HEALTH - The African Mirror

Sep

03

2020

Steroids cut COVID-19 death risk; hepatitis C drugs may help fight the coronavirus

HEALTH

NANCY LAPID THE following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Steroids reduce death risk from severe COVID-19 Treating critically ill COVID-19 patients with corticosteroid drugs reduces the risk of death by 20% regardless of which steroid is used, according to an analysis of seven international trials published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The analysis, which pooled data from separate trials of low dose hydrocortisone, dexamethasone and methylprednisolone, found that they improve survival…

Sep

30

2020

By The African Mirror

‘WTO should play role in COVID-19 medicine access’

COVID-19

EMMA FARGE A key contender to head the World Trade Organization thinks the body should play a role in helping poorer countries access COVID-19 drugs and vaccines, and this topic should be part of negotiations if she wins. Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, seen by delegates as a top candidate to lead the WTO, currently chairs the GAVI vaccine alliance board and stressed her credentials among five remaining candidates "at the intersection between public health and trade". "Trade can contribute to public health - seeing that connection, invoking those (WTO) rules, actively discussing COVID-19 issues and how WTO can help," the former…

Sep

29

2020

By The African Mirror

Global coronavirus deaths pass ‘agonizing milestone’ of 1 million

COVID-19

JANE WARDELL THE global death toll from COVID-19 rose past 1 million, according to a Reuters tally, a bleak milestone in a pandemic that has devastated the global economy, overloaded health systems and changed the way people live. The number of deaths from the novel coronavirus this year is now double the number of people who die annually from malaria - and the death rate has increased in recent weeks as infections surge in several countries. "Our world has reached an agonizing milestone," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. "It's a mind-numbing figure. Yet we must never lose…

Sep

29

2020

By The African Mirror

Most countries failing to address women’s needs during pandemic – UN

COVID-19

LISA OHLEN ONLY one in eight countries worldwide have brought in measures to specifically protect women from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a database of government responses to COVID-19 launched by two U.N. agencies on Monday. The crisis offers a chance to reshape societies for a fairer future, but many nations are failing to protect women and girls from pandemic-linked risks such as a surge in domestic abuse, said U.N. Women and the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP). "The COVID-19 pandemic is hitting women hard - as victims of domestic violence locked down with their abusers, as unpaid…

Sep

29

2020

By The African Mirror

Poorer countries to get 120 million $5 coronavirus tests, WHO says

COVID-19

EMMA FARGE and KATE KELLAND SOME 120 million rapid diagnostic tests for coronavirus will be made available to low- and middle-income countries at a maximum of $5 each, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced. The wider availability of quick, reliable and inexpensive testing will help 133 countries to track infections and contain the spread, closing the gap with wealthy ones, it said. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the manufacturers Abbott and SD Biosensor had agreed with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to "make 120 million of these new, highly portable and easy-to-use rapid COVID-19 diagnostic tests available…

Sep

29

2020

By The African Mirror

Kenya extends COVID curfew for 2 months but reduces hours

COVID-19

DUNCAN MIRIRI KENYA’S President Uhuru Kenyatta has extended for two months a nationwide curfew intended to curb the coronavirus but relaxed the starting time by two hours until 11 p.m. Kenyatta, who said the COVID-19 infections curve had been flattened, also lifted a ban on the sale of alcohol in restaurants and bars. The restrictions will be reviewed again in 60 days, he said. He also said the finance minister would extend tax relief measures unveiled in April until January 2021. Kenya has had 38,115 cases of the virus and 691 deaths since its first case on March 13. The…

Sep

28

2020

By The African Mirror

After battling TB and COVID-19, a South African doctor reaches breaking point

COVID-19

KIM HARRISBERG ZOLELWA Sifumba described the daily injection she got to treat tuberculosis as feeling like hot lava being pumped slowly into her body, leaving the young South African doctor with crippling joint pain and incessant nausea. She thought her 18-month fight against multidrug-resistant tuberculosis was a career low-point until - five years on - she fell ill with COVID-19 and acute anxiety while working on the pandemic frontlines with scant protective equipment and support. "I'm tired of almost dying all the time," said Sifumba, 29, who blogs and campaigns on doctors' health issues, speaking from the Durban psychiatric hospital…

Sep

28

2020

By The African Mirror

COVID-19 and HIV: so far it seems the outcome is not what was feared

COVID-19

BURTRAM C. FIELDING, Professor and Director: Research Development, University of the Western Cape BASED on official figures – which may be somewhat under-reported – COVID-19 has not been as devastating in South Africa as initially feared. Back in March and April this year case numbers on the continent were still modest. But predictions and projections were sombre. There seemed to be consensus that African countries had weak public health systems and few testing facilities, and containment and social distancing were going to be problematic in poor communities. More specifically, local and international organisations pointed to the fact that these areas…

Sep

27

2020

By The African Mirror

How to certify a region as wild polio-free: Interview with Professor Rose Leke

HEALTH

AFTER the World Health Assembly (WHO) passed a resolution to eradicate polio worldwide in 1988, the Global Certification Commission led the way in establishing a formal process for certifying regions polio-free, asking each of the six WHO regions to set up a Regional Certification Commission. That year, the WHO Regional Director for Africa created the Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) for Polio Eradication: a 16-person independent body tasked with overseeing this process, and later on containment activities in the African region. While certification of wild polio eradication is done at a regional, not national, level, countries can be declared as…

Sep

27

2020

By The African Mirror

“It weighs you down,” Congo COVID-19 survivor recounts

COVID-19

YAFFA Fatoumata hoped that the fever and the sore throat she was suffering were just signs of a passing flu. However, when the symptoms persisted, the26-year-old legal assistant in Republic of the Congo’s Ministry of Communication decided to get tested for COVID-19. Two days after the test, her results turned out positive for the virus. “I was very stressed because it’s a disease that’s still not really understood,” he says. “I also felt guilty that I had exposed my family.” Since local authorities confirmed Congo’s first case of COVID-19 on 14 March, the country has registered over 5000 cases and…