polio - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

Texas man who lived seven decades in iron lung dies at age 78

A paralyzed Texas man who lived 70 years inside an iron lung after he survived polio as a child has died, his family said. Paul Alexander, 78, died on Monday, his brother Philip said in a post on Facebook. He gave no cause of death. "It was an honour to be part of someone's life who was as admired as he was. He touched and inspired millions of people and that is no exaggeration," Philip Alexander wrote in a post on Tuesday. Alexander was six years old when he was placed in a full-body metal cylinder known as an iron…

Apr

2023

By CHARLES WACHIRA, BIRD STORY AGENCY

This startup is offering opportunities to People with Disabilities

NEWS

AT just two years of age, Fredrick Ouko contracted polio. The disease left him with both of his legs permanently damaged. It has also left him determined to ensure that people with disabilities get equal opportunities. Today, the 40-year-old identifies with the 2.2% of his fellow countrymen and women living with some form of disability. "I have known nothing else save for my physical disability. And that is why I clearly understand the potential "my kind" possess. But routinely they are denied employment opportunities because of their disability," says Ouko, founder and director of Riziki Source. Riziki Source is a…

Apr

2023

By The African Mirror

Polio: leading virologist offers a beginner’s guide to the different viruses and vaccines

HEALTH

ON 17 March 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that health officials in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) had detected cases of vaccine-derived poliovirus. The WHO said the Burundian government had declared the detection of the virus a national public health emergency after three cases were confirmed. The Conversation Africa’s Wale Fatade spoke to virologist Oyewale Tomori, who maps out the terrain of polioviruses, and their mutations, as well as what’s happening on the vaccine front. Author OYEWALE TOMORI, Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Science Can you talk us through the various polioviruses? There are two types…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Messenger RNA: how it works in nature and in making vaccines

HEALTH

VACCINES have long been an integral part of public health programmes around the world, reducing the spread and severity of infectious diseases. The success of immunisation strategies to protect children from diseases like polio, hepatitis B, and measles, and adults from influenza and pneumococcal disease, can be seen globally. KRISTIE BLOOM, Group Leader: Next-generation Vaccines, Antiviral Gene Therapy Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand The COVID-19 pandemic created an urgent need for an effective vaccine. This is where messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, which are classified as a next-generation technology, gained prominence. Decades of research and clinical development into synthetic mRNA…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Solar technologies can speed up vaccine rollout in Africa. Here’s how

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

THER'S hope that some industrialised countries will achieve near-universal vaccination against COVID-19 in the coming months. Yet the effort to vaccinate even the most essential workers in developing countries has only just begun. By current estimates, achieving herd immunity (to current strains) will require at least 75% of the world’s population to be vaccinated. Some developing countries haven’t reached that level of coverage even for common vaccine-preventable diseases like measles and polio. CYRUS SINAI, PhD student, Department of Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ROB FETTER, Senior Policy Associate, Energy Access Project, Duke University Many low-income countries will…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

How ending polio in Africa has had positive spinoffs for public health

HEALTH

CHARLES SHEY WIYSONGE, Director, Cochrane South Africa, South African Medical Research Council POLIO is a highly infectious disease. It’s caused by a virus that enters the body through the mouth. The virus then multiplies in the intestine and attacks the central nervous system – causing paralysis. Polio was one of the most dreaded diseases in the world in the 20th century. Four decades ago, an estimated 350,000 people were paralysed each year by the poliovirus in more than 125 countries. This led the World Health Assembly in 1988 to adopt a resolution for the worldwide eradication of polio, drawing inspiration…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

The eradication of polio in Africa holds lessons on beating COVID-19

HEALTH

MOHAMMED MUKHIER and MATSHIDISO MOETI Africa has reached a momentous milestone which underlines that the continent can overcome seemingly impossible health challenges such as COVID-19. Today (25 August) an independent body of experts has certified the World Health Organization (WHO) African Region as free of wild poliovirus. This is only the second virus in history to be eradicated from the continent since the eradication of smallpox 40 years ago. The achievement—which comes after years of collective effort and determined progress—provides crucial lessons to sustain immunization generally, and to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Our first lesson during the campaign…