HEALTH - The African Mirror

Jan

22

2021

South Africa to pay $5.25 a dose

COVID-19

ALEXANDER WINNING SOUTH Africa will pay $5.25 per dose for 1.5 million shots of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine from the Serum Institute of India (SII), a senior official said yesterday, more than some wealthier countries are paying. Health department Deputy Director-General Anban Pillay told Reuters that SII's price was based on South Africa's status as an upper-middle-income country under a World Bank classification. The price is higher than the $3 a dose that South Africa and other countries on the continent are due to pay for the same vaccine under an African Union (AU) arrangement, and the 2.5 euros ($3.03) per…

Jan

22

2021

By The African Mirror

U.S. stays in the World Health Organisation

COVID-19

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY THE United States under President Joe Biden intends to join the COVAX vaccine facility that aims to deliver coronavirus vaccines to poor countries, his chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, has told the World Health Organization (WHO). Fauci, speaking to the WHO executive board, confirmed that the United States would remain a member of the U.N. agency and said it would work multilaterally on issues from the COVID-19 pandemic to HIV/AIDS. "This is a good day for WHO and a good day for global health," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "WHO is a family of nations and we…

Sep

07

2021

By The African Mirror

Many East Africans miss out on disease diagnosis. What must be done about it

HEALTH

EARLY diagnosis is crucial for the effective management of any disease. In Africa, this isn’t always possible which affects the ability of countries to bring diseases under control. WILBER SABIITI, Senior Research Fellow in Medicine, University of St Andrews My colleagues and I conducted research into the barriers to diagnosis for tuberculosis (TB) in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. We also wanted to identify what opportunities there were to maximise the use of diagnostics in healthcare settings. We found that, in all three countries, the uptake of diagnostics was highest – over 90% – at large referral hospitals in major municipalities…

Jan

22

2021

By The African Mirror

Vaccine production in South Africa: how an industry in its infancy can be developed

HEALTH

THE issue of vaccine production has become a topic of hot debate following the approval of treatments for COVID-19. In South Africa, angry exchanges have been spurred by the country’s lagging access to COVID-19 vaccines. JEFFREY DORFMAN, Associate Professor in Medical Virology, Stellenbosch University FRANK KIRSTEIN, Honorary Research Associate / Lecturer; Division of Immunology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town Generally, vaccines are produced by private companies who sell the vaccine under contracts. In some cases, producers will make provisions for access in particular markets. This is sometimes as a condition for receiving early development funding or for…

Jan

21

2021

By The African Mirror

New variant may reduce vaccine efficacy

COVID-19

THE new COVID-19 variant identified in South Africa can evade the antibodies that attack it in treatments using blood plasma from previously recovered patients and may reduce the efficacy of the current line of vaccines, scientists have said. Researchers are racing to establish whether the vaccines currently being rolled out across the globe are effective against the so-called 501Y.V2 variant, identified by South African genomics experts late last year in Nelson Mandela Bay. "This lineage exhibits complete escape from three classes of therapeutically relevant monoclonal antibodies," the team of scientists from three South African universities working with the National Institute…

Jan

21

2021

By The African Mirror

Ivory Coast’s vaccine delivery delayed

COVID-19

IVORY Coast's government said it will receive a first batch of around 100,000 doses of the Pfizer BioNTech coronavirus vaccine in mid-February, around two weeks later than initially planned, due to delays in availability of the shots. Government spokesman Sidi Tiemoko Toure said on Wednesday the country plans to roll out its inoculation programme in the first quarter and would authorise vaccines from AstraZeneca , China's Sinopharm and Russia this week. While richer nations have secured and launched mass vaccination campaigns, countries in Africa are still scrambling to secure supplies as most grapple with a second wave of infections. "The…

Jan

21

2021

By The African Mirror

How Kenyan slum dwellers battle COVID-19 downturn

COVID-19

KAGONDU NJAGI SITTING on a low bench at her shop in a Nairobi slum, Grace Wangari sifted through a handful of grains that a waiting customer had just ordered. As she poured them into a shopping bag, the customer scrolled through her phone to pay for the purchase. Normally, Wangari would have been paid in shilling notes, Kenya's hard currency, but in some ways she preferred the digital payment that was instantly transferred to her phone. "I am happy with this transaction because there is no risk of losing my stock to conmen or people who have come to take…

Jan

21

2021

By The African Mirror

Algerian president undergoes foot surgery

COVID-19

ALGERIAN President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has successfully undergone surgery on his foot to address complications resulting from a coronavirus infection, the presidency said. The surgery, details of which were not specified, was carried out in Germany, where he had spent more than two months for treatment of COVID-19, returning home in December. Elected in December 2019, Tebboune, 75, has promised political and economic reforms following mass protests that forced his predecessor Abdelaziz Bouteflika to resign after two decades in power.

Sep

05

2021

By The African Mirror

Ex-UK PM Brown accuses West of ‘moral outrage’ over COVID vaccine stockpiling

COVID-19

FORMER British prime minister Gordon Brown accused rich countries of committing a "moral outrage" by stockpiling COVID-19 doses while poor countries are struggling to get supplies. Brown, who is a United Nations special envoy, called on U.S. President Joe Biden and other Group of Seven leaders to urgently ship vaccines from warehouses in America and Europe to Africa. Western countries are hoarding nearly 300 million shots while only 70 million people in Africa have so far been vaccinated, Brown said in an opinion piece published in the Sunday Mirror newspaper, citing research by data firm Airfinity. By Christmas, the West…

Sep

05

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID-19 vaccines produce T-cell immunity that lasts and works against virus variants

COVID-19

OVER the past year or so, ordinary people have learnt a lot about viruses, vaccines and the immune system. We have all had to digest a lot of complex specialist knowledge about how safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines are. DEWALD SCHOEMAN, PhD Candidate, Molecular Biology and Virology, University of the Western Cape BURTRAM C. FIELDING, Professor and Director: Research Development, University of the Western Cape But one important – and positive – aspect of the vaccines hasn’t been well communicated. The statistics about COVID-19 vaccine efficacy have only focused on one aspect of immunity: antibodies. But there’s another aspect too:…