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Ebola: Uganda’s schools were closed for two years during COVID, now they face more closures – something must change

Ebola: Uganda’s schools were closed for two years during COVID, now they face more closures – something must change

CHILDREN in Uganda missed out on more schools because of the COVID pandemic than their peers anywhere else in the world. An estimated 15 million pupils in the East African nation did not attend school for 83 weeks – that’s almost two years. Statistical models predict a learning deficit of 2.8 years in Uganda because of the time lost through COVID-related closures. Authors SIMONE DATZBERGER, Assistant Professor in Education and International Development, UCL MUSENZE JUNIOR BRIAN, PhD Fellow, Makerere Institute of Social Research, Makerere University Now the education system has been hit by another public health emergency. In early November…
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COVID: a two-year journey through lockdowns, lives lost and life-saving research

COVID: a two-year journey through lockdowns, lives lost and life-saving research

IT'S been two years since the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and its disease, COVID-19 were declared a global public health emergency. During this period, there have been over 433 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, including over 6 million deaths, reported to the World Health Organization. The pandemic changed life across the globe, through lockdowns, sickness and lives lost. It also sparked life-saving research and analysis. The Conversation Africa brings you some of the highlights of its coverage of variants, vaccines, lockdowns and their effects over the period – and what what’s been learned about health systems, policy making and humanity. Authors…
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Like COVID, TB is a pandemic and must be treated as an emergency

Like COVID, TB is a pandemic and must be treated as an emergency

IN 1993, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared tuberculosis (TB) a global public health emergency. It urged nations to coordinate efforts to avert millions of deaths. Author RICHARD E. CHAISSON, Director, Center for Tuberculosis Research, Johns Hopkins University In January 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19, another airborne infectious disease, a public health emergency of international concern. The similarity between the global responses to these two pandemics ends there. The scientific, public health, medical, and pharmaceutical communities’ responses to COVID-19 in the past two years has been spectacular. Within two weeks of declaring COVID-19 a global emergency, the WHO had convened…
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