Category: Medical

More than 260,000 African children under the age of five die from malaria each year, including more than 10,000 in Kenya, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO’s backing of a malaria vaccine, Mosquirix, for children in sub-Saharan Africa has raised hopes of preventing those deaths. The vaccine proved effective in a pilot program in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization gave the green light for the use of the vaccine for children between five and 24 months of age in Africa and other regions prone to a high level of malaria transmission.

This follows trials of the vaccine in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. The four-dose shot was administered to 800,000 African children.

Thirty-year-old Salome Awuor allowed her son, now three years old, to take part in the malaria vaccine trials in Kisumu County, western Kenya.

The mother of four said previously she would visit her nearest clinic four times a month to get malaria treatment for him. At the time, he was 12 months old.

“My son was given three jabs, and malaria went down. I never went back to the clinic seeking malaria treatment. I feel so good my children no longer get sick most of the time. That’s why whenever I hear about vaccines, I run to get them because it helps a lot,” she said.

WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus described the malaria vaccine breakthrough as historic and one that could save the lives of tens of thousands of young people each year.

According to the WHO, malaria affects more than 229 million people each year and kills more than 400,000.

In Africa, more than a quarter of a million children die from the mosquito-borne disease.

Earlier trials in 2015 showed the vaccine could prevent 40 percent of malaria cases and about 30 percent of severe cases.

Bernhards Ogutu is a chief researcher at Kenya Medical Research Institute. He said Kenya’s participation in the study proves the vaccine will work on the country’s population.

“If it’s safe you know it was done in your population and you know it’s good for you. You are not relying on data from another population but from your own population. So that you can confidently advise the government this is safe for us, it works and its approved and it was done by us and we contributed to this development,” he said.

The first three vaccine doses are given a month apart when children are babies, and a final booster is given when the child is one-and-a-half years old.

Ogutu has voiced confidence that Kenyan parents will vaccinate their children from malaria.

“People have been asking where it is now that we have been given the go ahead, we can now go for the rollout. I think it’s time to get to our people and tell them now it’s available and now it’s a matter of procuring the vaccine and ensuring it’s available and start getting it to those who need it,” said Ogutu.

So far, there is no word on when the vaccine will become available to the general public.

Source: Voice of America

The Government of Eritrea launched the Primary Health Care Policy (PHCP) to minimize and eventually eliminate easily controlled diseases that pose the most serious public health problems. Malaria, which affects millions in the developing world, is one of them. The common malaria parasite in Eritrea is Plasmodium falciparum, which accounts for more than 84% of all cases.

Eritrea achieved the Millennium Development Goals in the health sector because it was able to reduce its infant and child mortality, morbidity, mortality due to malaria, and the prevalence of communicable diseases as well as an increase in the penetration rate of immunization. The commitment of the government to providing sustainable and accessible health care has enabled Eritrea to be one of the countries expected to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in the health sector.

The success achieved in health is attributed to strong political commitment and prioritization of health, innovative multi-sector approaches and administrative competency, and the ability of the government to motivate and mobilize the people. The main driver behind such a commitment is the government’s emphasis on human capital as a vital element of development. Historically, during the struggle for independence, the EPLF put great emphasis on education and health with particular emphasis on the rural population. The barefoot doctors made regular visits and conducted surveillance to protect the health of the people.

Since independence, Eritrea has been successful in controlling the spread of many communicable diseases, including malaria, mainly due to its strong commitment that puts health at the center of development. The government foresaw future needs and made long-term investments in health. The reduction of morbidity and mortality caused by malaria has been realized as a result of strategic interventions that included the distribution of mosquito nets, early diagnosis, a high level of community awareness, and access to health facilities throughout the country. As a result of the efforts made to build, expand and upgrade health facilities, access to health care is available for all within a five km radius. These developments and improvements in healthcare and other sectors over the last twenty-nine years have led to an unprecedented reduction in malaria.

Although through systematically integrated surveillance and vector control mechanisms, the threat of malaria has been minimized greatly, the government will not be satisfied until malaria is totally wiped out of the nation. As the National Health Policy of Eritrea states “…comprehensive vector-borne disease including malaria control and prevention measures will be strengthened to ensure that malaria will no longer be a public health problem in the country” (2010:18). Eritrea’s progress in the provision of health care is also demonstrated in life expectancy, which has risen from 49 years in 1991 to over 64 years at present.

Despite the commendable achievements in the control and prevention of malaria, the threat of resurgence due to climatic changes is evident. Rainfall this season is forecasted to continue in the coming few months, and the period from September to December is considered ‘malaria season’ in Eritrea, especially in the Gash Barka and Southern regions, the two most susceptible malaria-risk regions in the country.

Malaria is both a cause and consequence of poverty. For this reason, the government of Eritrea sees malaria not only as a public health concern but also as a major challenge to development. Accordingly, the fight against malaria is considered a way to improve the health status of the population and reduce poverty. The general wellbeing of the people is determined by, among many factors, health. Poverty cannot be alleviated in an environment plagued by diseases.

The prevalence of malaria is associated with the impoverishment of households. Women’s empowerment, poverty eradication, and complete self-reliance are difficult to achieve without the elimination of malaria. The Eritrean society has benefitted greatly from the defeat of malaria. People today are far healthier than ever before. As early as 2013, Eritrea’s Malaria Program- Performance Review concluded that Eritrea was winning the war against malaria. For instance, malaria infection has been declining from 110 cases/1000 people in 1998 to 11.9 cases/1000 in 2012 and malaria-caused deaths have been declining from 0.198/1000 people in 1998 to 0.0076/1000 in 2012.

The goal of the malaria control program in Eritrea is to ensure that malaria will no longer be a public health problem. According to the Program Improvement Agenda, Eritrea has already launched pre-elimination programs (2014- 2018). Now, the journey to elimination and the establishment of a malaria-free future is on the way.

As we all know, global health security is in danger due to the rapid spread of COVID-19. Human lives are disrupted and the national economy of every country is severely shattered by the virus. With the outbreak of the pandemic, UNICEF warned that the overlap of COVID-19 and malaria could have potentially highly lethal consequences for children under five if governments failed to respond soon to ensure continuity of services. The organization reported that every two minutes, a child under the age of five dies from malaria. According to the 2019 World Malaria Report, children under five accounted for 67 percent of all malaria deaths worldwide in 2018. Most of the cases were in sub-Saharan Africa.

Although Eritrea is not free from the disruptions of COVID-19, it is one of the few countries that have a few deaths caused by the virus. However, while it has been taking precautionary and necessary measures to limit the transmission of the virus, it has not ignored other killer diseases, such as malaria. Environmental management through community participation and outdoor and indoor spraying of insecticide for the prevention and control of malaria outbreaks continues to be practiced. Also, insecticide-treated mosquito nets are handed out to people who live in malaria-prone regions and free ambulance services are given, particularly to women and children. Further, awareness-raising campaigns are conducted by the national media outlets to keep people vigilant.

It is common knowledge that sick people are too weak to work, and this causes them to suffer from poverty. Fortunately, the era of misery caused by malaria is going to end in Eritrea with the elimination of malaria. This means having healthy people who are productive and capable of eliminating poverty in Eritrea once and for all.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

Suspected jihadis killed 14 soldiers Monday in an attack in northern Burkina Faso, the defense ministry said, in the latest bloodshed to hit the region plagued by Islamist violence.

“The military detachment of Yirgou” in the Centre-Nord region’s Barsalogho department was “the target of a terrorist attack” around 0500 GMT on Monday, junior defense minister General Aime Barthelemy Simpore said.

“Fourteen soldiers were killed during the fighting and seven wounded were evacuated,” he said in a statement, with the death toll higher than the nine given earlier by security sources.

“Several terrorists were neutralized during the response,” he added, praising the soldiers’ “great fighting spirit.”

A ground and air counteroffensive was immediately launched to “neutralize the attackers,” he added.

A security source told AFP an enormous amount of equipment was lost, with some burned and some taken away by the attackers.

Burkina Faso has seen regular, deadly jihadi attacks since 2015, mostly in the northern and eastern regions close to the Mali and Niger borders.

But on Saturday, it was the south that was hit, with two soldiers killed by a makeshift bomb in Larabin near the Ivory Coast border.

Back in the north, five soldiers were killed during a reconnaissance mission in Mentao last Wednesday, also by a makeshift bomb, the armed forces said.

In mid-September, a suspected jihadi attack killed six gendarmes escorting fuel tanks for a mining company.

Such attacks, normally blamed on jihadi groups affiliated to the Islamic State or al-Qaida, have killed around 2,000 people and forced more than 1.4 million to flee their homes.

Source: Voice of America

An Italian offshore supply vessel on Saturday rescued 65 migrants, including women and children, fleeing Libya to Europe on a crowded, wooden boat.

The migrant boat was drifting after its engine stopped working and was spotted by the Seabird, an NGO monitoring aircraft flying over the central Mediterranean. Those on board were not wearing life vests and were eventually rescued in international waters by the Asso Ventinove supply vessel near the Bouri oilfield following a request to do so from the Seabird. An Associated Press journalist flying with Seabird witnessed the rescue.

A Libyan coast guard vessel arrived on the scene shortly afterward to inspect the empty boat. It is common for Libyan authorities to retrieve engines following rescues.

The Asso Ventinove reported that all the people rescued, including five children, appeared in good health. In radio communication with the Seabird, the captain said he was waiting for orders from the rescue and coordination center in Rome to assign them a safe place to disembark the migrants.

So far this year some 44,000 people have reached European shores by crossing the central Mediterranean from Tunisia and Libya, often at the hands of smugglers who put them on unseaworthy boats. Roughly half of those who arrived disembarked on Lampedusa, an Italian island closer to North Africa than Italy.

Despite the increasing arrivals, many fail.

As of Sept. 25, more than 25,000 people had been intercepted by the EU-trained and equipped Libyan coast guard this year and returned to the war-torn country, according to the U.N. migration agency.

Once disembarked, the migrants are often placed in squalid detention centers where they are subject to extortion, torture and abuse.

There were also more than 1,100 deaths recorded by the IOM in the Central Mediterranean this year.

Source: Voice of America

BAMAKO, MALI — One U.N. peacekeeper was killed and four more were severely wounded when their convoy hit an improvised explosive device in northern Mali on Saturday, the U.N. force in Mali said.

The bloodshed near the town of Tessalit followed the killing of five Malian gendarmes in an ambush on a mining convoy in southern Mali earlier this week that was claimed by a group linked to al-Qaida.

Armed attacks by Islamist militants and other groups are common across vast swaths of Mali and its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger despite a heavy presence of international troops. Thousands of civilians have been killed and millions displaced.

“This incident is a sad reminder of the permanent danger that hangs over our peacekeepers,” El Ghassim Wane, the head of the U.N. mission known as MINUSMA, said in a statement. The peacekeeper who was killed was from Egypt.

The mission has deployed more than 13,000 troops to contain violence by armed groups in the north and center of the country. It has recorded about 255 fatalities since 2013, making it the deadliest of the U.N.’s more than a dozen peacekeeping missions.

In a statement issued Saturday night, the U.N. secretary-general strongly condemned the attack and “expresses his deep condolences to the family of the victim, as well as the government and people of Egypt. He wishes a speedy recovery to the injured,” the statement from the spokesperson for the secretary-general said.

Source: Voice of America

As COVID-19 has spread in Nigeria, Africa’s most populated country, so have myths about the virus, especially among children. A Nigerian author has written a children’s book to help them understand the pandemic and ways to avoid being infected.

A team of educators arrives at a government school in Abuja. Equipped with books, face masks and sanitizers, they’re here to educate schoolchildren about the coronavirus pandemic and personal hygiene.

The initiative is the brainchild of team leader Raquel Kasham Daniel, a Nigerian author and founder of the nonprofit Beyond the Classroom Foundation.

She started the foundation 11 years ago to help make education accessible to vulnerable children. But she said when COVID-19 hit Nigeria last year, she had to focus on teaching children how to stay safe or reduce their risk of contracting the virus through her books.

“Because COVID was evolving, I knew we’ll not have one edition of the book,” she said. “So, we’ve had different editions of the book where I’ve had to update it from time to time. The support that we’ve received has mostly come from social media and some funders who have seen our work.”

The COVID-19 children’s book is titled There’s a New Virus in Town. It contains colorful images, along with text, to help children better understand the coronavirus. It also contains a quiz at the end where children can guess the next character or topic.

Twelve-year-old Jemila Abdul read it at the Abuja school.

“I’ll wash my hands regularly, and I’ll wear face masks, keep social distances, and keep my compound clean,” she said.

Nine-year-old Peculiar Oyewole said he’ll keep safe in order to keep his friends safe.

“I was angry because the coronavirus killed so many people,” he said. “I don’t want it to kill my friends.”

Nigeria has recorded more than 200,000 cases of the coronavirus, but authorities say myths and misinformation about the pandemic continue to spread, and children are among the most susceptible.

Daniel’s program, which has reached some 14,000 children so far, is helping to address this problem not only in schools but also among vulnerable groups.

“Some will say only older people are dying because God wants to save the children, that God is cleaning the Earth,” Daniel said. “We heard all sorts of things. So, what we do with our volunteers is to teach them and arm them with information about this myth and teach them (that) when you get on the field, this is how to debunk it.”

Nigerian authorities have been making efforts to educate the public and try to overcome misinformation, which authorities blame for a slow vaccine uptake.

But in the meantime, Daniel will be having an impact on kids.

Source: Voice of America

Fifteen African countries have succeeded in fully vaccinating at least 10 percent of their populations against COVID-19 by September 30, a goal set by the World Health Organization in May. However, that leaves two-thirds of the continent’s 54 nations extremely vulnerable to the deadly disease.

Several countries have performed extremely well. Seychelles and Mauritius have fully vaccinated more than 60 percent of their populations and Morocco has inoculated 48 percent against the coronavirus.

Richard Mihigo is coordinator of the Vaccine-preventable Diseases Department in the WHO’s regional office for Africa. He said those countries were able to achieve and even excede the 10 percent target because they had a steady vaccine supply available.

He said most had the money to strike bilateral deals to procure vaccine in addition to the supplies delivered through the COVAX facility.

“Unfortunately, 70 percent of African countries have missed this important milestone to protect their most vulnerable, with half of the 52 countries with COVID-19 vaccination programs in Africa having inoculated less than two percent of their populations,” said Mihigo.

That compares to an inoculation rate of 50 percent or higher in wealthier countries.

The WHO reports monthly vaccine deliveries to Africa have increased 10-fold since June. However, it notes more than double that amount is needed to reach the 40 percent immunization target of Africa’s 1.3 billion people by the end of the year.

Mihigo said COVAX is identifying countries that do not have the means to procure vaccines and put them in the front of the line to get enough doses to cover their most at-risk populations. However, he said pledges of doses by wealthier countries need to materialize soon.

“Starting next week, we are sending multi-disciplinary teams of international experts to countries that are struggling to scale up their operations so that we can drill down and identify the bottlenecks so that the local authorities and their partners can remedy them as they continue to rollout the vaccines,” said Mihigo.

On a more positive note, the World Health Organization says COVID-19 infections in Africa dropped by 35 percent to just over 74,000 last week, with more than 1,700 deaths reported in 34 countries.

Despite the declining numbers, the WHO warns people must remain vigilant and continue to adhere to proven public health measures to save lives. Those include the wearing of masks, regular hand washing, and physical distancing.

Source: Voice of America