Tag: Africa

The Delta variant of coronavirus is driving the pandemic forward in Africa at record speeds, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Thursday. Infection numbers have increased in Africa for six weeks running, rising by a quarter week-on-week to almost 202,000 in the week that ended Sunday, it said. The continent’s weekly record currently stands

The World Health Organization voiced alarm Friday at surging COVID-19 cases across Africa, with the spread of new more contagious variants even as vaccination rates remain dangerously low. “It’s a trajectory that is very, very concerning,” WHO’s emergencies chief Michael Ryan told reporters from the organisation’s headquarters in Geneva. According to WHO data, the number

NAIROBI (Reuters) – COVID-19 cases rose by over 20% week-on-week in nearly two dozen African countries and progress on vaccinating Africans is proceeding slowly, with just 0.79% of people on the continent fully vaccinated, senior health officials said on Thursday.Slideshow ( 2 images )“Africa is in the midst of a full blown third wave…We’ve seen

FILE PHOTO: Children come forward to get their feet disinfected after a Red Cross worker explained that they are spraying bleach, and not spraying the village with the Ebola virus, in Forecariah January 30, 2015, REUTERS/Misha HussainGENEVA (Reuters) – Guinea’s current Ebola outbreak is likely to have been sparked by a latent infection in the

GENEVA (Reuters) – Countries seeking their own COVID-19 vaccine doses are making deals with drug companies that threaten the supply for the global COVAX programme for poor and middle-income countries, the World Health Organization said on Friday.FILE PHOTO: A logo is pictured outside a building of the World Health Organization (WHO) during an executive board

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s health minister said on Wednesday the government may sell or swap its doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, but it would wait for advice from scientists as it prepares to roll out an alternative U.S. shot next week.Vials labelled “COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccine” and sryinge are seen in front of displayed

A new variant of the coronavirus emerged Thursday in the United States, posing yet another public health challenge in a country already losing more than 3,000 people to COVID-19 every day. The mutated version of the virus, first identified in South Africa, was found in two cases in South Carolina. Public health officials said it’s

In 2005, before most low- and middle-income countries started vaccinating children routinely for pneumococcal disease, it caused approximately 1.5 million deaths worldwide annually. About 700,000 to 1 million of these deaths were in children under five years. Pneumococcal disease occurs when Streptococcus pneumoniae invades a normally sterile area of the body, causing meningitis, pneumonia, septicaemia

Police fired tear gas at a crowd of Kenyan ferry commuters as the country’s first day of a coronavirus curfew slid into chaos. Elsewhere, officers were captured in mobile phone footage whacking people with batons. Virus prevention measures have taken a violent turn in parts of Africa as countries impose lockdowns and curfews or seal

Using a game designed for sub-Saharan Africa, Michigan State University researchers are rehabilitating children who suffer from cognitive impairment after surviving life-threatening diseases such as malaria and HIV. Known as Brain Powered Games, the project is the first of its kind, now providing both rehabilitation and computer-based assessment for African children. “The Brain Powered Games

Greater economic development across Africa in the years ahead could cause its population to grow at an even quicker rate than current projections, according to an important new demographic study released today. According to UN estimates, the population of sub-Saharan Africa is set to double by 2050, which could add an additional one billion people

A new community-based model to treat HIV and other health conditions in rural East Africa led to 20 percent fewer HIV deaths, reduced the incidence of HIV and tuberculosis (TB), and improved control of hypertension and diabetes, according to results presented today at the 22nd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2018) in Amsterdam. The results are

Children in sub-Saharan African settings with uncomplicated fever may be safely managed with conditional, rather than universal, 3-day follow-up with a community health worker (CHW), according to two cluster-randomized, community-based non-inferiority trials published this week in PLOS Medicine. The trials, conducted by Luke C. Mullany of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore,