HEALTH - The African Mirror

Jan

2024

Cabo Verde’s malaria victory is a blueprint for Africa

CABO Verde has achieved a significant milestone in the battle against malaria, securing malaria-free certification from the World Health Organization (WHO). In news released on Friday, January 12, WHO explained that indigenous malaria transmission by Anopheles mosquitoes across the archipelago of 10 islands has been halted nationwide for the past three consecutive years. The country's certification is the fourth on the continent, following Mauritius, Morocco, and Algeria in 1973, 2010, and 2019, respectively. Globally, 43 countries now hold malaria-free certifications. According to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO's Director-General, "WHO’s certification of Cabo Verde as malaria-free is a testament to the power…

Jan

2024

By The African Mirror

Stressed out? Why mindfulness and meditation help us cope with the world

HEALTH

IN a world fraught with anxiety, stress, and environmental and humanitarian disasters, people are looking for ways to cope. Many have turned to practices originating in ancient eastern philosophies for guidance. Among these is mindfulness, which is linked to meditation. Lucy Draper-Clarke, researcher and author of The Compassionate Activist, spoke to health & medicine editor Nadine Dreyer about looking inwards and cultivating compassion, awareness and gratitude. LUCY DRAPER-CLARKE, Research Associate in Compassion, University of the Witwatersrand What does mindfulness actually mean? The original translation of the Pali word sati is “remembering”. It was about remembering your ethics, the right way…

Dec

2023

By CONRAD ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Africa inches closer to manufacturing anti-HIV rings

HEALTH

AFTER approval for the use of vaginal rings by nearly a dozen countries, Africa is inching closer to local manufacturing of the world’s first fully woman-controlled HIV prevention device. South Africa will be the first country on the continent to make and distribute the dapivirine vaginal ring (DVR) following a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between South Africa’s pharmaceutical manufacturer and medtech company, Kiara Health, and Population Council. “Moving into the future with a long-term goal of commercial sustainability and local leadership, the Council is working toward granting an exclusive license for the DVR in the current territories to Kiara Health,…

Dec

2023

By JENNIFER RIGBY

Stigma, regulatory barriers delay mpox response in country that needs it most

HEALTH

VACCINESand treatments that could help tackle an mpox epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo are lying unused outside the country despite a death rate far higher than from the global outbreak that began last year. Stigma, regulatory hurdles and competing disease outbreaks are all factors holding back the response, according to almost a dozen scientists, public health officials and drugmakers involved. Since January, at least 581 people have died of mpox in Congo out of 12,569 suspected cases, compared to 167 deaths among 91,788 reported cases in 116 other countries since January 2022, according to the World Health Organization.…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

From fatal allergies to heart attacks and malaria – the devastating health effects of global warming in Africa

HEALTH

THE winds that whip the towns of the Eastern Cape in South Africa have the power to generate energy. But on a dry, hot day, those winds can gather up embers and dump them into tinder-dry savannah and forest, destroying crops, fodder and homes, and taking lives. LENORE MANDERSON, Distinguished Professor, Public Health and Medical Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand Wildfires create their own weather systems, generating fire storms with devastating effects. Global warming will increase the number of days of shimmering heat, creating the ideal conditions for fire. In the past months, southern Europe and North Africa have experienced…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

Malaria: two groundbreaking vaccines have been developed, but access and rollout are still big stumbling blocks

HEALTH

THE approval of two malaria vaccines – the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine in 2021 and the R21/Matrix-MTM vaccine in 2023 – will help control, and eventually help eradicate, a disease that causes more than 600,000 deaths annually. Nearly 2 million children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have been vaccinated with the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine. It will be rolled out to more African countries from early next year. The second vaccine, R21/Matrix-MTM, approved by the World Health Organization in October, will be ready for rollout in mid-2024. Rose Leke, winner of the 2023 Virchow Prize for her lifetime achievement in strengthening global health and…

Nov

2023

By KRISTI HEATHER KENYON, ALEXANDER KWARTENG, COLLEEN MCMILLAN, MARY ASIRIFI and REGIANE GARCIA

Patients’ beliefs about illness matter: the case of elephantiasis in rural Ghana

HEALTH

WOULD you take medication for an illness you didn’t believe you had? Or if you disagreed with healthcare workers about the cause of your condition? This is the dilemma of many people who live in areas of Ghana where a mosquito-borne disease called lymphatic filariasis, often referred to as elephantiasis, continues to spread. Lymphatic filariasis, or LF as it is commonly known, is a neglected tropical disease which spreads through repeated bites by parasite-carrying mosquitoes. This infection results in the painful and debilitating swelling of legs, arms and genitals, and increases vulnerability to injury and secondary infections. Although little known,…

Nov

2023

By The African Mirror

Antibiotic resistance causes more deaths than malaria and HIV/Aids combined. What Africa is doing to fight this silent epidemic

HEALTH

EACH year antimicrobial resistance – the ability of microbes to survive agents designed to kill them – claims more lives than malaria and HIV/Aids combined. Africa bears the brunt of this development, which thrives on inequality and poverty. Nadine Dreyer asked Tom Nyirenda, a research scientist with over 27 years’ experience in infectious diseases, what health organisations on the continent are doing to fight this threat to medical progress. TOM NYIRENDA, Extraordinary Senior Lecture in the Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch University What is antimicrobial resistance? Antimicrobial resistance occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no…

Nov

2023

By MARINA JOUBERT, PHAIK YEONG CHEAH and SONIA LEWYCKA

Antimicrobial resistance is a silent killer that leads to 5 million deaths a year. Solutions must include the poor

HEALTH

MICROBES such as bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi form part of our everyday lives – they live in us, on us and around us. We need them for healthy digestion, immune function, and the synthesis of essential nutrients, and we depend on them for farming and industrial processes. But microbes also cause disease in people, animals and plants. That is why science has developed an arsenal of antimicrobials that kill them or slow their spread. Over time, microbes develop resistance to antimicrobials, and some eventually evolve into so-called “superbugs” that no longer respond to the drugs. So we see more…

Nov

2023

By CLEMENCE MANYUKWE, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Zimbabwean women scientists making a remarkable impact in the battle against HIV

HEALTH

WHEN Dr Wadzanai Samaneka began working as a newly graduated doctor, patients who contracted AIDS knew they were going to die. It was a scary time to be a doctor - and an even scarier time to be a sex worker. However, in Zimbabwe and many other countries in the region, AIDS was prevalent everywhere. “During my years as a medical student and later as an internist, the diagnosis of HIV infection was like a life sentence. There were no Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) in Zimbabwe and patients would simply be discharged for home-based care. Not only were patients dying, but…