HEALTH - The African Mirror

Feb

14

2021

Vaccine response among children tested

COVID-19

THE University of Oxford has launched a study to assess the safety and immune response of the COVID-19 vaccine it has developed with AstraZeneca Plc in children for the first time, it said on Saturday. The new mid-stage trial will determine whether the vaccine is effective on people between the ages of 6 and 17, according to an emailed statement from the university. Around 300 volunteers will be enrolled and first inoculations are expected this month, Oxford said. The two-dose Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has been hailed as a 'vaccine for the world' because it is cheaper and easier to distribute than…

Jul

26

2021

By The African Mirror

SA eases COVID-19 restrictions, lifts booze ban

COVID-19

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER BUOYED by scientific data that show that the country is over the peak of the COVID-19 third wave, South Africa has eased restrictions, allowing for alcohol sales and public gatherings including those of religious and political nature. The downgrading of SA from lockdown alert level four to three, was announced by the country’s President Cyril Ramaphosa in a special address to the nation. Ramaphosa said the decline in the infection made it possible to ease the restrictions. He announced these new measures: Sale of alcohol will be permitted: Monday to Thursday - 10am - 6pm for off-sales…

Feb

14

2021

By The African Mirror

Global ranks of child soldiers swell

COVID-19

EMELINE WUILBERCQ MORE children could be pushed into joining armed groups in conflict zones as families face increasing poverty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a top U.N. official warned. The exact number of child soldiers is unknown, but in 2019 alone about 7,740 children - some as young as six - were recruited and used as fighters or in other roles by mostly non-state armed groups, according to United Nations data. Speaking on International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers - or Red Hand Day - the U.N. Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba said that number was…

Jul

26

2021

By The African Mirror

Monkeypox in Nigeria: why the disease needs intense management

HEALTH

MONKEYPOX is back in the news. The publicity this time derives from a case brought into the US by someone from Nigeria in June 2021. In this interview with Adejuwon Soyinka, The Conversation’s West Africa regional editor, virologist Oyewale Tomori explains that the US case was not the only export from Nigeria this year. He provides insights into why this is happening and what needs to be done. OYEWALE TOMORI, Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Science Is it right to describe the latest development as a resurgence of Monkeypox in Nigeria? Not really. Monkeypox is endemic and always with us in…

Jul

24

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID-19 SCIENCE: J&J shot recipients may need a booster, new advice on infected kids

COVID-19

NANCY LAPID THE following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19. Johnson & Johnson shot may need boosting People who received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine may need a booster shot to fend off some of the worrisome coronavirus variants now spreading worldwide, a study suggests.A "significant fraction" of blood samples from recipients of the J&J shot had low neutralizing antibody levels against the Delta, Delta Plus, Beta and Lambda variants, according to a report posted on Wednesday on the medical website…

Feb

26

2021

By The African Mirror

Trials show vaccine is effective against variants

COVID-19

CUREVAC’S chief Franz-Werner Haas disclosed yesterday that preliminary trials on animals of the company's COVID-19 vaccine candidate show it is effective against the UK and South African variants. Haas told EU lawmakers that the results of the preliminary trials on the vaccine's effects on variants would be published soon. He also said that the company expected its vaccine to be approved in the European Union by June.

Feb

26

2021

By The African Mirror

Kenya’s vaccines to arrive in March

COVID-19

KENYA’S first batch of COVID-19 vaccines will arrive in the first week of March, the presidency announced yesterday, with healthcare workers, frontline workers and vulnerable population groups to be given priority. "Cabinet ratified the distribution framework for the vaccines; with first priority being given to Health Care Workers, Frontline Workers including Security Personnel and Teachers, vulnerable persons and groups and Hospitality Sector Workers," the presidency said in a press release.

Feb

26

2021

By The African Mirror

“Waive intellectual property rights on drugs”

COVID-19

THE African Union is backing calls for drugmakers to waive some intellectual property rights on COVID-19 medicines and vaccines to speed up their rollout to poor countries, the head of its disease control body said yesterday. South Africa and India, which both manufacture drugs and vaccines, made the proposal at the World Trade Organization last year, saying intellectual property (IP) rules were hindering the urgent scale-up of vaccine production and provision of medical products to some patients. They have faced opposition from some developed nations, but the backing of the African Union may give renewed impetus for the push to…

Feb

26

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa aims to vaccinate 1.1 million

COVID-19

SOUTH Africa aims to vaccinate around 1.1 million people against COVID-19 by the end of March as it ramps up its immunisation programme, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said yesterday. Addressing parliament, Mkhize also said authorities might have to inoculate more than their original target of 40 million people to reach herd immunity. The country, hit far harder by the pandemic than any other in Africa, started rolling out Johnson & Johnson's (J&J) vaccine last week in a research study targeting healthcare workers. It hopes to receive doses of the Pfizer vaccine soon. Mkhize said so far more than 32,000 health…

Feb

26

2021

By The African Mirror

Nigeria’s plan to pay for COVID-19 vaccines

COVID-19

FELIX ONUAH NIGERIA will draw up a supplementary budget in March to cover the cost of COVID-19 vaccinations, for which no provision was made in the 2021 finance bill adopted in December, finance minister Zainab Ahmed said on Thursday. The government has said it plans to inoculate 40% of Nigeria's 200 million people this year and another 30% in 2022. The country, Africa's most populous, has been hit by a second wave of infections in recent weeks. "There will be a supplementary budget, the first one will be in March relating to the COVID-19 pandemic," Ahmed told reporters, without giving…