World news at a glance: Vaccine ‘patch’ trial shows promise, reducing risk of catheter infection, Guantanamo detainee facing revictimization

But now, there could be an easier alternative in the form of stickers that can simply be applied to the skin, like a plaster.

Early data from a vaccine trial in Gambia showed promising indications that it could be effective in protecting children against measles.

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) has been helping to develop these vaccine microarray patches – or MAPS – as they are known, for several years now.

Birgitte Giersing, team leader at the WHO’s Vaccine Product Research and Distribution Unit, said the patches could be a major breakthrough in protecting vulnerable populations against preventable diseases.

Innovative potential

“These are potentially innovative vaccine delivery technologies that could really contribute to increasing coverage of life-saving vaccines like measles and rubella… especially in resource-poor settings,” she told journalists in Geneva.

“And this is because they can be administered more easily than vaccines that need to be injected, especially in outbreaks or humanitarian emergencies.”

Dr. Giersing explained that the patches can be especially useful in combating measles and rubella. Vaccines for both diseases have been available for decades, but coverage levels have fallen during the COVID-19 pandemic and there are now many millions of susceptible children in many countries.

“People may be more willing to get vaccinated with a patch than with a needle, so there really is an acceptability advantage” to patches, Dr. Giersing said.

First guidelines to reduce infection rates due to catheters published

In more health news, the WHO on Thursday published the first global guidelines to prevent bloodstream and other infections caused by the use of catheters placed in smaller blood vessels while patients undergo minor procedures.

Inadequate practices in the routine use of catheters – how they are inserted and removed in the arm, for example – can lead to a high risk of infections entering the system through the blood.

Serious consequences

This can lead to serious conditions such as sepsis and difficult-to-treat complications in important organs such as the brain and kidneys, the WHO said.

Soft tissue infections can also occur at the catheter insertion site.

People receiving treatments through catheters are often particularly vulnerable to infections as they may be seriously ill or have low immunity.

The WHO estimates that between 2000 and 2018, the average mortality among patients affected by healthcare-associated sepsis was 24.4 percent, increasing to 52.3 percent among patients treated in intensive care units.

“Healthcare-associated infections represent a preventable tragedy and a serious threat to the quality and safety of healthcare,” said Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO Deputy Director-General.

“Implementing clean care and infection prevention and control recommendations is critical to saving lives and alleviating much of the preventable suffering experienced by people around the world.”

The new guidelines include 14 statements of good practice and 23 recommendations on key areas for healthcare professionals, including improved education and training for healthcare professionals.

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee faces revictimization in Algeria: human rights experts

A former Guantanamo Bay prisoner now facing terrorism charges in Algeria should have the case against him dropped because he has no chance of a fair trial, independent human rights experts said Thursday.

Saeed Bakhouche was transferred from the US detention center to Algeria in April 2023 under assurances that he would be treated humanely.

But he was immediately detained in Algeria, “detained incommunicado… threatened with interrogation and denied legal representation”.

In the dock

He is expected to stand trial later this month, said the human rights experts, who report to the Human Rights Council, receive no salary and are completely independent of any government or organization.

In a statement, the human rights experts, who include Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur for combating terrorism, said Bakhouche spent more than 20 years in the notorious US military prison in Cuba, which was opened to detain suspected terrorists after the attacks. of September 11th. .

Bakhouche was tortured at Guantánamo and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, noted the experts, who warned that he “could not receive a fair and public trial in a national security case” in Algeria.

Among their other concerns, rights experts highlighted the “overly broad definition of terrorism crimes” in Algeria and the threat that Mr. Bakhouche would be detained in prisons “with documented risks of torture.”