Researchers in Uganda expected to find that people co-infected with malaria and COVID-19 would be more likely to experience negative health outcomes. They found the opposite.
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Two separate studies — the other was in Mali — presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene’s annual meeting last week found low levels of severe COVID-19 symptoms among people exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in areas with high malaria burdens, Sara Jerving reports.
That surprising result has led some scientists to hypothesize that malaria exposure could have a protective effect against COVID-19.
“We went into this project thinking we would see a higher rate of negative outcomes in people with a history of malaria infections because that’s what was seen in patients co-infected with malaria and Ebola,” writes Jane Achan, a co-author of the study.
“We were actually quite surprised to see the opposite — that malaria may have a protective effect.”
The next steps will include releasing more data and examining a larger population, as well as long COVID’s effects on people previously exposed to malaria.
Read: Research suggests malaria exposure could reduce COVID-19 severity
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Implausible deniability
The United Kingdom’s aid officials warned the government in March that the scale of its proposed cuts to foreign assistance funding would harm girls' education and gender equality, Will Worley reports. Throughout the cuts, the U.K. has maintained that girls' education is a priority for aid.
The Equalities Assessment was written by officials from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and obtained by the International Planned Parenthood Federation during a legal hearing.
It warned that the cuts — the majority of which have not yet been implemented — would “reduce services available to women
and girls who are subject to sexual violence, including sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment (SEAH), and our ability to progress safeguarding objectives and championing of a survivor-centred approach.”
Read: UK assessment predicted aid cuts would hurt gender equality programs
+ On Dec. 1, Pro subscribers can learn further about whether the aid cuts portend the end of the U.K.’s tenure as a development leader.
Mission accomplished
Global health and development organizations often talk about working themselves out of a job, but actual examples are few and far between. David Ainsworth has the story on two organizations based in the United States that have recently made the decision to step aside so that local organizations can take over.
Devex Pro: Two US organizations end work abroad in favor of local partners
If you missed my conversation with two USAID officials involved in Administrator Samantha Power’s plan to direct 25% of the agency’s funding to local partners, you can catch the recap and the recording here.
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Constructive criticism
“I don't think that there is an environment on the ground that allows criticism, or that there's pluralistic party development or the criteria that you would have in any textbook for a liberal democracy.”
— USAID Administrator Samantha Power, speaking about RwandaPower’s comments — in response to a question from my colleague Vince Chadwick — came after her meeting with counterparts at European Union development institutions in Brussels last Friday.
Read: Samantha Power says Rwanda lacks environment 'that allows criticism'
They also followed a major speech by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the Economic Community of West African States in Abuja, Nigeria. Blinken said it is “time to stop treating Africa as a subject of geopolitics — and start treating it as the major geopolitical player it has become.”
“I want to be clear – the United States doesn’t want to limit your partnerships with other countries. We want to make your partnerships with us even stronger. We don’t want to make you choose. We want to give you choices,” Blinken said.
While he never mentioned China specifically, Blinken’s rhetoric about not forcing African countries to choose between strategic rivals stood in stark contrast with that of former Trump administration officials who warned low-income countries that, “if you decide to work with China, it is bad.”
By 2100, 13 of the world’s 20 biggest urban areas will be in Africa, with Lagos, Nigeria set to become the world’s most populous city, according to this Washington Post visual analysis.
Be the change
Foundations are working differently now than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic began. A Center for Effective Philanthropy poll found that 62% of respondents said they’d sustained most or all of those changes into 2021, Stephanie Beasley reports, while just 3% said they’d kept no pandemic-era alterations.
Read: Foundations might scrap some practices adopted during the pandemic
In other news
The U.K. will host a three-day summit of G-7 and ASEAN foreign and development ministers in December in Liverpool, where they will discuss global health and human rights. [Reuters]
Two of the 17 missionaries held captive by a gang in Haiti have already been released. [Al Jazeera]
A United Nations Development Programme report raises alarm over the potential collapse of Afghanistan’s financial system — and urges the international community to take action to prevent it. [Nasdaq]
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About the author
Michael Igoe@AlterIgoe
Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master’s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.
