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Oct
16
2020
By The African Mirror
WHO vaccine drive bedevilled by a familiar question: who pays if things go wrong?

WHO vaccine drive bedevilled by a familiar question: who pays if things go wrong?

COVID-19
FRANCESCO GUARASCIO WHO foots the bill if people in poor countries fall sick with unexpected side-effects from coronavirus vaccines? It's not clear and that's a big problem in the battle to beat COVID-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) has so far left the question of financial claims unresolved as it seeks to ensure shots are fairly distributed around the world, according to confidential documents reviewed by Reuters and six people familiar with discussions. A similar situation emerged during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009-10. Back then, fears about potential compensation costs stymied the WHO's efforts to get vaccines to…
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Oct
16
2020
By The African Mirror
WHO names independent body to investigate Congo sex abuse claims

WHO names independent body to investigate Congo sex abuse claims

NEWS
NELLIE PEYTON  THE World Health Organization (WHO) is setting up a seven-person independent commission to investigate claims of sexual exploitation and abuse by aid workers during the recent Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In an investigation published last month by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and The New Humanitarian, more than 50 women accused aid workers from the WHO and leading charities of demanding sex in exchange for jobs during the 2018-2020 crisis. Five out of seven of the organisations named in the expose have pledged to investigate, as has Congo's health ministry. Leading the WHO inquiry will…
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Oct
06
2020
By The African Mirror
One in 10 may have caught COVID, as world heads into “difficult period” – WHO

One in 10 may have caught COVID, as world heads into “difficult period” – WHO

COVID-19
STEPHANIE NEBEHAY and EMMA FARGE ROUGHLY one in 10 people may have been infected with the coronavirus, leaving the vast majority of the world's population vulnerable to the COVID-19 disease it causes, the World Health Organization has said. Mike Ryan, the WHO's top emergency expert, was addressing the agency's Executive Board, where the United States made a thinly veiled swipe at China for what it called a "failure" to provide accurate and timely information on the outbreak. But Zhang Yang of China's National Health Commission, said: "China has always been transparent and responsible to fulfil our international obligations." China maintained…
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Sep
29
2020
By The African Mirror
Poorer countries to get 120 million $5 coronavirus tests, WHO says

Poorer countries to get 120 million $5 coronavirus tests, WHO says

COVID-19
EMMA FARGE and KATE KELLAND SOME 120 million rapid diagnostic tests for coronavirus will be made available to low- and middle-income countries at a maximum of $5 each, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced.  The wider availability of quick, reliable and inexpensive testing will help 133 countries to track infections and contain the spread, closing the gap with wealthy ones, it said. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the manufacturers Abbott and SD Biosensor had agreed with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to "make 120 million of these new, highly portable and easy-to-use rapid COVID-19 diagnostic tests available…
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Sep
01
2020
By The African Mirror
COVID-19 can wipe out health care progress in short order – WHO

COVID-19 can wipe out health care progress in short order – WHO

COVID-19
EMMA FARGE MORE than 90% of countries have seen ordinary health services disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with major gains in medical care attained over decades vulnerable to being wiped out in a short period, a World Health Organization survey showed. The Geneva-based body has frequently warned about other life-saving programmes being impacted by the pandemic and has sent countries mitigation advice, but the survey yielded the first WHO data so far on the scale of disruptions. “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on essential health services is a source of great concern,” said a report on the study released…
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Aug
25
2020
By The African Mirror
Africa declared free of wild polio

Africa declared free of wild polio

NEWS
ALEXIS AKWAGYIRAM and ANGELA UKOMADI  NIGERIAN Gbemisola Ijigbamigbe's right leg was virtually paralysed after she contracted wild polio aged 11 months. Now the 28-year-old leads an active life as a wheelchair basketball player and also enjoys swimming and kayaking. "Polio is not a death sentence," she told Reuters, smiling. Thousands of people across Africa still live with the effects of the disease, but the World Health Organization (WHO) has declare the region free of endemic wild polio, four years after the last case was recorded in Nigeria. Health officials are set to announce that all 47 countries in the WHO's…
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Aug
18
2020
By The African Mirror
Volunteering in Nigeria’s COVID-19 battle

Volunteering in Nigeria’s COVID-19 battle

COVID-19
HAUWA Ibrahim is unsure when she will see her family again. Four months ago, the 29-year-old nurse volunteered to work at a COVID-19 treatment centre in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.  Worried she might put her family at risk of catching the virus, she opted to stay at the centre. Like her, many health workers lending a hand to the country’s battle against the pandemic have forgone time with family. Working up to 12 hours a day when it gets busy, Ibrahim, who opted to volunteer fulltime when Asokoro hospital in Abuja was turned into a COVID-19 treatment centre, says few are…
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Aug
18
2020
By The African Mirror
Congo Ebola responders strike over unpaid salaries

Congo Ebola responders strike over unpaid salaries

NEWS
FISTON MAHAMBA HEALTH workers responding to an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo have gone on strike over unpaid wages, hurting the impoverished country's ability to identify and treat patients, the World Health Organization said on Monday. The Ebola virus in western Congo has spread steadily into remote villages across Equateur province since the first case was identified on June 1, infecting 88 people and killing 36. On Saturday, local laboratory technicians, case management teams and contact tracers blocked access to the Ebola testing laboratory in the city of Mbandaka, the provincial capital, said Mory Keita, the WHO's…
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Aug
04
2020
By The African Mirror
WHO says China team interviewed Wuhan scientists over virus origins

WHO says China team interviewed Wuhan scientists over virus origins

WORLD
A World Health Organization team in China to probe the origins of COVID-19 had "extensive discussions" and exchanges with scientists in Wuhan where the outbreak was first detected, a spokesman has said. The talks included updates on animal health research, he said. China shut down a wildlife market in Wuhan at the start of the outbreak, a day after discovering some patients were vendors or dealers. The WHO says the virus most likely came from bats and probably had another, intermediary animal "host". The results of the WHO investigation are keenly awaited by scientists and governments around the world, none…
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