In the midst of the tragedy and turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is gratifying to see work continuing in Africa to find new ways of fighting malaria, a very old disease that has been a formidable foe for thousands of years and still kills 400,000 people every year, most of them African children […] Continue reading ->
With more COVID-19 cases reported in the first half of 2021 than in the whole of 2020, despite high vaccination rates in some countries, the WHO-led Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-Accelerator) has mounted a US $11.5 billion appeal to stem the surge of dangerous variants and save lives. Called the Rapid ACT-Accelerator Delta Response […] Continue reading ->
The Ivory Coast has confirmed this Sunday its first case of Ebola since 1994 – in a case that was apparently imported from Guinea. That is despite the fact that Guinea’s outbreak was formally declared as over by WHO in June – reflecting the way the deadly virus can lie dormant in some individuals, only […] Continue reading ->
The Kenyan government’s decision to compel its workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 has received the support of Dr John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa Centre for Disease Control (CDC). “I support policies that get citizens of Africa to go out there and get vaccinated whenever they have an opportunity to have access to vaccines. […] Continue reading ->
Tanzania has finally started to administer COVID-19 vaccinations, amid a 16-fold increase in vaccine deliveries to Africa in this week alone in comparison to the whole of June. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu publicly received the vaccine on Wednesday, a sharp contrast to her predecessor, John Magufuli, who died in March after months of denying the […] Continue reading ->
IBADAN – Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, has officially exhausted all the doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine it received in March from COVAX, according to Dr Faisal Shuaib, CEO of Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA). Twenty-one African countries have seen COVID-19 cases rise by over 20% for at least two weeks running, […] Continue reading ->
Children living with HIV in six African countries will soon get access to the antiretroviral (ARV) drug, dolutegravir (DTG), which is more effective, easier to take and has fewer side effects than many other ARVs. DTG will soon be recommended for children in Uganda, Benin, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, Kenyan AIDS activist Jacque Wambui […] Continue reading ->
KHARTOUM – A telemedicine programme is helping Sudanese medical students to both treat community members with mild COVID-19 in their homes and educate their communities about the pandemic. Many medical students, who have been sitting at home since medical schools were closed last year due to the pandemic, joined the community medical response teams (CMRT) […] Continue reading ->
Burkina Faso, Djibouti, and Ethiopia will be the first African countries to benefit from the US donation of COVID-19 vaccines, with a million doses expected “in the coming days” as part of the US pledge to provide 25 million vaccines to the continent, US officials and the global vaccine alliance, Gavi, said on Friday. This […] Continue reading ->
Africa experienced a 43% week-on-week increase in COVID-19 deaths, as the Delta variant accelerated infections for the eighth week in a row, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported at its weekly Africa press briefing. Hospital admissions increase rapidly and countries face shortages in oxygen and intensive care beds, as the Africa hit six million cumulative […] Continue reading ->