One of the unquantified side effects (or health impacts) of the pandemic has been in a place few people cared to look very deeply – that is our mouths. For significant parts of the past year, dentists’ chairs in many offices around the world sat empty – as COVID-19 disrupted routine dental treatments. During the early […] Continue reading ->
IBADAN – African countries are hosting a large conference in April to discuss the local production of vaccines, as key players in Africa’s public health sector try to address the continent’s vaccine shortages. Circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine production and distribution had necessitated this conversation, William Kwabena Ampofo, Chairperson of African Vaccine Manufacturing Initiative, said […] Continue reading ->
KAMPALA – On 12 March, Samson Wamani, a doctor at Mukono General Hospital, received his COVID-19 vaccine under a tent placed outside the hospital as Uganda implements its plan to vaccinate half the population in the next year. As the government already had a database of its health workers registered, all Wamani had to do […] Continue reading ->
Previous infection with COVID-19 protects most people against reinfection for over six months, but those over the age of 65 are more likely to get infected again, found a peer reviewed study published in The Lancet. In the world’s first large-scale study of COVID-19 reinfections, researchers from Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom discovered that […] Continue reading ->
Papua New Guinea (PNG), a country that has largely avoided the SARS-CoV2 virus, is now facing an outbreak that could cause the country’s health system to collapse, while Australia is being chided by a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) official for its opposition to a World Trade Organization (WTO) patent waiver that MSF says would have opened […] Continue reading ->
In just one year, COVID-19 has undone more than a decade’s progress in the fight against tuberculosis (TB), health experts said on Thursday. While COVID-19 fatality numbers are decreasing worldwide, TB-related deaths remain steady at 4000 cases a day – an occurrence experts partly attribute to limited access to TB treatment services during COVID lockdown […] Continue reading ->
COVID-19 has presented new risks to the African continent, with already limited financial resources needed to respond to climate hazards and natural disasters now being diverted to fight the pandemic. The pandemic has made it all the more challenging to ensure there is adequate disaster financing on the continent, and this now needs urgent attention, […] Continue reading ->
JOHANNESBURG –The death of Tanzanian President and COVID-19 skeptic John Magufuli has drawn decidedly mixed emotions – as tributes poured in from both average Tanzanians, as well as other African heads of state and world leaders. But Tanzanian opposition forces said that the president’s mysterious death was a chance for a reboot on both Tanzania’s […] Continue reading ->
The European Medicines Agency’s safety committee (PRAC) on Thursday gave a resounding endorsement of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19, concluding that the vaccine’s benefits vaccine “far outweigh” any risks – despite a possible link between some vaccinations and rare cases of blood clotting associated with low levels of blood platelets. The EMA statement followed two […] Continue reading ->
The unexpected – and unexplained – dissolution of India’s brand-new Commission on Air Quality Management (CAQM), established by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the peak of North India’s air pollution crisis five months ago has taken air pollution scientists and clean air advocates by surprise. Members of the commission were also taken aback, learning of […] Continue reading ->