World Health Organization - The African Mirror

Mar

2023

WHO sex abuse scandal: Victims say help is too little too late

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

Cough syrup can harm children: experts warn of contamination risks

HEALTH

THE recent deaths of over 300 children in Africa and Asia have prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to warn about the use of “substandard and falsified” medical products. The organisation called for more efforts to protect children from contaminated medicine. Toxicologists Winston Morgan and Shazma Bashir unpack the story. Authors WINSTON MORGAN, Professor of Toxicology, Equity and Inclusive Practice, Director of Impact and Innovation, University of East London SHAZMA BASHIR, Postdoctoral fellow, University of East London What caused the WHO to issue these warnings? Over the last five months, the WHO has issued three alerts warning people not to…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Equatorial Guinea confirms country’s first Marburg virus disease outbreak -WHO

HEALTH

EQUATORIAL Guinea has confirmed its first outbreak of the Marburg virus, a highly infectious and deadly disease similar to Ebola, following the deaths of at least nine people, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday. The small Central African country quarantined more than 200 people and restricted movement last week in its Kie-Ntem province after detecting an unknown hemorrhagic fever. Neighboring Cameroon also restricted movement along its border over concerns about contagion. In addition to the nine deaths, Equatorial Guinea has reported 16 suspected cases of Marburg virus with symptoms including fever, fatigue and blood-stained vomit and diarrhoea, the WHO said.…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Gambia cough syrup deaths: WHO urges ‘immediate action’

NEWS

JENNIFER RIGBY THE World Health Organization (WHO) has called for "immediate and concerted action" to protect children from contaminated medicines after a spate of child deaths linked to cough syrups last year. In 2022, more than 300 children - mainly aged under 5 - in Gambia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan died of acute kidney injury, in deaths that were associated with contaminated medicines, the WHO said in a statement on Monday. The medicines, over-the-counter cough syrups, had high levels of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol. "These contaminants are toxic chemicals used as industrial solvents and antifreeze agents that can be fatal…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Uganda declares itself Ebola-free

NEWS

ELIAS BIRYABAREMA UGANDA declared the end of a nearly four-month Ebola outbreak that it briefly struggled to contain but was then able to swiftly bring under control despite the absence of a proven vaccine against the viral strain in question. "We have successfully controlled the spread of Ebola in Uganda," Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said during a ceremony to mark the outbreak's end. Aceng said this was Uganda's eighth Ebola outbreak since 2000 when the country recorded its first and most deadly one that killed more than half of the 425 people it infected. The latest outbreak killed 55…

Dec

2022

By The African Mirror

Hearses queue at Beijing crematorium, even as China reports no new COVID deaths

WORLD

THOMAS PETER and ALESSANDRO DIVIGGIANO DOZENS of hearses queued outside a Beijing crematorium, even as China reported no new COVID-19 deaths in its growing outbreak, sparking criticism of its virus accounting as the capital braces for a surge of cases. After widespread protests, the country of 1.4 billion people this month began dismantling its unpopular "zero-COVID" lockdown and testing regime, which largely kept the virus under control for three years though at a great economic and psychological cost. The abrupt change caught a fragile health system unprepared, with hospitals scrambling for beds and blood, pharmacies for drugs and authorities racing…

Dec

2022

By The African Mirror

Africa sees progress in its war on malaria

HEALTH

NAIROBI, DECEMBER 13 (BIRD STORY AGENCY) CABO VERDE has reported zero indigenous malaria cases and deaths for three consecutive years, ending the epidemic in the West African island nation, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report. The country is now on track to obtain certification as the fourth malaria-free African country, joining Mauritius, Morocco and Algeria. Botswana, Comoros, Eritrea, Eswatini and Sao Tome and Principe also reported fewer than 10 malaria deaths in 2021, the health agency said in its just-released World Malaria Report 2022. And while malaria cases increased to 234 million in 2021 compared to 232 million…

Nov

2022

By PAP SAINE

‘No confirmation that cough syrup killed 70 children’

NEWS

GAMBIA has not yet confirmed that toxic cough syrup was the cause of the deaths of 70 children from acute kidney injury, a representative of the country's Medicines Control Agency said. The small West African state has been investigating a mysterious slew of child deaths in recent months, which police said in a preliminary investigation was linked to four cough syrups made in India. World Health Organization (WHO) investigators have found "unacceptable" levels of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol in the products, which were made by New Delhi-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd. But Gambia's Medicines Control Agency, a national regulatory body, has not yet pinpointed…

Oct

2022

By The African Mirror

COVID disrupted measles vaccinations in Africa and now cases are surging

HEALTH

EDWARD MCALLISTER and JENNIFER RIGBY CLUTCHING an umbrella, medical records and her two-year-old daughter, Kani Fall negotiated the brown puddles lapping at the hospital gate, the final hurdle in a two-hour, rain-soaked journey to her nearest vaccination clinic in the western Gambia. Fall waited with dozens of mothers and babies in the flooded courtyard of Bundung Hospital. Then a doctor emerged with bad news. The hospital had run out of measles vaccines, and it wasn't clear when they would receive more. "They told me there was no vaccine. But I am coming back," said Fall, 27, who had closed her…

Oct

2022

By The African Mirror

Mozambique had no data about snakebites. Our new study filled the gap – and the results are scary

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

EVERY year between 20,000 and 32,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa die after being bitten by snakes. That’s more than five times the number of deaths caused by hippos, crocodiles, elephants, lions and buffalo combined. At least, that’s what the available data suggests. But, the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledges, that statistics – as well as figures related to non-fatal injury and disability caused by snakebites – are incomplete. Not all snakebite victims are treated in hospitals, especially in poorer countries and communities. Some may be treated by traditional doctors. Others may die before receiving any treatment. Author HARITH OMAR MORGADINHO…