HEALTH - The African Mirror

Jul

23

2021

Africa demands local production of vaccines

COVID-19

DUNCAN MIRIRI and GEORGE OBULUTSA GLOBAL pharmaceutical firms should license the production of COVID-19 vaccines in Africa rather than just do piecemeal contract deals, an African Union special envoy has said. AU coronavirus envoy Strive Masiyiwa was speaking a day after Pfizer and BioNTech announced a "fill and finish" deal with South Africa's Biovac Institute under which it will carry out the final stages of vaccine manufacturing where the product is processed and put into vials. Pfizer and BioNTech will handle drug substance production at their facilities in Europe. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has called the arrangement "restrictive" and said…

Jul

24

2021

By The African Mirror

Malnutrition among children is rife in Nigeria. What must be done

HEALTH

MALNUTRITION is one of the world’s major public health and development concerns. In Nigeria, the situation is dire. Currently, UNICEF says 5 in 10 children under five years old suffer from the effects of being malnourished. This has an overarching impact on the lives, future and productivity of Nigerian children. Ogechi Ekeanyanwu, from The Conversation Africa, asked Blessing Akombi-Inyang, a maternal and child health expert, to explain the reasons for this high rate of malnutrition. BLESSING AKOMBI-INYANG PHD, MPH, Lecturer in Global Health, UNSW Why is malnutrition so endemic in Nigeria? The main reason is malnutrition’s close association with poverty.…

Feb

26

2021

By The African Mirror

Psychology carries a dark past: how the discipline can be Africanised

HEALTH

IT'S well documented by many scholars that psychological warfare took place for a long time as part of the colonial conquest. The colonialists laboured to ensure that black people’s minds were colonised. And to this end, many theories were developed (by white psychologists) to prove the inferiority of the black mind. PULENG SEGALO, Professor of Psychology, University of South Africa JULIA SIMANGO, Lecturer, University of South Africa One of the consequences of this is that, in colonial and post-colonial settings, psychology didn’t speak – or respond – to the lived realities of black people. The writer and scholar Chabani Manganyi…

Jul

26

2021

By The African Mirror

SA’s 18-35 year-olds to get vaccine

COVID-19

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER AFTER a slow start, South Africa has made strides in its COVID-19 vaccination programme, notching the 6.3-million vaccinations, and has plans to radically improve the numbers, the country’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced. In a special address to the nation, Ramaphosa also announced that South Africans between the ages of 18 and 35 will soon be able to register for vaccinations. Ramaphosa said: “As we have always said, our most effective weapon in the fight against COVID-19 is an effective and comprehensive vaccination programme. In the last few weeks, our vaccination campaign has made huge strides. We…

Jul

23

2021

By The African Mirror

Guinea takes part in Olympics

COVID-19

GUINEA’S five athletes will participate in the Tokyo Olympics after all, a statement from the West African nation's sports ministry has said, reversing the previous day's decision to suspend its participation in the Games citing the pandemic. On Wednesday, Sports Minister Sanoussy Bantama Sow said in a letter to the country's National Olympic Committee that the government had cancelled Guinea's participation to "preserve the health of its athletes" due to a surge in COVID-19 variants. Daily coronavirus infections in Tokyo rose to 1,979 cases on Thursday, the city said, the highest level since January. The July 21 letter seen by…

Feb

25

2021

By The African Mirror

Egypt registers Russia’s vaccine

COVID-19

EGYPT has approved Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, becoming the 34th country outside of Russia and third in North Africa to do so, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has said in a statement. RDIF, Russia's sovereign wealth fund responsible for marketing the vaccine abroad, said Sputnik V had been approved by the Egyptian Drug Authority using an emergency use authorisation procedure. Tunisia and Algeria have already approved the shot.

Feb

25

2021

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwe to buy 1.2 million more vaccines

COVID-19

ZIMBABWE will buy an additional 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from China at a preferential price, President Emmerson Mnangagwa's spokesman yesterday after Beijing agreed to give more free doses to the southern African country. Zimbabwe began COVID-19 vaccinations last week after receiving a donation of 200,000 doses from the China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm). The government initially aims to inoculate health workers, security forces and journalists, among others. Chinese Ambassador Guo Shaochun said in a statement that his country had decided to double its donation of vaccines to 400,000 as part of its "solidarity and action" with Zimbabwe. Mnangagwa's spokesman…

Jul

22

2021

By The African Mirror

The poor nations trailing in the fight against COVID-19

COVID-19

NITA BHALLA and ANASTASIA MOLONEY AT a private hospital in Burundi's capital, emergency specialist Emmanuel Kubwayo is worried for the first time since the coronavirus started spreading around the world last year. Kubwayo initially shared the government's view that the small central African country did not need COVID-19 vaccines because it had so few cases. But as deaths and infections surge across Africa, he has changed his mind. Along with Eritrea, Tanzania and North Korea, Burundi is one of a handful of nations that have not started vaccinations, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), potentially threatening global efforts to…

Jul

22

2021

By The African Mirror

Landmark deal to make vaccine in SA

COVID-19

PFIZER and BioNTech have struck a deal for South Africa's Biovac Institute to help manufacture around 100 million doses a year of their COVID-19 vaccine for the African Union, the firms said on Wednesday. The deal is to "fill and finish" the vaccine, the final stages of manufacturing where the product is processed and put into vials. It does not cover the complicated processes of mRNA drug substance production, which Pfizer and BioNTech will do at their own facilities in Europe. The agreement comes as Pfizer and BioNTech try to sway World Trade Organization (WTO) members from supporting a waiver…

Jul

22

2021

By The African Mirror

Tunisian army to take over COVID-19 management

COVID-19

TUNISIAN President Kais Saied has announced that the military health department will take over management of the health crisis in the country amid a COVID-19 outbreak - an escalation of a battle that overpowers the prime minister. Tunisia is struggling to cope with a resurgence of the virus, with intensive care wards full and doctors overburdened by a rapid rise in cases and deaths and a lack of oxygen supplies. Saied's comments come after Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi sacked Health Minister Faouzi Mehdi on Tuesday amid an exchange of accusations over performance in the fight against the pandemic and the…