HEALTH - The African Mirror

Apr

13

2021

Coronavirus pandemic ‘a long way from over’

COVID-19

CONFUSION and complacency in addressing COVID-19 means the pandemic is a long way from over, but it can be brought under control in months with proven public health measures, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said. So far some 780 million vaccines have been administered globally, but measures including wearing masks and maintaining physical distancing must be applied to reverse the trajectory. "We too want to see societies and economies reopening, and travel and trade resuming," Tedros told a news briefing. "But right now, intensive care units in many countries are overflowing and people are dying – and it's totally…

Apr

13

2021

By The African Mirror

Botswana probes vaccine-related deaths

COVID-19

BOTSWANA is investigating the deaths of two among thousands of people who had been given doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to see if there is any link, the health ministry said. The southern African country has so far administered about 31,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the only vaccine it has started rolling out. India donated 30,000 doses of the vaccine that were manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), and Botswana bought 33,000 doses that were made in South Korea from the global vaccine distribution scheme COVAX. The two people who died had taken the shots made in…

Jul

05

2021

By The African Mirror

HIV generic drug for babies distributed in Africa, says UNITAID

HEALTH

AID agencies have distributed a strawberry-flavoured tablet for children living with HIV in six African countries, the first generic pediatric version of a key anti-retroviral, according to the global health agency UNITAID. UNITAID and Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) funding procured 100,000 packs of the dolutegravir formulation across Nigeria, Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Benin, UNITAD's spokesman Herve Verhoosel said in a statement to Reuters. Some 1.8 million children worldwide live with HIV, but only half receive any treatment, often hard to administer due to the bitter taste or incorrectly dosed by crushing adult pills. Some 100,000 children die of…

Apr

12

2021

By The African Mirror

‘South African variant may evade protection from Pfizer vaccine’

COVID-19

MAAYAN LUBELL THE coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa may evade the protection provided by Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine to some extent, a real-world data study in Israel found, though its prevalence in the country is very low and the research has not been peer-reviewed. The study, released on Saturday, compared almost 400 people who had tested positive for COVID-19, 14 days or more after they received one or two doses of the vaccine, against the same number of unvaccinated patients with the disease. It matched age and gender, among other characteristics. The South African variant, B.1.351, was found to make…

Apr

12

2021

By The African Mirror

Cameroon receives 200 000 doses

COVID-19

CAMEROON took delivery yesterday of 200 000 doses of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines, the first vaccines to arrive in the country, which will enable it to inoculate frontline workers as it battles rising cases of coronavirus, the health ministry said. The Central African nation has been hit hard by a second wave of the pandemic. The health ministry has so far reported over 61,700 cases with 919 deaths since the outbreak. Reuters data shows that daily average numbers of coronavirus-related deaths reported in Cameroon has reached a new high of more than 53. The health ministry said in a statement…

Jul

04

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa approves China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine

COVID-19

TIM COCKS SOUTH Africa has approved China's Sinovac vaccine against COVID-19, the acting health minister has announced, as the country faces a crippling third wave of infections that has paralysed hospitals and brought its death toll to 60,000. "I would like to express gratitude to our regulatory authority for their sense of urgency, which included reducing turnaround time to process applications for registration of ... (the) COVID-19 vaccine," Mamoloko Kubayi said in a statement. The surge in infections in Africa's most industrialised nation has overwhelmed hospitals, especially in the main city of Johannesburg, and left overworked healthcare personnel struggling to…

Jul

04

2021

By The African Mirror

How COVID-19 measures have affected food safety in East Africa

HEALTH

FOODBORNE diseases are thought to impose a health burden on society comparable to the “big three”: malaria, HIV/AIDs and tuberculosis. FLORENCE MUTUA, Scientist, International Livestock Research Institute DELIA GRACE, Professor Food Safety Systems at the Natural Resources Institute (UK) and contributing scientist ILRI, International Livestock Research Institute ERASTUS KANG'ETHE, Professor, University of Nairobi Common foodborne diseases affect tens of millions of people every year. They include salmonellosis, which causes stomach upsets, norovirus, which can cause severe vomiting and diarrhoea, and listeriosis, which can cause severe infections of the bloodstream and brain. Children and people with weak immune systems are affected…

Jul

03

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID-19 knocks out ex-world boxing champ

COVID-19

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER AT his prime, Lehlonolo "Hands of Stone” Ledwaba knocked out many of his opponents on his way to winning three world titles. On Friday, the former champ was knocked out for the count by COVID-19, which has claimed the lives of 60 000 South Africans. Ledwaba (49), who was now a boxing trainer and promoter, passed away as his family was preparing to take him to hospital after he fell ill. His uncle Peter Leopeng said Ledwaba had tested positive for COVID-19 but had initially refused to go to hospital. “When he fell ill he went to…

Jul

03

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa hits record 26,845 new COVID-19 cases in third wave

COVID-19

SOUTH Africa has registered more than 26 485 cases of COVID-19 , its highest tally of new infections since the pandemic began, as a third wave of the virus spread through a population in which just 5% have been vaccinated. The surge in cases in Africa's most industrialised nation has overwhelmed hospitals, especially in the main city of Johannesburg, and left overworked healthcare personnel struggling to find enough beds for critically ill patients. Bureaucratic failures have worsened the health crisis. The South African Medical Association threatened on Thursday to take the government to court because more than 200 new junior…

Apr

11

2021

By The African Mirror

Libya launches COVID-19 vaccination drive after delays

COVID-19

LIBYA’S new unity government launched a long-delayed COVID-19 vaccination programme yesterday after receiving some 160,000 vaccine doses over the past week, with the prime minister receiving his jab on live television. While Libya is richer than its neighbours due to oil exports, the country's healthcare system has been strained by years of political turmoil and violence, and it has struggled to cope during the pandemic. Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh called it a "blessed day" in the fight against COVID-19 after receiving his shot, without saying which vaccine he had been given. At least 100,000 of the doses that arrived this week…