Hepatitis E, a potentially serious viral liver disease, is transmitted through contaminated water. The risk is particularly high in populations with limited access to safe water and sanitation. In South Sudan, outbreaks have regularly ravaged camps for internally displaced persons and their host populations. Although a vaccine has been available since 2011, its 3-dose regimen makes it difficult to administer in such a context. A team from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), MSF Epicentre, Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the South Sudanese Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) conducted clinical and lab studies after a vaccination campaign to assess its effectiveness in protecting individuals and helping to control the epidemic. Their results showed that the vaccine was effective with just the first two doses. These results can be read in the Lancet Infectious Diseases.

In order to recover valuable substances from CO2, it must be reduced in many individual steps. If electrocatalysis is used for this, many potentially different potential molecules are formed, which cannot necessarily be used. Biocatalysts, on the other hand, are selective and only produce one product – but they are also very sensitive. An international research team led by Professor Wolfgang Schuhmann from the Center for Electrochemistry at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany, and Dr. Felipe Conzuelo from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal, has developed a hybrid catalysis cascade that makes use of the advantages of both processes. The researchers report in the journal “Angewandte Chemie Interational Edition” from December 23, 2024.