WHO - The African Mirror

Feb

2024

Children most at risk as measles cases soar from Ethiopia to Yemen

The urgency of Abdirizak Ahmed's efforts to fight a measles outbreak in Ethiopia hit home last month when two of the aid worker's colleagues lost children to the disease, which is making a comeback from Africa to India and Britain. "Both boys died before they reached the 13th month or 14th month of life ... It's devastating," said Abdirizak, who works for charity Save the Children in the Horn of Africa country, which reported 10,000 cases in 2023 - the world's highest toll after Yemen, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and India, according to World Health Organization (WHO) data. COVID-19 disrupted routine vaccinations against measles globally in…

Nov

2023

By BIRD STORY AGENCY

Nigeria launches huge human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination drive, to fight cervical cancer

HEALTH

NIGERIA has officially introduced a vaccine program against the human papillomavirus (HPV) into Nigeria's routine immunisation system, a pivotal moment in the country's fight against cervical cancer-related deaths. “This is a momentous occasion that we are introducing a vaccine to prevent young girls from no longer having to suffer the pain and burden of cervical cancer,” said Muhammad Ali Pate, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, at an event to mark the occasion in Abuja on October 24. The campaign against cervical cancer is being conducted together with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, WHO and UNICEF. Gavi had previously…

Jul

2023

By JENNIFER RIGBY and RICHA NAIDU

Sweetener cancer fears

NEWS

ONE of the world's most common artificial sweeteners is set to be declared a possible carcinogen next month by a leading global health body, according to two sources with knowledge of the process, pitting it against the food industry and regulators. Aspartame, used in products from Coca-Cola diet sodas to Mars' Extra chewing gum and some Snapple drinks, will be listed in July as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" for the first time by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the World Health Organization's (WHO) cancer research arm, the sources told Reuters. The IARC ruling, finalised earlier this month…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Malawi cholera death toll crosses 1,300: health official

HEALTH

THE death toll from a cholera outbreak in Malawi has crossed 1,300, a senior Malawian health official said, as the southern African country battles its deadliest outbreak yet. As of Wednesday, Malawi had recorded 40,284 cholera cases and 1,316 deaths in an outbreak that started in March 2022, with the country averaging over 500 new cases every day, Charles Mwansambo told a briefing organised by the World Health Organisation's Africa office. Cholera outbreaks happen regularly in Malawi, usually in the rainy season from November to March, but they only average an annual death toll of about 100. The WHO said…

Nov

2022

By The African Mirror

Uganda: Ebola outbreak death toll rises to 48

NEWS

THE death toll from an Ebola outbreak in Uganda has risen to 48, with 131 confirmed cases, a health official involved in managing the outbreak said. Last week Uganda's health minister put the death toll at 30, with 109 confirmed cases. "Confirmed cases by today 131 and 48 deaths," Henry Kyobe Bosa, Ebola incident commander at Uganda's health ministry, told a briefing organised by the World Health Organization's Africa office. "On the spread and when we are likely to have the outbreak ending I see no experts on this panel can actually predict when it will end," he said, adding authorities…

Oct

2022

By The African Mirror

WHO’s Tedros says narrow window to ‘prevent genocide’ in Ethiopia

NEWS

WORLD Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there was a "very narrow window now to prevent genocide" in his home region of Tigray in northern Ethiopia. Tedros, who previously served as Ethiopia's health minister and foreign affairs minister, has been sharply critical of Ethiopian authorities throughout the two-year war. The government has, in turn, accused him of trying to procure arms and diplomatic backing for rebel forces - charges he has denied. In his sharpest comments on the war yet, Tedros told reporters in Geneva that food and healthcare were being used as weapons of war in Tigray, which…

Jul

2022

By The African Mirror

Monkeypox on course to be new global health emergency

HEALTH

MORE than 6,000 cases of monkeypox have now been reported from 58 countries in the current outbreak, the World Health Organization said. The U.N. agency will reconvene a meeting of the committee that will advise on declaring the outbreak a global health emergency, the WHO's highest level of alert, in the week beginning July 18 or sooner, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference from Geneva. At its previous meeting on June 27, the committee decided that the outbreak, which has seen cases rising both in the African countries where it usually spreads and globally, was not yet…

Jun

2022

By The African Mirror

No COVID-19 apocalypse in Africa, as WHO expects a steep drop in fatalities

COVID-19

SETH ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY TALES of the coronavirus apocalypse in Africa will not be told after all, with the WHO now predicting a dramatic drop in fatalities, from an average of 970 fatalities each day last year, to around 60 a day by the end of 2022. This is in sharp contrast to the grim predictions about COVID-19 in Africa. Comments from health organisations and aid agencies were at the time criticised for pandering to stereotypes about Africa. Some, including philanthropist Melinda Gates, warned that dead bodies from COVID-19 would litter the continent. "My first thought was Africa. How…

May

2022

By The African Mirror

WHO’s warning to Africa: Omicron sub-variants drive Covid-19 surge

COVID-19

SUB-VARIANTS of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and relaxation of public health measures are driving a current surge in infections in southern Africa, a senior official from the World Health Organization (WHO) said. "This uptick in cases is an early warning sign which we are closely monitoring. Now is the time for countries to step up preparedness and ensure that they can mount an effective response in the event of a fresh pandemic wave," said Dr Abdou Salam Gueye, Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response at the WHO Regional Office for Africa.

May

2022

By The African Mirror

COVID led to 15 million deaths globally, not the 5 million reported – WHO

COVID-19

JENNIFER RIGBY ALMOST three times as many people have died as a result of COVID-19 as official data show, according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) report, the most comprehensive look at the true global toll of the pandemic so far. There were 14.9 million excess deaths associated with COVID-19 by the end of 2021, the U.N. body said on Thursday. The official count of deaths directly attributable to COVID-19 and reported to WHO in that period, from January 2020 to the end of December 2021, is slightly more than 5.4 million. The WHO's excess mortality figures reflect people…