Cholera vaccines run low: Here's the health news you need to know this week

Earlier this month the first doses of the three candidate vaccines against the Sudan ebolavirus arrived in Uganda. They're set to be evaluated as part of a clinical trial.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that the swift arrival of these vaccine candidates is a "historical milestone in the global capacity to respond to outbreaks", coming just 79 days after the outbreak was declared. A previous trial in Guinea had taken seven months from outbreak declaration to vaccine arrival.

There are currently no vaccines licenced for use against the Sudan ebolavirus.

“Uganda is showing that life-saving research can be promptly organized in the midst of an outbreak,” said Dr Jane Ruth Aceng Acero, Uganda’s Minister of Health. “We will continue to fight the outbreak using the effective tools we already have, which are rapid surveillance to find cases, contact tracing teams identifying those who have been exposed, health workers providing care to those who are sick with the virus, and engaging the community throughout the response, but having a vaccine for this and future outbreaks is important.”

The global stockpile of cholera vaccines that the World Health Organization helps to manage is "currently empty or extremely low", a WHO official said on Friday.

The UN health agency says global fatality rates are rising and there are around 30 countries around the world that have reported cholera outbreaks this year, about a third higher than in a typical year.

"We have no more vaccines. More countries are continuing to request (them) and it's extremely challenging," said Dr Philippe Barboza, WHO Team Lead for Cholera and Epidemic Diarrhoeal Diseases.

He was referring to an emergency stockpile held by the International Coordinating Group on vaccine provision that is managed by the WHO and other partners. Typically, it has about 36 million doses available a year. The shortage of vaccines has already prompted the WHO to temporarily suspend the standard two-dose vaccination strategy in October.

Researchers have restored vision to 14 participants in a trial of bioengineered corneal tissue. Those behind the work hope it could provide an alternative to donor cornea transplantation.

The US government has announced plans to invest billions in Africa, including in health - for example on programmes to tackle malaria, to support family planning as well as tackling the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Health Organization has appointed Jeremy Farrar as its new chief scientist, joining the WHO in the second quarter of next year.

Public school students in Philadelphia will have to wear face coverings at school for 10 days after their winter break, officials said, as communities around the country contend with another surge of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses.

China has reported its first COVID-19-related deaths in weeks, with two deaths on 19 December the first to be reported since 3 December.

Switzerland will offer COVID-19 vaccinations for free again next year, the government announced on 16 December. It will also provide up to 13 million doses of excess shots to other countries.

COVID-19 remained Spain's leading cause of death in 2022, according to new data released on 19 December.

A severe cold and flu season in the United States and other parts of the world is leading to some shortages of cold and flu medication as well as antibiotics.

Can the world deliver on universal healthcare by 2030? A new report looks at data from 139 countries.

The latest World Malaria Report looks at the global impact of the disease in 2021. An estimated 619,000 people died from the disease last year, according to the report.

In an interview with the World Economic Forum, Dr Arvind Kumar, of the Lung Care Foundation, explores the impact of air pollution on our bodies.