malaria - The African Mirror

Feb

2024

Fiorentina’s Kouame treated for malaria

FIORENTINA winger Christian Kouame has been treated in hospital for malaria, the Italian Serie A club said. The 26-year-old was in the Ivory Coast squad that won the recent Africa Cup of Nations and played in the quarter-finals. "Christian has gone into hospital to receive treatment and will continue to be assessed over the coming days," Fiorentina said in a statement. Fiorentina are seventh in Serie A with 38 points. Kouame has played 22 matches for them this season, scoring one goal and providing one assist.

Jan

2024

By BONFACE ORUCHO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Cabo Verde’s malaria victory is a blueprint for Africa

HEALTH

CABO Verde has achieved a significant milestone in the battle against malaria, securing malaria-free certification from the World Health Organization (WHO). In news released on Friday, January 12, WHO explained that indigenous malaria transmission by Anopheles mosquitoes across the archipelago of 10 islands has been halted nationwide for the past three consecutive years. The country's certification is the fourth on the continent, following Mauritius, Morocco, and Algeria in 1973, 2010, and 2019, respectively. Globally, 43 countries now hold malaria-free certifications. According to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO's Director-General, "WHO’s certification of Cabo Verde as malaria-free is a testament to the power…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

From fatal allergies to heart attacks and malaria – the devastating health effects of global warming in Africa

HEALTH

THE winds that whip the towns of the Eastern Cape in South Africa have the power to generate energy. But on a dry, hot day, those winds can gather up embers and dump them into tinder-dry savannah and forest, destroying crops, fodder and homes, and taking lives. LENORE MANDERSON, Distinguished Professor, Public Health and Medical Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand Wildfires create their own weather systems, generating fire storms with devastating effects. Global warming will increase the number of days of shimmering heat, creating the ideal conditions for fire. In the past months, southern Europe and North Africa have experienced…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

Malaria: two groundbreaking vaccines have been developed, but access and rollout are still big stumbling blocks

HEALTH

THE approval of two malaria vaccines – the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine in 2021 and the R21/Matrix-MTM vaccine in 2023 – will help control, and eventually help eradicate, a disease that causes more than 600,000 deaths annually. Nearly 2 million children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have been vaccinated with the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine. It will be rolled out to more African countries from early next year. The second vaccine, R21/Matrix-MTM, approved by the World Health Organization in October, will be ready for rollout in mid-2024. Rose Leke, winner of the 2023 Virchow Prize for her lifetime achievement in strengthening global health and…

Nov

2023

By The African Mirror

Antibiotic resistance causes more deaths than malaria and HIV/Aids combined. What Africa is doing to fight this silent epidemic

HEALTH

EACH year antimicrobial resistance – the ability of microbes to survive agents designed to kill them – claims more lives than malaria and HIV/Aids combined. Africa bears the brunt of this development, which thrives on inequality and poverty. Nadine Dreyer asked Tom Nyirenda, a research scientist with over 27 years’ experience in infectious diseases, what health organisations on the continent are doing to fight this threat to medical progress. TOM NYIRENDA, Extraordinary Senior Lecture in the Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch University What is antimicrobial resistance? Antimicrobial resistance occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no…

Oct

2023

By BONFACE ORUCHO & MASBÉ NDENGAR, BIRD STORY AGENCY

This Burkinabe researcher wants his groundbreaking work to wipe out malaria, altogether

HEALTH

ON a busy morning in the Nagrin district of Ouagadougou. Balkissa Wangrawa, a Burkinabe community-based health volunteer, keenly scouts through residential blocks for possible mosquito breeding areas. He identifies a pool of stagnant shower water from an adjacent bathing area that allows water to flow into an open field. As he walks by, he gets a definite whiff of the unpleasant stench from stagnant wastewater and then he hears the buzzing of a swarm of mosquitoes. Wangrawa is one of some 15,000 healthcare workers and volunteers implementing Burkina Faso's latest government-led seasonal malaria prevention campaign (CPS+). The campaign involves the…

Jul

2023

By The African Mirror

Nine new African countries to receive millions of malaria vaccines, GAVI says

HEALTH

GLOBAL vaccine alliance GAVI said 12 countries in Africa would receive 18 million doses of malaria vaccine over the next two years, expanding access to the shots to nine new countries in the region. Malaria remains one of the continent's deadliest diseases, killing nearly half a million children each year under the age of five. In 2021, Africa accounted for about 95% of global malaria cases and 96% of deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). "At least 28 African countries have expressed interest in receiving the RTS,S (malaria) vaccine," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a media…

May

2023

By The African Mirror

African scientists are working to pool data that decodes diseases – a giant step

HEALTH

INFECTIOUS disease outbreaks in African countries are, unfortunately, all too common. Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Uganda; Marburg virus in Guinea or Equatorial Guinea; cholera in Malawi; malaria and tuberculosis are among them. These diseases do not respect human-made or porous borders. So it’s essential that scientists in Africa are able to generate and share critical data on the pathogens in time to inform public-health decisions. Authors ALAN CHRISTOFFELS, Director South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape SOFONIAS KIFLE TESSEMA, Program Lead for Pathogen Genomics at the Africa CDC Genomic sequencing technologies are…

Jul

2022

By The African Mirror

COVID gives the fight against malaria, NTDs a shot in the arm

COVID-19

SETH ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY AT the Kigali Summit last month, states, donors and pharmaceutical pledged over US$4 billion of new funding to end malaria and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). It was the first in a series of commitments to bolster progress against the aforementioned diseases in Africa where malaria still kills thousands. Nature journal analysis shows there were an estimated 241 million cases of malaria and 627,000 deaths globally, with 95 per cent of these cases reported in Africa. But this could change as governments, using lessons learned to battle coronavirus, cooperate and adapt healthcare systems in an invigorated…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Progress against a neglected tropical disease in east Africa is under threat

HEALTH

ELEVEN years ago, in the rugged hills of West Pokot County in Kenya, Mary Alamak, a mother of four, fell ill with the parasitic disease kala-azar while she was pregnant. Her weight fell from 80 to 45 kgs in a matter of weeks. She feared for the life of her baby and her own. At the Kacheliba District Hospital, she could get diagnosed, and treated with AmBisome injections. She was cured and regained weight – and her baby was saved. MONIQUE WASUNNA, Researcher, Kenya Medical Research Institute I have met many patients like Mary in my 30-year experience in the…