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Sputnik V became world’s first COVID vaccine with proven efficacy for people living with HIV, a new study showed. The study has been published by The Lancet.  The data presented are the first scientific results on the preventive efficacy of a COVID vaccine to protect against infection in people living with HIV (PLWH). Based on data from more than 24,000 HIV+ patients in Moscow on antiretroviral therapy (ART), Sputnik V’s efficacy was 79%. (3/28)

It is still not clear what impact the sanctions are having on the supply and demand of Sputnik V. There is an exemption for coronavirus-related supplies in the U.S. sanctions on Russia. But even during a pandemic, sanctions are often a messy business — as Iran and Cuba found out earlier during the health emergency. And Andrea Taylor, a researcher at Duke University who tracks global vaccine supply, said that even before the sanctions, data about Sputnik V was spotty and unreliable. (Taylor, 3/29)

Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine has forced the staff to transform Kyiv’s largest hospital, Clinical Hospital #8, into a battleground medical facility, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. Dermatologists and cardiologists now assist with triaging wounded patients arriving from artillery and rocket barrages as the hospital sits within 10 miles of the battleground, the paper noted. The staff are numb to the air raid sirens because they are so frequent to take seriously anymore, and don’t wear face masks because of the constant background noise of fighting as they try to talk to communicate, per the Journal. (Sudhakar, 3/28)

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and at least two senior Ukrainian peacekeepers suffered symptoms from a suspected poisoning attack but have since recovered, according to a report published Monday. Following a meeting in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv earlier this month, Abramovich and the two senior members of the Ukrainian peacekeeping team, including Crimean Tatar lawmaker Rustem Umerov and a second unnamed individual, began experiencing symptoms that included red eyes, constant and painful tearing, and peeling skin on their faces and hands, The Wall Street Journal reported. (Wallace, 3/28)

Moderna Inc.’s coronavirus vaccine will be offered as a booster to some South African health workers, who received either one or two shots of Johnson & Johnson’s inoculation as part of a vaccine trial involving almost half a million people. The Moderna shot will be offered to 10,000 health workers in a trial known as Sherpa that is likely to start in the second half of April, Glenda Gray, the co-lead of J&J’s vaccine trials in South Africa and president of the South African Medical Research Council. (Sguazzin, 3/28)

After racing to build capacity and meet once seemingly insatiable orders for Covid-19 shots, the global vaccine industry is facing waning demand as many late-to-market producers fight over a slowing market. The trend is poised to rein in the blockbuster sales that global pharmaceutical giants from Pfizer Inc. to AstraZeneca Plc saw at the peak of the pandemic. It also stands to create new problems for local manufacturers from India to Indonesia that built mammoth capacity to make shots but are now grappling with excess supply. (Kay and Kaur Makol, 3/28)

Hong Kong’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak has cost about 6,000 lives this year – and the city is now running out of coffins. ... To answer the shortage of them due to the COVID-19 toll, some companies are offering alternatives such as an environmentally friendly cardboard coffin. LifeArt Asia has cardboard coffins made of recycled wood fiber that can be customized with designs on the exterior. In its factory in Aberdeen, a southern district of Hong Kong, up to 50 coffins can be produced a day. (Fung and Lo, 3/29)

For 17-year-old Salek Haseer, video games are an escape. They’re a way, however fleeting, to put a pause on his thoughts — about fleeing Afghanistan last August, about leaving his father behind and about his new home. “It’s not like I like to play the games,” Haseer said. “I play to remove my feelings.” Since resettling in Virginia with his three siblings and mother, Haseer has struggled with the overwhelming emotional toll the past year has taken. Grieving separation from his father — who was unable to leave with his family — he started seeing a psychologist at his school. (Deng and Huh, 3/29)