World Health Organization - The African Mirror

Jun

2023

Cough syrup deaths: Gambia mulls legal action

GAMBIA has hired a U.S. law firm to explore legal action after a government-backed investigation found that contaminated medicines from India were "very likely" to have caused the deaths of children last year, the justice minister told Reuters. At least 70 children in Gambia, most under 5 years old, died from acute kidney injury between June and October. Local doctors suspected cough syrups imported from India were the likely culprit, Reuters reported earlier this year, and tests by the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the presence of lethal toxins, sparking a global hunt for contaminated medicines. Gambian Justice Minister Dawda Jallow…

Jun

2023

By AMINDEH BLAISE ATABONG

Cholera death toll rises to over 420 in Cameroon

NEWS

A further 26 people have died in Cameroon's ongoing cholera outbreak in the past two weeks, taking the overall death toll to 426, a health ministry official said. The outbreak was declared in October 2021 and has seen a strong increase in cases since late March of this year after a period of low transmission, according to the World Health Organization. The number of confirmed cases in Cameroon now stands at 1,868, said ministry official Linda Esso. Cholera can cause acute diarrhoea, vomiting and weakness and is mainly spread by contaminated food or water. It can kill within hours if…

Apr

2023

By GABRIELLE TÉTRAULT-FARBER and EMMA FARGE

‘High bio-hazard risk’ in Sudan after laboratory seized, WHO says

NEWS

THERE is a "high risk of biological hazard" in Sudan's capital Khartoum after one of the warring parties seized a laboratory holding measles and cholera pathogens and other hazardous materials, the World Health Organization said. Speaking to reporters in Geneva via video link from Sudan, the WHO's representative in the country, Nima Saeed Abid, said technicians were unable to gain access to the National Public Health Laboratory to secure the materials. "This is the main concern: no accessibility to the lab technicians to go to the lab and safely contain the biological material and substances available," he said, declining to…

Apr

2023

By The African Mirror

More African countries set to approve malaria shot; 20 million doses ready in 2023

HEALTH

JENNIFER RIGBY AFRICAN countries are lining up to approve a new vaccine for malaria, with 20 million doses available for them to buy this year, the shot’s manufacturer told Reuters. This week, Nigeria's medicines regulator followed Ghana's, with the two nations becoming the first countries in the world to back the new R21 vaccine, developed by scientists at Oxford University and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and Novavax. The move was unusual as it came before the World Health Organization's approval. African countries that do not have extensive resources for drug regulation have previously relied on the U.N. agency to initially review…

Apr

2023

By The African Mirror

Ghana first to approve Oxford’s malaria vaccine

HEALTH

NATALIE GROVER and JENNIFER RIGBY GHANA has become the first country in the world to approve a new malaria vaccine from Oxford University, a potential step forward in fighting a disease that kills hundreds of thousands of children each year. The approval is unusual as it comes before the publication of final-stage trial data. It is unclear when the vaccine may be rolled out in Ghana as other regulatory bodies, including the World Health Organization (WHO), are still assessing its safety and effectiveness. "The WHO can provide support, but it is not an approving institution. The FDA has the mandate…

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…

Apr

2023

By The African Mirror

Why Ebola sex abuse victims may never find justice

NEWS

PAISLEY DODDS KETSIA* said she was working as a part-time cleaner for the World Health Organization during the 2018 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo when a doctor invited her to his house and offered her a promotion in exchange for sex. He tried to rape her, but she managed to escape. Weeks later, her contract was terminated. Had Ketsia been a UN staffer, she would have had access to the UN’s own internal justice mechanisms, where workers have been awarded judgments equalling two years’ worth of salaries – sometimes as much as $200,000. Similarly, had she taken such a case…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Equatorial Guinea confirms eight more Marburg cases

HEALTH

EIGHT new confirmed cases of Marburg disease have been reported in Equatorial Guinea, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. This brings the total of laboratory-confirmed cases to nine and probable cases to 20 since the outbreak of the deadly disease similar to Ebola was declared in February. Twenty deaths have been reported. Of the eight new cases, two were reported from the Central African country's Kie-Ntem province, four from the Litoral province and two from Centre-Sur province, the WHO said in a statement. The areas reporting cases are about 150 kilometres (93 miles) apart, suggesting a wider transmission of the virus, the…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Too little too late, says victims of sex abuse

NEWS

RODOLPHE MUKUNDI and ROBERT FLUMMERFELT NEARLY two dozen survivors of the UN’s largest known sexual abuse scandal say the World Health Organization has been slow to make good on promises of support, and that when assistance has come it has been too little to rebuild their lives. After suffering abuse during the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, many women who were promised support in 2021 received one-time payments of $250 – the rough equivalent of two days’ worth of per diems for UN staff. “I was happy, but this is a very small amount,” said one woman…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Over 90% of Rwandans have health insurance – the health minister tells an expert what went right

HEALTH

IN 2015 the United Nations General Assembly adopted universal health coverage as one of the sustainable development goals. The aim of universal health coverage is to ensure that every person and community, irrespective of their circumstances, has access to the health services they need, at the time and place they need it, without the risk of financial devastation. Many countries have committed to the concept, which has resulted in numerous health reforms. The World Health Organization recognises Rwanda as one of the countries that are performing well on the goal of universal health coverage. The Cochrane Centre summarises and disseminates…