The 25th anniversary meeting of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation in the Kyrgyz capital may offer a glimmer of hope that international relations do not need to be defined by endless confrontation, writes KENNY COYLE
DISEASES come in many guises. Before late 2019, there had never been a single case of Covid-19 and SARS-CoV-2 was an unknown virus. Now, less than a year and a half later, there have been millions of cases. In contrast, a disease like malaria has been with humans ever since we emerged as a species.
An early species of Plasmodium, the parasite which causes malaria, was found in mosquitoes that had been preserved in amber for nearly 30 million years. Yet this is no guide to a disease’s impact. During 2020, more people on the continent of Africa died of malaria than Covid-19.
While it took less than a year to develop a vaccine for Covid-19, a vaccine for malaria has proven near-impossible. However, that may be about to change.
As thousands die in the eastern DRC, a global health emergency is being starved of funds, says S KRISHNASWAMY
Poverty, refugee displacement, child labour and militia violence are exacerbating the challenge of health workers to limit this deadly contagious disease. CONSTANT SAME BAGALWA and MARK BANCHEREAU report
New research into mutations in sperm helps us better understand why they occur, while debunking a few myths in the process, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT



