HEALTH - The African Mirror

May

18

2021

World has entered stage of “vaccine apartheid” – WHO head

COVID-19

THE world has reached a situation of "vaccine apartheid", World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday and was no longer just at risk of that status. "The big problem is a lack of sharing. So the solution is more sharing," he told a virtual Paris Peace Forum event. Earlier, he called on COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers to make shots available to the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility sooner than planned due to a supply shortfall left by Indian export disruptions.

May

18

2021

By The African Mirror

Backers of WTO vaccine waiver ask opponents to join talks

COVID-19

EMMA FARGE SUPPORTERS of a proposal to waive patent rights on COVID-19 vaccines at the World Trade Organization are set to call on opponents to join the negotiations, stressing the gravity of the pandemic, according to a draft document. Talks at the WTO on temporarily waiving IP rights have been deadlocked for months. But U.S. President Joe Biden's decision earlier this month to back talks for a waiver has raised hopes that the few remaining wealthy-country opponents could also switch camps. The EU has since backed a U.S. proposal to discuss waiving patent protections, although Switzerland said it left many…

May

18

2021

By The African Mirror

G7 urged to donate ’emergency’ supplies to vaccine-sharing scheme

COVID-19

EMMA FARGE THE head of UNICEF has asked G7 countries to donate supplies to the COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme as an emergency measure to address a severe shortfall caused by disruption to Indian vaccine exports. India has curbed exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine made by its Serum Institute, which had been pledged to COVAX, to be used by the country as it battles a massive second wave of infections. U.N. agency UNICEF, which is in charge of supplying coronavirus vaccines through COVAX, estimates the supply shortfall at 140 million doses by the end of May and about 190 million by the…

May

18

2021

By The African Mirror

Tanzanian experts say COVID-19 vaccines safe, recommend joining COVAX

COVID-19

EXPERTS appointed by Tanzania's new president have declared COVID-19 vaccines to be effective and recommended joining the COVAX facility that shares the inoculations, in the latest sign suggesting official scepticism about the pandemic is waning. The recommendations by a coronavirus committee formed in April by President Samia Suluhu Hassan were given by the chair of the group at a press conference at State House in Dar es Salaam on Monday. In its other recommendations, the experts proposed the government publish accurate statistics on the disease and urged that any alternative medicines pass scientific standards. It was not immediately clear what…

May

17

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa targets 5 million elderly people in phase 2 of COVID-19 vaccine rollout

COVID-19

SOUTH Africa will launch phase two of its vaccine rollout today with the aim of inoculating five million citizens aged over 60 by the end of June, the health minister said yesterday. "This is provided that the supply of vaccines flows as anticipated. By the end of June we expect to have received 4.5 million doses of Pfizer and 2 million doses from Johnson & Johnson," the minister, Zweli Mkhize, said during a webinar.

May

16

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID-19 vaccine for life: Health or profit motive?

COVID-19

JULIE STEENHUYSEN and KATE KELLAND COVID-19 vaccine developers are making ever bolder assertions that the world will need yearly booster shots or new vaccines to tackle concerning coronavirus variants, but some scientists question when, or whether, such shots will be needed. In interviews with Reuters, more than a dozen influential infectious disease and vaccine development experts said there is growing evidence that a first round of global vaccinations may offer enduring protection against the coronavirus and its most worrisome variants discovered to date. Some of these scientists expressed concern that public expectations around COVID-19 boosters are being set by pharmaceutical…

May

15

2021

By The African Mirror

Where are the women? How pandemic decisions are ingraining global gender bias

COVID-19

RAQUEL LAGUNAS THERE are teams of experts around the world right now tackling the coronavirus pandemic, providing pathways to put an end to this deadly global scourge and charting the course for recovery. These task forces comprise health experts, economic leaders, policymakers, and more to ensure the best holistic solutions are put forward. But what they don’t have is gender balance and, in some cases, any women at all. There are three men to every woman on national COVID-19 task forces around the world, according to recent data from the United Nations Development Programme, UN Women and the University of Pittsburgh. The…

May

15

2021

By The African Mirror

WHO urges rich countries to donate

COVID-19

THE World Health Organization has urged rich countries to reconsider plans to vaccinate children and instead donate COVID-19 shots to the COVAX scheme for poorer countries. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said the second year of the pandemic was set to be more deadly than the first, with India a huge concern. "I understand why some countries want to vaccinate their children and adolescents, but right now I urge them to reconsider and to instead donate vaccines to #COVAX," he told a virtual meeting in Geneva. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sounded the alarm over the rapid spread of…

May

15

2021

By The African Mirror

One health approach key to tackling Africa’s challenges

HEALTH

OLANIKE ADEYEMO THE COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that global health challenges cannot be solved only by health sector interventions. Many of the recent epidemics — Ebola, Zika and even Covid-19 — are emerging infectious diseases transmissible from wildlife species. In addition, other global health challenges greatly impact people, livestock, wildlife and agriculture which results in adverse effects on local, national, and global economies. To truly tackle prospective pandemics, Africa’s higher education institutions need to promote a more integrated approach to healthcare training that breaks down the silos between doctors, veterinarians, laboratory scientists and other aligned professions to embrace a “one health”…

May

16

2021

By The African Mirror

Poor nutrition changes the way a body fights infection: this might protect against severe COVID-19

HEALTH

Back at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, case numbers on the continent were still modest. But predictions and projections suggested the disease was going to cut a swathe through Africa. In April 2020 the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa sounded the alarm bell: Anywhere between 300,000 and 3.3 million African people could lose their lives as a direct result of COVID-19, depending on the intervention measures taken to stop the spread. BURTRAM C. FIELDING, Professor and Director: Research Development, University of the Western Cape DEWALD SCHOEMAN, PhD Candidate, Molecular Biology and Virology, University of the Western Cape The…