A “terrible third wave” of the COVID-19 pandemic is now hitting Africa in full force – with about 20 of the continent’s 54 countries experiencing particularly sharp rises in new infections, African Centers for Disease Control director, John Nkengasong told Health Policy Watch at a press briefing on Thursday. Per-capita rates of new SARS-CoV2 cases […] Continue reading ->
Patients who had liver transplants or those with advanced liver fibrosis may not be adequately protected against COVID-19 after two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, in light of the findings of a new study presented Wednesday on the opening day of the International Liver Congress(ILC) 2021. Presenting abstracts from the soon-to-be-released study on Wednesday, Dr […] Continue reading ->
KAMPALA – As Uganda battles its worst COVID-19 outbreak, the government has called on a researcher who is selling a herbal remedy to treat COVID-19 to provide clinical proof that it works. Professor Patrick Engeu Ogwang is a renowned researcher in herbal medicines, head of pharmacy at Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) and […] Continue reading ->
From Indonesia and the Seychelles, to Chile and China itself, there are some worrisome indications that the Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac COVID vaccines sold by the hundreds of millions to vaccine-strapped low- and middle-income countries may not be performing as well as expected – particularly against rapidly spreading variants of SARS-CoV-2. At the same time, […] Continue reading ->
The Indian Bar Association (IBA), a voluntary organisation, say it has served a second legal notice to WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan for allegedly “running a disinformation campaign against Ivermectin”, after WHO failed to recommend use of the anti-parasitic drug as a COVID-19 treatment – due to a lack of evidence of efficacy. The Mumbai-based […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Friday that the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa was expected to get worse, as 22 countries are facing surges and less than 1% of the continent’s population is vaccinated against the virus. “Cases have increased by 52% just in the past week, and deaths have increased by 32%, and […] Continue reading ->
Uganda is suffering an acute shortage of oxygen and intensive care beds as the country grapples with a deadly second wave of the pandemic that is being fuelled by five different virus variants. Regional referral hospitals and the country’s biggest hospital, Mulago National Referral Hospital, have run out of oxygen or have reported acute shortages, […] Continue reading ->
Tanzania, which for months denied the existence of COVID-19 until vaccine-sceptic President John Magufuli finally succumbed to the virus in March – is now trying to belatedly join the WHO co-sponsored COVAX facility to acquire COVID vaccines. The news comes as the African continent experiences a deadly third wave of COVID-19 infections – affecting eastern […] Continue reading ->
Despite the global decline in COVID-19 cases by 12% over the last week, countries in Central and South America continue to be epicenters of pandemic, with high mortality rates and insufficient access to vaccines. Over 1.1 million new COVID-19 cases and 31,000 deaths were reported in the Americas over the last week, officials from the […] Continue reading ->
Twenty-two African countries are experiencing a surge in COVID-19 infections, yet the vaccination rollouts on the continent have ground to a halt because of lack of supply. African vaccination figures, as recorded by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are dismal. Apart from the tiny island state of Seychelles, only Morocco’s vaccination rate […] Continue reading ->