HEALTH - The African Mirror

Mar

05

2026

Africa’s one-dose cure brings sleeping sickness elimination within reach

HEALTH

AFRICA’S long battle against sleeping sickness may be approaching its final chapter as a new single-dose therapy gains international regulatory backing. The drug, acoziborole, received a positive scientific opinion on 27 February 2026 from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency, clearing the way for national approval processes in countries where the disease remains endemic. The decision was issued under the EU-M4all programme, a regulatory pathway designed to accelerate access to medicines intended primarily for use outside the European Union. Under this procedure, scientific assessment by European regulators supports approvals in countries facing major…

Mar

04

2026

By TIMOTHY POWELL-JACKSON and MYLENE LAGARDE

Do doctors treat poorer patients differently? Our study in Tunisia found they do – in subtle ways

HEALTH

PEOPLE with lower income and less education get sick more often, have worse access to care, and don’t live as long. This is one of the most consistent findings in health research across the world. But do doctors themselves amplify these inequalities? As health economists interested in the behaviour of healthcare providers, we sought to explore an understudied driver of health inequalities in Tunisia: whether doctors treat patients from different socioeconomic backgrounds differently during a clinical encounter. We chose Tunisia because it’s a middle-income country where socioeconomic and health inequalities are growing. Until recently, there has been little robust evidence…

Feb

19

2026

By MELISA BENARD-VALLE

Snakebites: how to avoid them and what to do if you’re bitten

HEALTH

IMAGINE walking into tall grass or working barefoot in a field … and suddenly feeling sharp pain in your foot. You’ve just been bitten by a snake. This is more than a moment of shock; it could be the beginning of a dangerous medical emergency. Not all snakebites involve venom, since less than 20% of snake species in the world are considered medically important, and even venomous snakes don’t always inject venom. But when venom enters the body, the consequences can be dramatic and life-threatening. I am a biologist with an interest in snake venom function and composition, as well…

Feb

18

2026

By TENDAIISHE BEREJENA and FLORENCE MALONGANE

African indigenous foods that fight inflammation may help people with diabetes – research

HEALTH

AFRICAN indigenous food groups present an exciting area to explore when it comes to taste and nutrition. They may even offer potential as a nutritional therapy for people with health problems. Foods like jute mallow, pearl and finger millet, wild medlar, caterpillars and bambara nuts all have nutritional properties that could be useful in managing inflammation. Inflammation is the body’s natural response to injury or infection. It helps us fight off infections and begins the healing process. However, problems arise when inflammation continues. It can start to damage healthy tissues and blood vessels, interfere with how the body uses sugar…

Feb

12

2026

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Africa launches major health financing initiative to address $2.4 trillion economic burden

AUDA-NEPAD, HEALTH

AFRICAN finance and health ministers are convening in the Ethiopian capital for a landmark summit aimed at transforming how the continent funds its health systems, as declining foreign aid and recent disease outbreaks expose critical gaps in Africa's public health infrastructure. The high-level event, co-hosted by the African Development Bank, Africa CDC, and the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD, will introduce a new "Finance-Health Approach" designed to institutionalise joint planning between finance and health ministries across the continent. The initiative comes as Africa grapples with what organisers describe as the steepest decline in Official Development Assistance in decades. In 2025, foreign…

Feb

12

2026

By TURNWAIT OTU MICHAEL and KAMMILA NAIDOO

Women’s control over fertility is linked to education, money and digital access – study of 16 African countries

HEALTH

MANY married women in sub-Saharan Africa don’t have the freedom to make decisions about their sexual and reproductive health. Global data show that only 37% of women in the region aged 15-49 can make their own informed decisions about sexual relations, contraceptive use and reproductive healthcare in the region. In Europe, 87% of women have this freedom. These decisions shape whether women survive pregnancy, avoid unsafe abortions, stay in school, participate in paid work and plan the size of their families. Yet in many homes, decisions about engaging in sex, using contraception or seeking healthcare are strictly determined by husbands,…

Feb

05

2026

By OBASANJO BOLARINWA

Nigerian women and contraceptives: study finds big gaps between the haves and the have-nots

HEALTH

NIGERIAN women who are wealthier, more educated and urban are more likely to use modern contraceptives than poorer, less educated and rural women. This is one of the findings of a study that assessed patterns of inequality in modern contraceptive use. This highlights persistent inequalities in access to family planning services. Obasanjo Bolarinwa, a global public health researcher, unpacks the findings. What’s behind differences in contraceptive use in Nigeria? I analysed data from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys 2003 and 2018 using the WHO Health Equity Assessment Toolkit to assess contraceptive use in the country. My analysis shows that…

Feb

04

2026

By ADEYEMI OLADAPO AREMU; MAKHOTSO LEKHOOA, and MOMPATI VINCENT CHAKALE

Medicinal plants support men’s health in South Africa: why this knowledge needs safekeeping

HEALTH

MEN’S sexual and reproductive health may be awkward to talk about, but there’s a need to do so. For example, about one-sixth of all couples worldwide have difficulty conceiving children, and in half the cases, the man’s fertility is part of the problem. In South Africa, nearly 65% of men attending primary healthcare facilities report some level of erectile dysfunction, as do 57.4% of men in Nigeria. Not only is there a cultural stigma around these issues, but there also aren’t always enough healthcare professionals and services to help. Consequently, traditional medicine is not just an alternative to “western medicine”,…

Jan

27

2026

By CONRAD ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Swapping antibiotics for cannabis in chicken feed? Morocco explores

HEALTH

MOROCCO has begun exploring the use of hemp in animal feeds as demand for organic and antibiotic-free poultry products rises in one of Africa’s largest poultry markets. Early January, Morocco’s cannabis regulator, the National Agency for the Regulation of Cannabis-Related Activities (ANRAC), rolled out a 10-month research programme to test the use of Cannabidiol (CBD), said to be a non-intoxicating compound from the cannabis plant in poultry feeds.The National Agency for the Regulation of Cannabis Related Activities signed an agreement with the country’s most prestigious university in agriculture, Hassan II Institute of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine, to conduct the study.…

Jan

21

2026

By FRIDAY OKONOFUA

Medical negligence in Nigeria: what’s known, and what needs to be done

HEALTH

MEDICAL negligence in Nigeria came to the fore when author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie accused a Lagos hospital of negligence after the death of one of her 21-month-old twin boys. Nkanu Nnamdi died on 6 January 2026 after a brief illness. Friday Okonofua, emeritus professor of obstetrics and gynaecology and vice-president of the Nigerian Academy of Science, answers some questions about medical negligence in the country and how it can be curbed. What is medical negligence? Medical negligence is said to occur when a healthcare professional or a health institution fails to provide the expected standard of care, thereby causing harm…