases of congenital syphilis in 2024.
www.who.int/news/item/27...