HEALTH - The African Mirror

Mar

07

2021

South Africa reviews Pfizer vaccine

COVID-19

WENDELL ROELF SOUTH Africa's medicines regulator is at an advanced stage of reviewing an emergency use application for Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine. "Pfizer has engaged with SAHPRA via two regulatory pathways, that is registered for full commercial market access and Section 21 authorisation. The Section 21 application is in advanced stages of review," Yuven Gounden, spokesman for the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), told Reuters. A Section 21 application, normally valid for six months, is an instrument for emergency use access of a health product that is unregistered. AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine was granted Section 21 approval by SAHPRA in…

Mar

06

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa in AU talks on vaccine for 10 million people

COVID-19

ALEXANDER WINNING and WENDELL ROELF SOUTH Africa is negotiating with an African Union (AU) platform to buy COVID-19 vaccines for at least 10 million of its people, a senior health official said yesterday. The country was provisionally allocated 12 million doses developed by AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in an AU vaccine plan, but it was unclear how many vaccines it would seek to buy after it halted plans to use the AstraZeneca shot. Sandile Buthelezi, Department of Health director-general, did not say which vaccines the country would order via the AU in comments to parliament. South Africa…

Mar

06

2021

By The African Mirror

Tunisia eases COVID-19 measures

COVID-19

TUNISIA hopes to save its economically vital summer tourism season as it announced an easing of COVID-19 restrictions including quarantine measures, a curfew and a ban on travel between regions. The Tunisian economy shrank 8.8% last year, the largest contraction in the country's history due, to the effects of the crisis on vital sectors such as tourism, aviation and export. "With these new measures, the vision has become more clear to travel tour operators... I think that the season can start in May and June because reservations will start from now," Mohamed Ammar, the tourism minister, told reporters. He added…

Mar

06

2021

By The African Mirror

Rwanda becomes 1st African nation to use Pfizer vaccine

COVID-19

CLEMENT UWIRIGIYIMANA RWANDAN began its COVID-19 vaccine campaign on Friday, becoming the first nation in Africa to use pharmaceutical company Pfizer's doses that require ultra-cold storage. Authorities began transporting Pfizer and AstraZeneca shots round the hilly nation of 12 million people after they arrived earlier this week, using helicopters to reach far-flung parts. "This means that I will die when God wants because the coronavirus cannot kill me now," 90-year-old Stephanie Nyirankuriza said, leaning on a walking stick after her shot at a health centre just east of the capital Kigali. As in most nations, health workers and the elderly…

Mar

06

2021

By The African Mirror

Cheers and hope as doctor gets Nigeria’s first COVID-19 vaccine

COVID-19

A doctor who has spent the past year treating COVID-19 patients has become the first person in Nigeria to be vaccinated against the disease, kicking off a mammoth campaign that aims to inoculate 80 million people this year. Vaccinating all of Nigeria's 200 million people and those in other developing countries is seen as key to stemming the global spread of the coronavirus. "I am happy to be the first and I am happy I am not the last," the doctor, 42-year-old Ngong Cyprian, told Reuters. "I want everybody to be vaccinated." Two other male doctors and one female nurse…

Mar

06

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Feeling great’: Kenya starts vaccinations

COVID-19

OMAR MOHAMMED KENYA began vaccinating people on Friday against COVID-19 with AstraZeneca shots hoped to help revive the battered tourism-dependent economy of East Africa's richest nation. "This may mark the beginning of the end of the pandemic," said Susan Mochache, a senior official at the health ministry. Nairobi received over a million AstraZeneca doses on Wednesday, the first of 3.56 million shots via the global, vaccine-sharing COVAX facility. Top of the list is 400,000 health staff and other essential workers. Kenya plans to vaccinate 1.25 million people by June and another 9.6 million in the next phase, with more vaccines…

Mar

07

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID-19 affects men and women differently. It’s important to track the data

HEALTH

THE African Population Health Research Centre, based in Kenya, has been mining data across 47 countries in Africa, tracking differences in COVID-19 infection, illness and deaths among men and women. Sylvia Muyingo lays-out their key findings and explains why tracking these data is important. SYLVIA KIWUWA MUYINGO, Associate research scientist/ Statistician, African Population and Health Research Center What did you set out to track? Why? I am part of a team that is tracking the latest COVID-19 global data broken down by sex, also known as sex-disaggregated data. It is the world’s largest database of sex-disaggregated data on COVID-19 and…

Mar

06

2021

By The African Mirror

How men can support maternal health: lessons from Rwanda

HEALTH

RWANDA has seen an improvement in public health over the past 20 years. The maternal health field has benefited greatly from such improvements. In particular, the country has seen a remarkable reduction in deaths related to pregnancy. But more must still be done to meet key national and international maternal health targets. Achieving continued improvement will require identifying and acting on new opportunities, including deepening men’s involvement in maternal health. GERMAINE TUYISENGE, Postdoctoral Fellow, Simon Fraser University VALORIE A. CROOKS, Professor, Department of Geography and Canada Research Chair in Health Service Geographies, Simon Fraser University In Rwanda, as with most…

Mar

05

2021

By The African Mirror

Most African countries to begin vaccinations by end of March

COVID-19

MOST African countries will kick-start their COVID-19 vaccination programs by the end of March as efforts to procure doses for the continent's 1.3 billion people gather pace, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday. The world's poorest continent faces logistical and financial obstacles to securing all the vaccines it needs, but the WHO-led COVAX facility has begun to bear fruit. "This week Africa has been at the forefront of COVAX facility deliveries, finally, with almost 10 million vaccine doses being delivered to 11 countries as of this morning," WHO Africa's Matshidiso Moeti told a virtual news conference. "We expect that…

Mar

05

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Waive vaccine patents to benefit the poor’

COVID-19

DENIS BALIBOUSE DOCTORS Without Borders (MSF) staged a protest at the World Trade Organization on Thursday against what it said was the rich world's reluctance to waive patents and allow more production of COVID-19 vaccines for poorer nations. Activists seeking a waiver of intellectual property rules unfurled a huge sign reading "No COVID Monopolies - Wealthy Countries Stop Blocking TRIPS Waiver" in the park next to WTO's headquarters on Lake Geneva. They want the terms of the TRIPS agreement -- the WTO's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property -- to be overridden to allow generic or other manufactures to make the…