Africa Science News

Over 2 000 international entomologists from leading universities, departments of agriculture, and science research organisations, are to meet in South Africa for a six day conference to confer on the advancement of entomology and the study of insects, as a contributor to modern science.

Kenyan scientists have asked for the establishment of a Chief Scientist Advisor to the government and the establishment of a science office at the National Assembly.

Coordinated HIV/TB efforts can make a difference, Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO’s Stop TB Department says.

The head of Pathology at the Cancer Unit at the Uganda’s Mulago Hospital, says 170 men out of every 100,000 and 171 women out of 100,000 in the country succumb to cancer annually.

The National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA) coordinator Mr Chris Molomo has indicated that the present and future challenge to Botswana remains HIV/AIDS, which has severely hit the economy of the country.

Tanzanian Director of Hospital Services in the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare Dr Zakaria Berege has challenged the health professionals to keep themselves abreast of current events and technological advances to prevent and reduce the burden of diseases.

Ugandan scientists have developed new cotton varieties to tame jassids, the notorious cotton pest which has been causing havoc in the 35 cotton growing districts.

Although mental illnesses are on the increase in the country, it is unlikely that in the foreseeable future Kenya will achieve desirable psychiatrist to population ratio as are found in the developed and emerging developed countries.

The risk of widespread famine that looms large in most districts in lower eastern province in Kenya now presents new challenge to the management of anti-retroviral programmes.

The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) and the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD) have announced a five-year research collaboration designed to yield new medicines for TB, including drug-resistant TB. The partnership is a milestone toward the development of faster TB drug regimens that treat all forms of TB, are easier for patients to complete, and can be used safely in patients with HIV/AIDS.

People in low-resource countries who are ill with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) will get a faster diagnosis -- in two days, not the standard two to three months -- and appropriate treatment.

The US is piloting a programme in Tanzania meant to help address the shortage of health workers in the country

The Kenya government has since independence recognized the importance of science and technology as an essential tool of socio-economic development and has consistently worked on ways of positioning the sector to be the driver of the national development.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, is to partner up with the Kenya government in a scheme aimed at boosting the number of female scientists in the country.

Botswana’s Minister of Communications, Science and Technology, Mrs Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi said the country is keen to see the development of young people into future engineers and technologists as there is the challenge of having an adequate technology literate workforce.

Livestock has for long been a major source of food for humanity the world over. But with increased debate on climate change, scientists are beginning to weigh cost-benefit of livestock to the debate as it is a major contributor of the dangerous greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

Trials of HIV prevention strategies in developing countries face multiple obstacles including political pressures, say scientists.