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Dec
02
2020
By The African Mirror
‘A shot can end the stigma’: African women pin hopes on anti-HIV jab

‘A shot can end the stigma’: African women pin hopes on anti-HIV jab

HEALTH
NITA BHALLA  KENYAN sex worker Silvia does not much like the large, oblong-shaped blue pill she takes with her porridge every morning. While the daily tablets of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drastically cut her risk of getting HIV, they bring with it stigma and even violence due to the common misconception that the drug is taken by people who already have the virus. "I was beaten up by a client who found the pills in my handbag. He thought I had AIDS and accused me of giving it to him and hit me on the head with bar stool. I ended…
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Dec
02
2020
By The African Mirror
COVID-19 vaccine trials in Africa: what’s promising, and what’s problematic

COVID-19 vaccine trials in Africa: what’s promising, and what’s problematic

COVID-19
SCIENTISTS are working around the clock to develop and test vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19. Experts agree that widespread use of safe and effective vaccines will rapidly contain the COVID-19 pandemic, preventing transmission and disease. BENJAMIN KAGINA, Senior Research Officer, Vaccines For Africa Initiative, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town A key step in the process of any vaccine development is clinical testing, which involves assigning a vaccine or a placebo to human subjects, then evaluating the health effects over a period of time. This testing helps to demonstrate safety in diverse human populations living…
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Dec
02
2020
By The African Mirror
COVID R&D Alliance launches trial of Amgen, UCB, Takeda drugs

COVID R&D Alliance launches trial of Amgen, UCB, Takeda drugs

COVID-19
DEENA BEASLEY AMGEN Inc, UCB SA and Takeda Pharmaceuticals Inc has launched a global trial to identify whether any of three different drugs can reduce the severity of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients by moderating the immune system's response to the disease. The drugmakers are part of the COVID Research & Development Alliance, a group of more than 20 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies cooperating to speed development of therapies for the disease that has killed more than 1.4 million people worldwide. The study initially will test whether Amgen's psoriasis drug Otezla, Takeda's experimental anti-inflammatory lanadelumab, and UCB's experimental immune system-inhibitor zilucoplan…
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Dec
02
2020
By The African Mirror
Eswatini’s Prime Minister moved to South African hospital for coronavirus treatment

Eswatini’s Prime Minister moved to South African hospital for coronavirus treatment

COVID-19
ESWATINI Prime Minister Ambrose Dlamini, who tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks ago, has been transferred to a hospital in neighbouring South Africa for further treatment, the tiny absolute monarchy's government has announced. The country's Deputy Prime Minister, Themba Masuku, said in a statement Dlamini was moved to "guide and fast track his recovery". The southern African nation of around 1.2 million people has so far recorded 6,419 positive cases of the highly infectious respiratory disease, with 122 confirmed deaths, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). - Thomson Reuters Foundation.    
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Dec
01
2020
By The African Mirror
Malaria death toll to exceed COVID-19’s in sub-Saharan Africa -WHO

Malaria death toll to exceed COVID-19’s in sub-Saharan Africa -WHO

HEALTH
KATE KELLAND DEATHS from malaria due to disruptions during the coronavirus pandemic to services designed to tackle the mosquito-borne disease will far exceed those killed by COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa, the World Health Organization has warned. More than 409,000 people globally - most of them babies in the poorest parts of Africa - were killed by malaria last year, the WHO said in its latest global malaria report, and COVID-19 will almost certainly make that toll higher in 2020. "Our estimates are that depending on the level of service disruption (due to COVID-19) ... there could be an excess of…
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Dec
01
2020
By The African Mirror
Novavax sees start of U.S. COVID-19 vaccine trial in coming weeks after second delay

Novavax sees start of U.S. COVID-19 vaccine trial in coming weeks after second delay

COVID-19
VACCINE maker Novavax Inc has pushed back the start of a U.S.-based, late-stage trial for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine and now expects it to begin in the coming weeks instead of November, the company has announced. It is the second time that Novavax, which already has a late-stage UK trial underway, has rescheduled the Phase 3 trial after first flagging an October start, hampered by issues in scaling up its manufacturing. Shares of the U.S.-based company, which lags behind larger rivals Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc in their COVID-19 vaccine development timelines, fell 6% on the latest delay. Novavax plans…
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Dec
01
2020
By The African Mirror
WHO worried COVID “amnesia” will lead to another pandemic

WHO worried COVID “amnesia” will lead to another pandemic

COVID-19
THE world risked future pandemics if it suffered "amnesia" and did not learn from the current coronavirus crisis, a World Health Organization's top emergency expert has warned. "I have seen the amnesia that seems to descend upon the world after a traumatic event, and that's understandable," Mike Ryan told a briefing in Geneva. "But if we do this again like we did after SARS, like we did after H5N1, like we did after H1N1 pandemic, if we continue to ignore the realities of what emerging and dangerous pathogens can do to our civilization, then we are likely to experience the…
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Dec
01
2020
By The African Mirror
Q&A: Where are we in the COVID-19 vaccine race?

Q&A: Where are we in the COVID-19 vaccine race?

COVID-19
LARGE global trials of several COVID-19 vaccine candidates involving tens of thousands of participants are well underway with some having gathered sufficient data to seek emergency use authorisation. The following is what we know about the race to deliver vaccines to help end the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 1.45 million lives worldwide: Who is furthest along? U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE released a full late-stage trial data analysis on Nov. 18 that showed their shot was 95% effective at stopping COVID-19, the highest efficacy rate so far. U.S. pharmaceutical company Moderna released its…
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Nov
30
2020
By The African Mirror
Nurses are playing a bigger role than ever in the fight against HIV – they deserve more support

Nurses are playing a bigger role than ever in the fight against HIV – they deserve more support

HEALTH
THE World Health Organisation marked 2020 as the year of the nurse and the midwife. As this challenging year comes to a close, it is imperative to reflect on the resilience and impact of nurses in the fight against the HIV epidemic. JERRY JOHN NUTOR, Assistant Professor, Family Health Care Nursing, University of California, San Francisco The first cases of HIV were reported in 1981. Since then, nurses all over the world have been at the forefront of the fight against the epidemic. They have stepped up to provide skilled care for those infected and affected by the virus. An…
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