By XINHUA The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa has reached 4,166,555 as of Saturday noon, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said. The Africa CDC, the specialized healthcare agency of the African Union (AU), said the death toll from the pandemic stood at 111,540, while 3,734,641 patients across the…
By XINHUA Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni and First Lady Janet Museveni on Saturday received their first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines at State House in the capital, Kampala. “I encourage all Ugandans who qualify for this vaccination to go to health facilities and get it,” said Museveni in a tweet. Ruth Aceng, Uganda’s health minister,…
By AFP Africa experienced a 30-percent rise in infections in its second wave of coronavirus last year but implemented fewer public health measures than in the first, research showed Thursday. Writing in The Lancet medical journal, researchers said a loosening of public health measures such as distancing and intermittent lockdowns probably contributed to higher death tolls…
By AFP Mozambique rolled out a new easy- to-administer preventative drug for latent tuberculosis that hugely slashes costs and the pill burden for patients. The rollout came on World Tuberculosis Day, which aims to raise awareness of the disease. The fixed-dose combination therapy of three pills per week, taken over three months, is expected to…
By Grace Kuria More than 215,000 Nigerians have received their first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines. The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) said on Tuesday. The figure is almost double the number of people inoculated by Monday, March 22, as announced by the head of the agency, Faisal Shuaib. Shuaib also said,…
By AFP AstraZeneca says it is standing by its coronavirus vaccine despite concerns from the United States about trial results that showed the shot to be highly effective in preventing COVID-19. AstraZeneca had published results from its U.S. trials on Monday, showing the vaccine to be 79 percent effective in preventing COVID-19, but the U.S. National Institute…
By Reuters The first 165,000 of up to 7 million COVID-19 vaccine doses that MTN Group is donating to African countries have arrived in Ghana, the South African telecoms company said on Tuesday. MTN is donating $25 million to support the African Union’s vaccination program. The vaccines are intended to be distributed to health workers…
By Grace Kuria Nigerian scientists have developed two vaccines against COVID-19, the government secretary announced Tuesday. Boss Mustapha, who is also chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, said clinical trials for the new vaccines are underway. “The vaccines will be used after completing clinical trials and obtaining certification,” said Mustapha. “This is a…
By Grace Kuria Treating COVID-19 patients with Dexamethasone may have saved a million lives globally, according to NHS England. The widely-available and inexpensive steroid was discovered to reduce coronavirus deaths following a clinical trial at the University of Oxford nine months ago. Since then it is thought 22,000 lives have been saved in the UK…
By XINHUA As the world commemorated the World Down Syndrome Day on March 21, a woman in the suburbs of the Ugandan capital Kampala is raising awareness about the genetic malformation in her community. Rosemary Nambooze, 39, after going through the challenges of raising a child suffering from Down syndrome for over 10 years, decided…
