HEALTH - The African Mirror

Sep

17

2021

How will the COVID pandemic end?

COVID-19

AFTER over 18 months of this pandemic, with the social distancing, mask-wearing and on-off lockdowns, what we all want to know more than anything else is when it will all be over and how it will end. While nothing is certain, we have a lot of evidence on which to build some realistic expectations about how the pandemic will progress over the next year or so. PAUL HUNTER, Professor of Medicine, University of East Anglia COVID-19 may not be the first time a coronavirus has caused a dreadful global pandemic. It’s been hypothesised that the “Russian flu”, which emerged in…

Jan

30

2021

By The African Mirror

Kenya aims to vaccinate 16 million people by June 2022

COVID-19

DUNCAN MIRIRI KENYA is seeking an extra 11 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, on top of 24 million already ordered, and hopes to have 16 million people inoculated by June next year. Sourced from major pharmaceutical manufacturers like Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, the extra doses will be acquired through the African Union's disease control and prevention body. The country will obtain supplies from manufacturers directly if needed, it said. The East African nation of more than 50 million people aims to vaccinate 1.25 million in phase one of the campaign by June this year, senior health ministry official Mercy…

Jan

30

2021

By The African Mirror

Division on vaccine funding model

COVID-19

EMMA RUMNEY AND ALEXANDER WINNING DAYS before coronavirus vaccinations start in South Africa, medical schemes have still not agreed how and to what extent they will contribute to the cost of inoculations for people without insurance cover, industry executives have told Reuters. South Africa is expecting its first 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to land on Monday and will start immunising health workers from mid-February. The country has been the hardest-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic on the continent, with more than 1.4 million cases and over 43,000 deaths to date. A top medical scheme administrator, Discovery Health ,…

Jan

30

2021

By The African Mirror

J&J vaccine adds to COVID-19 armoury

COVID-19

JULIE STEENHUYSEN JOHNSON & JOHNSON says its single-dose vaccine was 66% effective in preventing COVID-19 in a large global trial against multiple variants, giving health officials another weapon to tackle the pandemic. In the trial of nearly 44,000 volunteers, the level of protection against moderate and severe COVID-19 varied from 72% in the United States, to 66% in Latin America and just 57% in South Africa, from where a worrying variant has spread. The data showed that the vaccine's effect on the South Africa variant was diminished compared to the unaltered virus, but infectious disease and public health experts said…

Jan

30

2021

By The African Mirror

Guinea approves Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine

COVID-19

Guinea has approved the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine for domestic use, becoming the second African country to do so, health authorities and Russia's sovereign wealth fund said on Friday. The West African country's approval of the vaccine for use for one year occurred two weeks after President Alpha Conde was seen receiving it on television under a trial run of what is expected to be a much large delivery of vials from Russia. Guinea is negotiating a bilateral deal to take an additional 2 million doses, a senior government official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Russia's vaccine diplomacy…

Jan

30

2021

By The African Mirror

WHO says vaccine hoarding ‘keeps pandemic burning’

COVID-19

RICH countries squabbling over COVID-19 vaccine supplies must consider the situation in poorer parts of the world, the World Health Organization has said, warning that hoarding of shots "keeps the pandemic burning". WHO officials were speaking after the European Commission said it had agreed a plan to control exports of vaccines from the European Union, including to Britain, arguing it needed to do so to ensure its own supplies. The EU, whose member states are far behind Israel, Britain and the United States in rolling out vaccines, is scrambling to get supplies just as the West's biggest drugmakers slow deliveries…

Jan

30

2021

By The African Mirror

Pioneering AIDS researcher and doctor Joseph Sonnabend, 1933-2021

HEALTH

HUGO GREENHALGH PIONEERING AIDS researcher Joseph Sonnabend, one of the first doctors to warn of the emergence of a new virus in the late 1970s, has died at the age of 88 in a London hospital. Sonnabend first noticed the rise in the number of similar illnesses among his gay male patients at a private sexual health clinic he had founded in Greenwich Village in downtown New York. But his warning in 1979 went unheeded. "I wrote to the city health department, asking, 'Are people reporting this? Am I the only one seeing this? Is there something going in the…

Jan

29

2021

By The African Mirror

Jumping the COVID-19 vaccine line: Where it’s happening and what’s being done to stop it

COVID-19

LIN TAYLOR THE millionaire couple travelled to a remote Canadian community to receive a coronavirus vaccine meant for vulnerable Indigenous people. The Austrian major got a jab at a care home that had been prioritised for medical staff. The army general received the COVID-19 vaccine ahead of priority groups in Spain. As cases of politicians and well-connected opportunists jumping the queue in national coronavirus vaccination campaign come to light, public outrage is growing. Fines and high-profile dismissals have not deterred some of the world's most privileged from gaming the system: securing, often through nefarious means, coveted vaccines seen as golden…

Jan

29

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa’s mining industry prepares for $20 mln COVID-19 vaccine rollout effort

COVID-19

TANISHA HEIBERG and HELEN REID SOUTH Africa's mining industry estimates it will cost around 300 million rand ($20 million) to help the government roll out COVID-19 vaccines to mineworkers and community members as the country battles a surge in infections, the industry body has told Reuters.: The Minerals Council, which represents mining firms, offered its financial and logistical assistance after the government called on the private sector to help with the rollout of vaccines, the first of which are set to arrive on Monday. Mining is a key driver of the country's economy, contributing 9% of GDP, and mineworkers are…

Jan

29

2021

By The African Mirror

U.S. finds first cases of new variant, in South Carolina

COVID-19

JULIE STEENHUYSEN THE United States has found its first cases of a potent coronavirus variant first detected in South Africa, health officials in the state of South Carolina said on Thursday. Viruses mutate frequently, and several mutated viruses have been identified. The presence of the South African variant in the United States is especially concerning because several laboratory studies have shown that it reduces vaccine effectiveness. Another concern, according to the nominee for U.S. surgeon general, is that the South African variant could require larger doses of an antibody for treatment. "The thing that's troublesome now that we really need…