HEALTH - The African Mirror

Jul

31

2021

Hard-won gains at risk as Delta variant spreads- WHO

COVID-19

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY and MICHAEL SHIELDS THE world is at risk of losing hard-won gains in fighting COVID-19 as the highly transmissible Delta variant spreads, but WHO-approved vaccines remain effective, the World Health Organization has warned. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has described the Delta variant of the coronavirus as being as transmissible as chickenpox and cautioned it could cause severe disease, the Washington Post said, citing an internal CDC document. COVID-19 infections have increased by 80% over the past four weeks in most regions of the world, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Deaths in Africa…

Feb

19

2021

By The African Mirror

No jab, no job: Vatican gets tough with COVID anti-vaxxers

COVID-19

PHILIP PULLELLA THE Vatican has told employees that they may risk losing their jobs if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccination without legitimate health reasons. A decree by Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, effectively the governor of Vatican City, said getting a vaccine was "the responsible choice" because of the risk of harming other people. Vatican City, at 108 acres the world's smallest state, has several thousand employees, most of whom live in Italy. Its vaccination programme began last month and Pope Francis, 84, was among the first to get the jab. The seven-page decree says that those who cannot get…

Jul

31

2021

By The African Mirror

Botswana pays $15 a dose for vaccine

COVID-19

BOTSWANA’S health minister said on Friday that the government was paying the equivalent of $15 a dose for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech and almost $29 a dose for U.S. company Moderna's shot. African countries have struggled to procure enough vaccines in the global scramble for doses, with coverage secured through World Health Organization (WHO) and African Union (AU)-backed schemes so far falling short of the continent's needs. Under pressure over a recent spike in COVID-19 infections, health minister Edwin Dikoloti revealed how much the diamond-rich southern African country was paying in bilateral deals with pharmaceutical companies…

Feb

19

2021

By The African Mirror

Testing vaccine in pregnant women

COVID-19

JULIE STEENHUYSEN PFIZER Inc and BioNTech SE have started an international study with 4,000 volunteers to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of their COVID-19 vaccine in healthy pregnant women, the companies said on Thursday. Pregnant women are at higher risk of developing severe COVID-19, and many public health officials have recommended some women in high-risk professions take coronavirus vaccines even without proof they are safe for them. Last week, the U.S. National Institutes of Health called for greater inclusion of pregnant and lactating women in COVID-19 vaccine research. Bioethicists, vaccine and maternal health experts have argued for years that pregnant…

Feb

19

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Fair distribution undermined’

COVID-19

THE World Health Organization has urged nations producing COVID-19 vaccines not to distribute them unilaterally but to donate them to the global COVAX scheme to ensure fairness. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the plea as China hashes out agreements across Africa, Russia distributes shots in Latin America and the European Union eyes giving vaccines to poorer countries, all outside of the COVAX facility. Tedros said nations striking one-on-one deals undermine COVAX's goal of equitable access, adding the WHO's scheme can even accommodate requests from governments that "prefer to give their donations to certain countries, because they are their neighbours…

Feb

19

2021

By The African Mirror

Calls for fast action after Ebola outbreaks in Guinea, Congo

HEALTH

OBI ANYADIKE TWO new outbreaks of Ebola in two weeks – first in the Democratic Republic of Congo and now in Guinea – have sent health teams scrambling to try to contain the spread of the deadly disease, ramping up contact tracing and medical support to local authorities. Guinea declared an Ebola epidemic on 14 February after three people died and four others became ill in the rural southeast of the country – the first reported outbreak in West Africa since a region-wide pandemic ended five years ago after claiming more than 11,000 lives. The initial case in Guinea’s new outbreak involved a…

Feb

18

2021

By The African Mirror

‘I feel blessed’, says doctor

COVID-19

WENDELL ROELF and ALEXANDER WINNING SOUTH Africa launched its COVID-19 vaccination drive yesterday, battling to tame a more infectious variant of the coronavirus with a roll-out of the Johnson & Johnson shot for the first time outside a major clinical trial. "I actually feel blessed, you know, after all our hard work and effort in the first and second wave that we finally have another layer of protection, another tool...in the fight against COVID-19," said emergency physician Sa'ad Lahri, one of the first South Africans to be vaccinated. "I am still Zoliswa, no side-effects," said nurse Zoliswa Gidi-Dyosi, who was…

Jul

30

2021

By The African Mirror

Stretched Senegalese hospitals overwhelmed by third COVID wave

COVID-19

ALESSANDRA PRENTICE IDRISSA Lo rushed back to Senegal from the United States when family members started falling sick with COVID-19 and dying. On Wednesday, he mourned a fifth family member lost to the virus - one of nearly 150 Senegalese to die this month as a third wave sweeps through the capital Dakar, leaving its hospitals nearly overrun. "The one I lost two hours ago is my really close cousin. He was young, he was like 40 years old," said Lo, a U.S.-based transport worker, standing in the sun-baked yard of the hospital in Dakar's Yoff neighbourhood. "There is something…

Feb

18

2021

By The African Mirror

Tanzanian politician dies of COVID-19

COVID-19

A senior Tanzanian politician died of COVID-19 yesterday, his party said, adding to concern about a hidden epidemic running rampant in a country that insists it has no local transmission of the disease. The president of Tanzania's semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago, Hussein Ali Mwinyi, announced the death of Zanzibar's first vice president, Seif Sharif Hamad, on television, without saying the cause. But Janeth Rite, deputy secretary for ideology and publicity of Hamad's opposition ACT-Wazalendo party, told Reuters: "He has died of COVID-19." A day earlier, the party's leader, Zitto Kabwe, tweeted: "Denying the truth about the spread of the coronavirus in…

Feb

18

2021

By The African Mirror

Namibia to roll out AstraZeneca vaccine

COVID-19

NAMIBIA will push ahead with the roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine despite neighbouring South Africa halting distribution after concerns over its effectiveness against a new variant, the government said yesterday. The nation of 2.5 million people recorded more than 36,000 COVID-19 cases with 394 deaths, with its mining and tourism-depended economy severely hit by the pandemic. Health and Social Services Minister Kalumba Shanghula said investigations were still underway to establish whether the new COVID-19 variant is present in Namibia and the extent of its prevalence. "In the meantime, our preparations for COVID-19 vaccine roll-out are ongoing," he said. South Africa…