World News

Ancient African epidemics I Vaccine supplies

Posted by: The Conversation Global

Date: Friday, 15 May 2020

 

Editor's note

Pandemics are nothing new: every few centuries a disease or virus emerges that irrevocably changes the world. That means the remnants of ancient societies can show us how people long ago coped with pandemics. Shadreck Chirikure explores some examples from the African continent.

There are now more than 100 candidate vaccines under development, eight of which have made it into clinical trials in humans. Lots of money and effort is being piled into these studies, but finding a vaccine that works is only half the battle. Making enough of it to immunise hundreds of millions – if not billions – of people is the other half. Qasim Rafiq and Martina Micheletti explain how that might be done.

Natasha Joseph

Assistant Editor: News and Research and Science & Technology Editor

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Studying ancient African societies, like Great Zimbabwe, can reveal how communities dealt with disease and pandemics. Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

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RGtimeline/Shutterstock

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