Reports on public health issues, healthcare policies, and medical advancements, striving to inform and improve health outcomes across the continent.
COVID-19 is more likely to thrive and mutate in places with high transmission and where access to vaccines is low. The new Omicron variant appeared in just such circumstances. Every day, all over the world, contributions to WHO are providing vaccines and other tools to slow down transmission of the virus and head off new […]
Key messages: WHO has established the Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition (TAG-CO-VAC) to review and assess the public health implications of emerging SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern (VOC) on the performance of COVID-19 vaccines and to provide recommendations to WHO on COVID-19 vaccine composition, as needed. In the context of the circulation of Omicron […]
GHAT, Libya – Rahma was delivering at home when complications arose: obstructed labour, internal bleeding and low haemoglobin levels. The 18-year-old, a migrant from Niger, was rushed to a mobile health unit in Ghat, where after undergoing a Caesarean section and blood transfusion, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy she named Ahmed. “I […]
ISIOLO, Kenya – As a frontline health-care worker at Isiolo County referral hospital, Denis Mutirithia has a critical role in saving lives – and a new digital tool to help him do so. The pharmaceutical technologist is tasked with predicting and preventing shortages and stockouts of essential medical supplies, including contraceptives. If he receives stock […]
When the floodwater levels started rising in her village, 21-year-old Nyabeel and her husband were torn about what to do. Leaving their land, which they relied on for food, was a tough decision. “We spent three days moving. It was challenging, with four children and a herd of goats,” she says. Eight months since flooding […]
ITURI, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 8 December 2021 – Up to 75,000 displaced people – including 35,000 children – living in a remote and inaccessible hilltop camp for displaced people in the province of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are braving “hellish conditions” without adequate food, shelter, protection, security and sanitation, […]
JOHANNESBURG/NEW YORK, 29 November 2021 – At least 300,000 children were newly infected with HIV in 2020, or one child every two minutes, UNICEF said in a report released today. Another 120,000 children died from AIDS-related causes during the same period, or one child every five minutes. The latest HIV and AIDS Global Snapshot warns that a […]
Heralding South Africa’s and Botswana’s decision to report the appearance of the Omicron coronavirus mutation last month, the UN health agency repeated that it will take another two weeks before more is known about how transmissible and how dangerous it actually is. Speaking in Geneva, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier stressed that data suggesting that Omicron […]
By Sara Jerving The board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, announced its intention to finance the rollout of the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine in sub-Saharan Africa. This is the world’s first approved malaria vaccine and the first vaccine approved for a human parasitic disease. With its decision, announced Thursday, Gavi commits to funding the rollout of the vaccine […]
Gambella, Ethiopia – “My only joy is my child, I don’t have anything else in life,” says Nyabel Jock, a 19-year-old South Sudanese refugee, during her regular pregnancy check-up at the Jewi Health Centre, Jewi Refugee Camp, Gambella, Ethiopia. Nyabel fled to Ethiopia more than five years ago from Nasir in the Upper Nile state […]
