HEALTH - The African Mirror

Jun

01

2021

Burkina Faso receives first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines

COVID-19

BURKINA Faso, one of several countries in Africa that has yet to launch a COVID-19 vaccination campaign, received its first shipment under the global vaccine-sharing scheme COVAX, according to the health ministry. The 115,200 AstraZeneca doses were flown into the airport of the capital Ouagadougou and were welcomed by a local delegation led by health minister Charlemagne Ouedraogo. "In a few weeks other vaccines will probably arrive to supplement what we have," Ouedraogo said. The vaccination campaign, which will first target health workers, aims to eventually inoculate over 15 million of the West African nation's 21.5 million citizens, the ministry…

Jun

01

2021

By The African Mirror

Opponents resist vaccine patent waiver

COVID-19

EMMA FARGE A deal on an intellectual property waiver for COVID-19 vaccines at the World Trade Organization (WTO) was no closer to acceptance yesterday despite Washington's backing, due to expected scepticism about a new draft, sources close to the talks told Reuters. Negotiations reopened at the WTO on Monday, focused on a highly anticipated revised draft submitted by India, South Africa and dozens of other developing countries last week. A surprise U.S. shift earlier this month to support a patent waiver heaped pressure on remaining opponents like the European Union and Switzerland that are home to numerous drugmakers. But Monday's…

May

26

2021

By The African Mirror

No camel rides in Tunisian town as COVID slowly kills tourism

COVID-19

TAREK AMARA and ANGUS McDOWALL Two Bulgarian visitors stood in the ancient El Jem amphitheatre, one of Tunisia's top attractions, alone apart from swallows flitting under stone arches -- a sight foretelling another tourist season wrecked by COVID-19. The 3rd-century structure, so symbolic of Tunisia that it features on the 20-dinar note, usually receives about 190,000 visitors a year, but in 2020 only 45,000 came, and so far this year it has been deserted most of the time. Over the past two weeks numbers have picked up a little after the government relaxed quarantine rules for package tours to salvage…

May

26

2021

By The African Mirror

Consensus reached on pandemic treaty

COVID-19

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY SOUTH Africa has revealed that consensus had been reached to hold a special ministerial session of the World Health Organization (WHO) at the end of the year to consider negotiating a new international treaty on pandemic preparedness. The WHO, whose handling of the COVID-19 pandemic is under scrutiny, has endorsed a proposal, initially made by the European Union, to negotiate a global treaty as a way to ensure countries' political commitment to fighting outbreaks of new or particularly dangerous diseases. The WHO's World Health Assembly will meet from November 29 to December 1. A report by an independent…

May

25

2021

By The African Mirror

Bid to end ‘scandalous vaccine inequity’

COVID-19

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY THE COVID-19 pandemic is being perpetuated by a "scandalous inequity" in vaccine distribution, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday as he set new targets for protecting people in the poorest countries. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that no country should assume that it's "out of the woods", no matter its vaccination rate, as long as the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its variants spread elsewhere. "The world remains in a very dangerous situation," Tedros told the opening of the annual assembly of health ministers from its 194 member states. "As of today, more cases have…

May

25

2021

By The African Mirror

Algeria plans strict health measures

COVID-19

ALGERIA will impose strict health measures on passengers when it partially resumes international flights next month, the prime minister's office said yesterday. The North African country last week said it would reopen air borders on June 1, but with only five flights a day from and to three local airports. Passengers must have a negative result for COVID-19 from an RT-PCR test dated less than 36 hours before the date of travel to Algeria, the prime minister's office said. All passengers would be quarantined for five days in hotels at their expense, and the quarantine would be extended to 10…

May

24

2021

By The African Mirror

How South Africa is tracking adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccines

HEALTH

SOUTH Africa has begun the second phase of its public vaccination campaign, targeting people aged 60 or older. The first vaccinations were given in February to health workers. So far almost 600,000 healthcare workers and members of the public have been vaccinated. KERRIGAN MCCARTHY, Pathologist, Centre for Vaccines and Immunology, NICD, National Institute for Communicable Diseases Healthcare workers have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, while the Pfizer vaccine is being rolled out as part of Phase 2 for members of the public. A crucial aspect of the vaccination campaign is tracking adverse reactions. It’s imperative that all health events…

May

23

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID is surging in the world’s most vaccinated country. Why?

COVID-19

THE small archipelago nation of Seychelles, northeast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, has emerged as the world’s most vaccinated country for COVID-19. C RAINA MACINTYRE, Professor of Global Biosecurity, NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, Head, Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute, UNSW Around 71% of people have had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, and 62% have been fully vaccinated. Of these, 57% have received the Sinopharm vaccine, and 43% AstraZeneca. Despite this, there has been a recent surge in cases, with 37% of new active cases and 20% of hospital cases being fully vaccinated. The country has had to…

May

23

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID-19: why critically ill patients in Africa are taking a bigger hit

COVID-19

IN March 2020, those of us living on the African continent were terrified about what would happen. We had watched Wuhan and then Italy get overrun by Covid-19. These were environments far more resourced than Africa. BRUCE M BICCARD, Professor and Second Chair at Groote Schuur Hospital , University of Cape Town We knew that we had a limited healthcare workforce. And we have estimated that there was about one critical care bed per 100 000 population on the continent. The average across Europe was over 11 per 100 000 population. What scared us, even more, was a lack of…

May

23

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID-19 could be the end of ‘global health’ as we know it

HEALTH

THE pandemic has made us painfully aware of our common vulnerability to disease outbreaks. New communicable diseases originating in one part of the world can spread quickly and widely, underlining that health is a global concern. But this is old news. COLIN MCINNES, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research, Knowledge Exchange and Innovation, Aberystwyth University The advent of the concept of “global health” is well established in both the academic literature and policy discussions, reflecting the consensus that we have seen a fundamental change in the nature of the causes and outcomes of ill-health in recent decades. This change is rooted in the…