HEALTH - The African Mirror

Nov

02

2020

COVID stress syndrome: 5 ways the pandemic is affecting mental health

HEALTH

GORDON J. G. ASMUNDSON, Professor of Psychology, University of Regina IN addition to its staggering impact on physical well-being and mortality, COVID-19 is also taking an unprecedented toll on our mental health. Numerous recent studies have shown global increases in the prevalence and severity of depression and anxiety as well as increases in post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse. These increases likely stem from the changes to daily life we have all been asked to make in attempts to mitigate viral spread. Yet conventional mental health approaches and diagnoses do not fully capture the nuanced mental health impacts of this…

Nov

02

2020

By The African Mirror

Nigeria needs innovation and science investment to help control COVID-19

COVID-19

NIGERIA, like other African countries, wasn’t spared from the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. To overcome this challenge, countries have been advised to keep testing, treating and isolating to reduce infections. CHRISTIAN HAPPI, Professor of Molecular Biology and Genomics, Redeemer's University IFEYINWA ANIEBO, Research fellow (Harvard Takemi fellow), Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Nigeria has been expanding its capacity to test. The country’s laboratories can carry out about 18,000 tests per million daily, but this can be improved. The country ought to be doing about 40,000 - 50,000 tests daily. Nigeria successfully controlled Ebola and is applying some…

Nov

01

2020

By The African Mirror

Can solar fridges help deliver a COVID-19 vaccine to Africans?

COVID-19

PEYTON FLEMING DOZENS of children at a clinic in North Kivu, on the eastern border of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), received a measles vaccine in May, made possible by a quiet revolution in refrigeration that keeps vaccines cold, even in places without reliable electric power. The "solar direct-drive" refrigerators – plain, box-like coolers that do not require fuel or batteries - have helped boost child vaccinations in DRC's poorest rural provinces by 50% in the past year, according to global vaccine alliance Gavi. That has helped cut child mortality in DRC to half of what it was two…

Nov

01

2020

By The African Mirror

Scientists propose tax on meat and livestock to help avert future pandemics

HEALTH

THIN LEI WIN POLICY makers should consider levying taxes on livestock production and meat consumption to reduce the risk of future deadly pandemics, international experts have said, as they published a study calling for better protection of nature. "Over-consumption of meat... (is) bad for our health. It's unsustainable in terms of environmental impact. It's also a driver of pandemic risk," Peter Daszak, a zoologist who chaired the study, told journalists at its launch. Outbreaks of influenza viruses and new pandemic strains have emerged largely because of "incredibly dense production of poultry and pigs in some parts of the world, driven…

Oct

14

2020

By The African Mirror

Mozambique’s health minister tests positive for coronavirus

COVID-19

MOZAMBIQUE’S health minister, Armindo Tiago, has tested positive for COVID-19, he said in a statement, adding that he was well, however, showing no symptoms, and in isolation at home. "I am infected, but not sick," Tiago said. "No one in this world can say that they are immune to the new coronavirus." The southeast African nation has reported 10,258 infections, with 73 deaths.

Oct

14

2020

By The African Mirror

J&J says review of illness that led to coronavirus vaccine trial pause could take days

COVID-19

CARL O’DONNELL and MANAS MISHRA JOHNSON & Johnson has announced that it would take at least a few days for an independent safety panel to evaluate an unexplained illness of a study participant that led to a pause in the company's COVID-19 vaccine trial. J&J shares fell more than 2% following news of the pause and safety review. Rival AstraZeneca Plc's U.S. trial for its coronavirus vaccine candidate - which uses a similar technology - has remained on hold for more than a month after a participant in the company's UK trial fell ill. J&J, whose vaccine effort is among…

Oct

13

2020

By The African Mirror

Pandemic can be overcome quickly with right tools – WHO

COVID-19

THE global COVID-19 pandemic can be overcome quickly if countries use the right tools, the head of the World Health Organisation has said, but warned that if those tools were not used it would remain for a long time. "If we use the tools we have at hand properly, we can end it soon," WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during the Financial Times' online Africa summit, adding a vaccine was expected late 2020 or early next year. "If we don't use the tools we have at hand properly, then it could linger with us, it could stay with…

Oct

13

2020

By The African Mirror

Pandemic adds to war in keeping Libyan children out of school

COVID-19

THEIR young lives already disrupted by war, Libyan school children face even bigger obstacles to their education during the global pandemic than young people elsewhere. With the number of cases surging unhindered across the North African country schools have tried different tactics from opening outside to seeking donations for extra disinfectants and facemasks to allow teaching indoors. However, even those who have had no teaching for six months, or much prospect of it during the rest of this year, will have to pass an exam in order to progress to the next grade, the authorities have said. "Students did not…

Oct

13

2020

By The African Mirror

‘Corona carriers’: Stigma halts medication and meet-ups for HIV+ Malawians

COVID-19

CHARLES PENSULO MALAWIAN student Kondwani has fought against the stigma of being HIV-positive for most of his life, but COVID-19 has reignited old prejudices and given rise to a new term of abuse - "corona carrier". A widely held misconception that HIV-positive people are at high risk of catching the coronavirus is fueling discrimination and making it harder for them to access the medical care they need, health activists in the southern African country said. Kondwani, 24, said it was also spreading anxiety among the 1.1 million people who live with HIV in Malawi - which has one of the…

Oct

12

2020

By The African Mirror

UK study tests if BCG vaccine protects against COVID

COVID-19

THE widely used BCG tuberculosis vaccine will be tested on frontline care workers in Britain for its effectiveness against COVID-19, researchers running the UK arm of a global trial said. Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, used to protect against tuberculosis, induces a broad innate immune-system response and has been shown to protect against infection or severe illness with other respiratory pathogens. "BCG has been shown to boost immunity in a generalised way, which may offer some protection against COVID-19," Professor John Campbell, of the University of Exeter Medical School, said. "We are seeking to establish whether the BCG vaccine could help…