health workers - The African Mirror

May

2023

By YOGAN PILLAY, FLAVIA SENKUBUGE, LUCY GILSON, SAIENDHRA MOODLEY and SUZI MALAN

Health workers cope with a huge amount of stress – how to build a resilient health system in South Africa

POPULAR and academic literature is replete with examples of how to cope with daily stresses. Mental health professions have also long researched and implemented strategies to deal with burnout from workplace stressors. Coping with stress is not a new phenomenon. But COVID-19 and the responses to the pandemic have increased our attention on how people and systems cope with stress-inducing shocks. This should not surprise us given the impact of COVID-19 on almost every aspect of our lives. There are indications that many people and countries are still struggling to emerge from its shadow. Resilience is a relatively new area…

Apr

2023

By READE LEVINSON

More women describe enduring forced abortions in Nigerian Army programme

NEWS

AS a Nigerian human rights commission holds hearings on reports of a mass, army-run forced abortion programme in the country’s war-torn northeast, two more women have told Reuters that they underwent abortions in military custody without their consent. The accounts of the two women, who said they met by chance at a wedding outside Nigeria, buttress the testimony of more than 30 other women and girls who told Reuters they endured forced abortions during the government’s nearly 14-year war against Islamist insurgents. Their stories also align with accounts of soldiers and health workers involved in the clandestine army scheme. Reuters revealed…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Somaliland agree on ceasefire

NEWS

ABDIQANI HASSAN THE administration of Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland said late it had agreed to an unconditional ceasefire, following five days of clashes in the east of the territory that health workers say have killed dozens of people. Heavy fighting broke out between Somaliland forces and militiamen in and around the town of Las Anod, the administrative centre of the Sool region, on Monday after local leaders said they wanted to rejoin federal Somalia.Advertisement · Scroll to continue Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but has not gained widespread international recognition for its status, and has faced opposition from…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

COVAX vaccines reach 102 countries

COVID-19

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY THE COVAX vaccine facility has delivered nearly 38.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 102 countries and economies across six continents, six weeks after it began to roll out supplies, according to a statement yesterday. The programme offers a lifeline to low-income countries, in particular, allowing them in the first instance to inoculate health workers and others at high risk, even if their governments have not managed to secure vaccines from the manufacturers. But there have been some delays, the GAVI vaccine alliance and World Health Organization said in a statement. Reduced availability of delayed some deliveries in…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

No vaccine yet, for “careful” Ugandan leader

COVID-19

UGANDA’S President Yoweri Museveni has said he has not yet been vaccinated against COVID-19 because he is "careful" and is still weighing which jab to take, days after the East African country began its inoculation campaign. The apparent hesitation may fuel already significant vaccine scepticism in the country, which is in the earliest stages of its roll out of the jab. Many African countries have struggled to get doses and have not administered a single shot. Uganda began vaccinating health workers and the elderly last week after receiving 864,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from COVAX, the World Health Organisation-backed programme…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Jumping the COVID-19 vaccine line

COVID-19

LIN TAYLOR WHEN two little old ladies in bonnets and gloves arrived for a COVID-19 vaccine shot in Florida, health workers sensed something was not quite right. The women – who turned out to be aged in their 30s and 40s and had “dressed up as grannies” in an effort to get vaccines reserved for vulnerable elderly people – are among a growing number of people trying to cheat or game the system to get early access to scarce shots. VIP vaccine access scandals have also forced the resignation of ministers in Argentina and Peru this week. But fines and…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa aims to immunise 500,000 health workers in J&J study, scientist says

COVID-19

WENDELL ROELF SOUTH Africa aims to immunise between 350,000 and 500,000 health workers with Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine in an "implementation study" to further evaluate the shot, the president of the country's Medical Research Council said. Glenda Gray, co-lead investigator on the local leg of a J&J global trial, told Reuters South Africa expected to get batches of around 80,000 doses every seven to 14 days for the study, once it is approved. The implementation study would be aimed at further evaluating J&J's vaccine in the field and would be akin to a phase IIIb study, Gray said. J&J's…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Rural South African nurses fear being forgotten in vaccine roll-out

COVID-19

SOUTH African nurses called on the government on Monday to ensure overstretched workers in rural clinics and hospitals get access to COVID-19 vaccines as the hard-hit country received its first batch of doses. Rural nurses have reported shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks during the pandemic and - with few detailed announcements about inoculation plans for remote areas - many fear they could be last in line. “Healthcare workers’ hands are full as we speak, we are very concerned about overstretching them to breaking point,” said Sibongiseni Delihlazo, spokesman for the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA),…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Why Ebola survivors like me can help fight COVID-19

NEWS

ANASTASIA MOLONEY AFTER losing his sister to Ebola and narrowly surviving the disease himself, health worker Sherry Bangura is on a mission to spread awareness about COVID-19 and stop it spreading., About one in three Ebola patients survived the outbreak which killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa between 2013 and 2016. Bangura, 32, from Sierra Leone, says survivors like him are in a unique position to educate others about their experience and the importance of hygiene and vaccines. As countries gear up to roll out COVID-19 vaccines, Bangura is on the frontlines -- one of millions of health…