Genetically modified crops are a divisive issue and have been met with uneven uptake within Africa and across the globe, according to Matthew Schnurr, a fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study.

A growing elderly population in sub-Saharan Africa points to improved health care but presents a new quandary: coverage for elders. Regional life expectancy rose by 20 years since 1960, guaranteeing a growing elderly population requiring unique care. Rural clinics and…

The world holds an estimated 7.5 billion+ people today; by 2100, that number is expected to rise to 11 billion, with the fastest growth in Africa and Asia. In June, the UN will publish new projections.

The recent wave of genomics research has scientists flocking to Africa to collect data, and African scientists are angling to keep more of that data on home soil, and ensure it benefits Africans. Not many African institutions have the equipment to manage large genomic data…

Daily exposure to contaminated water, poor sanitation and parasites is not keeping allergies and asthma at bay in Africa, defying the "hygiene hypothesis" that exposure breeds immune response, found researchers at Egypt’s Ain Shams University. The limited data available…

Spreading from one Cambodian town, the rise of drug-resistant malaria strains has the world on high alert. For decades, the farms and villages around the town of Pailin have been the breeding grounds for drug-resistant malaria, first beating off chloroquine, then…

A below-the-radar opioid crisis is brewing in Africa as Tramadol pain pills flood the market. Tramadol offers a cheap and easily-accessible high similar to heroin. A key source of inexpensive pain relief in the developing world, the WHO has avoided regulating the drug.

Northern Kenya is drying out fast—and scientists warn that they see the “fingerprints of global warming,” writes Somini Sengupta.She wrote this haunting piece after visiting northern Kenya, where pastoralists recalled the droughts of the past—when rain eventually brought…

No African country is on course to meet the UN’s 2030 deadline for ending malnutrition, found a robust study that sheds new light onto variations within countries.

The European colonists’ fear of diseases like malaria left a lasting imprint on the design of African cities, such as the ‘Plateau’ districts of Brazzaville, Dakar and Abidjan.