The Middle East and North Africa region has documented the largest increase in HIV infections, rising by 31 per cent in the past two decades, a report from pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said.
Referring to figures collated by Unaids, the report — titled The Forgotten Millions: Mapping Immunocompromised Patients in the Middle East and North Africa — said 180,000 people in the region were living with HIV/Aids last year.
“The Mena region is one of a few global regions seeing a rapid increase in HIV infections, with a 31 per cent increase since 2001,” the report said.
"In fact, it has seen the highest documented increase compared to all regions in the world in this period."
It also found that diabetes and cancer account for as much as a third of the current disease burden in the Middle East and North Africa.
The report, the first of its kind, mapped people living with compromised immune systems — who are at a higher risk of developing complications from Covid-19 — in the region.
“There is a lack of comprehensive data on these populations in the Middle East and North Africa region, where incidence of some of these conditions might be much higher than the global average,” Dr Viraj Rajadhyaksha, AstraZeneca area medical director for the Middle East and Africa, told a webinar launching the report.
He said the report advocated strategies that protected high-risk people during the Covid-19 pandemic and would continue to do so.
“These strategies would include supporting governments to collect more data on vulnerable groups, involving people and populations and communities in the Middle East and North Africa region in more studies to maximise the availability of real-world evidence, and updating our regional and local guidance so that healthcare workers present patients with a clear set of options,” said Dr Rajadhyaksha.
He said the immune systems of high-risk patients had less capability of fighting off infections.
"They might be unable to respond as effectively to vaccines, leaving them often vulnerable to severe disease," he added.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, high-risk people had to take increased safety measures to protect themselves from the virus — including stricter forms of self-isolation.
"We need to focus on people living with these conditions, non communicable diseases ... the Mena region has very high and growing rates of non-communicable disease and chronic conditions," said Dr Ibtihal Fadhil, president and founder of the Eastern Mediterranean Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance.
The report said more than a million people were living with cancer — the fourth-biggest killer — with bladder, colorectal, liver and lung the most common.
“Countries in the region show a disturbing rise in the number of cancer patients, with long-term projections of a nearly two-fold increase cancer incidence by 2030,” the report said.
“As a result, Mena is also projected to experience a significant increase in cancer deaths in the coming decades.”
About 8.1 per cent of the region's population — more than 70 million people — have diabetes, the highest proportion in the world.
The highest rates for the disease were in Kuwait (24.9 per cent of the population), Egypt (20.9 per cent) and Qatar (19.5 per cent).
Those with weak immune systems were heavily affected during the Covid-19 pandemic and researchers highlighted a lack of comprehensive data on the immunocompromised in Mena, “leaving millions of people across the region vulnerable and disrupting efforts to end the pandemic”.
The report points out that while Covid-19 is seemingly under control in most parts of the world, for those "who do not mount an optimal immune response to vaccination, the pandemic continues".
The writers urged policymakers to “accelerate the collection of centralised data on high-risk groups, including the creation of national registries, in order to better map the scale and spread of vulnerable population, prioritising those at highest risk”.
Married Malala
Malala Yousafzai is enjoying married life, her father said.
The 24-year-old married Pakistan cricket executive Asser Malik last year in a small ceremony in the UK.
Ziauddin Yousafzai told The National his daughter was ‘very happy’ with her husband.
PROFILE OF SWVL
Started: April 2017
Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport
Size: 450 employees
Investment: approximately $80 million
Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani
How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
The specs
Engine: 0.8-litre four cylinder
Power: 70bhp
Torque: 66Nm
Transmission: four-speed manual
Price: $1,075 new in 1967, now valued at $40,000
On sale: Models from 1966 to 1970
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What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Grubtech
Founders: Mohamed Al Fayed and Mohammed Hammedi
Launched: October 2019
Employees: 50
Financing stage: Seed round (raised $2 million)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EGrowdash%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJuly%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESean%20Trevaskis%20and%20Enver%20Sorkun%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%2C%20UAE%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ERestaurant%20technology%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%20so%20far%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24750%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFlat6Labs%2C%20Plus%20VC%2C%20Judah%20VC%2C%20TPN%20Investments%20and%20angel%20investors%2C%20including%20former%20Talabat%20chief%20executive%20Abdulhamid%20Alomar%2C%20and%20entrepreneur%20Zeid%20Husban%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
