Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved two gene therapy procedures that can treat and, in some cases, essentially cure sickle cell disease. This genetic blood disorder causes pain and anaemia in millions and still kills nearly 375,000 people worldwide every year. But the groundbreaking treatments require risky chemotherapy and cost some $2 […]
“Me first”—that’s how Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization (WHO), described the wealthy world’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic when he kicked off negotiations for a global “pandemic treaty” in December 2021. Even before vaccines had proved safe and effective, rich countries had purchased enough doses to cover their entire population several
In a world first, U.K. regulators have approved a therapy that uses CRISPR, the Nobel Prize–winning gene-editing tool invented in 2012. The treatment has been shown to help people with beta thalassemia and sickle cell disease, both inherited blood disorders that involve defects in the oxygen-carrying protein haemoglobin. It relies on removing blood stem cells
UK approves CRISPR gene therapy for SCD; The latest health stories from around the world Read More »
In a major analysis in Africa, the first vaccine approved to fight malaria cut deaths among young children by 13% over nearly 4 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported last week. Data from a pilot rollout of the vaccine, called RTS,S or Mosquirix and made by GSK, also showed a 22% reduction in severe
Sickle cell disease (SCD) remains a cause for concern in India, with figures placing the country as having the second highest burden in the world after Nigeria. Following World Sickle Cell Disease Day 2022, observed on the 19th June, awareness campaigns took place on an international level. “There is an urgent need to notify sickle
India may have the second highest SCD burden in the world Read More »