HEALTH - The African Mirror

Oct

17

2020

South Africa’s coronavirus cases cross 700,000, says health ministry

COVID-19

SOUTH African coronavirus cases reported since the first infection in early March surpassed 700,000, the health ministry has announced, amid fears of an impending second wave as the nation battles an economic recession. Some 2,019 new cases were identified, taking the total to 700,203 the ministry said. There have been 18,370 deaths in South Africa, while 629,260 people have recovered from COVID-19 and 4,505,553 have been tested. The health ministry had recently warned of a second wave of the pandemic in the country of 58 million people if citizens and authorities become complacent and stop taking precautions. After a sharp…

Oct

17

2020

By The African Mirror

COVID-19 job losses: Malawi migrants return empty-handed from South Africa

COVID-19

CHARLES PENSULO SIPHAT SIMALI imagined that when she finally got back to Malawi she would return with pride and enough earnings from South Africa to support her two children and start a small business. Instead, the 28-year-old former domestic worker was bussed home empty-handed and shamefaced, one of a thousand to return last month after mass job losses in South Africa's lockdown. Nearly 10,000 Malawians have made the long journey home from South Africa since May, according to Malawi's Department of Disaster Management Affairs, with more due in coming months as the coronavirus eats deeper into the world economy. "I…

Oct

17

2020

By The African Mirror

Nearly 200 at school in Nigeria’s Lagos test positive for COVID-19

COVID-19

A total of 181 students and staff at a private boarding school in the Nigerian capital Lagos have tested positive for coronavirus, according to state health authorities. Authorities said there had been a "minor but significant" outbreak among the 441 staff and students at the school in the suburb of Lekki and said most of the now-quarantined positive cases were asymptomatic. Lagos State Commissioner for Health Akin Abayomi said in a statement posted on Twitter that the cases came to light after a 14-year-old girl fell sick on October 3. She tested positive for COVID-19 on October 6, prompting state…

Oct

17

2020

By The African Mirror

Crippled by lake’s fluoride waters, Kenyan women struggle to survive

HEALTH

DOMINIC KIRUI FOR 50 years, Ester Yokoi has been drinking water from Kenya's Lake Baringo, and for 50 years it has been poisoning her. Yokoi is one of several thousand villagers to develop a bone-weakening disease due to the lake's dangerously high fluoride levels, officials said, leaving her unable to walk and too poor to afford medication, or even safe drinking water. "I still drink the same water from the lake... What do you do when you're thirsty?" said Yokoi, 50, who lost the use of her legs 30 years ago. Nowadays, the mother-of-six drags herself along the ground to…

Oct

16

2020

By The African Mirror

WHO vaccine drive bedevilled by a familiar question: who pays if things go wrong?

COVID-19

FRANCESCO GUARASCIO WHO foots the bill if people in poor countries fall sick with unexpected side-effects from coronavirus vaccines? It's not clear and that's a big problem in the battle to beat COVID-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) has so far left the question of financial claims unresolved as it seeks to ensure shots are fairly distributed around the world, according to confidential documents reviewed by Reuters and six people familiar with discussions. A similar situation emerged during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009-10. Back then, fears about potential compensation costs stymied the WHO's efforts to get vaccines to…

Oct

15

2020

By The African Mirror

Training can improve patient and health worker safety in sub-Saharan Africa

HEALTH

MEDICAL technology has made great advances. Yet, patients are often harmed while receiving medical care. Globally four out of 10 patients are harmed in primary and outpatient care. Furthermore, 15% of total hospital activity and expenditure is a direct result of adverse events or irregularities in healthcare delivery. PAUL KADETZ, Associate Professor , University of Global Health Equity ABEBE BEKELE, Dean of the School of Medicine, University of Global Health Equity AGNES BINAGWAHO, Vice Chancellor, University of Global Health Equity Worldwide, there are more than five avoidable deaths every minute as a result of mistakes made by healthcare providers. These…

Oct

15

2020

By The African Mirror

South Africa’s Biovac in talks to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines

COVID-19

WENDELL ROELF and ALEXANDER WINNING A South African company part-owned by the government is in talks with the global COVID-19 vaccine distribution scheme and pharmaceutical companies to produce some of the vaccines the country needs to protect itself against the disease. The Biovac Institute, a Cape Town-based joint venture between the government and private sector, could produce up to 30 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines per year, depending on the technology involved, Chief Executive Morena Makhoana told Reuters. Depending on whether the vaccines require a one- or two-dose regimen, that could be enough for a quarter or half of South…

Oct

15

2020

By The African Mirror

Thousands more underfed children may die due to COVID

COVID-19

AN extra 10,000 children per month may die this year from malnutrition due to the COVID-19 crisis, the head of the World Health Organisation has warned. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a U.N Food and Agriculture (FAO) conference that due to the pandemic he expected a 14% rise in cases of severe child malnutrition this year - or 6.7 million more people - mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. "We cannot accept a world where the rich have access to healthy diets while the poor are left behind... the rich can afford to stay home, the poor must go out…

Nov

16

2020

By The African Mirror

Algeria to reimpose restrictions after coronavirus cases rise

COVID-19

ALGERIA will reimpose restrictions to combat the spread of COVID-19 from November 17, including closing gyms, cultural centres, leisure venues and used car markets, and limiting opening hours for some businesses, the prime minister's office said on Sunday. The new measures are aimed at coping with "the worrying phase that the country is experiencing in terms of the evolution of the epidemiological situation," it said in a statement. Under the restrictions, businesses such as cafes, restaurants, hair salons and toy shops will be ordered to close at 3:00 p.m. The North African country had started easing restrictions in June after…

Nov

15

2020

By The African Mirror

Vaccine alliance secures $2 bln to fund COVID shots for poor nations

COVID-19

KATE KELLAND and STEPHANIE NEBEHAY A facility set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the GAVI vaccine group has exceeded an interim target of raising more than $2 billion to buy and distribute COVID-19 shots for poorer countries but said it still needs more. The GAVI alliance has announced that the funds for an advance market commitment (AMC) will allow the COVAX facility to buy an initial one billion vaccine doses for 92 eligible countries which would not otherwise be able to afford them. "We've seen sovereign and private donors from across the world dig deep and meet…