Category: Medical & Health

17 November 2021, Accra – The leaders of six regional organizations in Africa are calling for stronger governance to fight antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, on the eve of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (18-24 November).

The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance in Africa – where micro-organisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites are resistant to antimicrobial treatment – is complicating the management of many infectious diseases, and endangers animal health and welfare, and food production, safety and security.

Addressing AMR requires an holistic and multi-sectoral approach. World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) in Africa aims to encourage best practices among the public, health workers, farmers, animal health professionals and policy makers to prevent further emergence and spread of drug-resistant infections in people and animals.

The week also marks two years since a unique partnership of six regional organizations was formed to push ahead on fighting AMR in Africa, involving the Tripartite Partners (the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), and the World Health Organization (WHO), with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) , the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), and the African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR).

Events in Africa during WAAW 2021 include:

• A high-level event on Thursday 18 November including panel discussions with representatives of the regional organizations and ministers of human, animal, and environment health. The six regional organizations will also launch a communique calling for greater AMR governance in Africa and renewing their commitment to tackle AMR together.

• A series of roundtable discussions on major issues:

• Friday 19 November: regulations and legislation needed for responsible AMR risk management;

• Monday 22 November: implementing and financing AMR multisectoral national action plans;

• Tuesday 23 November lessons learned from COVID-19: the role of civil society organisations and professional bodies in combatting AMR;

• Wednesday 24 November: adopting a One Health approach and multisectoral coordination mechanisms for AMR;

• A twitter chat on Saturday 20 November on combatting AMR in the Africa context. Get involved by following the hashtag #WAAWAfrica2021

To find out more about this year’s events, go to: https://bit.ly/2YCfDGn

Spread the word, not the germs!

Simple steps individuals can take to reduce AMR risk in their communities include:

Be AMR-Smart: Staying healthy by washing hands frequently and practising good hygiene, and thinking twice and seeking advice before buying and using antimicrobials. Farmers can improve farm management, hygiene, animal welfare and biosecurity practices to prevent animal infections and the spread of germs. When animals get sick, the best course of action is to seek a correct diagnosis and follow instructions to administer antimicrobials properly and use vaccines when indicated.

Be an educator: To help spread awareness of AMR, a simple step is to wear blue during World Antimicrobial Awareness Week. Despite being a leading global public health threat, many policymakers, professionals, and the general public often remain largely unaware of AMR. To improve visibility of this health priority, individuals, communities, and organizations are encouraged to wear blue.

Be a vaccine hero: Keeping people healthy so they don’t need to take any antimicrobials in the first place is key to fighting AMR. Get vaccinated and encourage your family and friends to get vaccinated against all diseases that have vaccines.

Facts about AMR in Africa

• AMR affects humans, animals and the environment.

• AMR could kill 4.1 million people across Africa by 2050 unless we take action to Resist the Resistance now.

• Developing countries across Africa could lose up to 5% of their GDP as a result of AMR. That means the financial toll of antimicrobial resistance would be deeper than the 2008 financial crisis.

• Killer infections like tuberculosis (TB) have become resistant to the antibiotic drugs that save lives. Malaria, which kills 3,000 children in Africa every day, is becoming resistant to a once-effective treatment. If we don’t Resist the Resistance, we could lose these life-saving medicines.

• Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is making AMR worse. One recent study found that among patients who went to hospital with COVID-19, 72% were given an antimicrobial they did not need. Only 8% had infections that were treatable with this life-saving medicine.

Source: World Health Organization. Africa

Luanda – The country announced this Monday, 14 new infections and the recovery of 658 patients from Covid-19.

According to the daily bulletin, of the new infections – which refer to 9 males and 5 females, with ages ranging from 10 to 68 years – seven were diagnosed in Luanda, 2 in Cabinda, Cuando Cubando and Huambo and a single case in Benguela.

Among the recoveries, 278 were registered in Cabinda, 208 in Benguela, 157 in Zaire, 9 in Huambo, 2 in Cuando Cubango, Cunene and Huíla, respectively.

In the last 24 hours, 1,310 samples through RT-PCR were processed, with a positivity rate of 1.1 per cent.

The country sums an overall of 64,927 confirmed cases, in which resulted in 1,727 deaths. There are also 62,345 recoveries and 855 current diseased.

Regarding the current diseased cases, there are 7 patients in critical conditions, 4 severe, 13 moderates, 20 mild and 811 asymptomatic.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

– On 10 November 2021, H.E. Anne Wagner-Mitchell, the German Ambassador to Zambia and Dr Nathan Bakyaita, WHO Representative to Zambia came together with Hon Sylvia Masebo, Minister of Health at the Ministry of Health for a handover ceremony of 924 000 surgical face masks.

Over the past months, the Ministry of Health of the Federal Republic of Germany has made in-kind donations of surgical and medical masks to the World Health Organization (WHO) and more than 120 million face masks have been distributed to 100 countries all over the world. As part of this donation, the WHO country office in Zambia received 924 000 surgical and medical face masks for its work in Zambia to support the Ministry of Health’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The kind support from the Government of Germany comes at a time when Zambia is anticipating the fourth wave of COVID-19 infections. Since the outbreak began in March 2020, Zambia has reported 209 939 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 3664 deaths (2742 COVID-19 deaths and 922 COVID-19 associated) as of 10 November 2021. Vaccination has taken up since the re-launch by HE HH but coverage remains low with only 7% of the target population (all adults aged 18 years and above) fully vaccinated.

“Face masks are a key measure to suppress the transmission of COVID-19 and hence do contribute to saving lives” said Dr Bakyaita in a statement made at the handover event, adding “masks are a crucial part of the fight against the pandemic, together with other rules such as physical distancing, avoiding crowded, closed and close-contact settings, good ventilation, regularly washing hands and covering sneezes and coughs.” The WHO Representative expressed his sincere gratitude to the Government of Germany and the German Embassy for partnering with WHO and the Government of the Republic of Zambia to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Germany is currently the number one top contributor to WHO’s global COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan and Germany’s support to WHO Zambia – in addition to the masks the country office has received USD 1.26m from the Government of Germany that helped purchase other needed equipment such as oxygen concentrators and cylinders – has enabled the Organization to provide crucial support to the response to COVID-19 in Zambia when it was needed the most.

“This global crisis requires global cooperation. This is why – as longstanding partner and friend of Zambia – the German Government remains committed to support the Zambian people to control the outbreak of the pandemic and to mitigate the economic and social consequences of the crisis”, said German Ambassador Anne Wagner-Mitchell during the handover. “The most efficient way to protect lives and the health sector in this pandemic is to vaccinate against COVID-19. To this end, Germany supported the Coordinating Mechanism “Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator” with EUR 2.2 billion as the second largest donor. This global collaboration aims at accelerating development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. Moreover, Germany will share 175 million vaccine doses, mainly via COVAX, of which more than 18 million doses have already been delivered.”

Using the occasion of the meeting that was also live streamed on MoH social media, Hon Minister of Health, Sylvia Masebo said “Today, I am urging all Zambians 18 years and above to get vaccinated when they can. This is our only way out of the pandemic.”

During the ceremony, the 924 000 surgical face masks were officially handed over to the Ministry of Health as part of COVID-19 response activities, to be used by the general population, as well as frontline workers involved in managing public services amid the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

Source: World Health Organization. Africa

– The Biannual Joint Operations Review (JOR) opens in Maiduguri, Borno State today, 15 November 2021 with participation by representative of Borno Stat Governor, Commissioners for Health, partners and Civil Society Organizations.

The 4-Day event is expected to review WHO’s health emergency programme in Northeast region, revise strategies to inform the development of the WHO plan for 2022.

To open the JOR in Maiduguri, Representative of the Governor and Commissioner, Intergovernmental Affair, Mr Mohammed Kabir acknowledged huge contributions of WHO to BAY (Borno, Adamawa and Yobe) States and of WHO on public health interventions such as polio eradication, malaria elimination, efforts against gender-based violence. He looks forward to being continued robust support from WHO and pledged collaboration and commitment of the State in delivering health services. He urged participants to identify strategies on how best to address communicable diseases and provide requisite services to populations in need.

Earlier in her welcome address, Borno State Commissioner for Health says, “WHO has continued to play a vital role as the technical lead partner in efforts to strengthen a robust health system for ???? and indeed, Borno State and calls on WHO to continue its support in the establishment of a linkage between the humanitarian response and health system development for universal health coverage as well support the revitalization of primary healthcare among others”.

In Nigeria, the Northeast humanitarian health emergency was first graded in 2016 as grade 3, the highest level, owing to its severity and impact on public health which significantly reduced access to basic health services and rendered the population vulnerable to disease outbreaks, malnutrition, injuries, and mental health. Following four cycles of grading reviews with the emergency remaining active, the emergency was graded as a protracted emergency.

In WHO’s rating, protracted emergency is an environment in which a significant proportion of the population is acutely vulnerable to death, disease, and disruption of livelihoods over a prolonged period. Governance in these settings is often weak, with limited state capacity to respond to, and mitigate, the threats to the population, or provide adequate levels of protection.

Also speaking during the opening ceremony, the WHO Representative (WR) to Nigeria, Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo appreciated the BAY States for significant progress in the Northeast, especially the planned resettlement of >1.7million IDPs.

He reiterated WHO’s commitment towards ensuring that health services are provided to those settled.

Responding to request by Borno State to WHO, Dr Mulombo says, “resources will be deployed for revitalization of primary healthcare for achieving universal health coverage.

The WR indicated the need to give attention to the humanitarian development nexus, in view of the Covid-19 pandemic and other public health emergencies

Representatives from partner agencies also underscored the progress made to improve security and access to displaced populations.

Partners expect that the JOR will critically identify the challenges & lessons learnt in the preceding year and come up with practicable recommendations for the humanitarian response going forward.

On expectations, the Commissioners for Health from states emphasized the need to support Human Resources for Health, revamp primary health care, support research which are in line with WHO strategic direction.

The review will be concluded on 19 November, 2021.

Source: World Health Organization. Africa

Luanda- The health authorities announced, this Saturday, the recovery of 156 patients, 24 new cases and 1 death.

Among the recovered patients, 150 reside in Zaire, 4 in Luanda and 2 in Huíla.

According to the daily bulletin, among the new cases, 13 were diagnosed in Luanda and 11 in Cabinda.

With ages ranging from 7 to 75 years old, the list is composed of 20 male and 4 female patients.

In the last 24 hours, the laboratories processed 2,669 samples by RT-PCR, with a daily positivity rate of 0.9 percent.

The death was registered in Luanda.

Angola has 64,899 confirmed cases, of which 1,727 deaths, 61,666 recovered and 1,506 active. Of the active cases, 4 are critical, 4 severe, 10 moderate, 19 mild and 1,469 asymptomatic.

At treatment centers, 37 patients are hospitalized, while 83 citizens are serving institutional quarantine and 96 contacts of positive cases are under medical surveillance.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Luanda- Health authorities recorded last Thursday the recovery of 153 patients, 42 new cases and 2 deaths in the latest 24 hours.

Among the recovered, 151 resides in Luanda, 1 in Huíla and 1 in Lunda Norte.

According to Covid-19 daily report, 29 new cases were diagnosed in Luanda, 6 in Moxico, 5 in Cabinda and 2 in Uíge.

So far, Angola has totaled 64,857 cases, 1,725 deaths, 61,283 recoveries and 1,849 active patients.

Source: Angola Press News Agency