How a three-pill treatment could eliminate a centuries-old disease
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For decades, the treatment for sleeping sickness was nearly as dangerous as the illness itself. One widely used intravenous drug caused a burning sensation in the veins and killed roughly one in 20 patients who received it. The oral replacement that followed Read More...
The DNA database built to protect lions just helped convict the people who killed one
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM When conservation biologists fitted a male lion with a radio collar near Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, they were studying his movements. They drew blood, logged his health information, and stored his DNA profile in a database. They had no way of knowing Read More...
How paying people to protect a rainforest is rewriting colonial history on a tiny African island
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For centuries, the tiny West African island of Príncipe was a place where nature was exploited and people were brought in chains to work it. Today, the descendants of those laborers are being paid to protect it. The Faya Foundation, funded by South Read More...
In Africa, a novel and affordable meningitis vaccine shows promise
The Serum Institute of India and global health organization Path successfully tested a highly effective and affordable meningitis vaccine in Africa, in a ground-breaking development. The NmCV-5 vaccine has the ability to protect against the five primary meningococcal disease strains found in Read More...
Being human together
The African equivalent to Rene Descartes’s famous dictum, “I think, therefore I am,” which is the foundation of much modern Western culture, is called ubuntu and goes something like this: “We are, therefore I am.” Or: “I exist to the extent that others acknowledge and respect Read More...
Pufferfish-inspired houses help lake village adapt to sea-level rise
We decided to dust off this older article with an incredible solution to sea-level rise. Situated entirely on water, the lake village of Ganvie in Benin is often dubbed the “Venice of Africa”. And just like the historical Italian city, the village is increasingly threatened by sea-level Read More...
UN experts and analysts plan to reinvigorate the “Great Green Wall”
The African Great Green Wall is a titanic ambition to restore an 8,000 square kilometer expanse across the continent, from Djibouti in the East to Senegal in the West. In the face of increasing desertification from climate change, the initiative aims to restore 100 million hectares (386,000 square Read More...
Here’s why the world map you know is wrong
Most people lucky enough to receive an education will have seen the 2D printed projection of a map of the Earth. This image has allowed people everywhere to learn about our big wide world, all from one piece of paper. Though sorry to break it to you, these aren’t actually the true proportions of Read More...
Ancient humans wandered Ethiopia long before previously predicted
Out of Africa One of the most prevalent questions in the human psyche is “where did we come from?”. People have different evolutionary theories about the exact movements and locations of early Homo sapiens, though it is widely accepted that Africa was our species' birthplace. Numerous Read More...
Pandemic spurs surge in African medical tech
Tech innovations have helped improve food resilience in countries like Rwanda and Ethiopia, but a new study indicates that health tech is also expanding rapidly across Africa, spurred by the pandemic. More than 60 new and existing private firms now offer health products to consumers and medical Read More...