World Health Organization - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

Nigeria becomes first country to roll out new meningitis vaccine, WHO says

NIGERIA has become the first country in the world to roll out the "revolutionary" new Men5CV vaccine against meningitis, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. Nigeria is one of the hotspots of the deadly disease in Africa. Last year, a 50% rise in annual cases was reported across 26 African countries regarded as meningitis hyperendemic countries, according to the WHO. “Nigeria's rollout brings us one step closer to our goal to eliminate meningitis by 2030," Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, was quoted as saying in a statement. Between last October and mid-March this year, 1,742 cases were suspected in the country,…

Mar

2024

By The African Mirror

Gambian parliament debates bill to reverse ban on female genital mutilation

NEWS

GAMBIAN lawmakers debated whether to repeal a ban on female genital mutilation, which has been on the rise in recent years despite activist campaigns to end the practice. The small West African nation imposed steep fines and jail sentences in 2015 for those who carry out female circumcision, known by the acronym FGM. The World Health Organization says the practice has no health benefits and can lead to excessive bleeding, shock, psychological problems and even death. Lawmaker Almameh Gibba presented the repeal bill earlier this month, arguing the ban violates citizens' rights to practice their culture and religion. Gambia is…

Feb

2024

By MOHAMED SOULAIMANE

Inside the siege on Gaza’s largest remaining hospital

WORLD

NASSER Hospital in Khan Younis was until recently the largest medical facility still functioning in the Gaza Strip, despite facing severe challenges. But at the end of January, the Israeli military intensified ground operations in Gaza’s second-largest city, ordered civilians to evacuate, and began laying siege to the hospital. MOHAMED SOULAIMANE Freelance journalist based in Gaza, writing under a pseudonym for safety given the security situation The humanitarian situation inside is now catastrophic, with shortages of fuel, anaesthesia, and medical supplies, Gaza health ministry spokesperson Dr Ashraf al-Qudra told The New Humanitarian in a video interview. The Israeli military is preventing…

Feb

2024

By The African Mirror

Cape Verde is the third African country to eliminate malaria: here’s how

HEALTH

CAPE Verde has been certified malaria-free by the World Health Organization. The archipelago to the west of Senegal consists of 10 islands and has a population of over 500,000 people. It is the third country in Africa to be declared malaria-free, after Mauritius (in 1973) and Algeria (in 2019). TIAAN DE JAGER, Dean: Faculty of Health Sciences and Director: UP Institute for Sustainable Malaria Control, University of Pretoria TANESHKA KRUGER, UP ISMC: Project Manager and Coordinator, University of Pretoria This brings the total of malaria-free countries to 43 worldwide. Achieving malaria-free certification is no simple feat. As specialists in malaria…

Jan

2024

By NYASHA CHINGONO

Zimbabwe launches door-to-door cholera vaccination campaign

HEALTH

ZIMBABWE launched a cholera vaccination campaign to immunize over 2 million people against the waterborne disease, amid an outbreak that has killed hundreds since early last year. Cholera had killed 452 people and infected a total of 20,446 in the southern African country as of January 24, since the outbreak started in February 2023, according to health ministry statistics. About half of the cases have involved children. Zimbabwe will receive a total of 2.3 million vaccine doses from UNICEF and the World Health Organization to be deployed to 29 of the hardest-hit districts. More than 892,000 doses have already been…

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…

Jan

2024

By KRISHNA N. DAS

India pledges ‘appropriate action’ after completing cough syrup bribe probe

NEWS

INDIA will take "appropriate action" after completing an investigation into a complaint that a drug regulator helped switch samples of cough syrup linked to the death of children in Gambia in return for a bribe, two officials said. The World Health Organization (WHO) linked the syrups made by India's Maiden Pharmaceuticals to the deaths of 70 children in 2022, though India's government said subsequent tests at an Indian government laboratory showed the syrups were not toxic. Maiden, whose factory is based in Haryana state, denies wrongdoing. Reuters reported in June last year that a lawyer named Yashpal accused Haryana's drug controller, Manmohan…

Dec

2023

By KRISHNA N. DAS

Cough syrup deaths: India denies tempering with tests

NEWS

INDIA'S Maiden Pharmaceuticals, whose cough syrups have been linked to the deaths of children in Gambia, denied it had tampered with test samples or bribed officials to do so, as alleged in a complaint under investigation by local health officials. An investigator with the state of Haryana's Food and Drug Administration told Reuters on Friday he was close to finishing a probe into whether a state drug regulator was bribed to switch samples, tested by the Indian government, that contradicted the World Health Organization's findings of toxic substances in the cough syrups. "I have never changed the sample," Maiden founder Naresh Kumar Goyal…

Dec

2023

By JENNIFER RIGBY

Stigma, regulatory barriers delay mpox response in country that needs it most

HEALTH

VACCINESand treatments that could help tackle an mpox epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo are lying unused outside the country despite a death rate far higher than from the global outbreak that began last year. Stigma, regulatory hurdles and competing disease outbreaks are all factors holding back the response, according to almost a dozen scientists, public health officials and drugmakers involved. Since January, at least 581 people have died of mpox in Congo out of 12,569 suspected cases, compared to 167 deaths among 91,788 reported cases in 116 other countries since January 2022, according to the World Health Organization.…

Nov

2023

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and DAN WILLIAMS

Premature Gaza babies evacuated to Egypt as Israeli tanks encircle second hospital

WORLD

TWENTY-EIGHT prematurely born babies evacuated from Gaza's biggest hospital were taken into Egypt for urgent treatment, while Palestinian authorities and the WHO said 12 people were killed at another Gaza hospital encircled by Israeli tanks. The newborns had been in north Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, where several others died after their incubators were knocked out amid a collapse of medical services during Israel's military assault on Gaza City. Israeli forces seized Shifa last week to search for what they said was a tunnel network belonging to Hamas Islamists built underneath. Hundreds of patients, medical staff and displaced people left Shifa at the…